REALM TRAVELERS

OF THE ANCIENT WORLD; & IN HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY, CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES, ART WORKS, WRITINGS, MYSTERY PLAYS & LEGENDS

(Understanding what some of the lyrics to Covert Cosmic CruisersÕ 1st music CD: Other WorldsÕ & RealmsÕ WarningsÕ songs are hinting to, & derived from)

By DDT of the "Drama Rock," music band: Covert Cosmic Cruisers CR 12-9-2007, all rights reserved

Another inspiration for Covert Cosmic Cruisers Another inspiration for where the bandÔs name, Covert Cosmic Cruisers, is derived from is the many Christmas and historic Christian legends, stories, songs, myths, writings, art works, customs, mystery plays, stone carvings, monuments, etc., about ChristÕs covert cruises in and out of different realms, and throughout the world and the universe, how he travels about in different guises to covertly test souls and the human family everywhere.

Some of the areas of the world often visited are.

1. The Land of Jerusalem.
2. The lands "round about" the land of Jerusalem.
3. The Parthians. Parthia an Ancient region south of the Caspian Sea. Roughly corresponding to Khorasian in northeastern Iran, and which was part of the Persian Empire.
4. Medes.
5. Elam. Elamites: An ancient country now in Iran. It was established east of the Tigris c. 3000 B.C., and Susa, its capital, later became a capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The Elamites were thought to be descended from Shem, the son of Noah.
6. Mesopotamia. The ancient region of southwestern Asia, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Most of it lies in what is now modern Iraq.
7. Armenia. An ancient Asian kingdom centered on Mt. Ararat and now divided between Turkey, Iran, and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Established in the 8th century B.C., it became the world's first country to make Christianity the state religion in A.D. 303.
8. Phrygia. Western and central Asia Minor.
9. Cappadocia. An ancient region of eastern Asia Minor, now forming the central part of Turkey.
10. Pontus. An ancient kingdom in northeastern Asia Minor, on the south shore of the Black Sea.
11. Asia. The largest of the continents, making up about 33 percent of the earth's land area. This great landmass falls into 5 broad subcontinents. North Asia comprises the part of what is now known as the U.S.S.R. East of the Ural mountains. The Far East is made up of mostly the Mongoloid race. The west of the Semitics in the Middle East area. The lands of India, & what is now Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Another area is South east Asia.
12. Pamphylia. An ancient region of southern Asia Minor that became a Roman province.
13. Egypt. A country located in the northeastern area of Africa, bordering the Mediterranean.
14. The region of Africa which is beyond Cyrene. (Cyrene an ancient city in northeast Libya).
15. Romans and sojourners. In the the Mediterranean area.
16. The varied races of the Gaetulians.
17. The manifold confines of the Moors. (Berber and Arab descent Mediterranean north Africa area.
18. All the limits of the Spains. A country located in much of the Iberian Peninsula, southeast Europe.
19. The diverse nations of the Gauls. The name given anciently to the region in Europe south and west of the Rhine, west of the Alps, and north of the Pyrenees, almost comprising of the areas which are now modern France and Belgium.
20. And the haunts of the Britons. Regions northwest of what is now France.
21. The Sarmatians. Middle East area.
22. The Dacians. An ancient area that was roughly in the area of what is now Romania.
23. The Germans. Located in central Europe.
24. The Scythians. An ancient people in the region of Asia and southeastern Europe north of the Black Sea.
25. And many remote nations, provinces, islands, to us unknown, and which we can scarce enumerate. In all which places the name of Christ who is already come reigns, as of Him before whom the gates of all cities have been opened, for none are closed, for their iron bars have crumbled, and brazen gates to the nations of the world have all opened.
26. India.
27. The ancient Americas, from Chile to Alaska, etc.
28. The Polynesians from Hawaii to New Zealand.
29. China.
30. Japan.
31. Ireland.
32. Russia.

There are stories, legends & art works of the cruising Christ visiting, and traveling about covertly guised, as ordinary people, traveling throughout Russia. (NesterovÕs Christ visiting people in Russia, 1896, Russian Art Gallery, at St. Petersburg, Russia).

To be some what "covert," about his identity, and to test different people throughout the world, (Matthew 25), to see who would receive him; one of the many guises the wandering Christ uses, according to many legends, stories, art works, etc., is that of a poor looking, rag torn clothed leper, begging for help.

Thus, in many later Christmas traditions, songs, customs, art works, stories, legends, etc., the wandering Christ travels throughout the world in different guises, and thatÔs what the 2nd CD is all about. That of many of these types of Christmas traditions, presented in our own dramatized ways, plus, some of our new songs about the ultimate Covert Cosmic Cruiser, the wandering Christ-child, Christkindl, or Santa Claus.

