The Four Horsemen: Four Global Ideologies

Just as in the case of Revelation 13, which I analyzed in this video, Revelation 5 must be understood from the perspective outlined in the previous chapter.

The key to Revelation 13 is the understanding that "the dragon", the first dragon-like creature portrayed, is "Satan" who is cast down from heaven in chapter 12, as there is a war in heaven.

In the language of arcane mysticism the "war in heaven" refers to a specific set of planetary positions, an astrological conflict, most likely an "astrological cross" involving Mercury in direct opposition to Pluto.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

From this it becomes obvious that we are talking about a radical change in the political composition on Earth, seen reflected by the mystic (John) in the aspects formed by the planetary movements.

Heralding The Age of Pisces

The arch-angel Michael is associated with Mercury, and Mercury (Hermes, Gr.) is the messenger of the gods, and associated with commerce, communication, athletics (indicative of speed, but also relating to ancient forms of communication as illustrated in the legend of the runner at Marathon).

The verses show how Mercury and his angels (a conjunction with larger, more "powerful" celestial bodies") displaces "the dragon" (Pluto), casting him out into the earth, along with his "angels."

Virtually every prophesy in the New Testament relates narrowly to the astrological age it was heralding, the Age of Pisces in which Christian virtue is distributed to the entire world population in one form or the other.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child

The woman in the desert is Israel, who "gave birth" to Jesus. Mary and Joseph's exile in Egypt is seen, here, as a parable of the fate of Israel: To be persecuted, and to be sent into exile, as it occurred with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70.

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This clearly indicates that the dragon, Satan, is seen embodied in the Roman Empire, which persecuted the Jews (or at least they felt injured by the Roman occupation, even if it is clearly stated all over the Old Testament that the numerous cases of foreign administration and exile are actually Yahweh's punishment for non-compliance to the pact between Yahweh and Israel).

The Roman Empire then turns against "the remnants of her seed, which keep the commandments of God" - the Christians who were, in the early stages mostly of Jewish origin (at least until Paul's reformation, where he confronted the 12 Apostles, who opposed the integration of Gentile Christian communities. This took place about 17 years after Paul's vision on the road to Damascus).

The Horsemen Ride Out on Public Request

In the previous entry, shaped as a video, I pointed out that modern day Europe and modern day USA are "the Beast" and the dragon-like beast with "two horns like a lamb" in Revelation 13.

As provocative as this may be to those who are European or American, there is nothing odious in it: In the Bible every nation is described as a beast, a creature driven by self-interest and self-preservation, with the capacity for unbridled aggression.

This is also the underlying esoteric thought behind one of the main works of political science, Hobbes' Leviathan, with the title directly referring to another Biblical "beast", primarily referred to in the Book of Job and thought to represent an empire of the age and, subsequently, imperial power as a principle.

This should bring us up to speed with the events depicted in Revelation 5-6.

First, it is important to notice that the time-space continuum is warped in such prophesies. There is a level of inaccuracy, and the visions are blurry, and their concepts fuzzy.

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. 

The four living creatures are symbolic representations of the people of the Earth, with the number four representing each of the four corners of the Earth. There is more to the symbolism of the four living creatures, but what is important here is that each of the four horsemen are summonned by the four creatures.

Revelation 6:1:

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

The White Horseman: Christian Liberalism

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The White Horseman is, by some considered Christ himself. According to the Wikipedia:

Irenaeus, an influential Christian theologian of the 2nd century, was among the first to interpret this horseman as Christ himself, his white horse representing the successful spread of the gospel. Various scholars have since supported this theory, citing the later appearance, in Revelation 19, of Christ mounted on a white horse, appearing as The Word of God,

There is some truth to the interpretation, because the White Horseman is associated with Jesus, but interpreting the White Horseman as supremely good whereas the other three are supremely evil is illogical bordering on the insane.

The first incarnation of the White Horseman, the first physical representative of the spiritual principle, is Emperor Constantine the Great, who in 313 - after a mock conversion to Christianity - exploited the growing cult with a tale that he had seen the sign of Christ in the sky ahead of an important battle against a political ally in pagan Rome, then having power divided between three governers.

In the Edict of Milan he describes a new condition of religious tolerance in which Christians are free from persecution by the state, effectively making Christianity state religion, even if it was not formally so at that point.

