image: Wikimedia commons (link).
In my opinion, Christopher Knowles is one of the most important authors and researchers exploring the abundant signs of esoteric symbolism in pop culture and the media, and the evidence of the ongoing practice of ritual magic by certain groups wishing to influence events on the world stage -- and behind the scenes.
In his work, he finds and unravels numerous interlocking threads which indicate application of ancient wisdom, incorporating ancient myths and ancient gods -- and references to specific constellations.
To summarize and begin to explore the amount of evidence of such ongoing ritual magic, which he has documented in his long-running blog entitled The Secret Sun Speaks, would take an entire book (if not a multi-volume series). The interested reader is advised to examine the extensive writings of Chris Knowles at that blog as well as in his published books, and listen to his numerous interviews on podcasts over the past several years.
I have previously referenced some of these in blog posts such as this one and this one.
The subjects Chris Knowles explores are numerous and wide-ranging -- and yet intertwined -- and include the the ancient Mysteries (or mysteria), the continuing importance (and power) of the ancient gods and beliefs, the ongoing importance of the ancient cult of Mithras, the deliberate infliction of trauma upon men, women and children in our society, and the evidence that intelligence agencies are active participants in the mix of topics that he is investigating: all subjects which I also touch upon in my own research and writing in certain places.
However, if I were to attempt to summarize what I see as the heart of what Chris has been exploring, I would express it in terms that include his discovery and discussion of the undeniable evidence that certain powerful groups and individuals have been deliberately practicing ritual magic (continuing to this day) in order to invite powerful forces from the Other Realm to enact change in our reality -- and the even more disturbing evidence that the Other Realm is answering in response, in ways which appear to defy explanation by even the most "conspiratorial" human agency.
Some of the most compelling evidence that Chris Knowles has described can be referenced under the heading of the "Song to the Siren," in which he details evidence of a pattern of deaths and recurring allusions which connect to ancient myths involving Sirens -- alluring mythical monsters encountered for example by Odysseus in Book 12 of the Odyssey: their irresistible song lures sailors to their death.
Chris shows that these strange, water-related (and "Siren-related") deaths fit a pattern which suggests ongoing occult ritual including human sacrifice to influence the unseen realm -- or perhaps caused by forces from the unseen realm. For an explanation of the patterns that he has uncovered, see the blog posts linked above, which contain interviews with Chris on podcasts including two from the Higherside Chats podcast, all from 2017.
The amount of connections that he details is amazing, and defies explanation by "mere coincidence." What's more, many of the connections appear to relate to songs by a specific singer with a Siren-like voice, songs with titles that appear to be prophetic in remarkable ways, or which were released on dates which later became significant in the web of intertwined threads which Chris has been exploring with his work.
Chris explains that the pattern of the Siren relates to very ancient myths, often myths involving the seduction and destruction of young men who fit the description of a "shepherd-boy," including the pattern of Inanna and Dumuzid (discussed in the conclusion of my most-recent book, Myth and Trauma) or the pattern of Aphrodite and Adonis (also known as Venus and Adonis) from the myths of Ancient Greece and Rome.
We can see this same pattern emerging in ancient accounts of the Sirens who haunt lonely cliffs along the sea and who lure sailors to their doom with their irresistible Song of the Siren.
For example, in ancient myths involving the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts, the ship Argo and its illustrious crew sail past the rocky home of the Sirens, where the singing would have surely drawn them in, had Orpheus (one of the heroes who sailed with Jason on his quest) not taken out his famous lyre and sung so winningly that he succeeded in keeping the other Argonauts from steering the ship into the rocks to join the Sirens -- all but one member of the crew, named Boutes or Butes, who could not stop himself from leaping into the sea and swimming with all his might towards the Sirens.
The ancient mythographers tell us that Boutes would most certainly have perished in that encounter, had not the very goddess of love and beauty herself, Cyprian Aphrodite, had pity upon the wayward Boutes and rescued him from the waves, after which one ancient source tells us, "having saved his life, she took him to her heart, and found a home for him on the heights of Lilybaion" (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica Book 4).