(Redrawing of "Santa Claus," by DDT, see original in The Strand Magazine, 1891).
Thus, earlier versions of "Santa Claus," in some cases, depict this world cruiser & cosmic cruiser, as a blond female youth wandering the world during Christmas time. On the 1st CDÕs art work, the ghostly looking guitar player, the blond haired female youth is inspired by The Strand Magazine, 1891, an earlier version of "Santa Claus," who is about to descend towards a town with a Christmas tree in her hands. Note how "santa," is the female title, for a female saint, for in the Latin speaking cultures, "Santa," is feminine for example: Santa Maria, or Saint Mary, as compared to "Santo," for male saints. Thus, an earlier version of "Santa Claus," is the Christkindl, or wandering Christ-child, a blond female youth. For in German speaking cultures, she is the one wandering the earth and the cosmos as a blond female youth. Thus, some of the art work to our 1st CD, are derived from re-drawings of some of these things, such as Thomas NastÕs late 19th century depictions of the Christkindl, or "Santa Claus."

Thus, the 2nd CD will dramatize how later traditions about Santa Claus masked over the wandering Christ of ancient legends, earlier Christian writings, beliefs, and art works, etc. Showing how the later Christmas versions of "Santa Claus," eventually began to X-Christ out of the stories, songs & later commercialized Christmas to the point where Christ was covered over by the mask of the later Santa Claus. Earlier, the Christkindl, according to many stories, customs & legends, could do miraculous modes of travel, leave gifts in shoes and stockings; changing spider webs on the Christmas trees into gleaming threads of gold and silvers. He/she could also go through key holes to enter, see sugar letters left in window, letters listing what the children hope the cruising Christ-child would bring them. Millions of candles left in windows, light his/her way, and symbolically say, here youÔre welcome, come in and stay with us on Christmas. Straw left on the floor, each strand representing a good deed performed by the children, padded the hardness of the wandering Christ childÕs bed, should he visit and stay the night. Pine bows were laid down to give this cruiser a carpet to walk on, when he passes through. In earlier centuries, many of the early Christian leaders, writers and apologists writing against early anti-Christians, used ChristÕs world wide cruising in answer to the early anti-Christian charges that Christ neglected other nations and realms before and after ChristÕs birth and death. Plus, the early to later anti-Christian charges that ChristÕs gospel message was borrowed from earlier similar beliefs, that it wasnÕt as ancient as them, and thus was nothing new. The answers to these types of charges were given by the early Christian apologists, such as Origen against Celsus, and Justin Martyr, A.D. 110-165, in his Dialogue With Trypho, that the gospel and the "mysteries,Ô werenÕt new, but they had always been known to the prophets in ancient times, and that the fallen angels, the demons, and heard the prophets throughout the world preach the gospel and thus they, the demons, had counterfeited it and preached a corrupt version of it, thatÕs why there were similarities with the pagansÕ versions of it, and with early Christianity. Justin Martyr: "But Jesus is indeed he who appeared and spoke to Moses, to Abraham and in a word, to all the other patriarchs, to serve the will of his Father; it is he who came to be born a man by the Virgin Mary, and he is one still." (Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, CXIII, 4). John P. Lundy, also noting this too, wrote that: "Infidelity has been accustomed to say, from the time of Dupuis to the present, that Christianity is only a sort of copy of ancient Paganism: that it has no new ideas, and must therefore be rejected. But where did Paganism get its sublime conceptions of God, its notions of immortality and human destiny? Whence did all ancient nations derive them, hold them, and agree so marvelously about them? This universal faith must have an adequate cause; and Christianity is but the more full, clear, true and glorious exponent of it all.... If Christ was before Abraham, as He claimed to be, then surely He must have manifested Himself to other nations beside the Jews, or other nations, including the Jews, must have derived their religious systems and ideas from some common source."i One of the earliest Christians who is said to have known & talked with Peter, was Clement. One of the first things Clement asks him is: "Shall those be wholly deprived of the kingdom of heaven who died before Christ's coming?" Peter's answer used the belief that Christ covertly visited pre-Christian time people of every generation, for: "Christ, who always was from the beginning, has visited the righteous of every generation (albeit secretly), and especially those who have looked forward to his coming, to whom he often appeared. Still it was not yet time for the resurrection of bodies that perished then,... But those who pleased him and did his will were translated to paradise, to be preserved there for the kingdom, while those who were not able to fulfill the complete law of justice, but had certain traces of carnal weakness in their nature, when their bodies died went in the spirit to be retained in good and happy places, that at the resurrection of the dead each might be empowered to receive an eternal heritage for the good he had done."ii Tertullian, [A.D. 145--220], wrote how Christ, as the King of Kings, extends his reign throughout the world. And how no gait, or any kind of door could keep Christ out, for they all came down before him as he passed through the doors of hades, and through the doors, or gaits of the nations of the earth. And through the door of one's heart. All these things would be depicted in art works by Christian artists throughout the centuries. In passing through these entrances to the different nations of the world, Christ extends his Kingdom into all the nations of the earth, everywhere. Terullian also wrote: "For whose right hand does God the Father hold but Christ's His Son?