The White Horseman represents the principle of armed Christianity, Christendom or Christenhood, and as such the relatively succesful conquest and subduction of three continents (Europe, America and Australia). By extention the White Horseman also represents, today, The West, governed by some arbitrary mix of Greco-Roman liberalism infused with Protestantic Christendom.

Ever since the crusades it has been the primary mode of existence for The West to combine Evangelism with military conquest, and along with conquest, theft: Theft of land, theft of ressources and even theft of people (slavery). Other cultures have done so, occasionally, but never as the consistent and primary mode of existence, and never as succesfully.

From the Crusades over Colonialism and Imperialism the Christian West has, more than anything, showed enormous capacity for conquest, and so far their efforts have been crowned with almost supernatural success. Like the other horsemen The White Horseman is neither good nor evil. He is a principle, a cultural phenomenon, and an ideology.

The White Horseman rode West, and is today strongest represented in USA, combining a liberal agenda and vital aspects of Roman administration with a strong Christian Right influence in Washington.

The Red Horseman: Communism and Socialism

The principle of socialism is not a new one, as the Three Servile Wars against Rome testifies to. Of  these slave rebellions we only recall the Third Servile War for the sensational crucifixion of Spartacus and thousands of other rebelling slaves along the Via Appia to Rome.

Modern day Socialism was founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th Century Europe.

All four horseman can, in fact, be tied to Europe as products of the cultural and intellectual revolutions of this small, but highly incendiary continent. As I pointed out in Revelation 13 Revealed Europe is responsible for both of the two World Wars we have seen.

As for Socialism, it is represented in the Apocalypse with these verses:

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 

Red is the color associated in the political world with Socialism. Even today, after the Cold War, the socialist leaning political blocks in various parliaments across the Earth, are dubbed Red Block.

The main characteristic of the Red Hoseman is that he takes peace away from Earth.

It is not clearly apparent why, but it is a fact that Socialism rose in opposition to Christianity, as a profoundly atheist ideology, and that it responded to what Socialist perceived as inherently oppressive dynamics of Christendom, the ideology represented by the first horse, and its policies of colonialism and imperialism, domestically, and around the world.

The Red Horseman rode East, namely to Russia and China, fermenting cultural revolutions that to this day "takes peace away from Earth". Understanding the agenda of The Black Horseman helps us understand better the nature of the Red Horseman, so let us skip forward one step:

The Black Horseman: Fascism and Nationalism

The principle of fascism is also ancient, rooted in the Latin word fasces, which means a bundle of sticks. The fasces were used as symbols of authority for officials.

The mythology around the fasces originates in a fable in which a father teaches his son that "united we standl" by asking him to break one stick, which is easy, and then to break a bundle of sticks together, which is impossible.

The "strength through unity" principle is the fundamental principle of fascism, which was revived simultanously in Europe in the early part of the 20th century - namely Spain, Italy and Germany - partly to oppose the rise of Socialism, the Red Horseman.

Now we see a dynamic between the horsemen forming: They are each rivals to each other's powers, and the order in which they appear reveals how they respond to each other.

The Black Horseman is represented in the Bible like this:

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The most famous form of fascism and the dominant form was the Germanic National Socialism, more often called Nazism or Hitlerism. Like Socialism it was preoccupied with economy, as the scales and the price regulations in the prophesy describes.

The Black Horseman is often understood as Famine, but that is not what the prophetic words from the centre of the four "beasts", or world powers, indicate. During a famine money is almost worthless, and hurting oil and wine would make no sense, partly because there would be very little of it, and partly because they would be extremely high priced commodities.

The words relate to the purpose of Fascism as opposed to Socialism, which would diminish luxury goods like oil and wine, while regulating prices for basic food along with the utilitarian agenda. Fascism accepts this purpose, to some extent, incorporating concern for food prince and wage regulation, but opposes the destruction of "oil and wine", which may also be seen as symbols of cultivation and, by extention, class society.

Fascism protected the rich elite. The Black Horseman rode North, staying in Europe, where the market is regulated according to some level of socialist concern for workers, but with a clear preference for the virtues of the upper class.

The Pale Horseman: Zionism and Capitalism

The Pale Horseman has frequently been associated with the rise of Islam, particularly because of the part of the prophesy that grants it power over one fourth of the earth.

