~~~Read the story as you listen along to the album HERE!~~~

 COSMIC INNUENDO, VOL. 1:
DARK SIDE OF THE OCEAN

The ocean contains 99% of Earth’s living space, and yet the NOAA reports that 80% of the ocean has never been mapped much less explored. And that doesn’t seem far-fetched when we spend a hundred times more on the exploration of outer space than our own oceans — they have better maps of the surface of the moon than they do the floor of the ocean! With scientists estimating that there are as many as 90% of ocean species still undiscovered, you have to wonder what else could be down there at the bottom of our planet? It’s Earth’s biggest mystery…

…The dark side of the ocean.

DESCENT

The ancients wrote of the lives lost at sea and how they were held there until the Great Day of Judgment at the end of this Age. Of those lives, this story follows one of them. Like history’s other casualties — of those whose proclivities were toward things outside of their design — in this case, it was land creatures living in water, and so this sailor (being misaligned from his divine blueprint) drowned. As if land creatures (whose every minute requires breathing) living in something that could kill them at any misstep (the ocean) wasn’t enough of a misalignment, this particular deceased sailor actually became deceased for another reason: he was a soldier!  And so he found himself in the cross hairs of a double misalignment (aka a double sin): water that couldn’t be breathed by his lungs, and the cannon blast that put him in it. Two situations he should have never found himself in in the first place!

And so naturally, as is the Law of the Earth…. he died. After all, the the wages of sin actually is death. 

This sailor soldier, whose name history has long forgot (along with whatever cause he supposedly gave his life for), spun out of control beneath the world, pulled by the increasing gravity below and pushed by the increasing pressure above. As whatever air left in his lungs was displaced by the salt water around him, his body stopped functioning, though his eyes could still see the increasing darkness around him as an unseen anchor dragged his soul further and further.

It was as if he was drifting into space, where blue fades to black as he left the atmosphere, the omnipresent darkness crushing him from every angle as it closed in. No more up or down or left or right, drifting away from the Earth or closer to the Earth… it all felt the same, except the incremental pressure telling him he was still falling -- experiencing the extent of Earth’s gravity. Time slowed to a halt in a state of liquid purgatory. All was still and silent, except for the startling sounds of far off crying from lonely creatures, also lost in this abyss.

Soon he passed from the Twilight Zone into the Midnight zone, and there was no longer black and blue, up and down; there was simply black and black. But an odd thing happened there in the darkest, loneliest place on the entire planet… a light ignited. A light which belonged to a fellow Earthling — and perhaps the most insignificant Earthling of all: algae. It was the bioluminescence of algae. And yet even the smallest of creatures was still something to keep company with. Instantly, the darkest, loneliest place on Earth became a little less dark and lonely.

Another flash, this time a horrifying face of a glowing goblin from Halloween. Was he entering Hell? Oddly enough, this Hellish state turned out to still be the natural realm of Earth, though this company was a lot less welcoming to their domain than the bioluminescent algae. Then lights began to illuminate the abyss for miles, like fireflies on a moonless night. And there in the abyssal plain of the deepest ocean trench, he saw creatures that men had only ever speculated about. Surely this was the likes of the Kraken and Leviathan he’d heard tales of, and some creatures the description of which had never even entered the minds of men, except for what God Himself had recounted in Genesis of the mysterious creatures He Himself had made, known as the great Tanninim.

The ignition of light must have been contagious, because what was left of his own eyes could see his own skin becoming bioluminescent there in that magical, yet completely natural world at the Bottom of the Barrel. Though the weight of the world had crushed his body to a pulp, he could see his soul coming to the surface, and his flesh and spirit parted ways.

In his new, spiritual state of being, suddenly a new dimension of bioluminescence appeared, that of the spirit realm. And he saw that he had never been alone that whole time in the blackest darkness. What appeared to be a deceased crew of sailor ghosts passed by him singing an ancient sea shanty as if they were still out there sailing the open seas, and completely oblivious they were actually sailing the Mariana Trench.

