Moses & Sisyphus on Sinai
Briefing. With induction, we arrive “On Sinai,” meaning we were experiencing, roughly, a combination of lucid dream and psychedelic-influenced thinking. While the technical details related to the Golden Calf technologies are out of scope for this retelling, they will be discussed extensively during your workshop.
The Master of Scenarios continues to portray multiple roles, morphing into characters. Here, we experience a coalescing of characters, beginning with Mother and Miriam prefiguring the ultimate coalescing of consciousness and existence into the Omega Point.
Mother-Miriam:
Moses now and forever
Travels up and down Sinai
Carrying two stone tablets
One with our message to god
The other for god’s reply
Music: “Moses, up and down the mountain”
This is a common musical motif for festival offerings
Diverse musical genre have been applied
Sc.
Moses carries two stone tablets, strapped onto his back
We hear a rumbling sound
Moses sees a boulder rolling and bouncing erratically toward him
He takes the tablets off his back
Moses dodges the boulder
Sisyphus marches down the mountain
He nods to Moses and raises a broken sign from the ground
“Caution Falling Rock”
Then continues down the mountain
Moses retrieves the tablets and straps them onto his back
He continues up the mountain
Briefing. The previous year’s festival included four “Celebration & Massacre” scenarios, three “Moses & Sisyphus” scenarios, two “Top of Sinai” scenarios, and several other one-off scenarios. While new to us, for returning participants and community members, these are well-understood and anticipated scenarios, presented in unique ways. During my workshop, I experienced the following version of “Moses & Sisyphus.” We had heard how previous versions often opened with a comical and technically elaborate boulder-dodging spectacle – to much delight and applause. These versions were compiled into a currently popular video game.
Music: “Bracing the Boulder”
Sc.
(This portion is mimed)
Moses continues up the mountain
Sisyphus arrives, rolling his boulder up the mountain
They greet and introduce themselves
They proceed to walk (and roll) together
Moses:
Perhaps you should rest
Sisyphus:
If I pause, the boulder gets away from me
If I fail to retrieve the boulder, an eagle attacks
He tries to eat my liver
You see, I cheated death
My punishment – my fate
Is meaningless immortality
Moses:
Let me help you
Sc.
Together, they brace the boulder with the stone tablets
They sit and rest against the boulder
Sisyphus:
Thank you!
What brings you here?
Moses:
I gave an order – I repeated god’s order
To slaughter many of my own people
Family and neighbours
For celebrating around a golden calf
My fate is to help ensure
That won’t happen again
Sisyphus:
What’s written on the stones?
Moses:
A question we are struggling with
A question I am to present to the Lord
Sisyphus:
What question?
Moses:
(reading off the tablet)
How might changes to mythic narratives and ritual practices prevent the next Holocaust?
Sisyphus:
I don’t understand the question
Moses:
Yes, well, there’s an entire workshop
Sisyphus:
So, what does it mean?
Moses:
It means – changing stories can change the world
Sisyphus:
Really? How does that work?
Moses:
(Takes a small pouch from his belt, opens it)
You place this powder into water and drink
You dream and become part of a story – often a very bad story
But you can try to make changes
When you return from the dream
You may notice changes in the world
Or maybe nothing has changed
Or maybe only you have changed
But you’re part of the world, right?
Sisyphus:
Sounds intriguing – can I try it?
Moses:
Do you want to change the world?
Sisyphus:
Of course – who wouldn’t?
(Examines the pouch)
What’s in it?
Moses:
Remnants of the golden calf I mentioned
We destroyed it – and this was left behind
We threw it into the water, people drank it
Sisyphus:
What happened?
Moses:
We thought they were out of control
And we killed them
Briefing. Moses and Sisyphus take the Golden Calf together and are propelled into a state like the one we experience in the workshop. During the post-experience discussion, we considered ways in which this was an origin myth for Sinai Sessions. In the state of consciousness achieved, Moses and Sisyphus could see into the Golden Calf Elevator & Café, where our workshop was taking place. They were now participants in the workshop.
Sc.
Moses and Sisyphus sit in movie theatre seats on the stage facing the workshop
Music: “Induction” (Intro to Miriam’s Theme)
Sisyphus:
(Looking at the audience)
Who are these people?
