Inside The Map of the Universe

The Time Bandits: (clockwise from upper left, Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Vermin (Tiny Ross), Wally (Jack Purvis), Randall (David Rappaport), Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Og (Mike Edmonds)

Is this not a great image from the 1981 Terry Gilliam classic "Time Bandits"? They could fit right in with the Bacchus worshipers of Velázquez's "Los Borrachos". As far as I'm concerned the subject matter of both images is exactly the same. Note how in this shot, a scene that becomes a central plot point, we have a bottle of wine, certainly Dionysian, along with four golden grails. The relationship between Gilliam and the Grail is as pronounced as any contemporary figure in the arts. He also directed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "The Fisher King". All of the Gilliam films are highly significant, esoteric playgrounds. Gilliam wrote "Time Bandits" with fellow Python member Michael Palin who also has a recurring cameo role.

I once heard about a "Twilight Zone" episode with an unusual subject, even for that program. It was about a kind of gnome that existed outside of the normal stream of time who created moment by moment reality by painting in every detail with magic paintbrushes. Thus when something inexplicably went missing, like car keys or a single sock, it was due to an error on the part of one of the "time gnomes". I'm rather taken with this concept, and at this point make casual reference to the "time gnomes" when something goes missing, despite the fact that I didn't personally see the episode. But it really isn't a "Twilight Zone" episode as far as I can tell. I've searched. It doesn't seem to have been on "The Outer Limits" or "Night Gallery" either. So I don't know what program the individual who told me this story saw. Maybe it was a childhood dream, or a garbled memory of something else, perhaps "Time Bandits" itself. Or maybe some "time gnome" forgot to paint it into the present and never got around to correcting the error. Maybe these gnomes even have erasers or an "Undo" command.

But maybe it really was "Time Bandits". The plot lines are actually pretty similar. If you have never seen "Time Bandits" then look for it. If you haven't seen "Time Bandits" and are the type who wants no foreknowledge whatsoever of a film you may watch, then you should probably stop reading this as I am a horrible spoiler. "Time Bandits", however, is one of those movies that benefits from multiple viewings and a little foreknowledge can't hurt. This despite the fact that it is usually billed as a "children's fantasy" and a "comedy". It is those things for certain, but much more. It is one of my favorite movies.



From the poster on this production is steeped in intriguing, esoteric details. The poster is of course primarily an illustration by Monty Python animator turned master surrealistic filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Note the sacred geometry elements of this image which extend throughout the film. I find it very apt that the initiatory grid-pattern is here extended across the sky, affirming the symbolic item's association with astronomy. Note also how the grid, in Templar red on white, is subtly repeated on the flag of the ship/hat. Note also the geometric designs behind each of the letters in the title, most of which are Xs. The X is major league of course, the Greek Chi, the St. Andrew's Cross, the unknown, multiplication, Christ, the sun. Importantly, the X is the essential Yonic and Phallic forms meeting, Nut and Geb. Encircled it makes a tidy icon of a stargate. I like that the Xs in the title are all hidden, behind the exoteric letters. Interesting that there are eight of them.

The X also denotes the essential pattern of the Tetramorph. While all of these levels of symbolism come into play in the use of the symbol for the X-Men, it is the Tetramorph format that I find most pertinent (see The Great Marvel Mysteries Part Two). Note in the poster above how the featured players of the film are each displayed in a simple Tetramorph. Further, the black holes in the sky grid suggest the checkerboard pattern, and in this case literally represent stargates, holes in time/space. Notice that there are eleven holes in the sky, and nine performer Tetramorphs on the poster. The cover for the Special Edition DVD is equally intriguing, as one of the stargates is used to truncate a mountain-like tower, Evil's "Fortress of Ultimate Darkness".





The geometric imagery continues and repeats in the opening title sequence. And we see that in this case the grid pattern is used due to the important "Map of the Universe". This is such an evocative concept, so seemingly simple and mind-boggling incomprehensible at the same time. And so profound as a metaphysical symbol. Here is the best available image I can find of the Time Bandit's Map:


Art by Jon Heilman

This is an amazing reproduction of the Map that I found here, recreated by Jon Heilman. Take some time with it, it is a tremendous gift to see the Map so directly even at this small scale. If you note the image at the start of the article, the Map used in the film is slightly different, lacking the second column of clocks along the right hand side. The Map at the close of the film that we see rolled up, presumably by the hands of God, does have this symmetry. There are sixteen clocks in each column, thirty-two altogether, Note the Kundalini/Kabalistic Enlightenment Path Serpent twining down a column, hourglass or even Mill form (and X again). There are naturally enough twelve mandalas in the outer central ring, surrounding nine in the middle ring, with one perhaps telescoped out for closer viewing of its lunar, and to my eye, Egyptian resurrection symbolism.



In the center are three more, two of which are situated on the ethereal curve of a mostly missing second, superimposed ring. Twelve zodiacal constellations, nine planets, and the all-important Trinity. Truly the image speaks for itself, and I'd love to hear what others get out of it. I'll just further note the form far right, three Saturnian rings around a golden circle, which makes me think of the legendary island Ogygia.

I believe this is a very subtle clue regarding the movie's significant locale the "Time of Legends". Ogygia is the island in Homer's "Odyssey" where Calypso imprisoned Odysseus for Seven years. This point becomes pertinent later in the article. Ogygia was also the island where Saturn was imprisoned sleeping after being usurped by Zeus. Saturn was the ruler of the Golden Age, which can easily be conceived of as the Time of Legends. The sickle shaped number Seven always refers to Saturn, the outermost, highest and thus overruling, of the Seven visible planets of geocentric astronomy.

"Time Bandits" tells the story of an eleven year old English boy named Kevin. He lives in a highly mundane and inane suburban reality with parents addicted to ridiculous, humiliating game shows and obsessed with new appliances. Kevin on the other hand loves history, fantasy and adventure. Kevin's world is turned upside down when six outlandishly garbed dwarfs emerge from his wardrobe. Shortly after arriving the dwarfs, and Kevin, are forced to flee through another portal as they are pursued by the giant, illuminated face of God, who wants them to give back the Map. God, as He is presented at this moment of the film, is rather like the illusionary false face of the Great and Powerful Oz , a resonance that continues when He returns at the end, but in the form of an elderly, British bureaucrat.

The Time Bandits, it turns out, were employees of God who assisted the Supreme Being in the act of creating all Space and Time. Like Santa's Little Helpers. Far from being top-tier members of the team, the Bandits were primarily in charge of generating shrubs and other items of flora. They were also charged with repairing flaws in the fabric of Space/Time (imperfectly made as it was a six day rush job), which they were to locate using the Map of the Universe. These flaws manifest as portals between incongruous points throughout Time and Space. After a labor dispute with God the Time Bandits decide to go rogue, stealing the Map in order to become wealthy by pilfering history. Reading the Map allows one to locate the time and place portals will open and to a limited degree determine where they lead to.

Naturally many have noted the similarity between the Time Bandits and Snow White's Seven Dwarfs. Kevin is frequently cited as the Seventh Dwarf, but this is not really very accurate (he is neither a Dwarf nor a Time Bandit proper) and unnecessary. Kevin is much more the Snow White. There was a seventh Time Bandit who is referred to as having died prior to the start of the film. His name was Horseflesh. Apparently the original script featured a living Horseflesh, but he was removed (through his death) to avoid potential legal problems with Disney. His role is even credited to an actor in the end credits despite the character not appearing in the film. I encountered, but can not certify, that Horseflesh is also the name of one of Evil's servants, suggesting that the dead sinner (a thief) resides in Hell with the Satanic/Saturnian Evil, trapped in his Fortress.

I prefer the secret allusion to the Seven Dwarfs anyway, and find the comparison to God's helpers in creation to be highly astronomical, the seven visible planets, as the fairy tale surely also relates to. It's my opinion that the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a planetary extrapolation to the Norse myth of Freya (Venus) who once sought shelter from the snow at the home of four dwarfs, named North, South, East and West. The price for boarding was that she have intercourse with all four in turns. She initially refused until she spied a beautiful golden necklace (a circular or elliptical shape) the Dwarfs had crafted. For this prize she agreed to the Dwarfs' terms. The astronomical connotations of this legend are clear. I'm further reminded of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" with its thirteen dwarves (rather King Thorin Oakenshield and his twelve retainers), upping the astronomical association of dwarfs to the zodical level. Wikipeida suggest a further reason for the six dwarfs, as a subtle commentary/tribute to the six members of Monty Python.



