image: Wikimedia commons (link).
The story of the Trojan horse is one of the most well-known of ancient references, still widely used in our language today to describe a ruse or deception through which a hostile force (which could easily be kept out) is allowed inside by inducing a false sense of security -- or even invited inside.
The Trojan horse gets its name from a ruse described in the ancient myths to allow a force of Greek warriors to get within the otherwise-impenetrable walls of the city of Ilium, also known as Troy.
The story of the Trojan horse is not actually found in the Iliad itself (the ancient epic which describes the battles of the Trojan War centered most especially on the rivalry between Achilles on the side of the Greeks and Hector on the side of the Trojans, with tension added to the plot by the decision by Achilles to withdraw from fighting when his pride is wounded by the actions of Agamemnon). The story is, however, referenced in the Odyssey (in Book 7), as well as in many other ancient sources, including a surviving play by Euripides (fifth century BC), and a detailed account in the Aeneid by Virgil (first century BC) and later by the poet Quintus of Smyrna (most commonly called Quintus Smyrnaeus).
You can find the account by Quintus Smyrnaeus online here: it tells us that the forces of the Greeks (referred to in the ancient epics by many other names rather than as "Greeks" -- including the Danaans, the Achaeans, and the Argives), exhausted after ten years of hard fighting without bringing an end to Troy, received advice from the seer Calchas, who received divine inspiration from Apollo through observing the actions of birds, that victory could only be won by some cunning stratagem rather than through sheer force alone.
At this all the Danaans wracked their brains for an idea that might work, but it was the master strategist Odysseus, son of Laertes, who devised the stratagem of the wooden horse: if the divine decree was that the walls of Ilium could only fall by deception, he said, then
a great Horse let us fashion, in the which our mightiest shall take ambush. Let the host [ie, the army of the Greeks] burn all their tents, and sail from hence away to Tenedos; so the Trojans, from their towers gazing, shall stream forth fearless to the plain. Let some brave man, unknown of any in Troy [ie, unfamiliar to any of the Trojans themselves, not known personally by any of them], with a stout heart abide without the horse, crouching down beneath its shadow, who shall say: "Achaea's lords of might, exceeding fain safe to win home [ie, very much desiring to get home safely], made this offering for safe return: an image to appease the wrath of Pallas for her image stolen from Troy [ie, as an offering to placate the anger of the goddess Athena, whose temple in Troy had been desecrated by the Greeks]. And to this story shall he stand, how long soe'er they question him [he must stick to this story now matter how the Trojans interrogate him], until, though never so relentless, they believe, and drag it, their own doom, within the town. Then shall war's signal unto us be given -- to them at sea, by sudden flash of torch, to the ambush, by the cry, "Come forth the Horse!" when unsuspecting sleep the sons of Troy.
This masterful plan of Odysseus was widely praised by all the warriors of the Danaan side, and the plan was thus put into action. The ancient myths tell us that a priest of the Trojans, named Laocoön, tries to warn the Trojans that the Greeks cannot be trusted (Virgil giving him the famous line: "I am afraid of Greeks, even those bearing gifts"). The priest advises the Trojans to set the horse on fire to be sure it is not harboring enemy soldiers. To silence this accurate warning, one of the gods who favors the Greeks over the Trojans (which one varies from account to account) send two great serpents up from the sea to strangle Laocoön and his two sons, in front of all the Trojans.
Against the warnings of those who suspect a trap, then, the Trojans wheel the wooden horse within the walls of their great city -- and there the hidden battle-hardened warriors of the Achaeans wait until it is time to creep out of their hiding place in order to open the gates of the city and sack it.
The description in the Odyssey has the beautiful Helen of Troy also grow suspicious of the wooden horse: suspecting there are Greek fighters hidden inside, she walks around the horse by night and calls out to the various warriors by name, imitating the voices and mannerisms of their various wives, all of whom she herself knows personally. One of the hidden warriors is fooled and is about to yell out in answer to Helen's trick, but Odysseus clamps his hand across the man's mouth in order to prevent his giving away their presence.
This famous episode of ancient myth, retold down through the centuries, is undoubtedly based upon the system of celestial metaphor which underlies the myths from cultures around the earth. As I explain (and demonstrate with abundant evidence) in my 2016 book Star Myths of the World, Volume Two: Myths of Ancient Greece, the great city of fair Ilium (or Troy) can be confidently identified with the Great Square of Pegasus, which plays the role of a walled city or a citadel or a fortress in many of the world's ancient myths across numerous cultures.
