The Goose and Rider (continued)

b) Interpretation

    At first sight the thing is pretty horrific. It is designed to shock. It succeeds in this. The immediate impression is that it can only be either a threat or a warning. But which? (No pun intended!)
We must attempt an interpretation of what we are shown.
    Taking the female form first:

    > The village of Eye is only 4 miles from the eye of the figure. (1)

    > The eye, nose and jaw are clearly defined.

    > The River Nene flows through the mouth. (2)

    > The village of Yaxley is positioned on the voice box. (3)
        (Compare with Raunds on Goose)

    > The nipple of the breast is clearly defined by the roundabout
        at Norman Cross, the undercut of the breast by the bypass
        around Stilton. (4)

    > Site of USAF Alconbury (now disused) coincides precisely with the
        position a child occupies when held high in the womb in the early
        stages of pregnancy. (5)

     > Clearly defined knee at the town of St. Neots. (6)

    > Clearly defined ankle and foot. (7)

    Leaving aside those things seemingly there to say - 'look, - this is
no coincidence' - that seems to leave
1) Yaxley on voice box and River Nene through mouth. (3) and (2)
2) Airbase (now disused) precisely coinciding with the position a child
would occupy in the womb. As to bear a child could be seen as the
'raison d'etre' of a female of any species, it is reasonable to assume that
this is the most important thing about this figure. (5)
    The US has had air force bases in the UK since the second world war.
USAF Alconbury was home to B-17 bombers from 1942-45 and the B-45
jet bomber from 1954-59. The B-45 flew many tactical missions armed
with what were called at the time 'Special Weapons'. The special
weapon carried by the B-45s from USAF Alconbury was normally the
US Mk5 atomic bomb. Fortunately the 'cold war' stayed cold and, as we know, although we came close to it, those weapons were never used in anger.
    In 1959 the UK introduced the Victor bomber designed for nuclear capability. The increase in the UK force made the expansion of the US force less neccessary. What if the UK had made the decision not to expand? Would the US have needed to have expanded its base at Alconbury and also have been able to operate with less British influence? Looking at a present day photograph of the Alconbury site where would the expansion have been?    To the north or the south west?
If to the south west this would have placed the 'child' of our figure directly
in the birth position.    Just how close to Armageddon did we come?

External map link:
View of site of USAF Alconbury  www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=52.3599&lon=-0.2392&scale=100000&icon=x
    This 'Aerial' shot gives a superb view of both the airfield and the outline of the figure.

    Just how close to Armageddon are we now?

    Back in 1985 when this landscape figure was discovered the world mood was entirely different. We saw things as more clear-cut. Now we are better able to see the interconnectedness of things. How a decision made for one reason will have been influenced by many other things. We have grown up in our world view.
    Some things have not changed however. Our planet is still at risk from nuclear annihilation. Some of the people who have tried to warn us have had personal experience of the pressures leaders face when war is imminent. One of them is Robert McNamara, who was US Secretaty of Defence in 1962 - one of the times of greatest risk. A link to an article written by him in 2005 can be found below. Another had the courage to stand by what he believed when he was under immense pressure to do what was expected. Below is a link to the Nobel Lecture he gave immmediately after receiving the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

External links:
Robert McNamara's 'Apocalypse Soon' article  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2829&page=0
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei's Nobel Peace Lecture http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2005/ebsp2005n020.html

    Carrying out the same procedure for the Goose as we have for the Rider:

    Let us get right to the heart of the whole thing and remind ourselves that this Goose was once the Dove. Under the control of the Rider, one may think that all hope is lost.

    The reason why this is not so is found at (3) in the form of the Goose's heart, albeit in the diluted form of the Grafham reservoir.
    The Rider however seems to think that her work is over, with Huntingdon at (5).
    Maybe she is justified in thinking this. Letchworth at (4) is prominently featured at the tip of the wing.
    Godmanchester (6) is at the seat of her control. This should again remind us that the heart (3) is the most important part of this illustration.

    All of the above may be true. It all may fit perfectly into a coincidence of meaning. Godmanchester and Huntingdon do seem to be more than mere coincidence. Letchworth too links back to the Pendle Zodiac. But what meaning does it have for us today?
    Grafham Water may well represent the diluted heart of the Goose. (The Rider does seem not to have a heart - the nearest village is Conington). Is this a clue that can give us the real meaning of this horrific tableau?
     Maybe the Ariadne's Thread that can lead us out from this maze of meaning can be found if we look at the one thing that is common to both the Goose and the Rider. The fact that the River Nene flows through both their mouths (1) (2). Not only this, their voice boxes are both clearly defined (2) (3).
It would seem that we are to understand that these two figures in the landscape can talk - that they are alive. We have to work out what they are trying to tell us!

