Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail

There was another film that showed Harrison Ford chasing the Holy Grail. I loved them all.

The book does sound interesting.

Yeah, its fascinating stuff. For example, all of the head honchos in the nazi regime thought they were reincarnations of historic personalities; Himmler thought he was Fredrick the Great (this is actually pretty well documented) and Goering thought he was Tiberius. The book says that Goering even had a villa on the island of Capri, like Tiberius, the preverted Roman emporer during the life of Christ.

As for Hitler, he is associated w/ a character from the Grail legends, whose name escapes me (Klingsor?), but who was a sorcerer from Sicily or southern Italy, arch-enemy of Parsival and the Grail knights.

The story's primary narrator, Stein, also believes he, Stein, was a noble in Charlemagne's court where he did battle w/ the Hitler/Klingsor personality who was at that time (c800AD) the Pope.

While all of this sounds distinctly unchristian (reincarnation), the life of Christ is viewed as the single most important cosmic event in world history, and the "quest" for the Holy Grail, is the path by which initiates move to a truer understanding of the ultimate reality personified by Christ.

I don't take much of this stuff at face value, but it is fascinating, particuarly in light of "real" history that has a self-educated rabble-rouser taking over, arguably, the most sophisticated people on earth and starting a war that kills upwards of 50 millions in a little over five years. That's truly preposterous.

If you reject the existence of the occult a priori then no amount of evidence would convince you of its existence.

But there is a correlation between Hitler's rise to power and occult practices within his inner circle. I do not rule out the possibility of a causal relationship.

Do you know anything about the Nazi wedding ceremony? I remember that some Nazi ceremony was a total co-option of a Catholic/Christian rite. Maybe it was the Mass.

Orion's Diagram and Shape

This is Orion, the brightest constellation in the sky. It is easy to find if you look for the three bright stars that make up Orion's belt. Once you have found this distinctive pattern, two other very bright stars will help you define the rest of the constellation. The first star, Betelgeuse, is located at Orion's right shoulder. The second, Rigel, is at his lower left.
Orion is the hunter, aiming his arrow and holding a club over his head. His sword hangs from his belt. In the area of this sword are found a number of very exciting star formation regions, including the Great Nebula of Orion. The nebula is visible with the unaided eye, as a smudge about halfway down the sword.

Deep Space objects in Orion

The Great Nebula of Orion (M42) is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. It is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy spot about halfway down the sword of Orion. This area is a collection of gas and dust where stars are being born. The central bright star that is illuminating the gaseous cloud is actually four stars known as the Trapezium. The nebula itself is one of the nearest regions of star formation at only about 1,500 light years away. It has formed stars recently, only 300,000 years ago. The nebula is populated with many newly created stars and protostars.
The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula, giving off light from its own glowing gases, as well as being illuminated by the Trapezium. This was the first nebula to be successfully photographed, in 1880 by Henry Draper. The Orion nebula is Messier Object number 42 (M42), the 42nd object that Charles Messier added to his famous catalogue of objects. M43 can be seen in this photograph directly above M42. Both objects are part of a larger group that includes the Horsehead Nebula as well.
Photograph of the Orion Nebula by David Malin. Copyright © ROE/Anglo-Australian Observatory. Photograph produced from UK Schmidt Plates. Used by permission.

Star Colors in Orion

You can probably recognize Orion in this photograph by the three stars in the belt. The photograph was exposed for about a half an hour. The stars were in focus to start, but every few minutes, the focus was adjusted to make the stars more and more out of focus. The gradual loss of focus combines with the natural movement of the stars across the sky to produce an image where star color is made more obvious. This technique, called a step focus, was discovered by accident by the well known photographer David Malin, who took this picture.
The photograph illustrates that stars have very different colors from one another. Color tells us about a star's temperature, composition, age, size and even its distance from us. Red stars are generally older, cooler stars that have used up much of their hydrogen fuel. Blue stars are generally younger and hotter. (In astronomy, the phrase "red-hot" doesn't work.)
Most of these stars are blue, with the obvious exception of the very red star Betelguese (located at Orion's right shoulder). Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. Rigel, the blue star at the lower left is a blue supergiant. The red streak in the sword area is the Orion Nebula.
Betelgeuse is diferent from the other stars here in that it is at the end of its life; it has burned up much of its hydrogen fuel and is much cooler than the blue stars. Small stars like the Sun conserve their energy and last for billions of years. Large, hot stars like Rigel burn up fast and may last only a few million years. The Sun is the kind of star where life and intelligence can have the time they need to evolve. Our Solar system is 4.6 billion years old and will probably last another 4 or 5 billion years.
Photograph of Stars in Orion, Step Focus by David Malin. Copyright ©Anglo-Australian Observatory. Push Processing, Hasselblad. Used by Permission.