Below is a star chart showing the position of the Great Square which forms the celestial original of the great walled city of Troy: can you find the location of the Trojan horse?
If you said the horse-shaped outline of the constellation Pegasus, then I am in agreement! Note that on the other side of the Great Square from the constellation Pegasus we find the constellation Andromeda, often envisioned as a beautiful young woman, sometimes in chains. The part about being chained comes from the set of stars near her upward-reaching arm, which can be envisioned as shackles and chains around her wrist.
Below is an artistic depiction of the Trojan horse deception from ancient times, this particular piece from the Gandhara region of ancient India, where elements of Greek culture and myth made their way along the mighty Silk Road:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
Please note that in the above image we see the wooden horse, clearly identifiable as such by its distinctive wheels in the artwork. That horse is on the right as we face the image -- and on the left we see the figure of a woman, chained to a rectangular doorway or structure of some sort (the shackles and chains are visible on her wrists and her ankles, if you look closely). This juxtaposition of horse (on the right) and chained female (on the left) corresponds precisely to the positioning of the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda in the night sky (from the perspective of an observer in the northern hemisphere), providing very compelling support for my argument that the walls of Troy are associated with the Great Square in the heavens, with the horse Pegasus playing the role of the wooden horse (in this particular myth).
There are in fact versions of ancient myth in which Troy is required to chain a young woman as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of a god who is sending a sea monster to destroy the city (in a pattern very similar to the more famous story of Andromeda and Perseus). In some ancient accounts, it is Heracles himself who fights off the monster (see this page for further detail). The main point to note is that this myth clearly supports the conclusion that Troy is associated with the Great Square, since a maiden in chains is undoubtedly associated with the constellation Andromeda. Thus our confidence for the identification of the Trojan horse with the constellation Pegasus can be quite high (and the ancient artwork above, showing both the horse and the chained maiden in the same scene, provides still further confirmation).
Readers familiar with my work and with the ancient star-myth system should have little difficulty in identifying Laocoön, the priest of doomed Troy, with the constellation Ophiuchus. This constellation often plays a role of intermediary between the realm of mortals and the realm of the gods -- as with the priest in this story, who meets a violent end.
One moral of the story, it should be easy to see, is the absolutely critical importance of listening to the voice from the realm of the gods, which the Trojans fail to do in this story (the Greeks, by contrast, do take heed of the messages sent from the Invisible Realm). As discussed at some length in my most-recent book, Myth and Trauma, we each of us have access to the guidance of that mysterious dimension through our essential self -- but tragically we are often unaware of the existence of a higher self from who we have become alienated, and we are even quite resistant to the suggestion that we might be separated from our own essence.
But another related lesson from this famous episode of ancient myth has to do with the way destructive forces can actually be invited into our lives by us, ourselves -- forces which we otherwise could easily resist, if only we were not traumatized and thus inattentive to the voice of the gods.
This picture, so graphically illustrated in the story of the Trojan horse, is true in our individual lives (for destructive addictions and behaviors), but it is also true on a wider societal level.
I would argue that right now, the declaration of this Covid pandemic and accompanying lockdown are being used as a massive Trojan horse in order to sneak a host of harmful policies into our midst, policies which under normal circumstances would have been immediately rejected, but which are actually being welcomed or even clamored for because of the massive "Trojan horse" which we see going on all around us.
Please understand that in saying the above, I am not in any way suggesting that the virus or biological agent itself (or viruses themselves, if there are multiple strains or multiple agents, which appears to be the case) is not "real" -- the evidence shows quite plainly that it is very real and very dangerous.
I am suggesting that there are many aspects of the response which we have all been experiencing and witnessing over the past several months which make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and which indicate that -- without denying the seriousness of the threat -- this situation is being used as a Trojan horse to usher in a host of programs which free men and women would otherwise vigorously oppose.