Those who know their constellations should recognize that the very name of this smitten sailor, who could not resist flinging himself overboard into the sea to try and join the Sirens, is linguistically nearly identical to the name of the constellation Boötes, or the Herdsman -- thus showing that the pattern of the Siren seducing the shepherd and luring him to his destruction is present in this ancient myth (among many others).
Intriguingly, the mysterious figure of the Siren can be identified with a constellation in the night sky as well, and one which plays an absolutely critical role in the world's ancient myths. The figure of the Siren is sometimes (although definitely not always, as discussed below) associated with the mythical Mermaid, human from the waist up and fish-like from the waist down -- sometimes having one tail, and sometimes envisioned as having two fishy tails.
What figure in the night sky could have a human torso and a fish-like tail -- or two fish-like tails?
As it happens, this is a pattern we encounter in myths over and over -- see for instance the discussion of the identity and description of the powerful monster Typhon (examined in Myth and Trauma, pages 80 through 100), or of the Matsya avatar of Vishnu in the ancient Vedic myths of India (examined in The Ancient World-Wide System, on pages 614 - 618). The celestial foundations of these fish-tailed entities are explored in both books, and in both cases are found to relate to the same important constellation.
We have also encountered the same pattern in a previous examination of the wrestling-match between Heracles and Triton, depicted on many surviving pieces of ancient pottery, including this beautiful hydria (or "water-jar") which I saw on display in Boston's Museum of Fine Art and which I discussed in this previous post from 2016. Once again, my analysis suggests that the same constellation plays the role of the fish-tailed entity in that mythical episode as well.
Thus, it should come as no surprise to find evidence that the figure of the Siren can be seen to be associated, at least in many instances, with the very same constellation in the heavens: the towering figure of the constellation Ophiuchus.
Ophiuchus is an extraordinarily important figure in the world's ancient myths, as I have come to realize after examining literally hundreds of them and seeing in how many of them Ophiuchus plays a pivotal role. In the case of the figure of the Siren, as well as other mythical entities with one or sometimes two fish-like tails, we can see the foundation for this association in the fact that the outline of Ophiuchus has a central body flanked on either side by what is sometimes envisioned as a serpent, one so long that its tail is on one side of the central body of Ophiuchus (the east side) and its head is on the other (the west side).
As it turns out, the constellation Ophiuchus does have two human-like legs below the central body, but these are rather faint and also rather short, and in some cases the ancient myths appear to have envisioned the two serpent-halves as the "serpentine" legs of the constellation (such as in the case of Typhon, who is often described in ancient myth and depicted in ancient artwork as having two serpent-tails emanating from the waist down, where his legs would normally be expected to be). In some cases, one or both of these "serpent-halves" on either side of Ophiuchus can be envisioned as a fish-tail, or in some cases two fish-tails, replacing the legs of the figure.
This explanation -- and the many parallels in other myths -- makes me quite confident that the figure of the Siren is closely associated with Ophiuchus.
Below is a diagram of the constellation Ophiuchus, juxtaposed with an image of a Mermaid, from the 1500s. This Mermaid happens to have two tails, which is very common in previous centuries (and continues to be seen to this day in the deliberately old-school depiction of the Mermaid in the corporate logo of Starbuck's, named of course for one of the three harpooners aboard the voyage of the Pequot in Herman Melville's Moby Dick).
The parallels between the form of the Mermaid (with her two tails) and the outline of Ophiuchus should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer:
image of Mermaid: Wikimedia commons (link).
Take a good look at the constellation, and if necessary cover up the "human-like" legs at the bottom of the central body of the constellation with one hand. If you do so, you will see that the parallels between the two-tailed Mermaid and the constellation Ophiuchus are unmistakable.
Note that the artist from the 1500s has drawn the arms of the Mermaid in such a way that each grasps one of her two fish-like tails. This decision on the part of the artist can be seen to follow the pattern of the constellation in the sky (I show the outline of Ophiuchus as suggested by H. A. Rey in the diagram above which uses a screen-shot from the free and open-source online planetarium app, Stellarium).
