Symbolism is Not Entirely Subjective

I’m no expert on the occult, so this post is simply intended to provoke thought.  Additionally, frank talk regarding the occult use of phallic and yonic symbolism is unavoidable for any worthwhile discussion of this subject matter.  I have sought to address this in the most modest and dignified manner possible, and have pixilated portions of one particularly salacious image.

It is commonly noted that modern urban Christians find the agricultural illustrations of Scripture to be foreign and obscure.  What is less commonly appreciated is that most Christians today live, eat, and breathe in an Enlightenment atmosphere, having received the materialist worldview they were taught in government schools as an unexamined first principle.  Thus, things like the necessity of blood atonement, the dedication of first fruits, the supernatural role in fecundity, etc., matters once understood on an implicit level, now seem strange and mystifying.  Such also is the case with rightly comprehending symbolism.

While itself very old, the notion that there is no accounting for taste (de gustibus non est disputandum) is an apt sentiment for our post-modern era.  While post-modernism isolates every man in a closet of his own private meaning, in Christianity, all facts are connected through the universe’s one and only Creator and Sustainer.  Truth is one because there is only one God, and no particle or fact is outside of the meaning He gives it.  You might like vanilla and I might like chocolate, but it’s unlikely that either one of us has a gastronomic affinity for bat guano.  There is some accounting for taste; so too with the meaning of symbols.  Admitting a degree of subjectivity in the various meanings of a symbol, there remains some portion that is concrete and inescapable.

Occult Intuition

Even though many of Christendom’s enemies possess a high degree of worldview-consciousness, I do not claim that even (((Jayna Zweiman))) and Krista Suh, founders of the Pussyhat Project, are fully aware of the pussyhat’s symbolism.  What I do claim is that there is an inescapable symbolism of the pussyhat, produced not only by its creators, but by the common philosophy of those who wear it, its shape and color, and its antecedents.  When a symbol like the pussyhat finds such rapid and widespread cultural penetration, even to the extent of causing regional shortages in pink yarn, and overnight establishes itself as a part of our shared experience and common cultural consciousness, it possesses a certain resonance that extends far deeper than a simple fad.  For lack of a better term, it sparks an “occult intuition” in the population.  Just as Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species spread like wildfire, satisfying 19^th century philosophy’s need for an anti-supernatural theory of origins, the pussyhat has provided our feminized post-modern era with a high visual-impact unifying symbol, exploiting subconscious recognition between the symbol and the thing symbolized.

The Pussyhat’s Predecessor

In both the form and the philosophy represented, the antecedent of the pussyhat is the occult Phrygian cap.  The Phrygian cap’s origins date to classical antiquity, with representations in art and statuary surviving from at least the 4^th century before Christ.  The cap represents both a male prepuce (foreskin) and a rooster’s comb.  Some variants include extended ear flaps, simultaneously representative of testicles and a rooster’s wattles.

The Phrygian Cap as Male Prepuce

Man is most god-like in the creation and taking of life.  Thus, most pagan religions emphasize fertility and sacrifice.  Phallic imagery in particular is endemic to paganism of almost every variety, no matter how far removed, from ancient Mexico, to China, to India, to Egypt, to Italy, to Norway, and just about everywhere else.  The masculine principle is the active principle, and the feminine is passive.  The male is vigorous, potent, and vital, generating life, while the female nurtures it.  Even in Christianity, the imputation of original sin is through the male.

But the Phrygian cap is not only a fertility symbol, but also a symbol of being uncircumcised; that is, uncircumcised in both flesh and heart:  a covenant-breaker.  Solomon made Israel famous in the ancient world, and circumcision as a national characteristic of Israel was certainly renowned and likely notorious.  The subsequent diaspora of Israelites also made the covenant people well known in foreign lands (a key aspect of the preparation for the Gospel:  praeparatio evangelica).  In evidence of this common knowledge, Phrygia and the Apostle Paul’s hometown of Tarsus were both on the Anatolian peninsula.  (Tarsus can be reached by car from Phrygian Yazilikaya in less than 7 hours.)

