Weird myths behind ‘Q shaman’ Jake Angeli’s tattoos
The shirtless man in the horned bearskin headdress has become the face of the Capitol riots, but what do the tattoos he loves showing off symbolise?
When hardcore Trump acolyte Jake Angeli stormed Washington’s Capitol shirtless and in a horned bearskin headdress, he was showing off a whole storybook of conspiracy theories inked into his own skin.
Angeli, with his patriotic face paint and US flag draped on a 2m spear, has become the face of the rag-tag mob that smashed its way into America’s seat of power.
Images of the 33-year-old failed actor and booted-out naval recruit who lives with his mother in Phoenix, Arizona and his tattooed torso have gone around the world.
The tattoos, which the self-appointed “shaman” or medicine man of the QAnon conspiracists never fails to flash above his low-slung trousers when protesting, depict a variety of ancient European symbols.
Many of them Norse or Odinist (the Norse god of war) images, they have been co-opted by the Nazis and then by neo-Nazi or far-right groups since.
Angeli, whose real name is Jacob Chansley, also has stylised images of Trump’s controversial Mexican border wall tattooed down each of his upper arms.
On his torso he has a large Thor’s hammer, known as Mjölnir, over his left nipple a Yggdrasill or Norse world tree.
Above that is a valknut, a Norse symbol of death in battle favoured by neo-Nazis.
RELATED: Horned QAnon shaman Jake Angeli’s bonkers beliefs
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On his left shoulder is a series of circles which some have theorised is a stylised sonnenrad, or sun-wheel, another symbol appropriated by the Nazis and then neo-Nazis.
On his rib cage under his left arm next to the Yggdrasil is a series of four parallel lines juxtaposed against one another, which may symbolise never-ending infinity.
QAnon followers believe, without any evidence, that Donald Trump is trying to stop a wealthy paedophile cult controlled by banking elites and members of the Democratic Party.
Jake Angeli, who climbed onto the podium in the Capitol’s Senate chamber last week and bellowed the word “freedom”, goes even further.
You: can I ask you some questions about QAnon on my podcast
— Italien Feeld 🕳 (@julianfeeld) January 13, 2021
Me: pic.twitter.com/6gYgkfvXBG
My personal video of the year: the Q shaman attempts to cleanse the Arrowhead Mall in Glendale, Arizona of satanic child traffickers. pic.twitter.com/RN9D0BKfaJ
— Italien Feeld 🕳 (@julianfeeld) September 9, 2020
In an interview in Arizona after an anti-lockdown rally last year, Angeli claimed he had special powers and a “third eye” to fight paedophiles in parallel dimensions.
“As a shaman, I am like a multidimensional or hyper dimensional being, OK,” he said.
“I … see into these other higher dimensions that these entities – these paedophiles, these rapists, these really high up people … that they almost hide in the shadows in.
“Most people can’t see that because the third eye ain’t open,”
Military.com reported that Angeli enlisted in the US Navy in 2005, but was booted out two years later when he refused to have an anthrax vaccine.
In July last year, Angeli posted footage online of himself screaming that COVID-19 was “bulls**t”.
He also said that “COVID-1984 is a globalist propaganda hoax”’, referring to George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel about a totalitarian future, 1984.
Following the Capitol riot, Angeli surrendered himself to the FBI and was incarcerated in a federal detention centre in Phoenix.
He has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
An Arizona magistrate ordered officials to serve him organic food after he went on a three-day hunger strike behind bars, refusing to eat prison meals.
He made his first appearance last week via phone link at a court hearing, attended in person by his 56-year-old mother Martha who described her son as a “patriot”.
A neighbour of the Angeli’s told mailonline.com that Angeli can be often seen dancing on his mother’s roof.
In September last year, Angeli led a protest at a shopping mall near his mother’s home in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, which he promised to cleanse of satanic child traffickers.
Screaming in Glendale’s Arrowhead Mall, he claimed a “spiral triangle” sign near the shopping centre’s bathrooms was actually a secret “FBI Paedophile code”.
Part 2: the Q shaman is confronted by mall security. pic.twitter.com/Z1JZENdj2V
— Italien Feeld 🕳 (@julianfeeld) September 10, 2020
Prequel video: Q shaman finishes shouting under a big digital billboard and starts investigating the symbols in and around the mall. pic.twitter.com/p2QsIKakQC
— Italien Feeld 🕳 (@julianfeeld) September 10, 2020
Angeli claims the symbol, which is one of the shopping centre’s logos, meant that beneath the building there were underground bunkers where paedophiles did business.
He appears to believe he is an expert in symbols, including the ones which he has tattooed on his body.
They include:
MJOLNIR or Thor’s Hammer
Thor’s hammer is a Viking symbol that symbolises power, strength and bravery.
It symbolises protection by Thor and luck in war.
Today, it symbolises belonging to a community which believes in pagan ideology, and is one of several symbols “stolen” by far-right groups like skinheads and neo-Nazis.
YGGDRASIL or the Norse Ash Tree
Yggdrasill is the giant ash tree of the Norse cosmos which has branches reaching into heavens beyond the reach of human beings, and its roots in the subterranean realm of the dead.
The yggdrasil has been adopted by white supremacist groups who believe the Vikings were an ancient example of racial purity.
VALKNUT
The symbol of three intersecting triangles is also known as Odin’s heart in Viking culture.
the symbol has nine points which represent the nine worlds of Norse mythology.
The word valknut literally means “knot of the killed warrior”, who having died gloriously gets to live in Valhalla, Norse paradise.
Today the symbol is associated with racism, white supremacy and the Wotansvolk Movement, which is a form of white nationalist modern paganism tied to neo-Nazi movements.
SONNENRAD
It has been reported that one or both of Angeli’s shoulders bears a version of a sonnenrad or sun-wheel, which was a symbol appropriated in Nazi Germany.
Some sonnenrads had the Nazi swastika symbol in the middle, others don’t, disguising its connection with Adolf Hitler.
But the sonnenrad appears in the traditional symbology of many countries and cultures, including Old Norse and Celtic cultures, and has countless versions.
The Nazi Party in the 20th century, also known as the SA or SS, used sonnenrad symbology, which has inspired more recent white supremacists to adopt such images
SS is often depicted in ancient, runic symbols, beloved of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s party leader, with the jagged shape double rune for S or sun used to symbolise the SS.
OTHER SYMBOLS
Other symbols to watch for but which don’t appear to be on Jake Angeli’s notorious torso, but you may spot on other right wing activists, gang members or bikies include the number 88.
This number represents Heil Hitler, or HH because it is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
The Viking symbol aegishjalmur, which looks like a wheel eight outward pointing tridents, is a runic symbol of protection and victory.
The tridents represent the offensive means to protect the circle at the centre.
Another is the vegvisir or runic compass sunstone, which also has eight outward pointing branches, each different.
The word “vegvisir” meaning “findway” and is meant to represent a protective symbol, guiding those who wear it in their life journey.
The Christchurch mosque massacre killer covered his firearms with allusions to Valhalla written in white pen to symbolise his purported “war” on non-Christians.
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