On Doctor Who Season 7, Episode 8 "The Rings of Akhaten" Part One

 

 

On Doctor Who Season 7, Episode 8 "Rings of Akhaten" 

It may just be coincidence--given Steven Moffat's fondness for building in connections and references between episodes, I wouldn't bet on it-- but the story of the Eleventh Doctor's  new companion, Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman), is following a very similar trajectory as those of two of his previous fellow travelers. Just as happened with Rose in 2005 and Amy in 2010, when Clara tells the Doctor that for her first trip into time and space, she wants to see "something awesome," she finds herself being whisked away from present-day Earth to a fantastical adventure in a weird alien environment; namely, on The Rings of Akhaten.

"The Rings of Akhaten" has been thoroughly reviewed masterfully and powerfully by my friend and colleague Katherine Sas. I urge everyone to first read her review of the episode here. In addition to being a great writer, she also co-hosts a podcast with partner-in-crime Curtis Weyant called "Kat & Curt's TV Re-View," an excellent podcast where an episode of "Doctor Who" and "Buffy" are analyzed from a variety of angels and perspectives. Click here to start following along. I'll be using specifically Kat's review of this episode as a launch-pad (puns are always intended) for my blog post. 

This post contains huge spoilers, so if you have not seen this episode and do not want it ruined you have been warned. I will perfectly honest here. I do not watch much television. I tend to read a lot. A real lot. Possibly too much, if such a thing exists. However, thanks to a few nudges in the right direction you might say, I turned my gaze to "Doctor Who" on BBC. Long a  fan of British humor and intellectual history, I gave The Doctor a shot.

For all intents and purposes, Doctor Who is a God for it is clear that he is not the "all-father" of many mythologies, but rather one species of a many varied universe and just happens to have traversed all of time and space for one girl he's watched since infancy and they have very intimate relations. No self-respecting man (supposedly represented by "Rory") would have some eccentric alien preying on his wife. But the stories of course make her so dispensable to the Doctor. His willing to make her wait for time immemorial if he wants. He can play with her thoughts, her dreams, her consciousness, and in turn she is Alice in Wonderland, shedding off her inhibitions with the Doctor, her gateway to another world and another personality incongruous to her everyday life.

Just as Clara is being "initiated" much like earlier Doctor's companions, the audience is also being initiated into the mysteries of the universe through Doctor Who's eyes. In the beginning Clara and The Doctor arrive just in time on The Rings of Akhaten to witness a alignment that which illuminates both a monolith obelisk pyramid and eyes of Clara. Wow, how beautiful. The Tardis and the duo land and we are told a "festival of offerings" is in full-swing. People from all over the galaxy come to bring precious items to offer the "Old God" for it is said it is on the Rings where "all life originated."

Let me stop right there. I find it extremely interesting already. First, the name "Akhaten" immediately makes me think of the first "Renegade" of Egypt, Akhenaten who has been studied and worshiped through the ages by historians, archeologists, and even prominent influential psychologists. Sigmund Freud's "Moses and Monotheism" compared the two personalities and Freud's conclusion after years of study was that the dramatis personae in The Bible are actually Egyptian, and specifically Akhenaten. Akhenaten was the first pharaoh to turn Egypt upside-down in devotion  from a multi-stellar worship, to a Sun or Solar Ego worship. So strong was Akhenaten's sun-worship, that according to stories he was kicked out of Egypt. The story goes on to say that Akhenaten and his tribe were so upset that they had lost paradisaical Egypt that to even conquer the rest of he world would not be enough.

Akhenaten (or Moses) and Family Venerating Aten, Solar Worship

For whatever reason, it is true that right around what the scholar Karl Jasper's all 'The Axial Age" (500BC-500AD) much of the world's myths which were agrarian, matriarchal societies worshiping a pantheon of Gods began to introduce what Joseph Campbell and others call "The Solar Hero" or "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." For example, Heracles slaying of Medusa was interpreted as the Sun rising slaying the night sky, and so on. I wont get too much into it, but for more on this check out Ken Wilber's "Up From Eden" and "The Atman Project." 