Note the excellent costuming of the time-hopping Bandits, especially their headgear. The leader, Randall (David Rappaport, who was hilarious as a malicious demon in an episode of "The Young Ones") wears the aviation cap of a pilot, a highly appropriate symbol for a chief initiator. Wally's (Jack Purvis) piratical hat features the Templar Skull and Bones/Jolly Roger, while Og's (Mike Edmonds) Viking helmet features a single Taurian Bull horn. Fidget (Kenny Baker, portrayer of the lunar R2-D2, and sharer of my birthday) has an inverted strainer with a Illumination signifying candle mounted on it, as one sometimes sees in depictions of subterranean mining kobolds, gnomes, dwarfs, etc.

The shot above is a scene of the Time Bandits being introduced to Napolean, played by Ian Holm, who is notably the portrayer of Bilbo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. The Bandits next encounter John Cleese in a hilarious presentation of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. After being chased by the big head of God again, Kevin is separated from the Bandits and finds himself in ancient Greece during a battle between a warrior and a (Taurian) Minotaur.



The warrior is revealed to be none other than King Agamemnon, portrayed by the highly symbolically charged Sean Connery. Kevin returns with Agamemnon to his palace. Here we see the king demonstrating sleight-of-hand using three Grail forms before the initiatory checkerboard pattern.



Kevin is very pleased to find himself living as the adopted son of the King in ancient Greece, but it is short lived as the Bandits locate and "rescue" him. They wind up next on the Titanic. Kevin is despondent over being removed from what he considered Utopia. Randall informs him that he has been studying the Map and believes he has found a way to enter the "Time of Legends" where the Bandits hope to locate "The Most Fabulous Object in the Universe" (an idea implanted in the thieves by the living embodiment of Evil who is luring the Bandits to his Fortress in the Time of Legends so he can steal the Map, escape his prison and rewrite the Universe based on his own design).

Invariably, the Time Bandits go down with the sinking ship and find themselves stranded in the frigid, open ocean. But they escape by entering a portal to the Time of Legends. With this passage Up becomes Down and they enter into the Other World. To demonstrate the opposite nature of the reality they enter, the black tuxedos the Bandits were wearing on the Titanic become white.

This leads me to one of the factors that compelled me to deal with "Time Bandits" now. I recently saw Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". Again, spoiler alert. At the end of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", the highly Dionysian Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, was killed when he was swallowed by Davy Jones' Kraken. In "At World's End" Elizabeth Swann (played by Kiera Knightly, note the Language of the Birds resonance in these two principle characters of the franchise), William Turner (Orlando Bloom) and the resurrection figure Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) embark on a quest to "World's End" in order to retrieve Sparrow and the Black Pearl from the nautical Land of the Dead, Davy Jones' Locker. With them on this journey is a Caribbean witch, Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) who is actually Calypso, the Goddess of the Sea. It's noteworthy that to reach World's End the crew utilizes a stolen, encoded Map. Once Sparrow and the Pearl have been found they face the equally daunting challenge of returning to the Land of the Living. Sparrow deciphers on the Map that to change Worlds, Up must become Down. They purposefully capsize the ship, causing the horizon to turn 180 degrees, near exactly the means used by the Time Bandits to enter the Time of Legends.

This is all highly intriguing. The entire "Pirates" trilogy resonates details of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" quite explicitly. Barbossa's first name is Hector. Central to the plot is the relationship between the witch/goddess Calypso and Davy Jones. Jones is bound to the Flying Dutchman, a ship crewed by the damned souls of mariners lost at sea. This is strikingly similar to the figure of Evil in "Time Bandits" who is bound in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness where he seems to reside with the damned souls of the dead if my inkling about the Horseflesh character is correct. This then identifies Davy Jones' Locker as another version of Ogygia where Saturn was bound.

After some surreal comedic encounters the Bandits find themselves wandering a Wasteland in search of their prize. Their constant bickering erupts into full fledged violent conflict over group leadership, which prompts Randall to throw a bone (a possible allusion to "Dawn of Man" sequence of "2001"). The bone shatters a glass like invisible barrier that was hiding the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness.



This beautiful shot is highly evocative as the object of the Bandits quest (false though it may be) is revealed to be Through the Looking Glass. Once inside Kevin and and the Bandits encounter a scenario exactly like the horrible game show Kevin's parents constantly watched. In fact they are faced with the same host of the game show and Kevin's parents. To win the prize, appliances, they must traverse an initiatory labyrinth.



Pure-hearted Kevin immediately recognizes that something is not right, but the greedy dwarfs scramble to obtain the false prize. Making it through the maze they discover the game show host and Kevin's parents are actually Evil and two of his mutant minions. Evil takes the map and imprisons Kevin and the Bandits in a cage suspended above a bottomless pit. Without the Map all seems lost. But the image at the top of this article, a Polaroid Kevin took of the Bandits and the Map while in Sherwood Forest, proves to be their salvation. Using the photo of the Map, they locate a special portal in the Fortress allowing access to many points through time through which they may obtain assistance in retrieving the Map from Evil.

The heroes and items the Bandits recruit and obtain to confront Evil include Roman Legionnaires, Templar-like knights on horseback, cowboys from the Old West, a World War II era tank and a laser-equipped star craft from the future. Unfortunately the (highly imaginatively) shape-changing Evil is more then a match for the recruits, and actually has full control of the tank and star craft as he rules over technology and weapons of war (earlier in the film while musing over how idiotic God's reality is, Evil stated that he would have started with "laser beams, day one"). During the confrontation the Bandit Og is transformed in steps into a pig, again echoing "The Odyssey".



Here Kevin threatens to destroy the Map of the Universe with a torch in a moment that is clearly Promethean. Also interesting are the Ring-Wraith/Dementor like servants of Evil, black cloaked undead figures with Bull skulls for heads (a repeating detail given the decomposing state of the Minotaur fought by Agamemnon. The combination of Bull symbolism and life after death symbolism is highly Dionysian). All of Kevin and the Bandits' efforts are futile against Evil, however, until the Supreme Being arrives. He turns Evil to dark, green crystalline stone and the statue subsequently explodes.

After resurrecting Fidget (who died in the fight with Evil) and returning Og to his natural form, God reveals that He allowed the Bandits to steal his Map to begin with in order to test His Creation. He hires them back, but demoted and with a salary cut. Interesting here how the Time Bandits are punished by God for doing something He made them do to begin with. The entirely unsympathetic Supreme Being leaves with the Bandits, refusing to bring Kevin along and leaving him in the Fortress which fills with obscuring smoke.

Then Kevin awakens in his bedroom as if it were all a dream. This is of course a near omnipresent motif of Fantasy from Oz, Wonderland, Neverland, Slumberland, Unknown Kaddath, etc. It is of course the Dream Time/Under World/Other World. Kevin's room is full of smoke because the house is on fire. As firemen pull him out we see Kevin's toys arranged in a way suggesting the final confrontation with Evil was an imaginary game Kevin played (the Fortress noticeably had blocks of Lego-like design). Outside the house Kevin wonders if it was just a dream. But he still has his Polaroids from his adventure. It was a dream but the dream was real. A fireman emerges from the house with a smoking toaster oven, the source of the fire. Kevin's parents open it. Inside is a chunk of the concentrated stone Evil. Kevin warns his parents not to touch it, which merely compels them to immediately do so. His parents explode and are killed, an act that seems to concern no one present but Kevin. Left alone in the world Kevin sees that one of the firemen is the spitting image of King Agamemnon, suggesting reincarnation. He throws Kevin a wink before driving away. Note the eight-pointed star on his helmet. The reincarnation detail is also prominent in the recurring roles of Palin and Shelley Duvall who ham it up us absurdist lovers in the incongruous eras of Robin Hood and the Titanic.



This is how this "comedy children's story" ends, with the confounding detail of the smoke emerging from the remains of Kevin's parents moving backward, as if time is reversed. The viewpoint swoops up above the English suburb, into the cosmos, and God rolls up his Map as the closing credits begin to the song "Dream Away" by George Harrison (Harrison's film company Handmade Films produced the movie). At the beginning the viewer's eye swoops into the Map, and at the end it recedes. The entire action naturally takes place within the Map itself.

Be sure to see this classic surrealistic fantasy. What I covered in this article is just the tip of the ship-sinking iceberg. Obviously I'm quite taken by the concept of a Map of the Universe. Could such an item, even on a symbolic level, actually exist? It makes me think of one of the great tragedies of art history. There is a lost masterpiece by the great early 15th century Northern Renaissance Master Jan Van Eyck. It was a Map of the World painted for Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, for whom Van Eyck worked as an international agent and diplomat. Such a shame. Van Eyck, a true Renaissance man, is every bit as intriguing and esoteric a figure as Leonardo Da Vinci, Albrecht Durer or Hieronymous Bosch. I for one would be greatly interested to see what details this obvious occultist included in a pre-Columbus conceptualization of the "World". Damn Time Gnomes.

Mystos Mustela

Diego Velázquez, "Los Borrachos" c. 1620. I think the character at far upper right may be the Fourth Doctor.

