A Brief History of Meme

It is interesting to consider the first origins of writing within what was clearly magical practise of the Paleolithic period and how that extended into the Neolithic and then the translated texts of the early bronze age which make apparent what was involved, which i will suggest here was essentially a declaration of faith, and that in progress.

The basis for this comes from interesting observations in this paper on the Luwian Goddess of fate and writing Kwanza-The Luwian Deity Kwanza

The three stages under discussion may be illustrated through the three etymologically unrelated theonyms: the Hittite fate goddesses Gulses (cf. Hitt. guls - ‘to carve, engrave’), the Armenian mythological gure Groł , lit. “Writer”, and ultimately Slavic * čьrtъ ‘demon, devil’, lit. “Draughtsman”.

When particular communities have no practical command of writing but only a general knowledge of its concept, it is likely to acquire magical and ominous connotations in their eyes.

There was a clear relationship involved between the actual making of the mark, the drawing of the line or creation of the inscribed furrow, and the determination of fate, that it is expected the act of writing will actually make it so, which of course lends support to suggestions that the earliest sign scripts such as those of Vinca culture related to magical and oracular practise.

Hittite verbal root guls- (phonologically /kuls-/) represents a reflex of IE. * kwels ‘to draw’, whose other reflexes include Ved. kr ̥ṣ áti ‘to pull’, Avestan karšaiti ‘to draw furrows’ and Greek τέλσον ‘furrow’.

This article on the Tartaria Tablets proposes such a case and that what is involved with a sequence of signs is faith in a process, for example a seed, followed by a stalk followed by grain symbols and thus attempting to determine the fate of a good harvest.

Such an example also of course correlates to the singular mark being understood as a furrow, a foundation of agricultural process, and it is therfore no coincidence that the sign of the Sumerian Goddess of grain and writing Nisaba was represented by the sign of the furrow, the constellation Virgo which had risen at the Spring Equinox at the dawn of the Neolithic era.



The earliest Paleolithic signs are generally considered to relate to calendric and seasonal notation, as an affirmation of something that you could have faith in and order your life around and the Neolithic extended usage i would consider builds upon that foundation, thus the sign sequences are describing agricultural process and seasonal rituals, that these are what determine the fate of the people.

Gulses can determine the time of a person’s death An Akkadian and Hittite bilingual text contains the expression ‘in the day of your destiny’ in its Akkadian version, while its Hittite counterpart is the sentence ‘when the days of the Gulsa-deities befall you’

Once the bronze age commences of course things became a whole lot more complex but the principles remained the same, Nisaba remained the Goddess of the Sumerian scribes who involved themselves with the recording of commercial transactions one could have faith in, the establishment of legal contracts, the declarations of Kingship, and the writing down of events, mythology, and hymns of praise.

It was also the case in Sumeria that every conceivable action was inscribed on a Me Tablet and that control of such empowered a particular Deity to be in charge of such activities, even to the extent of the Tablet of Destiny which guaranteed control of the entire Universe, which of course establishes the belief that the written word correlated to actual fate.

It is readily apparent and a self evident truth that a tradition based upon faith in the written word can be easily exploited through the production of fraudulent writings and documentation until we arrive at the present age of not believing anything you read upon the internet, but it is also the case that people have an intrinsic desire to put their faith in the written word and allow this to determine their fate, and thus the ceaseless activities of the political propagandists and perditious persuasive's.

In the current Memetic age we have entered into see's a return to the basic principle that the mark must directly correlate with a self evident truth, if that is the case then your Meme will resonate and gain acceptance, this having become necessary when only distortions of truth are promoted through MSM, the production of writing for clearly Demonic purpose.

The current symbol of such Kek was of course an Egyptian sign that correlated to the point of transition between darkness and light at the dawn, based upon self evident truths of the frog being a useful symbol of transiton from the water onto the surface and even up into the air, the Egyptian hieroglyphic system an attempt to translate natural based phenomena into a metaphysical system of belief.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Hi Kantzveldt!
I love reading your threads, and this one was really interesting.

