symbolic 21: christ mass
I was watching Eddie Izzard's new DVD, Circle, the other night and he does this bit about God and Jesus where Jesus is sent down to earth to bring mankind back to the one true religion. Jesus, as the joke goes, screws things up at the Last Supper where he introduces both vampirism and cannibalism through the ceremony of the wine and the bread. To top things off, Jesus plans his resurrection on a very pagan ritual cycle: Easter Sunday, which is the first sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
Anyone remember the pagan gods? How about Attis and Adonis? Attis was the son of Nana, a virgin who conceived the lucky lad by placing a ripe almond or pomegranate on her bosom. Attis was adored by Cybele, one of the great Asiatic fertility goddesses. There are a couple of different versions of how Attis died -- either gored by a boar or bleeding out under a pine tree after he had hacked off his own pearly bits -- and, in the early spring, his priests would cut down a pine tree and carry it to their sacred altar where, during a ritual festival celebrated in March, they would sanctify the tree with their own blood in order to bring Attis back to life. The return of spring and the budding of the trees was the symbolic return of Cybele's favor to those who had resurrected her slain favorite.
Adonis was worshipped by the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria until the Greeks appropriated the practice some time in the seventh century B.C. Adonis is actually the Greek version of his name; they misunderstood the titular name of "Adon" which the local people added to the name of Tammuz. Either way Adonis, as he came to be known in the West, was a young lad beloved by Ishtar, the goddess who embodied nature. After Adonis' death, Ishtar journeyed to the underworld in order to find him and, while she was away, the world passed into shadow and everything became cold and still while we waited for her return. After some verbal wrestling with the Lord of the Underworld, Ishtar returned with her lover and -- as you can guess -- spring came to the world.
These are the pagan rituals of the seasons; these are the basis for the celebration of the corn gods and the deities of vegetation wherein the kings who represent them die and are reborn every year in observance of the passage of the year. In a number of cultures in Africa, the king of the new year would either slay or eat the old king in order to pass the wisdom and knowledge on to the next generation of ruler. Pharaohs in Egypt were equated with Horus, the Son, and became Osiris, the Father, when they passed away.
You don't have to go far to find parallels to the events of the Last Supper or the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus.
Sam Raimi introduced an entire generation of girlfriends and children to Spider-man this last summer. He didn't set the story during the era when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced comic fans to the web-slinger; he set Spider-man in the here and now. I remember when Frank Miller wrote Batman: Year One and I even remember when John Byrne did his re-imagining of Superman. None of these guys invented anything new; they just redrafted what was there in new language, in new clothing, in order to find an audience among a generation which had no connection with previous era and time. Marvel is doing the same thing now with the Ultimates line: they're looking for new readership, reaching for language and visual stimuli which will bring a new audience to the gates.
Jesus Christ is the Catholic version of the corn god's origin story. They were just looking for a new audience and gave them something in a language and symbolism which they could understand.
It's been two thousand years. Don't you think we're due for another revision of the origin story for the first superhero? Where does the death and rebirth of the corn god fit into the globalized, computerized, bio-mechanical 21st century?
Or are we done with the old and finally ready for something new?
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.