I promised to get into "the occult" in this story. Occult simply means that which is hidden. Issac Newton called gravity an "occult force" and indeed The Royal Society severely criticized Newton for regressing back to Medieval barbarism until the anomalies became the paradigm. Knowledge in the Ancient World, as it is today, was hidden out of fear. The Nag Hammadi Library, otherwise known as the "Gnostic Gospels" were found hidden in a vase. These texts (The Book of Thomas, The Book of Enoch, etc.) were hidden out of fear that if these texts were found, the early Church (contends expert Elaine Pagels) would have punished the possessor of the apocrypha. Another example are the ancient maps with land-masses to the West of Europe with the promise and whisperings of Gold.

Typical Lodge. Notice the Checkerboard Floor

For the sake of time and space which are finite, I am going to refer to the people and societies that preserved this ancient knowledge, as the Occult Mystery Schools. Perhaps most well-known today Occult Mystery Schools are the Freemasons. Freemasonry is divided into the York Rite and Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Scotland and Scottish Rite Freemasonry, like Great Britain and many other nations, derives its name from the daughter of Akhenaten, Scotia. Freemasons are known all over the world, and wherever a Mason goes, he is bound to his (or her--see the Order of The Eastern Star) oath throughout the world. Many us our familiar with secret societies (like Opus Dei Catholicism and the Order of The Rose Cross, and The Illuminati) through Dan Brown novels and Tom Hanks movies. We might not think of Harry Potter series being about a school of the occult, but that is exactly what Hogwarts is. 

Order of The Eastern Star: Freemasonry For Women. Take Note of the Colors and the Four Alchemical Elements

Coming back to Doctor Who, we notice that there is a relationship to the Fez. The Fez has an interesting history as to why it is Red. According to speculative Freemasons (Freemasons which write about their orders to other Freemasons like Manly P. Hall, Albert Pike, Albert Mackey), the Fez is red because it was soaked with the blood of Christians. I will take on the Fez in a future blog posts and the interesting way in which it seems to be a wink to The Shriners of Freemasonry throughout Doctor Who. More on that later.

President Harry S. Truman Wearing Masonic Fez

The other word I wish to expound upon here is 'Rings." I am not going to write here about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, however that might fit in. Here I am going to the our own solar system which has a planet, much like Doctor Who's "Akhaten" which is known for its rings. And that planet is Saturn.

In ancient legend Saturn or Kronos is known and depicted in a variety of ways. Indeed, it is speculated that our ancient sky, before the axis of the world was slanted, the planets were perfectly aligned and Saturn was much closer to Earth in this "Golden Age." Some think it would have been directly North above the Earth and was worshiped as the "Second Sun" until some Cosmic catastrophe bent the axis of Earth. Since, Saturn was at the top of these, the great celestial body was deified, made into a God. Today, Kings are given a Corona, a crown in homage of Saturn, a woman would wear ear rings to Saturn, and men would be wedded with a Ring before their God, Saturn.

Saturn however demanded sacrifice, offerings. He is an old man, but can appear young. How can we understand this? As Kat points out the name "grandfather" is used twice for the Doctor and the "Old God," or rather, a mummy parasite.

Over time, like in many myths, Saturn took on various forms and became known as "Father Time" and depicted as both an old man and a newly born son and a reaper. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival of offerings that coincided with what we call Christmas. Christmas, as I will show in later pieces, has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. It has to do with the old pagan calendar and the eight holy days of sacrifice. In fact even the Bible tells us to do not as the heathens do by cutting down a tree and decorating it in Silver and Gold. But who reads the Bible?

Calendar of Philocalus December, with Saturnalian dice on the table and a mask. Kubrick fans think "Eyes Wide Shut"

As a side note, I am a huge fan of who I consider to be the greatest director of all-time, Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick is known for many things but I still think his greatest legacy is in his collaborations with high Freemason and prolific science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the book, the monolith that appears on Earth to "evolve" the human species is a black obelisk that appears when there is a very curious alignment of celestial bodies. It appears again on the Moon and then on Saturn's moon Iapetus. In the book and movie the monolith is a the philosopher's stone, a sort of intelligence unto itself, further perfecting the human being as it faces HAL, a representation of AI which sets on destroying human-kind. However in an act of heroism HAL is dismantled.

