Sunday, August 9, 2020

Guimo Revelations: The Billiken Connection


So several night's ago I had a very vivid dream about what seemed to be a sort of personal revelation of my higher-self, which is of course Billykin. This character acts as my personal avatar, higher-self, astral form, guardian angel, and is to me 

I'm fairly certain that this image of Billykin and Billy-Can't comes from a novelty postcard, which I am currently hunting for. I found this image while researching on the various kinds of Billiken novelties that were available and the smile and pose of Billykin really stuck with me so much so that I chose him as my avatar for any and all online forums and social media outlets that I use. I adopted him as a personal mascot. I love this image of him happily taking a dump in a chamber pot  while he smiles at Billy-Cant't who is struggling. These two are definitely aspects of my inner life and reflect two of my major moods; happiness and distress. 


"Billykin", my chosen avatar, is a parody of "Billiken", a novelty toy god created in the early 1900's. It's origins are fairly complex but basically Billiken was a very popular novelty statue and doll. I first learned about Billiken through The Church of Good Luck, which has a phenomenal amount of information on the entire history of the character and it's creator. It's a wonderful archive and I believe if you're interested in this sort of obscure pseudo-religious good luck novelty (like I am) you should check them out. The Church of Good Luck isn't rebellious religion of mockery, like The Church of the SubGenius is, and it does take itself somewhat seriously. 


The creator of Billiken was a follower of New Age thought and believed she was a Japanese woman in a previous life, which is amazing because in Japan Billiken is still quite popular in Osaka and there are many statues and novelties dedicated to him. And believe me, if there's any place in the world I'd love to move to forever, it'd be Osaka. It's a beautiful place and I do love Japan with all of my heart. 


To be honest, Billiken has been following me for years. I've had many dreams about the character and I do feel like there's something it's trying to teach me. Billiken's title is "the God of Things As They Ought to be", which means he's the god of dreams, but also good luck and fortune. I live in my dreams. This so-called reality we wander around in is without question some sort of prison of our own collective making, but in our dreams we can fly free. Billiken is the anthropomorphization of that dream reality for me. 

So dedicated am I to this strange god I even carry a pocket piece of him everywhere I go. This lucky coin is from the era from when Billiken was at the height of his popularity and I managed to snag it at a fairly decent price. I don't actually put much faith into trinkets like these, but I do enjoy them and their kitsch quality. 

It's a weird road I traveled to discovery Billiken, and eventually that my cosmic soul was Billykin in nature. I studied with Unarius, then discovered the SubGenius, then Discordianism, which led me down a strange, strange rabbit hole of researching other deities. All of this really helped me get a handle on my own life and learn things about myself that I was too afraid to confront. We all carry baggage, and these sorts of studies and mind exercises help relieve some of that burden. 

So, in any case, about that dream I had a few days ago. It's been stuck in my mind for days so I thought I'd share it here. 

GUIMO DESTROYS AND CREATES THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS THEREIN BY TOTAL ACCIDENT BUT ALSO ON PURPOSE


In some hire realm, I was some sort of  flying, fat cherub angel baby. I was my Billykin avatar, but with tiny wings. I guess this place I was in was supposed to be heaven, or some facsimile thereof. I was eating a banana and I tossed the peel over my shoulder. And even though I was flying, I slipped out of the banana peel and fell out of heaven. 

My crash landing on the earth was what killed all the dinosaurs, save for a few that survived. The crash also helped create the very first cryptids and monsters that still wander the earth to this very day. I also lost my wings and I couldn't flutter around anymore. Dang.

While trying to repair the earth I somehow created of automaton robot super droids to build the continents. The impact of my landing nearly flattened the whole planet so there was a lot of work to do.

When the world was reconstructed, and the leftover dinosaurs, monsters, and cryptids were safely tucked away in their own natural habitats, it was time to introduce this new world to some human beings. This, of course, was my greatest folly. 

Humans were created using fish, specifically the great fur-bearing trout, and letting them soak in Mutan Generating Ooze (Mutagen). 

The end result of all of these is what you see before you now. All the cryptids are in hiding, some dinos still wander around, and the monsters are nowhere to be found. Humans, of course, make things worse for others. But that's too broad of a generalization and I refuse to take it to heart. 

And this was a dream of course. Just something for me to think about as it also reflects something within myself. It's not some sort of hidden cosmic truth. 

Or is it?!


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