The following is a list of policy objectives which may be part of the hostile army being wheeled in under cover of the "pandemic Trojan horse":
Mandatory universal vaccination: This objective has been openly declared by numerous high-ranking officials over the past few months since the start of the lockdown, and although such a proposal would normally be opposed in the strongest terms by the vast majority of men and women, it may be that many will now actually beg for it in order to be allowed to work, travel, and "return to normal" after experiencing enough lockdown and restriction;
Introduction of RNA- and DNA-altering vaccinations: Agents designed to deliberately alter the RNA and DNA of men and women have never before been approved for human use, and yet they are now being widely tested and fast-tracked for widespread approval and deployment among the population in order to stimulate the production of antibodies which are hoped to prevent the disease, with little to no idea of what ramifications this type of alteration of the building blocks of life may have in the longer term on those injected, or on future generations, and with little to no idea of whether the production of antibodies will actually be effective in preventing infection by this or related strains of the agent or agents in question);
Tracing where everyone goes and with whom everyone interacts: Using the ubiquitous "smartphones" carried by virtually every member of the public over the age of ten, it is now quite possible to recording everyone's movements and interactions with or without their consent or knowledge (although using the above-described principle of the Trojan horse, people may actually invitethis kind of monitoring after the surreal experience of the past few months, although if asked a year ago if they would ever accept such a thing, most people would probably have said "never in a million years");
Deploying a comprehensive interlocking network of AI and facial recognition: The deployment of massive and ubiquitous AI and facial recognition, as uncovered by the brilliant investigative reporter Whitney Webb -- see links and discussion in this previous post and accompanying video -- has been on the agenda of certain well-connected groups for over a year -- and such a program can now be snuck-in using the cover of the pandemic (and, although it is difficult to know for certain, it is possible to speculate that the mandating of mask-wearing and social distancing in every place of business can serve a purpose of training AI and facial recognition programs to identify you using just the region around your eyes, perhaps along with your gait: if you think about it, massive global retailers and big-box stores already surveil everyone within their stores, and to the extent that many people pay with credit or debit cards at checkout, their identities can be matched with their film footage during their shopping trips);
The implementation of a cashless society: A longtime goal of those who would love to compile data on every single purchase or transaction anyone and everyone makes, and also of those who make money from "interchange" fees assessed on every transaction using a card issued by a bank or financial institution (a massive toll assessed on every purchase you make, which primarily ends up going to the banks or other card-issuers, along with related financial players) -- and please note that being able to track your every purchase would also have the effect of enabling those who purchase books containing "dissident" ideas to be more easily tracked, something we have been moving towards with the steady elimination of physical bookstores over the past two to three decades, and now with the libraries all closed down for an indeterminate period of time as well;
The implementation of comprehensive and unconstitutional restrictions of free speech: No one can deny that the inalienable right to freedom of speech is being speedily abridged from many angles over the past several weeks, in a campaign which certainly began prior to the imposition of lockdowns but which definitely accelerated in recent months and continues to accelerate, with little resistance from a public which at this point is largely confused, demoralized, and divided to a degree we have not seen prior to the imposition of the lockdown in March of this year;
The bankrupting of cities and states in order to impose greater austerity on the majority of the people, and force the privatization of lucrative public assets which connected players can acquire and use to amass tremendous fortunes: The imposition of austerity is a central feature of neoliberalism (discussed in numerous previous posts -- simply use the "search" function to find posts discussing neoliberalism, such as these), and the response to the government-imposed lockdown (at least within the United States) has been to create money for well-connected large players including corporations, churches, and financial institutions, while largely leaving most small businesses with few choices but to close their doors permanently, thus creating major financial crises for states and municipalities (which face greater spending while collecting fewer taxes) and ultimately forcing the drastic reduction of public services and eventually the cessation of many such services, and the privatization of the most lucrative aspects of the public domain, another key goal of neoliberal policy.
The above list, of course, is not exhaustive. Ancient accounts vary regarding the number of warriors who hid within the Trojan horse -- one tradition puts the number at forty. In addition to those threats listed above, it is quite likely that many other harmful initiatives are being rolled into our midst under the cover of the modern-day Trojan horse.
These developments are massive in their potential for changing the world for the worse -- in some cases, permanently (messing with DNA, in particular, could have ramifications which could never be undone). Some of them are so shocking, and so offensive to inalienable human rights recognized in the Bill of Rights, that they could never have simply been instigated in normal times. It would take a very large Trojan horse to get some of these ideas through, but that is exactly what it appears we are currently experiencing.
The Covid operation has all the hallmarks of a Trojan horse of massive proportions. We would be wise to wake up to what is inside, and take decisive measures to prevent some of the above developments, before it is too late.