re: NY Times: Pentagon’s UFO Program - aerospace/esoteric/quantum mechanics/future

Posting here since discussion has included Scott and Prometheus

Came across a new show, Raised by Wolves (directed by Ridley Scott)

Deep themes (pertinent to here and the linked post)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kRG4al5rXJU

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Raised By Wolves
1x01 Mother and Father family troubles

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Listen to Mother at approx 2min mark

Atheism
Progress
Technocrats...

On the nose...

Background:

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2020-09-27-go-fk-yourself-ridley-scott-defends-raised-by-wolves-his-new-series-shot-in-sa/

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Go f**k yourself: Ridley Scott defends 'Raised by Wolves', his new series shot in SA The director has harsh words for critics who don't 'get' his new show, writes Margaret Gardiner
27 September 2020 - 00:03
BY MARGARET GARDINER

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Asked to describe Raised by Wolves, the Brit says: "It's about two children brought into a new world, Kepler-22b, after the Earth is destroyed by a great war. They're looked after by a powerful 'she' person — the 'Mother'. 'Father' and 'Mother' on this new world are metaphors for Adam and Eve. When our world destroys itself, two androids are sent into space with children, in the hope they can start a new civilisation. The show deals with atheism and Mithraicism [a strong belief in a supernatural power] — some of the audience won't even know what those two words are," says Scott.

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https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/raised-by-wolves-mithraism-sol-explained/

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Raised by Wolves: Mithraism and Sol Explained HBO Max's sci-fi series Raised By Wolves features a religious faction that references Sol and the Mithraic Mysteries. Here are the real-world Roman concepts the show borrowed from.

By Juliette Harrisson | September 3, 2020

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The cult of Mithras is a particularly useful choice for a comparison with Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, because several elements of Mithraic religion were adopted by early Christians (the clue is in the name – it’s a Roman religion!). Ancient Mithraists shared a ritual meal of bread and wine, just like early Christians (though the Christian detail of the unleavened bread comes from the Jewish Passover). Both Mithras and Jesus were associated with light and the sun. The early Christians deliberately took over Mithras’ birthday on the 25th December to celebrate the birthday of Jesus instead, a date conveniently close to the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia (17-23 December), though nowhere near where the Christian gospels would place the birth of Jesus (if there were shepherds out all night watching sheep and lambs, it must have been spring). And, like most mystery cults, Mithraism offered personal salvation in this life and the next, just as Christianity did. In 1882, a historian called Ernest Renan actually suggested that if Christianity had not taken over the Roman world, Mithraism would have done – most modern historians would disagree with that

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We call them “mystery cults” because the rituals they practiced, the “mysteries” or “secret rites”, were kept secret from anyone who wasn’t initiated into the cult. They were members-only clubs, which you had to pay to join, and go through an initiation ritual. We don’t know exactly what these were like because, of course, they were a secret! Only members could learn the secrets of the god or goddess and take part in the secret ceremonies. Like modern Freemasonry, ancient Mithraism also allowed members to rise through the ranks of the cult, gaining different levels as they went. Also like Freemasonry, and unlike the other mystery cults, membership was usually restricted to men.

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Mystery religion loomed prominent in the HLI thread and the recent discussion about archetypal practices performed in secret and adapted by mainstream religion (reference psychedelic discussion linked to post)

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All this means that a lot of the attitudes of the “Mithraic” on the show would sound completely weird to ancient Mithraists. They would be especially confused by the Mithraic reliance on a book of “Scriptures”, since it was forbidden on pain of death to write down anything about the sacred mysteries or the secrets of the cult. Most of what we know about ancient Mithraism, we’ve put together from images and inscriptions from inside the secret chamber of the Mithraeum. This was a place of worship designed to look like a cave, which only people who had been initiated into the cult were allowed to enter, so no one outside the cult would see the images or know the cult’s secrets.

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Whether the “Mithraic mysteries” that their prophet is expected to lead them to will have anything in common with the ancient mysteries remains to be seen. Mithras’ myth centred around the killing of a bull – in fact, this was the symbol shown in all the Mithraeums in a similar way to images of Jesus on the cross in Catholic churches, so really a bull might have been a better choice of emblem than a sun! Watch out for references to bulls in later episodes, and listen out for everybody’s names, too. When Mother gives her name in Episode 1, she says it’s Lamia, a child-eating monster from Greco-Roman mythology, so that’s something to bear in mind!

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Heavy Saturn symbolism in the opening scenes

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eQsScIVAs3c

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Raised By Wolves opening scene | HBO Max

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Mystery religion is blended into the movie Gladiator (Maximus figurines) as it was believed to be practiced by Roman soldiers