Upside Down Cross

[Raven Wolf]

Fascinating discussion!

[hippyroo]

I really enjoyed the thought that is behind the idea that the inverted crosses are a hint at the satanic nature of the gnostics and mythology behind this story..

[Guest zombieromero]

Yeah the image of an upside down cross symbolises a satanic, blasphemous act. It’s been used in films like the Omen, etc.

[Guest fledgling666]

and if you subscribe to the theory that it is to show submission to the higher power, as in st peter's case, then it follows that satan, the fallen angel, would also be sumissive and thus, the inverted cross would be his as well, not necessarily a symbol of evil, but of submission.

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

There is an image of an inverted cross in 19:19 as well when Matthew Prine falls on the stairs after the fight with Frank. It is likely used to cast doubt (as in Anamesis I suspect) over the true alignment of the week's subject - good or evil.

This plays an important role in practically all S2 episodes:

B+TE - Is the Poloroid Stalker evil? He knew the Group were evil and there is a strong case for saying he never intended to kill Frank or Catherine but wanted to die after telling Frank to beware the Group.

Beware of the Dog: Is the Old Man evil? He seems in league with the vicious hounds but then is revealed as something else.

S+AS: Patient Zero is a pitiful case, a man who like other transients has been experimented on and abused... until we discover he is really the villain of the piece, perpetrating these terrible acts.

Monster: Danielle Barbakow, an innocent young girl... who happens to be a demon in disguise.

I could on but I won't. You get the idea. Present me with pretty much any S2 episode and I'll show you villains who become heroes and heroes who become villains.

[Guest zombieromero]

Very interesting ModernDayMoriarty. Maybe the image of an upside down cross can merely be interpreted as a twisted and opposite view of what it once represented.

This would fit in with your views of villains and heroes in disguise.

Just a thought.

[Guest fledgling666]

or maybe it is meant to represent opposing interpretations of episodes.

[Guest zombieromero]

Maybe.

[ethsnafu]

"For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands"

Greetings

Sorry to be pedantic, pedantic is as pedantic does I guess, but I'm still slightly confused as to where the 'satanic element' in Anamnesis is portrayed. It's clear that some regard Clare McKenna as satanically inspired but the consensus is not that this is right but due to an inability to grasp what is happening to her: Lara sums this up perfectly when, during the 'fire and brimstone' ramblings of Reverend Sam Hanes, she leans across to Catherine and dryly notes "...He's not a cliche?" I think Anamnesis is confusing as it depicts a multitude of philosophies and theories but does not inform the viewer as to where one school of thought begins and another ends i.e. it is easy to form the opinion that Gnostics believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene bore offspring but this is not the case, these are two distinct ideologies formed many millennia apart but as they are spoken of in the same breath in Anamnesis it is easy to marry the two. Just for gnosis' sake I made a note of the various philosophies that occur in Anamnesis, or at the least the ones I have identified, in the hope that it may be easy to view the component parts of the story if the origins of it's mythology are clearly defined. I wonder, in light of this, if the inverted cross of Anamnesis is in fact representative not of satanism, which appears to have no bearing upon the story beyond the writer's intention to portray the Hane's as ignorant cliches, but upon the historical, and modern, examples of people perverting ideologies to give weight and credence to their own. It does seem to tie in with an integral 'concept' within this show that people are 'twisting' things and giving unique (mis)interpretations to something otherwise 'holy' and there are numerous examples of where characters are uniquely presenting things in order to further their own ends: Lara's manipulation of events in order to 'off' Ben Fisher, Peter's manipulation of Lara in order to ensure she does this, Lara's manipulation of Catherine in delivering a false appraisal of what she believes has occurred here, the Hane's manipulation of Clare McKenna's experiences in order to give credence to their beliefs, Fisher's manipulation of Clare in order to give credence to his and so on and so forth. Oh well here comes the mythology...........

Gnosticism.

The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. What Gnosticism is not is satanic, the Gnostics had a radically different view of Satan to modern day Christians but this itself does not make them Satan, it is fair to say that the Gnostic devoted far less of their time, if any, engaged in satanic philosophy that the Christians of medieval times who were positively obsessed with it. Gnosticism appears in Anamnesis in the guise of Clare McKenna's recitation of 'Thunder, Perfect Mind' and possible portrayal of the Magdalene as divine in origin but pretty much everything else we see borrows its philosophy from other distinct schools of thought.

Simon Magus and the Divine Prostitute.

Simon Magus was a Samaritan sorcerer who attempted to buy spiritual power from the apostles. From this comes the term simony. He is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. He was said to have founded a Gnostic sect his dealings with a prostitute called Helen is the framework for some of the threads of Anamnesis. His 'story', if you will, is the origin of monologue recited from 'The Family's' history book. "..."And thus, from age to age, she passed from body to body, into one female body after the other. Thus, she became the lost sheep.""

To better elucidate upon explain this theory I have included the words of Irenaeus who wrote, far more eloquently than I ever could, "....Now this Simon of Samaria, from whom all sorts of heresies derive their origin, formed his sect out of the following materials:--Having redeemed from slavery at Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, a certain woman named Helena, he was in the habit of carrying her about with him, declaring that this woman was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom, in the beginning, he conceived in his mind [the thought] of forming angels and archangels..."

