Cinema Symbolism 2

More Esoteric Imagery in Popular Movies

Robert W. Sullivan IV

• Publisher: Deadwood Publishing, LLC
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780692895900
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

Finally! The much anticipated sequel to Cinema Symbolism is here! Cinema Symbolism 2: More Esoteric Imagery in Popular Movies explores the hidden symbolism and esoteric imagery in such movies as Crimson Peak, the Harry Potter Saga, The Chronicles of Narnia, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Suspiria, From Hell, Black Swan, Angel Heart, Fantasia, Eyes Wide Shut, The Lion King, Maleficent, Watchmen, The Shining, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Gangs of New York and many more.

CHAPTER I

SOLAR SUPERSTARS

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east,
and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be.” - Matthew 24:27

“Remember when the sun is gone that weapon
will be ready to fire. But as long as there’s light
we got a chance.” – Poe Dameron,

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2015.

“They say there’s just enough religion in the world
to make men hate one another, but not enough to make them love.”

- Louis Cyphre, Angel Heart, 1987.

“See, mother, I make all things new.”

- Jesus Christ, The Passion of the Christ, 2004.

“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you
these things in the churches. I am the root and the
offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”

- Revelation 22:16.

“If this god is God, he would live on every mountain,
in every valley. He would not be the god of
Ishmael or Israel alone, but of all men.
It is said he created all men in his image.
He would dwell in every heart, every mind, every soul.”

- Moses, The Ten Commandments, 1956.

The Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, are a solar and astrology allegory best described as astrotheology. The stories and dramatis personae of the Bible are not real people or living history. Rather, the Bible presents symbolic morality lessons presented by characters who are anthropomorphizations of the stars and constellations, the zodiac, the planets, the sun and moon and their movements and interactions with each other observed from earth’s northern hemisphere. These anthropomorphizations are compelling archetypes found in most of the world’s religions, including but not limited to Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. This Biblical-astrological esoterica was borne from Neoplatonic apologetic thought, harmonizing and anticipating the pragmatic philosophical doctrine Occam’s Razor. Occam’s Razor, also known as Ockham’s Razor from William of Ockham (ca. 1287–1347) and in Latin lex parsimoniae, is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in logic and problem-solving. It states that among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected. The Razor holds that one should proceed to simpler theories until simplicity can be traded for greater explanatory power. Applying the Razor to the Bible, the pedestrian explanation is the best and most accurate: the Bible is astral-solar allegory, symbolic Logos, and not factual history. Jesus and Moses are not real people; rather, they are solar avatars who bring light and wisdom in times of darkness and despair. This occult Biblical symbolism recently played out on the small screen: at the conclusion of the final episode titled “Courage” (original air date March 31, 2013) of The History Channel’s miniseries The Bible, Jesus Christ’s final revelation is depicted as a rising sun that, like Jesus, becomes the world’s resurrected messianic solar savior bringing light and salvation to the world. On these Pagan-Christian-Neoplatonic comparisons, Masonic philosopher Manly P. Hall explains:

“Among other allegories borrowed by Christianity from pagan antiquity is the story of the beautiful, blue-eyed Sun God, with His golden hair falling upon His shoulders, robed from head to foot in spotless white carrying in His arms the Lamb of God (cf. Aries the Ram), symbolic of the vernal equinox. This handsome youth is a composite of Apollo, Osiris, Orpheus, Mithras, and Bacchus, for He has certain characteristics in common with each of these pagan deities.

The philosophers of Greece and Egypt divided the life of the sun during the year into four parts; therefore they symbolized the Solar Man by four different figures. When He was born in the winter solstice, the Sun God was symbolized as a dependent infant who in some mysterious manner had managed to escape the Powers of Darkness seeking to destroy Him while He was still in the cradle of winter. The sun, being weak at this season of the year, had no golden rays (or locks of hair), but the survival of the light through the darkness of winter was symbolized by one tiny hair which alone adorned the head of the Celestial Child. (As the birth of the sun took place in Capricorn, it was often represented as being suckled by a goat.)

