Wednesday 21 April 2010

HOLY WOOD OR HOLLYWOOD?

Do you remember, last year, my reporting the Miracle of the Marmite Messiah?

Well, Roger and Sheila on a recent peregrination came across another potentially miraculous manifestation...


R & S speculated that this might be a symbolic representation of Graham Sutherland's tapestry of Christ in Glory in Coventry Cathedral. I've turned Mr Sutherland's knitting on its side so - if you squint - you might just get the general idea, although I can't help wondering if R & S were gathering magic mushrooms at the time...


Or is it, they go on to ask, just Mary Poppins without her umbrella? I couldn't turn this one sideways, so you'll just have to work it out for yourself!


I'll leave you to judge. My money's on the contents of an unwanted Marmite sandwich!


Image of Graham Sutherland's Coventry tapestry by Cloudsoup's Photostream

16 comments:

Matt said...

Looks more like The Yellow Kid to me

Rob Cox said...

Sorry Brian but a small blob (head?) on a bigger blob (body?) and two smaller blobs (feet?) is, by the law of averages, going to turn up, in various guises, a fair number of times. It's not God or Mary Poppins - its just a blob. Call me an old Killjoy (Oh - thanks!!) but I find it hard to imagine God saying to himself - "You know what? I think I will reveal my sacred son on the underside of the Smith's Marmite jar lid! Should be good for some coverage in The Sun or The Mirror". Actually, I like Marmite - but not that much!!!

Suzanne said...

If you turn the log upside down, almost, it looks more like a little girl in a big dress balancing a plate - don't ask me where the religious stuff is though!
soldord: the special trip you go on after eating magic mushrooms

Brian Sibley said...

MATT - Yep! The Yellow Kid wins!


KILLJOY (Sorry... ROB COX!) - So, how do you know how God thinks?! If he's ever read The Sun or The Mirror, he might very well choose a Marmite miracle through which to communicate with humankind! ;)

Actually, however (as I'm sure you realised), all the posts on this subject have been in jest (or were supposed to be!): an attempt at lampooning such loony 'revelations'.


SUZANNE - Ah! There's the rub! It's not the sign, it's the interpretation!

SharonM said...

If you turned it anti-clockwise, it could be a naughtie rabbit who has just looked up a lady's skirt.

Brian Sibley said...

Tell me, SHARON M, have you ever done the ink-blot test...?

SharonM said...

What's the ink-blot test?

Brian Sibley said...

It's this!

SharonM said...

Thanks for getting me to waste some of my precious time, Brian!

Brian Sibley said...

Always pleased to help! I'm sure you are now in much closer contact with your subconscious desires and fears!

Bill Field said...

Brian- first, I must say that until a few years ago, I thought the Yellow Kid was not an Irish immigrant child in America, but of Asian descent- he looks so much like the comic relief Asian fellow from Terry and the Pirates, decades later.

I was hoping to film a documentary on the Shroud of Turin, but economics and my 86 yr old Mother's health made it, in the end, impossible. I truly believe that it is what it's purported to be, the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Talking to a retired USAF officer. who was an integral part of verifying
the shroud the second time- which accurately dated it to correspond with Christ's timeline, he pointed out that there are so many reasons to believe the shroud's veracity, and none to discount it.

Brian Sibley said...

I am interested in your opinion, BILL, as I have read quite a bit about the Shroud and am interested in its history and how people react to it. I thought that the most recent dating had placed it in a much later time period to earlier verifications...?

Bill Field said...

Brian, the shroud can be documented back as far as 300-400 years after the death of Christ, but the first carbon dating came back from the 1400's. Then it was discovered the shroud had been partially burned in a fire, and that area was rewoven by nuns there in Turin, and happened to be the area the dating had been done. another sample was taken and the testing done twice= both dating around 1,980 years ago, which, since he died in 33 AD, is right on the timeline target.

The image itself is like a photographic negative, thought to have been created by the energy within the body at the moment of his transfiguration. No one would've known so long ago- ANYTHING about
photographic negatives or the like, but there's at least 1700 years that it was noted as such by written description. It has only been displayed a handful of times in the last 200 years, it's in the middle of its 40 day exhibition by papal decree- RIGHT NOW.
It's truly fascinating the more I research and learn about it.

Bill Field said...

I wanted to add that here, in Texas, seeing Christ and Mary's images in any number of seemingly organic or randomly occurring ways is almost common. In potato chip burn marks, in the side of a stack of wood, as a mold stain on a wall, as well as in rocks or stones.

Brian Sibley said...

Thanks for the update on the Shroud. I have always thought that the 'negative' image (supposing that it dates from a time prior to photography) is the most curious aspect of the relic.

Also for the confirmation that (at least for the residents of Texas - but one suspects they are not alone) the Good Lord is making plenty of divine appearances - quite often in food products. I have, by the way, also seen examples of Princess Di materialisations in, among other things, cloud formations. This whole subject is (if it hasn't already been) ripe for an in-depth analysis.

Anonymous said...

No mushrooms, Brian, perhaps Matron overdid my medication. S wishes to point out she was not along on this walk!

Roger