SCP-2845: AN ESSAY ON SYMBOLISM

SCP-2845 is a fictional entity within the expansive SCP universe. It is a large deer with a human-like face, large antlers with ice crystals surrounding it, and extreme power and ability – such as that to turn anything it desires into Nitrogen. To rip the bandage off, this entity is a stand-in for a personification of the Roman God of Harvest; Saturn.

The article itself deals heavily with symbolism, and I wish to explain its symbolism to anyone reading this. I present to you, an essay on symbolism.

This will be an edgy example, but will perfectly display a portion of my thesis; symbols are important. After the 12-year reign of Fascism in Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany wrote into its penal code, the Strafgesetzbuch, a prohibition of the “use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations”. This included, of course, the swastika – what can be easily argued to be the centerpiece of anything related to the ideology of Nazism.

But why ban the symbols, if symbols are not important? The German Republic could’ve banned merely the party. They could’ve banned just the rhetoric and the literature that was written in support of the Nazis. But they did not stop there; they banned outright symbols, what rationally can be deduced to be mere lines of ink or even lines in sand. These lines, these pixels, whichever can be used to present a swastika, are banned.

It is because symbols mean more than the sum of their parts. Symbols represent so much more, on such a deeper level, than what they are. Although in Asia, the swastika remains a symbol of goodwill, of peace, of love and charity, it remains to this day – both tragically and ironically – as a symbol of pure and distilled hatred. What lies beyond the swastika, at least in the consciousness of Europe and the Americas, is the emotion of hatred so powerful it founded and powered an industrial genocide of which we still are feeling the shockwaves to this very day.

But symbolism and its power do not end with Nazis. Almost every faith, which each has its theology, philosophies, literature, customs and beliefs, ways of life, and even geographic associations, has its symbol. The only exception seems to be those faiths that have been overtaken by other faiths.

The Cross of Christianity, David’s Star in Judaism. The Crescent Moon of Islam, the wheel of Dharma in Buddhism. These symbols mean so many various things; to hold value in forgiveness and charity. To hold value and faith in family and religion. To remember the importance of God. To remember to not hold close that which does not matter. Even the words you read on this website are symbols in their purest and rawest form. And I do not speak of the writing, either. This article could be written in any of the world’s scripts; Hangul, Arabic, Devanagari, Cyrillic, Greek, whatever. The mere words themselves, although a simple combination of consonants and vowels mean far more than the sum of their parts.

Symbols are important.

So let us hypothetically say that something clearly beyond anything that we can deem as rational presents itself to us – and it does not come with intentions of peace. This is what we can definitively call a “God”, for it does not present itself as within the realm of the physical world. It does not abide by the laws of physics, nor that of human reason. It merely lies above them all, uncaring.

That is what the Deer - or SCP-2845 is. A God. And it has been made clear that it is indeed a God within the article, to in-universe dismay and hesitation. The SCP foundation is written as an attempt for Humanity to wrangle that which does not lie within the realm of the physical. To rationalize the irrational. The writing founds itself on the horror of the unknown, as we can never know what lies beyond the laws of physics, what lies outside of the ever-expanding universe. What lies beyond death, what lies before life. We simply cannot know, and that scares us.

But there is hope. Symbolism is so strong that it transcends humanity. It transcends the physical and pushes itself into a realm of ethereal standing which can cross lives and generations. The Jewish book of Daniel at the tail-end of the Tanakh, or the Christian book of Revelation that bookends all forms of the Christian Bible, is heavily laden with symbolism – arguably far more than any of the other books, which are already drenched with symbolism in their own right. It is then no shock that these two books find themselves of much discussion, hundreds – if not thousands – of years after they were written. Symbolism transcends the physical.

The best way to describe the relationship between humanity in the SCP article I bring under scrutiny is that between a parrot and a human. We are the parrot, the Deer is the human. Confusing, I know. But let us say the parrot, or, us in this example, cries out the word “hungry”. The parrot has no idea what “hungry” means. It is mere sounds that come out of the parrot’s beak. The parrot may have a vague understanding, the parrot may notice that the humans mutter that word before they eat. But the parrot knows for certain that if it says “hungry”, the humans will provide him with food.

The parrot knows it cannot change what it says. It knows that saying, for example, “mundee” will not get it food. It has started, and participated in, a ritual. It creates the sound of “hungry”, and it receives food in return. It still abides by the rules of cause and effect, yes, but such is a rule not of the physical world, but of the metaphysical concept of logic. Logic, unintuitively so, does not fall within the physical realm – but is rather something that can be seen as a precursor to the physical realm. What comes up, must come down. The world cannot exist without this logical rule. But this logical rule can exist without a world to present it. Logical paradoxes, and even the world of mathematics, display this wonderfully.

That is what symbolism is, the consonants and vowels to rituals. And rituals, and their transcendent properties, can be considered the language of Gods. When we perform rituals, we speak to God, directly and in their native tongue.

That brings us back to the SCP. What we, as in, humanity, does in the SCP article reflects a sort of... communication with the God. We do not understand what we exactly are saying to this God; all we know is that it’s working for that which we intend to do, prevent it from destroying us.

The Deer itself is entrenched in symbolism to Saturn; both the Roman God, and its equivalent Cronus, and that of the Saturn which is within our solar system. SCP-2845 is a 3-meter tall deer-like creature with ice particles surrounding the back of its head; not dissimilar to that of the ice rings which surround Saturn.

