I've just been listening to one of Jason Preston's interviews with satanic ritual abuse victims, which was released on June 17. Here is Jason in the very first frame of the video:
And here are some images I posted on the same day, June 17, in "White under the Red":
Update (11:00 p.m.): I wanted to search for images of Jason Preston to see if he often wears a red waistcoat. Since it's a common name, I added utah to the search string. The first result was for a different Jason Preston, a basketball player who briefly played for the Utah Jazz. His photo on Wikipedia matches one of the photos I saw in my dream about "The Kelly-Strawberry family" -- a light-skinned but not Caucasian basketball player with a Malcolm Gladwell hairstyle:
His jersey says "Ohio 0," which may be relevant since I grew up in Ohio and Bill has connected me with zero/cipher symbolism.
Since I'm adding this note, I'll also mention that the "White under the Red" post was occasioned by Wendy Berg's book Red Tree, White Tree, in which the White Tree is the Tree of Life, as in the Book of Mormon. One of the "chapters" in the Jason Preston video, beginning at 1:57:01, is called "The Tree of Life Programming System" and discusses the use of imagery from Lehi's Tree of Life Vision in organized abuse.
I dreamt that we were preparing for a ritual in which we would symbolically burn (in effigy) the person who had burned Abinadi. In the Book of Mormon, of course, that person was King Noah, or someone acting under Noah's direction, but we never said that name. Instead, "the person who had burned Abinadi" was someone alive today, whose surname was Kelly-Strawberry. I couldn't remember the first name, and when I tried to find more information online, I found a Wikipedia article titled "Kelly-Strawberry family" listing dozens of notable members, mostly in the entertainment world, including one of the human actors in Sesame Street and a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. They were light-skinned but ethnically ambiguous, with several having an Afro/Jewfro hairstyle similar to that of Malcolm Gladwell or Art Garfunkel. My reaction to most of the names and faces was that I thought I might have heard of them before but couldn't be sure. This feeling persisted after I woke up, leading me to search the Web for the Kelly-Strawberry family just in case they really existed.
This afternoon, I bought a new pair of leather shoes and, while I was removing the branding from them with a craft knife, I was listening to an audio recording of the Doctrine and Covenants. When I'd finished, I put the shoes on for the first time -- and as it happened, this action synchronized perfectly with the recording saying, "Let thy feet be shod also" (D&C 112:7).
Just a little coincidence, but shoes have been a major running sync theme, as has Thomas B. Marsh, the person to whom that section of the D&C is addressed.
This morning I was in a cafe reading Stories from the Messengers, Mike Clelland's second book about owls, UFOs, and synchronicity. I read this:
A white owl glided gracefully into their headlight beams and flew right in front of their car, just a few feet off the road. They both got the sense that it was guiding them somewhere. Caught up in the thrill of following this majestic bird throughout the night, Bert accelerated to keep up with the white owl.
At that moment, I became curious about the background music and googled the lyrics. It was "Here to Forever" by Death Cab for Cutie.
I remembered that years ago I'd posted one of that band's album covers, with a crow on it. I thought the black crow made a nice complement to the white owl. I remembered that Edgar Allan Poe's famous Raven had originally been an owl, and that the bust of Pallas in the published poem is a holdover from that earlier imagery.
Given the Chinese tradition of the Red Crow of the Sun, there could even be a tie-in with recent red-and-white posts. Maolsheachlann recently listed his favorite animal as the crow and his favorite color combination as red and white. And didn't that Death Cab album cover show the crow tangled in red thread?
I looked up that old post, "Corvids singing in the dead of night" (July 2021). It had attracted two comments, not counting my own reply to one of them. The first quotes extensively from Poe's "The Raven" and draws especial attention to -- what else? -- the bust of Pallas:
Is the Bust of Pallas the TV? Looks like Edger Allen Poe prophecied that the corvid will nevermore leave the TV.
The second comment was from someone going by A. That got my attention because someone using the same handle recently commented on "The white blood of Jesus." A writes, referencing Death Cab for Cutie:
The first result for me was "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", which is about death.
This brings us back to what I had just read when I took a break to look up a Death Cab for Cutie song: "following this majestic bird throughout the night."
We may have some Elijah symbolism here, too. The prophet was fed by ravens, and as Hinbad the Hailer he ascended to heaven "in a yellow car," or cab.
Update (1:40 p.m.): Hours after publishing the above, ending with the reference to Elijah's supernatural chariot of fire as a "cab," I read this quote from a self-styled shaman in Stories from the Messengers:
Everything happens simultaneously everywhere. It’s like a dream where you get in a taxi in Paris, and at exactly the same time you get out of that same taxi in New York.
Another reference to a taxi providing transportation of a supernatural sort.
Second update (1:45 p.m.): Shortly after the above quote, I read this:
Was Gwenhyfar, the white owl, one of the messengers that brought the knowledge of the cauldron of Annwn or the Holy Grail, to Arthur?
