| [Note: This version was posted at 5:10pm CST on 4/9/09. An earlier version without pictures was posted as it was being written, from 10:45am-1:25pm CST, on 4/9/09. An Endnote was added at 6:34pm CST, on 4/9/09.] [10:58pm CST, 4/9/09 Note: A special note of thanks goes out to Erin Scottberg of the Popular Mechanics site, DocArzt, and other advocates of Taweret as the four-toed statue.... Count me in, as a card-carrying convert.... Please see below for the reasoning behind, and implications of, this shift.... I'll move my Sekhmet-based material to Endnote 3.] DEAD IS DEAD: (SPACETIME) WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN, PART TROIS, READY, SET, ANUBIS, TAWARET.... SMOKE THAT FATE MONSTER, CONSTANTINE CONNECTIONS, (UN)HOLY WATER, AND J.A.C.O.B.  Another awesome episode by the Lost creative combine.... Yes, indeed, the pieces are continuing to fall into place, consistent with my postings this year.... In an eerie parallel with my 4/2/09 "What Happened" piece, we saw a depiction of the Egyptian jackal-headed god ANUBIS in the lower recesses underneath the temple proper, on the wall above the Smokey release grate.... Time will tell who is the corporeal 'incarnation' of that island aspect.... I suspected last week that what we may be seeing is a human version of ANUBIS in the form of ageless RICHARD ALPERT. I'm sure I'm not alone in seeing the strong and stark connection between the kneeling god ANUBIS holding out something to the being on the left hand side, something which looked not unlike an.... APPLE! Look  at the composition of the depiction, and it has eerie parallels with the Fall of Humanity, the Original Sin in the Garden of Eden, the eating of the apple and the LOSS OF INNOCENCE! 1 And once again, per my prior postings this year, we do appear to be serving witness to a mounting chain of evidence supporting my BROTHERHOOD OF THE SNAKE theory of the island's dark side.... Check out the Anubis/Original Sin scene in the temple recesses, and you'll see at least two snake images, one in the lower right, and one at the bottom....  Hmmm.... What if the 'lostisagame' theory is correct, and in a manner consistent with C.S. Lewis' classic Perelandra, a 108-day 'game cycle' (loop) has been playing out across time, with humanity tested and retested in similar loops throughout the ages, using boat loads and plan loads of new 'test subjects,' to see if we are now indeed worthy and can resist the evil one's temptations, thus thwarting/averting a Second Fall of Humanity:  Back to the Anubis scene viewed by Ben on the wall in the temple underbelly.... I'm sure speculation is running rampant regarding the identity of the being depicted to the left of Anubis... the one that looks like it is a cross between a lightning bolt and jack-in-the-box body.... If this is indeed a portrayal of the Original Fall/Sin of Humanity, containing an amalgam of symbols drawn from myriad religions, the being on the left could represent a number of different things, including the long-snouted, weird/aardvark-like bodied ancient Egyptian god SET (nee APEP), who killed OSIRIS.... Per my "What Happened" posting, I still suspect that OSIRIS will be shown to play a central role in the island/Jacob sentience, serving in a broader, more encompassing role than Anubis, who more narrowly focuses on the realm of the dead:  "Osiris was not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals... The cult of Osiris (who was a god chiefly of regeneration and re-birth) had a particularly strong interest toward the concept of immortality." "In the underworld, Osiris sits on a great throne, where he is praised by the souls of the just. All those who pass the tests of the underworld become worthy to enter The Blessed Land, that part of the underworld that is like the land of the living, but without sorrow or pain. In some texts, in addition to the Judging of the Heart, Osiris passes final judgment over the dead, acting in this capacity as an Egyptian version of Radamanthus." [ http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/osiris.htm]  So the being depicted to the left of Anubis may indeed represent the evil one, SET/APEP, and the body may be a highly stylized body of a SNAKE. This would certainly complete the picture of the original judgment and temptation, in the Garden of Eden (for Jews, Christians, and Mormons), and other locations for other religions including this aspect in their theology....  