2019 - Malkuth - Black Summer II

I tried to warn you, I tried to warn you, I tried to warn you, no more time.
I tried to warn you, I tried to warn you, I tried to warn you, no more time.
Midnight.  Midnight.  Midnight.

DJ Shadow, Camel Bobsled Race

While we are still two weeks away from the official opening of the 3rd quarter of Malkuth (2019, 1+9 = 10), our Black Summer if you will, its worth reflecting on the final flourish of the Green. On June 14th 10 Downing Street and Kensington Palace were illuminated by green lights, ostensibly to pay respects to the people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire [an event which struck me as potentially a burnt offering in itself].  A little bit of searching found that the Prime Minister had also lit Number 10 with green light in May for Mental Health Awareness Week although I am not sure how turning the seat of government into a Jekyll and Hyde movie set exactly achieves that.  What it does achieve is to shed a timely green glow over Malkuth.

JUNE

MAY

THE MILITARY

While we have the Green manifest [be manifested] in Environmentalism in Climate School Strikes, Extinction Rebellion, etc, I still give myself til the end of June to see if the military side of the prediction will bear out.   My money was, and has been for some time, as my colleagues know, on intervention in Venezuela and this would necessitate green uniforms.  Things seem to be hotting up in Iran again though with these attacks on the oil tankers but I don't think the uniforms that would be involved with an attack on Iran would be green.  It seems to be the case, that the push for war in Venezuela has simply stalled or ran into ''production problems'', so to speak, a factor that we allow for in the Unifying Colour Theory when films don't ''land'' where they are supposed to* - either that or I am wrong!

SEPHIROTH AND QLIPHOTH

BLACK BLOOD OF THE EARTH

As we move from Green to Black, its worth reflecting on how Environmentalism and Big Oil appear to be in direct competition at the moment but how they may end up becoming erstwhile allies in the upcoming joint push for climate engineering.  The Environment or the ''Earth'' as Malkuth is always under attack from the Qliphoth or World of Shells below it.  One way you can think of these underground evil shells are fossil fuels as concentrated death that we extract from the Earth to wastefully burn for power and which directly contributes to the depleted quality of our atmosphere [ruach] through air pollution, carbon dioxide, acid rain, etc.  Extending this you could include limestone, another product of the ''shells'', and the source of cement and concrete which covers up the natural soil and also produces carbon dioxide as a by-product [5% of the total planetary emissions, cement and concrete being the second most ''consumed'' substance after water].

As environmentalists begin to realise that they do not have the time to achieve their goals in a natural organic way [planting trees, reducing waste, etc] they will push for more and more radical intervention.  Expect, first of all, a push for global environmental austerity - we're already seeing talk of WWII levels of preparation needed and for rationing - but when this is rejected by the public, expect them to push for Big Science solutions, i.e. climate engineering, as the only possible option left.  As soon as climate engineering becomes acceptable the pressure on the fossil fuel industry will decrease because with artificial cooling the effects of carbon dioxide will be mitigated and business will carry on as usual.  With this in mind its worth thinking about HBO's Chernobyl as a timely attack [from the POV of Big Oil and ''Big Renewable''] on nuclear energy, which is an obvious solution to reducing carbon emissions while maintaining electrical power.

EARTHQUAKE WARNING

So when I commented about Earthquakes in the last post on Malkuth, it wasn't because of whacky conspiracy theorists pointing out astrological alignments [although they did] it was where the [''qabalistic''] logic lead me.  I was surprised to find that shortly after that comment, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Peru fortunately killing and injuring very few people because of it being in a fairly remote area.  In terms of a Big One i.e. a powerful earthquake striking a major city in a developed nation, I think we have to wait to the middle of the Black Summer [Guardian article on X Day X = 10].  I am really wary of predicting earthquakes and disasters because I don't want to end up like Frankie MacDonald, who I remain a big fan of, and let you all down when it fails to materialise.

Thinking of Frankie he reminds me of the time when well known conspiracy sites were actually libertarian (or at least purported to be), fun and thought-provoking as opposed to ethno-nationalist crypto-fascist bullshit generators - most of those sites these days are as stagnant a pond as the 'public' Western Mystery Tradition is.

