THE LABYRINTH CYPHER

While trying to develop a cipher based upon the Chartres labyrinth, I struck upon an interesting feature of its layout and construction. While the layout of most labyrinths is well understood and well-documented, the layout of the Chartres labyrinth appears less so. 

For example on this website, which contains impressive work attempting to uncover the secrets of the labyrinth, states that the Chartres labyrinth is 'pseudo-symmetrical'. I believe this statement reveals a profound lack of understanding of the basis of the Chartres labyrinth construction, because, as I shall show you, the labyrinth is perfectly symmetrical under certain transformations.

To prove this all we need to do us to distort the image using its Polar Coordinates, which gives us roughly this image.

 As we can see this schematic is indeed symmetrical via a horizontal axis. This means that it should be possible to completely invert the Chartres labyrinth without distorting any of its pathways or layout. And so it is;

This final test proves that the Chartres labyrinth is indeed perfectly symmetrical. It also shows us that the inside of the labyrinth is the same as the outside. Finally, if we superimpose both the original and inverted labyrinths we get a peculiar floral motif at the centre. Judging by the manner in which the two sections of the labyrinth complement each other in scale, I would say that this correlation was planned. But I don't know what significance, if any, the floral motif has in this instance.

There has been some argument that the Chartres Labyrinth is actually a Solar or Luna-based calendar, and there appears to be some validity to these claims, although just what this means is uncertain. For example, there are 112 lunations around the outer-edge of the labyrinth, which is 28 x 4. This corresponds to a period of 16 weeks or 4 lunar month (of 28 days each). If the Chartres labyrinth is meant to be a calendar, of some kind, it does not serve its function well, as it only contains information for 4 of the 12/13 lunar months.

However, I believe I may have stumbled upon this missing data while trying to devise a method for building a cipher based on the twisting paths of the labyrinth. As you can see the labyrinth is divided into four main sections, which may be used to represent the four seasons of the year. If we count all of the bends in the labyrinth we get 12 (months) and if we include the inside and outside of the labyrinth in our figuring and then count every second circuit in each segment we get a total of 52; the number of weeks in a year.

BLACK IRON CASTLE

The Black Iron Prison is a term Philip K. Dick invented to describe man's spiritual confinement within the bounds of the physical and temporal reality. In his novel Valis, PKD relates a vision in which the Black Iron Prison appears as a castle. In his vision, the castle is attacked and destroyed by the early Christians. This castle is similar to the one that housed the Dark Crystal written about in the last post. As I have pointed out in other posts, the Black Iron Prison is more likely to be made from a type of amorphous iron (a metallic glass or crystal) that is neither opaque or reflective, but is stronger and more durable than any other material known to man.

Amorphous metals made from iron, copper or palladium are among the toughest materials known to man and have only recently been perfected for the market place. If this type of material based alchemy continues into the future, it is possible that we could see cities built of clear gold. Cities such as these are described in the Book of Revelations, as being the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the Japanese animation movies Steamboy and The Castle in the Sky, the Black Iron Prison is characterized by a floating city that also acts as a military war ship. The original concept for both these films likely comes from Jonathan Swift's classic story Gulliver's Travels. In this story, Laputa is the name of a giant floating island kingdom that drops bombs and crushes its enemies by landing on them. The surrealist painter Rene Magritte (left) also depicts this floating island. Interestingly he shows a castle at its apex. What this tells us is that, for all its strength and durability, the Black Iron Castle has no real tangible physicality. Its battlements and walls can be transgressed as if walking through air.

This concept also appears in another of Jim Henson's movie ventures; Labyrinth. In this instance the temporal maze of the Black Iron Prison is replaced with an actual maze. Like the quest for alchemical gold, Sarah must find her way to the centre of the Labyrinth within the alloted time, as set by Jared; the Goblin King. To defeat Jared, Sarah recites a spell whose key words are; You have no power over me. In the same way, the Black Iron Prison (or Maze) is to be considered without any real power, because - in reality - it doesn't exist.



In the song Not Getting There, by Blonde Redhead there is the lyric, "With no exception you won't end in the castle," suggesting that all of us will escape the bonds of the Black Iron Prison, at some stage. The inclusion of the holographic horse along with the hologram of the castle, again relates to the concept of death and the illusion of the Black Iron Prison. The main lyric, "we'll have a fine time not getting there" pertains to the notion that the journey towards enlightenment will take an infinite amount of time, but that the time will be concerned with the continuous revealing of our true, more sublimely happy, more comfortable selves. Absolute perfection may never be obtained, but an increasingly accurate approximation of it, extending towards infinity, can be. The Labyrinth runs deep, deep in its profundity.

This, then, is a direct communication from the agencies divested in the non-corporeal Upper Realm. It also seems to be an admission by them, that linear time, or existence, won't ever end. The Black Iron Prison, Samsara, or the Metrix, will be sustained by them, as much as by the Android Empire, because life in the Upper Realms is facile and unrewarding without their puppets here on the ground. For this reason the Upper Realms are reluctant to end the war and give up there endless dominion over the Earth. This characterizes the Upper Echelons as being distinctly unsympathetic and cruel, which is why the song begins with "You already know this won't end with kisses"; as well as the inclusion of bondage, suffocating and the eclipse of the Sun. Having said this, the agents of the Upper Realms are distinctly conscious that human awareness is indestructible. It, rather than the atom, is the smallest most indivisible part of matter. It should also be understood that they are us e.g. Hera is a girl I know and I, I am Dionysus proper.