Monolith comes from the Greek Mon and Lith. "Mon" means 'one' and "lith" means 'stone'. So the monolith is a direct reference to 'one
stone'. This film then, is about the one stone, or the single stone. And in this case, Stanley Kubrick has made sure that the stone is black. In
alchemy all things that exist come from the black stone, or the 'prima materia'. The black stone is the stone of transformation, and even more
important to this argument the stone of projection. This is the Philosopher's Stone. This is the object that can change, or transmute mankind,
according to alchemical lore. It is rare and, when it makes an appearance, it transforms the seeker. There is little doubt that the black monolith in
_2001_ is the Philosopher's Stone!
What is it that the Philosopher's Stone promises? The two main gifts of the stone are total gnosis, or knowledge of the seeker and the immortality of
the soul. Does the monolith deliver on these great promises? We shall see that it completes both promises before the film finally ends. In fact the
two promises of the Philosopher's Stone are what is actually accomplished by the monolith through the course of the movie. There is also little doubt
that Kubrick knew this all the time and it isn't accidental in anyway. This is a movie about the black stone, the prima materia, and the power of
projection.
The stone has given Bowman the gifts that the Philosopher's Stone has always promised. Bowman has achieved complete gnosis, or knowledge, and now he
has become immortal by overcoming physical death and being reborn. In that moment, he passes through the monolith one last time. The earth is ahead of
him now and he will be reborn on that planet. Bowman will be a new human, just as different from Homo Sapiens as Homo Sapiens are different from that
apeman who picked up that bone all that time ago. Nietzche's ape to man to superman theme, from his _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ essays, is mirrored
perfectly by Strauss' music and Kubrick's movie. Kubrick has evoked the spiritual and physical evolution of our race as it has been transformed by
this magical black stone.
Stanley Kubrick uses alchemical allegories through out the film. The obvious analogies are the celestial alignments that proceed each of the
alchemical transmutations in the film. The second main allegory is that it is a black stone that initiates these transmutations. Again this mirrors
the alchemical lore about the black stone causing the transmutation of the alchemist.
Adam erected the Ka'bah on earth exactly below the spot its perfect model occupies in heaven, and selected the stones from the five sacred mountains,
Sinai, al-Judi, Hire, Olivet, and Lebanon. Ten thousand angels were appointed to guard the structure; but, as Burckhardt remarks, they appear to have
been often most remiss in their duty! At the Deluge the Sacred House was destroyed. But the Almighty is said to have instructed Abraham to rebuild it.
In its reconstruction Abraham was assisted by his son Ishmael, who with his mother Hagar were at the time residents of Makkah, Abraham having
journeyed from Syria in order to obey the commands of God. Upon digging they found the original foundations of the building. But wanting a stone to
mark the corner of the building, Ishmael started in search of one, and as he was going in the direction of Jabal Qubais, the angel Gabriel met him,
and gave him the famous black stone. Ibn 'Abbas relates that the Prophet said, the black stone when it came down from Paradise was whiter than milk,
but that it has become black from the sin of those who have touched it. (MisWf, book Ii. Ch. iv. pt. 2.) (A Dictionary Of Islam, Thomas Patrick
Hughes, 1965: The pagan Arabs practiced polytheism. They worshipped nature, stones. angels and demons. Particular reverence was accorded the three
'daughters of God', and various national, local and family idols. Each tribe gave allegiance to a special protector: one god to whom it turned in
time of distress. Our modern altars may have had their beginnings in the stone worship of the ancients. One stone still holds a revered spot in the
Arab heart. This is the stone that fell from paradise at the fall of Adam. Pure white it was and housed in a temple built by Seth, Adam's son, until
a great flood ravaged the land, destroyed the temple, and buried it under the mud and debris. Tradition relates that the stone remained hidden until
Abraham sent his wife Hagar into the desert with their infant son Ishmael. One day, weakened by thirst, Hagar laid her baby on the sand to rest. His
fitful thrashings uncovered a spring of clear water near the site of the lost relic. It is told that an angel descended from heaven and helped recover
the sacred stone and that Ishmael rebuilt the holy house of Seth with the assistance of Abraham and the archangel Gabriel. This, in brief, is the
story of the Kaaba,' holiest building in Islam. (Islam and the Arabs, Rom Landau, 1958 p 11-21). When Abraham the Friend of the Merciful finished
building the sacred House, Gabriel came and said: "Circle it seven times!" and he circumambulated it seven times with Ishmael, touching all the
corners during each circumambulation. When they had completed seven, he and Ishmael prayed two prostrations behind the stone [maqam]. He said: Gabriel
got up with them and showed him all the ritual stations: al-Safa, al-Marwa, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat. (The Hajj, F. E. Peters, p 3-41, 1994)
As these accounts attempt to demonstrate, the complex ritual the Muslims call the Hajj or Pilgrimage can be traced back, in general and in each
specific detail, to Adam and, more proximately, to Abraham, whose intent and practices Muhammad was to restore so many centuries later. For the
non-Muslim, however, the Meccan rituals are striking remnants of a pagan, albeit Semitic, past in Arabia, which the Prophet of Islam permitted to
survive by incorporating them into his own prescriptions. (The Hajj, F. E. Peters, p 3-41, 1994)
Volume XX Issue VIII August 2001
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
We arrived in Manhattan and took the subway to forty-second and Lexington, walking the rest of the way to the East River and the United Nations. We
went inside, through security, and into the Meditation Room, which was designed by the second Secretary General of the U.N., Dag Hammarskjold. The
room is 18 feet wide at the entrance, 33 feet long, and contains a black monolithic stone altar at the center. This black rectangular stone weighs
exactly 13 thousand pounds according to the plaque on the wall. We put our hands on this evil altar and prayed against all the powers of darkness that
are at work there. We prayed that the power of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ would discomfit the powers of darkness!
