Alphard, Soheil al Fard, the individual, the solitary one, the backbone or the heart of the serpent.

Hydra’s brightest star has many names, and yet, throughout history it remained part of the largest constellation in the sky. On an uranographic stone found in the Euphrates area and dated from 1,200 B.C.E, the constellation of Hydra is mentioned as the source of connection to the “great deep” and to the great dragon Tiamat.

Stretching across the heavens from Cancer to Scorpio, this ancient constellation has almost always been akin to a type of serpent or water snake. The serpentine form is rife with symbolism, most creation myths have one connected to it. Since the babylonian times such stories of serpents have run through culture after culture.

Alphard is the heart, the literal backbone of it all, it is at the center to these primal God-like energies. Through Hydra, a constellation that has not been broken up and redistributed to other groupings by any astronomers since ancient Babylonia, Alphard is related to god-like energy in one of its original forms and has been so considered for ten of thousands of years.

Nevertheless, a gradual shift had started to happen in the early 2000’s. This shift took a drastic turn around 2014-2016 when Toyota released the third generation of its luxury Multi Purpose Vehicle, the Alphard AH30. Through Search Engine Optimisation algorithms, a modern cathedral of consumer desire had begun to irrevocably eclipse its celestial namesake in search results. Post 2016, the solitary one was finally silently displaced by a fleet of luxury vans. What had been a beacon of mythic depth, a point of light in the cosmic heavens, became another consumer good, a car of all things… the “great deep” became a shallow pit of consumerism.   

R.T.M.P stands for “Rather Than Mere Products” and points at the symbolic predation by the occult forces of the market upon our imaginations. If the heart of the serpent is still beating, it is now made of steel and runs on fumes. 

R.T.M.P

Alphard’s evolution from babylonian star, heart of cosmic entities, to branded vehicle reveals humanity’s shift from cosmic reverence to consumer symbolism.