Friday, March 10, 2017

Corn, Christ and Osiris


In the wake of "Cinematic Corn: Oz, Twister, Signs, Interstellar, and More," here are some additional thoughts on the meaning behind the use of "corn" in films.

Osiris is the Ancient Egyptian Lord of the Dead, King of the Underworld, who was killed by His brother Seth and restored to life by Isis and Anubis. He was associated with the sprouting corn of springtime. ~ Thalia Took, A-Muse-ing Grace Gallery

At the beginning of the Dances With Wolves, Dunbar appears as "a Christ figure and sacrificial lamb" with the Confederate side's cornfield in the background. ~ Roderick Heath, Source.
Because Osiris is the Corn God = Christ on the cross = the scarecrow on the cross, etc. Thus, corn represents death and rebirth.
The ancient Egyptian's regarded their god Osiris as a corn god. For them, the death and rebirth of the god was personified in the annual growth cycle of the corn crops....

...Osiris was a corn god. This brings us to the famous Egyptian myth of Osiris, Set, and Isis.

Osiris and Isis
In short, Osiris' brother Set seals him in a coffin until he suffocates (note: he can't breathe) then throws the coffin in the Nile River. Osiris' wife Isis eventually finds the coffin where it landed in a tree and resurrects him, but then Set kills him again by chopping him up into pieces.  
~ Sibyl Hunter, Source
These themes are played out in various movies.

Isis in her bird form "raising" the dead Osiris
Inception: ...Mal wants to trap her husband Dom Cobb (Osiris, the Corn God of the Underworld, played by Leonardo DiCaprio) [Cobb, name game = corn = Osiris] in the dream world of the unconscious. 
~ Mask of God  
The Corn God is found in twilight language locations, such as on boxes of corn starch.





In 1957, the model Bettie Page played the corn god in a series of often-seen photographs from the era. 

Corn is a monoecious plant, meaning that it grows its male and female flowers on the same plant. The male flower of a corn plant is called the tassel, while the ear with its corn silk is the female flower. It is a very sexy plant. But like everything else in the 1950s, no one had to be hit over the head with this fact. It was done more subtly.



"Bettie Page In The Corn Field"

Bunny Yeager, photographer, 1957


As mentioned in my other corn posting, the appearance of "corn" is often subtle, as noted in The Shining (1980) via the maze / maize.


What can be seen, if you look more deeply, is more overt hints of "corn" in The Shining, through "corn flakes" and "frosted flakes." The corn is there.



There is no reason for all of these boxes of Frosted Flakes to be turned towards the camera, unless Stanley Kubrick wanted us to pay attention to them.

Kubrick definitely wished to highlight corn. Frosted Flakes turned up in obvious positioning.


There's Frosted Flakes again.


And Corn Flakes in the background.

Osiris revealed.
My corn I take seriously, because it's mine. And my potatoes and tomatoes and my fence I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I don't take note of it. ~ Charlie Anderson, played by James Stewart in Shenandoah (1965)



In Interstellar, the Cooper family eats meals consisting of all-corn dishes. But then, as Sibyl Hunter notes, it is almost sacrilegious when the adult Murphy burns the corn fields at the end of the movie. A rejection of the ancient Earth to move on to the Heavens?

In the 2016 film, Passengers, there are Easter Eggs that link to The Shining (1980). Where is the corn?






The space movies are magical mystery tours of these otherworldly mythos. Sometimes this is called "space corn."



As noted in "Cinematic Corn: OzTwisterSignsInterstellar, and More," fiction films are filled with cornfields. In today's reality television, especially in occult programming, don't be surprised to see significant members of the cast placed in surroundings made up of corn. Are they representing Christ or Osiris?


Destination America, Ghost Stalkers, "Farrar School" - Season 1 Episode 6 - First air date:  November 20, 2014, John Tenney.

BTW, in the old (+ ancient) Old World, "corn" means any grain. In the modern movie age, the terms corn & maize are clearly in reference to the New World crop, fields & products.

Thanks to all whose names are mentioned.

10 comments:

Dennis/87 said...

Classic synch format Loren. Well done. 87

Tree Fairy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tree Fairy said...

Creamed corn, anyone?
http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Garmonbozia

Also, there have been cases of people passing out in corn mazes. Eg. Syn copy

See the last sentence of this article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2830692/World-s-biggest-corn-maze-forced-downsize-scores-customers-got-lost-dark-call-911-rescue.html

What is it with losing consciousness and corn mazes?

Christopher Darren Horn said...

There is more than corn in Indiana: https://youtu.be/R3aopXKyW_k
LOL!

Syncra said...

"I am the Great Cornholio" Beavis.

Red Pill Junkie said...

Hmmm.

How can Osiris be a Corn god, if maize is indigenous to America?

Loren Coleman said...

RPJ
Two answers.
Maize is an annual grass in the Gramineae family, which includes such plants as wheat, rye, barley, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane. There are two major species of the Zea genus: Zea mays (maize) and Zea diploperennis, which is a perennial type of teosinte.

And, as noted in the posting, in the Old World, any grain is sometimes called “corn.”

Loren Coleman said...

Red Pill Junkie: I’m not saying it was aliens, but I’m saying it was....

Tom Mellett said...

We can see it in German. German "Korn" is clearly cognate with English "corn" but it means "grain." The German for "crop circle" is "Kornkreis" which literally means "grain circle." If a German wants what we Americans call "corn," the word is "Mais" which sounds like Maíz in Spanish, so RPG, we come full circle, OK, full crop circle from the Old World of Germany (the the HRE) to the New World of the Americas.

Tom Mellett said...

Loren, anything more about Kevin Costner and the cornfields? In "Dances with Wolves," Kevin is shot at from the distant cornfields, but in "Field of Dreams," Kevin owns the cornfield but instead of bullets, the old-time baseball players come out of the cornfield to greet him.