At the vernal equinox, the sun had grown to be a beautiful youth. His golden hair hung in ringlets on his shoulders and his light, as Schiller said, extended to all parts of infinity. At the summer solstice, the sun became a strong man, heavily bearded, who, in the prime of maturity, symbolized the fact that Nature at this period of the year is strongest and most fecund. At the autumnal equinox, the sun was pictured as an aged man, shuffling along with bended back and whitened locks into the oblivion of winter darkness. Thus, twelve months were assigned to the sun as the length of its life. During this period it circled the twelve signs of the zodiac in a magnificent triumphal march. When fall came, it entered, like Samson, into the house of Delilah (Virgo), where its rays were cut off and it lost its strength. In Masonry, the cruel winter months are symbolized by three murderers who sought to destroy the God of Light and Truth.

The coming of the sun was hailed with joy; the time of its departure was viewed as a period to be set aside for sorrow and unhappiness. This glorious, radiant orb of day, the true light ‘which lighteth every man who cometh into the world,’ the supreme benefactor, who raised all things from the dead, who fed the hungry multitudes, who stilled the tempest, who after dying rose again and restored all things to life–this Supreme Spirit of humanitarianism and philanthropy is known to Christendom as Christ, the Redeemer of worlds, the Only Begotten of The Father, the Word made Flesh, and the Hope of Glory.”⁹⁷

Please keep an open mind because what you are about to read is controversial. The cinematic form is apt for both revealing and concealing esoteric visions, and the Neoplatonic-cabalistic idea that Jesus Christ is a sun god is no exception.

ASTROTHEOLOGY IN CHRISTIAN CINEMA: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, CHRISTMAS MOVIES, AND THE VERNAL EQUINOX

The Christian apologetic The Passion of the Christ is a film directed by American-born Australian actor Mel Gibson, which documents the last days of Jesus Christ. The movie opens in Gethsemane as Jesus (Jim Caviezel) prays and is tempted by Satan (Rosalinda Celentano) while his apostles sleep. After receiving thirty pieces of silver, one of Jesus’ other apostles, Judas Iscariot (Luca Lionello), approaches with the temple guards and betrays Jesus with a kiss on the cheek. As the guards move in to arrest Jesus, the apostle Peter (Francesco De Vito) cuts off the ear of Malchus (Roberto Bestazzoni), but Jesus miraculously heals the ear. The disciples flee, and the temple guards arrest Jesus and beat him during the journey to the Sanhedrin. John (Christo Jivkov) tells Mary (Maia Morgenstern, Jesus’ mother) and Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) of the arrest while Peter follows Jesus at a distance. The Jewish high priest Caiaphas (Mattia Sbragia) holds trial over the objection of some of the other priests who are expelled from the court. When questioned by Caiaphas whether he is the son of God, Jesus replies “I am.” Caiaphas is horrified and tears his robes condemning Jesus to death for blasphemy. Peter, who is secretly watching, is confronted by guards and thrice denies knowing Jesus, causing him to run away sobbing after remembering that Jesus had prophesied that Peter would deny knowing him three times before the cock crowed. Meanwhile, the remorseful Judas attempts to return the money to have Jesus freed but is refused by the priests. Judas, tormented by demons, leaves the city and hangs himself with a rope he finds on a dead donkey.

Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopovto) to face death, but after questioning Jesus and finding no fault in him, removes Jesus to the court of Herod (Luca De Dominicis) because Nazareth (Jesus’ hometown) is under Herod’s jurisdiction. After Jesus is again found not guilty and returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus and then will set him free. He then attempts to have Jesus released by giving the people an option of liberating Jesus or the violent criminal Barabbas (Pietro Sarubbi). To his dismay, the crowd demands to have Barabbas freed and Jesus executed. In an attempt to appease the crowd, Pilate has Jesus brutally scourged and mocked as the King of the Jews with a crown of thorns. However, the crowd continues to demand Jesus’ crucifixion and Barabbas’ release. Pilate washes his hands of the situation and reluctantly orders Jesus’ death by crucifixion.

