London 2012: The Olympic torch relay and Prometheus

London is getting ready for the 2012 Summer Olympics and the Olympic torch relay will begin on May 18th 2012. This ceremonial event, where people from all walks of life carry the Olympic torch across the host country, is particularly symbolic to those who began this Olympic traditions.
In Greek mythology, the original “torch-bearer” was Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods in order to give it to humanity. Fire was considered by ancients as being a tiny spark of the sun, which was considered to be the physical manifestation of deity (see Sun Worship). By bringing fire to mankind, Prometheus has therefore enabled humans to partake in “all things divine” and even allowed them to aspire to become gods themselves. For this reason, Prometheus is particularly revered in secret societies, as his myth is the ultimate representation of the philosophy and the goals of mystery schools: ascension towards divinity and immortality through man’s own means.

Prometheus carrying the torch

In esoteric teachings, the act of “carrying the torch” is symbolic of man’s awareness of his own “divine spark” and represents his aspiration to become “one of the gods”. This is, in a nutshell, the core philosophy of the world’s elite, which is heavily influenced by the hermetic teachings of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and Illuminism. For this reason, Prometheus’ Torch of Illumination is often found in the occult elite’s symbolism.

Prometheus Fountain at the Rockefeller Center. Behind the fountain is written: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.” Read the full Vigilant Citizen article on the symbolism of the Rockefeller Center in the article entitled Sinister Sites – Rockefeller Center.

Probably the most famous torch bearer in the world, the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States by French Grand Orient Temple Freemasons.

A hand carrying a torch at the top of the pyramid atop the Los Angeles Central Library (full article on the Library here)

The myth of Prometheus is, in many ways, similar to the myth of Lucifer – whose name is Latin for “Light Bearer”. Since Lucifer fell from Heaven to the earthly realm – bringing with him “the light of Illumination” – he is considered in occult schools to be the Bringer of Light, of the Morning Star, of intellectualism and of enlightenment.

Since the Torch of Enlightenment is the main symbol representing the elite’s philosophy, is it surprising to find it prominently featured in a ritual opening the world’s grandest sporting event?

London 2012: The Olympic torch relay and Prometheus

In the Olympics

The first Olympic torch relay

The first relaying of the Olympic torch was held at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, during the Nazi Regime. Despite the fact that Hitler banned Masonic organizations from Germany (he identified them as servants of the Jews), his regime was nevertheless inspired and deeply steeped in by secret societies. He had a great respect for the symbolism and the constitution of secret societies.

“All the supposed abominations, the skeletons and death’s heads, the coffins and the mysteries, are mere bogeys for children. But there is one dangerous element and that is the element I have copied from them. They form a sort of priestly nobility. They have developed an esoteric doctrine not merely formulated, but imparted through the symbols and mysteries in degrees of initiation. The hierarchical organization and the initiation through symbolic rites, that is to say, without bothering the brain but by working on the imagination through magic and the symbols of a cult, all this has a dangerous element, and the element I have taken over. Don’t you see that our party must be of this character…? An Order, that is what it has to be — an Order, the hierarchial Order of a secular priesthood… Ourselves or the Freemasons or the Church — there is room for one of the three and no more… We are the strongest of the three and shall get rid of the other two.”
- Hermann Rauschning, “Hitler Speaks”

The Nazi Party was heavily influenced by Germanic mysticism. Several members of the Party were part of the Thule Society – an occult secret society based in Munich. Despite its outward differences with other secret societies such as Freemasonry, in the end of the day, when all is said and done, all of the inner-most teachings of these society are pretty much the same.

Since “occult minds think alike” the torch relay became part of the Olympic tradition. So, every two years, entire countries gather and celebrate the passing of Prometheus torch, which  can only be lit by the ultimate source: the sun – symbol of the deity.
Since most people who assist to these torch relays – including the torch carriers themsevles- know nothing about the occult meaning of the event, the carrying of the Olympic torch remains a stunning example of the elite’s rituals and philosophy being celebrated in front of a dumbfounded crowd. Clapping for and cheering their local light-bearing Lucifer, the masses celebrate, once again, the extent of their own ignorance.
Other Illuminati symbolism in the 2012 Olympics:

Inside the Olympic stadium. Pyramid with lighted capstones…

One-eyed mascots…

 

Here’s a recent BBC article celebrating the torch relay and describing some of its history:

London 2012: What is the Olympic torch relay?