Saturn Alignment (note the crescent moon) in 2001: A Space Odyssey

One more thing to note about Kubrick and possible parallels with Doctor Who. Almost any time a science-fiction movie or TV show such as Doctor Who has an AI playing chess, one has to wonder if the great Stanley Kubrick, or Freemasonry is not being paid homage. Again, I am straying too far away from the topic at hand, but consider how the astronaut and moon themes of previous episodes of Doctor Who episodes might fit in, and if they do not, it is done with the wink of an eye. When the Matt Smith (Doctor Who No.11) points to the screen of the astronaut landing on the moon, one wonders if this is a hint. Just a side thought of future posts to come. NASA after all was in full-collaboration with Stanley Kubrick through Arthur C. Clarke, and was hanging out in England while German scientists like Werner Von Braun, (the Walt Disney of NASA and designer of the Saturn V rocket) that would take humanity to the Moon, were being prepped and Anglo-phied.  The James Joyce scholar Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange at Stanley's request and was one member of this group of highly-skilled, highly-occult group who knew and practiced esoteric rituals.

Werner Von Braun: The Walt Disney of NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center. Marshall is my middle name.

But, again, I digress. Sure enough, this episode of Doctor Who is a story that was an apart  from the normal development I am used to in the usual seasonal build-up to a higher plot if you will. Don't worry, it only gets creepier and more disturbing. At the end of this short blog post, maybe you'll get a sense of what it's like to watch a movie with me. Though I won't say anything. Usually, I am very quiet about occult, esoteric knowledge and wisdom that has been told to me ever since I was a child. My family on both sides are filled with Freemasons and Rosicrucian Orders going back to at least Elizabeth I and the Dragon Court on my father's side and perhaps even older orders out of the noble families of Italy on my mum's side. Like many marriages, a Grandmaster Mason usually marries an Eastern Star. We can see these alchemical marriages between East and West in "Celtic" literature. Noble marriages are always arranged marriages. The husband and wife can have affairs, so long as the progeny is breed. This is one of the biggest themes in Freemasonry and we know it as progress or evolution.

But I digress. It is time for a child sacrifice, who is also a Queen. It is important to give a prefatory note to lay a foundation off to which to base my hypothesis. In summation of part one, we see a curious celestial alignment, the "horned god" of Saturn, (was and is) worshiped through sacrifice, present-giving and hedonism through Saturnalia (Christmas time), how the Fez and Freemasons are connected through The Shriners, and the Freemasons as one of these orders that arose from the Occult Mystery School tradition, namely the Solar Hero Worship going back to Egypt. In part two, I will show how Saturn worship has distilled down to us in the present day, how it also demands a tribute (child sacrifice; think Hunger Games) and how ultimately Doctor Who defeats the "Old God" which appears as a solar deity and how both the Doctor and the "Old God" uses song and story, in quite interesting ways. 

Stream-of-Consciousness Poetry

"Tempest Tides"

The root of Babylon runs deep,
Planted in the minds of Ethos and Bacchus,
Who weave the fabric of the fate's unfolding,
Incarnate of the defiled day.

One red star guides the black magi,
To the New City of Hister in the American land,
Where painted pictures of the future reconnect,
To forge the gateway to Lucifer's cradle.
Unlight casts bright shadows on the eyes of young children,
 
Dancing to a song of Mars,
Juno arranged for her own amusement,
To spite Zeus in his unreal halls of lust and envy.

Capital sin becomes a witches playground,
Buried in Merlin's sandy cove,

Realized in the bleeding martyr called Joshua,
Who pays the price with every season of the Sun.

Nine times nine the Moon god sings,
Nestled in his sinking home,
Tortured by the Tempest's test,

Dylan Zimmerman forged long ago.