The Individual Stars of Orion

These are the "common names" for Orion's individual stars, but astronomers often refer to stars by their Greek letters, also shown here. An astronomer named Johann Bayer assigned lower case Greek letters to the stars in each constellation, often in order of brightness. Thus, Betelgeuse is alpha Orionis, Rigel is beta Orionis, etc. (The form Orionis is the Latin genitive case; it is the possessive, and means "of Orion.") Astronomers use these Greek letters and the genitive case to identify stars.
Common names for stars are often Arabic. During the middle ages, the Arab world kept the ancient Greek knowledge of astronomy alive. They were interested in the individual stars and named many of them. These names are often descriptive and colorful. For example, Betelgeuse means "armpit of the central one." Orion may have been called the Central One (Al Jauzah) because it is directly over the Earth's equator. Betelgeuse was discovered to be a variable star by Sir John Herschel in 1836. Betelgeuse has a companion star with a five year orbit; we know that from examining the spectrum of the star, so Betelgeuse is called a "spectroscopic binary."
Rigel means "left leg of the Jauzah." It is a blue super giant and also a double star. It is the seventh brightest star in sky. Some stars are bright because they are nearby and others are bright because their absolute magnitude (true brightness) is very great. Rigel is both: it is only about 910 light years away and it is about 150,000 times as bright as the Sun.
Bellatrix is known as the Amaxon Star. "Women born under this star shall have mighty tongues," (T. Hood). Mintaka means "the belt," in arabic. It is the northernmost star in the belt and is very the near celestial equator. Alnilam means "the string of pearls." It is the central star of the belt. Saiph means "sword."

The Mythology of Orion

Orion, from the Greek word for "warrior," was the mighty hunter. The Syrians called him Al Jabbar, the giant. He was so tall he could wade through any ocean on Earth. He was also the most beautiful man in the world, and his story is filled with exploits. He was blinded by one lover, only to have his sight restored by another. Orion fell in love with all seven of the Pleiades, the seven sisters, and he pursued them all. Zeus placed the sisters in the sky to spare them heartache, but Orion still pursues them across the sky.
Orion was a bad omen for sailors, signifying the beginning of the winter and of winter storms. The Chinese called Orions belt "Tsan," meaning "Three side by side.
Orion and Scorpius are never seen in the sky together, because they are located in opposite directions from one another. The story arose that the sky was not big enough for both of them. Scorpius the scorpion stung Orion to death. Orion is said to fear the poisonous sting and to flee the scorpion's arising each night.
Urania's Mirror, by "A Lady." Published by Samuel Leigh, London, c.1825.

Location of Orion

Orion is visible from every part of the Earth. It is located on the celestial equator. This line is a projection into space of the Earth's equator and is shown here as a green line. Early navigators relied on the constellations as they travelled, and distinctive stars like the three in Orion's belt were important to them.
This is an easy constellation to find. Start on a winter evening if you are in the northern hemisphere. Look toward the southeast for the three bright stars that make up the belt. The farther north you are, the lower Orion will be on the horizon. Orion's outstretched upper arm is located in the Milky Way.
Orion is the hunter, and his two hunting dogs are located to his right. One of these, Canis Major, contains the brightest star in the sky. This star is Sirius, and in this diagram it is located just where the dog's neck meets his body. Sirius should help you to find Orion. Orion shoots his arrow toward Taurus the Bull.
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I understand the blood stain on the sword, but what's up with the red star sholder? Head wound or sholder?
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I expected that response. But I encourage you to take a skeptical view of skepticism.

The materialist worldview is internally contradictory.

For example, if my thought that "materialism is false," and your thought that "materialism is true" are both the result of sheer, random, chance, then there exists no objective criterion for judging the validity of our statements. Both contradictory statements would be necessarily "valid." But this contradicts the Law of Non-contradiction.

Similarly, if your mind is simply a "machine," then there exists no means for determining whether your "machine" is functioning properly.

Finally, the self eludes explanation in strictly material terms. Is the self a "scanning mechanism" in the brain? If so, then there would be as many "selves" as discrete acts of scanning. And the "self" dissolves.

No, thought is essentially and ultimately a spiritual, non-material process. Only a non-material "vantage point" allows the self to see the world objectively. And only a non-material property of the self makes the possibility of thought itself logically coherent.

Another intuitive argument against materialistic reductionism is the existence of:

humor
love
beauty
goodness
oneness
music

which, if their existence is granted, cannot be explained materially.

Once the existence of the non-material is granted, the existence of the occult cannot be rejected a priori.

But there is a correlation between Hitler's rise to power and occult practices within his inner circle. I do not rule out the possibility of a causal relationship.

What struck me was his uncanny ability to stay alive as long as he did! When I read several books about the German resistance and their attempts to assassinate him, it occurred to me that one could not rule out demonic protection as a source of Hitler's unnatural survival rate . . . It wasn't just one or two assassination attempts that failed. They actually had a bomb on his airplane, disguised as Cointreau, that failed to go off . . . etc. Interesting thread, all . . .

bump

The Holy Grail was the chalice Jesus used at the Last Supper, which was thought to have been brought by Joseph of Arimathaea to England or Wales, probably to Glastonbury. The object found by Indiana Jones was the Ark of the Covenant, probably removed from the Temple of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus when he destroyed the Temple in 70 AD. Two quite different objects, one Jewish--as would be appropriate to Spielberg--the other Christian.

Actually, I read a very interesting and somewhat persuasive book, The Sign and the Seal by Graham Hancock, that argued they are one and the same: the "grail" is a mistranslation of an ancient term and the many ancient quests for it were actually searches for the "ark."

Another possible Grail.

A perilous quest...

themthemthem'olnazi'sboytheytheywasamean'olbunchyeahtheywasmeanitellyouwhat! (boomhauer)

It wasn't just one or two assassination attempts that failed. They actually had a bomb on his airplane, disguised as Cointreau, that failed to go off

The only one I was aware of was the bomb attempt that was foiled at the last minute when someone at the table moved the bomb-containing briefcase to the wrong side of the oak table leg.

themthemthem'olnazi'sboytheytheywasamean'olbunchyeahtheywasmeanitellyouwhat! (boomhauer)

Good one 8-)