I was wondering if you were going to mention the "Kek" meme (as it became popular in regards to Donald Trump, prior to his Presidency).
I found a great article on "Memetic Magic" but can't locate the link right now.
Fascinating stuff, thank you.
jacy

a reply to: Kantzveldt

There was a clear relationship involved between the actual making of the mark, the drawing of the line or creation of the inscribed furrow, and the determination of fate, that it is expected the act of writing will actually make it so, which of course lends support to suggestions that the earliest sign scripts such as those of Vinca culture related to magical and oracular practice.

Not magic, but record keeping, counting money, debt, payments etc. Once notches on sticks, knots on ropes became to numerous to count someone had to grunt, pay up sucker.

unless I missed it mentioned in the OP. I'm pretty sure it's called memetic magic

a reply to: jacygirl

It is interesting to establish the deep connection between the written word and it's connection to the fate of the individual that reads it or adapts their life towards it, in this regard a cult such as Scientology exploits that desire to live one's life by a manual as it were, in theory probably not a bad thing as it's what we've always tried to do, but of course readily exploitable.



a reply to: intrptr

There is always an aspect of faith involved and the marks are intended to reinforce such, for example in the early recordings of lunar cycles, that was something you could put your trust in and the number of months in the year and the seasonal cycles and how you could order your activities in accordance with them, the determination of fate.

Record keeping relies upon questions of integrity, can you trust the figures that the bank says you owe them, a relationship based upon trust and faith, can you adjust your life in order to comply with their interest demands etc...

what you are describing sounds like a paleolithic "The Secret".

Essentially, the ancients found some reason to connect the writing/drawing of something to it actually happening.

I wonder where "magick" comes from? Shaman made some lucky guesses and started a tradition? I know shaman tended to be the schizoaffected....is it possible that they had particular insights?

What you describe is a rather common delusion among schizoaffected people. Not to mention the psychotic behavior of writing copiously.

Bob

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Right writing as a form of behavioural reinforcement, one of the reasons i wanted to have another look at the earliest traditions of how writing was understood was because many of the extensive Vinca signs relate to the enigmatic figurines they produced, either in terms of the signs being written upon them or the signs being derived directly from the design of their apparel, this suggests to me an implicit trust in what those figurines represented and also a basis for understanding

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Interesting thread S&F.

Have you seen this?

The Truth About Pepe The Frog and The Cult of Kek

Looks awful lot like a person at a PC...


Shadilay...!

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Record keeping relies upon questions of integrity, can you trust the figures that the bank says you owe them, a relationship based upon trust and faith, can you adjust your life in order to comply with their interest demands etc...

Nope. never have, never will.

Was just musing that the need to speak a written language rose out of necessity to resolve dispute over those 'figures'.

My banker might keep careful track of my money but I don't really know where it is after I deposit it wth him. He doesn't even know as he invests it somewhere else, too.

a reply to: fluff007

Oh yes i've seen all of that, the rediscovery of the lost art of the utterly convincing fairytale...

originally posted by: skunkape23
Bob

Church of the SubGenius is it not?
2nd line

ganjoa

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
It was also the case in Sumeria that every conceivable action was inscribed on a Me Tablet and that control of such empowered a particular Deity to be in charge of such activities, even to the extent of the Tablet of Destiny which guaranteed control of the entire Universe, which of course establishes the belief that the written word correlated to actual fate.

At this point you began to lose me. I know what a meme is, and this isn't it.

It is readily apparent and a self evident truth that a tradition based upon faith in the written word can be easily exploited through the production of fraudulent writings and documentation until we arrive at the present age of not believing anything you read upon the internet, but it is also the case that people have an intrinsic desire to put their faith in the written word and allow this to determine their fate, and thus the ceaseless activities of the political propagandists and perditious persuasive's.

Actually the visual (movie/Youtube) is more compelling than the written word. Video also has the advantage that you only need be somewhat proficient in the language to understand it - that's why cartoons for babies works the first time a baby sees the cartoon but reading the book takes a lot of repetitions before the baby associates the words on the page with specific spoken words and concepts.

