Showing posts with label clock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clock. Show all posts

Thursday, July 7, 2016

THE FORMATIVE NUMBERS

When one connects the cross Numbers on a clock face, you get the following result:

8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.

These numbers could be important because they form the basis of the formative years of a person's personal growth.

At common law, the age of 7 was deemed the age of reason. A person was expected to know the difference between right and wrong.

The age of 18 confirms adulthood. A person is emancipated from their parent's guardianship. They can join the military, make contracts, get married, etc.

How one what acts and behaves during the time between age 8 and 18 is important. What were the parental guidance? What were the environmental factors? What were the support mechanisms? Did the person learn values, goals and ethics? Did he or she fall in the wrong crowd?

Look at the people devoid of parental love and attention: 

Locke.
Ben.
Sawyer (after his parents were killed).

Look at people who only had the attention of one parent:

Hurley.
Kate.
Shannon.
Walt.
Claire. 
Jin.

Look at people who had a "normal" upbringing:

Jack. 
Sun.
Sayid.

In the "normal" group, Jack had the upper middle class upbringing which led him to become a highly respected surgeon. He was smart, encouraged, had the means and opportunity to get a large slice of the American Dream. But in the end, was he a happy person?

Sun came from a very wealthy family. She was repressed by class status and her Korean culture. The only way she could get attention and feel independent was to rebel against her father in the worst possible way: by marrying a poor man. But even that goal did not make her a happy person.

Sayid grew up in a tight family setting in Iraq. His household was ruled by a strict father and a demanding culture. Sayid did what he had to do - - - such as butchering an animal his older brother could not do - - - which gave himself value to the group. And that need to be valuable in a group was the anchor that dragged his personal ambition and happiness down.

In many ways, the characters brought up by one parent have two common traits: loneliness and selfishness. Hurley was raised by his strict mother after his father left. She was religious and pushy, especially about his social life. That caused Hurley to eat to repress his social life. As a result, his mother enabled him to become a shy, quiet, dependent child who would never want to leave the artificial womb of her home. It is selfish to stay with a parent when, with any personal drive, you should be on your own. Claire had a similar relationship with her mother. Her mother wanted her to settle on a normal path, but Claire had a wild streak. They would fight over trivial matters. The last argument led to her mother's severe and fatal injuries.

You can add bitterness to characters like Kate and Walt. They were given a relatively carefree life, their needs being met by their mothers, but they were not very grateful. Each would act up in a controlled tantrum for attention. Then they were upset when things did not go their way, not understanding that it is the effort you have to put in yourself to get the result you want.

The characters who lost their parents early in the childhood, Ben, Locke and Sawyer, all had one driving trait: criminality. Their moral compasses did not have the bearings that parents instill in their children. Ben was beaten down daily by his alcoholic father who blamed Ben for his own shortcomings and lousy life. Locke's known abandonment was reinforced like a knife blade in his back each day he was in a foster home. Sawyer could only think of revenge after his father committed murder-suicide because of a con-man's trick on the family. Each would cross paths in the criminal world and go with its flow, including Locke - - - in seeking a "family" would have been fine living in a drug selling commune if they would accept him.

They say there is good and bad in everyone. What dominates a person's adulthood comes from what happens when a child is 8 to 18 years old. Each of LOST's main characters personalities were crystallized by events that happened in their childhoods.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

12

In order to probe for more meaning in the Series, this post postulates working the Numbers in order to see if something falls from the creative tree.

The Numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.
The Numbers were the winning picks for Hurley's cursed lottery ticket.
The Numbers were the SOS signal that Hurley's mental patient friend heard in the Pacific.
The Numbers were assigned by Jacob to his candidates.
The Numbers were used to control the electromagnetic discharge.

One of the themes of the show was time. Time was an important plot and action device to move characters into twisting situations.

Time is best represented by a clock face.

If the Numbers were the first part of a code, then using clock face we can try to find hidden information. If we start at 4 then add 8 we get to 12 (circled). If we add the next Number, 15, and count through the dial we land, we land at 3 (circled). If we continue this addition around the clock we land on 6, 7 and 12 again.

If the Numbers now lead us to another set of numbers (as codes often do), what does 3, 6, 7 and 12 represent?

If we go to the lighthouse candidate dial, there begins some speculative answers.

The Number 3 does not appear in the records. Neither does Number 6 or 7. If we use this set to represent people, the first thing that came to mind was the island's first "known" family.  The Number 3 could represent "Crazy Mother." Numbers 6 and 7 could represent Jacob and his brother who were born on the island. Crazy Mother killed their Roman mother in order to have company and a successor for her island guardianship.

But then who is 12?

