Osirin Prophecy

I'm sure that at one time or another we've all stopped and wondered at some of Kiss' lyrics. What are they on about? We could only guess at the significance of songs such as '100,000 Years', 'God Of Thunder', 'Goin' Blind' or the whole of the Elder album. Are such clearly talented lyricists just grasping for poor rhymes in these songs, or is there a message deeper than just putting the X in sex? Clearly a lot of Kiss' songs are celebrations of rock 'n' roll, loose women and in Ace Frehley's case alcoholic excess, but on many examples a strange mystical side to Kiss' songwriting surfaces.

And strange it is indeed for this is not the quasi-satanic, Dungeons & Dragons mumbo jumbo of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden or Dio, as their "Knights in Satan's Service" detractors often claim out of ignorance, nor are they randomly poetic. These lyrics present recurring pre-set allegorical themes quite alien to their heavy rock peers and their New York street upbringing.

There are many persistent nautical themes, in the form of someone coming from, belonging to, or having mastery over the seas. This is surely uncharacteristic of Kiss as none of them had maritime backgrounds in real life. Two of the original line up were New York taxi drivers, yet no yellow cabs crop up in their compositions, only two aeroplanes are mentioned and no tour coaches, despite these all being the day to day domain of Kiss, but time and again we hear: "She's a sailor's only daughter, a child of the water" ('Hard Luck Woman'), "Her heart was promised to a midshipman" ('Sweet Ophelia', Wicked Lester Sessions), "She's from the land beneath the sea" (An otherwise inexplicable add lib Gene sings on MTV Unplugged's 'Goin' Blind') and perhaps most tellingly "Who sails a ship through the stormy seas? If hope is lost then so are we." ('Just a Boy').

Another oddly repetitive theme is an almost ageless impartiality to the counting of time, often with a magical dream-like quality. These sometimes end up as bizarrely unflattering claims about their own ages: "Through a dream I have come to an age that's past: lost in the mists" ('The Oath'), "Little old lady...you're so young and so much different than I [by comparison] I'm 93 you're 16" ('Goin' Blind'), "I'm sorry to have taken so long...was gone for 100,000 years" ('100,000 Years'), "In a dream a long time ago...years seem to pass and time took it's toll" ('Tonight You Belong To Me') and "The magic touch and you're walking around in a dream" ('Magic Touch').

All these could be shrugged off as attempts at William Blake style mysticism except that these are themes exclusive to Kiss amongst rock 'n' roll lyrics, and yet naggingly crop up again and again. Even more strangely these lyrics don't seem to fit into modern life, religions or folklore. Where is their meaning or significance? In fact they seem eerily to echo the beliefs of a far more ancient culture: that of the pyramid builders of Egypt and Central America. Both these peoples had remarkably similar religions, believing that the (traditionally female) gift of wisdom as well as the skills of agriculture, astronomy, navigation, architecture and mathematics, the basis of their civilisation, had been brought to them by an even older super-people from across the sea. Amongst their star and animal headed gods Egyptians called this bearer of wisdom Osiris, Mexicans knew him as Quetzalcoatl and both firmly believed in his eventual return and second coming . They also seem to fit identically to Kiss' mysterious and omnipotent Elder, "When the Earth was still young, they were already old" ('The Elder').

A major part of Egyptian and Mexican beliefs was also of time being cyclical rather than linear as we accept it to be. To them the past is also the future as measured in eternal circles. Time was dream-like and unrecognisable in our sense, similar to how Kiss keep mysteriously describing; "What Kiss stands for is ageless" (Paul Stanley, 'Second Coming').

Another point about Kiss which preachers in the Southern states have been quick to misinterpret as Satanism is their make-up persona. What or whom do the Kiss characters represent? What is a Starchild? Where else would one find an Ankh and several animal headed humans? And what kind of bat breathes fire and has demons at his feet? The answer curiously appears again in the age old traditions of Egypt and Mexico, whose multifaceted deities correspond so closely.

The bat God of the Mayans in Mexico, God of Death, "Lord Of The Wastelands" ('God of Thunder') as he is referred to, commands the demons of the afterlife, "I was raised (in the sense of being held aloft, hence the boots) by the demons, trained to reign as the one" ('God of Thunder'). Aztec and Mayan carvings often showed a god sticking out his tongue or breathing flames as a sign of giving life. So in the character of Gene Simmons we paradoxically see the god of death giving life.

The cat was highly venerated in Egyptian life and Peter Criss' Catman persona would have been recognisable to the Egyptians as Earthly incarnations of their cat-headed gods, Re, Hathor and Bastet.