Stranger still, he saw what looked like angels stationed there like guardians over their territory, but unlike any angels he’d ever heard described by men or even the Bible. These angels had fins instead of wings! But why shouldn’t there be angels in the sea if angels were the guardians of Earth’s territories? After all for every mile of land on Earth, there are two of sea.

He could feel how caring, warm, and good-natured the angels were, like they were down there watching with compassion over the confused, scared souls that had descended to the bottom. He chuckled to himself, realizing that all of this was here the whole time, and he knew it was here in concept, but he couldn’t feel the company of these friendly guardians because he didn’t really believe they were there. But now it was as if he just joined an extravagant party of spirits.

One of the angels approached him, seeing him enter the party of the spiritual realm, and greeted him with a smile. A disarming warmth of comfort and safety radiated from the sea angel and enveloped the former sailor soldier. Without speaking a word, it was made known to him that he was going to be here for a while, but his stay would be more hospitable than it appeared in this ominous underwater desert. He was going to be welcomed into the family of those other spirit sojourners who came before him, and who for thousands of years had been doing their best to make the lowest point on Earth as comfortable and lavish as was within their means.

The angel took him by the arms and carried him away to the ancient kingdom of sea angels, or the Angel Aquarium as it was known, where he and other sunken spirits would be safely kept in a holding place until the End of the Age, when they would be resurrected on Judgment Day to give an account for everything they did in their life times. As they traveled through the lowest trenches on Earth, they passed by undiscovered Tanninim, wandering lost spirits of men and of angels, friendly sentinel angels trying to shepherd their own flock of sunken spirits to the Angel Aquarium, and other angels diligently standing their posts to guard against saboteur spirits. The guardian angel again communicated as if telepathically and summarized the past millennia of ancient history regarding the dynasties of angel kingdoms, and how Angel Aquarium used to be a more morbid, underwater purgatory of sorts (what mankind refers to in legends as “Davy Jones Locker”), but then the great Archangel of the Ocean led a rebellion of anarchist-sympathizers to join him in seizing “Davy Jones Locker” to overthrow it and set up a new kingdom with him as King of a new Monarchy…

Down at the Bottom of the Barrel, still your love is bottomless.
The weight of the world is crushing me to a pulp, but it brings my soul to the surface.
And if I make my bed in Mariana Trench, I’m welcomed to a city that’s lit
Bioluminescence…

ASCENT

The angelic escort captured whatever souls were found at the bottom of the ocean – lodged in the Mariana Trench – and transported them across the ocean floor until they came to a fast flowing channel of water – what Greek mythology referred to as the River Styx. The angel jumped into the River Styx and they were abruptly swept away at the speed of sound, as fast as the infamous Bloop reverberated through the waters, for thousands of miles across the ocean floor, past great trenches and caverns in the Earth’s crust. Like a rocket ship blasting onward into the pitch black void of space, they hurtled forward until suddenly in the distance the endless pitch black gloom was interrupted by what looked like morning dawn coming over the horizon. Of course this was the bottom of the ocean, so they were 6,000 miles below the closest ray of sunlight.

The light kept increasing until finally the sea angel carrying the sailor soldier rolled out of the River Styx. They found themselves up on the ridge of a giant crack in the Ocean floor overlooking a vast, glowing city buried in the Earth’s crust and shining upward through the vast network of cracks. It looked like it was made of glowing crystals of green emerald and purple amethyst, but as the soul and angel approached the city they could see that it wasn’t the crystals that were aglow within the architecture of the city—it was lit up by the deceased.

Before them was a troop of Sunken Souls, like that of the sailor soldier, who had been collected by their guardian angel. They marched toward the glowing city, as if in chains, swaying from side to side like they were tossed by waves at the ocean’s bottom. 

They marched forward and joined a line of other Sunken Souls waiting to enter the city, and there at the city gate a spectacular thing happened: the angels were wrapping the metaphysical frame of the souls with the physical bioluminescence of deep ocean algae. So it wasn’t just the supernatural glow of souls lighting up the city but a physical glow of bioluminescent algae that cloaked the souls, as well as the architectural crystals of the angelic kingdom. It’s amazing that scientists wouldn’t have seen detected something so brilliant, but with the ocean still 80% unmapped or explored, they hadn’t discovered this part of the ocean before, and especially with the city being mostly built underground in the cracks of the ocean floor.