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
LODESTAR AND THE NEW TOWER OF BABEL
The black stone (monolith) is also present in two other prominent areas in the United States. Can you guess where?
One of the locations is the great Scottish Rite Masonic Temple located 13 blocks from the White House in Washington D.C. (Kinman, 304).
The second location is in New York City at the United Nations (U.N.) building in the meditation room. The meditation room is "constructed as a
hologram depicting, by its very design, the unity of the major religions of the world." Tal Brooke, One World, (End Run Publishing: Berkeley, CA,
2000) 187. The design of this room indicates that this international organization is one of the groups behind the drive to unify the world's
religions as is the Vatican.
"There is in this meditation room a great black stone." (Emphasis in original). (Kinman 303). Albert Pike wrote "The ancients adored the sun under
the form of a great black stone" (monolith)(Pike, 775) as quoted in Kinman, 304. "The sun god was worshipped in Babylon, Egypt, and Peru, and among
many of the ancients." Texe Marrs Circle of Intrigue (Living Truth Publishers: Austin, Texas, 1995) 227. Many symbols of the Sun God (pagan worship)
can be found in numerous recent New Age publications. See also Corporate Symbology.
As of the year 2000 this great black stone (monolith) at the U.N. had been "under the watchful eye of Sri Chinmoy", an Indian guru "who also served
as the chaplin of the United Nations who claimed to be in a state of perpetual Cosmic Consciousness while embodying the divinity of man" (Brooke,
187). "He teaches that the number "666" is a holy number.(Kinman, 303).(Emphasis in original).
Remember the question : Why put a black Monolith at the site of the world trade center ? and what does this really mean to those that are
responible?
Are the people so brainwashed they can't see this is as the monolith at Mecca, those who brought down the buildings are connected to this symbol!
MEDITATION AND THE UNITED NATIONS
The major requirement for the return of Christ is a world at peace
and this is the objective of the U.N.
The Meditation Room at the United Nations was first established by a lay Christian organization, and re-modeled by Dag Hammarskj�ld, a former
Secretary-General, who called it a 'Room of Quiet'. It was thought that the 'house', the council of nations, dedicated to work and debate in the
service of peace, should have one room dedicated to silence in the outward sense and stillness in the inner sense.
In the center of the Meditation Room there is a large ironstone rock. Upon this central block streams a shaft of light from an unseen source. A symbol
of man's hope for 'light or understanding' to flood the 'world of misunderstanding'. It symbolizes the light of or divine Wisdom that we can
invoke upon the affairs of the world; how the light of the spirit gives life to matter. 'From the point of Light within the mind of God, Let light
stream forth into the minds of men. Let light descend on Earth.
This work is being undertaken and carried forward by the U.N.
The article goes on to say that 'the Christ will add a new element to His work - the Spiritual Will, the Will-to-good, the principle needed for
synthesised, unified world action. These principles and energies will be interpreted and applied by the Christ and His group of world workers to world
reorganisation and world planning according to the new growth possible under the influence of Aquarius'. Again-what more appropriate centre than the
U.N.?
Some further points for consideration: the U.N. was formed in June 1945 with one of its main objectives being the establishment of right human
relations. In June 1945, the Christ announced that He had decided to emerge again into physical contact with humanity, if they would bring about the
initial stages of establishing right human relations. Also in June 1945, at the time of the Full Moon of the Christ, He gave to humanity a world
prayer-the Great Invocation. To consider the Great Invocation, line by line, in relation to the U.N. can be most exciting and rewarding thought
expansion.
The exact time and place for the Christ's reappearance are not yet known to humanity, He will appear when and where the definite work of preparation
has created suitable conditions, in the meantime, preparation must go on. At the present the best chance of the plan of light and love working out, is
through the U.N. If the evocative appeal from the men [and women] of goodwill is strong enough, may it be that the Christ will return through the
United Nations?
The U.N. Meditation room at U.N. headquarters in New York (pictured here) is off-limits to most visitors, including Americans who pay most of the
bills up there. It has been described as a pagan temple. It includes no traditional religious symbols. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was married to his
Swedish wife in this room. Does worship of the earth, the spirit of "Gaia," take place there? The book Spiritual Politics says people have had
mystical experiences in this place.
Just a few things to think about; Shammah.