Taking it Literally: Indugent Musings on UFO Craft Shapes and Sexual Dynamics

I believe it may be possible to glean some information through a study of language and specific terms used in within UFO narratives. And in this case, through the symbolism and sexual/cultural associations of the very terms used to describe the UFO craft itself. There are many UFO craft terms, but there are several that are very common: saucer, bell, cigar, and triangle.

It is often pointed out that the origins of the term 'saucer' is ironic within the UFO realm, since Kenneth Arnold did not use it to describe the actual objects he witnessed, but their movement-- that of a saucer skipping across water. Skeptics and debunkers have even asserted this discrepancy in itself may serve to validate subsequent reports of round, disc-shaped craft as products of the imagination, since the mistaken idea of this shape was merely 'planted' by Arnold in a misconstrued reporting.

However, this is merely a random, superficial deduction of logic, and does not take into consideration many things, including a plethora of unknown disc-shaped objects within historical, artistic, ancient, and otherwise.

It is also important to note that the assertion of the 'imagination' in explaining UFO accounts does not necessarily debunk as is often intended, and could even at some future point even serve to actually support the physical existence of the UFO. It is interesting that even within this developing mass belief that the creative mind can manifest things physically, or is otherwise engaged with tangible results and 'reality' (one has only to look at the enormous popularity of The Secret) that the idea of the 'imagination' is still conveniently used by skeptics, and then generally accepted as a warehouse of foolish made-up fancies.

If the imagination was involved in Kenneth Arnold's sighting and subsequent reports, it wasn't on the level of suggestion, it was on the level of resonation. The idea of a wildly mysterious disc shaped object moving through the sky resonated with the masses. Nuts-and-bolts theorists may argue that is because these and other objects are, in fact, moving through the sky. Socio-cultural theorists may argue that the saucer shape held some power or meaning.

Arnold's actual quote is a bit curious "as if a saucer was skipping across the water." He clearly states the crafts were boomerang-shaped, so the word 'saucer' clearly aims to create a mental picture. But, why wouldn't he then just say a boomerang skipping across water, or maybe more obvious, a rock? A rock skipping across water conjures up a specific unmistakable image-that I would dare say almost everyone has witnessed.

I don't mean to imply that the craft witnessed by Arnold were disc shaped after all. But, I assert that his either poignantly subconscious or completely random word choice here is an oddity, and the word saucer itself may have been at least in part responsible for the forthcoming gates-breaking-onslaught of UFO mania.

So, a saucer is associated with food and/or drink; it is a serving vessel, perhaps even a 'lesser' or somewhat secondary vessel, in that it supports another, more prominent or necessary vessel, such as a coffee or teacup. A saucer is somewhat of a minor formality, when a presentation is desired. When a saucer is used on its own, it implies it is a bowl of sorts; it is a rather quaint device though, such as a 'saucer of milk' for a cat.

A saucer, the most common and classic UFO shape, is essentially a circle. The circle is enigmatic in that as a symbol, it is both simple by nature, and complex in meaning. In their essay The Circle: a Paradox and a Paradigm, Reza Sarhangi and Bruce D. Martin state:

"The circle is an object of nature, an idealization of pure mathematics, and a symbol or framework we use to understand and describe our world. The circle exists independently of human thought, as ripples in a pond, or the appearance of the sun and moon, or the shape of the iris of an eye..."

The ubiquitous, natural circle, among other things, is representative of wholeness, the ideal world, containment, completion, satisfaction. It is appropriated in seemingly unlimited ways, to describe and represent such characteristics, such as the mandala, pentacle, and the wheel of life. Jung famously asserted in his treatise Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky, that flying saucers are mandala-like--a vision of wholeness and serenity for a fragmented and violent modern world.

The circle is also representative of the feminine, and this aspect within the UFO realm has not gone unnoticed. In an interview with Dr. Jefferey Mishlove, the scholar Terence McKenna states:

"...the UFO challenges the assumptions of science, and I think in that sense Jung was really onto something when he saw it as coming from the unconscious...[UFOs] turn us away from the rational and toward the intuitive; to turn us away from the paternalistic, Apollonian, solar, masculine view of things, and toward a kind of watery, lunar, mysterious, intuitively felt feminine force -- almost as though the UFO is a manifestation of Gaia as mother goddess."

