Sunday, March 1, 2026

Strange is the night where black stars rise

The King in Yellow, which I am currently reading for sync-related reasons, repeatedly mentions the black stars in the skies of Carcosa, the first mention being in the Author's Dedication, which quotes Cassilda's Song from the play for which the book is named:

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
                                               Lost Carcosa.

Black stars rising got my attention, since just a few months ago I read Gary Lachman's book Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump (mentioned in many posts here). Last June, I posted "Ascending to the black star," which connected the Elvish root amu, meaning "up(wards)" or "to raise" with a particular part of a Scrabble board, leading to the black star in the board's center. Rather than the interpretation given in the post title, this could also refer to the black star itself rising.

This morning, on the way to a café for breakfast, I was behind another motorcyclist, on the back of whose black hoodie was a large light-gray star, inside which were two black stars and the words "DARK HARVEST." I didn't get a photo and wasn't able to find an image of that exact hoodie online, but the design was similar to this, the only differences being the color scheme and the fact that there were only two smaller stars:


As I entered the café, the background music playing the Malena Stark song "A Little Bit of Faith," the chorus of which begins, "Oh, there must be more." That word more has come up in two recent dreams (see "Half under the sea" and "Pterodactyls, the foil game, and a fake séance"). In comments on both of those posts, Bill pointed out that more is a homophone for the Elvish root mor, meaning "black, dark, darkness."

While that song was playing, I checked Ann Barnhardt's latest Meme Barrage on my phone, and one of the memes referenced Scrabble:


In Chinese, the characters for "star/planet" and "great ape" are homophones. Chimps are called "black apes" (as distinguished from "big apes," or gorillas, and "red-fur apes," or orangutans), so the word for "chimpanzee" sounds exactly like "black star." This makes me wonder if this movie (which I may or may not have seen; I can't keep them all straight) might be synchronistically relevant.


By the way, how was that poster not condemned as one of those "racist dog whistles"? Or perhaps it was. I can't say I've been paying attention.


And yes, Debbie, I see the Golden Gate Bridge on the poster.

Strange is the night where black stars rise

The King in Yellow , which I am currently reading for sync-related reasons, repeatedly mentions the black stars in the skies of Carcosa, the...