Kubrick and King Kill 33 Degrees

A Slight Detour

"In expressing the laws of the unity of endless diversity a symbol itself possesses an endless number of aspects from which it can be examined and it demands from the man approaching it the ability to see simultaneously from different points of view. Symbols which are transposed into the words of ordinary language become rigid - then, they grow dim and very easily become 'their own opposites' confining the meaning within the narrow dogmatic frames, without giving it even the very relative freedom of a logical examination of a subject. "

Gurdjieff, speaking in 'In Search of the Miraculous' by P.D. Ouspensky

   Don't be fooled by the sub heading, we are still dealing with Kubrick and EWS. It's just a slight detour before I go into the relationship between Kubrick and the Sumerian stele from the previous post.

   This post was inspired by a radio interview of the author Robert Sullivan regarding his book, 'The Royal Arch of Enoch'. It struck me that Sullivan along with other Masonic writers such as Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas are following the symbolic path to lead to a conclusion that is then reinforced by circumstantial evidence.
   I have no problem with this approach, it's what I'm doing here with the exception I don't believe there is a hard and fast answer. You're combining someone who is trying to convey a message, Kubrick, who also happens to be an artist. As Gurdjieff said, we must not become rigid and dogmatic as we transpose these symbols into ordinary language. And as I will post later, there is much evidence of Masonic symbolism in Kubrick's films.
   But the point I wanted to cover is that there is a group, if you will, that takes symbols very, very seriously. Such that, as many consider mathematics a universal language, this group considers symbols to be that language. They believe symbols to be a means of communicating through time, across cultures and even species. Symbols are not just visual, they are ritual. They are acted out.
  

This nattily attired gentleman is the late James Shelby Downard, co-author of a brilliant essay entitled "King Kill 33". It became the inspiration for the Marilyn Manson song of the same name.
   I do not espouse the political views or philosophies of Downard or his co-author Michael Hoffman II but that doesn't lessen the brilliance of this essay. I recommend obtaining a copy, unless you are lucky enough to have a 1st edition Apocalypse Culture, edited by Adam Parfrey. Subsequent editions did not have it.
   Downard and Hoffman are proponents of the concept of 'Masonic Sorcery' and it's practice by Arch Criminals.  I will do my best to summarize but there is sufficient information available on the web.  
   Basically, the authors describe a 1% of Masonry ("...most 'Freemasons' apparently have no idea of the evil that is part of Masonry...") who are in on the secret and that the key of Masonic Sorcery is the rulership of the collective  mind (dreaming mind or unconscious mind) of humanity.
   This 1% uses symbolic ritual (psychodramas, they call them) enacted out on the world stage to achieve their ends. The elite have already enacted two of their three alchemical rituals. The first was the destruction of the prima materia at a point close to the 33rd degree, Los Alamos, with the detonation of the 1st modern atomic bomb. The second was the Killing of the King with JFK. The 3rd is to 'Make Manifest all that is Hidden'.

    To quote the Jim Brandon in 'Weird America' via Wikipedia,


"Would you believe John F. Kennedy as a ceremonial king-who-must-die? I'm afraid there is a certain body of opinion, undoubtedly the farthest-out brain wave of assassinology yet, that maintains the killing was pulled off, not by the Russians, the Cubans, the CIA, or the Mafia, but by alchemists. As I understand the hypothesis, President Kennedy was for some reason chosen as The King (remember "Camelot," "Macbird" and all that?) after the fashion of James G. Frazer and Mary Renault whose "The King Must Die" he had been given to read before his death.

This killing of the king in Dallas was related somehow to the touching off of the world's first atomic bomb at the Trinity Site in New Mexico 18 years earlier. Apparently the Bomb was the "destruction of primordial matter" stage of the grand alchemical working, but these conspiracy buffs aren't much more specific on details than were the early alchemists in their recipes. Anyway, Kennedy represented the next stage of the process - the "Death of the White King" - when he was immolated on a trinity site of his own. For, aren't Dealey Plaza and the ill-famed Triple Underpass on the bank of the old Trinity River?"

 A large part of this process is the revelation of the method, to fulfill the 3rd Law of Alchemy to "make manifest all that is hidden". According to Downard, this is done to "...seal finally and for all time the eternal pagan psychodrama which works through every mass organization of man."
   To this end, Kennedy (the representation of the king) was killed in Dallas (as close the 33rd degree latitude as possible) as a scapegoat to bring the 1% closer to their avowed goal of rebuilding Solomon's Temple on the 33rd degree. Essentially ritual and symbol are so much a part of this 1% that most of us who think linearly and literally can not comprehend their purpose.
   You would have to read the entire essay, I'm not doing it justice and Downard and Hoffman believe what they are writing.
 

What does that have to do with Kubrick or EWS? I don't know...  an elite group, committed to ritual and symbolism... hmm?


For Barry Lyndon, for the sake of the widow's son.

Notice the resemblance?