In this blog from time to time I make use of the philosophical and literary concept of the dichotomy between Apollonian and Dionysian elements. It was famously invoked by Friedrich Nietzsche in "The Birth of Tragedy". I picked it up from Stephen King's 1981 nonfiction work "Danse Macabre". King utilized the term to discuss the archetypical horror character who undergoes a transformation from normal, cultured or in some cases highly reasoned, to a feral, animalistic state. The clearest examples of this are probably the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novella "Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde" and the ancient legends of werewolves and other shape changers.

I've used the term to describe the Incredible Hulk from Marvel Comics. The pattern is quite clear in the Hulk. It is truly the prehistoric occult legend with modern era nuclear science and radiation fulfilling the role of magical curse. Apollonian physicist Bruce Banner was caught in the blast of his own gamma bomb. The bombardment of gamma rays caused periodic transformation into the Dionysian Hulk.

But this article is not primarily about the Hulk or the Apollo/Dionysus dichotomy. Recently several factors have caused me to take consideration of the purely Dionysian character.


Art by John Byrne

The myth of Dionysus is ancient, complex, and vitally important at the heart of matters as we discuss the esoteric Underground Stream and the Invisible College. There is evidence suggesting the existence of Dionysian Mystery Schools in Greece as early as 6,000 BC with the original import of wine. It likely was transmitted from the area between Mesopotamia and Persia, or Northern Africa. The Dionysian Mysteries were a precursor to the Eleusian Mysteries, Orphism and Gnosticism.

Dionysus/Bacchus is of course the god of wine, agriculture and theater. His patronage of theater is a vital point. It is Bacchus who oversees the allegorical tale, the Spoonful of Sugar that helps the Medicine go down. This displays the inherent relationship between popular entertainment and the initiatory rites of the Mystery Schools. Comic books are a form of theater, the writer is the play write, the illustrator the director and all of the actors. As a figure who passes into the Underworld and back again Dionysus further carries connotations of the links between the living and the dead.

He is Dionysus Dimetor because he has two Mothers. He is a son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele. Semele was the daughter of the hero Cadmus, credited as the creator of the Phoenician alphabet. Cadmus, following the guidance of Athena, sowed the teeth of a dragon which grew into soldiers. Teeth, crops, soldiers and letters all stand in rows. Semele was a priestess of Zeus and the god seduced her in the form of an Eagle, a solar symbol and Scorpio emblem. When Hera learned Semele was pregnant she disguised herself as a crone and befriended Semele, casting doubts in the priestess' mind that the Eagle formed Zeus was truly who he claimed to be. Semele demanded Zeus to reveal to her his true form, but her mortal eyes could not look upon his glory. She was wreathed in holy lightning and incinerated. Zeus saved his unborn child by sewing him into his thigh. Dionysus Eriaphiotes is Dionysus Insewn.

Dionysus is also Zagreus. Orphic tradition describes Zeus, in the form of a Snake (again a Scorpio emblem), impregnating either the mother Demeter or the daughter Persephone, producing the infant Zagreus. Hera coerced the Titans into dismembering Zagreus, but Athena rescued his still beating heart and returned it to Zeus. Zeus produced mead from the heart and gave it to Semele to drink, impregnating her with Dionysus Dimetor. The name Zagreus was utilized in the Doctor Who radio dramas as a legendary entity of Gallifrey who lived at the end of time.

The adult Dionysus, like Doctor Doom (and note the similarity to Orpheus and Dante), entered Hades and rescued Semele from the Underworld, making her a goddess of Olympia, where she resided over the ecstatic frenzies generated by her son. These divine states of madness, the bakcheia, are central to the Dionysus Mysteries. The Dionysian Mysteries included ceremonial rites to achieve these trance states through intoxication through wine (and possibly other substances), rhythmic chanting, drumming and dancing. Indeed it is quite clear that Dionysus is the patron deity of sex, drugs and rock and roll. This is something Jim Morrison, for example, understood quite well.

Dionysus' resurrection traits are a factor he shares with many solar, agricultural deities, as is his description as androgynous. Called "the Lord of Beasts", he is depicted often in the company of satyrs, centaurs and other synthetic creatures representing "higher" human form combined with "lower" bestial attributes. Symbols of Dionysus include the bull, the serpent, cats (especially so big cats like leopards and panthers), swarms of bees (perhaps a holdover from earlier Mead Cults), the grape vine (naturally), ivy, figs, pine cones (attaching him to Cybele), and pomegranates (attaching him to Demeter and Persephone). In the Eleusian Mysteries he was Dionysus Iacchus, "the light bearing star of the nocturnal mysteries", associated with Sirius, the torch bearer who led the Eleusian procession.

Amongst his other many epithets are Aegobolus (the Goat-killer), Bromios (Thunderer/He Who Shouts), Dendrites (Of the Trees), Eleutherios (the Liberator), Enorches (With Testicles), and Sabazios (The Shatterer). There is a vital relationship between Dionysus and Hermes, beyond both being sons of Zeus. To keep Dionysus safe from the wrath of Hera he was put in the care of Hermes. In some versions Hermes gave Dionysus to King Athamas and Dionysus' aunt Queen Ino, instructing them to keep Dionysus hidden by raising him as a girl. Another version had Hermes placing Dionysus in the care of the rain nymphs the Nysa (Dio=Zeus, Nysus=the Nysa). As a reward for their nurturing (rain nurses grapes) the Nysa were catasterized as the Hyades.

The nature of Dionysus as an enlightener is encoded within his mythology. At one point he was driven mad by Hera and later cured by Cybele. He was then sent to Asia to teach grape culture and the wine cult and was said to have resided in India for many years. Another interesting episode involved Dionysus, disguised as a young beautiful mortal, being kidnapped and taken to sea by sailors intending to ransom the youth or sell him into slavery. However, Dionysus, the Liberator, can not be bound. He became a lion and unleashed savage fury on the ship's crew. Those sailors that chose to jump into the sea rather then be dismembered were transformed into dolphins. Another version of this story also featured the ship being overrun with snakes and ivy, and the sailors being driven mad by the sounds of flutes (a device utilized by Lovecraft).

Dionysus is indeed not known for his gentle or forgiving nature. In the Eurpides tragedy "The Bacchae" Dionysus traveled to Thebes to enact vengeance upon his aunts and his cousin, the king Pentheus, for denying his mortal mother's claims of Dionysus' divine parentage. To this end he inducted the Theban women as Maenads and drove them into an ecstatic frenzy, in which state they tore Pentheus to pieces.

Dionysus' primary consort was the mortal Ariadne, the Minoan princess who aided Theseus in the labyrinth with her magic ball of thread. He was also said to have fathered Nyx's son Phthonus, the embodiment of jealousy, and Aphrodite's children the Charities (the Roman Three Graces), Hymenaios, god of marriage, and the male fertility god Priapus. Dionysus as the father of Priapus is very interesting. Often when these mythological models transfer the relationships of the characters is altered. This seems to be the case with the Dionysian Wolverine, a character who was "born" in the pages of the Incredible Hulk.


Art by Herb Trimpe. Note how in this ad introducing Wolverine, binding chains leap from his form.

Yes, I did just say that about the Hulk. The sexual connotations of Wolverine are likewise readily apparent. If comic book super heroes represent the power fantasies of the disenfranchised, then surely the erectile, penetrating, untiring Wolverine is a male, adolescent personal virility fantasy come to life. Wolverine's claws are made out of an imaginary metal called adamantium, the hardest substance of the Marvel Universe. Wolverine's bones are likewise bonded with the metal, making them unbreakable. In the nineties Wolverine's origin was retconned. Previously the claws were described as bionic implants, separate from his mutant abilities. Now the retractable claws (which Wolverine "pops") are natural bone extrusions coated with adamantium. This reinforces the sexual symbolism to such a degree that one might think this alteration was performed tongue in cheek.

As seen in the Marvel house ad above, Wolverine was first introduced at the end of "The Incredible Hulk" #180, October 1974, with his first full appearance in the following issue. He was created by writer Len Wein and illustrators John Romita and Herb Trimpe. The character next appeared in May, 1975's "Giant-Size X-Men" #1, which was also written by Wein and illustrated by Dave Cockrum. He appeared thereafter as one of the "New" X-Men starting with "X-Men" #94. Beginning with that issue the X-Men title was written by Chris Claremont for 16 consecutive years, making him largely responsible for shaping the character into the highly popular franchise he is for Marvel Comics today.

Wolverine, also known as Logan (a Scottish name meaning "little hollow", which could be extrapolated to mean "vessel"), resonates Dionysus on several levels. Besides his claws his powers include animal-like heightened senses, enhanced physicality and a "healing factor" that allows him to heal any wound, injury or poisoning almost instantaneously. It is worth noting that while Wolverine is clearly an animalistic character, the regeneration ability is more naturally a vegetative attribute.