Jesus carries the wooden cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, Veronica (Sabrina Impacciatore credited as Seraphia, not Veronica) wipes Jesus’ dirty and bloody face with her veil to ease his suffering. Simon of Cyrene (Jarreth J. Merz) is unwillingly pressed into helping Jesus carry the wooden cross. At Golgotha or the Place of the Skull, Jesus is nailed to the cross, crucified. As he hangs from the cross, Jesus prays forgiveness for those who did this to him and redeems a criminal crucified next to him. After Jesus gives up his spirit and dies, a single drop of rain falls from the sky, triggering an earthquake which destroys the Temple and rips the cloth covering the Holy of Holies to the horror of Caiaphas and the other priests. Satan is then shown screaming in defeat while Jesus is taken down from the cross. The film concludes with the sun penetrating Jesus’ tomb as he rises from the dead; the stone rolls away, and Christ exits the crypt.

*****

Jesus is shown working as a carpenter, personifying the traits associated with the Gnostic Demiurge or lesser, creator craftsman-like God; this reflects the theological doctrine of the Two Bodies of Christ: one corporeal (lesser) and one spiritual (higher, cf. the docetic-Gnostic Gospel of St. John). Comparatively, this Gnostic philosophy can be found in The Truman Show, which sees a Manichean Demiurge tyrannically ruling over a false reality in which materialism is king. This Demiurge, named Christof after Jesus Christ, is the creator of the fictitious seaside township of Seahaven, which serves as the backdrop for the reality television series, The Truman Show. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is initially not aware that Seahaven is an illusion, and that it–and his life–are crafted solely for entertainment purposes. Christof, echoing controversial Gnostic notions of Christ the Carpenter-Demiurge, is a craftsman or artisan-like deity who controls every aspect of Seahaven, aided by a host of Archons: demonic and angelic servants of the Demiurge, namely Truman’s wife, Meryl (Laura Linney). Christof is responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical, material universe which is nothing more than an illusion. Christof has nothing to do with spirituality, awakening, or gnosis: he wants to keep Truman imprisoned and “asleep” in his handcrafted reality. Truman eventually becomes conscious that Seahaven is a false illusion (see Introduction) and, like Prometheus, turns against the godlike Christof and his henchmen and henchwoman. The higher, spiritual Jesus is thought to be the sacred spark within us all; since we are all God’s creations, we are all imbued with the divine. Truman learns this at the conclusion of The Truman Show.

At first glance, it is clear that Jesus Christ is an anthropomorphization of the sun, a sun god, suggesting that the Roman Empire sun god-cult of Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) heavily influenced Nicean Christianity. Jesus, personifying the sun, is “born again” every morning and will come again to do battle with works of darkness, or the nighttime sky. Jesus the sun of god “….cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen,” at Revelation 1:7. “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” at John 8:12. Let’s be clear: there is only one light of the world that comes in clouds for all eyes to see: the sun. Even during a sermon, Jesus invokes the sun’s power to further his cause. At John 12:36 it is recorded, “While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.” Jesus Christ himself confirms his solar attributes at Revelation 22:16⁹⁸ where he calls himself the Bright Morning Star, which is, of course, the sun. Many early church fat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter I: Solar Superstars
• Chapter II: Alan Moore Presents
• Chapter III: The Arcane Noir of David Lynch
• Chapter IV: The Wonderful Occult World of Walt Disney
• Chapter V: Black Phillip Says You Are Wicked: Esoteric Imagery in Horror Movies
• Chapter VI: Freemasonry in Popular Culture
• Chapter VII: The Illuminati in Film
• Chapter VIII: Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor: The Harry Potter Universe
• Chapter IX: Mystical Archetypes of the Old West
• Chapter X: It’s the Chronic(What?)cles of Narnia
• Chapter XI: White and Black Swans: Autoerotica, Artistic Kink, Sex, Fetishes, Metamorphosis, and Discordianism in Film
• Chapter XII: The Adventures of Robin Hood: Kabbalistic Archetypes and the Tarot
• Chapter XIII: Lost History and the Gangs of New York
• Conclusion
• Filmography
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author