Drexciyan Flood

“...there’s going to have to be a great flood again and destroy everything and restart. Somebody has to hit the restart button because, right now, I don’t think so. Somebody’s opened up Pandora s Box and all hell is breaking loose. That's why I’m pushing the gas and I’m putting out more stuff. The kind of images with Drexciya and stuff, I’m taking people away from here. I feel like Noah’s Ark, I’m loading up the Drexciyan-Ark and taking your mind on a trip away from here for a little while.”

The above quote was sparked by a question by Derek Beere in 2002 regarding whether James Stinson thought we could ever replicate the underwater world of Drexciya in today's society. Its since struck me that his reference to Noah's Ark matches up very much with the imagery of the opening storm of the series, 'Harnessed The Storm'. Linking up with that albums darkly foreboding opener ‘Under Sea Disturbances’ (you can of course listen to the storm literally blowing at the start of this track), to the unequivocal in meaning ‘Aquatic Cataclysm’ and ‘Digital Tsunami’, even the closer ‘Birth of New Life’ could stand as the hope of a new beginning as the saved inhabitants of the ark emerge. Read on and you'll see I even managed to find a place for ‘Dr. Blowfins Black Stabilizing Spheres’ in this scenario! I was just going to write this connection up as a paragraph to be added to the original article on 'Harnessed' but as I did my research I saw there is more to this link in its own right.

To re-cap, the opening storm in the series is in my opinion the scene setter, where Drexciya get kicked out of paradise for taking life for granted and forgetting the meaning of life, which to some point is very much in keeping with the sentiments of the biblical flood story. However if they had used the Garden of Eden tale I will admit that it would tie in better to my view but the flood works as well. I'll also admit that how a flood could really affect an underwater society is questionable, although undersea disturbances and the enormous movement of a tsunami could, but the point is moot as we are of course dealing with flood as metaphor. I’m just saying they may have taken some inspiration from it as a mechanism to set up the background to the proceeding transformational and evolutionary steps of storms #2 - #6 which if followed allow us not only re-entry to paradise but further access towards regions we have heretofore never been. This being the Drexciya Home Universe and the infinities which it potentially contains. Storm #7 is of course another bookend to the story, it being a physical journey through space which on closer inspection might even turn out to contain references to another account of an historic journey, in fact try it yourself, Homer’s Odyssey or The Golden Fleece story most naturally spring to my mind to be worthy of investigation, although judging by it’s title I would expect it to be from the perspective of someone’s memoirs, but this is an article for another day. Back tracking to the potential infinities of the Drexciya Home Universe I mentioned, I continue to wonder if Gerald Donald understands this and is even part way there himself? Ever the scientist, it could be argued that with some of his releases since Drexciya he is endeavouring to guide our understanding through the universal language of mathematics towards this same metaphoric location. A location which he had previously with James Stinson brought us but via a more inward and spiritual route.

If I'm correct that they did take a little inspiration from the biblical flood story then Stinson/Drexciya may have taken some of their own advice and went a little deeper with the story of Noah’s Ark. I’m sure if they did start to scratch the surface of the history of this story they would have soon realised that there are well over 500 such tales from different cultures and times around the world, many far older than the biblical one we know so well. One such account and from what I can make out as a layman must be the oldest and therefore root story, or one of them, is found in the famous epic saga of Gilgamesh dating from at least 3000 BC and said to record events which were then already ancient. This account differs from the biblical 40 days and 40 nights of rain and has just 7 days which begins with a storm. It does contain plenty of aquatic references, as you would expect a flood account to, but if you study you’ll see it contains more than a few crossovers with the storm series. The version I am about to quote from comes from the very widely available and much read ‘Fingerprints of the Gods’ by Graham Hancock, first published 1995, so it’s not as obscure a reference as it first appears, there’s no reason why they might not have read this book at some point or found the Gilgamesh account mentioned in some other book of this type.
The first striking thing about this account which would appeal to anyone with an aquatic interest is the benevolent actions towards mankind of Ea the water God. By the way, they surely wouldn’t have called an album ‘Neptune’s Lair’ without knowing something of the history of ancient Gods!

I would advise you to read the following quote closely if your confused as to why exactly people might upset the Gods and get kicked out of paradise, assuming this ever happened of course! Also from our perspective take note of its mention of ‘life’.

Utnapishman speaking, ‘In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel”. So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind.’

Ea takes pity on the man Utnapishtim and says to him,
“Tear down your house and build a boat, abandon your possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul...Tear down your house I say and build a boat with her dimensions in proportion - her width and length in harmony. Put aboard the seed of all living things into the boat.

Utnapishtim speaking, “I put on board all my kith and kin, put on cattle, wild beasts from open country, all kinds of craftsmen...The time was fulfilled. When the first light of dawn approached a black cloud came up from the base of the sky; (‘Dr. Blowfins Black Stabilizing Spheres’) it thundered within where Adad, lord of the storm, was riding...A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup...On the first day the tempest blew swiftly and brought flood...No man could see his fellow. Nor could then people be distinguished from the sky. Even the gods were afraid of the flood. They withdrew; they went up to the heaven of Anu and crouched in the outskirts. The gods cowered like curs while Ishtar (goddess of war and sexual love) cried, shrieking aloud, ‘Have I given birth unto these mine own people only to glut with their bodies the sea as though they were fish?’ For six days and nights the wind blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled. I looked at the face of the world and there was silence. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a rooftop. All mankind had returned to clay.”

The boat ends up grounded on a mountain top and from that point begins life's second chance.
But don’t forget, every great story, in fact, every story, is essentially about moving from the darkness into the light. Perhaps all this is just happening on a subconscious level for them, eg. by the time Stinson spoke of it he could then see the connection with the flood story and so mentioned it. If you want to go along with all this the Storm Series could now be seen as a conceptual ark which can be boarded whenever discovered by the individual and if understood fully could be their saviour and provide passage to a new way of life. I shouldn't need to say it at this stage, we know how deep this goes, but respect is eternally due. Long live Drexciya.

‘...abandon your possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul...’

‘Somebody’s opened up Pandora’s Box and all hell is breaking loose...I’m loading up the Drexciyan-Ark and taking your mind on a trip away from here for a little while.”