Indeed, the artist has chosen to depict one arm (on the left as we face the image) up higher on the tail to the left (her right, for the Mermaid), while the other arm goes downward to contact the other tail (on our right as we face the page, and on her left for the Mermaid) closer to the "thigh" area.
This positioning of the arms in the 1500s artwork is quite remarkable: it corresponds almost perfectly to the outline of the constellation Ophiuchus in the heavens, as published in H. A. Rey's book The Stars: A New Way to See Them in 1952!
Below I have reproduced my juxtaposition of the star-chart and the Mermaid, this time adding arrows to indicate the positioning of the arms, just to make it absolutely clear:
Anyone observing the diagram above would be hard-pressed to argue that the artist from the 1500s was not deliberately incorporating the outline of the constellation Ophiuchus in the depiction of the Mermaid -- or at least following a received artistic tradition in which Mermaids were understood to be associated with that constellation and were consistently depicted with conventions indicating the constellation Ophiuchus in the form of the Mermaid.
Based on my analysis of hundreds of myths -- and my earlier work suggesting a direct connection between the fish-tailed figures of Triton and Typhon in Greek myth, as well as the Matsya avatar of Vishnu in Vedic myth, with the constellation Ophiuchus -- I am quite confident that we can see a clear connection between the figure of the Siren (as well as the related figure of the Mermaid) and the towering constellation Ophiuchus.
Some well-informed readers at this point may be wondering about the mythological tradition, clearly articulated in many ancient sources, in which the Sirens are described not as having fish-tails like a Mermaid but rather as having the beautiful faces (and usually the beautiful upper-bodies) of women, but bird-like legs down below the waist, and sometimes bird-like wings as well. I am convinced that in this version as well, the Sirens are primarily associated with the constellation Ophiuchus, although during the encounter of Odysseus with the Sirens in the Odyssey it would appear that the constellations Cygnus and Aquila take on the role of Sirens as well (as I discuss in my 2016 book, Star Myths of the World, Volume Two: Myths of Ancient Greece).
You can see from the outline of Ophiuchus in the diagrams above that the constellation could be envisioned as having "chicken legs" beneath the tall central body, which would explain why the same constellation can be envisioned as Sirens who have a human torso and bird-like legs, and also as Sirens who have a human torso and either one or two Mermaid tails. If the bird-leg version is selected, then the two "serpent-halves" on either side of the constellation's central body can be envisioned as "wings" instead of as "fish-tails" (and note that Ophiuchus figures in myth can be shown to have wings in many, many different examples -- see for instance this discussion of a recently-unearthed mosaic floor in the ruins of ancient Pompeii).
The most ominous aspect of the research the Chris Knowles has been pursuing involves the frightening evidence that the pattern of the Siren is associated with the death or deaths of young men, often by drowning. This pattern is of course consistent with the Siren and Mermaid pattern in myth, in which the powerful and irresistible Siren draws men to their doom.
It can also be seen to be based on the stars.
The figure of a Herdsman is closely associated with the constellation Boötes, as mentioned above, but the figure of a Shepherd-boy is most commonly associated in ancient myth with the constellation Sagittarius, which is located next to the Goat of Capricorn and thus can be envisioned as tending to goats or to sheep (both related and both associated with the pastoral life). Several of my books in the Star Myths of the World Series provide evidence that the constellation Sagittarius plays the role of a shepherd-boy in myth (including in the Odyssey, in which at one point the goddess Athena disguises herself in the form of a shepherd-boy when appearing to Odysseus).
The constellation Sagittarius is situated very close (indeed, basically adjacent) to the larger and more ominous-looking constellation Ophiuchus, as shown in the star-chart diagram below:
This proximity, and the fact that Sagittarius-figures interact with Ophiuchus-figures in many different ancient myths from around the world, helps explain the pattern Chris Knowles has identified in which the Siren draws the Shepherd-boy to her, often to his own destruction.
