''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.
- TITLE: Kether - The Crown, (Ratzon - Will, Machashavah - Thought)
- COLOUR: White
- 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
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CREATION, ARCHITECTURE
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| INFINITE REGRESS |
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| ANCIENT KING |
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| LONG SUFFERING ONE |
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| DREAM MACHINE - NOTE ''SEPHIROTH'' |
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| PLUGGED INTO ''DREAM MACHINE'' |
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| PRIMUM MOBILE - ''TOTEM'' |
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| WHITE |
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| WHITE |
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| WHITE |
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| WHITE |
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| ''LIMBO'' - SHATTERING, SHATTERED WORLDS |
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| 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?
Ariadne, Inception, Christopher Nolan
*Personifications
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| PERSONIFCATION OF HOD (ORANGE/MERCURY) |
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| PERSONIFICATION OF YESOD (PURPLE/LUNA) |
Very interesting work. The end of the trip down the tree lines up with the beginning of the grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in a new triplicity (Air) in 2020 (which happens every 200 year or so and coincides with a new era). Looks like 2020 will be an interesting year.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to me that Aleister Crowley's nephew was Nolan's set designer for nearly every one of his films except this one.
ReplyDeleteWow. Well there you go.
DeleteTo be fair it's not that hard to do, I mean to apply the basic occult principles of Agrippan altars to a movie, I simulated it for a group of friends the other day. You just go - alright imagine we are a team of writers and we have to write a script that must include the following elements - infinity/unity, white, ancient one, primum mobile, ''crowns'', etc etc and then just brainstorm. If you take away the symbols/set dressing of Kether and the supporting on-the-nose exposition of what they mean (classic Nolan) - what you are left with?
https://inception.davepedu.com/