So, the round, disc shape and its symbolism of the feminine is well established and often rehased within UFO thought and literature, but the precise term of 'saucer' should certainly add a bit of credibility and insight to the notion. As I stated before, the saucer is often used as a support and presentation piece for a cup-which carries its own poignant symbolism. A cup is likewise a classic symbol of the feminine, and has been appropriated in many ways to signify great meaning. Perhaps the most notable is that of the Holy Grail, the vessel which Christ drank from at the Last Supper, and was later used to catch his blood at his internment.

The recent Da Vinci Code-style position that the Grail was actually a reference to Mary Magdalene, Christ's companion and keeper of the divine bloodline, may tie into McKenna's assertion of the goddess manifesting. In keeping with the idea that a saucer supports and presents the cup-in this case, we may suppose the flying saucer presents the grail/goddess, or feminine energy.

It has long been speculated by theorists such as Jung, and even within the UFO narratives themselves, that the presence of the UFO is about social transformation. There are full, intricate mythologies about impending alien earth-takeovers, hybridization and so forth, all in which huge transformation is the result.

In his book, Archaic Revival, McKenna asserts the UFO is meant to confound science, and bring forth an embracing of mystery, maternal, organic, and intuition-based paradigm, a 'rebirth of the Goddess.' Emphasize organic here-McKenna was all about modeling human culture around and taking cues from plant life, and eventually merging our 'technologies.'

As bizarre, quaint, cliché, abstract, and/or 'nice' as this may sound to some, when contemplating the actual features he proposes in this new female and plant-centered paradigm, written almost 20 years ago, it seems only prophetic and sensible: detoxification of the natural environment, connectedness and symbiosis, whole system fine-tuning, recycling, global atmosphere energy-based economy, nanotechnology, maintaining biological diversity.

The saucer is not the only common UFO shape term that reflects the feminine, and generally the idea of gender. The Nazi UFOs were 'bell' shaped. The bell generally represents the feminine principle. Bells are also, according the to University of Michigan's Symbolism Project:

"...representative of joy and freedom, as with the American LibertyBell. The shape of the bell is closely related to the vault of heaven. A bell's pendulous motion can represent the extremes of good and evil; death and immortality. They are also integral to rituals of exorcism and excommunication, and they are a widespread mechanism for summoning (often even a call of Christ). Its sound is a symbol of creative power, but can also be a call to arms. Is [sic] also phallic in some senses, a bell and handle = a vulva and a phallus, the same with a bell and a tongue. Leads to embodiment of virginity, unmarried women adorn themselves with bells."

It's not difficult to see some curious connections within the Nazi schema and bell symbology. The idea of a huge occult bell, carrying all its power, emerging like an angry mother from the sick perverted mess of the Nazi catastrophe is somehow satisfying. Of course, I'm not suggesting the actual UFOs were bells, (or belles,) mothers or goddesses. Rather, that because we named and collectively agreed and made stick the word 'bell' to describe these craft, whatever they are or were, there may be some meaning.

Likewise, there is the common cigar shaped UFO, with its obvious phallic affinities. As the oft-quoted Freudian saying, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" suggests, a cigar may be a default phallic symbol, as everyone immediately knows exactly what the cigar represents, and what the phrase means. Although the cigar shape does describe its respective craft, so do several other objects. Looking through the cigar shape case witness drawings at the UFO Evidence website, it is clear that many of the cigar-described crafts are actually closer in physical similarity to footballs, bullets, and baguettes.

Even the increasingly reported triangle shape UFO, rife with occult symbolism, can be connected to symbols of sexuality. The pink triangle is the holocaust-derived, fabulously in-your-face, appropriated symbol of gay pride. The triangle UFOs are usually reported as black, but also commonly found to have outer white lights, and a red one in the center.

Although the mixing of light is different than that of mixing paint, there's no doubt that it can be said in a general sense, red and white, when combined, make pink. So, we have huge, flying triangles with pink properties. Interestingly, reports and images of these triangle UFOs are becoming more prominent in a time when the heated and passionate debates over same-sex marriage are at center in the American psyche, politically, socially, and spiritually.

Although my ruminations here are admittedly indulgent, I believe there is a case for the phraseologies and specifics of sanctified word choices within the UFO phenomenon. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but even in that famous dismissal, there is an inherent implication that sometimes a cigar is more that it would seem.

Sources:

Circles Paper, Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of the Sciences and Arts, http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/reza/
Aliens and Archetypes with Terence McKenna, Intuition Network, http://www.intuition.org/txt/mckenna.htm
Archaic Revival: The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History, Terence McKenna, Harper One, 1992, ISBN 0062506137
Bell, University of Michigan, http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/B/bell.html