There are many variations on this same basic pattern in myth and folklore across cultures and across time -- but in many of the stores, the death of the Shepherd-boy involves water.
This too can be seen to reflect a pattern in the stars above.
The brightest and widest part of the Milky Way band itself passes between the constellation Sagittarius and the constellation Ophiuchus. You can see this brightest and widest part of the Milky Way in the star-chart above, in which the colors have been inverted for easier visibility of the constellation outlines. Because the colors are inverted, the stars (which are shining bright dots against a dark night sky in reality) look like black dots on a light background sky. Thus, the Milky Way, which normally shines like a glowing pathway in the heavens, appears as dark clouds and smudges in the inverted diagram above.
Below is another version of the same star-chart, this time with the general outlines of the Milky Way indicated for ease of identification:
This diagram helps explain the prevalent myth-pattern in which the Siren-figure or related goddess draws the Shepherd-boy figure to her, ending in his destruction (often by water).
Below is a piece of artwork, also from the 1500s, showing one variation on this pattern, known as the Poet and the Siren:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
In the above artwork, we can see that the Siren-figure is again depicted with two tails, and that her hands once again are drawn such that she is grasping one tail with each hand. Note that in this case, the artist has the hand on our left going lower, and the hand on our right going upwards -- the exact opposite of the earlier example, and also the opposite of the way we see Ophiuchus in the heavens.
That is because this artist, for whatever reason, has decided to invert the scene such that left is right and right is left. Note that the poet-figure, who is enthralled with the figure of the Siren in the sky, is to the right, even though the constellation Sagittarius in the star-charts can be found to the left (that is, to the east as we face the star-chart in this case) of Ophiuchus in the heavens. The artist has simply "flipped horizontally" the scene in the artwork compared to the way we see it in the sky, but in all other respects the artist has maintained the correspondences to the heavenly scene.
Note too that the Siren figure is depicted among billowing clouds and above a wide bay or harbor (both the clouds and the wide body of water being indicative of the Milky Way, and of its widest and brightest region which is known as the Galactic Core or the Galactic Center and which is between Sagittarius and Ophiuchus). The artist has even drawn some stars above her head, seven in number, in order to make us completely aware that this is in fact a celestial scene.
So, what does it mean that someone (as Christopher Knowles shows in his research) appears to be deliberately invoking this frightening pattern -- and what does it mean that forces in the Invisible Realm appear to be answering that call in some instances?
While this is a very disturbing subject, and one most people tend to avoid considering in daily life, what it means is that the Invisible Realm is very real. We should actually not be surprised to find that the realm of the gods does indeed respond when we call to it. In fact, that is exactly what the myths tell us will happen.
As an aside (but related), I also wonder whether the strange and thus-far unexplained mailing of seeds which has been reported around the United States and elsewhere, in which packages of seeds show up in the mail to people who never ordered any seeds, might have something to do with an invocation of this same pattern or of a related pattern, in that the fish-tailed god Matsya (an avatar of Vishnu) was the one who appeared prior to the great Deluge in order to help the righteous Manu (a Vedic Noah-figure, and one whose name recalls other Noah-figures, including of course Noah but also Uta-Napishtim), and to give him seeds in order to preserve the growing things of the earth following the Flood.
As the evidence presented by Christopher Knowles in his research shows very clearly, there are groups who are deliberately trying to influence our world through the practice of ritual magic -- and that magic relates to the ancient myths and their foundation in the stars. As Chris says in a blog post from December of 2017: "Any serious study of magic and occultism is going to eventually lead you to the stars."
From the discussion above, and from the evidence Chris has uncovered, these practitioners in many of these cases are invoking the Invisible Realm with the intent to harm others, in dark and disturbing ways, and indeed to inflict greater trauma upon men and women and even children.
But, as I discuss at length in my latest book, Myth and Trauma, it can be shown that such applications are by no means the intended use of the ancient Star Myths given to all cultures of the world: quite the contrary.