Further, Satan and his familiars are forever inverting and corrupting Biblical symbols and sacraments to blaspheme the Lord.  To wear a giant representation of a foreskin on one’s head is to candidly declare one’s opposition to the Lord of the circumcised.  To better comprehend the symbolism of being uncircumcised in the Old Covenant era, it is helpful to first understand the symbolism of circumcision:

And yet we must inquire, whether any analogy is here apparent between the visible sign, and the thing signified. For the signs which God has appointed to assist our infirmity, should be accommodated to the measure of our capacity, or they would be unprofitable. Moreover, it is probable that the Lord commanded circumcision for two reasons; first, to show that whatever is born of man is polluted; then, that salvation would proceed from the blessed seed of Abraham. In the first place, therefore, whatever men have peculiar to themselves, by generation, God has condemned, in the appointment of circumcision; in order that the corruption of nature being manifest, he might induce them to mortify their flesh. Whence also it follows, that circumcision was a sign of repentance. Yet, at the same time, the blessing which was promised in the seed of Abraham, was thereby marked and attested. If then it seem absurd to any one, that the token of a favor so excellent and so singular, was given in that part of the body, let him become ashamed of own salvation, which flowed from the loins of Abraham; but it has pleased God thus to confound the wisdom of the world, that he may the more completely abase the pride of the flesh. And hence we now learn, in the second place, how the reconciliation between God and men, which was exhibited in Christ, was testified by this sign. For which reason it is styled by Paul a seal of the righteousness of faith. ~ John Calvin’s commentary on Genesis 17:11

Pagan Gods Who Donned the Phrygian Cap

There are far too many depictions of the cap surviving from classical antiquity to list here, but I will mention three notables from the pagan pantheon who were often shown wearing the cap:

• Attis, the consort of Cybele, who castrated himself, died, was preserved with no decay, and was resurrected. He was primarily a fertility god, in spring’s lively “resurrection” from winter, and was later also worshipped as a solar deity.
• Priapus, a god of fertility and male genitalia, who’s chief notable feature was his enormous, constantly engorged male sex organ (the medical term, priapism, comes from this god). The ancient practice of representing a god alternatively as a man or as a man with a beast’s head, was apparently also applied to Priapus.  There exists in the Vatican an ancient bust of Priapus with a rooster’s head, whose beak and wattles are replaced with human male genitalia.  The Greek inscription in the base of bust reads, “Savior of the World”.
• Mithras, god of a Roman mystery religion often viewed as Christianity’s chief early competitor. Mithras’ most common representation was in a scene wearing the Phrygian cap while sacrificing a bull, and looking over his shoulder at the sun god Sol.  Starting with the French revolutionary writer and creator of the Christ-myth theory, Charles François Dupuis, Christ-deniers have repeatedly treated Jesus as a fabrication based on Mithras.  Mithraism was quite popular but particularly so in the Roman military.

Beyond the phallic associations, it is also of interest that there is a common false-Christ thread to be found here.  A number of the patristic fathers of the Church posited that Satan, in anticipation of the long-promised Messiah, planted seeds of doubt through pagan-parallels with Christianity (though it should be noted that many of the pagan-parallels given today, including those of Dupuis, are outright fabrications).

The Occult Rooster

Moving on to the Phrygian cap as a rooster comb, the rooster is an ancient and enduring occult symbol.  The reasons for this are chiefly:

• Herald of the Sun: The rooster announces the rising of the sun.  As a result, the rooster is associated with the victory of light over darkness, both in literal and metaphorical senses.  In the Illuminist understanding, the rooster becomes symbolic of enlightenment.  This is not Christ as the Light of the World, but Lucifer as light-bearer.
• Frequent Copulation: A rooster may copulate 10 to 30 times a day.  As a result, the rooster is an enduring fertility symbol.
• Combativeness: The rooster’s aggressive and combative nature have resulted in associations with war and violence.  The word “cocky” comes from both the self-assertiveness of the rooster, as well as the strutting behavior they exhibit, especially after copulation.
• Peter’s Denial: The rooster has become a symbol of Peter’s denial of Christ.  Christendom’s use of the rooster as a Peter symbol is of the repentant, forgiven Peter.  The Illuminist use of the rooster as a Peter symbol is of Peter as Christ-denier.
• Dual Meaning of “Cock”: While the rooster itself has no penis, there is a very old correlation between roosters and the male sex organ, such that for centuries they have both been referred to as a “cock” (in English, at least).  Note also, “choke the chicken” as a euphemism for male masturbation.  This duality likely arises out of both the rooster’s frequent copulation and combativeness as finding parallels in masculine braggadocio and vigor, though a visual similarity with a plucked chicken neck is also suggested by some vulgar etymologies (further, “cock” as a tap or spigot).