Another key Wolverine characteristic is his propensity to go into what is termed a "beserker rage" in which he turns into a furious, indiscriminate killing machine. This is easily comparable to the violent, ecstatic states of the Maenads. Often described as an anti-hero, Wolverine was the rare comic book super hero who smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol on a regular basis. But he was not just an indiscriminate death-dealer. When handled properly there is reason and justice underlying his actions, making him something of a prototype of Dexter. Like Dexter, Wolverine is cognizant of his dark nature. His most embelmatic line is "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice". As the character developed over the years he was shown to contain a sense of honor and code of ethics like a feudal samurai.


Art by Frank Miller

There is an Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy associated with the character, but in the case of the X-Men it is a struggle between two separate figures, Wolverine and the solar powered, beam emitting, highly rational Cyclops. Immediate sexual tension was generated between Wolverine and Cyclops' long-time girlfriend Jean Grey, the all-important Marvel Girl and future Phoenix, who can be said to be the High Priestess of the Marvel Mysteries.


Art by John Bolton

Another long-running feature of Wolverine was his state of amnesia. His past was a mystery, and his earliest memories involved the laboratory procedures in which the adamantium was "insown" to his skeleton. Thus he could be said to be "twice born". This portion of Wolverine's story was beautifully presented in 1991 in Marvel's anthology series "Marvel Comics Presents" #s 72-84 by the great Barry Windsor-Smith.


Note the vine-like forms in this image of Wolverine's second womb.

While in the early years of his term as an X-Men Wolverine was a wild card who didn't follow orders, he developed into a mainstay of the team. He developed a particularly strong relationships with Nightcrawler, the blue, devil-like teleporter, and Kitty Pryde, to whom he became a surrogate father. The 1984-85 limited series "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" essentially depicted Wolverine initiating the novice hero Kitty Pryde into a dangerous combatant with ninja-level skills. Indeed Wolverine has strong ties to several female characters. His relationship with Kitty was reproduced with Jubilee, and with Rogue in the first X-Men film. When Wolverine was finally given a full origin (I personally preferred him without it, but then I like the mystery), his true name was revealed as James Howlett. Compare this to the Dionysian epithet Bromios, "He Who Shouts".

Like many of the X-Men characters, Wolverine seems difficult for many writers to get a proper handle on. This, combined with his vast marketability, has made for literally hundreds of wholly unreadable comic books featuring the character. As a fan of the classic X-men (for me the issues from 1963-1987) there is much for me to dislike about the X-Men movies. But something they did right was casting the perfect actors to play some of the key roles. Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Jackman brought the requisite attitude and surliness to the screen, and more so then anything else, the character's charisma, which is often painfully lacking in Wolverine's appearances.



To seal the deal on the Wolverine/Dionysus parallel I'm going to include two images from the beginning and end of the 1987 "Uncanny X-Men Annual" #11 which display the character at the two polar extremes of Dionysian characteristics.




Art by Alan Davis

Don't listen to him. He is a god. The evidence is overwhelming. Want one more item of pure synchronicity? I got one. Wolverine is an anagram of Wine Lover.

Doctoring Art Gotic Part III

In the 2006 Surrealistic dream-wonderland anime "Paprika", based on a 1993 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui the closed world of personal dreams are opened by a device termed a "DC Mini". This is a wonderful bit of synchronycity, for to comic book readers the term "DC Mini" does not instantly translate to "small Dream Control device" but to "limited series published by DC Comics". DC Comics was once National and several other small publishers, and the name means "Detective Comics", from the home title of Batman. But what else does DC stand for?
Seeing as they were National, is it District of Columbia? Or should I say the Domain of Ceres, for Her Mysteries inform the serial on many levels, seen and unseen. It couldn't stand for Darwyn Cooke, because he wasn't even born until 1962. But then again, he is mysteriously a genie according to Wikipedia, so who knows, it could all be a Djinn Conjuration. Or is it the Doctors' Cryptolect? This seems the place preferred for these esteemed educators to present their invisible lectures. DC's in-comic news letter for many years was titled "Direct Currents" which implies the hidden symbol language is directly transmitting an energy to the reader through the printed page, an act not unlike the origin of Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo who learned the the secrets of Muscle Mystery from a book from an advert near identical to the famous comic book ads of Charles Atlas. But if we bring in Atlas then we surely must be speaking of a Divine Column, right? Or is it Dream Control after all as an umbrella for all of these things? I think Neil Gaiman may offer a distinct clue.

It was DC Comics, back when they were National, that brought us the very first comic book super Doctor. This is a certainty because, as is fully appropriate, an illuminated Doctor was the very first of all comic book super heroes. No, Superman is not a Doctor. He's the Son of a Doctor. Superman is not the true first comic book super hero, he's the "kid brother" of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's first-born four-color hero, Doctor Occult. I spoke at length about Doctor Occult in The Great Marvel Mysteries Part I, so there's no need to repeat the details here. But I think we can all take great interest in the fact that not only was the first comic book super hero a Doctor, he was Doctor Occult, a word defined at its most basic as hidden, veiled, occluded. Christopher Knowles author of "Our Gods Wear Spandex" points out that the planet Krypton's name is derived from the Greek word kryptos, which translates into Latin as "occult". And speaking of Marvel Mysteries, Knowles also points out that key jet propulsion and space program figure Jack Parsons, a Devotee of Crowley was really named Marvel Whiteside Parsons. As you probably can imagine I found this a delightful coincidence.

Five years after Doctor Occult made his debut National introduced a more famous magical Doctor, a figure to whom Doctor Strange owes a great deal for his inspiration. Doctor Fate was introduced in "More Fun" #55, May 1940 and was created by the prolific Gardner Fox and illustrator Howard Sherman.


Art by Howard Sherman

For the entire first year of his appearances in "More Fun" Doctor Fate just was. A powerful magician super hero with no secret identity or origin. In "More Fun" #67, May 1941, readers learned that Doctor Fate was really Kent Nelson, the son of archaeologist Sven Nelson. It is very common to see Doctor Fate presented as a character with ties to ancient Egypt (I was under this impression until now myself), but in his original presentation it was ancient Mesopotamia that initiated Kent Nelson. As a boy Kent joined his father on an expedition to the Valley of Ur and the two discovered the Tomb of Nabu. A trap releasing poison gas killed Sven Nelson as he opened the tomb. The revived spirit of the ancient wizard Nabu took pity on the orphaned Kent and raised the boy, in the process teaching him the secrets of great magic. After twenty years Nabu gifted Kent with a magical helm and amulet and sent him to America to fight crimes both natural and supernatural as Doctor Fate.

Nabu is a Babylonian god of writing and wisdom. He is the grandson of Ea and the son of the Jovian Marduk and His consort Sarpanitum who is also Ishtar. Nabu acts as the minister and scribe of Marduk making him the patron of scribes. He is said to engrave the destiny of all men and women determining individual Fates. His name may mean something like "He who has called". Nabu appears in the Bible under the name Nebo. He shares many apparent correspondences to the Egyptian Thoth and so it should come as no surprise that he is astronomically linked to Mercury and like Thoth an analog of Hermes. Naboo is also an important planet in the Star Wars mythos as the home world of Padmé Amidala and Emperor Palpatine.

Naturally Doctor Fate takes up residence in Salem, Massachusetts, where he operates from an invisible tower without doors or windows. Doctor Fate was one of the original members of the very first comic book super hero team, the Justice Society of America which made its debut in "All-Star Comics" #3, in the winter of 1940. In his very first adventure in "More Fun" #55 Doctor Fate met his love interest and future wife Inza, a character even more key to Fate's adventures then Lois Lane is to Superman. As a direct initiate of Hermes it is very interesting to note that Doctor Fate's first opponent in was the wizard Wotan, a variant name for Odin.


Art by Howard Sherman

 Another early Doctor Fate villain was a mad scientist/art thief called Mister Who. In 1944 Doctor Fate's appearances in "More Fun" as well as those as a member of the Justice Society suddenly ceased. The character was revived in the Silver Age as one of the Justice Society members from a parallel Earth (Earth-Two which despite containing the characters from DC/National's original publications is considered a secondary world because the multiverse spawning planet Oa was unique and existed in the universe of the Silver Age DC characters). Around that time Doctor Fate's origin was further developed and the Helmet of Nabu was described as housing the essence of the ancient wizard. Whenever Kent put on the helmet he became merely the vehicle for the powerful Nabu. Nabu was further developed as a so-called Lord of Order, changing him from wizard to avatar of a dualistic struggle between the primary forces of Order and Chaos underlying DC's magical titles.

