"The tabloid Daily Mirror said the design, stretching from ear-to-ear, left the shaven-headed Beckham "looking more like a soccer thug than the England captain", while the top selling Sun newspaper said he had gone from "fab to yob".

The winged image was added the same day as Beckham declared he was staying at Real Madrid and that his pop singer wife Victoria and children would move to join him in Spain."  (2)

This tattoo is going to puzzle a great many people.  It is certainly not a conventional talisman, and Beckham is not a man known for his esoteric knowledge of all things arcane, or so I had previously assumed.  It's interesting that even his tattooist is not sure of the origin of Beckham's choice of symbol, beyond its general religious and talismanic significance.  There's an air of mystery about this tattoo that features so prominently on Beckham's body.  What's he trying to say to the world with this image?

Readers of the Dark Star Theory will be wondering whether their ranks have been joined by this famous footballer and celebrity.  This is because the Winged Cross is an ancient but rare symbol that I have explored at length in various essays and in my book manuscript, "Winged Disc".  It represents an amalgamation of Egyptian and Christian iconography that I have suggested centres upon the return of the Messianic Star.

The symbol is one of several Dark Star emblems that also include the Crown and Seven Stars and more complex versions of the fabled Winged Disc.  I have argued that these symbols are Solar in type, but are not actually of the Sun.  Instead they point to the secret and ancient knowledge of the Sun's Dark Companion, known to some as Nibiru.  I have suggested that this celestial body is a tiny brown dwarf 'star' that is orbiting the Sun at some considerably distance, whose presence has been indirectly inferred by some scientific investigations.  At this time it remains unknown to our science, but seems to have been known to some ancient cultures.  This is because the Dark Star, as I like to call it, orbits the Sun in an eccentric manner bringing it close to the planetary zone only very, very rarely. Hence its visibility is extremely transient and elusive over many thousands of years.

This all seems rather far-fetched to many readers I am sure, particularly the majority of folk who have little prior knowledge of the occult.    In fact, the very thought that Beckham's tattoo may be indicative of an interest in the Occult may shock you.  Does this mean that David Beckham is a Satanist?  No, it doesn't.  The word 'Occult' is often wrongly associated with dark magical arts and witchcraft, but in reality the word simply means 'hidden'.  It describes the hidden meaning that lies behind certain symbols, in religious contexts or in the arts.  For instance, Dan Brown's book 'The Da Vinci Code' is a modern novel that seeks to address Occult meanings in a user-friendly format.  It is not a work of Satanism, (although some Fundamentalist Christians may beg to differ).  And neither is Beckhams' Winged Cross.

So what is it?  Perhaps Beckham's Winged Cross symbolises a rising above the mundane; a spiritual and public purging of his human weaknesses.  He seeks to make up for his actions by branding himself with this incongruous tattoo, and shaving his head; old symbols of personal purgatory.  Possibly his meaning is a religious one, but with a maverick twist, in keeping with his personality.  There's even a possibility, I suppose, that he has an interest in the arcane; that the celestial significance of this Winged Cross is alluded to.  But with all things Beckham it's probably more to do with the redemption of his personal and public life.

Written by Andy Lloyd, 15th June 2004

author of 'The Dark Star' (2005), 'Ezekiel One' (2009), 'The Followers of Horus' (2010) and 'Darker Stars' (2019)

References