Sphragis. Barber Perfect kept saying the word as if it itself was the Seal. The Captain and Lucky were chugging Calvados with Barber in the Relais St. Michel on the lip of the Normandy causeway which led to the Mont. It was the Seal placed on books by the Church to give the work god's Imprimatur. Sphragis - it also means: a Signet Ring with which you stamp your Authority and Identity - and, the inscription or impression made by a Seal. So Sphragis is "that by which anything is con-firmed, proved, authenticated, as by a seal or a token of proof." Plain and simple, Sphragis is the Seal of Approval and Authentication. The Sign of the Cross made in Ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday is a Sphragis.
This Nazi Poster from WW2 is borrowed from the Iconography of St. Michael the Archangel. The SS Sig Runes have been transformed back into the Lightning Bolts from which they originated and now they take the place of Michael's Sword and his Lance. And that's the Old Dragon the Nazi Knight is pinning to the earth - the Beast is Red, Commie, and Jewish. Not too subtle. St. Michael is the Patron Saint of Germany and the Patron of most Western Police Forces, Military Commando Units, and every Fascist dictatorship in Christian History. The Poster reads: Germany's Victory [Seig] is Europe's Freedom. See the Bauer [farmer] plowing in the lower left corner? That's the Christian Church behind him - lending the Bauer and the Nazi the Sphragis of Jesus Heinrich Christ. See the Seal imprinted on the Dragon's left Ass-Cheek? That's the Sphragis which puts the poster in an Archive, validates its authenticity, and ruins it for Nazi Collectors. Barber can be very touchy about the Backstory to which the poster attempts to attach itself. He's telling the Captain and me about Gerhard Kittel the German Christian Theologian who was one of the 1st to use terms which actively called for the "Extermination" of the Jews. Kittel's books on Christian Theology are still used in Protestant Seminaries all over the world. Both Pooler and Barber have what is called "Mercurial Personalities." Which means that conversations often lead to blood. The Calvados is real; it's Authentic. Not the Tourist swill. But the Original. The Eponymous. The shit with Wormwood, like the Green Fay. Ibeca has warned us not to get drunk because we have a full day of shooting the next day. Barber showed up at the Mont on his big White Honda Touring Bike just to give Skippy a chance to ride it. Kenny La Roche had some bidnez at the Mont and Ibeca was just going to have to shoot around it. The Captain asked: "What should we tell her?" Barber answered: "Tell her the truth. That we are checking the Sphragis on An Archangel's Lance."
A Sphragis is a Seal. It's a Stamp of Authenticity. So if you follow that line of logic into Biology you find the other meaning of Sphragis: A Mating Plug. Give that a minute to sink in. Go on back and gander at the Naked Yoot being initiated into the Mysteries of Gnostic Sexual Rituals. In Biology there is a mating practice, in some species of invertebrates, called: Traumatic Insemination. The Male bedbug "traumatically inseminates" a Female like this:
Click 7 times and meet Euclid.
He pierces her abdomen with his Penis and ejaculates thru the wound directly into the abdominal cavity. The Sperm are then free to race to the ovaries and fertilization occurs. By bypassing the Pussy and stabbing the bitch in the belly the Male Sperm avoid the Vaginal Mating Plug and also Traumatic Insemination is a way of getting around "courtship rituals." It's a guy kind of thing.
Don't touch the Owls.
The Mating Plug is an Evolutionary Adaptation whereby after the Male has ejaculated Sperm he then secretes a glutinous substance into the female's reproductive tract which hardens and literally "glues the bitch shut," so his sperm will not have to compete with the sperm of other males. Traumatic Insemination [TI] is a way around the Mating Plug.
Click 10 times and meet the Bishop.
Some of the Bio-Etics argue that TI may have been an adaptation for males to get around female resistance to mating. "This bizarre method of insemination probably evolved as male bedbugs competed with each other to place their sperm closer and closer to the mother lode of eggs, the ovaries." Some evolved long cocks to bypass the female storage pouch and drop seed further upstream close to the eggs. Other males evolved Traumatic Insemination as a compensation for being Short-Cocked, but Dangerous. Coercive Sex practices are common in nature. And in Insects especially, TI is practiced in both hetero as well as homosexual couplings.
