Guest Post by Rev. Christopher Morford : THE CELESTIAL SWAN
Many thanks to Daniel and Charlotte for inviting me to write a little something for the Oak Island Compendium. I think it is wonderful that they have been entrusted to helm this storehouse of Oak Island history. I have the greatest respect for Charlotte and Daniel both as friends and fellow researchers and wish them success in all of their endeavors. I can’t think of two better people to carry on this tradition. I’m very excited to see what they have in store and so honored to honored to be asked to make a contribution.
All best wishes, Christopher Morford.
The Celestial Swan
“There is a Swan whose name is Ecstasy: it wingeth from the Deserts of the North; it wingeth through the blue; it wingeth over the fields of rice; at its coming they push forth the green. In all the Universe this Swan alone is motionless; it seems to move, as the Sun seems to move; such is the weakness of our sight. O fool! criest thou? Amen. Motion is relative: there is Nothing that is still. Against this Swan I shot an arrow; the white breast poured forth blood. Men smote me; then, perceiving that I was but a Pure Fool, they let me pass. Thus and not otherwise I came to the Temple of the Graal." The Swan – Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies, 1913.
Crowley’s esoteric poem is meant to go hand-in-hand with the medieval story of Parsifal, the Pure Fool who, in spite of himself and is ignorance of the ways of the world, becomes the Grail King. More specifically, Crowley looked to the libretto of the opera by the same name composed by Richard Wagner which premiered at Bayreuth on July 26th, 1882. Wagner used the spelling Parsi-Fal which he believed was a Persian etymology meaning “Pure-Fool”. Other theories about the name include “Partzufim” of Kabbalistic origin, “Pierce-the-Veil” for Perceval, and “Perceive” or see things beyond human sight.
Wagner’s telling of the story was an amalgam of two versions of the Grail romance: Chretien de Troyes’ 12th century unfinished work entitled “Perceval ou le Conte du Graal” and Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s 13th century continuation of the same called “Parzival”.
The scene in which the swan is pierced by Parsifal’s arrow is only featured in Wagner’s opera and does not occur in the medieval stories. The same symbolism is present nonetheless. Chretien includes the scene of a goose brought down mid-air by a falcon. The goose plummets to the earth and Parzifal gallops on to view it. He see only three drops of blood upon the snow. The goose is not dead. It rests a bit and then flies off again. But Parzival is transfixed by the three crimson dots set off against the pure white snow. He falls into a trance, the colors bringing him a vision of his true love.
Emblem of Queen Claude of France
Eschenbach preserves the scene, down to the three drops of blood:
A flock of wild-geese from the Northland, their hissing he first had heard,45Swift swooped the falcon upon them and struck to the earth a bird: And scarce might it fly the clutches of its foe, and fresh shelter take 'neath the shade of the fallen branches; in its flight from the wounds there brake Three blood-drops, all glowing crimson, and fell on the spotless snow, as Parzival's eyes beheld them, swift sorrow his heart must know!
Where have we heard this nearly identical symbolism before? Anyone familiar with Grimm’s Fairy Tales : should recognize it:
“It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her embroidery-frame was of ebony. And as she worked, gazing at times out on the snow, she pricked her finger, and there fell from it three drops of blood on the snow. And when she saw how bright and red it looked, she said to herself, "Oh that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the embroidery frame!" Not very long after she had a daughter, with a skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, and she was named Snow-white.”
This imagery deserves deeper investigation, but takes us a bit off-track for this article. Suffice to say the white goose and swan are interchangeable here, both being long-necked waterfowl. Cygnus was representative of a goose in ancient Egypt, sometimes an ibis as well. An esoteric/alchemical reading of this passage would pick out the following: The long serpentine neck of the bird, the piercing by an arrow or attack by a raptor, the colors represented. These are parts of the alchemical operation for creation of the fabled Philosopher’s stone.
The bird with the serpentine neck is the feathered serpent, that flying volatile material which must be “fixed”. That is, the volatile materials in the operation must be subdued, made suitable for interacting with other materials, in other words, “stabilized”. And so the flying serpent of the element of air is brought down to the element of earth. This is no different from the images of the Archangel Michael or Saint George piercing the winged dragon with their lances.