THE [PUBLIC] WESTERN MYSTERY TRADITION

So let's review the [qabalistic] logic of the Black Summer again: 

1. Malkuth, the Fallen Daughter, lies atop the Qliphoth or the World of Shells [the underground] 
2. The Qliphoth represent the source of Evil 
3. The four quarters relate to the four quarters of the year: Yellow (Jan - Mar), Green (Apr - Jun), Black (Jul - Sep) and Red (Oct - Dec).
4. The four quarters relate to the four elements: Yellow (Air), Green (Water), Black (Earth), Red (Fire).
5. In perambulating Malkuth [going through the colours via the quarters of the year, the rim of the world] we reach the lowest point of the Sefira, Black and Earth, and therefore the point that directly abuts the Qliphoth in mid August
6. The Earth itself therefore has to or will appear ''evil'' so it cannot be climate change related disasters which can be blamed on man, but earthquake, volcano or tsunami - or all three.
7. These major disasters connect to dragon and the other apolcalyptic monster symbolism that we have seen

NETFLIX ORIGINALS AND OTHER DISASTER APOCALYPSE MOVIES

GODZILLA 2, MONARCH OF THE MONSTERVERSE

Not only have we had a lot of Dragon or Giant Lizard apocalyptic endgame movies and tv-shows going [e.g. Godzilla 2, where both the good guys and bad guys work for ''Monarch''] but it is worth bearing in mind that Netflix have been churning out End of the World themed movies all year, nearly all of them containing the Fallen Daughter - Superior Mother theme of Malkuth.  A lot of these end of the world films make reference to poisoned air - The Society, The Rain, IO, etc.  Here are a selection below: 

CHARACTER LITERALLY CALLED ''GIRL''

''GIRL''

CONTAINS DRACONIC ANTAGONIST

''A QUARTET OF CAMP KIDS WHO REALLY LEARN SURVIVAL'' - NETFLIX

CHARACTER LITERALLY CALLED ''DAUGHTER''

''DAUGHTER''

BLACK SUMMER FASHION, JULY 1st - SEPTEMBER 30th

This article catches up with the promotion of the green that has been going on but as I have said before the challenge of the this year is that four colours have to be deployed as opposed to only one. So anyone with eyes will have seen the black summer dresses popping up every where and a selection of mainstream outlets are prepping you on everything you need to present neo-gothic chic [i.e. funereal] for the upcoming apocalypse: Buzzfeed, Huffpost, PureWow.  Although sites are still pushing tie-dye and animal prints and so on, you will find that black will dominate for two reasons a) a lot of these various prints etc are pretty ludicrous and b) even if they weren't ludicrous a lot of women would still lack the confidence to pull them off.  So again, to double down on this, - a lot of the whackier stuff will be eschewed, but flowery and leafy prints will be popular [i.e. earthy, nature] you will still see all yellow, or all green dresses or combos of the two, black will gradually dominate and will, in part, be paired with yellow and green, the colours of the first quarters.

Quickly everyone, head for that cave over there.  Its our only chance.  Keep firing as you go. But our primary concern at this point should be, where do we go from here?

DJ Shadow, Camel Bobsled Race

 *The Martian is probably an example of this - optioned in 2013, I believe destined for 2014 [the Mars year], production halted and director swapped to Ridley Scott, final release mid 2015 - I need to watch the movie again as I know the word Sol is said over and over which would associate with 2015, the Year of The Sun. Or the Edge of Seventeen released late 2016, but in the full orange colours of 2017 - maybe early release for priming?   Anyway as you know Art is not an Exact Science however much the producers might want it to be.

2016 - Netzach - 10 Cloverfield Lane

Michelle: What are you going to do to me?
Howard: I am going to keep you alive.  You were in an accident and I brought you inside.  Everyone out there is dead.

10 Cloverfield Lane, Campbell, Stuecken, Chazelle

10 Cloverfield Lane was adapted from a script called ''The Cellar'' and shoe-horned into JJ Abrams ''Cloverfield Universe'' by adding the alien invasion ending.  The film, while wonderfully displaying all the attributes of a Netzach movie of 2016 [1+6 = 7], is said to ''stick out like a sore thumb'' in its digression from the core themes of ''Cloverfield'' i.e. a found footage monster movie.  This is worth keeping in mind as we position this movie in the larger theory which has to handle production realities - like writers, artists, marketing, cinema release dates and so on and who may or may not be ''in the know''.  Regardless the decision to attach this script to the Cloverfield brand would have greatly increased the size of the audience and therefore the impact of the pathwork.