Peter's replacement in Kiss reflects an interesting aspect of the Egyptian pantheon. Eric Carr's more common make-up can be seen as the fox or jackal-headed god, Set. But this wasn't Eric's only face. He had for a short time used a hawk/falcon face reminiscent of Set's brother Horus. In ancient Egypt Set and Horus are sometimes depicted as one two-headed being, unity and duality in one, repeated in Eric's two variations 4,000 years later.

Ace's Spaceman character continues the theme of stellar contact and guidance from gods to men. While the character aligns with no specific individual deity, his relevance in this situation becomes clear.

Not only Paul Stanley's Starchild persona, but also his lyrics seem to link him to Osiris, the immortal star god, the bearer of wisdom, navigator of the stars and "King of the night time world". Osiris was also judge of the dead spirits who, upon their arrival in purgatory, would confess their guilt to him before being led into the afterlife "I've been waiting here to be your guide, reveal the secrets that you keep inside, no-one leaves until the night is done" ('Psycho Circus'). He is often depicted in a ship surrounded by five-pointed stars in the form of a young man, "I am just a boy, too young to be sailing" ('Just a Boy'). Osiris was then according to mythology reborn in the sky as the constellation of Orion with his brightly studded belt, an item Paul is rarely seen without.

The final character in Kiss' make-up era needs no such decryption. Vinnie Vincent's openly titled "Egyptian Wizard" sealed Kiss' final few make-up shows with his golden Ankh (symbol of everlasting life) emblazoned broadly across his face.

All of this was unconnected possibilities until the recent research of modern archaeologists such as Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval and Maurice Coterell threw light on a literally monumental conclusion. Through the latest computer mapping and dating of ancient monuments and the stars they align with, these men have proven there was in fact in early prehistory, an advanced sea faring civilisation of elders (possibly also the source of the World's perpetuating Atlantis myths) who did travel the globe spreading their knowledge far and wide. Many of the world's mysterious star gazing monuments from Stonehenge to the Nazca Plains are remnants of a common ancient civilisation. Amazingly, they seem to have staggered their most stunning bequeathments at regular intervals of latitude across the world. The degrees of latitude separating these monuments are themselves highly significant for they also match degrees of movement in the heavenly cycle. 72 appears to be the most significant number for them and accordingly if one travels 72 degrees East of the great pyramids of Egypt, aligned to the constellation of Orion or Osiris, the Cambodian temples of Angkor crop up, built to match Drago in the skies (ever wondered why "Where's Drago?" is written midway through the first Kiss album's thanks list?). 72 degrees East of Angkor are the Kiribati stellar megaliths. From here a little off 72 degrees East isolated in the Pacific Ocean are the haunting stone statues of Easter Island, set to face star signs at the solar equinoxes. 72 degrees East of Easter Island the archaeologists have drawn a blank, a piece of the jigsaw is incomplete. It's like an ancient dream waiting to be fulfilled, upon the Elder's return. Who or what could be "Worthy of the prophecy" ('Under The Rose')?

This missing line of longitude runs from pole to pole touching land only once. With the obvious exceptions of the Arctic and Antarctic. Spanning the length of the Atlantic Ocean we reach dry land for a short strip of Eastern Brazil and a triangle formed by the three cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte. "Across the miles of Ocean there can be no doubt" ('Sweet Ophelia').

Meanwhile, and yet thousands of years later in 1972 Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley decided to form Kiss, and within 10 years became the World's most awe inspiring, popular spectacle. Masked and god-like in days of declining religion they inspired in their wake a global cult-like following in the pre-millennial era. "In every age, in every time a hero is born as if by a grand design" ('Just A Boy'). Their record breaking career in character reached it's zenith with the newly recruited Egyptian Wizard, Vinnie Vincent in the World's largest ever concert tour of epic proportions at, you guessed it, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. "I go forth so readily into history" ('The Oath').

The prophecy fulfilled, Kiss suddenly dropped their highly popular divine images and simultaneously all symbolism, even going so far as to cut all songs with mystical lyrics from their live set. They settled down to become "merely" a successful 80's heavy rock band.

Whether consciously, subconsciously or even totally unconsciously Kiss' image, lyrics and movements have a strong connection with this elder civilisation of mankind. This much is inescapable. The question lies more in what the connection is based upon and what are its purposes. Who inspired whom? Are Kiss puppets, or masters of an ancient cult? What is their message? And for whom it is intended? "Only you have the answers, but the questions you have to find" ('Only You').

The author on a fact finding mission to the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janiero 2003

"GET A LIFE!"
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"SPREAD THE WORD!"
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GRAHAM HANCOCK- For more information on Egyptian and Mexican crypto-archaeology.