There’s an even stronger relationship with the story of Cygnus (Cycnus) and Hercules. The two engage in battle with the result being that Cygnus is pierced by the lance of Hercules through the neck. Fixing the volatile once again. He ends up as the constellation Cygnus.
Cycnus transformed to a swan
In alchemy, the swan represents arsenic, a transformative agent, naturally colored a light grey and capable of turning some metals pure white, just as a grey cygnet matures into a pure white adult swan. Its atomic number is 33, perhaps of interest to Freemasons. Its symbol is two opposite interlocking triangles, not unlike the “as above so below” imagery and the Star of David and the Square and Compasses of Masonry.
The three colors here mentioned represent three stages of the alchemical process:
Nigredo – The blackening
Albedo – The whitening
Rubedo – The reddening
The symbol of Arsenic, the Swan in Alchemy.
This editors note from the tale of Parzival is interesting: Page 273, line 711—'The white dove I see on its housing.' This, the badge of the Grail knights, is peculiar to the German poem. Those familiar with Wagner's Parsifal will not need to be reminded that the dove and the swan are represented by him as the sacred birds of the Grail. The connection with the swan will be found in Book XVI. There the story of Lohengrin is briefly recounted: He weds the princess of Brabant at Antwerp after being brought by a swan. He tells her never to ask his name. But she eventually breaks her pledge out of love, and though they have had children together, he must depart. The swan brings him a little boat and he reluctantly returns to the Grail. And I just have to copy this here for a bit of comic relief:
Tenors have sometimes run into trouble in the third act, just before Lohengrin departs by stepping on a swan-driven vessel or on the swan itself. In 1913, the Moravian tenor Leo Slezak is reported to have missed hopping on the swan, afterwards turning to Elsa with the question: "Wann geht der nächste Schwan?" ("When does the next swan leave?").
In a dove-tailing (Swan-tailing?) of fantasy and reality, it is recorded in the French version of the myth that Godfrey de Bouillon, the first leader of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the first crusade (He refused the title of King), was a direct descendent of the Knight of the Swan. In French the Knight is called Helias, in German he is Lohengrin.
That alchemy plays a large part in the mystery of Oak Island I have no doubt, keeping in mind that there are many forms of alchemy. There is spiritual alchemy (inner transformation), operative alchemy, (actual attempts to create the philosopher’s stone), Spagyrical alchemy (Medicinal alchemy involving herbs and plants) and celestial alchemy (That process of transformation which takes place in the heavens with the movement of the stars and planets.) to name a few.
Back to Cygnus.
Imagine being a Templar Knight. You are stationed at Temple Mount, the site of two former Temples of Jerusalem. You have “Taken up the Cross” and take in the view of the Holy Land. It is just before dawn and you turn your eyes to the Northwest. There you see the great celestial cross, Cygnus the swan, dipping toward the horizon. It finally plants itself horizontally, like a heavenly scene of the crucifixion. If you were to follow that bearing, follow the cross, you would traverse France, you would cross the ocean, and find yourself in the vicinity of Mahone Bay and Oak Island. I think about this often and believe that this arching pathway held great significance to some. Did Godfrey de Bouillon gaze at this Swan / Cross and ruminate on his mythical lineage?
I had the great pleasure of experiencing Oak Island at night. It is truly a magical place. When you are exploring the stones of Nolan’s Cross and the great Cross / Swan is flying overhead, exactly mirroring the megalithic layout below, something clicks, like the synchronization of a great clockwork. You get the feeling that it simply must be. That this mirroring must be a significant part of the solution to this mystery.
Some will say that Mr. Nolan placed these stones himself to attract investment or whatnot. He was a keen surveyor and had the means. Did he also have the background or interest in astronomy to make the celestial alignments that exist, verified by many including an astrophysicist with 40 years of experience? And what of the many terrestrial alignments? The Cross’ alignment with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and with the massive cross of Versailles as a waypoint is far beyond coincidence. With all respect due to Mr. Nolan, I can’t see him taking all of these connections into consideration to perpetrate a hoax. If he were concocting a simple hoax for cash, he would not likely go that deep into the subterfuge. He’d point a cross due east and be done. Why bother with 60 degrees? Why incorporate precessional numbers or sacred geometry? No, I don’t believe Nolan Cross is a hoax. Far from it.