As the more modern adventures of Doctor Fate progressed DC engaged in one of their favorite activities with their characters who receive power from the use of an object. They replaced Kent Nelson with new Doctor Fates. Interestingly one of the first alterations involves Kent and Inza Nelson fusing into the singular Doctor Fate, making the character a hermaphroditic gestalt decades before Neil Gaiman made a similar alteration to the character of Doctor Occult.

Besides the Helmet Doctor Fate's other great artifact is the Amulet of Anubis, an item remarkably similar to Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto. Both amulets emit beams of light and reveal the truth of all things. The amulet also serves as the portal to a pocket dimension where former Doctor Fates reside, meaning it is much bigger on the inside then it appears on the outside.

Doctor Fate is yet another Hermes/Mercury/Thoth/Tehuti/Anubis/Odin/Nabu. An interesting example of the concept I frequently discuss and first made mention of in Mercury Retrograde is exemplified in "The New Adventures of Superboy" #25 from January 1982.


Art of Kurt Schaffenburger

This is Doctor Chaos. As this is a story set on Earth-1 there is no Doctor Fate. Instead of Sven Nelson and son it is Professor Lewis Lang and his assistant Burt Belker who discovered a tomb in the Valley of Ur and unearthed a mystic helmet. But this is Doctor Fate Retrograde. The helmet contained the essence of a Lord of Chaos. It took possession of Burt and utilized him as a vehicle for a campaign of destruction. Note the opposite color scheme utilized for Doctor Chaos, the same technique used for the Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom. In the cartoon series "Justice League Unlimited" Doctor Fate organized a covert group within the group that was a nod to Marvel's classic Defenders. Fate of course represented Strange, Aquaman/Submariner, Solomon Grundy/the Hulk, Amazo/the Silver Surfer, and Hawkgirl/Nighthawk (which should have been Batman). In 1996 in the Marvel/DC cross-publication Amalgam Comics Doctor Fate, Doctor Strange and curiously Professor X, were all combined into the singular entity Doctor Strangefate.


Art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

The other Doctor of the original Justice Society of America was the less famous Doctor Mid-Nite, created by writer Charles Reizenstein and illustrator Stanley Joseph Aschmeier and first appearing in "All-American Comics" #25, April 1941.


Art by Stanley Joseph Aschmier


Dotor Mid-Nite is the first blind comic book crime fighter, preceding Marvel's Daredevil by 23 years. Doctor Charles McNider was a surgeon who while operating on a witness testifying against the mob was blinded by a grenade used to kill the informant. His medical career over, McNider turned to writing as a vocation. One night an owl flew through the window of his home. Startled, he instinctively pulled off the bandages covering his eyes and discovered that he could see, but only in pitch darkness. McNider developed a special infrared visor to help him see in normal light, as well as "black-out bombs", chemical grenades that generated areas of smoky darkness. He used these devices to fight organized crime as Doctor Mid-Nite.

It is significant that his initiation to the awareness of his night vision came as a result of a visit from an owl, a commonly known emblem of the wisdom goddess Pallas Athena. Doctor Mid-Nite adopted and trained the owl, "Hooty" as a side-kick. His personal assistant was his nurse, Myra Mason.

In 1985 DC introduced Doctor Beth Chapel in the pages of "Infinity, Inc." a team book featuring the children and protégées of the Justice Society. Blinded by an explosion, Chapel also found she could still see in darkness and became a new Doctor Midnight (with the spelling of the name modified). Her relatively short career ended when she was killed in battle by the lunar Eclipso.

In 1999 the mantle was picked up again, this time by Doctor Pieter Anton Cross. Much more faithful to the design of the original Doctor Mid-Nite, this blind crimefighter has an owl named "Charlie", after the civilian name of the original Mid-Nite. In Alex Ross' monumental, apocalyptic religious allegory "Kingdom Come" Doctor Mid-Nite is depicted as Midnight, the spirit of Charles McNider manifested as living black smoke like the effect of his black-out bombs. This entity of living darkness is interestingly contrasted by "Kingdom Come's" depiction of Fate, the helmet, amulet and cape of Doctor Fate hovering over living light, with no more need for a human vehicle.

While on the surface it may seem that Doctor Mid-Nite is literally the opposite of an Illuminator, it is worth noting that this is a character whose sole special ability is to see in the darkness. His vision penetrates that which is occluded, an allegory not unlike the truth revealing function of the amulets of Fate and Strange.

The original Doctor Mid-Nite's opponents were primarily non-costumed criminals and gangsters. However, he did have a few run-ins with his opposite number, a mad scientist called Doctor Light, including a plot wherein Doctor Light created an underground (literally) secret society for criminals with an ancient Roman motif.


Doctor Light by Stanley Joseph Aschmier


In "The Justice League of America" #12 from June 1962 writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky introduced a Silver Age Doctor Light, the mad scientist Doctor Arthur Light.


Art by Murphy Anderson


Doctor Light not only fought the JLA but also a team composed of their side-kicks, the Teen Titans. In the early eighties Light organized a team of villains called the Fearsome Five to take on the "New" Teen Titans. After several defeats the rest of the Fearsome Five expelled Doctor Light from the team.

In the justifiably controversial 2004 DC mini-series "Identity Crisis" Doctor Light was depicted at a point in the past raping Sue Dibny, the wife of Elongated Man. As an act of vengeance the League decided to mind-wipe Light using the magical powers of Zatanna. While this is a very common activity for super heroes, erasing people's memories, it is in this instance a magical lobotomy. This is very grim stuff and indeed it could be said that with this series the light at DC was significantly dimmed.

During the 1985 "Crisis on Infinite Earths" a female super hero Doctor Light was created. Unrelated to Arthur Light, she nevertheless wears an near identical costume. Both characters operate using the same name, the same powers and the same costume concurrently, a highly unusual scenario for comic books.

Another villainous Doctor faced by the Justice League of America in their early days is the highly interesting Doctor Destiny, who first appeared in "Justice League of America" #5, June 1961, and was also created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.


Art by Dick Dillon. Wikipedia suggests Doctor Destiny's costume design served as inspiration for the "Masters of the Universe" character Skeletor.

Doctor Destiny's real name, I kid you not, is John Dee. A mad scientist, John Dee created an anti-gravity device that he utilized to impersonate Green Lantern in order to infiltrate the Justice League, showing a great deal of ambition for a first time super criminal. Later Doctor Destiny was armed with an even greater invention, the Materioptikon, which was able to turn dreams into physical reality. After many years of nightmarish battles with the Doctor the League decided he was too great a threat and hypnotized him so that he was no longer able to dream. This caused him to fully lose his mind and his body shriveled to a near skeletal state. He was then sent to Arkham Asylum for safe keeping.

In the early issues of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series it was revealed that Doctor Destiny's Materioptikon was powered by a Dreamstone belonging to Morpheus, the living embodiment of Dreaming. It turns out that John Dee's mother Ethel was once the mistress of Roderick Burgess, a Crowley-like magician and member of a secret society called "The Order of the Ancient Mysteries". Burgess was also known as the Daemon King. Burgess at one point was able to capture Morpheus and kept the Lord of Dreams prisoner for many years. Burgess gave the ruby-like Dreamstone to Ethel and she later passed it to her son.

After Ethel's death, Destiny escaped from Arkham, reclaimed the Dreamstone and went on killing spree. Morpheus, recently released from imprisonment, tried but failed to stop Doctor Destiny.


Art by Sam Keith

But when Destiny tried to absorb Morpheus' power into the Stone it became overloaded and was destroyed. All the power of the Dreamstone returned to Morpheus. He returned Doctor Destiny to Arkham and mercifully restored the villain's ability to dream. Note in the above page how Gaiman plays with the name Dee. Dee, See?

In the next part of this series I'll cover even more illuminated Doctors from Marvel and DC Comics.

Doctoring Art Gotic Part II

In Part I of this series I discussed the esoteric nature of the character of the Doctor from the long-running BBC science fiction program "Doctor Who". If Part I was a relatively easy slide down the time corridor, Part II is more akin to Himalayan quest. In Part II I'm going to examine the illuminated Doctors of the Marvel Comics Universe. And if we're discussing occult Doctors of the Marvel Universe, the only place to start is with the Sorcerer Supreme himself, the Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange.

Art by Steve Ditko

Doctor Strange was created by artist Steve Ditko and writer/editor Stan Lee, the same team that created the Amazing Spider-Man. Strange first appeared in "Strange Tales" #110, cover dated July 1963. He appeared twice in "Strange Tales", was absent two issues, and then returned as a regular feature of the title with issue #114, dated November 1963. Doctor Strange's introduction came mere months before the initial broadcast of "Doctor Who".

