The Story So Far

Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain. (Lord Macaulay)

Legend tells of a tree that stands in the center of the grove and is guarded heavily. No one was to break off its limbs, with the exception of a runaway slave, who was allowed, if he could, to break off one of the boughs. Upon breaking off a limb, the slave was then in turn granted the privilege to engage the Rex Nemorensis, the current king and priest of Diana in the region, in one on one mortal combat. If the slave prevailed, he became the next king for as long as he could defeat challengers. ("Diana Nemorensis")

It is necessary, in order to understand the Tarot, to go back in history to ... the time when succession was not through the first-born son of the King, but through his daughter. The king was therefore not king by inheritance, but by right of conquest. In the most stable dynasties, the new king was always a stranger, a foreigner; what is more, he had to kill the old king and marry that king’s daughter. This system ensured the virility and capacity of every king. The stranger had to win his bride in open competition. In the oldest fairy-tales, this motive is continually repeated. The ambitious stranger is often a troubadour; nearly always he is disguised, often in a repulsive form.... The custom is therefore developed into the condition so admirably investigated by Frazer in the Golden Bough. (This Bough is no doubt a symbol of the King’s Daughter herself). “The king’s daughter is all glorious within; her raiment is of wrought gold.” (Aleister Crowley)

The Italian paper Corriere della Sera is reporting that a phone call was made on Ruby's behalf claiming that she was the daughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, says the AP. Opposition groups have called for Berlusconi's resignation ... Karima Keyek, [is] the girl's real name ... (The Huffington Post)

Congresswoman Giffords is miraculously recovering from her head wound in Tucson - near Phoenix (= resurrection) - as if to reenact the tale of the Beast in the Book of Revelation who is described as doing just that, miraculously recovering from a severe head wound. Note that the shooter's last name "Loughner" means "healer," which finds further resonance in the recent Ophiuchus/"new Zodiac" buzz on the web and in the mainstream news as Ophiuchus is normally identified with Asclepius, a healer. (Goro Adachi)

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12)

Mu.

Barack.

All the ignorant are Egyptians. Egypt is the body, coming out of Egypt is coming out of the body, and passing the Red Sea, that is the water of destruction; or, in other words, generation. Those, however, who suppose themselves to have passed the Red Sea, are still liable to be assailed by the gods of destruction, whom Moses called the serpents of the desert, who bite and destroy those who had hoped to escape the power of the gods of generation. For these Moses exhibited the true and perfect serpent, on whom they who believed were not bitten by the gods of destruction. None but this true serpent, the perfect of the perfect, can save and deliver those who go out of Egypt, that is to say from the body and from the world. ("Perates")

Moo.

Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Ancient Greek μῦ [mŷː]), Modern Greek μι or μυ [mi]) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 40. Mu was derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water (��) ... ("Mu")

M = ΛΛ = LL. Lara Logan.

And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

The City of the Pyramids is the home to those adepts that have crossed the great Abyss, having spilled all their blood in the Graal of Babalon. They have destroyed their earthly ego-identities, becoming nothing more than piles of dust (i.e. the remaining aspects of their True Selves without the self-sense of "I"). Within, they take on the name or title of Saint or Nemo (Latin for No-Man). In the system of A.'.A.'. they are called Masters of the Temple. ("Thelemic mysticism")

The story details Seymour's day on the beach, as his wife, Muriel, spends her time in a hotel room talking to her mother on the phone about clothing and Seymour's behavior.... While in the water, Seymour tells a story of the bananafish to a young girl named Sybil [Carpenter, from Whirly Wood]. The fish, he says, are "very ordinary looking" when they swim into a hole, but once in the hole, eat so much they cannot escape and subsequently die of banana fever. He then returns to his room where Muriel is sleeping, retrieves a gun from his luggage, sits down next to her and shoots himself in the right temple. ("A Perfect Day for Bananafish")

Bennu ... may have been pronounced something like *bānana. ("Bennu bird")

From the frozen waters
The king will rise again
With two suns in the sky ... (Bruce Dickinson, "Jerusalem")

Alan:

Here's a photo I had promised Eleleth weeks ago, but it slipped my mind. But, now that he mentions it, yes Virginia, the L.L. and the Beast go hand in hand.

E:
Perfect. I know it probably seems fairly callous to dwell on these things, but I'm trying desperately to extract some sanity from all of this madness. Ordo ab chao.

Michael:
My parking receipt from 2/10/11 seems oddly appropriate, since 14141 = NNA, somewhat close enough to banana. DNA = 4141.

Valid Only When Properly Displayed

"Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" --Mae West

All the Mysteries of the Universe are eventually resolved into the Cosmic Dirty Joke.

 crystal:
Parking receipt: 14141/ANANA - reminds me that another name for The Great Mother (or Matter), the waters from which we all spring, is Ana or sometimes Dana. (Also known as the aforementioned The Scarlet Woman/Babalon/Maat/Isis etc etc). The crescent moon is a symbol of the divine feminine mother, which funny enough can be mirrored in the shape of a banana.
"Going bananas" is a description of going mad/crazy, interesting that another term for a "crazy" person is a LUNAtic, further connecting the moon/luna and banana.
I have never seen it, but Woody Allen made a film titled "Bananas" in 1971.

Woody Allen has also directed a couple of films starring Scarlett Johansson (as Alan called before, The Scarlet Woman).
All this talk of madness makes me think about a stream of thought I was having a couple days ago when contemplating the mask(s) of god, that god has multiple personality dis?order, or perhaps {banana}split personality? A different perspective begets a different experience. What better way to perpetually create than to peer through infinite eyes?