The “Bonnet Rouge” of the French Revolution

The Phrygian cap and the Gallic rooster (le coq gaulois) were both key symbols of the French Revolution.  It is often stated that in antiquity freed slaves wore the Phrygian cap as a sign of their emancipation, but this is not correct.  In fact, the cap of manumission was the pileus, not the Phrygian.  The “liberty cap” is not a sign of freedom from slavery, but freedom from hierarchy.  Through its widespread use in the French Revolution, it has become an indelible symbol of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity).  The Gallic rooster, while originally so named due to a Latin homonym (“Gallus” = “Gauls” and “rooster”), is now a symbol of the Enlightenment and the French Republic.

As it relates to the pussyhat, it is of interest to note that the tricoteuses were French knitting women who often knitted Phrygian caps for the revolutionaries, and during the Reign of Terror gathered together at the Place de la Révolution to watch the daily guillotine executions while knitting.  The Dickensian character, Madame Defarge, was a particularly vindictive tricoteuse.  The revolutionary by proxy pattern is also present with the pussyhat, as many women who could not attend the 2017 Women’s March nevertheless knitted pussyhats for those who did.

The Pussyhat: the Phrygian Cap Feminized

The pussyhat is a modern, feminized Phrygian cap that exploits the threefold meaning of the word “pussy”:

• Female Sex Organs: Clothing is first and foremost a sin covering, specifically and especially for those parts of the body involved in the transmission of hereditary depravity.  To prominently don a piece of clothing called a “pussyhat” is therefore a denial of sin and the need for atonement.  It is an attempt to sear the conscience by taking a matter of shame and concealment and wearing it conspicuously on top of one’s head.  Additionally, it is well-known that males have a certain pride in their privates, while women commonly find theirs a matter of embarrassment.  Therefore, the pussyhat is also an attempt to make women equal to men.
• Weakling: Scripture and experience both teach that women are the weaker vessel (the “fine china”), a truth scorned by feminists. The pussyhat is a way to proudly own the accusation of “weakling” as a means of stripping it of its power and turning its meaning on its head.  It is the feminist meme of a “strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man”, by means of the rhetorical device of agree and amplify.  “I’m stronger because of my emotions.”
• Domisticated Cat: While many have attempted to read explicit yonic symbolism in the pussyhat’s shape, it actually represents cat ears.  Figuratively, the pussycat shape is yet another instance of agree and amplify, as it relates both to the popular image of a spinster as a “crazy cat lady”, and the domesticated cat as child/husband substitute for a single, childless female.  It is an implicit denial of a woman’s creation purpose as a wife and mother.

Putting this all together, in our present age, the occult meaning of the Phrygian cap is: masculine virility / covenant-breaker / Christ-denier / Enlightenment egalitarian / combative revolutionary.  With the pussyhat, these qualities have been inherited and feminized.  Masculine virility is turned on its head, becoming feminine superiority and sterility.  The pussyhat represents a rejection not only of male headship, but divine headship as well.  It thus inherits covenant-breaker / Christ-denier in total.  Enlightenment egalitarianism is also maintained, but Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité transmutes to License, Equality, Sorority.  Combative revolutionary becomes nagging revolutionary, with the State as the true husband and agent of revolutionary enforcement.  Any female who dons the pussyhat is at war with Christendom, Christian patriarchy, and even her own nature.  Such women are worthy only of contempt and ridicule.