"Strange Tales" was a two feature title shared between Doctor Strange and the Human Torch . In 1965 the Human Torch feature was replaced by adventures of the left-eye missing super-spy Nick Fury, Marvel's answer to James Bond and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". 

The association between Strange and John Dee is not missed by Neil Gaiman who cast Doctor Strange in the role of court magician and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I in the 2003 miniseries "Marvel 1602".


Art by Scott McKowen

Doctor Strange is one of the rare comic book super heroes to have an established date of birth, November 18th, 1930, making him a Scorpio. There are few other super heroes whose daily horoscope one could peruse. Strange was born in Philadelphia, PA, a characteristic I believe was chosen as a reference to America's most famous "wizard" Benjamin Franklin.

Before being trained in magic Doctor Strange was an accomplished neurosurgeon, highly gifted but arrogant and self-interested. An auto accident caused permanent nerve damage that limited the fine-motor control of his hands. This led him to seek out a legendary Tibetan healer known as the Ancient One. The Ancient One sensed great potential in Strange and offered to take him on as an apprentice, an offer Strange dismissed. As a scientist Strange could not accept the existence of literal magic. But while at the Himalayan abode Strange witnessed a mystical attack on the Ancient One by the sorcerer's apprentice Baron Mordo.

Mordo prevented Strange from warning the Ancient One by mystically binding him. Aware now of the reality of magic, Strange had a spontaneous change of heart and decided he must learn to wield magic in order to serve as a counter to the evil Baron Mordo. The Ancient One, who as a far greater magician was never in any danger, released Strange from Mordo's binding and revealed that he let events proceed in order for Strange to find his true purpose. Strange studied with the Ancient One for seven years before returning to New York City as a protector of humanity from all things supernaturally malicious. Amongst Doctor Strange's near infinite array of magical abilities is his frequent use of astral projection and acts of clairvoyance assisted by his illuminating Eye of Agamotto which when used in this manner positions itself over Doctor Strange's third eye.

The process of enlightenment is readily apparent in Doctor Strange's origin, complete with Himalayan quest, and finding a higher purpose while "bound". Doctor Strange's base of operation is termed the The Sanctum Sanctorum (Latin for the "Holiest of Holies"). Like the TARDIS, the Sanctum Sanctorum is dimensionally transcendent, with an interior of much greater size than the exterior. A few years into his career Doctor Strange is forced to sacrifice the Ancient One in order to save the world from the entity Shuma-Gorath, an extrapolation of a Robert E. Howard creation with Lovecraftian overtones, which sought entry to the Earthly plane via the Ancient One's mind. Strange inherited the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, and the Ancient One transcended into a purely spiritual entity who continues on occasion to advise Strange in ghostly form.

Other major opponents of Doctor Strange include the supernatural entity Nightmare, Mephisto, Marvel's Satan, the Marvel Comics version of Dracula and the Dreaded Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension. In "Strange Tales" #138, November 1965 Doctor Strange first met Eternity, the sum of all existence incarnate.


Dormammu and Eternity, art by Steve Ditko

In issue #157-158, the summer of 1967, Strange communed with an even greater conceptual entity, the Living Tribunal, a tripartite god in singular form representing three essential principles described as Necessity, Equity and Vengeance.


Art by Steve Ditko

The above image was reproduced a year later on Pink Floyd's album "A Saucerful of Secrets", the last to feature Syd Barrett.



The Tribunal can be seen in the upper left corner, Strange, in Orion posture, is on the far right. Doctor Strange is also referenced in Pink Floyd's "Cymbaline", as well as in the T.Rex song "Mambo Sun", and "Superbird" by Country Joe and the Fish. Another album cover featuring Doctor Strange is Al Stewart's "Past Present and Future" from 1973.



Doctor Strange is also one of many comic book super heroes referenced in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". Wolfe made an appearance in "Doctor Strange" #180, May 1969, as an acquaintance of Doctor Strange. In recent days Doctor Strange is depicted as one of the members of Marvel's Illuminati, a ultra-secret organization revealed to have been manipulating certain key-events of Marvel history. Other members include the Hermetic Submariner, and the mentor of the X-Men Professor Charles Xavier. The concept of a super team whose existence is unknown to the world at large, including most of the super hero community, was first explored in association with Doctor Strange in 1969 when he founded the "non-team" called The Defenders. The other initial members were again the Submariner, the Apollonian/Dionysian Incredible Hulk, and on occasion the Hermetic Silver Surfer.


Art by Gil Kane and John Romita (Surfer figure)


Art by Jack Kirby

Doctor Victor von Doom is unquestionably the greatest Marvel super-villain and arguably the greatest of all comic book super villains. He first appeared in "Fantastic Four" #5, July 1962, designed to be the arch nemesis of Marvel's first super team. In the issue Doom took the Invisible Girl hostage and forced Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and the Human Torch to utilize Doom's Time-Platform to travel hundreds of years into the past and steal the pirate Blackbeard's treasure. The Time-Platform is considered the first operational Time Machine of the Marvel Universe.

Doctor Doom (note the phonetic similarity to Doctor Du) was born in the fictional nation of Latveria and is of Roma/Gypsy decent. His mother was a witch who sold her soul to Mephisto, and was murdered by soldiers of Latveria's baron while Victor was still an infant. A few years later, when his father, a healer, was unable to prevent the death of the baron's wife, Victor and his father were forced to flee to a local mountain range where Victor's father died of exposure. Young Doom vowed at that time to make all of humanity pay for the loss of his parents. Discovering his mother's collection of mystic artifacts, young Doom began his study of both the occult and modern science.

Doom possesses one of the greatest minds of the Marvel Universe, rivaled only by Reed "Mr.Fantastic" Richards of the Fantastic Four. The enmity between the two first arose when both were students at Empire State University. Doom was conducting dangerous experiments and constructed a device to allow him to look into other dimensional planes in order to locate his mother's soul. Richards noted an error in Doom's "trans-dimensional projection device", but Doom felt Richards to be his inferior and ignored his warning. Doom's device did work but the machine exploded, scarring Doom's face, a condition his vanity could not abide. He blamed Richards for the accident and vowed revenge. Expelled from ESU, Doom traveled the world looking for any means of curing his scars. He eventually made his way to an enclave of Tibetan monks with whom he stayed for several years. Mastering their magic, Doom soon came to control the monastery. The monks assist Doom in the forging of his emblematic suit of armor and mask (note the similarity to the origin of Dr. Strange). Doom further adapted the mystic armor by adding numerous technological devices and weapons including jets for flying and an impenetrable force field. During his villainous career Doom builds numerous inventions including robots with full artificial intelligence.

After Doom donned his armor he returned to Latveria, overthrew the government and crowned himself king. Doom is an absolute monarch but his rule brought unprecedented prosperity to his nation. Wikipedia describes Doom's manner of rule as enlightened absolutism. Doom's sovereignty further granted him a near unique attribute as a super-villain, diplomatic immunity.

Amongst Doom's magical powers is an ability to open portals to other dimensional planes such as Mephisto's Hell-like realm and the Australian Aboriginal Dream Time. Early in the character's career Doctor Doom learned from an alien race called the Ovoids to psionically transfer his consciousness with another individual by making eye contact.

Doctor Doom teams up frequently with the Submariner, the first time in Doom's second appearance, "Fantastic Four" #6, August 1962.


Art by Jack Kirby

Another milestone in Doctor Doom's career occurred in "Fantastic Four" #s 56-60, December 1966 to March 1967. Doom managed to capture the Silver Surfer by trickery and stole the Surfer's Cosmic Power and Surfboard.


Art by Jack Kirby

Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange have also worked together as allies, most notably in the Marvel Graphic Novel "Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment", in which the two enter Mephisto's realm and free the soul of Doom's mother.


Art by Mike Mignola

While much of the mythology of "Star Wars" was clearly drawn from Jack Kirby's Fourth World, the character of Darth Vader was largely inspired by Kirby's Doctor Doom.

1963 it seems was a banner year for Doctors in high fantasy fiction. The July 1963 "Amazing Spider-Man" #3 introduced the world to Doctor Octopus, a character once again created by the team of Lee and Ditko.


Art by Steve Ditko

Lacking the apparent occult overtones of Doctors Strange and Doom, Doctor Octopus allows us the opportunity to observe the super hero comic book use of nuclear science and radiation as a metaphor for transformation/illumination. Doctor Octopus is a member of that wonderful species of super villain, the Mad Scientist (and while Strange is clearly magical and Octopus scientific, Doom is the balanced synthesis of the two, a proper alchemist). All Mad Scientists are branches off the Tree of the Promethean Doctor Frankenstein.

