Snowden and Manning: An Elaborate Production?

It's common for authors to include elements drawn from mythology to make a story more compelling for the audience. I think there's some evidence to suggest the Edward Snowden/Bradley Manning stories are a fabrication that's based on mythological themes. The breadth and diversity of mythical material to draw from means that it is all too easy for parallels to emerge randomly. (see Apophenia) Therefore, when we apply a myth based analysis to contemporary events we should be skeptical of our conclusions.

If my analysis is correct, Snowden and Manning are characters in an elaborate production. That would probably mean Manning isn't really in prison and Snowden is, perhaps, not really in Russia and that the public facts about their life stories are mostly fabricated.

In my analysis Manning is based on the root mythological character Aquarius, and Snowden is based on Orion who rules the cold, winter night skies in the Northern Hemisphere. As stated in an earlier post, the mythological characters have attributes that form a web of poetic associations. For characters that have been used many, many times, they have many complex associations and names. That's especially true for these two characters.

Manning's backstory is strangely detailed. The backstory is neatly summarized on the Wikipedia. From my perspective this detailed backstory is one way the creator of the Manning character lets us know he's supposed to be associated with Aquarius. Manning was from a dysfunctional family of alcoholics. For some reason, the backstory includes the detail that as a child Manning was fed only milk and baby food until the age of two. This stunted his growth so he's only 5 feet tall and feeble which are appropriate traits for a character based on the constellation Aquarius, whose faint stars make it barely visible in the night sky.

Aquarius is associated with alcohol. As Ganymede, he's the cupbearer of Zeus, or as Noah, he's so drunk he lays around naked. He's often depicted with a big old jug of wine.

Aquarius with a Bottomless Jug of Wine

The weird detail about milk and baby food is similar to the Aquarian character John the Baptist's exclusive diet of locusts and honey. In fact, that's one of the strange details that got me thinking about the possibility that the story was fabricated. Why would that detail be prominent in anyone's backstory?

John the Baptist: Locusts and Wild Honey

Finally, Manning turns into a woman and all we ever see of him are photos of his head with long hair. I think this detail alludes to two stories associated with the Aquarius constellation: first, the androgynous Ganymede who is the Greek mythical character associated with the constellation and also to John the Baptist, who loses his head.

John's head On Templar Door

Manning

The Snowden character draws on a mythological character who's got so many associations that basically every man's life probably has parallels. The Egyptian god Osiris serves as one of the main templates and he draws in the association with the constellation Orion, but also the planet Saturn. There are countless iterations of this character such as Prometheus and Jesus. I think much of Snowden's story is drawn directly from the Prometheus myth. Many fans of Snowden conceive of him as a similar, self sacrificing hero.

Prometheus is the Titan who pities human kind who have been deprived fire by angry Zeus and so steals it on their behalf. This enrages Zeus who casts him from Olympus and has him bound to a rock in the Scythian land. The parallels with the Snowden story are obvious, including his theft of government secrets, and flight and "binding" in Russia, with Putin playing the part of Hephaestus.

One of the odd details in the Snowden story, which some believe to be a complete fabrication, is that he attempted to be a member of the special forces, because he "felt like [he] had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression." but failed to complete his training because he broke his legs in a training accident. The broken legs could be an allusion to Saturn based mythological characters. Osiris, for example, is often shown with bound legs.

All this analysis, if correct, begs the question "why"? Use of mythological themes makes Snowden and Manning more interesting. They're folk heroes because they are based on literary folk heroes that are deeply ingrained in our psyche. Previous leakers about similar issues languish in relative obscurity and are only known to the alt-media audience.

It is possible that those who might have orchestrated the story are well meaning. One theme common to Manning and Snowden is that individuals within the government need to hold it accountable.

A darker interpretation, though, is that the Snowden and Manning story helps establish a credible channel for leaking US secrets to the world, and eventually this channel will be used to help kick off a controlled demolition of the US empire, not to liberate mankind, but to usher in a replacement global empire. In reality, there's no way for us to know the real intentions.

However, if the myth based analysis is on the money, we can guess what will happen next to Snowden. At some point he might have a virtual meeting with Manning. Some spring, ideally next year (2016) when he's 33, he'll return to the United States, probably to Washington DC where he'll be greeted by throngs probably in a parade held for the occasion. He'll be betrayed by a close confidant. Then he'll be abused and severely punished, at least that's the story we'll be told.