“It is an utterly thrilling thing to do,” says Philip Barker.
The Olympic historian and author has a lump in the throat just at the memory of running, torch clasped in his hand, high in the Taygetos mountains above Sparta, Greece.
He was a part of the torch relay, the human-powered running feat that bore the flame on its journey from its source, Olympia, to the Atlanta Games in 1996.
From 18 May 2012 the Olympic torch relay will tour the UK in the run up to the London Games – taking 70 days, with about 8,000 torchbearers.
Organisers say 95% of the country’s population should be within one hour of the route which will end with the lighting of the cauldron during the opening ceremony in the Olympic stadium, Stratford.
They hope that the emotion felt by Philip Barker will be shared by the nation and among crowds lining the route.
But how did the Olympic Games come to have this almost cultish following of a naked flame?
The perception of the torch relay is that it’s a contemporary re-enactment of an ancient Greek tradition.
In reality, it is a phenomenon just of the modern Olympics, only beginning in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, and for the Winter Games at Oslo in 1952.
But the idea is rooted in a mash-up of Greek myths, thought to date from around the 6th-5th centuries BC.
The stories concern Prometheus. He was a Titan and “friend to man” who stole fire, a sacred element, disguised inside a narthex stalk (a kind of giant fennel) from Zeus, the father of the Gods, and gave it to mortals.

The flame is kindled from sunlight – with back up flames lit on previous days in case it is cloudy

The ancient Greeks had Lampadedromia – torch relay races – where the winning team lit a sacred flame, possibly as part of the cult worship of Prometheus and his defiance of the gods to impart knowledge to mortals. The modern relay has a nod to the flame-kindling vestal virgins from the rival Roman civilisation thrown in.

It also conjures the spirit of the “sacred truce”, a peace declared across ancient Greece in the months before an Olympic Games and communicated by runners who travelled the country.
As University of Oxford classicist Cressida Ryan puts it: “It’s an amalgam of bits of mythology.
“Agreeing on the facts doesn’t really matter, it’s too long ago to know. Today it is used as a force for good – someone has taken an idea and run with it.”

An Olympic flame first burned at the Amsterdam Games, 1928, but it was not until 1936 that a relay with a torch took shape, under the Nazi regime and sports organiser Carl Diem.

A flame was kindled in Olympia using the sun and a parabolic mirror, then carried to the Berlin stadium by runners through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia – countries that later would fall under Nazi domination.
Fire was a symbol of Hitler’s regime, and torchlight processions were a feature. The leadership aimed to draw a direct link back to ancient civilisation. As Ryan explains: “They wanted a symbolic bridge between ancient Greece and modern Germany. And light is a symbol of purity – the bright, white, pure, stunning light of the ancient Greeks was something that fed into the Aryan myth.”
Adolf Hitler’s favoured filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl captured that myth, documenting the event for her 1938 film Olympia.
Post-war, for the 1948 London Olympics, organisers embraced the idea of the torch relay. Despite the austere times, the torch was mobbed by crowds along the route.

Since then, the torch has enjoyed a mostly high old time, every four, and latterly two, years, changing design with each Olympic host city and each decade’s trends.

The relay has sometimes gone with a theme – Rome 1960: The Ancient Relay; Mexico City ’68: The Relay to the New World; Seoul ’88: Harmony and Progress.
The modes of transportation have become ever-more outlandish – on skis, Oslo 1952; Skidoo, Calgary ’88; and ski-jumper, Lillehammer ’94.
The torch has taken to the water with swimmers, in Veracruz, Mexico, ’68 and in Marseilles, France for Grenoble ’68 as well as underwater at the Great Barrier Reef for Sydney 2000.
It has taken to the skies – on Concorde, Albertville ’92; via satellite, Montreal ’76; parachute, Lillehammer ’94. And the torch, without flame, has been into space, twice, ahead of Atlanta ’96 and Sydney 2000.
Canoes, steamboats, wagons, horses, camels and many sportspeople and celebrities have also played their part.

It has also drawn protest, most prominently from pro-Tibet and human rights campaigners in many countries when it was flanked by Chinese bodyguards in its round-the-world-tour ahead of Beijing 2008.

And until at least the 1950s, it was rather a sexist torch – no women were allowed to take part.
The flame is sometimes accidentally extinguished en route, apparently “more often than they like to let on,” says Barker.
In case of such an event, it can be re-lit with special back-up flames from Olympia carried with the relay, often in miners’-style lamps.
Should a cloudy day threaten the initial ceremony when women kindle the flame from the Sun at Olympia, there are also a series of flames kept in reserve from the “practice kindles” in the days leading up to the televised event. The torch has been used to light the cauldron by sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, by athlete Li Ning suspended on wires, by paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo and as fire amid water by runner Cathy Freeman.

Clockwise from top left: Muhammad Ali, Salt Lake City, 2002; Li Ning, Beijing, 2008; Cathy Freeman, Sydney, 2000; and Antonio Rebollo, Barcelona, 1992; use the torch flame to light the cauldrons

It is all part of the facade that Olympic-minded historians say stokes enthusiasm for a positive sporting event, often among people who cannot be at the Games themselves.
The founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin hoped the Olympic torch would “pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.”
Thirty Olympiads on, for carriers like Barker, that symbolism is key.
“When it is your turn to carry the flame, you think emotional thoughts, think of people who have competed in the Olympics, Jesse Owens, great heroes like Steve Redgrave,” he says.
“You feel part of that because you’re helping take the flame to the stadium. It was extremely special, very emotional.”