-John Evans and Brandon Young

"Adam's Lament" And The Importance Of Memory

Sybil of Eritrea, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Michelangelo

natheless, this meditacioun

I putte it ay under correccioun

Of clerkes, for I am nat textueel.

I take but the sentence, trusteth weel

-Chaucer's Parson

Last night on The Kate of Gaia Outside The Box-Open Forum my good friend, colleague and younger brother John Evans recited his poem "Adam's Lament" live on the air, committed verbatim from memory.  In the Ancient Celtic bardic tradition, the degree to which a person can memorize and recite a lay, or an epic song was the degree of that person's intelligence. Further, it seems to have been a sign for saintliness. Saint Augustine was known for his ability to read a page of scripture silently, and then recite the passages shown back to his brethren while Thomas Aquinas was the Medieval Ages genius par excellence.

In her introduction to The Book of Memory, Mary Carruthers notes:

"When we think of our highest creative power, we think invariably of the imagination. 'Great imagination, profound intuition," we say: this is our highest accolade for intellectual achievement, even in the sciences. The memory, in contrast is devoid of intellect...At best memory is a kind of photographic film, exposed....We make such judgements because we have been formed in a post-Romantic, post-Freudian world, in which imagination has been identified with a mental unconscious of great, even dangerous, creative power. Consequently, when we look at the Middle Ages, modern scholars are often disappointed by the apparently lowly...status accorded to imagination in medevial psychology - a sort of draught-horse of the sensitive soul, not even given intellectual status. Ancient and medevial people reserved their awe for memory. Their greatest geniuses they describe as people of superior memories, they boast unashamedly of their prowess in that faculty, and they regard it as a mark of superior moral character as well as intellect."

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Chesterton's "Dumb-Ox," is essential for understanding medieval thought. He was theoretical and practical and had the very rare talent lacking in many of today's academic halls of marrying two very fundamental ideals in philosophic writing: clarity and profundity. Postmodern or Continental European philosophy throughout the ages since Aquinas has sought profundity at the expense of clarity, while Anglo-American philosophy has sought tremendous clarity at the expense of profundity. The philosopher of today is just like any of job rather than a vocation, a calling to something. The philosopher of today either hides in the high verbiage and phraseology of Postmodernism, or hides in analyzing what Boston College philosopher (and J.R.R. Tolkien lover) Peter Kreeft calls "second order" issues of linguistic problems which have inherent paradoxes, and studies whether sentences have meaning or not. And thus the modern philosopher (and perhaps most of academia) has alienated most of the people from philosophy. All philosophy and science begin with the same direct experience of wonder, and ask the eternal questions of God, life, death and morality. You may not agree that Aquinas was the greatest philosopher of all time, but he is certainly the most important and influential in the two thousand years between Aristotle and Descartes.

I'm getting carried a little sidetracked, but the point is that memory is very important. John could not read the poem because he happens to be visually impaired. Still, I recall a Silmarillion Seminar reunion we had to discuss the first Hobbit movie, and he dominated the discussion not only with his ideas but with the beauty of his voice. Fair warning: The recording of it took place on a blog talk radio program I take part in and contains explicit curse words. John and I are glad it is included. Without further explanation, let me then publish the written version of the 19 year old Manhattan College prodigy's work.

Sear Reader, you will see I publish a lot of John's work because I think he has a lot to offer. He still has much to learn but he is incredibly bright, and down to Earth. He gives all praise to me in helping him find his path. I am his Socrates, he says. And if that may be, then he is Plato, and there is very little Socrates without a Plato. The teacher has not been a good teacher unless the student surpasses the teacher. John has the youth, the talent, and the love of learning it takes to be a true hero. If I have one intellectual heir, someone to carry on all the wild and crazy thought about language and philosophy (and much more) I give that torch to John Evans. For like Socrates, I will drink the hemlock, and like Frodo, I have been too deeply wounded.


"Adam's Lament"
by John Evans

Shall we find peace there,

Lost in the garden,

Where the river runs sweeter than the cold hard years?

Shall we find peace there,

Amerced in the meadow,

In the green hemlock umbels,

Tall and sad?