In the lighthouse dial, the name FOSTER appears, struck out.
There was no known character with the surname Foster in the series.
But since this code has 12 doubled in occurrences, 12 must have important significance.

The word "foster" means to encourage, promote, nourish. It comes from the English word for feed, nourish. It also has a reference to "bring up another" as in being a foster parent or guardian. In English surname ancestry, the name Foster means forester, or forest ranger, a person in charge of the hunting territories.

One can make the supposition that the Number 12 represents a guardian, and in the context of the island, the island's natural guardian. It is possible that Crazy Mother was the third successor island guardian, and Numbers 4 and 5 could have been Jacob's parents who were killed prior to assuming the office or title.

Foster does impact on Jacob's childhood. Crazy Mother was actually his foster mother, not his birth mother. She raised him to become the island's new guardian. This fostering for an orphan or an abandoned child is the centerpiece of Locke's back story.

In the episode, "Cabin Fever," Locke's story starts with his mother, Emily, going out to see that older man, Cooper. Against her mother's wishes, Emily storms out to meet her boyfriend, but she is struck by an automobile. She is rushed to the the rural hospital where it is found that she is pregnant. Against all odds and 1950s medical technology, her child, Locke,  is born premature. Witnessing the miracle baby from the observation window is Richard Alpert. Alpert would return to visit Locke as a child, giving him the object test to determine his character for island leadership. Locke apparently picks the wrong item, and Alpert leaves disappointed in Locke's choice.

By this time, Locke has bounced around between foster homes. In his current situation, his foster sister, Melissa, does not like him. She disrupts his board game pieces. Locke is very unhappy with his situation. But when his foster sister Jeannie dies, a golden retriever appears at the house then takes residence in Jeannie's room. Locke sees the dog as a person, the spirit of Jeannie. Once Jeannie's mother passes, the dog vanishes.

Dogs play important roles in modern society. Dogs show unconditional love, support and companionship to human beings. Dogs provide protection and comfort to people. Dogs help people, especially young children, caring, nourishment, responsibility and play.

Dogs are also powerful symbols.

Dog is a symbol for companion and guardian. In a positive light they are a symbol of loyal, faithful, honesty and willing to fight injustice.

The dog is seen as a powerful symbol of loyalty, intelligence and vigilance. As a descendant from the Asiatic Wolf man’s relationships with dogs goes back over 40,000 years and then it was the 11th sign of the Zodiac where it represented symbols both positive and negative.

In some ancient civilizations the Dog was a symbol of the underworld. In Egypt, the guardian of the dead was Anubis who was a dog-headed god. The jackal portrayed as black was the symbol of both death and regeneration.

The Dog’s quality made it associated to a guardian and therefore the protector of souls that entered the underworld. Its ability see well in the dark makes it a symbol of instinctive knowledge and the Greeks, North American Indians and Romans were said to associate Anubis with a star (Sirius) and called it a dog star.

Additionally, in ancient Mexico, the dog was buried with human sacrifice so that it could guide it to the hereafter while in ancient Scottish legend the green dog of the fairy world was believed to drive nursing mothers into the hills so as to provide milk for the fairy creatures.

It is important to connect the massive amount of ancient Egyptian symbolism in the LOST mythology.  Many believe that the time and resources to create these backgrounds, symbols and messages were important background clues to the island mysteries and the overall series premise.

And what did Crazy Mother tell Jacob about the light cave? It was the source for life, death, and re-birth. Anubis, the dog god of ancient Egypt was the symbol of death and regeneration (or rebirth). These stories fit perfectly like adjacent puzzle pieces.

The Number 12 must represent Anubis, as the guardian of life, death, the protector of souls, and the underworld's agent of regeneration in the after life. As the guardian of the underworld, this means that the island is a portal or intermediate stage along the journey from life, death and rebirth. That is why Crazy Mother and Jacob sought to protect it from outsiders like Widmore who had evil intentions.

As a way station between the living and the dead, it does not mean the main characters were "dead" on the island - - - they may have been caught between the two worlds. A person's candidacy to  immortality ends with their death; but to become the guardian, one needs to "accept their death" in order to be reborn. This could be what the series creators were asking in their big questions: what is life? what is death?

To assume such a powerful and important role, a viable candidate would need the compelling traits of a dog: loyalty, faithful, honest, willing to fight injustice, protect others, be vigilant, and nourish other people. The two successor guardians, Jack and Hurley, had those qualities.

The island guardians may be the gatekeepers, like the ferrymen on the River Styx, and not actually the heir to Anubis' throne. The island ordeals may have been the tests of who was worthy of the role of helping others in their journey to the next level of existence.

