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Is The Midnight Club’s Paragon a Real Cult? What is the Hourglass Sign?

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Ilonka is the only one of the show’s eight main characters who takes on the role of audience surrogate, despite the fact that “The Midnight Club” is available on Netflix. The event that kicks off the story is when Ilonka learns that she has thyroid cancer. After the doctors who specialise in conventional medicine give up, Ilonka turns to the internet in an effort to find a treatment for her condition. She finds out about Brightcliffe Hospice and how one of the patients there, Julia Jeyne, reportedly made a complete recovery from her illness. Ilonka uses the same strategy as before in the hopes that her foster father will agree to take her in. Brightcliffe has been a part of the landscape of its expansive acreage for a very long time. In the 1940s, it was affiliated with a group known as the Paragon cult. If you are curious about whether or not the fictional group of Paragon is based on a real-life cult, we have the answer for you.

Is Paragon a Real Cult?
The novel of the same name written by Christopher Pike in 1994 served as the inspiration for the film The Midnight Club. The first thing that Ilonka tells us about Paragon is what she tells us about Brightcliffe. Mark, the nurse practitioner, explains to Ilonka and her foster father after their arrival that the house itself was constructed in 1901 by logging industrialist Stanley Oscar Freelon and his wife, Vera. Following this, Mark ushers Ilonka and her foster father inside the home. During the time of the Great Depression, it functioned as a halfway house. After that, Paragon acquired ownership of the property.

According to the plot of the show, Regina Ballard, a lady whose husband died of pneumonia and whose son was paralysed by polio, started the company Paragon in 1931. She founded Paragon as a new-age approach to health and wellness. However, as time went on, it morphed into something quite else. The practises of the ancient Greek religion had a significant impact on Regina, and she began to worship the five sisters of healing: Panacea, Hygeia, Iaso, and Aglaea. After some period of time had passed, Regina started disguising herself under the name of the defunct goddess. In addition to these two deities, there were four additional women in the company who played the parts of the other goddesses.

The members of Paragon, led by Regina, went to great lengths in their exploration of the Greek religion, going so far as to execute ritual sacrifices. Athena, Regina’s daughter, found herself becoming more and more concerned regarding her mother’s actions. During one of the nights, she led the other children safely away from the house and then called the authorities. The authorities, however, discovered that all of the adult members of the cult had perished, with the exception of Regina herself. After that, she was admitted to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. Years later, Julia tracked down Regina in the hopes that she could find a treatment for her fatal ailment.

The television show Paragon is not based on any actual cults that have ever existed in the real world; however, the show does point out that there were quite a few cults active in the 1930s and 1940s, such as the I AM Sect, the Silver Legion, and the Psychiana Movement. However, the Silver Legion was largely an organisation in the United States that sympathised with fascism and Nazism. It’s interesting to note that mining engineer Guy W. Ballard and his wife Edna were the ones who established the I AM Sect.

Also read: What time is Luckiest Girl Alive starring Mila Kunis coming to Netflix?

What Is the Hourglass Sign?
The hourglass was a sign of time for those who were a part of the Paragon organisation. The traditional symbolism connected with the hourglass, which frequently represents the passing of time or even mortality, was very different from the hourglass that appeared in the Paragon video game. The top of the paragon hourglass had been covered in a dark cloth, signifying that the sand is currently draining from the upper portion of the device. They thought that the hourglass could be rotated over and over again without it running out.

It would appear from this that Regina and others who followed her believed it was possible to reverse the passage of time and cure themselves of any disease. They used the Paragon hourglass to leave a mark on the entire Brghtcliffe property as well as on themselves. The fact that Dr. Stanton wears a symbol of an hourglass around her neck, which can be seen in one of the last moments of the season, gives the impression that she is none other than Athena.