I saw you walking over seven mountains,

To the tree of knowledge dressed in white,

Your hands open with a heart full of laughter,

Your mind buzzing with an undying thirst.

O will you come down dear daughter of darkness,

And drink in the silence of your lonesome son?

O will you come down child of virtues,

And dance in the open places beneath the moon?

I saw you smile cooler than  the fresh Northern wind,

Where my words fall heavy on the threshold of love.

I saw you bathe in a lake of shadows,

And sing of death on the other side.

O what did you see my blue eyed stranger?

O what did you see child of the West,

On that foreign shore of no tomorrow,

In that kingdom of lies and sweet distress?

I crossed the bridge of hungry giants,

And traversed twelve waterfalls in a sinking ship.

I drunk cheap wine from narrow glasses,

And wept blood tears to the gold horizon.

Are we at home here,

In the sable garden,

Where the earth is tender,

And the broad hills old.

Are we at rest here,

In the midnight vale,

Where our minds wander,

And our clean souls roam?

I saw you tame the wild distance,

And taste from black forbidden wells.

I saw you mock the garden’s father,

And cast on me the serpents’ spell.

"Adam and Eve Cast Out" Gustave Dore

The Midnight Vale: Poems by John Evans

  Ascension to Paradise

Out of the aching nightmare I am reaching,

Searching for a silver gate,

Beyond time’s chain cold and unfathomable,

Preserved for eternity by God’s good grace.

I feel myself slowly drifting,

Like a leaf on some deep stream,

Shining with a thousand precious colors,

Richer than those life imitates.

Beyond me lie fields of virgin grass,

And mountains taller than mortal peaks,

Crowned by palaces amongst the stars,

Steeped in golden mystery.

I float upon the amber air,

And through the gate my conscience earned,

Until I land in my familiar form,

Dressed in clean silk whiter than snow.

Here she finds me in thoughtful repose,

A woman with fare emerald eyes

Who peers inside my living soul,

And cleanses sin’s bitter grief.

She calls my name in a knowing way,

Absolving me of fear,

And with her stainless hand guides me hence,

From that blossoming orchard. 

John Evans is a 19-year old student of Medieval History and Literature at Manhattan College in New York City who is a writer for "Legendarium" a Tolkien fandom website and much more and has a book of poems (published soon) called "The Midnight Vale." He is also author of "All The Best Things"  (click for the link) a suspenseful tale of love and betrayal among a group of young musicians playing in Hudson Valley, New York. All The Best Things chronicles the struggles of a blind musician, torn between the love for his craft and the love of another. John also is a dear friend and is part of my Tolkien Archaeology collection on Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and can be found with me on The Silmarillion Seminar podcast with The Tolkien Professor. In our "many meetings" we have spent countless hours waxing philosophic. If I had one intellectual heir, it would be John Evans. 

Poetry of John Evans

Gustave Doré - ”Wood of the Suicides” 
Illustration from Dante’s Inferno, Canto 13 . (c.1861)

Muses on a wooded hollow
by John Evans
Beneath the tall elm tree where the shadow grows,
 
I sat and pondered in silent distress,
Admitting my faults to the wordless hollow,
 
Confessing my mind to a glade of wild grass.
No visitor stirred my solemn retreat,
Or bothered to mark me on their journey hence,
Save the creatures of that timeless wood,
And the memories that haunted my heated brain.
 
I thought I saw a prowling wolf,
With a coat of fur blacker than pitch,
And eyes that twinkled with a subtle rage,
Ere departing for his horrid hunt.

 
I thought I heard a nightingale sing,
In a voice like sunshine on the rugged earth,
Soothing the dull pain contemplation brings,
And life's misfortunes rightly earned.
 
I thought I felt a spirit pass,
Through my body in a gentle breeze,
Along the highways of the air,
Far above the thorny green.
 
I know not from whence it came,
Or of what kind it was before,
In bygone worlds the druid's praised,
In mystic omens their magic wove.
 
Thus I staggered from that forgotten place,
And traversed the chartless miles home,
Reckoning little of what I had witnessed,
 
Beneath the tall elm tree where the shadow grows.