Lost like an Island Dogg

Here's an insight into how my ideas form....

I read a poem by David Berman, in his book actual air, about a year or so ago in which he described the people of Roanoke disappearing into thin air. I don't remember the poem that well but I found the concept interesting...Berman described the people of Roanoke in a way that made me think they actually stepped directly off the Mayflower and vanished in the trees. Chronologically, there is more to the story, but the point here is that it got my wheels turning.

Bill Bryson also mentions the lost people of Roanoke in his book "the Lost Continent". He assumes that these lost people are actually Melungeons, who, to this day, still hide in the back woods of the Appalachians.The Island Dogg is a lost tribe of people similar to the Melungeons. During the Pangean divide three families of Dinosaurs sailed out to three islands to avoid the increasing wars on Gondwanaland. These Islands drifted further and further out into the ocean and eventually they completely isolated themselves from the rest of the world. Since then the Island Dogg has evolved into species that is almost like a human. They have had a few encounters of violence with Nephilim but haven't been seen in over a million years or so. Some believe they are responsible for the images below....

The Dragon Storm

The dragon storm....Any natural disaster believed to have been evoked by forces in the Spiritual world. Dragon Storms can be caused by 1.Spiritual free-agents who rebel against the natural will of creation. or 2. Massive battles between Angels and Demons on a large enough scale to disrupt the natural world, thus bleeding over from the spiritual world into the form of a hurricane or tsunami.

As I went through college I wrestled with many difficult and often confusing theological ideas, but none were as frustrating as the lame rebuttal's for theodicy. Theodicy as defined on Wikipedia is: is a specific branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent God, i.e., the problem of evil. Where as most of theodicy can be explained away with the idea of free will resulting in most apparent evils that possess our society, the idea of a natural disaster was one concept I had no answer for. How could this loving God, creator of all the known universe allow for such horrible disasters on his home turf? It wasn't until I started researching spiritual warfare that I came across a new idea that was fresh, brilliant and orthodox.

This Idea concludes from scripture that their are many spiritual "free agents" that have the ability to control the natural world. Like humans God has granted his "Heavenly Council ie. Angels" free will....and just like humans the Angels have chosen to use the free will for other uses than what was intended, thus leading to plagues, disease, and natural disaster. This was a common view held by many of the early church fathers that preceded St. Augustine. The Idea that God is completely in control of this world and ultimately knows the plans of Satan goes back to St. Augustine in the 5th century A.D. It's comfortable to read through the Bible in this light. However I have found it quite apparent that this isn't really what's going on.

In actuality it seems that God is in a constant struggle with another force, namely, Satan. Greg Boyd summarizes it like so: Jesus never attributed genetic mutations, deformities, blindness, deafness, leprosy, blood diseases, fevers, falling towers, barren trees, life-threatening storms or death itself to God's providence or to "natural" features of his Father's creation. He contently identifies them as evidence of the reign of the kingdom of darkness here on earth, a kingdom that his whole ministry was intended to destroy. (Satan and the problem of Evil pg. 292)

I came up with the term Dragon Storm as a way to reference a natural disaster to it's origin and creator- Satan. There is no real way of telling if a Dragon Storm is created specifically for human harm or if it is part of something much larger such as a cosmic battle occurring amongst the spiritual world. I will suppose, for now, that it is both.

Timeline of Prehistory

Here we have a timeline of Prehistory. I hope this is self explanatory. But, if not: The custard colored bar marks the main Era of history while the multi-colored bar marks the accession of different Empires as they evolve in and out of power.

The Empire called the "Dragon Years" is not a period where actual fire-breathing dragons roamed the earth. It's a period when Spiritual Warfare was at its peak, thus resulting in a very dark period of history consumed by Dragon Storms and a lot of Volcanic activity.

Kingdom Restoration marks a period when Satan and his army are confronted with the invention of humanity (the new plan).

The Majority of prehistory was recorded by the Terrorphins - having scratched many logarithms on the ocean floor with their tusks. Some of the other forms of recorded prehistory include... carving on underwater volcano walls by the Satanic Scribes, the use of symbols tied in Angel tree roots, and the Island Dogg's drawings on Dinosaur bones and branded-whale tongue.

The Pangaean Divide

This is a map of Pangaea about 100 years or so years after the Pangaean Divide. The divide is most commonly believed to have been caused by the same Dragon Storm that resulted in the great Angel fall where millions of Angels descended to earth to follow they're new leader, Satan.

The Divide created three large Islands inhabitated by Dinosaurs. Over the course of history the Dinosaurs will evolve into the Lost Tribes of Island Doggs.

The Map points out how the Dinosaurs won only a few of the battles against the Fallen Angels before they were turned against themselves by Satan's army. This civil conflict eventually led to their extinction, allowing Satan to have a complete and uninterrupted rule over the prehistoric world.

Definitions (confusion or clarity?

Nephilim-
fallen angels who rebelled in order to mate with human women. Their offspring (also called "Nephilim" were said to be men of great power ie. Giants. The word Nephilim may mean "causing others to fall" perhaps because mens hearts would fall at the site of them. Nephilim appear as part of the “increasing wickedness of mankind”. Their appearance accounts for the prehistoric “giants” of Canaan.

Terrorphin-
Ancient sea creature similar to a dolphin but with fur and long fangs or "tusks". The Terrorphin has been called the oceans scribe due to it's aquatic surveillance of oceanic history. The Terrorphin is most noted for swallowing the original diary of Christopher Columbus which was lost at sea upon his third voyage to the Americas. Scientists believe the Terrorphin to be extinct perhaps immortalized into fossil across the great plains that were once covered with roaring waves of ocean.