The Deer is capable of many things. For one, it can transform matter from its original state into various structures or substances consisting of hydrogen and nitrogen. The most notable is that it can create hexagonal columns out of living organisms, of uniform height – being 2.4 meters, and of uniform skin. Equal. All equal. It should be noted that hexagons, and the number 6, are strongly associated with Saturn. Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun. Saturn also bears upon it a hexagon on its Northern Pole, and this has been oft-cited as the origin of worship towards black cubes in many faiths. I know, I know, the collaboration between the writer of this SCP, the planet Saturn, and the structure of the solar system is wild. It should also be noted that 2.4 meters are equal to – quite obviously – 240 centimeters; a multiple of 24, which is in it of itself a multiple of 6.

The containment procedures – how the in-Universe humans contain this in-Universe God – is that of a ritual. A highly symbolic one. It tells the story of Saturn, of what it brings, and of what it was. We do not know what this does for this God, but we do know it appeases it in some manner.

Let us begin by describing the floor on which this ritual takes place. Its atmosphere is 1-to-1 with that of Saturn’s known atmosphere, from the composition of the elements within to the relations of the elements within. There are 216 different pillars described beforehand, living creatures transformed by the Deer. These are likely analogous to the moons of Saturn, as they are placed around the Deer, akin to the planet and his moons.

Another instance of the number 6 occurs with 6 chambers placed around the Deer at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 degrees. They form a hexagonal shape. Inside each chamber lies a lead hexagram – the reason for lead and not any other metal is due to lead being historically associated with Saturn in occultism.

Each of the six chambers bears witness to a fraction of the ritual. These first have to do with the positive traits of Saturn, and the celebrations man has had for him, and later ends in the story of Saturn, and the tragedies which he has caused.

The first ritual, Procedure 410-Cassini (Namesake being a Saturn-orbiting satellite, launched by NASA) is a performance of six individuals, representing baseline emotions; those being joy, sadness, anger, apathy, fear, and foolishness. They exchange insults and banter, eventually leading to foolishness besting the other five, leading to him being crowned king. This relates to the practice of the Roman celebration in dedication to Saturn, Saturnalia, wherein it was common standard to level all societal roles – with aristocrats and plebeians rubbing shoulders, and slaves talking back to their masters. A “King of Saturnalia” was crowned during the celebration, and was treated as a king, with his word being order. He generally made those who were his “subjects” do comedic things, and was selected from a place of low standing.

The second ritual, Procedure 420-Perinaldo (Namesake being the birthplace of Giovanni Cassini, who was himself the namesake of the aforementioned satellite, and the discoverer of four of Saturn’s natural satellites) is a live musical performance. Such would be the standard of a harvest festival, such as Saturnalia.

The third ritual, Procedure 430-Epimetheus (Namesake being the Greek God of the same name, who was a titan – therefore a sibling to Saturn, or Cronus as the Greeks would have known him – and was considered a “representative of humanity”.) shows the gift-giving tradition that Saturnalia held, where only cheap gifts were exchanged. This is the most related-to-Saturnalia procedure, as it is capped with the sprinkling of grain around the chamber.

The fourth ritual, Procedure 440-Cassiel (Namesake being the Angel of Saturn in Abrahamic religions.) displays what was the beginning of Saturnalia. In the real world, Saturnalia began by untying wool that was kept around the feet of a statue of Saturn in the center of Rome, and then the statue was to be covered with olive oil. The statue in question was also hollow, and filled with olive oil. In this procedure, those performing it take on the role of Saturn, binding their feet with wool, filling themselves with olive oil, and then breaking apart a large rock – almost as if to transfer their internal Saturnal traits into this rock, which becomes a sort of “ceremonial new statue of Saturn”.

The fifth ritual, Procedure 450-Cairo (Namesake is lost to me, obviously named after the Egyptian city – but I am not sure of the reason for this.) is where things begin to get messy, and why I need to justify why “rituals are the language of the Gods”. In this procedure, a D-Class will have the symbol associated with Ouranos – the father of Saturn, or Cronus in the Greek pantheon – painted in a platinum-based solution. Platinum is also associated heavily with Ouranos. This D-Class will be adorned with a blue cloak, a crown, and a scepter. This D-Class has become a ritualistic stand-in for Ouranos, who was known for sealing away his children in his mythology – one of which being Saturn. It ended in him being castrated and overthrown, and with those performing the procedure embodying Saturn from the last procedure, they castrate this D-Class and dispose of the testes in a bowl of saltwater, analogous to that of the testes of Ouranos being cast into the sea.

The sixth and final ritual, Procedure 460-Omphalos (Namesake being the Greek Mythological equivalent to the Jewish Foundation Stone, the “Centre of the Earth”) is the most awful. In Greek Mythology, and Roman Mythology, Saturn/Cronus is said to have worried that what he had done to his father, would be done to him. That he would be overthrown, and he would be disposed of. In response, he decided to eat his children. Eventually, a plot came about from his consort – Rhea – to save her children. That was to feed Cronus a rock, in place of the infant Zeus. The final ritual has those performing the procedure roast an infant, no more than three months old, and eat it. They then consume stones and vomit them.

These rituals are what contain this God. We do not know what it does to the God specifically – all we know is that it works. We are like a parrot screaming “hungry”. Not “mundee”, or “bungee”, or “fundy”. “Hungry”. We scream “hungry”.