However, this interpretation breaks the pattern, since Islam is not a transcending ideology, and it did not originate in Christian Europe. With transcending ideology I mean an ideology to which you can subscribe, even if it does not fit your ethnic origin.

You may argue that you can convert to Islam, regardless of race, but in the case of the other three horsemen the support from the four "beasts" is derived from conceptual agreement. Islam, as such, does not represent a unique political or economic principle.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Particularly because Muslims today encompass one fifth of the world population it is compelling to see the prophesy as a prophesy about the ascension of an armed and radicalized Islamic world. Lots of energy has been invested in associating the word for "pale" with the color green, traditionally associated with Islam.

However, Islam, even as a quasi-political ideology, does not have power over a fourth or even a fifth of the Earth. Even with its vast masses, the Islamic world is virtually powerless. The power is exercised over it, the power to kill with a variety of means, from warfare over economic oppression to "beasts of the earth" which, in a modern interpretation, would indicate germ warfare.

The regional power to do this is held by Zionism, physically manifested in the "resurrected" Israel. Israel has easily won every military conflict it has been involved in, and even when Israel bombed the Iraqui nuclear installations pre-emptively, it did not trigger any consequences for this regional superpower: Such passivity is hardly what you would expect from a horseman named Death.

Israel as the Fourth Horseman also corresponds to the dynamic pattern between the horsemen - one trigger the next in a Hegelian dynamic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Zionism was invented by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th Century and adopted into policy as a consequence of widespread European and American support for the Jewish cause in the aftermath of the Second World War, a war where Fascism - the Third Horseman - eradicated one third of the global Jewish community.

This was the fulfilment of a terrifying prophesy in Ezekiel stating that one third of Jews would be cut off and scattered about, one third would remain in Israel and one third would be burnt - Holocaust literally means "sacrifice by fire", and the Greek term has overtaken the Hebrew Shoah (calamity).

Born out of a terrible persecution, the culmination of almost 2000 years of European racism against Jews, known as the Nazi Holocaust, rose the fourth of the horsemen, set on securing a homeland for Jews. 

More Than Taboo from Ryantineocon on Vimeo.

It would take place at the price of the effective oppression of not only millions of Palestinians, but the entire Arab-Persian sub-continent through the revival of Cold War dynamics in which Washington and Brussels side with Israel.

Millions have died already, also due to biological warfare, in the proxy war between Iran and Iraq set up by CIA, and in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, all essentially taking place to defend the Western powers' decision to establish a cultural and stratetic foothold on Arab ground, a reservation for Jews.

This is the secret reason for the "special relationship" between USA and Israel. It is the reason Iran has called USA "the great Satan".

Conclusion

Neither of the horsemen can be said to be good or evil. The chapter describes a course of events and outlines the causality between them. The four horsemen are the rise of four ideologies with global influence, and in internal contest, a contest most likely to be won by White Horseman.

As indicated by the headlines each "horseman" or ideology or principle has a benign and a malignant aspect. Christianity, even in its militant form, can be said to have had a relative civilizing effect when compared to, at least, heathen Rome.

Socialism is, today, embedded in virtually every economy of the world, even including the American. It is moderated from Marxist economics, namely by the Western economist John Maynard Keynes. Communism no longer exists in pure form: The Soviet Union collapsed, and modern China is more of a Confucian one-party state with free market economics than Communist.

While fascism is evidently destructive, some level of nationalism may be required as a balance against other excesses, namely globalism and capitalism.National socialism is essentially what is being practiced by European countries today, with strict immigration policies and feverish attention to both cultural heritage, social cohesiveness, regulation of industry and a functionable welfare system, without the European countries being per definition fascist or extremely close to Hitlerism.

It may be seen as shocking or unreasonable or anti-Semitic to associate capitalism with Jewishness, but the fact of the matter is that Jews are intelligent and industrious, dysproportionally represented in top positions in business and banking in the West, favored no doubt by centuries of sedentary employment or scholarly pursuit under various more or less oppressive regimes. There is nothing ominous about that, except for the tendency to tilt towards Zionism, which may constitutes a direct conflict of interest.

Islam, for as much as it cannot be the Fourth Horseman, may yet be represented in the Apocalypse or elsewhere in the Bible (in fact, it is). The discovery that it is not the Pale Horseman does not mean there can be no threat from Pan-Arabism or militant Islam. It just simply means that in the contest between "beasts" it is the lesser threat.