Again, the evidence is mounting in support for a Brotherhood of the Snake theory. But what happens when we move from the temple recesses/catacombs, to the upper level of the temple proper? Here is where I strongly suspect is the realm of OSIRIS' life-granting, regenerating, rebirthing side.... Although we may ultimately see that Alpert/Anubis brought young wounded Ben to the lower recesses-- and that the Smoke Monster not only serves as judge and EXISTENTIAL ZOETROPE, but it also serves as one of the material incarnations of OSIRIS' regenerative powers, per my 4/2/09 posting-- I would not be surprised to learn in a  future episode that the upper temple has some sort of font or well or even sarcophagus-like container within which a regenerative liquid or energetic plasma flows, as another medium for the island's/Osiris' regenerative powers.... In my 3/5/09 "LaFleur" posting, I invoked the documented association between the ANKH and water. How interesting to see the brown-icky-sticky-goo into which Ben placed his hand and turned a 'valve', releasing the goo into what may be a primitive form of a pneumatic-tubelike island communication system.... Hmmm.... Is this brown goo another medium through which the island's sentience may be contained, transported, and expressed....?  In this context, it is interesting to note connections between the brown island goo and the famous BLACK OIL in X-Files, a liquid medium particularly well-suited for containing and transporting an 'alien' extrahuman form of life.... As in the X-Files, so too in Lost we are seeing a broader, deeper, darker subtext being unpacked, in and across time (the history of the species, on this island Earth), with alien/extrahuman life forms playing formative behind-the-scenes roles in the development of life as we know it....  We will indeed come back to the importance of water/liquid in later Lost episodes, especially when we witness yet another off-island DHARMA station located at the Uluru/Ayers Rock site.... How interesting to note that some have linked the purportedly special/supernatural powers of that very site to the presence of a vast underground cache of water.... And eagle-eyed Lost devotees surely noted the multiple instances of the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for WATER (the Nile), on the columns and walls of the temple lower level, as Ben approached the Smokey grate of judgment....  Fans of the GHOST HUNTERS television series will recall the recurring role that underground rivers and lakes can play in serving as a medium for the containment and expression of supernatural powers and beings.... This documented relationship has also been referenced in motion pictures, perhaps most recently and notably shown in a movie dealing with explicitly relevant Lost themes of  good vs. evil, free will vs. choice, and life, death, and the afterlife/rebirth, CONSTANTINE. In that movie, Keanu Reeves plays the titular character John Constantine: "Constantine reveals he was born with the ability to detect these beings (both holy and demonic). Led to believe he was insane, his parents not believing him, and finding treatment unhelpful, he committed suicide to escape the torment, and went to Hell (which is later revealed in the movie as "Three eternities") before he was resuscitated by doctors. After being resurrected he learns that he can travel and see in the Hell plane. Now almost certain to go to Hell when he does die, Constantine battles their forces on Earth in an attempt to win God's favor, enraging Satan, who now holds a personal grudge against Constantine....Constantine reveals Earth as a neutral plane between Heaven and Hell where God and Satan wagered on who could win the most souls among humans, which would one day lead to either the ultimate salvation or damnation of Earth, depending on the numbers. Though direct intervention by angels or demons is prohibited, 'half-breeds,' humans with mixed angelic or demonic ancestry, are able to provide influence." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_(film)]  Hmmm.... Per my prior posting invoking the movie Event Horizon, due in no small part to its unique energy properties, we may learn that the island may be serving as a particularly powerful locale on this 'neutral plane', namely serving as a portal to Heaven and Hell, providing both a Devil's Playground and a refuge from evil, functioning as a dual staging and entry point for debarkation and embarkation, between this Earthly realm and the light and dark side destinations of Heaven and Hell. And note the special role of 'half-breeds' in providing interventions on our 'Earthly' plane of existence, in a manner consistent with my view of the others as Nephilim, fallen angels interbreeding with humans and exerting influence on the island and the mainland (Mittelos).....  