I woke up in the desert, like I had been dropped out of the sky.
Jake Lonergan, Cowboys and Aliens
Before we can begin the next analysis I just want to say that taking inspiration from the Qabalah in this way is not a new thing; two of my favourite writers, Fernando Pessoa and Borges both took inspiration from the Hermetic Qabalah. When it comes to writing or production design for my theatre shows I do exactly the same thing I am describing in these posts. Many other Hollywood film makers have used the Qabalah in the past and there is nothing automatically sinister about Christopher Nolan choosing to use the Qabalah to provide an artistic structure for his films. What is interesting about this theory, if it is correct, is the way in which this particular ''on-the-nose'' painting by numbers colour approach seems to have rapidly and systematically spread through all major studios over the last decade - does Nolan have a role in orchestrating it and why would anyone want to orchestrate it in the first place?
While I am not discounting the more conspiratorial rationales for why an occult global ritual is taking place in film, fashion, etc, I do think that if I was one of the group of major producers making all this work actually happen then a simple colour-semiotic system could be really attractive just on organisational grounds. Think about it - to make the most money out of product placement and the influence that a film generates then you would want all these major/supporting industries and agencies to be singing from the same hymn sheet, wouldn't you?
Anyway in 2011, the ''Year of Chokmah'', Grey was the dominant colour choice in rolling out this Unifying Colour System. There are a number of films that are definitely worth investigating from perusing the trailers - The Tree of Life (obviously), J. Edgar, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Source Code, In Time - but I wanted to give myself a little bit of a challenge so I decided to do ''Cowboys and Aliens''. We'll work with the same system as last time, you can peruse the list, then images from the film and then I'll summarise with a short essay.
TITLE - Chokmah, Wisdom - God found wisdom and gave her to Israel (Jacob)
COLOUR - Grey
WORLD - Atziluth (Fire)
MAGICAL IMAGE - A bearded male figure
OTHER TITLES - The Supernal Father, Primordial Force, Reshit (Beginning)
GOD NAME - Jehovah
ARCHANGEL - Raziel, Secrets of God, Herald of God
ANGELS - Ophanim (Wheels)
MUNDANE CHAKRA - Mazloth (Zodiac i.e. the Stars)
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE - The face to face vision of God
VIRTUE - Devotion
SYMBOLS - Phallus, Inner Robe of Glory, Standing stone, Tower
JAKE LONERGAN (JACOB)
JAKE WITH SECRET PRIMORDIAL FORCE
GREY FATHER WEARING GREY
''ADOPTED SON'' OF GREY FATHER IN GREY
JACOB WITH GREY FATHER
JACOB, '"ELLA'', GREY FATHER, GREY LETTERING, FIRST CONTACT OR ''BEGINNING''
''IT IS BETTER TO HAVE WISDOM THAN GOLD'' - PROV, 16:16
ELLA - ''SHEKINAH"
INNER ROBE OF GLORY
INNER ROBE OF GLORY
LADDER-LIKE ALIEN CRAFT
TOWER
Jake Lonergan (Jacob) is a man of secrets (Raziel). Having been abducted by aliens (Jacob's Ladder), Jake returns to the town just before they attack (Herald of God). Encountering the Dolarhyde son first, Jacob finally confronts the patriach - Woodrow (Grey father in grey) - and Ella (Shekinah - presence of Wisdom on Earth). After the aliens/demons begin to assault the town and abduct people in their uniquely designed craft (Ladders) the unknown device on his wrist activates and generates a powerful laser beam (Force) which destroys the alien ship. A posse is quickly formed and they set out in pursuit of the aliens. During the journey Ella is killed and then placed on a fire by Native Americans, this causes a miraculous resurrection out of the flames (inner robe of glory). We also discover some of Jacob's secret (Raziel) background i.e. that he was once the leader of a group of bandits, but his experiences have led him to shun his evil ways. The final sequence of the film involves an assault on the alien base (tower) where they mine or rather liquefy and extract the gold (it is better to have wisdom than gold). The base is revealed to be a space ship which then launches into the sky before Ella destroys it from within (grey phallus). The film is thoroughly laced with references to penises, whether it be dialogue directly linking penises to pistols, or just having people whipping it out in the desert or jail.
