Saturday, December 9, 2023

A familiar symbol, secret combinations, and Mama Ungoliant

I was in my truck driving and Spotify was doing its thing when a song called "Let's Tell the World" by Eric Hutchinson came on.  I looked at the display, and saw the album art that looked like this:



As I looked at, I realized I had just seen this symbol associated with another musical artist.  William Tychonievich linked the music video for Panic! At the Disco's song 'High Hopes' in his post "Still 'From the Narrow Desert'".  In that video, Brendon Urie climbs a tall building (walking up on the outside) and then joins his band at the top as they play the song.  The floor they are playing on at the top of the building has this same circle within a triangle symbol, though the circle slightly goes outside of the triangle boundaries, and is embellished with other symbols.  Here is a screenshot:



When I was viewed this image on the Panic! video, I also remembered that I had seen this same symbol in another music video I had created a post around.  That post was called Burn, named for the song "Burn" by Ellie Goulding.  At the end of the video, we see this symbol light up from Earth:






If you notice, in all 3 instances the symbol is lit up in some fashion.  For the "Let's Tell the World" song the shape is basically one bright spotlight shining on the artist.  In "High Hopes" there are lights around the perimeter shining on the symbol.  And in "Burn", the symbol is comprised of lighted spheres that had been in a random pattern and then rearranged or de-scrambled to reveal the symbol.


In addition, in each instance, the artist puts themselves in the center of the symbol or within the circle.  Eric Hutchinson's actual head and torso, the band Panic! is playing within the circle (although Urie is dancing around outside, I guess).  And Ellie Goulding has her initials "EG" also written inside of the circle.


Lastly, in the case of both "High Hopes" and "Burn", the symbol is something that would only be seen from a bird's eye view - from the sky.  In "Burn", it is clearly something that would only be recognized from space, which is the view we are left with.


They strike me, in those instances, as something almost like beacons or signals, with the theme of Burn being overtly so.  The video highlights groups of people with flares and lighted balls, looking up to the sky, dancing on a lighted runway - almost as if they are expecting and signalling for someone to arrive from space.


While "Let's Tell the World" doesn't have any overt signal-to-the-sky themes, the symbol itself, as just mentioned, is from some kind of spotlight that one could potentially use for other purposes besides merely lighting up the pensive-looking Hutchinson.  In addition, in looking up the music video later in the afternoon (it seems he just has a lyric video), the video is set in (what else) New York City.  The video closes with shot of our favorite building, before cutting to black:




Anyway, I am not familiar with the symbol, so I will need to do some more investigating when I get a chance.  


But who is it meant for, and how does this fit into some of the themes?  


My honest and best guess at the moment is that this all has to do with this theme of Secret Combinations.  The fact that this symbol is being flashed toward the sky I think illustrates and reinforces that this Secret Combination has truly gotten 'above' us and sits in very high places, indeed, as the Book of Mormon warned us, as well as its members or willing participants being found across all the Earth (including our own globe).


As part of this, my mind also goes toward identifying that 'great whore', whom Nephi saw in his vision, as Ungoliant, that evil primordial spirit, who would sit upon the 'many waters' and have dominion over all the Earth (which, again, comprises more than just our globe, I think).  It is to her, perhaps, that these signals are meant for.  How best to attract an Evil Being cast out to the void, and who likes to devour light, to your world than by putting this huge, lit-up symbol for her to follow?


I wonder how she would fit in with Saruman - an alliance, or perhaps Saruman wouldn't be pleased if she decides to make her presence more directly known, as some of her followers might wish for?


One reason Ungoliant is on my mind, also, is that my younger two kids watched the LOTR for the first time ever over the past several weeks.  Trust me, this was not my idea, as based on the events of 2019 and 2020, I would be in hot water for suggesting this.  But our daughter came home from school, and her teacher has been making references to LOTR themes, Frodo, etc., so she was interested in watching the films.


They finished Return of the King last weekend.  During the part here Frodo is in Shelob's lair, there is a scene where you first see Shelob in the background with her legs folded up in front of her body, unnoticeable until she just starts to move.   In that brief image, I literally had the pipes of the Mormon Tabernacle flash in front of me, in that Shelob looked like the organ pipes.  It was very strange


Later, I looked up the logo again (I guess now old logo - it has been updated), and in looking at the picture, I immediately saw the spider still.  Now that I have seen it that way, I can't un-see it.  It just looks like a spider.  You even have 8 legs (the 4 pipes on the the outside of each side), and the center 4 pipes as the pedipalps (feelers) and the fangs (just below its demon-horns up top...).  All of them ending in those spikes at the bottom.  Here two different versions of the image:









The whole image looks creepy to me now, either the plain black image, or the one with the blue background and the faint light coming from behind the pipes. It just kind of reminds me of Halloween and a spider.   Does anyone else see this, or just me?


In any case, this is the Queen of Secret Combinations - weaving webs of darkness and deceit in which evil deeds are done.  WJT mentioned in the comments section of that post with the "High Hopes" video that the repeated references to 'mama' might have something to do with Secret Combinations.  


We may have just been introduced to her - the Mother of Evil:  Ungoliant


If so, at least we are rounding out our cast of really evil characters who are or may yet be more involved in ongoing proceedings.  We've identified Wormtongue-Brigham, Saruman, and now Ungoliant as three unsavory characters in the mix.  I wonder if anyone else will show up?


5 comments:

  1. I was thinking of the title Master Mahan (which is Elvish, of course!), but I like the Mother of Abominations angle, too.

    The circle and triangle is a variant of the eye in the pyramid, the oldest secret combination symbol in the book. As LL Cool J said in "Mama Said Knock You Out," "Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years."

    Also note how the drum set is placed just right to turn the exclamation point in the Panic! at the Disco logo into an inverted cross.

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  2. Apparently it's also the "Deathly Hallows" symbol from Harry Potter, which showed up in the sync-stream recently:

    https://narrowdesert.blogspot.com/2023/10/in-which-i-read-news.html

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  3. WJT:

    I figured you meant something by the M capitalizations, but I couldn't work it out. I like it.

    I had thought of the Deathly Hallows symbol, but noticed it was missing the Elder Wand.

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  4. I never liked how Ungoliant’s fate was told in the Silmarillion. It sounds like wishful thinking that she just wandered off and consumed herself. More likely she holed up somewhere to bide her time or took another form over the long years.

    The darkness that is written about in the BOM at the death of Jesus sounds like the same darkness of Ungoliant and Shelob so I wonder if that event was tied to her. If so, I then wonder who or what dispelled that darkness?

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  5. Yeah, there are a quite a few versions of Ungoliant's fate, with several having her not die. My guess is it is right up her alley to have so much confusion and mystery surrounding what happened to her. I would expect nothing less.

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