"Research into the paternity of offspring produced by traumatic insemination has found `significant' Last-Sperm Precedence. That is, the last male to TI a female tends to sire most of the offspring of that Female." There is a downside for the female besides the general notion of the act: TI causes wounds and infections and shortens the lifespan of the females. Colonies of bedbugs go extinct very quickly, starting with the females. And yet Bedbugs have survived. Psycho-Etics are quick to point out that Sperm Competition is Klick-Zero in the Battle for Survival and that it is also the Engine which powers and molds Selection and Adaptation. To show you how cool this Engine works, ponder this: TI is practiced by males on both females and other males. Male bedbugs fuck other male bedbugs. Initiation or not. But the female Reproductive Program has also adapted. Females want more Choice with whom they mate so they are naturally more Sexually Selective - that is, they resist mating. The bitches. Some of them have evolved "spermalege structures" which mimic those of males and decrease female couplings. In animal species where no courtship ritual has evolved Traumatic Insemination is the rule as are other types of Sexually Coercive behavior. TI has been likened to Sadomasochism, stabbing, and Rape behavior among Monkeys. "Bachelor herds of bottlenose dolphins will sometimes gang up on a female and coerce her to have sex with them, by swimming in close proximity to her, chasing her if she attempts to escape, and making vocalized or physical threats." So all in all, Sphragis is a word which describes a Seal which seals the deal. It says one thing is Authentic and keeps all the other things out. Like the good Bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus, and his book on Heresies. A Theological Mating Plug. If The Secret Gospel of Mark is a Morton Smith forgery what was his motivation? There's no money in Biblical Scholarship and precious little fame. Why would one of the Etics try to poison the Kiki well by implying that Christ got it on with his Disciples?
The Spear of Destiny is a Sphragis - in every sense of the word. Whoever holds it is said to be God's Warrior King on Earth. In his hands would be the Destiny of the World. Whoever held it and did god's Wetwork on earth would be invincible. All you had to do was Believe that what you were doing was Deus Vult. What God Willed. A military buckle with Gott mit Uns inscribed on it is a Shield for god's warriors. It's also a Sphragis which Claims a connection.
Click 10 to clear the Path.
Most of the Myths about Nazis hunting for the Grail and the Heilige Lanze are either Hollywood, New Age, or both. Most of them. Himmler did send his SS Ahnenerbe out to collect the Primary Relics of Christianity. Himmler had a mystical belief in Power and Powers. The Jesuits beat that into him the way Sister Samuel beat that into Skippy. But the Indiana Jones stuff misses the mark. It mistakes the Pointing Finger for the Moon.
There are no `actual' Relics of St. Michael the Archangel at Mont St. Michel. There are no Relics with that kind of Sphragis in any Temple on earth. There are things buried. And there are things hidden. And the Bishop of Avranches knows where the bodies are. Angels don't leave Relics. Asomatic Beings don't even have to Piss or Shit. Which begs the point that you would have to believe in Angels.
Click 11 times & get close to Mikey.
The Entzauberung der Welt emptied out the Angels and killed off the Fairies too. Counterfeit Relics of the Christian Pantheon and Saints is the oldest Christian bidnez on earth. It `IS' Christianity in the sense that it was the Blood and the Bones of the Martyrs which created the Christian Ethos and things like that don't come with a Certificate of Authenticity. Faith in that shit is the Sphragis. You should think of Relics as Rechargeable Lithium Batteries and the Juice they produce is Belief.
The reason Barber was telling Lucky and the Captain about Sphragis was because Lucky had asked: Why was the Secret Gospel of Mark even considered? What made it impossible to dismiss? Never mind that you could never Prove that Secret Mark was Authentic - there is no way to prove that any of the 80 to 100 New Testament Gospels are authentic. What is there about this one gospel which makes it impossible to simply set it aside as a clever attempt to muddy the Kiki waters? But it was like asking Ibeca what the Secret Name of her Film on Kenny La Roche was - so there was no answer. Barber's point was that all Provenance is inherently weak and unstable. History is too easy to shape from the outside in. Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own a Press and History is a child which you mold by bringing it up in your house. In the bidnez of Bogeys and phoney Relics you never go after Authenticity; you go after Doubt. If you have done your homework there will always be others with their own Horses in the Race. Let the Others push for the Sphragis; it's the controversy which Jacks the Chi & the Price. And it's the same with all the phoney gospels in all the phoney religions. Create lies which fill holes - Lacunae in the Logic and in the Sequencing - not lies which dig holes. Barber Perfect is Old School Christian and unlike Pooler and Skippy he does not create Bogeys to hurt the Church. He Salts the Timely and the Necessary. He "buries" things which when found - at the right moment - will infuse a Kiki `Surge.' Just for a moment, before the Doubt settles back in - but just long enough. It doesn't matter a whit if these Salted Things were `Real' or `Authentic' - what fucking good is St. Peter's Foreskin anyway? There are no proofs of Miracles. St. Michael does not leave footprints in stone floors, or his Lance, Sword, and Shield in a Tourist Monastery. The only thing Saints really ever leave us is the Idea of themselves - it's up to us to create our Relics and our Worlds from them.
Click on the the Knight to get to the Heilige Lanze. Click on the 35 MPH sign to get to the Speedlimit in America.
Click on this to go to Page 5 - The Uranians