The Dragon and the Beast: Revelation 13 revealed

I have finally had time to finish the first in a series of Biblical expositions and translations of some of the more obscure prophetic passages. This one ties "the Beast" to ancient Rome, and various Christian empires through the ages, up to the European Union of our days. The "Dragon" mentioned is associated with USA.

You may also watch the video on YouTube (coming):

About Eschatological (End Time) Myths

For those who view it from this blog, however, there are some additional "perks" in the form of spiritual insights.

First of all, my theory on prophesies is that they are tied to the culture and mythology from where they originate. They are geocentric, ethnicentric and only marginally relevant to other cultures.

Thus the Norse eschatological myth of Ragnarok is about the end of the glory of Viking empire and not necessarily about the end of the world as such. It is a reflection on the imperial hubris, inherent violence and latent racism that led the Asa to ostracize and alienate Loki, turning him into "the god of evil."

An interesting novel by Jon Ayers titled Frost Giant relates to this by viewing Loki's incarceration and torture from a rather unique perspective, partly as a murder of justice or at least a trial gone wrong and partly as a what I see as a parable of failed integration.

Loki is, in other words, an immigrant, and seemingly one who has seerved national security on a high level. This corresponds well with my knowledge of Norse mythology - that Loki was, indeed, brought into the circle of gods by Odin himself.

In Ayers' account one cannot be sure if Loki is guilty of one or more of the rather fantastic accusations made against him, not even in this post-modern story, where space-time seems to be completely bent or dissolved, as it is the case in a lot of Ayers' writing.

To me, the story is revolutionizing on several levels: As much for "taking the side" or at least explaining the view-point of Loki, the arch-villain, through a cleverly composed inner monologue or stream-of-consciousness.

The story even ties this narrative technique to the mock trial, because the words are his defense, which he must prepare over and over again, since he was never afforded an opportunity to deliver it (Loki is punished for conspiracy to murder Baldur, the god of Innocence, by being chained to a mountain and having venom dripped into his eyes by a serpent - indefinitely...)

The End of the World As We Know it

This led me to think about how civilizations do crumble, and fall subject to disaster or conquest or decadence, or whatever the reason may be they stop evolving.

Similar to the story of Ragnarok, the eschatological myth of the Apocalypse or Judgment Day in the Judeo-Christian tradition may relate narrowly to the Judeo-Christian cultural sphere and represent a highly idealized, highly Manichaean representation of prescient impulses, dreams and visions of the future that may be true on a spiritual level of even have some level of universality to them.

However, they are first and foremost "true" to those who believe in and belong to the particular cultural and mythological sphere.

Judgment Day may simply be a depiction of the end of Judeo-Christian culture and its replacement with "a new heaven and a new Earth" based on the return of Christ in some new interpretation or symbolic form.

It is likely fostered by astrological speculations about the Age of Pisces, which is closely associated with the rise and fall of Christianity as the dominant world religion as well as political and military power.

The subject is touched upon in my first blog posts, When Pluto Attacks With High Powered Symbolism and Pluto Sacking Capricorn: Pruning the Top, which may also serve as good introductions to the astrological method.

An Explanation for the Illuminati Conspiracy Theory

On YouTube thousands of video clips involving Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Eminem and other notable pop icons seek to explain their fame and fortune with a super-narrative in which modern day celebrities, particularly music performers, are custodians of a secret elite known as The Illuminati.

Detecting and exposing traditional Illuminati symbolism in music videos and, occasionally, in Hollywood movies, has become a pastime or even a sport for thousands of young Internet users.

In most cases – despite many spoofs – you will actually find both conspicuous and secretive subliminal messaging that directly corresponds to Illuminati symbolism, most often the imperfect pyramid with the eye inside a triangle, called The All-Seing Eye or The Eye of Providence.

The same symbol is the reverse of The Great Seal of The United States and can be found on the back of every dollar-bill in circulation.

Originally it is a symbol that stems from Masonic rites.

The Illuminati conspiracy theory is a collective response to the long distance-to-power in large urban cultures and, to some extent, the globalized macro-cosmos. People feel disenfranchised and powerless. They feel cut off from the success prresented by the media, and the Illuminati conspiracy is the projection conveniently explaing why some people are vastly more succesful: They have sold their soul.

Why do we actually see overt or subliminal Illuminati Symbolism?

