To the moon, Gingrich!



Osiris (by Jeff Dahl)

As Newt Gingrich moons over his presidential possibilities, his so-called grandiosity knows no earthly bounds.  Why just the other day, he promised “to create a moon colony by 2020 if elected president.”

This claim has raised some eyebrows (and ire) amongst those who consider it to be the lie-detector equivalent of “a chicken in every pot.”  Gingrich’s response?  I was attacked the other night for being grandiose.  Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose.  The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose.  John F. Kennedy was grandiose…

Gingrich might just as well have referenced the Shangqing Daoists.  They, too, were preoccupied with moon colonies.  In fact, they were convinced that an overall celestial realm existed “that was populated by gods, immortals, demon

kings, converted spirits and ancestors.”  Their means of travel to the moon and beyond consisted of meditation and visualization.  Dee Finney of greatdreams.com also tells us that during such excursions, some Shangqing

meditators would “accompany the stars on their heavenly journey, nourish in their effluences and play around in the paradises they protected.”

The Ancient Egyptians were also noted for their lunar proclivities.  Finney reports that their moon god, Ah, was very likely “the son of the great Mother deity Apet, who was identified with the female hippopotamus Taurt…”  Osiris, whom Wikipedia reports is “usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead,” was also known as “the son of the sacred hippopotamus.”  This connection between Ah and Osiris resulted in Osiris absorbing “the attributes of the moon spirit…”

If these deities and spirits have indeed been populating the moon for eons, then what would they think of Newt’s plan to turn it into a mining camp (the likes of which the American Southwest has never seen)?  Would they think his plan grandiose?  Or would they instead deem it to be essentially small-minded?

Resources

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10237875-gingrich-promises-us-moon-colony-by-2020

http://www.greatdreams.com/moon/moon_worship.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/chicken-in-every-pot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangqing_School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris

Copyright January 26, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved