Written by: Carl Horn
Source: Originally published in the Viz edition of Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 6
Dated: May 2002
Two different-appearing entities, which may or may not be one and the same, have been referred to by this name at this point in events: a.) an object several cm in length resembling a human embryo, carried by Ryoji Kaji in "suspended animation" within a case an delivered to Gendo Ikari, an object described as "the key to the Intrumentality Project" and "the first human being;" and, b.) several weeks later: a giant, humanoid figure hanging from a cross in NERV's ultimate level classified facility, the deep subterranean hanger known as Terminal Dogma. Upon first witnessing this figure, Major Katsuragi characterized Adam as "the First Angel;" Kaji added "This is also 'Project-E'."
The appearance of the figure described in b.) is that of a sexuall indistinct human, white, hairless, almost blubbery. Its wrists are affixed to the cross by bolts or screws. Where its face would be, is a mask, possibly physically driven into the figure (a dark liquid can be observed oozing from where the mask meets the neck). On the mask is the sigil of SEELE (see below). The "body" is missing its presumed lower half, as if severed at the waist; but close inspection shows smaller (that is, human sized) pelvises and legs dagling from the blobby terminus of the figure. A paler, serum-like liquid runs from the figure down to the bottom of the cross.
Kaji told Shinji that his mother, Dr. Yui Ikari, who vanished during the initial creation of the Evangelion series, solved the "primary problem" of "'Eva,' born from 'Adam.'" In an action related to the "Adam Project," Unit-00 pilot Rei Ayanami drove the Spear of Longinus (see below) into the body of Adam, where it currently resides at this point in events.
20-th century rabbi Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi, a student of Kabbalah (an ancient tradition with Judaism that seeks the mystical and esoteric rationale behind creation) explained the Kabbalistic theory that the Systema Sephiroticum (see below)-a representation of which is on the floor and ceiling og Gendo Ikari's office-represents the model, map, schematic and code for the totality of Creation and, simultaneously, also the diagram for the body of the primal human being, "Adam Kadamon."
In the process of Creation, Adam Kadamon, says Rabbi Halevi, is "the first of four reflections of God to become manifest as existance extends from Divinity to Materiality, before returning to merge again at the end of time." The Adam created in the book of Genesis is based on this model of Adam Kadamon; Halevi relates that while mainline Judaism "has it that Adam was created last of all other creatures so that he would be humble, the Kabbalistic view is that all other creatures without exception-even the angels and archangels-are based on Adam (Kadamon) but were left incomplete: only Adam (of Genesis) was a complete image of the Divine. This acconts for the myth of jealousy and discord among the angelic hosts..."
One explanation that has been offered for the unusual appearance of the First Child, Rei Ayanami. Albinism is a genetic defect; the hereditary inability to produce the pigment melanin, which, in different combinations, is what gives human skin, eyes, and hair different colors. Rei's blue-white hair, pale skin, and red eyes (the red color of the underlying retina) are all highly symptomatic of albinism.
There has been the strong suggestion that the Children are either the product of genetic experimentation or have certain "natural" genetic characteristics. If this is true, then Ayanami's presumed albinism could be either an "acceptable side effect" or "acceptable defect," considering the overall importance of her job. It is interesting to note, however, that while albinism necessarily results in sensitive skin and eyes, Ayanami appears to wear no special protection for either. She has been observed to be taking some sort of medication, however.
Like NERV itself, the even more obscure Marduk Agency is supposedly an organization established by the United Nations' secret Instrumentality of Man Committee, under its chairman, Lorenz Kiel. The founding date of the Marduk Agency is unknown. The purpose of Marduk is to find and identify those 14 year-old "Children" able to "synchronize" with and hence pilot the Evangelion units. At this point in events, four have been found: in order, the First, Rei Ayanami; the Second, Asuka Langley Soryu; the Third, Shinji Ikari, and the Fourth, Toji Suzuhara. Records indicate that the Marduk Agency is a vast concern, with connections to a family of 108 international enterprises. However, NERV's Ryoji Kaji, acting as a double agent for the Japanese Ministry of the Interior, maintains that he has evidence that Marduk is nothing but a vast series of blinds, and the truth about the selection process lies not with Marduk, but with the school all the Children attend.
"Marduk" was the ruler of the gods worshipped by ancient Babylon, the city-state whose armies in 586 B.C. destroyed the original Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, and then exiled the Jews from their homeland during the forty-eight-year "Babylonian Captivity." This otherwise obscure detail may connect to the Instrumentality of Man Committee. The "Dead Sea Scrolls" consulted by the Committee for their prophecies are believed by many scholars to have been written by the Essene community of Jews-a community which is thought to have had its origins during the Babylonian Captivity (see also SEELE, below).
One type of anitmatter particle; the first variety of antimatter ever created in the laboratory. Although postulated by noted 20th century physicist Paul Dirac as early as the 1930s, their manufacture, even in ultra-minute qualitites, was not realized until the 1970s, when the breakthrough ocurred at the giant accelerator spanning the Franco-Swiss border of CERN, the Consell Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research). Positrons are the antimatter counterpart to the electrons that suround the nuclei of ordinary matter. Their potential as a weapon is clear when one realizes that while even the most efficient nuclear bombs only manage to release a small percentage of the energy contained in their explosive mass, the intersection of matter and antimatter results in the total conversion to energy of both—a 200% efficient reaction.
The late Joe Bankhead, former USNS Electronics Tech 1st Class/Reactor Operator, commented upon the positron cannon employed by NERV against Angel Ramiel. Bankhead noted that while a stream of positrons might be a practical weapon in the vacuum of space, where normal matter in the path of the beam would be tenuous, a positron beam used in Earth's atmosphere would be "the equivalent of putting the barrel of your grenade launcher right up against a wall and then pulling the trigger... The matter/antimatter reaction, in other words, would start to occur within nanometers once the positrons leave the (presumed) magnetic containment field within the barrel. Boom." Bankhead added that in theory this could be prevented by surrounding the positron beam with some kind of generated neutrinos, but that in his judgement it remained "a highly dubious propect."
German for "soul" (pronounced "ZAY-leh"), a committee variously shown to be of as few as five or as many as fifteen personages of apparently different ethnic or national origin, to whom Gendo and his sub-commander, Fuyutsuki, have been seen to report. "Seele" is the esoteric name the (itself secret) Instrumentality of Man Committee of the United Nations. However, neither the existance of the Committee nor the name "Seelee" are known to the general public; indeed, it is not known if anyone outside NERV is aware of their existance, and the appear a secret to many inside NERV as well. Also secret is the existance of the Instrumentality Project, the completion of which (and not defeating the Angels per se) Chairman Kiel has stated as NERV's primary objective. Adam, the crucified First Angel kept by NERV, bears a mask with marks resembling lunar craters above the sigil of SEEL—an inverted triangle with seven eyes.
The origins of SEELE and Kiel are unknown, although "Lorenz Kiel" is also a German name, as is both "NERV" and its precursor organization "GEHIRN." Although sometimes communicating only through a hologram, there is certainly evidence to suggest Kiel is an actual person, him having been photographed in a public gathering with Gendo Ikari in 2002. Kiel is a Caucasion and has the appearance of a man in late middle or early old age; he possibly has sensitive eyesight, as he, unlike the other members of SEELE, wears a slitted visor over his eyes, and wore wide dark glasses in the 2002 photo.
It is known for certain that Dr. Yui Ikari, and through her, Gendo, worked for SEELE in the year before the Second Impact. It is possible that SELEE is indeed an organization of ancient lineage and a hidden power in world history (indeed, Ryoji Kaji suggests this is in fact the case, saying they at least are certainly the progenitors of NERV). They may also be of more modern origins, and merely claim an unwarranted, exaggerated, or unproven antiquity to bloster their prestige or sense of mission, as has been the case with other secret societies such as the Masons and Rosicrucians.
In an event, SEELE makes a convincing claim to have access to ancient knowledge, including knowledge of both the human past and future based on prophecies and revelations in certain secret "Dead Sea Scrolls" in their possession. A great many of the Dead Sea Scrolls—important early Jewish historical and theological documents dating from circa 250 BC to circa 135 AD—are publicly known to scholars. However, the first of the Scrolls were unearthed in 1947 and were restricted to a small group of scholars for many years thereafter; scholars assume others remain hidden in private custody, if only for their priceless monetary value. All are factors lending mystery to these documents, and make SEELE's claim to possess secret Scrolls difficult to dismiss on its face.
In fact, even among the publicly-known Scrolls is a fragment of the earliest ever found version of the pseudoepigraphical Book of Enoch, a work not accepted as canonical by mainline Judaism or Christianity but of interest to occultists. This particular fragment, 4Q201, has an odd resonance with the history of NERV, reading in part, "[They (the leaders) and all... of them took for themselves] wives from all that they chose and [they began to cohabit with them and to defile themselves with them]; and to teach them sorcery and [spells and the cutting of roots; and to aquiant them with herbs.] And they become pregnant by them and bo[re (great) giants three thousand cubits high...]"
It has been suggested by Taliesin Jaffe that Kiel identifies himself and his committee with the personages described in the Old Testament book of the propher Zechariah (see also Spear of Longinus, below) chapters 3 and 4, and 8: "For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day... and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubabbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hand shall also finish it... they sall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.... In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."
Zerubbabel, which means "Seed of Babylon" in Hebrew, was a lineal ancestor of Christ (Michaelangelo depicted him in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel). He was a leader among the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from exile after the "Babylonian Captivity," and it was he who finished the rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon. Solomon's Temple, today a ruin except for its Western, or "Waiting" Wall, was long regarded in esoteric traditions (notably Masonry) to be as close to a physical expression of the majest, secrets, and perfection of God as human technology ever created. The Branch Davidians, an apocalyptic sect of the 1990s, also believed that the "latter-day Zerubbabel" was among them.
In the sccount of the Crucifixion given in John 19:34, we are told that after Christ died, "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came out blood and water," an act interpretted by John to be a fulfillment of a description of the Messiah as given by the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10). In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, it is said that this Roman soldier's name was Longinus and—perhaps significantly—that Longinus pierced the living, not the dead Christ. Longinus is regarded as a saint and martyr by both Catholic and Orthodox churches; he is said to have been converted to Christianity by the experience. His supposed name ("Longinus" may simply be taken from the Latin word for "lance," as this relic is also known), his biographical origins, and the true location, if extant, of his Spear are shrouded in uncertainty.
In previous centuries the Spear has been variously claimed to reside in Rome, Vienna, and Cracow. However, according to a discussion (recorded by classified UN documentary footage, and recovered by Brendan Jamieson) amongst scientists of the Katsuragi Expedition the first discovered Adam beneath their base at Mt. Markham on the Shackleton Coast of Antarctica, the Spear was found in the Dead Sea itself. It was subsequently delievered to the base's dock the week of August 7, 2000. The Second Impact occurred on September 13 during the experimental insertion of the Spear into Adam; the UN scientists attempted to pull it back after "the planned limit values" were exceeded. The Spear, however, continued to sink into Adam, whose A.T. Field released itself in an explosion causing massive tsunami, climactic change, and subsequent civil strife that led to the death of 50% of humanity within the next year. The Spear was recovered and brought to Tokyo-3 in 2015 by an expedition to Antarctica led personally by Gendo Ikari and his second-in-command, Kozo Fuyutsuki.
The lore surrounding the Spear has extended into modern times, as it is maintained by some that Hitler's interest in the occult included this relic. From the gigantic dimensions (the length of an aircraft carrier) of the "Spear" recovered by NERV, it is evident that it cannot literally have been a weapon wielded by any human. Neither does the "Spear"'s design, that of a military fork whose tines emerge from the unwinding of a progessively tightened double helix, resemble any Roman weapon known to have been in use during the 1st century A.D. NERV, however and its putative overseer SEELE, are organizations steeped in symbolism and seeking an esoteric meaning behind the plain text of scripture and prophecy. The association of the Spear with the structure of DNA may have been quite literal, one of the very last remarks recorded in the UN footage, mere seconds before the Second Impact, is "The genes implanted into Adam have already achieved physical merging."
Taking that into account, as well as the uncertainty regarding the relic itself, speculation suggests one or more of the following: a.) the Spear is an authentic relic whose suprahuaman origins, like those of the Angels, were revealed only through secret revelations to which SEELE and NERV have access, b.) "Spear of Longinus" is a code name, chosen for its mythological associations in the manner of the names given to modern military weapons, or even c.) the Spear contains encased within it the actual artifact; interestingly, one of the massive pillars over the high altar of the Vatican is said to contain the Spear.
Inscribed on the ceiling (and floor, in a different form) of Commander Ikari's office are diagrams of Creation as conceived within the ancient Judaic mystical tradition known as Kabbalah. It is important to note that because of the antiquity and basic primacy of Judaism and Jewish writings within the Western (and also Islamic) theological tradition, historically, many non-Jews have attempted to adapt, or co-opt, such to their own systems of belief or practice. While this has often been done without malign intent, it has also often taken on an expression that could be characterized as anti-Semitic.
This occurred notoriously with the chief editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls research project himself, Harvard Divinity School's Dr. John Strugnell, who was dismissed from his position after voicing supersessionist views about Judaism in a November 9, 1990 interview with the Israeli newspaper HaAretz. Supersessionism is the practice of believers in newer religions based on Judaism (for example, faiths such as Christianity, founded c. 27 A.D. and Islam, founded 610 A.D., both of which regard the God with whom the Jewish patriarch Abraham made a covenant in C. 1850 B.C. as also being their God) expressing the idea that their new religion “supersedes,” “completes,” or “corrects” an original Judaism that is now irrelevant. Another extreme example of the co-opting of Jewish revelation to justify a movement or program are the views of present day sects such as the Christian Identity movement, who seek to write Jews out of their own history, claiming that “White, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and kindred people” were the actual people of Abraham's covenant and that modern Jews are somehow imposters.
This millennia-old interest in Jewish concepts and thought has included conventional religious practice as well as esoteric ritual, and has included not only figures regarded as religious but philosophers such as the psychologist C.G. Jung. However, one of the earliest non-Jews known to seek occult knowledge from the Kabbalah was the mysterious Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). He drew the particular diagrammatic interpretation of the Kabala that appears on the ceiling of Gendo's office, and gave it the Latin name “Systema Sephiroticum” (System of the Sephira). Kircher drew controversial, syncretic associations between Christian teaching and the Kabbalah, which had by this time already existed separately for centuries as a Jewish discipline. It is of course also important to bear in mind that the long history of Judaism has included within its own adherents a full range of interpretations of Kabbalah, no less than debate over everyday questions of morals, ethics, practices, and beliefs, with differences that continue to the present day.
However, the pattern does accurately describe fundamental Jewish Kabbalistic beliefs: to wit, that the ten “sephirah,” (the word, which is the original Hebrew, is an ancestor of the English “cipher”) shown in the diagrams, are attributes of God, linked together by a complex pattern that serves also as a model, map, schematic, and cod for the totality of Creation; thereby, through its study, all knowledge of Creation and God can eventually be revealed and understood by human beings.
For this to happen, in Kabbalah, is in fact the purpose of existence itself, as Kabbalists believe that Creation—where One made many—occurred because “God wished to behold God,” and therefore, “Face must behold Face.” Only when our knowledge of Creation—including its experiences and possibilities as brought about by free will—is complete, will all existence be reunited with God.
An international organization of sovereign states, established in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in 1945 with its headquarters in New York City. Originaily composed of the victorious Allied Powers, the chartered purpose of the UN was to promote world peace, security and cooperation in the post-war world, and the organization had come to include nearly all countries by the end of the century. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls took place against the backdrop of the UN partition of Israel and Palestine as separate entities, and it was a member of the United Nations Truce Supervision Drganization, Captain Philippe Lippens, who brought in Roland de Vaux, director of the Ecole Biblique, a French Catholic theological school in Arab East Jerusalem, to oversee research on the Scrolls; he remained director of the project until his death in 1971. It was de Vaux who discovered the fragments of the Book of Enoch in 1952.
The Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which suspended the claims of any individual nation to that continent, opening it up to extensive research, was written to "further the purposes and principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations." It was the United Nations that investigated and published the official explanation of the Second Impact In 2002, claiming it resulted from a meteor strike. The UN gained in the aftermath of that catastrophe a heretofore unseen level of power and influence that made it, for the first time, an agency capable—if it deemed so necessary—of action independent of the major surviving world governments. Of those governments, that of Japan appears the most susceptible to UN influence (although the mistrust and rivalry retween the two organizations is also evident). The headquarters of the 21st century United Nations is in fact now in Japan's own capital of Tokyo-2, formerly called Matsumoto City.