Conan versus the Desert

I wrote about Conan the Barbarian in an old post. Those books and the Schwarzenegger movie are a good example of conscious myth making, which is the underlying theme of this blog, that is, we can do a sort of archaeological dig on our brain by studying mythology to understand who we are, and we can better see how mythological manipulation works by making the myths ourselves.

The Trundholm Sun Chariot (1600 BC)

Conan's interesting in the context of theosophy and the discoveries, or elaboration, of the Indo-European religion. Conan is, perhaps, an attempt at exploration of the roots of the Indo-Europeans through an exercise in imagination and to get beyond what was perceived as defunct Christianity, a religion that was imposed on European people and erased their heritage. Conan's story is a quest for truth and for discovering who he really is and shedding his foreign thoughts by solving the riddle of steel.

The adversary in Conan the Barbarian is Thulsa Doom, played by James Earl Jones. He's the epitome of a religious fraud, a cult creator who lives in the squalid luxury powered by his slave religion. He's a deceiver and a con man, and a murderer of women. Conan is only able to kill him after acquiring knowledge about the fraud.

Perhaps in the context of theosophy and the times, Robert Howard meant Thulsa Doom to represent the Abrahamic religions: militant, imperialist forms of belief, imposed on people: Spiritual McDonald's--frauds that were always and continue to be cloaks for decadent power mongers.

In our time, perhaps the story of Conan is universal. People all over the world are the subject of cultural engineers in addition to the tricksters of religion. Folk beliefs, ancient knowledge is buried under a deluge of propaganda and conditioning. Enormous, elaborate schemes brainwash hundreds of millions of people to keep princes in power in New York, London, or in Saudi Arabia.