Moses:
These are my descendants
Their ancestors survived the massacre
Briefing. Moses and Sisyphus now watch festival offerings. Within our peculiar state of consciousness, we were at times presenting to them, while at other times, we were them – being presented to. This was typical during Sinai Sessions.
Recall that Moses was on his way up to the top of Sinai to confront God on behalf of the community. The following offerings presented to Moses and Sisyphus are the substance of the confrontation – observations and evidence that God is culpable for the horrors of human nature. These are common festival motifs, with various teams emphasising different observations.
This is experimental mythic hygiene in progress: the myth of the culpable god.
Hypergraphic Evidence
of
Global Amythic Death Anxiety
Evidence of Failing Culture Systems
Music: “A Beautiful Spring Day”
Sc.
From under a bedroom door
We see the son at the mother’s desk
He is operating her reconfigured IBM Selectric typewriter
This machine is an early prototype of the Golden Calf technologies
The son leans forward and sees his mother seated at a table in a Parisian café
In animated conversation with a man and a woman
She jumps up and sings her signature song: After Five Thousand Years
We experience the following hypergraphic evidence of her thesis
State terrorism, war crimes, mass shootings, school shootings, attacks in churches, synagogues, and mosques, the bombing of civilians and infrastructure, police brutality, tasing the elderly, prejudice and bigotry, gladiatorial entertainment, decreased democratic participation, book banning, anti-intellectualism, denial of scientific achievements such as the moon landings, flat-earth beliefs, conspiracy theories such as PizzaGate and QAnon, obsessions with other people’s gender identities and expressions, attacks on whistle-blowers rather than the crimes revealed, politicisation of healthcare and vaccines, lack of education, privatisation and profiting from water and prisons, false accusations and imprisonments, plea bargaining abuses, political dynasties, leaders who seek to win rather than serve, corruption and abuse of power, Trumpism, political speech that substitutes for truth, leaders lying about wars, dismantling of safety nets, economic slavery, homelessness, weaponisation of food and water, wealth-based justice, domestic and sexual violence, democracy without participation, democracy without education, wealth hoarding, indifference to suffering, the devastation of Gaza, genocides, the Holocaust
Sisyphus:
(During the presentation)
This is the future?
Holy fuck
Moses:
I am told this is, in part, my fault
Sisyphus:
Your fault?
Moses:
They say I am too dangerous to live among them
So, I have been banished to Sinai
Sisyphus:
For killing many of your people, you said
Moses:
Yes, I am positive we will see that shortly
I can feel it coming
Ew, Ah, Interesting
Briefing. Now that we had seen the horrors of modernity, we returned to the Golden Calf episode to experience a hypothetical precursor of that future. We experienced diverse interpretations of the celebrations around the Golden Calf. Beyond changing the massacre from an act of men to an act of god, DeMille also changed the nature of the celebration. The traditional text provides two verses: “Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance.” (Ex 32:6) After Moses returns, shatters the tablets, destroys the calf and makes the people drink the remnants, there is this strange verse: “Moses saw that the people were out of control – since Aaron had let them get out of control – so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them.” (Ex 32:25) The massacre then follows.
DeMille changed the celebration to an orgy of decadence, with images and a voice-over that made the celebrants (evidently) more deserving of the slaughter.
Music: “Ew, Ah, Interesting”
(To the tune of: “Demons Again”)
Sc.
Moses and Sisyphus watch images of the golden calf celebrations
Based on the traditional text
Based on Cecil B. DeMille’s films
Based on Exodus 32:25 (Moses saw they were out of control)
DeMille:
And the people rose up to play and did eat and drink
They were as the children of fools and cast off their clothes
The wicked were like a troubled sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt
They sank from evil to evil and were viler than the earth
And there was rioting and drunkenness for they had become servants of sin
There was manifest all manner of ungodliness and works of the flesh
Even adultery and lasciviousness, uncleanness, idolatry and rioting, vanity and wrath
And they were filled with iniquity and vile affections
(The Ten Commandments, 1956, voiceover during golden calf celebration)
Celebrating around the Golden Calf
Chaotic celebrants with masks, painted bodies, noise, dancing, disorder, exaggerated gestures and movements, nonsensical dialogue, unusual symbols, gender-fluidity and androgyny, ritual scarification, tattoos, cuts, blood, polytheistic idols, hybrid creatures, half-human, half-animal beings, masks of death, skulls, bones, bodies in ecstatic trance, shaking, rolling, laughing, crying, ritual destruction, smashing clay vessels, burning effigies
Moses:
Ew...