Otto Octavius was born into a working class family in Schenectady, New York (the home of General Electric) and was the victim of lifelong physical abuse from his father. This led Octavius to pursue a study of the physical sciences so that he could escape the life of a common laborer. A scientific genius (with socialization difficulties that today might label Octavius a victim of Asperger Syndrome), he comes to be one of the world's most gifted and respected nuclear physicists and inventors. His greatest invention is his tentacled harness, designed as a device to conduct atomic research with radioactive isotopes. A radiation leak caused an explosion that fused the tentacles to Octavius' body. The accident also mutated Octavius' mind, allowing him complete motor-control of his accidental prosthetics as if they were his natural limbs and making him a sociopathic criminal. He was reborn as Doctor Octopus. Later in his career, after the tentacles were surgically removed, Octopus displayed his mental control to be fully psychokinetic, allowing him operation of the tentacles even at a distance.

Doctor Octopus is perhaps Spider-Man's greatest villain (a status rivaled only by the original Green Goblin). With his multi-functional tentacles strong enough to bend steel Doctor Octopus is a fair match for the web-slinger. In their first encounter Spider-Man was so badly beaten he considered giving up his heroic career, but was inspired to carry on by the Human Torch (of course).

There is interest to be had in the symbolic connotations of the Octopus. We can of course easily see the significant number eight in the character's name and his design. The fact that four of his limbs are normal and four specialized or enhanced, adds a clear duality to this allegorical Octagram. The symbolic significance of this does not seem to have been missed by illustrator Kaare Andrews, the artist of 2004's "Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One".


Art by Kaare Andrews


Leonardo DiVinci's "Vitruvian Man", c. 1492

The symmetrical form of the Octopus, it's aquatic nature, it's large round eyes, and other factors (such as the tentacles propensity to take spiral form) make it a deeply significant symbol since prehistoric times. It was the model for mythological beasts like Scylla and the Kraken. Its physical appearance may also relate to Medusa and other Gorgons. Hans Biedermann informs us that the cuttlefish is occasionally associated with the zodiac sign of Cancer. Juan Eduardo Cirlot intriguingly states, "(the Octopus) is related to the spider's web and the spiral, both being symbolic of the mystic Centre and of the unfolding of creation". Add to this the symbolic envisioning of a world-controlling collection of secret cabals as an "Octopus" and the dark, godlike cephalopodic forms of the Lovecraft mythos, and you have a very potent metaphorical chowder indeed. As formidable, or even more so, then the Spider.


Art by Jack Kirby

The focus of this investigation is on high fantasy characters identified by name as Doctors, which I contend is a detail that designates them as symbolic instructors of the Invisible College. The only possible term that could be even more indicative of this is that of Professor. This is a topic I discussed earlier in Mercury Retrograde. In that article I make mention of the Lee/Kirby character Professor X and his School For Gifted Youngsters, a clandestine education center where Professor X houses and trains the X-Men and The New Mutants.

Professor Charles Xavier was introduced in "X-Men" #1, again in 1963. Like his students he is a mutant, specifically a telepath of great power, termed the world's most powerful mutant mind. These mental gifts are contrasted with Xavier's status as a paraplegic, a condition Xavier suffered when his legs were crushed by a block of stone early in his career while fighting an alien entity calling itself Lucifer (prior to his first appearance). This life-altering event occurred in Tibet.

Xavier's mutant ability is such that he can read and manipulate minds in a radius of hundreds of miles. He can also fully alter perceptions, erase memories, induce mental, emotional or physiological experiences, fire "mental bolts" that debilitate their targets, and astral project like Doctor Strange.


Art by John Byrne

Xavier is the son of a wealthy nuclear physicist, ostensibly the cause of Xavier's mutant nature. A child prodigy, Xavier graduated with honors from Harvard at the age of sixteen and went on to earn Ph.D.s in genetics, biophysics and psychology. Besides his clandestine Professor status, he also for a time served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. Xavier also displays great skill as an inventor, designing the elaborate X-Men training center "the Danger Room" and the mutant detecting device Cerebro.

During his world travels, but prior to his encounter with Lucifer, Xavier engaged in a psychic duel with Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, in Cairo, Egypt. This encounter caused Xavier to dedicate his life to the protection of humanity from evil mutants, and to protect mutants from the prejudices of humankind. Xavier believed humans and mutants could learn to coexist peacefully, a philosophy that came to be termed "Xavier's Dream" by his students, and in contrast to the terrorist tactics of his former friend Magneto. It is not uncommon for parallels to be drawn between Professor X and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. both inside and outside the comic book page.

The purely mental abilities of Professor X are contrasted by the purely physical nature of his step-brother Cain Marko, the Juggernaut. Marko is not a mutant, but rather was mystically transformed by the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. The dimension of Cyttorak is the source of one of Doctor Strange's most frequent spells, the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, which are capable of binding almost any entity. As mentioned earlier, Xavier and Strange are both members of Marvel's Illuminati. Xavier has had more then one love interest, most notably Lilandra, Empress of the multi-galaxy spanning Empire of the Shi'ar, a race evolved from birds.

Like nearly all comic book characters with any amount of history Professor X has seemingly been killed and returned many times. Perhaps the most prominent example of this came in "X-Men" #42, March 1968, when the Professor was mortally wounded while battling Grotesk, the Prince of a subterranean civilization.


Art by Don Heck

He remained dead until issue #65, February 1970, where it was revealed that the Professor X who had died was really the shape-changing mutant Changeling. Xavier employed Changeling to stand-in for him while he sequestered himself in preparation for repelling an alien invasion he had psionically detected. Despite his altruistic principles Professor Xavier demonstrates frequent instances where he behaves in a highly secretive, and at times manipulative manner. His mutant advocacy not withstanding, Professor Xavier's own status as a mutant and as the leader of the X-Men was not made public until recently in X-Men continuity.

According to Wikipedia the name Charles Francis Xavier may have been derived from St. Francis Xavier (cofounder of the Jesuit Order), the physiologist Marie Francois Xavier Bichat , or the character Charles Xavier Vseslav/Charles Kinbote from the 1962 Vladimir Nabokov novel "Pale Fire". The latter perhaps carries the most credence as the middle name "Francis" was not added to the character until the mid-90s (a fact I was unaware of until researching this article). However, the addition very well could have been made to attach the symbolism of St. Francis Xavier to Professor X, as well as that of the major esoteric figure Francis Bacon.

That's more then enough for now I'm sure. There are of course more obscure Marvel Doctors that I hope to make mention of at a later time. Part III of this series, however, deals with the major Doctor figures of Marvel's Distinguished Competition.

Doctoring Art Gotic Part I

Note:  This article predates Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the Doctor

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the term "Doctor" entered common English usage in the early 14th century as a term for Church Fathers. The Latin term means teacher, which evolved into "religious teacher, adviser, scholar". The doct- derives from docere, "show, teach, make to appear right". In the late 14th century it became the term for the holder of the highest degree of a University and as such the term for a medicinal practitioner. The verb form, "to alter, disguise or falsify" developed late in the 18th century.

The alchemist/philosopher/theologian Raymond Lully was nicknamed Doctor Illuminatus by Duns Scotus, another important philosopher/theologian of the High Middle Ages. Scotus' code name was Doctor Subtilis for the subtle, penetrating, sophisticated manner of his reasoning.

High fantasy fictions (such as super hero comic books) are full of enlightening characters whose codenames utilize the term Doctor. And what better descriptor could there be for a degree holder and teacher of the Invisible College? I've broached the subject of the Invisible College before in my article Mercury Retrograde, and as I stated at that time, the Wikipedia description just scratches the surface of this conceptual entity. But that does not mean their description is not of interest, as is the case when Wikipedia states:

"The idea of an invisible college became influential in seventeenth century Europe, in particular, in the form of a network of savants or intellectuals exchanging ideas (by post, as it would have been understood at the time). This is an alternative model to that of the learned journal, dominant in the nineteenth century. The invisible college idea is exemplified by the network of astronomers, professors, mathematicians, and natural philosophers in 16th century Europe. Men such as Johannes Kepler, Georg Joachim Rheticus, John Dee and Tycho Brahe passed information and ideas to each other in an invisible college. One of the most common methods used to communicate was through annotations written in personal copies of books that were loaned, given, or sold from person to person".

A primary method for initiates of an Invisible College to communicate is through the use of an argotic system of symbolism, which the enigmatic 19th century alchemist Fulcanelli termed the Language of the Birds or Green Language. Fulcanelli, it should be noted, is the pseudonym of an unknown individual or individuals. The name means "Little Vulcan" and he could properly be termed Doctor Vulcan. The more common English term for argotic language is Cant which demonstrates clearly the mystical nature of a cryptolect.

Then there is Doctor John Dee, one of the most influential minds of all time. That's not hyperbole, it is more likely an understatement. Dee is closely associated to the most visible manifestation of the ancient Invisible College as described in the Wikipedia article. The surname Dee is derived from the Welsh "du" meaning black. Doctor Dee is Doctor Du is Doctor Black is Doctor Dark.