As I said in the previous post on The Arrival I thought that that movie was more of a path-walking towards Netzach (Venus) via the Tower Card and that other movies would explore the Sefira more closely.  One of the early clues in making this distinction was the magical image of the beautiful naked woman which you can see in the correspondences below.  While Amy Adams is certainly beautiful, at no point in the Arrival does she undress or become less dressed in an overtly sexual way.  Compare this to other movies from the 2016 list like Tarzan [which offers Margot Robbie as Jane] or Bad Neighbours 2 [which features hordes of scantily clad sorority girls].  Unlike those movies which might revel in [the] feminine sexual power [of Venus], 10 Cloverfield Lane sees a half-dressed, beautiful, vulnerable woman trapped in a basement where sexual abuse by her captor is a definite possibility.  Rather than using her charms for herself to get what she wants, her charms present a danger to herself.

• TITLE: Netzach, Victory
• NUMBER: 7
• COLOUR: Green
• ALCHEMICAL METAL/ORE: Copper, Malachite
• MAGICAL IMAGE: A Beautiful Naked Woman
• OTHER TITLES: Firmness, stoicism
• ARCHANGEL: Haniel
• ORDER OF ANGELS: Elohim [Gods]
• VIRTUE: Unselfishness
• VICE: Lust, promiscuity
• MUNDANE CHAKRA: Venus, Nogah
• CORRESPONDENCE IN MICROCOSM: Loins, hips, legs [importantly in the Zohar, these areas and therefore Hod and Netzach are both associated with prophecy]
• SYMBOLS: Lamp and Girdle.  The Rose.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, NOT 7 CLOVERFIELD LANE?

If this is a Netzach movie then why 10 Cloverfield Lane and not 7?  If you watch the movie you will see that one of the mysteries of the piece is that Howard, our antagonist, had captured a local girl, and was keeping her in his bunker to act as a replacement for his own lost daughter, Megan.  This brings us to this ever recurring Qabalistic theme of the Fallen Daughter [which we have seen in nearly every apocalypse themed offering from Netflix this year].  So while Michelle, the heroine, is not the Fallen Daughter [this is represented by Megan, ''who is no longer with us''], she is forced to live in the shoes of the Fallen Daughter and ends up escaping through her ''hatch''.  This fall is visually realised in the design of the poster [shown above] which shows that ''10'' is at the bottom [of the tree of life] and that she must ''escape'' from it.  For those really into this consider that the name of that fallen daughter, Megan, means Pearl.  Here we link the Pearl to Malkuth.

MESSAGE FROM FALLEN DAUGHTER MEGAN [10] 

GREEN

While I would argue that this movie takes place ''inside'' Netzach as opposed to the path towards it you will see some reference to the orange.  This is particularly true at the end of the film but this ''orange'' relates to the copper which is extracted as the alchemical virtue.  Otherwise the sheer quantity of green used in the production elements is evidence that they were trying to represent the Green Sefira.

GREEN BUNKER

GREEN WALLPAPER + GREEN CHEQUERED SHIRT

GREEN SHIRT

GREEN CABINETS + NOTE LAMP

GREEN BOXES + NOTE LAMP

GREEN CAP

GREEN LIGHTING SPECIAL

GREEN LIGHTING SPECIAL

GREEN BOARD GAME, ORANGE PATHS

GREEN ACID

GREEN CIRCUIT BOARD

As you can see from the above [and again the list is not exhaustive] Green is a major design choice in costumes, lighting, set and props.  

GREEN PRODUCTS + CHAIR

MORE GREEN PRODUCTS

GREEN PRODUCTS + GREEN PILLOWS

Many supplies in the survival bunker are coloured green, and most of the rest lack distinguishing features.  The arrow was added by another (exoteric!) reviewer to show how odd it was to draw attention to that product.  The green products are just another element in the overall greening of this place.

BEAUTIFUL (NAKED) WOMAN AND VENUS

NOTE GREEN HALF-WALL AND ''LAMP''

In the early parts of the film, Michelle, the protagonist, is only partially clothed and as I discussed in the opening paragraphs this is to draw attention to her physical beauty- note the damaged leg which may draw attention to the correspondence in the microcosm like we saw in Skyfall which through damage to a side of the face of the bad guy drew attention to it.  Later, she is dressed in a shirt which says ''Je t'aime Paris'' - I love Paris, which is of course the city of love and appropriate to Venus.  This symbol is highlighted by the doubling up of the Eiffel Tower one the shirt, and in a picture on the wall behind her.