In the current Memetic age we have entered into see's a return to the basic principle that the mark must directly correlate with a self evident truth, if that is the case then your Meme will resonate and gain acceptance, this having become necessary when only distortions of truth are promoted through MSM, the production of writing for clearly Demonic purpose.

I'd dispute that... we also take many things as symbolic. And whether or not a meme is promulgated has to do with the person starting it and their interconnectedness with the world as well as whether their meme resonates with their followers and others of a similar mindset.

If I make a meme with a frog and make it about economics, I can guarantee that nobody in my friendslist is going to pass it along although a number of them will "get" it. If I put it on a forum for economics, everyone will get it and the meme will grow as long as it's passed to other economists. Same thing about a (more common) meme about divorce - I wouldn't pass that along because I don't feel strongly about divorce (been there, got remarried, much happier, end of story.)

The current symbol of such Kek was of course an Egyptian sign that correlated to the point of transition between darkness and light at the dawn, based upon self evident truths of the frog being a useful symbol of transiton from the water onto the surface and even up into the air, the Egyptian hieroglyphic system an attempt to translate natural based phenomena into a metaphysical system of belief.

I'm not even sure where you're going with this, frankly.

Kek is one of four frog-headed deities of the Ogdoad (which does not become part of the dominant state religion)- but there were more frog deities than that one, including Hequet. He is a god of darkness and formlessness ("primoridal chaos") and eventually the god of the time before dawn.

The frog symbol (i-17 in the Gaardiner sign list) in hieroglyphs refers to Hequet and not Kek.

I'm not sure what the psychedelic video has to do with Kek.

He's been made a meme from 4chan but the meme has nothing to do with the ancient Egyptian god and has more to do with kit-bashing symbols to create something to troll with.

originally posted by: fluff007
a reply to: Kantzveldt

Interesting thread S&F.

Have you seen this?

The Truth About Pepe The Frog and The Cult of Kek

Looks awful lot like a person at a PC...

Shadilay...!

That's a particularly interesting link. Enjoyed it though I disagree with the conclusion there. But an excellent record of the event!

a reply to: Byrd

The term mīmēma as "imitated thing" is applicable to the Sumerian abstraction of the Mes tree were all the leaves represented functions of life as written expressions, that naturally self generated as the tree grew and developed more branches, a good one also in suggesting a self evident truth.

The memetic counter culture is somewhat more sophisticated than the mere adoption of a frog as a motif, in that it requires prior understanding of contextual usage and associations, in that sense something of a sign for the initiated, thus they tend to pass through various transitional stages of development and levels of interpretation.

Kek related to that point of ultimate twilight 18 degrees beneath the horizon were the darkness as if by magic translates into the first light of dawn, his partner Kauket the opposite, in the greater sense that also related to the first emergence of the light of creation, in both cases they represent points of transition.

The other two frog Deities in the Ogdoad are Hek and Heket, the earliest associations of Heket are concerned with birth in the Cosmological sense, Hek was a Deity of time and space they closely relate to the function of Kek and Kauket.

So anyway the current usage of Kek is entirely appropriate as it relates to incipient enlightenment within the twilight zone, it has everything to do with what the Egyptians understood the symbol as representing, and therefore it works.

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
a reply to: Byrd

The term mīmēma as "imitated thing" is applicable to the Sumerian abstraction of the Mes tree were all the leaves represented functions of life as written expressions, that naturally self generated as the tree grew and developed more branches, a good one also in suggesting a self evident truth.

It appears from my end as though you're confusing meme (which is how culture is transmitted spreads in a way analogous to a virus spreading in a population) with symbol (which is embedded in a culture but is not necessarily a meme.) Your meme qualifies as a sign which travels rapidly through a population but never makes it to the category of symbol (which you're trying to force.)