Surely you don't expect the lord to do everything for you, do you? You got to earn his presence. Then you got to recognise it. Then you got to act on it.
''No, not just money: the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities - things that have never existed, things that couldn't exist in the real world.''
Cobb, Inception, Christopher Nolan
In 2010 (1 + 0 = 1) the Unifying Colour Theory began with the release of Inception by Christopher Nolan. The associations used in these analyses will mainly come from the Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune but embellished by other QBL/KBListic sources. I will try to be as quick as possible and each one of these essays will list the associations, show you pictures from the film where the ideas were embedded and conclude with a short essay. If you want to do this yourself, just read the relevant chapter of MQ before watching one of the films that takes place in the theory. This is also a useful exercise if you are studying the QBL as you will need to memorise all the associations for each of the Sefiroth. It might be a good idea to write out these associations for yourself, memorise them, then watch the film and tick them off as they go (Nolan really is that clinical!) and that might help them stick.
MAGICAL IMAGE: Ancient Bearded King seen in profile
PARTZUF: Arikh Anpin, the Long Suffering One
MAGICAL NAMES: Existence of existences, concealed of the concealed, ancient of ancients, the primordial point, the point within the circle
THEMES: The journey from Infinity to Unity, Infinite Regress, Creation, the Infinitessimal, Shattering of the Vessels, Kings who reigned in Edom
GOD NAME: Ehyieh, Existence, Reality
MUNDANE CHAKRA: The Primum Mobile, First Swirlings
ATTAINMENT: Completion of the Great Work
MICROCOSM: The Cranium
CREATION, ARCHITECTURE
INFINITE REGRESS
ANCIENT KING
LONG SUFFERING ONE
DREAM MACHINE - NOTE ''SEPHIROTH''
PLUGGED INTO ''DREAM MACHINE''
PRIMUM MOBILE - ''TOTEM''
WHITE
WHITE
WHITE
WHITE
''LIMBO'' - SHATTERING, SHATTERED WORLDS
TOWARDS VERY END OF FILM, COMPLETION OF ''THE GREAT WORK''
Inception is a movie based around the idea that an individual can control (Ratzon) someone else's dreams and also that those dreams can be artificially created and made labyrinthine by ''architects''. The movie opens with the ancient king in profile (Ken Watanabe) and introduces us to the central problem, distinguishing reality from the dream - who is God here - Cobb or Saito? The Dream Machine is reminiscent of a Tree of Life diagram split length-ways in half with some of the Sefirot appearing in the upper part of the briefcase and some in the lower; this Tree of Life being the means through which we connect our consciousnesses and share the dream. In the film we see the protagonist wrestling with the problems of [this kind of] creative work - getting from nothing to something, infinity, infinite regress, the smashed kingdoms of his previous acts of creation - most of this is discussed via on-the-nose exposition/dialogue with the young architect, although the more complex ideas are treated in the scenes where he confronts his wife. A sustained analysis* might reveal that the supporting characters are all personifications (Partzufim) of the Sefiroth, for instance note the yellow/orange tones indicating Hod/Mercury of the backgrounds in the scene where we meet the ''chemist'' Yusuf, or the pink/purple of Eames' shirt which links to Yesod/Luna and therefore to the mastery of dreaming and psychology that this character represents. In terms of costume and set design you can see the dominant use of light shades of colours (light browns, greys, silvers, etc) and white, the amount of white increasing through the film as we get ''deeper into the dream'' culminating in the snow fortress scene where every character is wearing white, carrying white guns and throwing white hand grenades! In Limbo we see scenes of the Shattering of the Vessels and the destroyed Kingdoms of Edom - this is more advanced Kabbalah and discusses how God or the Creator comes to terms with his older or failed projects. Cob then reveals that he has lived for centuries in this lowest level of the mind and is truly the Ancient of Ancients. After coming to terms with this, he ''wakes up'' on the plane with the Great Work (i.e. controlling Fischer's dreams and the inception itself) seemingly complete. The Primum Mobile, the First Swirlings are a theme we repeatedly return to via the ''Totem'' which leaves us in the end not knowing whether we have ever encountered reality or have always been suspended in Cobb's dream. Much like life.
Wait, Cobb, I'm lost. Whose subconscious are we going into?