As the line moved forward toward each soul’s turn to be wrapped in bioluminescent algae, they passed by giant statues marking the exterior premises of the Kingdom, presumably of ancient kings of the deep ocean. They were aged and marred by centuries of corrosion and overgrowth, much like ancient sunken ships. An exotic array of fish, many that the sailor soldier had never seen before, swam around the ancient structures there in the deep oceanic trench, excited by the glow and commotion of the city.

The angel explained how every physical territory on Earth had a correlating spiritual territory on a metaphysical plane, and each territory was governed by a spiritual hierarchy, much like that of mankind, with princes ruling over certain provinces and kings ruling over the princes and their provinces. Some spirits were good (that is, aligned with God’s purpose for the world, which is to cultivate Shalom in it) and some spirits were bad (that is, those misaligned or antagonistic with God’s purpose for the world).

The troops of sunken souls marched into the kingdom where they were taken before the great King of the Deep, that is the Archangel of the Ocean, whom men gave the name Neptune and Poseidon. The demigods of old (such as Gilgamesh and Hercules) were actually Nephilim — the offspring of the “sons of God” (that is, the angels) — and went on to be known as the sons of gods in the legends in ancient mythology. Just as the ancient mythologies of the demigods traced back to angels, so did the ancient mythologies of the gods themselves, where the great Greek and Roman gods Poseidon and King Neptune, originated from the stories passed down by generation after generation for thousands of year based on the Great Archangels who ruled over the large quadrants of the world: The Heavens, the Earth, the Sea, and the Underworld. 

The Great Poseidon, was the Gatekeeper between the worlds of Earth and the Underworld, aka “perdition.” While the Archangel over the Earth and his leagues of angels collected all the souls buried 6 feet down in the Earth, Poseidon’s leagues of angels caught any souls that sunk down 6,000 fathoms and were buried in the bottom of the ocean. Great, legendary pirates of old like Black Sam Bellamy, he collected their souls like trophies, and held them in the Angel Aquarium (watching them like zoo animals) until the time of the Great Judgement. At the End of the Age — as it says in the Book of Revelation — all the souls of the sea held in Davy Jones Locker will wash ashore before God’s Great White Throne to be judged for their deeds — which stem from their hearts. 

All their sunken souls will be burned on Poseidon’s Hearth, to reveal whether they be hearts of gold or of chaff. The chaff will burn up, but those hearts that withstand the refining fire will resurrect back to Earth to rule the world alongside the Return of the King of Kings — the Creator of the Heavens, and the Earth, and under the Earth.  

A counsel of Angel Elders — known as the Nautical Sea Lords and who acted as Poseidon’s royal cabinet — convened to decide what to do with the increasing frequency of men’s souls that were sinking into their jurisdiction, more and more every year. Whatever the reason behind it, obviously it wasn’t good that these sailors’ deaths were increasing at an exponential rate. 

Sea Lords of millennia past, upon the first instance of seeing a soul of man reach down to their abysmal depths, were concerned about what it meant. They assembled a troop of soldiers and ascended up a waterspout channel until they could begin to see the blinding glow of the sun far above, barely breaking through the surface of the ocean. Having dynasty after dynasty of sea angels in the darkest part of planet Earth, their eyes weren’t trained for such light that existed on the other side of the ocean.

To them it appeared as another dimension, a heavenly realm, with black silhouettes of what appeared to be strange creatures floating around the ceiling of the ocean. Perhaps their vision was altered by the great distance at which they saw the silhouettes, or maybe the influence of the stinging sun’s rays, but whatever, these creatures at the surface known as men were a bewildering if not terrifying sight, monstrous and otherworldly, with giant metal bodies and weapons that captured and killed whatever sea life should come within their grasp.