Above and beyond all the many intellectual caps Dr. Dee wore in his lifetime was his role as a Hermeticist, an occult philosophical and alchemical movement based upon the teachings of the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Trismegistus means "Thrice Gifted" and he could just as well be called Doctor Trivia. The term Trivia derives from the Latin Trivium, which is the "place where three roads meet". These crossroads were dedicated to the Messenger god Hermes/Mercury/Thoth since ancient antiquity. Hermes Trismegistus is the legendary initiator of the occult science and philosophy that informs Doctor Dee, and as such can be viewed as the fountain head of the Underground information Stream termed the Invisible College.

Now it is my contention that super hero comic books and other forms of high fantasy fiction serve as the perfect vehicles for communication of argotic symbolism. High fantasy fiction is Romantic, it is Art Gothic, which Fulcanelli tells us is itself an inter-lingual phonetic punning term. Art Gothic is the Art Goetic and the Cant Argotic. The initiates who navigate this information stream are Argonauts. The masthead of the Argo was Athena. This is not to state that comic book creators and other fantacists purposefully embed secret symbols in their works (though some may). The beauty of the Language of the Birds lies in its subtle function, its subconscious expression, and its synchronistic manifestation.

The many Doctors and Professors of high fantasy fiction are symbolic representatives for the teachings of the ancient, prehistoric Invisible College. So should I approach this accounting chronologically? No, that would likely be impossible. At any rate, many of these illuminated Doctors defy chronology on a regular basis, sometimes as their raison d'etre. So in this article let's focus on the character who most connects the symbolic model of the Doctor as an entity beyond Time and Space. I speak of course of the protagonist and near title character of "Doctor Who", The Doctor.

I'm not nearly the Whovian I'd like to be, but I love Doctor Who. Clearly it is one of the most pertinent science fiction classics of all time. Doctor Who manages to connect to just about everything, I suppose a natural given the qualities of the character and the subject matter of the program. I'm still so amazed by the fact that Doctor Who premiered on the day John F. Kennedy died. I do feel it is worth noting the synchronicity of these events. The sacrifice of the Sun King JFK is near coincident with the opening of this corridor through Space/Time which millions of viewers have been exploring for nearly 45 years. Yes it is a fantasy, an allegory, a metaphor. But though a symbol, while abstract, it is still a portal to the most immediate Other World available to us, the Dream Time. And Who is our guide for this journey in between days. That's a statement.

The BBC program "Doctor Who" is more than just a science fiction program. It is an institution and has developed as an emblem in modern British culture. It is the Guiness World Record holder for longest running science fiction television program. The character of The Doctor has become a world-wide cultural icon, as has his time machine The TARDIS and his most prominent antagonists, the exterminating Daleks.

Amongst the most interesting characteristics of the time and space traveling Doctor is his and other Time Lords ability to regenerate. A Time Lord who suffers a mortal wound or whose physical body wears out from advance age undergoes a "genetic reshuffling" and incarnates in a new physical form that differs not just in physical appearance but in personality and characteristics as well.

This is a very interesting element of the show for a number of reasons. It is a great example of how commercial or programming concerns can incidentally derive storytelling elements with intriguing symbolic significance. The regeneration ability was not introduced to the "Doctor Who" program until it was necessary. When the original Doctor portrayer William Hartnell left the program in 1966 the producers faced the prospect of ending the series or finding another actor to portray the lead role. Rather then just ignoring the fact that the Doctor now looked and behaved differently the show's creators took advantage of their time-bending subject matter and introduced the element of Regeneration.

And so developed one of the most profound symbolic aspects of the program. The Time Lords are described as being limited to twelve reincarnations for a total of thirteen lives (though certain Time Lords have been shown to have found ways to exceed this limitation, such as the Doctor's archnemesis The Master). The significance of twelve reincarnations leading to thirteen lives is clear, the zodiacal twelve represents a complete cycle, the thirteenth life takes things full circle. Thus far the Doctor has been seen to have had ten official incarnations.


The Ten Doctors, clockwise begining at upper left: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, and David Tennant.

It is suggested at several points throughout the series that the Doctor and other Time Lords are transcendent beings, entities existing in someway on a higher temporal plane manifesting in our dimension in a corporeal form. One example of this comes during the end of the Doctor's Fourth incarnation when he encounters and is assisted by a featureless, white clad entity known as The Watcher. When the Doctor begins his regeneration into his Fifth form he and the Watcher merge.



During the Doctor's Seventh incarnation he appears to share many traits with his previous lives such as the whimsy of the Second and Fourth Doctors and the scientific brilliance of the First and Third. But as the storyline of the Seventh Doctor developed it could be seen that beneath the surface he was an entity akin to a demigod, dedicated to destroying evil at all costs. Indeed I think it is quite clear that the Time Lords are a sort of science fiction angel, not unlike the Ainu of Tolkien's Middle Earth mythology. Further, the Doctor is a rebel Time Lord with a pronounced sense of justice which causes him to disregard Time Lord policies and take direct action with time and space for the benefit of humankind and other sentient lifeforms. This clearly makes the Doctor a Promethean figure. According to the Master, the Doctor took on his pseudonym (his true name has never been revealed) to denote himself as "the man who makes people better".

The Doctor's time machine, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is said to locked in its iconic shape of a Blue British police box due to a faulty Chameleon Circuit. The phone booth sized exterior opens to a labyrinth complex because a TARDIS is "dimensionally transcendent", its interior occupying a pocket dimension separate from the exterior. Interestingly, one of the elements the TARDIS needs to function is mercury. True Whovians should check out the fan made "TARDIS Manual" by A. B. Roberts.

As stated near the beginning of this article, Doctor Who manages to connect to a wide array of diverse cultural elements. Within the context of the story, for example, is a future or alternate reality version of the Doctor who goes by the name Merlin. As for the program itself, past episode writers for the series include author Douglas Adams who not only brought us the life, the universe and everything solving "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series but also "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and its sequel "The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul". Not very weird considering the nature of Adams' reality bending works, right? Well then, how about Henry Lincoln? Lincoln is perhaps best known as coauthor of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"* and he continues to investigate the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau to this day.

Then there is the Doctor's slim but existent connection to the universe of Marvel Comics. As one would expect with a program with the longevity and level of fandom of "Doctor Who" there arose many spin-offs and presentations in other media including numerous novels, radio programs and "Doctor Who Magazine". The magazine, still in publication, began in 1979 as "Doctor Who Weekly" and was initially published by Marvel UK. Included in the magazine's features were short comic book adventures. Amongst the creators of the Doctor's comics were Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons the writer/artist team who brought us "Watchmen". Another artist on "Doctor Who Weekly" was David Lloyd, who was also the artist on Moore's "V for Vendetta".

Lloyd was working on the Doctor Who comics with Moore when the Special Executive was introduced. The Special Executive is a band of time-traveling mercenaries, and several members of the group are native to the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. Later Alan Moore worked on Marvel UK's Captain Britain serial with illustrator Alan Davis (the two Alans would collaborate again on Marvelman/Miracleman), and Moore reintroduced the Special Executive to Captain Britain's adventures.


Art by Alan Davis

Moore came to grow dissatisfied (quite rightly) with Marvel's treatment of creative talent, ceased working for the company and refused permission for them to utilize the Special Executive. So Alan Davis then developed the similar and related band known as the Technet for use in the Captain Britain stories. Later Alan Davis teamed with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont on the X-Men spin-off "Excalibur" with a team that included Captain Britain. The Technet followed the Captain to the title.


Art by Alan Davis

This creates an interesting phenomenon that is again the result of commercial decisions and concerns. More than once Marvel has done adaptations such as "Doctor Who" and allowed the characters and concepts to coexist in the shared universe of their super hero titles. This plastic feature of Marvel comes up in "Doctoring Art Gotic" Part II where I'll examine some of the Doctors and Professors of the Marvel Universe.

Want one more wild Doctor Who connection before we close Part I? In 1988 "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" inspired, discordian acid house band The KLF (aka the JAMs, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu), under the name The Timelords released "Doctorin' the Tardis", combining Dalek voice overs with the Doctor Who theme and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll(Part Two)". It reached #1 on the UK charts:


Note, this is not the original video, but a fan creation utilizing clips from recent seasons of "Doctor Who". Any nostalgic fans of really low-budget discordian absurdism can see the original here.

And things just aren't complete without a Dog around lately. If you watched the video you may have spotted the Doctor's longest running companion, the robotic K-9. Because travelers should have a Dog, just ask Dorothy Gale.



*You may have already heard that "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" coauthor Richard Leigh passed away on November 21st of this year at the age of 64 due to complications of a heart condition.