Osiris and such fateful material incarnations as Smokey are not at all unlike gatekeepers or ticket-takers at an 'airport-like' portal between Earthly and otherworldly existence, and the 'plane' that takes you to the next plane of existence is determined by Osiris/Jacob the island judge.... Next flight boarding for Hell, Ben? Ben was quite certainly relieved to be granted a reprieve, and time will tell how deep and lasting his repentance will be.... Who will be holding out the 'next apple of temptation' to Ben, and what form will this temptation take?  Back to CONSTANTINE.... In that movie, water plays a hugely important role in establishing and sustaining contact among different planes of existence.... John helps Angela access her latent psychic abilities and learn to see the holy and demonic beings through holding her underwater in a bath tub. And later, John visits Papa Midnite (played by Djimon Hounsou) to revisit Hell for some further information and he crosses planes by sitting (appropriately enough!) in an old electric chair, as Midnite pours water on the floor, and John places his bare feet in the water, and Midnite then touches the water with the bare filament from an electric light bulb, still held within a lamp, and still plugged into the wall....  CONSTANTINE incorporates other examples of using water to cross planes, including a scene in which John brings back Angela's sister's hospital bracelet from Hell, and of course the grane finale in which the possessed 'man from Mexico' holds Angela under water in the hospital 'physical therapy' pool, enabling Lucifer's son Mammon to possess Angela....  So we should not be too surprised to see the brown island goo playing a key role on the island, nor should we be surprised when/if we witness a later reveal in which we see the island's/Osiris' regenerative powers manifest in the form of a restorative liquid.... One final note from Constantine for HEMA  fans, especially those following the emerging trail of evidence supporting the Brotherhood of the Snake theory.... How interesting that the Spear of Destiny-- which was used to kill Christ and which would be used to bring Mammon into this Earthly plane-- was discovered at the outset ot the movie, wrapped in a NAZI flag!  Now, what about Ilana's intriguing and fateful query to Lapidus.... "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Keen-eyed Lost fans will have already noted in the screen shot of the full statue that it is holding ANKHs in its hands. And the head of the statue appears to be that of a lion... which of course means that the statue is depicting the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet...!  Or so I thought, until I became a convert to the 'statue-is-Taweret' clan.... The lion's head had me convinced the statue was Sekhmet, but for now I must concur with the logic of DocArzt and myriad others who have worked through the striking parallels, including Taweret's four toes quite naturally arising from the fact of LION-based legs and arms (NOT Hippo-based, as some have claimed.) Lions have four 'toes', too, and this is what you'd find on Taweret, given the description of this god: "In their art, Taweret was depicted as a composite of all the things the Egyptians feared, the major part of her being hippopotamus, since this is what the constellation most resembled, with the arms and legs of a lioness, and with the back of a crocodile."  So the four toes on the statue come NOT from the hippo aspects/parts of Taweret, but instead come from her LION-based arms and legs. Note another key structural parallel in the adornment at the very top of the statue's head. Compare this with the head adornment observed on the four-toed statue (see the larger picture below) and you'll see what I mean. Erin Scottberg, DocArzt and other advocates of the Taweret theory have assembled additional intriguing pieces of supporting evidence. 2 One of the more intriguing implications of this theory is the light it sheds on the face of the statue that may be revealed by this season's end.... Although the statue may turn out to have the face of a hippo, many of us are hoping to see the visage of one of our cherished Lost characters carved into stone..... And who might that be? Consider the following information about Taweret: "Early during the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians came to see female hippopotamuses as less aggressive than the males, and began to view their aggression only as one of  protecting their young and being good mothers, particularly since it is the males that are territorially aggressive. Consequently, Taweret became seen, very early in Egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image could also be found on knives made from hippopotamus ivory, which would be used as wands in rituals to drive evil spirits away from mothers and children..... As the goddess of motherhood, Taweret was eventually assimilated into the identity of Mut, the great-mother goddess." So of course the number one candidate for the face on the statue is.... JULIET.... Even in her off-island persona, Juliet was fulfilling her role as a 'goddess of motherhood', enabling and protecting pregnancies (to wit, her sister....) And second place goes to KATE, for her demonstrated devotion to Aaron and her kindly concern for young Ben's health....  