And this makes more sense when you realize that the last character "to awaken" to take the next step was Jack. On the island, he was the leader who rallied the survivors into a community. He continues to put himself behind the needs of other people. He helped, counseled, treated and risked his own life for them. In the sideways world, he was the last person in the church to realize what had happened to them. That they were now dead and ready for the next stage. His friends in the church greeted him warmly. Jack sat in the first pew, almost in a daze that "the most important people" in his life created the ending so they could stay together, forever.

And this parallels Jack's final moments on the island. For it is Walt's dog, Vincent, who comes from the jungle to lie next to Jack. Recall, it was Vincent who first awoke Jack after Flight 815 crashed on the island. It was Vincent's interaction with Jack that set Jack on the path to the beach, and into the chaos of helping all of the survivors - - -  without any judgment.

Some may doubt the importance of Vincent as a character. Vincent was in the jungle, he heard a whistle from Christian Shephard, who we would learn was the human manifestation of the smoke monster. We presume that there were two smoke monsters on the island: Jacob and MIB as being the two immortal beings. It called Vincent over and told him to go wake up "his son." That is not a true statement, unless you use it in the context of being a foster parent.  As Vincent ran off towards Jack to do this, Christian stated that Jack "had work to do." One could use those statements to indicate that this Christian form was in fact Jacob, who brought "his candidates" to the island to play a game with MIB.

But that opens the possibility that Vincent was the manifestation of MIB, taking the command from Jacob to start a "new" game. But there is a more plausible explanation - - - that Vincent was not MIB but a higher power in disguise. A higher power more important than Jacob, in a role that would not shine any light of suspicion or concern on the island hierarchy.

The final link in this decoding of the Numbers shows that Vincent is Anubis. Vincent found Jack in the bamboo clearing and led him to his flock of lost souls. In turn, it was Jack who guided the decisions for the survivors to find salvation. Vincent was present to observe all of the island tests. In a quiet way, Vincent also helped push the characters into finding clues or messages when he would "get lost" and search parties had to go and find him. It was in these searches that the characters began to bond which would be an important factor in facing the long journey and island trials. What better way to get people to do what they need to do by nudging them along instead of commanding them to so something?

And the symbolism of new numbers embodies the qualities of the family unit: mother, father, children. Parents are present to foster, nourish and develop their children into good human beings. Children are present to explore a new world, challenge it, learn about it, find their values and principles, to create purpose and understanding to their lives . . . . then repeat the process of creation.
 
Anubis creates new family units for the island over the eons on time. As society has developed from small tribes of hunter-gatherers into modern technology advanced families, Anubis recognizes and supports the concept of "foster" families to help lost souls find deep and meaningful relationships in life. And his foster families can include misfits, outcasts, cripples, criminals, the mentally weak, lonely and rebellious. . .  the main characters on the show.

Friday, February 12, 2016

TIME NUMBER

What is the most important Number in Time?

That question popped into my head while I was looking at a large public wall clock.

I saw the line between 12 and the 6 and started doing simple math: 12 minus 6 equals 6.

Then I mentally drew lines around the clock face:

11 -5 = 6
10-4 = 6
9-3 = 6
8 -2 = 6
7-1 = 6.

I concluded that 6 was a key number in time.

A minute is 60 seconds; an hour 60 minutes and a tenth (our current counting system) of an minute is .6.

Time was a major theme in LOST. In one aspect, Time had trapped Jacob and his brother on the island. Time was frozen for thousands of years based upon the people brought to the island. Jacob and his brother were then also brought to the island as candidates by Crazy Mother.

Who was the Number 6 candidate in the Lighthouse?

Jensen.

But his name was stricken.

What does Jensen mean?

The name Jensen is a Scandinavian baby name. Its meaning is from: Hebrew John 'Jehovah has been gracious; has shown favor.

In Numerology, the name Jensen is tied to these attributes: 

SOUL: 
People with this name have a deep inner desire to use their abilities in leadership, and to have personal independence. They would rather focus on large, important issues, and delegate the details. 

EXPRESSION: People with this name tend to be a powerful force to all whose lives they touch. They are capable, charismatic leaders who often undertake large endeavors with great success. They value truth, justice, and discipline, and may be quick-tempered with those who do not. If they fail to develop their potential, they may become impractical and rigid. 

There was a character who showed leadership ability with a strong sense of personal independence to leave his brother and his mother. He had a single focus on a large concept that there was something bigger and better away from the island; home. He helped the survivors try to harness the energy of the island to find a way home. He was quick tempered when his plans were thwarted, because he was rigid in his mission and ideals. 

That man was Jacob's brother.

We were never told his name. But it could have been Jensen based upon the attributes of the Number 6, the number tied to Time itself, something that MIB was desperately trying to release so he could become mortal and go home.