    The flow of the Nene through the Rider's mouth is direct. She knows what she is saying. When the river enters the top of the Goose's head it flows down and enters a horseshoe curve around Great Addington - placed precisely on the ear. The river drops down a little and branches off into a tributary stream which then forks, both arms curving round encircling the precise position that would hold the Goose's eye. (This lines up exactly with the outer line of the eye, marked by the route of the A510 that forms the outline of the upper line of the head). The main river falls down, as shown on the map above, to the mouth. When the river is visualised between the mouth of the Rider and the ear and eye of the Goose it is clear what it represents. It does not need to be drawn. We have found the reins, the means of control that the Rider has over the Goose. They have indeed come alive.
     The goose allows itself to be ridden, to be controlled by the rider. The goose chooses to listen to what it is told by the rider. That alters the way the goose sees things. The goose then repeats what it is told, no doubt becoming the 'rider' for other 'geese'. The fact that the River Nene flows towards the rider should not be a surprise. Eastern religions have told us for many thousands of years that our problems are self inflicted. Maybe this is one way of telling us they are right.
    Just what is it that is carried by the River Nene? Although pronounced as Neen, Nene does look very much like No No. It seems to be No, No that is whispered in our ear, and No, No that changes our view of the world. But far more importantly, it is No No that changes our view of ourselves and changes our view of others. But most impotantly of all, it is No No that closes our hearts and allows our heads to take control. From governments to individuals, we all do it. We do all have a conscience however, and like the fish of Pisces, we do sometimes swim in both directions as we struggle to come to terms with what it says to us.

    If we are indeed to be tipped onto dry land at the start of the age of Aquarius, we will need a far more positive attitude than No! Is this change of attitude going to be so crucial to us that we have been preparing this message to ourselves for the last two thousand years? If the river is the bearer of this message then that would mean that the Earth itself has had a hand in its formation. We may be tenants of this planet, but, as we are starting to learn, ours is not the freehold.

    We have already seen the chilling message of Alconbury. We may have overlooked another. Godmanchester is placed at the wing pivot of the goose, a strategic place if the goose was ever to want to fly free as the dove. Godmanchester is also placed right behind where the rider sits. Right where, figuratively speaking, she would 'dump her rubbish'. In fact she is not the only one to dump her rubbish here. During the financial year 2003/4 over 200,000 tons of rubbish were transported by road to Godmanchester from North London alone and dumped into the earth at Godmanchester. Here, the noxious gases and harmful liquids given off are carefully monitored and controlled by a responsible company. Unfortunately, maybe not all the guardians of the many thousands of landfill sites dotted across the planet are quite so responsible. Some of the worst offenders are likely to be the rapidly developing nations to whom the more developed communities look to provide cheap goods. Maybe the global community should spare a thought for the price the planet pays and ask ourselves if the true cost is really worth it.

    The Goose, like the Rider has used coincidence to attract our attention and to say "This is no coincidence" and there are two more before we leave this section. The first: the name of the company to which has been entrusted the care of the landfill site at Godmanchester, just behind where the Rider sits upon the Goose, is, believe it or not, SITA. The capitals are theirs. The second can only be described as uncanny: Alconbury can easily be re-read as All can bury. Would that be All can bury referring to the threat of nuclear holocaust, or would that be All can bury referring to the threat of irrevocable pollution? The truly frightening thing is that in the end it is us who will decide.

    The Goose and Rider are indeed alive and can speak eloquently to us. The question of course is who or what is speaking to us. The roads, towns and place names are man made, but the course of the River Nene is entirely Natural. Does this mean that man has bought his Archetypes alive in a similar fashion to that described by C. J. Jung in the 1930s, or should we look more closely at the 'bizarre' theories of people such as Rupert Sheldrake, James Lovelock and Teilhard de Chardin?
    Maybe we should examine it in a more detached scientific way and ask who or what would benefit from the continued health and well being of man and the planet he lives on. Apart from the obvious two, there is a third suspect. Recently some scientists have been expressing the view that the cosmos itself seems a finely tuned whole, a change somewhere likely to have unforseen repercussions somewhere else. Maybe some unknown cosmic force could have had a hand in this. Maybe it simply means that man and the planet he lives on are more deeply intertwined than we previously thought.

    The final and most important question is how we are going to react to all this. We have a host of options. We could make international pariahs of any country who does not meet our standards in either the nuclear or environmental fields. We could even go the whole hog and wage all out (nuclear) war if they do not listen to our (just) demands. Most spiritual traditions would counsel that it is up to each of us to try to change ourselves before we try to change others. Let us see if there is anything hidden in the landscape that might enlighten us.