--whom all nations have heard, that is, whom all nations have believed."iii The Chichicastenano Indians say that: "Christ preached to all the people who wished to listen, but some were bad and would not hear him. He wandered around and visited 5000 pueblos and 5000 churches and 5000 gardens all over the world."iv David Hatcher Childress notes that: "According to the records, Jesus journeyed to England and Europe with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, the tin trader. This was only the beginning of his post-crucifixion travels and other legends say that he traveled back to India and Tibet. It is at this point that Jesus, working with the Essenes as both his parents had, that Jesus began his world-wide trek, which included crossing the Pacific to North and South America. He allegedly traveled for nearly 100 years around the world. The Islamic title for Jesus is "the Great Traveler." (Lost Cities of North & Central America, pp. 247-48).v Even the late 19th century anti-Christian writer, T.W. Doane notes that Christ's descent into hell was a big part of early Christian doctrines, and that: "St. Clement of Alexandria, who flourished at the beginning of the third century, is equally clear and emphatic as to Jesus' descent into hell. He says: "The Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades, as well as to all the earth, in order that all might believe and be saved, wherever they were."vi Doane, like Celsus had, A.D. 170-80, against the early Christians, he points to a number of parallels between Christianity & the pagan nations, suggesting that: "Our assertion that that which is called Christianity is nothing more than the religion of Paganism, we consider to have been fully verified. We have found among the heathen, centuries before the time of Christ Jesus, the belief in an incarnate God born of a virgin; his previous existence in heaven" & other similarities. (Bible Myth, p.384). Doane knew of Lundy's book but decided not to accept Lundy's answer as to why there are parallels, for Lundy noted the parallels between the nations beliefs', symbols, & mysteries, etc., & suggested that one reason why this was so, was because Christ had pre-existed & had made Himself known unto "other nations."vii Another source says that a certain Historian cites Tertullian as saying that the doctrine of Christ had been heard in all nations of the earth, for "the same voice and doctrine had been heard by the inhabitants of many more strange countries and islands unknown to us, and which, he says, we could not enumerate, yet in which is known the name of Christ, who has come and reigns, before whom the gates of all cities have opened and none remained closed, before whom all iron chains have been broken and steel locks have been unbarred. "Does not Tertullian," Solorzano says, "indicate, as it were, with his finger the distant regions of which we have no knowledge?" --of America?"viii The early anti-Christian, Porphyry, [2nd half of 3rd cent. A.D.], like Celsus & other early anti-Christians, claimed that: Christ had hid himself for ages before appearing among humankind. Therefore the early Christians' God could not be the way, and the truth and the life, in which men and women could have only had access to God, since the time of Christ's appearing in the flesh. Therefore, early Christianity "excludes those who have gone before and those who have no knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth."ix

The Answers to these Charges has inspired the lyrics and dramatizations for the 1st & 2nd CD & the title of the band, Covert Cosmic Cruisers:
"Nothing is more remarkable than the insistence with which Saint Justin, Theophilus of Antioch, Saint Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria,... and Origen repeat that it was the Word (Jesus) who was revealed in the divine appearances in the Old Testament. They make use of this argument in order to show to the Jews that Jesus Christ is no other than `the angel of Israel' who appeared so often to their fathers; they employ it to convince the pagans that Christianity is not a new religion, but that it goes back to the birth of humanity."x Origen, [A.D. 185-230-254], wrote, while responding the ancient critic Celsus, that: "the Christ of God thus shows His superiority to all rulers by entering into their several provinces, and summoning men out of them to be subject to Himself."xi The Catholic historian, P. Dee Roo, tells us that in an old Christian legend, Christ, "during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension, walked with unequal giant strides over the earth, and that wherever he set down his foot a church must be built in the sequel of time. Should this pious story be truthful, it would be evident that Christ strode over our hemisphere in many directions."xii These are some of the things this 2nd CD will dramatize, but for now order the first and check out this new kind of music that blends different types of music, and is what I've called "Drama Rock!"