They dared not venture any further for fear of provoking a scared reaction from these strange creatures called mankind, and then become the new target of their violent aggression. In fear they fled back to their world of safety, deep within the cracks of the ocean floor. There they reported to the other Sea Lords, then to Poseidon, about these vicious land monsters that would kill anything in sight. Poseidon proclaimed the news to all in his angelic kingdom, and their claims had remained unchallenged to this very day. Inevitably when another soul sunk down to their territory they quickly captured it and detained it in their Angel Aquarium until the End of the Age when all the Archangels would finally reconvene and exchange all the souls within their keep at the Great White Throne judgment.

The story of the Sea Lords paralleled Plato’s famous analogy of people being chained to a cavern, unable to see the outside world except for the shadows the beings above the cavern cast down upon the only walls they could see in the cavern, and from those illusory shadow images the cavern-dwellers assumed what was true about the outside world. 

The Sea Lords kept their protocol toward mankind and their sinking souls for millennia without wavering, though their protocol was really more of a tradition, which in actuality was simply based on a legend that the living Sea Lords had only heard of from the older generations who passed it down to them. 

That is, until the frequency of sinking souls became so alarming that the whole Angelic Kingdom was abuzz over what ominous thing must be happening at the surface — in the place that had come to be known as “Heaven” to the average sea angel citizen. The younger generation of Sea Lords challenged the millennia-old policy of the Elder Sea Lords’ Counsel and assembled a new troop of soldiers to once again ascend up the waterspout to the surface and investigate this epidemic more thoroughly.

The Elder Sea Lords rebuked them harshly and forbid them to go, saying:

“No one’s ever been to the surface, it’s just too dangerous. Last time any angel ever tried that it just brought war and violence. Those men are just born evil beasts. You ever seen one? They say they ride huge monsters and have hands that shoot fire and kill anything in sight. Listen, don’t even think about it. They’re fine up there and we’re fine down here minding our own business, just like it’s always been.”

But the Nautical Sea Lords grabbed their shields and tridents, mounted their sea horses, and rode up the Waterspout all the way to “Heaven” — this time finally reaching the ceiling of the ocean (where their ancestors had never actually reached).

Upon coming to the surface, they were seized with terror upon seeing in fact the very kind of silhouettes their ancient elders had warned them about. Far from being a primitive, superstitious exaggeration of something actually more natural and unthreatening, these strange creatures of “Heaven” on The Other Side exceeded even the most monstrous, terrifying description of any ancient Nautical Sea Lord of old.

Suddenly, they heard a voice reach out to them from The Other Side, piercing through the waters in reverberating vibrations. An ominous warning to them as they approached the jurisdiction of the Archangel of Earth — in the land of air and light.

“Hello down there from The Other Side, the land of air and light, where the waves go to die. If you’re wanting Heaven, well, you’ll have to keep on going. Because we are also looking up to where the sun is glowing. You think this if Heaven, but we’re the ones all dying for our crimes. No, up here no one gets out alive.”

TO BE CONTINUED On the other side . . .

~~~Hear the audio version of this tale HERE!~~~

Special Thanks

Thank you to everyone who helped us bring this album into existence. Being a true product of our planet’s pandemic year, there were many threats to the execution and completion of this project from just about every angle, and yet here it is, as a testament to the support of our fans, friends, and family carrying us through the process, every step of the way, and the plan and providence of God for creating these amazing songs (and the story of their creation) to bless His world. Special thanks to those who contributed to our album presale and those in our virtual Patreon community on The Ghost Shipp for funding this project, and especially to our most generous contributors: Malia & Art Garman, Sean & Dana Ricker, Steven Sauls, Michael and Amy Rockwell, Justin Mansfield, Mike Koza, Eric Williams, Bryan Shipp, Seth Crisp, and too many more to name!

Through much adversity this album was forged and refined, and we have to believe it resulted in an overall better product-- the album that God wanted it to become and the story He wanted to be shared. May it be a lasting testament to the powers of good to outlast the woes of the world, that beauty can truly come from the darkest ash and light is always there shining even in the darkest side of the ocean.   ~Rusty Shipp