Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
When Christ is crucified he cries out “My God, why have you forsaken me?”. Oft mistook as his denying God. In fact he is affirming his destiny, affirming prophecy by quoting Psalm 22.
The innocent set upon by beasts, a universal motif that I’ve written quite a bit on relating it primarily to the fairy tale of Tom Thumb and his swallow cycle, and Thelemically to Horus the Child, Harpocrates.
Last year I made a tiktok about it as it relates to Christ:
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How a Lamb dog toy recreates Psalm 22, the image of the innocent set upon by dogs.
The motif came up again while listening to some alien stories with my girlfriend.
The Story of the Farmersville Green Man:
Silbie Latham (12) and his brothers Sid and Clyde were chopping cotton on their farm, when they heard their dogs bark, as if in distress. After a few minutes they went to investigate and found a little man no more than 45cm tall, dark green in colour, his arms hanging down by his side, and wearing a little round sombrero which seemed to be part of his body, The creature was naked and appeared to be made of rubber. Before the boys could absorb any more detail the dogs pounced on the creature, tearing it apart and spreading blood and guts all over the place. The boys returned to their work but went back to the scene from time to time to see rotting remains and the dogs cowering from the spot. By the time their parents investigated all traces had disappeared.
Here we see the autonomous emergence of the motif in alien phenomena. You can see the connection between Christ, dog toys, and little aliens torn apart very clearly.
The torture and death of the other is not a simple curiosity but the subject of nearly all religions. It is our nature, and it is the nature of the Gods. They kill us for sport, and we respond as caged animals, biting and tearing at them.
The Gods do not appear as friends, as neighbors, even Christ, though human and a neighbor made himself Other. In Greek mythology the Gods would always come down to Earth in the form of animals or beggars. As beings people tend to belittle and kill.
I find stories like the Farmersville Green Man tragic and exciting, that the archetypal motifs are alive and well, occurring spontaneously in the developing new myths of the space age. I would tell you that our nature could change, but it won’t.
I’ve been talking about the Second Coming with
, about how universally despised any possible second coming of Christ would be. That any “anti-christ” would be infinitely more attractive, especially to Christians.In this aeon we will have our Holy Angelic messiahs, our scientific extraterrestrial messiahs, and all the while our bodies will be filled with Oreos, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, hooked into Apple augmented reality pornography machines, and sucking on vapes. The human god made sick unto death.
"In this aeon we will have our Holy Angelic messiahs, our scientific extraterrestrial messiahs, and all the while our bodies will be filled with Oreos, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, hooked into Apple augmented reality pornography machines, and sucking on vapes. The human god made sick unto death."
Your Mercury in Scorpio never ceases to amuse me.
Interesting connections made here. I would like to emphasize a key element in this archetypal pattern of 'The innocent set upon by beasts': the aspect of consumption. The dogs in these examples that you put forward not only kill and maim the innocent lamb, they also EAT the lamb. As the old saying goes, "You are what you eat."
This is what makes Christ unique amongst this motif: WE are the dogs that are eating Him. From the same Psalm you referenced: "16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." But this was part of God's plan to unite Himself to us, since we are what we eat. If we eat God, we become God. This is the whole point of the Eucharist, that we may become gods through the grace of God allowing us to eat Him.
If Christ has made Himself 'Other' as you have written here, it is so that the 'Self' may be one with the 'Other'. If we are made in the image of God and God is Trinitarian, that means we also share in this capacity to be Trinitarian, to mystically become BOTH self and other without losing any distinction between the two categories.
In regards to our discussion about the Second Coming, here is a quote from Christ Himself:
"Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before."