Indeed, it can be shown that the myths have as a primary focus the healing of trauma and the empowering of men and women to recover their connection to Self and -- through that connection -- their connection to those around us, to nature, and to the realm of the gods itself.
In fact, the figure of the Siren can be seen as a negative and destructive inversion of other wisdom-figures who are associated with the constellation Ophiuchus, including the goddess Athena, who can also be shown beyond any doubt to be associated with this constellation and who helps Odysseus throughout the Odyssey in his journey to recover from his own "dislocation."
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, but the Sirens can be seen as offering a seductive promise of wisdom -- one that actually leads to destruction rather than to restoration.
In the Odyssey, we have the opportunity to hear their beguiling song, through the account of Odysseus himself, who instructs his crew to lash him tightly to the mast of his ship and to plug their own ears with beeswax, so that they cannot be seduced by the call of the Sirens. No matter how hard he begs to be released, he tells the men in advance, they must not untie him, but only add to the ropes restraining their captain when he cries out for them to let him go.
In this way (following a plan given to him by another goddess, the bewitching Circe of Aeaea), Odysseus is able to hear the call of the Sirens without being drawn to his death, and this is what they offer him in their song:
"Come closer, famous Odysseus -- Achaea's pride and glory --
moor your ship on our coast so you can hear our song!
Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft
until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips,
and once he hears to his heart's content sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so --
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!"Book 12, 200 - 207, trans. Fagles.
Notice how they appeal to Odysseus: first praising him as the pride and glory of all Acahaea, then offering to give him wisdom, and the knowledge of all that has come to pass to those who fought at Troy (Odysseus, separated from the rest of the fleet, knows nothing of who has made it home and who has not, and eagerly desires to know it). Most of all, however, they offer knowledge of all that comes to pass upon all the fertile earth!
Of course, the Odyssey does not paint wisdom -- or the desire for wisdom -- in a bad light: not at all. Indeed, as mentioned above, the central figure of Odysseus is widely respected as the wisest of the Achaeans, as he demonstrates again and again throughout the epic (except in the rare cases in which he loses control of himself, which inevitably lead to his long dislocation from his proper role as husband to his wife Penelope, father to his son Telemachus, and king of his people back in Ithaca). And, as also mentioned above, the most prominent divine figure in the entire Odyssey, from start to finish, is the very goddess of wisdom, Athena herself.
So the poem never implies that wisdom or its pursuit is wrong -- but the Sirens clearly represent a false promise of wisdom, a short-cut to wisdom (if you will), and one that leads to destruction. What it holds out in its offer, it does not deliver. Perhaps it gives temporary ease and comfort -- but those who stop at rock of the Sirens never leave: they are reduced to bones and tattered skin, forgetting who they are and where they were going.
Thus, the discovery that the same constellation can play the role of the Sirens (with their false promise of wisdom) and also the goddess Athena (the true goddess of wisdom) is most revealing.
They myths show us, time and again, that we can go to the Invisible Realm for many purposes -- and that it will in fact answer. But just as with the episode in the Bible in which Solomon was asked what he would be given, or the episode in the myths of ancient Greece known as the Judgment of Paris, the myths show us that we can choose wisely and in ways that restore our own connections and that help and uplift others, or we can choose unwisely (a path represented in this episode by the seductive but deceptive offer of the Sirens).
The ancient myths teach us that wisdom is actually available to us -- and that it comes from recovering our Self. And the ancient myths teach that the assistance of the realm of the gods is also available to us as well -- and that we are able to connect with its help as we reconnect with who we are.
It is dismaying and disturbing that some groups and individuals appear to be choosing to invoke the power of the Other Realm in order to harm and oppress and traumatize. But there is a version of the ancient myth of the Sirens which says that once someone sailed past them without giving in to their charms, then their power would be broken.
I believe that these are very important subjects for us to understand in the situation we find ourselves facing in the world today. And I believe that the research and discoveries that Christopher Knowles has made and has shared with the world are critical to our greater understanding of these concepts.