Gwenhwyfar is the Welsh name of Guinevere, who was the main focus of the Wendy Berg book I just read. Turning from that to a book about owls and UFOs, I certainly didn't expect to run into Guinevere and Arthur and the Holy Grail again!
In Red Tree, White Tree, Wendy Berg maintains that Humans have red blood, Faeries have white blood, and Jesus had both.
The Bible makes reference to two streams of blood issuing from Christ's side: "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe."
We find it easy to accept that one of the streams of fluid that came from Christ's side was blood, but the exact nature of the other fluid is less obvious. . . . John's suggestion that it was water can also hardly be true: Christ's veins were not filled with water. Yet they contained two different, life-supporting fluids.
The only other clue to the identity of this mysterious fluid lies in the tradition that Joseph of Arimathea brought two cruets with him to Glastonbury, each containing one of the fluids which flowed from Christ's side. One of these contained red liquid and the other, a white fluid. . . .
Throughout this study we have noted the many descriptions of the white, shining appearance of the Faery race, as if the life-sustaining fluid within their bodies was white. The two streams of blood that flow from the living Christ are equally relevant to both the human and Faery races.
As its title suggests, Wendy Berg's book also has to do with two trees, one red and the other white, and these are the two trees of Eden. The red Tree of Knowledge bears the fruit "which makes you human." The white Tree of Life is the Faery tree that gives immortality.
Near the end of the book, Berg suggests that the "fruit" of the Tree of Life might actually be more like a liquid. (Coincidentally, I gave the fruit of the other tree a similar interpretation in my April 6 stanza "Garden," in which the bitter cup Jesus drank before his execution was "the juice of Eden's bitter tree," rendering him mortal.) She cites an Ophite reference to being "anointed with the white chrism which flows from the tree of life" and comments:
This suggests that the fruit of the Tree of Life is actually a substance excreted by the tree, perhaps a kind of sap which, when consumed, has an effect on the human body such that it does not age in the normal manner.
After citing several more references to the white chrism, she concludes:
The similarity between the white fire called chrism, and the white fire which is the life-sustaining substance, the blood of the Faery race, is persuasive.
In other words, the white liquid from the Tree of Life and the white liquid that issued from Christ's side may be essentially one and the same.
In speculating that immortal Beings have something other than red blood in their veins, we are on solid Mormon grounds. Joseph Smith is reported to have taught:
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, or the kingdom that God inhabits, but the flesh without the blood, and the spirit of God flowing in the veins in the stead of the blood, for blood is the part of the body that causes corruption.
The idea of Jesus having white blood is also consistent with the many references -- mainly in the Book of Mormon but also in the Bible -- to garments being made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14; 1 Ne. 12:10-11; Alma 5:21, 27; 13:11; 34:36; Morm. 9:6; Ether 13:10).
In the Fourth Gospel, the second stream that flows from Jesus' side is called "water." This is interesting in connection with these other references from the same Gospel:
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38).
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).
This "living water" is spoken of as flowing inside a person's body, almost as if it were a second sort of blood.
Interesting, "living waters" are referenced only once in the Book of Mormon, and the Tree of Life is their source:
And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God (1 Ne. 11:25).
For Joseph Smith, the second blood is "the spirit of God flowing in the veins." This may be relevant to John 6 where, after speaking of the need for others to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus says -- confusingly, after this insistence on the vital importance of eating his flesh -- "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63).
The flesh and blood of Jesus seem to be interchangeable with the fruit and juice of the Tree of Life. This is consistent with 1 Nephi 11, where Nephi, wanting to know the meaning of the White Tree, is shown by way of explanation a white virgin with a child:
I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white. . . . And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.
And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?
And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things (1 Ne 11:13, 20-22).
Some of the language -- "sheddeth," "in the hearts" -- seems to reinforce the "blood" connection.
A central theme of Red Tree, White Tree by Wendy Berg is that the color red represents the Human race, while white represents the Elven or Faery race. As noted in my June 13 post "Themes of interest in Red Tree, White Tree," the book also references "the idea of Elf-like beings putting on coats of skins to become human." Given the symbolism of red and white, and of a "coat" as a physical body, I thought that an Elf incarnate in a Human body might be represented by a person wearing a red coat over a white inner garment. I realized that the Magician card of the Rider-Waite Tarot features this imagery.
A bit later, I was browsing 4chan and ran across Del Parson's painting Jesus the Christ, one of the few pieces of Mormon art to have broken out of its religious ghetto to become iconic in the broader culture. It depicts Jesus wearing a red coat over a white inner garment.
This was not a one-time design choice on Mr. Parson's part. We see Jesus in the same outfit in Knocking at the Door (where the foliage above Jesus' head also parallels the Magician card) and In His Glory, among others.
The imagery of an immortal Being incarnating in a mortal "coat of skins" is obviously appropriate, but of course I don't think anyone would classify Jesus as an Elf or Faery.
After making the above observation, I read more in Red Tree, White Tree and found that Wendy Berg connects the blood and "water" that flowed from Jesus' side with red Human blood and white Faery blood.