Sisyphus:
Ah, interesting
Briefing. During these visions we noted reactions by Moses and Sisyphus. Moses tends to respond with disgust, while Sisyphus responds with curiosity. During the workshop, we discussed how these responses represented contrasts in Greek and Hebraic thought.
Son:
(Type-talking at the IBM Selectric)
And then a messenger calls out:
Moses has returned and the Levites are gathering!
Moses has returned and the Levites are gathering!
The Massacre
Briefing. In my experimental personal myth, every year, mother and son watch The Ten Commandments (1956); and each time, the mother mentions, during the Golden Calf scene, that the story had been changed. Years later, I became curious and read Exodus 32. I suddenly found myself propelled into the story – into a nightmare. I was plagued by nightmares as a child.
Throughout the workshop, the massacre of the Golden Calf celebrants was experienced often and with diverse interpretive visions. It was indeed the horror of the massacre that initiated my investigation of the community and motivated me to participate in their orientation workshop.
Here, we returned to the massacre as further evidence of God’s culpability and to drive the point home: the Golden Calf myth is a bad myth that has echoed across the history of civilisation. If we wish different outcomes, we require different myths.
Music: “The Massacre”
The music incorporates
“Verdict“
“Nursery rhyme”
“How many nightmares”
Sc.
Moses and Sisyphus watch the massacre
We see each version previously experienced
DeMille’s two filmed golden calf sequences
The animatronic window display and nursery rhyme
The calm, project-managed slaughter
The grisly images of swords cutting and stabbing into flesh
Between versions we pause on the iconic image:
Sword, thigh, penis (circumcised), blood
A Levite priest pausing between kills
Representing the massacre – and human nature
Killing as a predominantly male strategy
Mother & Son
Briefing. Until one has experienced the intensity of participating in the massacre under the influence of the Golden Calf technologies, it can be difficult to understand the psychophysiological response. It is terrifying and nauseating. I calmed myself with a dose of Technicolor. The Mother assisted by intellectualising the experience – a go-to strategy we have in common. She summarised her observation of modernity that has resulted from the application of bad myth. This led to a conversation about the moral imperative to engage in experimental mythic hygiene.
Music: “Calm the fuck down”
Participants:
(Singing and chanting)
Calm the fuck down
Just calm the fuck down
Jesus Fucking Christ
Just calm the fuck down
Sc.
The mother leaves the door slightly open
The son, as a child, watches and listens
As she types, smokes and drinks coffee
Mother:
(Typing and speaking)
After more than five thousand years of civilization
There is still ignorance, superstition, violence, disease, intolerance
And national, ideological, racial, and religious hostilities
Knowledge has not abolished fear nor has it made all men brothers
Modern man is confused about his place in the world
Sc.
The son, as an adult, is typing at the IBM Selectric
Son:
(Type-talking)
He no longer has faith
In his powers of reason and science
His gods, or himself
(To his mother, down in the miniature café)
I’m to do something about this?
Really?
Mother:
Yes, really
In your own way, of course
No superheroes are going to save us
Music: “No superheroes” (Instrumental)
Briefing. I began, more clearly, to understand my immediate mission – to go to the top of Sinai and collaborate with god on a new myth of god. I do not believe in a god or gods. Yet, I believe their participation and consensus may be essential for establishing new, functional myths that foster a more just and peaceful world.
Sc.
The son takes the elevator half-way up Sinai
(See scenario: The Elevator Operator)
He approaches Moses and Sisyphus
Son:
(Type-talking)
Moses, it’s not your fault
You were intoxicated with god
Aside from which, free will is an illusion
These horrors follow from human nature
Reinforced by our gods
Stories that shape culture and consciousness
Bad myth leads to horrors
Amythia leads to illness
And so, we need stories – better stories
Do we need a god or gods?
Perhaps god is a useful strategy
If so, what kind of god might do?
Sc.
Moses and Sisyphus un-brace the boulder
Moses straps the tablets onto his back
Moses waves Sisyphus toward the elevator
They try to roll the boulder into the elevator, but it won’t fit
They say goodbye
The elevator doors close
The Golden Calf Elevator & Café rises
Sisyphus proceeds to roll his boulder up Sinai
