Nike and Saturnalia

A while back I checked out the Nike commercial and the images it portrayed stuck in my mind.
The first thing I noticed were the numbers. They all seemed to represent something more. First of all the commercial stars Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings and 28 is his real number.
The number 28 seemed to represent something more in this commercial though. I eventually thought of the Saturn Return phenomenon which is the idea that at the age 28 people cross over into a different stage in their lives and major changes occur. There are different opinions of the actual age but once you research you'll find that the most common age given is 28.

At first I thought I was reaching with this connection but as I kept watching the commercial other links to Saturn caught my eye. First of all many have speculated that the Nike logo itself is meant to be a representation of Saturn. This would not be a surprise at all considering the symbolism associated with the logos of most major corporations.
Saturn has been symbolically represented in popular culture for years. If you read Going Green you are already aware of some of these representations.

Gwen Stefani and her band No Doubt have been on my mind lately and they are sure to come up a lot in future posts. In 2000 Interscope Records released their album Return of Saturn.

Saturn symbolism seems to have followed Gwen and No Doubt ever since.
Saturn symbolically represents the Sun God and so does the Orange so the photo above takes on a whole new meaning.

Behold a pale horse.

The checkerboard and Saturn symbolism has followed Gwen into her solo career as seen in this commercial for one of her perfumes (another one of her perfume commercials will be featured in a future post).

Earlier this year the self proclaimed God M.C. Jayhova wore his Saturn inspired T-Shirt.
His wife Beyonce is 28 this year and has just celebrated the biggest year in her career which solidified her as a pop culture icon.
Fellow pop star Justin Timberlake is also 28 this year.

The new King?

Returning to the commercial, the most striking scene was the final scene where Adrian is seen with skin made in the design of multiple hexagons. Hexagons have been associated with Saturn ever since the following photo was captured by NASA.
Hexagons were also featured on Muse's latest album cover. The cover of the album is interesting as the colors used correlate with the Kundalini and Tree of Life systems.

Hexagons were also used on the album cover for Kylie Minogue's last album X. As I stated in Run This Town X symbolizes transformation into Christ Consciousness.

V for Tiger Woods

The familiarity of The Masters is what makes it one of the greatest events in all of sports. The course is always in the same pristine shape, the faces rarely change (both on the course and on television) and even the on-screen graphics CBS uses are consistent through the years. During the 2009 tournament, though, there has been one subtle change that has left Masters viewers confused. What's with that new "V" on Tiger Woods' hat?

When we last saw Tiger in a major (last year's U.S. Open), the left side of his Nike cap was adorned with the "SQ" logo of the manufacturer's SasQuatch line of golf clubs. Since his return to the PGA Tour, the "SQ" is gone, replaced by a large, somewhat-unwieldy "V".

Not surprisingly, the "V" is another Nike logo. The Oregon-based company recently released its Victory Red irons and the large Roman numeral-like "V" is the logo for the clubs. If you look closely, the top right half of the "V" contains a red, lowercase "r", an obvious nod to Tiger's trademark Sunday color.

Tiger helped design the forged carbon steel blades and is playing the Masters with all Victory Red irons (except for his lob wedge). The clubs also feature Tiger's "TW" logo, as well as the ubiquitous Nike swoosh.

In Greek mythology, Nike (Greek: Νίκη , pronounced [níːkɛː], meaning Victory), was a goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages of the ancient Greek culture. She is known as the Winged goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas (Titan) and Styx (Water), and the sister of Cratos (Strength), Bia (Force), and of Zelus (Rivalry). Nike and her siblings all became described as attendants of Zeus when his cult gained the position of the dominant deity of the Greek pantheon and the roles of older deities were changed in new myths. According to classical (later) myth, Styx brought them to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the Titan War against the older deities. Nike assumed the role of the divine charioteer, a role in which she often is portrayed in Classical Greek art. Nike is seen with wings in most statues and paintings. Most other winged deities in the Greek pantheon had shed their wings by Classical times. Nike is the goddess of strength, speed, and victory. Nike was a very close acquaintance of Athena, goddess of wisdom.^[1] Nike is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins.^[2] Names which have sourced from the goddess Nike include Nicholas, Nick and Nicola.^{[citation needed]}