Dotting the I's - Part Deux

Yo Saturnalia!

   Ok, it's been awhile. Lots of new information has come up. Some of it confirming suspicions, much of pointing toward new avenues.

   Suffice it to say, this post will complete some of the thoughts of the previous post but not in the way I had originally intended. Mostly because of new information but also because when traveling in the speculative kingdom of Kubrickistan, one is not served well by adhering to dogmatic beliefs.

   I have struggled with the Venice EWS dynamic. There's the masks, the Verona Restaurant (Verona having been part of the Venetian Republic).

 My original plan was to focus on how Venice taught the world in general and Britain in particular how to attempt rule the world covertly through finance and economic infiltration. 
   I wanted to focus on the  theories of Larouche, the Venetian bankers and Venice as a Kubrickian symbol for British Banking, the Black Nobility, etc. But if Columbo has taught us nothing else, it's that there's always one more thing.
   That thing is the movie is set at Christmas.

To Follow Arthur or Not to Follow Arthur

   One can go the whole antinomian route and say they were going for a Satanic reference, sacrificing Mandy in a reversal of the Christian birth and yet...
   The easiest thing to do that would confirm the whole Venetian angle would be to follow the Schnitzler source material and have the movie set at Carnival time. I again refer to Frederic Raphael's memoir, 'Eyes Wide Open'. He mentions his frustration with updating the story from 19th century Vienna to modern day New York and several times reaching an impasse with how to handle an issue. Kubrick would occasionally give the advice, "Follow Arthur". Yet it's the ways in which Kubrick  doesn't follow Arthur that we have to look. He doesn't follow Arthur in using the Venetian masks. (It's a masked ball in 'Traumnovelle' yes, but they are not specified as Venetian Carnival masks) and he certainly doesn't follow Arthur with the Christmas setting.
   Critics have mentioned the association between Venetian masks and lascivious activities. It has also been stated that the Christmas setting allowed Kubrick some interesting lighting choices and to make a statement on consumerism impact on the modern couple. I think it's more than that.

Vigilant Citizen to the rescue

    There's a fantastic two piece article on the Vigilant Citizen website regarding EWS. I want to reference something in part II but I highly recommend the entire piece as well as the overall site.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-hidden-and-not-so-hidden-messages-in-stanley-kubricks-eyes-wide-shut-pt-ii/

The writer makes mention of the shooting location of the Somerton orgy being a Rothschild mansion and that "...has been documented that the Rothschilds do actually partake in masked events very similar to those shown in Eyes Wide Shut. Here are rare images taken from a 1972 party given by Marie-Hélène de Rothschild."

 It's not so much the image that got me as the text under the image on the page, which read,
"Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and Baron Alexis de Redé at a 1972 party. Invitations were printed in reversed writing. One wonders if this party “degenerated” into something resembling what is shown in Eyes Wide Shut."
    What I'm focusing on here is the invitations were printed in reversed writing. That made me think of Saturnalia.

 Ailanrutas!

   One of the major characteristics of this ancient Roman festival was reversal. From Wikipedia:
"Saturnalia is the best-known of several festivals in the Greco-Roman world characterized by role reversals and behavioral license. Slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters. Ancient sources differ on the circumstances: some suggest that master and slave dined together..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
   So the behavioral license fits in, what else? Well, I include the fact that it was a Greco-Roman feast, and was celebrated in the Greek style (meaning how the sacrifices were made, as well as the public banquets). I have received unconfirmed intel that those who cast no shadow, at least some of them, are in to the Greek myths big time. Whether this pertains to the ancient Greek Mystery Religions or actual worship of the Olympian deities, I don't know.
    Also, again quoting the Wikipedians, "The Saturnalia reflects the contradictory nature of the deity Saturn himself: "there are joyful and utopian aspects of careless well-being side by side with disquieting elements of threat and danger"". That would fit exactly what transpires at Somerton in the film. Also mentioned in the article, "...he (Saturn) gathered together the unruly race of fauns and nymphs scattered over mountain heights, and gave them laws … . Under his reign were the golden ages men tell of: in such perfect peace he ruled the nations." And lastly, "His contradictions... indicate Saturn's capacity for obliterating social distinctions."

   Both the laws for the unruly 'races' and obliterating social distinctions sound like some of the goals of they who cast no shadows.

   Just for reference, the common celebration cry was Io Saturnalia! Which allowing for Latin I and Y sounds would be pronounced Yo Saturnalia!

   Is that all? Jay Weidner mentions, I believe in a Red Ice Radio interview that the script from Arthur C Clarke originally called for the Monolith to be from Saturn not Jupiter. Also, in Troy McLachlan's excellent book "The Saturn Death Cult" he postulates the Kubrick was attempting to expose the Saturn Death Cult, whose members recall a Golden Age when Saturn was the center of the Solar System (Saturn ruled in Roman terms) but was later usurped by the Sun.
    Could there be anything else? Perhaps, regarding this image:

But more on that later.