Just watched the closing ceremony of the XX. Olympic Winter Games in Torino (Italy), which was full of revealing symbolism.
The official theme was "Carnevale" - to coincide with Italy's annual festival of masks. There also were many elements honoring Federico Fellini, the acclaimed Italian filmmaker.
"Art, melodrama and circus acrobats," promised Daniele Finzi Pasca, director of the closing ceremony. "Our craziness, our nostalgia, our sense of creation and beauty."
And - what he perhaps didn't mention - "our sense of Masonry"...
What about the sports? - In addition to Germany (29) and the United States (25), the most successful countries in Turin were Austria, which won 23 medals and Canada with 24 medals.
But back to the ceremony:
The main stage inside the Great Stadion was depicted as a giantic OWL - the bird of prey of the night, bird of wisdom (which reinforced her lunar characteristic) accompagning Lilith and the Bohemian Grove. In ancient Greek myth it was a bird of Pallas Athene which represented the renewal of life - the Bird of Nu to Isis. As well the garden design of the Capitol Hill reflects an OWL.
The world as an OWL-stage...
You can even find OWLs on the US One Dollar bill...
from the dialogue film Blade Runner:
Rachael: Do you like our owl?
Deckard: Is it artificial?
Rachael: Of course it is.
Deckard: Must be expensive.
Rachael: Very. It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.
Deckard: Replicants are like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem.
The ceremony started with a PALE CLOWN riding in on a PALE HORSE. Out of a sea (sand-colored) came a MERMAIDEN, accompagning the pale clown.
Lots of TAROT-Cards...
Artists from the Cirque de Eloise - situated in Lugano - were performing a ballet - dressed as TAROT-CARDS. They performed various FIGURES - a five-pointed star - a triangle, put on it's head - and finally a maze, wherein the "Carneval's" King and Queen got lost.
Carneval King and Queen watching the dancing TAROT-Cards...
Interesting the interlude of artists dressed in General Umberto Nobile's uniforms from 1928. The Mussolini-awarded general had crashed with his Airship "Italia" during his expedition to the North Pole. Famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had died in a plane crash in the summer of 1928, while attempting to rescue his friend Nobile...
Nobile's men...
The extravagant closing ceremony had an eclectic entertainment lineup from Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli to pop-star Ricky Martin and Canadian rocklady Avril Lavigne as Vancouver will take the reins as host for the 2010 Games. Inukshuk sends his greetings. Musics played were among others: YMCA from the Village People, Elvis' It's now or Never and Azzuro by famous Italian pop-star Adriano Celentano and the theme from Guiseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco, the King of Babylon - and King of Kings...
...
A typical Hermes performing those "Sparks of Passion"...
And what about the audience and those athlets? They were instructed to wear red, clown noses...
Clowns left with pants down and artists (we, the people) with RED NOSES...
Lots of masques, symbology, the fire-spitting Dragon-Harp of Paganini, Harlequins, 850 brides - one of them selected (Italian Isolde) to extinguish the fire - free flying men - free as "birds"(LOL) and mazes! The world is a stage! A "carneval" - and nobody seems to recognize it...
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TAROT - the game of LIFE