The two streams of blood that flow from the living Christ are equally relevant to the human and Faery races. It suggests that whatever was achieved by Christ's death and redeeming blood was as true for the Faery race as for the human race, and the relevance of Christ is equal both to humans and Faeries/
This is a closer connection between Christ and Faerie than is usually made. The more usual position in Medieval times, as I understand it, was that fairies were akin to demons or fallen angels and were barred from Christian redemption. It is consonant with Tolkien, though, for whom Elves and Men are alike Eruhini, children of the same God.
⁂
Note added (6:30 p.m.): Scrolling through this blog's homepage, I found that the next image below this post's series is another one of a man in a red "coat" (waistcoat) over a white inner garment, from the post "A severed head underwater" (June 14).
The gesture he is making is also extremely similar to that of Jesus in Del Parson's In His Glory above.
When I got that screenshot from a video to include in that post, my main concern was to get the caption that mentioned the "floating head." That caption stays on the screen for long enough that I had my choice of a picture of Leno himself or the valet. I went with the valet for no particular reason, with no idea that his clothing and gesture would later become relevant.
I've also read a little more in Red Tree, White Tree since publishing the original version of this post. Wendy Berg does indeed suggest that Jesus is in some sense a Faery:
Does this mean that Christ is a "Faery"? When we remember that the Elven/Faery race are not tiny grotesque creatures lurking under toadstools but tall, shining beings of great beauty and grace who possess immense wisdom, knowledge and understanding and who inspire and bring light and love to all who come into contact with them, then we are halfway there, but the whole truth is that Christ was both human and Faery. He is of the original root race from which both human and Faery evolved, and it is this which makes him the avatar for the future of both races.
⁂
Second note added (10:00 p.m.): This post was about images of men dressed in red and white, the first example being the Rider-Waite Magician, shown against a bright yellow background. The first note above added Jay Leno to the mix.
Hours later, I checked /x/ and found a new Roy Jay thread, even though Roy Jay is pretty much played out. The lead image showed him not in his usual prison uniform but dressed in red and white (stripes, not a red coat over a white tunic) against a yellow background.
That's the name Jay again, as in Leno. The /x/ post begins thus:
A couple of years ago, the singer/comedian Roy Jay didn't exist. If you were here on the board when it happened, anons literally saw Google searches about Roy Jay change in an instant, the more we looked into him. His death is uncertain, photos of the man popped out of thin air, new footage magically appeared across YouTube, the people commenting on Roy Jay videos are clearly all bots, etc.
This ties Roy Jay to magic (like the Magician), and his photos popping "out of thin air" is somewhat similar to the "floating head" theme.
The stripes may seem at first to be rather different from the "white under red" theme of this post, but there's a connection. This morning, going through an unfamiliar part of the city, I saw a shop displaying what I at first thought was a Polish flag but soon realized was actually Indonesian -- the difference being that the Indonesian flag has white under red, while Poland has the reverse.
When I looked the flag up on Wikipedia, I read that "The flag's colours are derived from the banner of the 13th century Majapahit Empire." Here is Wikipedia's reconstruction of that banner:
Further note added: Just as I post about Elves dressing in red "coats" to enter the human world, photos of Trump meeting with red-robed Vanyar (or, some are saying, the Three Nephites) go viral.
My last post, "A severed head underwater," documented a sync between an Arthurian legend I had just read about, in which a severed head is dropped down a well, and a similar scene I had recently read in a just-published Portuguese novel.
This evening I was poking around a bit on Mormon YouTube and ran across this comment referencing the 1838 massacre of Mormons at Hawn's Mill:
I am a descendant of a man killed at Hawn's Mill. He is buried in the well. His son survived by hiding under a wagon.
It's not a severed head, but wells are sufficiently unusual places of burial that it still counts as a fairly strong sync.
The title of my last post reminded me that Iris Murdoch had written a novel called A Severed Head, but I couldn't remember anything about it. Even reading the plot summary on Wikipedia didn't jog my memory.
Then I remembered another of her titles which specifically references an Arthurian legend about decapitation: The Green Knight. This one is much more memorable. Even though I've only read it once, 23 years ago (a year before the entirely forgotten A Severed Head), I found that I could remember the opening lines verbatim. I typed the following from memory, then looked it up, and didn't have to change anything but the punctuation.
'Once upon a time there were three little girls --'
'Oh look what he’s doing now!'
'And their names were --'
'Come here, come here.'
'And they lived at the bottom of a well.'
This novel came to mind because of the Arthurian decapitation connection, and the opening references (quoting Lewis Carroll's Dormouse) people "at the bottom of a well."
The Dormouse quotation is interspersed with lines spoken by another character, addressed to a dog -- specifically, to a collie. The most famous collie, Lassie, is best known for the non-existent storyline in which Timmy falls down a well.
(A minor ancillary sync is that this morning I helped a preschooler read a book in which a girl says to a dog, "Come here, Pat, come here!")