Kek related to that point of ultimate twilight 18 degrees beneath the horizon

And where did this description come from? It was not the ancient Egyptians. They had no notion of degrees and their sky was divided into decans.

were the darkness as if by magic translates into the first light of dawn, his partner Kauket the opposite, in the greater sense that also related to the first emergence of the light of creation, in both cases they represent points of transition.

This is apparently something that someone came up with in the past few years, then. His name means 'darkness.'

The other two frog Deities in the Ogdoad are Hek and Heket, the earliest associations of Heket are concerned with birth in the Cosmological sense, Hek was a Deity of time and space they closely relate to the function of Kek and Kauket.

Actually, she's associated with fertility early on. The association with birth comes later in the Middle Kingdom.

So anyway the current usage of Kek is entirely appropriate as it relates to incipient enlightenment within the twilight zone, it has everything to do with what the Egyptians understood the symbol as representing, and therefore it works.

It's a reworking of the Egyptian deity; a modern construct. It is viral (meme) but only in some groups.

The Ogdoad (as it turns out) is a cosmogeny that arises during the New Kingdom (and specifically near the time of the Ptolemys.) Kek has little theology attached to him; he primarily appears as a supporting actor - in Edfu temple mainly where at the entrance of Per-Wer he appears as one posed in adoration of Isis. The only real information about him is simply a translation of his titles, which is where we get "raiser of day" from. In that drawing that I linked, only his name is given.

So it's not really a revivification of an ancient Egyptian deity, and it's not really a meme. It's an appropriated sign that has been turned into a symbol.

a reply to: fluff007
This has already been debunked:
It is a statue of Heket, not Kuk.
Heket is spelled twisted flax (not magic), hill side (not computer), bread loaf (not table).

a reply to: Byrd

The point of Ultimate Twilight can also be expressed as 1/20th of that circle which the Sun was understood to describe, when you mention that his name meant darkness you leave out the association with obscurity also, the point of ultimate twilight involves both concepts, a region of time and space were signs and symbols are undifferentiated.

The mention of Heket in the pyramid texts involves the Pharoah developing frogs legs so he can leap into the infinite space of the Heavens, a sort of cosmological birth, sometimes though people take all this a little too seriously.

The Ogdoad as it doesn't turn out pre-dates the New Kingdom, but certainly it was revived under the Ptolomies and the article you linked to is very good, noteworthy there that Kauket declares Hathor as the Female Sun and the Golden One, because she marked that point were the Sun entered into the underworld and technically became Feminine, Kek and Kauket indicate points of gender transition also, Heka existed before duality had yet come into being.

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
a reply to: Byrd

The point of Ultimate Twilight can also be expressed as 1/20th of that circle which the Sun was understood to describe,

....but WHO is describing it as this and where's the reference? That's my question.

when you mention that his name meant darkness you leave out the association with obscurity

You've misunderstood. The actual word, 'kek' means 'darkness.' He's associated with formlessness and chaos and darkness and obscurity, yes.

a region of time and space were signs and symbols are undifferentiated.

Uhm...I think you're taking it farther than it's intended. Everything was formless. It was the great, chaotic nothingness. It doesn't seem to be associated with time or space.

The mention of Heket in the pyramid texts involves the Pharoah developing frogs legs so he can leap into the infinite space of the Heavens, a sort of cosmological birth, sometimes though people take all this a little too seriously.

And only in the Pyramid Texts of Pepi... not in the others. However, yes, she was a goddess of birth.

The Ogdoad as it doesn't turn out pre-dates the New Kingdom,..

Thank you. Tired typing does not make for much accuracy.

...but certainly it was revived under the Ptolomies and the article you linked to is very good, noteworthy there that Kauket declares Hathor as the Female Sun and the Golden One, because she marked that point were the Sun entered into the underworld and technically became Feminine, Kek and Kauket indicate points of gender transition also, Heka existed before duality had yet come into being.

Yeah...didn't want to get into that part because it didn't seem to relate much to the discussion.

Heka's a pretty neat goddess, and shows up in wands that I believe are related to childbirth.