So back to the key question at hand... "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Yes, that's a good question, indeed.... in my 4/2/09 posting, I proposed that the Season 5 finale might involve the castaways being transported back in time, to a point at which the statue was still untoppled, only this time the castaways were transported INTO ancient garb, in classic Quantum Leap manner.... And what lay in the shadow of the statue....? Why a ceremonial sacrificial altar to TAREWET, with JULIET performing the ritual with dagger held high, ready at the strike, to pierce the heart of.... BEN?! The island demands another sacrifice.... And the castaways will be faced with the challenge of finding a way to extricate their soon-to-be-sacrificed compadre and get Back To The Future, in Season 6. Other possibilities for what lies in the shadow of the statue include a hidden entrance to the island catacombs/tunnel system, and even a figurative take/reading in which we find that Ben lies in the shadow of the statue, as he lies pretty much everywhere he goes, in the interest of the island and his own skin....  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Brian K. Vaughan and Elizabeth Sarnoff, for including that oh-so-delightful reference to one of my favorite series of all-time, The Prisoner. From Charles Widmore to Benjamin Linus, that classic line capturing so much more than a promise to return to the island, referencing as it does the deeper structural connection among Lost and The Prisoner-- namely the existence and operation of an all-seeing eye of 'Jabobian' awareness.... "I'll be seeing you, boy!"  Like Lost, The Prisoner dealt with a range of relevant themes to our everyday lives on this island Earth: free will vs. fate, good vs. evil, science vs. faith, the individual vs. the group/society, and more.... (Please see my 3/19/09 "Namaste" posting for more thoughts on the rich connections between Lost and The Prisoner.... I've invoked this connection multiple times over the past two years, and I'm anticipating that Lost will provide the same enduring legacy of stimulating heuristic debate and dialogue over the coming years and decades.) Like The Prisoner, on Lost we have found it difficult to keep track of who's on whose side, which side is good and which side is evil, and which side is really in control of the proceedings on the island....  On a final note for this week, HEMA fans will recall my prior take on interpreting the name JACOB through identifying Lost characters with the letters comprising JACOB, and the attendant difficulty in finding characters with first or last names beginning with an "O".... But the Osiris connection sheds some very interesting light on this task/challenge....What if.... JACOB really does stand for some ancient discarnate sentience of a higher order, able to incarnate itself as need be, for example in the corporeal guises of Christian Shephard, Alex Rousseau, Richard Alpert, etc...? What might this extrahuman, superior being, fateful judge, giver of regenerative life, be called by us, in the myriad cultures and religions found throughout the ages and the world? J: Jehovah, Jesus, Jinn, etc. A: Allah, Anubis, Apep, Abba, Aten, Azazel, Asuras, Abbadon, Asmodai, etc. C: Christ, Chernobog, etc. O: Osiris, Ordog, etc. B: Brahman, Bhagavan, Buddha, Baal, Beelzebub, Belial, etc. In short, what JACOB may really turn out to stand for is not some human who has transmuted to a higher, extradimensional plane of sentient existence on the island... What it may ultimately prove to stand for is the true and enduring island sentience, known variously to us as Jehova, as Allah, etc., throughout the ages and across the globe.... Hmmm.... Is this sentience purely good, or purely evil, or a smokey amalgam of both....? Time will tell.... Dr. Todd J. Hostager ------------------------------------------------------------------- ENDNOTES: 1. An equally plausible interpretation of the scene is that ANUBIS is offering yet another soul up for judgment to the Smoke Monster.... who may in fact turn out to be the dark side of Osiris.... Still.... That huge honking proboscis on the snake-bodied being to the left of Anubis still suggests to me the discinct possibility that this being represents Set, the dark one who killed Osiris.... Set is the evil god who superseded Apep in Egyptian mythology. Ammit is another possibility, but the drawing seems more of a depiction of an aardvark-like head than that of a crocodile.... 