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July 25, 2007

Shakespeare and the Space Aliens

A mass UFO sighting in England has piqued my interest because of some interesting synchronicity. According to news reports, a crowd of 100 people stood transfixed for half an hour watching five flying orbs in the sky. The photos are very convincing, and officials say reports of UFO sightings are on a sharp increase. The War of the Worlds and Independence Day films certainly cast a pall of fear over the general amazement of the events. But here's where the fascinating synchronicity comes in. Apparently the UFOs spent that half hour hovering above Shakespeare's birthplace in Warwickshire. And you can find a lot of links between Shakespeare and space aliens.

Take this online video game, for example. Called "SOS Shakespear," the science fiction game features aliens attacking a marine ship named the Shakespear. Interestingly, a "literacy arcade game," 'Speare, which was designed to teach Shakespeare's work, has just been released. It is a Space Invaders game.

A BBC show, Doctor Who: The Shakespeare Code, features a trio of alien witches fighting to free their alien race, as well as a trip back to 1599 to meet William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's Alien is a one-man play in 2001 starring that veteran space explorer, Patrick Stewart, or should I say Captain Jean Luc Picard, playing Shylock, a character from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice." Speaking of Stewart, Ian Stewart at the University of Warwick (similar to Warwickshire) has written a book called "Evolving the Alien," which explores the science behind aliens and seeks to dispel the notion that aliens are terrifying monsters or ugly little green men.

You can buy a Shakespeare satellite receiver to listen to Sirius radio, which is also interesting because Sirius is identified with Shakespeare's character Romeo and the importance of Sirius during Shakespeare's time is key to understanding the play, Romeo and Juliet. Royal Shakespeare Company member and movie star Gary Oldman not only played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies (which are full of Hamlet references), he also starred in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead," a film that focuses on two characters from Hamlet, and "Romeo is Bleeding," and has a number of alien-themed film roles under his belt.

Speaking of "Rosencrantz," The Rosicrucians, or at least this one, seem to think that Shakespeare's plays are "humanity's Lay Bible," dealing with man's inner and outer nature, the material and the spiritual. "They are direct communications from planetary centers of Divine Wisdom." Shakespeare's writings are just chock full of astrological references.

Other interesting synchronicities include the fact that Warwick makes an "Alien" 4 String guitar; the song, "I'm in Love With an Alien" includes the lyrics, "She came looking out babe for a Romeo"; Pylones makes "Alien Pet" dog toys, including a pair labeled Romeo and Juliet; Gregory Maguire wrote a book called Five Alien Elves (The Hamlet Chronicles); an episode of "Roswell" has the character Max turning into Hamlet, Alien Prince of Rosewell; X-Files Fox Mulder is said to re-enact the Hamlet myth in many ways"; and it just goes on and on and on.

In fact, it goes on so much I'm amazed I never noticed it before. So am I surprised that eye-witnesses claim five alien spacecraft hovered over Shakespeare's birthplace Saturday night in plain view of a hundred people for half an hour allowing themselves to be photographed? No, actually, I'm not. Of course, I don't have any idea what it means.

Posted by Becky at July 25, 2007 11:53 AM