Angel Tree-
Ancient tree's inhabited by small communities of fallen Angels. The Angel tree is the distant cousin of the Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia)and is believed to be at least seven times its width and height.

Dragon Storm-
Any natural disaster believed to have been evoked by forces in the Spiritual world. Dragon Storms can be caused by 1.Spiritual free-agents who rebel against the natural will of creation. or 2. Massive battles between Angels and Demons on a large enough scale to disrupt the natural world, thus bleeding over from the spiritual world into the form of a hurricane or tsunami.

Island Dogg-
Lost tribes of ancient creatures that are relatives to the Dinosaurs but have human like attributes and characteristics. Island Doggs are believed to have been separated from the rest of the known world during the Pangiean Divide and were last spotted by the terrophins off the shore of present day South America. Island Doggs have a history of violence among the Nephilim.

The Early Years of Satan

The Edge of Time
Next to the X
Perry Lake

In these three songs there is a central storyline revolving around that funny little horned man in a red suit. You might know him better as Satan. In all seriousness I don't completely understand the Satanic character. It's only in the book of Job in the old testament, and in the new testament Gospels where this figure is personified. The rest of the Bible leaves one with a vague indirect understanding of Satan, thus making Satan an allegory for evil. However if you piece together the canonical scriptures you get something like this:

1.Satan was an angel (the most powerful one! how do you become that?)
2.All other angels bowed to God, Satan was too proud and he rebelled (don't know how)
3.Satan was cast out of Heaven to become a ruler of Demons (other fallen angels)
4.Satan is considered the ruler of the earth (currently having some authority, influence and power over humanity and the natural world)
5. Satan will eventually go to war with God and loose

There you have it. Thats a pretty vague portrait of such a powerful figure's life. Unfortunately that's about all we have to work with. I've begun to speculate about the origins and the rise of the Satanic dynasty. I guess that's how I started to get all these ideas for songs. So, if I were to write down a thesis that could be continually applied throughout all these songs it would be this: if the world is as old as it is, what was going on in the "heavens" during the pre-historical period...and what was Satan's childhood like. It's about this point in time when I wrote these three songs.

The Edge of time tells a pre-creation story of the world through a Hebraic mindset. Here, Leviathan, the ancient sea creature representing chaos and disorder, is smashed to oblivion in a galactic fight with God, after his defeat God can finally begin his order of creation on earth. Before this the world was formless and void, nothing but a big ball of dark water with Leviathan swimming around preventing any form of creation on the planet.

Next to the X tells the story of a man taking a car ride with a character who turns out to be embodying the Devil. The Devil tells the man the story about how the Dinosaur's really died. They weren't killed by a meteorite, they were puppets of Satan, he used them as tools and turned them against each other to Disengage God's plan. This story will be unfolded later in a new song called Gondwanaland.

Perry Lake is a lake that now covers an area that was once inhabited by Satan shortly after his fall from the heavens. It's in this spot that Satan kept his personal diary which tells the story of his older brother whom he drowned. His Brother was killed on a fishing trip and is believed to still haunt those waters in Leviathan-like fashion to this day.

Have I lost It?

Seriously though, I've been asking myself this question a lot lately, And so I'm starting this blog in order to prove that I at least sort of know what I'm talking about. If anything I can at least get my thoughts straight and answer any potential questions in regards to these mythological creatures that protagonize the music.

My interest in the supernatural has been a reoccurring theme throughout these last few years and I can't imagine it fading out as quickly as my other musical themes i've had (robots, time-travel, aliens, girls) maybe that's because I feel like I have something really creative in the works here.
When we wrote Leviathan in 2006 several songs quickly became my favorites basically because of the lyrics. These songs, namely The Edge of Time, and Next to The X told a story that was part of a framework in which a larger story could be unraveled. In the summer of 2007 we recorded our self-titled EP where the songs Nephilim Blood, and Perry Lake continued in the same tradition of our very own mythological supernatural pre-historical Apocrypha that tied these four songs together.
By now you might be thinking that I'm full of it so please let me persuade you otherwise. That label- mythological supernatural prehistorical Apocrypha sounds absurd but it's the best I can do to define the Genre in which most of our songs are written.

Let me break it down...

Firstly.
Myth is commonly disregarded by our postmodern culture as, firstly and foremost, false or untrue. I would like to associate the word with it's definition, which essentially is a way for people to explain the universe, humanity, and origins, via the supernatural.

Secondly.
I use the term supernatural to describe anything in the spiritual world such as angels, demons, gods, and other un-worldly forces.

Thirdly.
Pre-history is the period of the world before history began to record itself.(pretty much anything before 5500 B.C.) There is nothing known about this period other than the fossil records and several oral traditions at its tail end. I presume it to be a time when the supernatural was extremely active in the world.

Fourthly.
Apocrypha is a term given to books that were left out of the Biblical cannon. Therefore I will have to use it very loosely in reference to the myths that take place in this genre we are creating. Wikipedia describes the as follows; The word "apocryphal" (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied, in a positive sense, to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered too profound or too sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated. The term "apocrypha" has evolved in meaning somewhat, and its associated implications have ranged from positive to pejorative. The term apocryphal, according to Merriam-Webster, means "writings or statements of dubious authenticity."

I guess thats the basis, the context, the setting in which many songs are about to unfold. A world, long before humans took to the scene in which spiritual forces interacted fought and molded the world into what it is today. It's a world full of mystery and speculation what if's and why not's. It's a world that can be used to explain the things that have no explanation.