Irenaeus describes how this woman was his Ennoea meaning first thought. She descended to the lower regions of space and was detained there by the powers and angels. She suffered at their hands and was detained in human body, passing from body to body, and being incarnated among other forms as Helen of Troy. Eventually she descended to the condition of a common prostitute. She was then found and redeemed from slavery by Simon. Whilst it is true that Simon Magus was a gnostic it is not true that his beliefs were true for others his theological leanings are quite distinct from Gnosticism and must therefore allow us to conclude that 'The Family' far from being a Gnostic cult has evolved from a curious casserole of esoteric thinking.

Cult of the Black Virgin

This one is all over the place in Anamnesis. It occurs in 'The Family's' history monologue, juxtaposed with the Simon Magus elements, and is present in the heavy statue scene, the arrival of the boat scene and in the theories regarding Mary Magdalene's arrival with a child to the shores of France: in this instance it was to be used as theoretical 'evidence' to support the Merovingian Bloodline mythology but this came much later and is a matter of conjecture. The worship of the Black Virgin is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that began in the early Middle Ages but has persisted into the present despite opposition, often militant, by the established Church. Two streams of veneration of the Black Virgin can be identified. Both are viewed as heresy by the established Church: One is a continuation of the earth-and women- centered Goddess religion; the other is the carrier of the esoteric teachings and spiritual practices of the Hellenistic period. This diverse group includes the Gnostics, the Cathars, the Knights Templars, the Cult of the Holy Grail and the Church of Mary Magdalene. The cult of Mary Magdalene, which worships the Black Virgin, absorbed many of the esoteric teachings. Various names are thrown into the pot, all of them associated with the Black Madonna, and it would take an age to note them all here suffice to say they include Isis, St. Sara, Mary Magdalene, Sophia and numerous others.

Merovingian Bloodline.

This is theory presented by Lara that ruminates upon the possibility that Mary Magdalene and Christ had a family and that their descendants exists today in the form of the Merovingian Dynasty this concept has nothing in common with Gnosticism and, though facets of it existed previously, it was not given a concrete form as belief until 1983. Stories about the Priory of Sion first surfaced in the modern era during the late 1960s, when a set of documents was discovered deep in the French National Library that made numerous references to the supposed society. The documents outlined a family tree that went back to the Merovingian Kings, monarchs who ruled in the south of France from the 6th to the 8th century. The Merovingian legends say the first king's mother was said to have been impregnated by a sea creature. One of the earliest symbols for Jesus and Christianity was a fish. It is suggested that the Merovingian kings were the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and that their descendants founded the Priory of Sion. It is also offered that the Knights Templar, an order that really existed in the 12th century, originated as the military wing of the Priory of Sion. In the earliest written versions of the legend of the knights of the Holy Grail, the knights were called Templaisers, which historians think actually refer to the Knights Templar. "They were referred to as the Guardians of the Grail and of the Grail Family. They were there to protect that royal family," said Lincoln. The Knights Templar existed for 200 years, but were suddenly rounded up one day by King Phillip of France, accused of heresy and executed by the priests of the Inquisition. One theory is that the Knights Templar were destroyed because during the crusades, they might have brought back evidence from the Middle East that proved the identity of Mary Magdalene and her descendants.

Daughter's of Danaus

I'm not entirely sure why this included in 'The Family' history monologue and can only conclude that it is there as an illustration of the perpetual reincarnation concept. It is in reference to the legend of King of Argos who instructed his fifty daughters to kill their husbands on their wedding night. The fifty husbands were duly murdered. And in consequence, the daughters of Danaus were condemned to an afterlife of perpetual labor, carrying water from the river Styx in leaky jars. I have not seen anything that concludes that his has any 'link' with the Magdalene mythology presented in the episode but it could be used in an allegorical form and thus not allude to such.

Suffice to say I shall bore you no longer but it is difficult in light of how much mythology is stitched together in this episode to decide that any one theory can be denounced as Satanic as none of them are portrayed in a pure light and are manipulated for the sake of the story. None of them have any 'satanic' element in their mythology but I can only conclude that this inversion of beliefs may explain the example of the inverted cross: the perversion of the pure. If all these mythologies are presented in a distorted way, as they are, could Anamnesis not be a treatise on the power of confusion? That in the rich tapestry of theological debate so many things exist in a distorted manner and we are unable to view them fairly? Could this explain Lara's aggression with regards to the Church's assertion that Mary Magdalene was a common prostitute, a theory it was later to apologise for, and is the inverted crucifix symbolic of her inversion at the hands of the patriarchal, medieval church? Anamnesis is such a complex, intelligent offering I guess it could mean anything we want it to.

Forgive me 'cos I know I go on too much.

eth

[Guest Max Fenig]

I find that people here are saying that there is a "satanic" element to "Anamnesis" out of doubt or fear.

I applaud Ethsnafu for standing up for Gnostic beliefs.