BACON/SHAKESPEARE
In the First Folio of William Shakespeare (The Sweet Swan of Avon) we find the first line spoken by the “Master”: Boteswaine.
It has been said that this is a reference to two constellations, namely “Bootes” and “The Wain”. Ursa Major was known as the Wain, or wagon. We also have the letters for Swan and Swaine. Could this be a play on words as well? Swain means a country boy, a shepherd, or a knight’s servant, from a rustic or pastoral setting, like Parsival himself. Parsival is, in a sense, the swaine who shot the swan. This sounds like the kind of wordplay Sir Francis Bacon and friends would enjoy indulging in. Also, Bootes himself, the Ploughman, (The Ploughmen are introduced to us in the beginning of Eschenbach’s Parzival story), could be called a Swaine. His constellation and spear are tilted toward Cygnus in the sky. The swan appears to fly over his head.
THE ARCHER
In the image below, Parsifal appears almost centaur-like as he takes aim at the swan. I immediately think of Sagittarius when I see this.
In the heaven’s however, the centaur archer Sagittarius is not taking aim at Cygnus. He is aiming at the heart of Scorpio. Scorpio, as many know has three aspects, as a Scorpion, as an eagle or phoenix and as a serpent. I’ve related the link between the swan and serpent and I think a link also exists in the sky between the air-dwelling feathered serpent of Cygnus and the earth-dwelling serpent of Scorpio.
Above we see the ouroboros as twin serpents, one winged symbolizing air and the other wing-less upon the element of earth.
As Sagittarius pierces the heart of the serpent of Scorpio, he is fixing the volatile. He clipped its wings. Antares, the true “heart” of Scorpio is a very bright star, a red giant. It symbolizes many things. The bleeding heart, the apple of Eden, a mythical ruby gemstone, among other things.
We know the story of Parzifal is based on the Templars and so maybe we should not be surprised to see the image of Sagittarius in a Templar Church.
Montsaunés Church France
This underlying symbolism relates to the seal of a Masonic Mystic by the name of Count Cagliostro. The pierced serpent with the bleeding apple of Eden in its mouth. He said of this image that it represents “Enlightenment through a wound”. Remember the wounded King Amfortas from Parzival. He was the Fisher King (Scorpio is also called a fish hook). Healing the wounded King is a key to becoming the Grail King yourself. Also recall that the King was wounded by a legendary weapon, the spear of Longinus, also called the spear of destiny, the spear which pierced the side of Christ upon the cross.
Cagliostro Seal
Delving deeper would lead us into many wonderful rabbit holes, but its worth the trip. Maybe a bit more later after the next season of The Curse of Oak Island! : )
In closing I’d like to mention the sun god Apollo. Swans are sacred to the god and either his chariot is pulled by swans or he rides upon the back of a giant swan. Chris Donah, my friend and fellow Oak Island researcher who left us for the heavens he loved to study, was keenly interested in the figure of Apollo. He had a most intriguing idea which has never left me. He had the unique theory that there was an enormous figure of Apollo in the sky which was built using the various constellations which were his attributes. The lyre, the swan, etc. I had never heard of this stacking of constellations to make one giant constellation. I think it was a genius idea and I hope we can expand on what he found. Many thanks to Chris Donah. He was a true inspiration. In light of this, I do believe there is a secret language in the night sky and many forgotten and lost constellations and meanings that only initiates were made privy to.
It is a grimoire in the heavens, a book that cannot be burned, or stolen, or edited for all eternity. What better place to store the sacred Gnosis?
I think I’ve rambled on long enough. I hope I didn’t take up too much space. Many thanks again to Daniel and Charlotte. Long live this forum.
All best wishes, Fiat Lux, Rev. Christopher Morford