2. For more information on the fascinating Taweret theory of he four-toed-statue please see Erin Scottberg's excellent column at: 3. The following material was developed before I became convinced by arguments made by Erin Scottberg, DocArzt and other Taweret devotees that she is the god depicted in the four-toed statue on the island.... Keen-eyed Lost fans will have already noted in the screen shot of the full statue that it is holding an ANKH in its right hand. And the head of the statue appears to be that of a lion... which of course means that the statue is depicting the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet...!  "In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet (also spelled Sachmet, Sakhet, Sekmet, Sakhmet and Sekhet; and given the Greek name, Sacmis), was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy, the centre for her cult was moved as well. Religion, the royal lineage, and the authority to govern were intrinsically interwoven in Ancient Egypt during its approximately three thousand years of existence. Sekhmet also is a solar deity, often considered an aspect of the Goddesses Hathor and cats Bast. She bears the solar disk, and the Uraeus which associates her with Wadjet and royalty. With these associations she can be construed as being a divine arbiter of Ma'at (Justice, or Order)," [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekhmet]  So whose face will we see depicted on the front of the statue in what promises to be an astounding reveal? Based on the above description of Sekhmet, especially invoking the latter functions associated with being a divine arbiter concerned with justice and order, one strong candidate would be ELOISE HAWKING, the regal and revered time/fatecop.... But the focus on 'warrior goddess' and 'fierce hunter', coupled with 'divine arbiter of justice and order' could quite reasonably be construed as pointing to ANA LUCIA (or perhaps even ROUSSEAU or ILANA) as Sekhmet, especially given Ana Lucia's mainland role as a cop, and her fierceness on the island....  "Her name suits her function and means, the (one who is) powerful. She also was given titles such as the (One) Before Whom Evil Trembles, the Mistress of Dread, and the Lady of Slaughter. Sekhmet was believed to protect the pharaoh in battle, stalking the land, and destroying the pharaoh's enemies with arrows of fire. An early Egyptian sun deity also, her body was said to take on the bright glare of the midday sun, gaining her the title Lady of Flame. It was said that death and destruction were balm for her warrior's heart and that the hot desert winds were believed to be her breath." Oh yeah... That DOES sound a bit like ANA LUCIA, doesn't it?! Think of how she would love to hear those titles applied to her.... And yes, Lucia's tone and tenor, especially as manifest in her verbal-barrage-attack-style, certainly has some similarities to a 'hot desert wind'! But the list of candidates for SEKHMET must include one more possibility, deriving from another key aspect of Sekhmet's identity: "Sekhmet also was seen as a bringer of disease as well as the provider of cures to such ills. The name "Sekhmet" literally became synonymous with physicians and surgeons during the Middle Kingdom. In antiquity, many members of Sekhmet's priesthood often were considered to be on the same level as physicians. She was envisioned as a fierce lioness, and in art, was depicted as such, or as a woman with the head of a lioness, who was dressed in red, the colour of blood. Sometimes the dress she wears exhibits a rosetta pattern over each nipple, an ancient leonine motif, which can be traced to observation of the shoulder-knot hairs on lions."  I know, I know... This one will sound like a long-shot... But JULIET would certainly fit the bill from the standpoint of the physician connection. And we have seen the strong side of Juliet, on occasion.... And as much as I'd like the statue to have Kate's face on the front, it's probably too much of a stretch to leverage her 'universal donor' status to link her to the Sekhmet 'healer 'cluster of traits. Still.... Kate has been a fighter, at times.... Hmmm.... I'll have to go back and see if I can confirm whether Juliet has worn her hair in a style akin to the 'shoulder-knot' hairs on lions, and on the island statue proper.... | |