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Simulacra of the Twin Towers
John Michell in his fascinating little book Simulacra describes how in ancient times people studied appearances in nature in order to understand events happening around them. Seemingly unimportant resemblances between unrelated things give the clue to the way energy is flowing that can influence human life for better or worse. There are two factors at work in what seems to modern people a primitive way of seeing the world. One is an acceptance that there is an intelligence which works through material objects to give a sort of running commentary on life. The other factor is symbolic. Shapes and omens appear in the world around us which can be read to give an insight into present or future situations.
As the events of 9/11 recede and become more deeply absorbed into our consciousness, a different narrative emerges. At the time it was all about people’s experiences, acts of heroism, and debate about how the terrible events should be interpreted. Only the raw pictures and facts were assimilated. But photography can capture things not necessarily visible to the naked eye, as can be attested by people who have had their holiday snaps printed and found things on them that were not noticed at the time they were taken.
Not long after the event, on 7th October 2001, a photo was published in the London Sunday Times showing what was claimed to be the devil’s face in the smoke. Various people began to interpret the tragedy as a sign of the times. Then it emerged that two totally unconnected seers had had the same vision. Carolyn Shearer, channelling a dictation from Archangel Michael, informed listeners that the twin towers had been totally surrounded by angels, and that every single victim had been personally taken care of by angels and escorted to higher realms, all memory of their trauma having been erased. And the Mayan priestess and healer Dona Flordemayo at a crop circle conference in August 2004 told her audience that she had seen the twin towers surrounded by angels who had helped all those who had been involved.
So far no angels have been detected in photos of the disaster, but this could yet happen. I had always assumed that photographs are static and fixed but now I am not so sure. I have a postcard of a site in Cornwall which is full of nature spirits which are always moving about. Or to put this in a less dramatic way, I sometimes see elementals on this card that I haven’t seen previously and can’t always find the ones that were there before. As a photograph captures a particular moment in time and space there is no reason why other life forms should not invade it if they so choose. As a lifelong student of simulacra I now believe that any material object can become a vehicle for spirit beings who wish to reveal themselves to us and convey information.
On September 11, 2001 and for some years afterwards the experience was too raw and painful for hidden images in photos to be publicly revealed. I did not see anything paranormal in the images shown at the time. But when a picture was printed a few days later, on September 16th in the London Sunday Times, I saw something in it that was truly amazing. In all the years since there has never been a suitable occasion to publicise what I saw, but now I feel the time has come to draw attention to it. In fact, I am now under intense inner pressure to share what I have seen.
Spencer Platt Getty Images
If you look at the tower on the right you will see the profile of a woman with the perfect classic features of a Greek goddess, dominating what had seemed a thoroughly male scenario. She is looking down on the flames directly under her mouth. The classic Greek nose, which has no bridge, is formed by the skyscraper’s edge and covers several floors of the building. Directly above her mouth is another wisp of smoke which delineates her nostril and curves up to draw her delicately rounded cheek, curving at the top to form her eye socket. Her eye is clearly rounded, and you can even see the pupil of her eye. Her expression is sombre.
The black smoke above is of course her wild, untrammelled hair blowing in the wind, with some of it clinging to the back of her head.
Looking down at the flames below her gaze is something astonishing: a mass of dogs. In the patch of darker smoke level with her mouth and nostril are the faces of two black dogs with grey noses. Their front paws are visible. Directly under her mouth is another, reddish dog, and looking more closely several other dogs can be seen, whose ears and muzzles intermingle to form new shapes. These are not slavering hunting dogs, as you might expect, but gentle-looking domestic dogs such as spaniels and labradors. They have the same quiet, sombre gaze as the goddess.
The faces in the flames are mostly smaller, but as the eye follows the flames to the left, where a huge rounded cloud of white smoke is emerging from the second tower, a dog’s head is seen in profile which is on the same scale as the woman’s. This head appears to be a poodle‘s. The top of its head is decorated with three tufts -- has it been to the hairdresser? -- its face is pink and its muzzle black. The nose and closed mouth can be clearly seen. Most extraordinary of all, directly behind this dog is what appears to be a Borzoi or an Afghan hound. The whole of its body is seen, formed by the smoke under the flames, and its fore legs are in one tower and its hind legs in the other. Its face, just behind the poodle, is red with features etched in black, and it appears to be standing to attention as if on show. The sheer elegance of this dog is amazing. Its coat has been combed to a fluffy silkiness, on its ear, underbelly, legs and tail. The goddess and the two gigantic dogs are facing to the left, while the mass of smaller faces in the flames are facing in all directions.
So who is she? The only classical goddess I know of who would appear with dogs was known to the Greeks as Artemis and to the Romans as Diana, the huntress. She was the twin sister of Apollo and had the freedom to roam the countryside. She was protector as well as hunter of wild animals, and like Apollo loved dance and music. The Greeks saw her as a young unmarried girl wearing a short tunic and carrying a bow and arrows. She could be savage: when the human Actaeon secretly watched her bathing she turned him into a stag and had him torn to pieces by his own dogs.
According to Robert Graves, Diana was a version of the ancient Triple Goddess: young girl, mature woman and old crone. The goddess of 9/11 is not a young girl but a mature woman who has exchanged the hunting dogs of her youth for domestic pets. She seems to me more like the Artemis of the Ephesians, who was a mother goddess. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus in what is now Turkey was important enough and magnificent enough to have been famed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was mentioned in the Bible (Acts 19): “Great is Diana of the Ephesians”. When the pagan religion was finally replaced by Christianity, Diana’s shrine at Ephesus was taken over by the Virgin Mary.
The ramifications of mythology and history are extremely complex and I have insufficient knowledge of the subject to comment any further. Perhaps others who understand more than I do can cast more light on these simulacra.
The apparition of the twin towers raised one or two troubling questions for me. Was she an avenging goddess, and if so, why was she an ancient Greek goddess who had long ceased to be worshipped when there are other goddesses who still have millions of devotees? There is the Hindu Kali, for instance, the destroyer, who has been seen recently. Answer: Kali has no links with Western civilisation. Diana is rooted in our past.
Secondly, there is a view, which I have shared, that the Greek gods were among the fallen angels, the ones who rebelled against God and were driven out of heaven by Archangel Michael. While having superhuman powers, they often appeared to be morally no better than humans. We were rescued from them by the advent of Christ, who brought us the revolutionary concept of unconditional love. If Artemis/Diana was one of the fallen angels, does this mean that her appearance at the twin towers is demonic?
In the end I consulted the I Ching on the matter and was told that she had come to restore innocence (hexagram 36 changing to 25).
Diana was revered, like Mary who succeeded her, as both a virgin and a mother. The Divine Mother is loving to her innocent children and fiercely protective if they come under attack. She is also a disciplinarian to those children who are not innocent. I think this is what we are seeing here. She and her dogs are quietly overseeing an iconic event. As many people have observed, we are seeing the return of the Goddess in our time. The appearance of Diana is another sign of this.
February 2010
