Robots, Masks and the Ancient-Future Gods

The word ‘robot’ was introduced to the public by Czech interwar writer Karel Apek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), published in 1920.1  But the word ‘robot’ itself was not new, existing in the Slavic language as ’robota’ (forced labourer), a term used to classify peasants obligated to ’compulsory service’ under a feudal system. It certianly feels as though we are entering a futuristic ‘master and serf’ society at the moment. The mask and robots have recently merged, too. As face coverings become the madated ‘new norm’ amid the coronavirus pandemic, Japanese startup Donut Robotics developed an internet-connected ‘smart mask’ that can transmit messages and translate from Japanese into eight other languages.2  As I show in the book, there are numerous connections to ancient-future gods, technology and the coming ‘AI controlled’ global Cyber-Grid Empire.

The word ‘mask’ seems to have appeared in English in the 1530s, from Middle French ‘masque’ (a covering to hide, or guard the face), derived in turn from Italian ‘maschera’, from Medieval Latin masca ‘mask, ‘spectre’ or ‘nightmare’. The oldest masks discovered are roughly 9000 years old, at the Musée ‘Bible et Terre Sainte’ in Paris, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The mask also comes from Ancient Greek Bacchanalia and the Dionysus cults; it relates to ‘controls on behaviour’ being temporarily suspended, as ‘something else’ comes through the wearer to cavort; often causing mayhem. Have you been ‘challenged’ in a shop, supermarket or on public transport yet by the robot-like, mask wearing member of the Orwellian thought police? I have, and I have kindly told whoever to mind their own business. The mask is also symbolic of a ‘face without a body’, or a ‘head without a body’, often called the ‘faceless one’, or ‘Little Face’. All of this relates to Orion symbolism, as I show in great detail in the book. The Lone Ranger figure made popular as the fictional masked, former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West (with his Native American friend, Tonto) is another classic Orion archetype. Simillar concepts can be found in the American and UK Masked Singer – reality singing competition television series (part of the original South Korean Masked Singer by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation franchise) see figure.

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