The obvious examples of Illuminati symbolism in pop culture are planted for various reasons:

• They are anti-Christian, expressing disdain for the Judeo-Christian morality system, but claim vastly more power than ascribed to Illuminati
  
• They are planted for effect, because Illuminati conspiracy has become cult fiction and as such secures for instance a music video many views on YouTube
  
•  They express, to some extent, a belief in the superiority of the American culture and enlightenment ideas, and the Illuminati has been adopted as a rebellious identity, distancing artists from the religious right 

Anthropologically, it is not too farfetched to perceive modern day celebrities and artists employed in the entertainment industries as semi-deities, or priesthood for a new secular world order with liberalism as its main value system.

From the video to Lady Gaga's Alejandro: Semi-pornographic tableau, with an inverted cross strategically positioned as a phallos symbol on the artist's body suit.

Economically, mainstreamed movie stars and music performers definitely belong to the elite. They enjoy massive amassment of wealth compared to the average salary worker, and they are cherished and celebrated much in the same way fictional deities and despotic rulers were worshipped in ancient cultures.

The celebrity structure with its hedonism expresses the value system of a new social and ideological system to take over from a waning Judeo-Christian order controlled by White Male Patriarchs. The liberal pantheon is, to some extent, intertwined with the White Male Patriarchal system through its business structure.

As such it does represent a new world order, even if it the Illuminati Conspiracy is not a reality-adequate description of it, and it isn’t a New World Order in the sense that it is occult, nearly omnipotent or uncontested by rivaling “cultural software.”

Why does The Illuminati Conspiracy have such massive following?

The Illuminati conspiracy proponents have various reasons for their suspicions:

• As pointed out in Michael Barkun’s Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions of Contemporary America the conspiracy theorists are often religiously motivated and belong to the Christian Right
  
• In some cases the approach has been adopted by Muslims who perceive the New World Order as a threat to their cultural paradigm
  
• Others are participants in a sub-culture that enables them to perform social criticism, venting perceived social grievances, most likely disappointment in the system that allows others than themselves to be the celebrated and privileged icons of a “new world order”

Jay-Z, one of the most succesful hip hop artists, doing the Eye of Providence pose. It's pop culture, powered by market mechanisms, not a tribute to demonic forces.

The followers perceive the world locked in a battle between good and evil, most often God and Satan, espousing a Manichaean world view in which the conclusion of history is the destruction of the forces of evil that now governs the world through nefarious means, centralized in a secret order known as Illuminati.

Illuminati conspiracies often overlap with other, even more preposterous conspiracy theories like David Icke’s “alien invasion conspiracy theory” in which a great many politicians and celebrities are supposedly custodians for a New World Order imposed on humanity by humanoid or shape-shifting aliens.

According to Michael Burkin’s Cult of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions of Contemporary America the majority of conspiracy theories are “millennial” or associated with Millennialism, a modern Messianic cult based on a belief that Jesus will return and rule a global Kingdom that lasting 1000 years, but the Illuminati Conspiracy can exist isolated from these more fantastic claims.

Conclusion

Millennialism and anti-Millennialism, often represented by staunch liberalism, hedonism or strong atheism, are intertwined in a battle of symbols and representation, struggling to gain the upper hand of control over public sentiments.


The anti-Millennialism can be seen as partly rebellious against traditionalist views of Millennialists.


The application of anti-Christian or occult symbols, such as forming a triangle in front of the eye, or planting overturned crosses or references to Baphomet (Satan) in music videos, is a rebellious, liberal pose not dissimilar from the now popularized Satan sign, originally used in heavy metal circles (forming a head with two horns).

Before that Winston Churchill’s famous V sign was used, less controversially, to express the same idea of vigorous attachment to liberal concepts of freedom.

Millennialists perceive this as proof of a satanic conspiracy, or they exploit it to offer a false deconstruction of societal values and power structures that benefits the Manichaean paradigm.

At the heart of it, it is an ideological conflict between ultra-conservative and ultra-liberal value systems expressed through symbolism and deconstruction of symbolism.

It is a battle about what value system is to be dominant in Western society and thereby form the basis of social structures, government policies and the future development of civilization.

A succesfully mainstreamed "anti-Christian greeting" displayed by Jenna Bush to her father, and by Republican front figure and notable White Christian Traditionalist, Sarah Palin.