CITY OF LOVE, I LOVE

I'd also like to speculate here that the two male characters in the film represent Ares and Hephaestus, or Mars and Vulcan.  Ares had an affair with Aphrodite, symbolised by their alliance in the film, which triggered Hephaestus to imprison them both.  I am not exactly sure about that and will investigate further and update but I feel that that is probably correct.  Note which arm is in the sling and then compare to the ''correspondence in the microcosm'' from Gevurah [Mars] and see above.  My doubts here are that the male character's name is Emmett which means truth and Howard means guardian or warden so the symbolism could be ''operating on two levels at once...very clever.''

MARS, VENUS, VULCAN

FIRMNESS AND LUST

The virtue of Netzach is said to be firmness or stoicism which Michelle demonstrates in abundance - as she carries on through pain and in an extreme environment - and the vice is said to be lust - demonstrated in Howard's psychostyle capture of the girl who replaces his fallen daughter [Megan] and ''who isn't with us anymore.''

ELOHIM

The Elohim are portrayed as the eponymous Cloverfield aliens.  They are very different from the alien monster from the 1st movie and are represented more classically as an organic space craft as opposed to a random beastie.  Compare the green gas they spray on her with the green acid threat in the bunker she is running from.  Also worth comparing with the way the ''Elohim'' are portrayed in the Arrival.

EPITHETS OF VENUS

As we saw in Stranger Things 2 Mercury* was called through a variety of different epithets.  It seems that this movie uses a similar strategy evoking the goddess by systematically placing Michelle in situations which use those epithets.  I have presented a discussion of a selection of these different epithets below but there are probably more for those who want to dig deeper.

• Venus Felix - lucky
• Venus Genetrix - domestic
• Venus Libertina - freed woman
• Venus Victrix - victorious
• Venus Cloacina - purifier [of posioned air]

VENUS FELIX

''Lucky Venus'' is represented by how many times Michelle is saved by fortune, a fortune which begins in what is actually her lucky survival in the car crash and consequent rescue [or she would have been killed in the Cloverfield Apocalypse ensuing in the outside world], and the various moments where luck intervenes to save her when she is planning her escape.

VENUS GENETRIX

During the middle section of the film, Michelle is shown in various domestic scenes involved in cleaning, cooking and generally relaxing in the environment.

NOTE THE JIGSAW, FISHBOWL GREEN SPHERE WITH ORANGE GOLD FISH

GAME OF LIFE WITH ''WIFE'' PIECES

VENUS LIBERTINA

''Free'' Venus is evoked by the many and various scenes which show her attempting to escape, escaping and finally having had escaped.

VENUS CLOACINA

Venus Cloacina, ''the purifier'', was the Goddess of Filth as well as Purity and presided over the Sewers in order to guarantee clean air.  As you will know from watching the film one of the key plot points is that the outside contains poisoned air and, convinced of this by the evidence of the dead pigs and mutilated woman, ''Michelle'' must construct a hazmat suit to ''purify the air'' in order to survive.  By the Numbers.  She must crawl through the ventilation system to achieve her escape.  Again compare and contrast with hazmat suit use in The Arrival of the same year.

VENUS VICTRIX

VICTORY MOLOTOV

''Michelle'' is victorious in the film, defeating the alien space craft that attacks her with a swiftly fashioned molotov cocktail!  As ridiculous as this victory seemed note how artfully she has been likened to the statue of liberty which was a very important symbol in the Cloverfield movie, and a statue which is plated in copper.  Note that The Purge movie that also came out in 2016 also showed the copper Statue of Liberty.

The final decision she is confronted with ''Houston or Baton Rouge'' was a choice between joining refugees or joining the military fight back.  She chooses to fight back.  This is also the most unselfish thing to do.  Ra girl power...

COPPER

UNDER THE MALACHITE SKY

As I discussed in the original theory and as we have seen in other films we have analysed we can talk about the ''virtue'' of the film being the virtue of the character's transformation and that this can be symbolised by crafty reference to the metal.  I would make the argument that this yellow-orange-red jury-rigged hazmat suit is probably representing copper, purified from the malachite of the house, and is the final visual symbol of her resolve [firmness, stoicism].

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Crazy is building your ark, after the flood has already come.

Howard, 10 Cloverfield Lane

*Increasing the quality of this review of Stranger Things 2 and using more visual imagery is on my list and I'll relaunch when I get to 2018.  When I wrote it I was only on the very edge of these observations of Chris Knowles and had not at that point developed the overarching theory. The use of epithets is certainly worth exploring more.