Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sometimes the Symbols Write Themselves


Jung saw Synchronicity as the "Hand of God." Myself, I've found that Synchonicity can be used as sort of a divination tool. You can pose a question to forces unknown, and oftentimes an appropriate Synchronicity will be your response.


 
Or other times it can used as sort of a reverse divination, confirming a conclusion you've already made for yourself. Joe Linsner and I were just discussing my Pushing Tin post and trying to parse the motivations behind the Symbols. 

Joe, who's more of a mystical bent than myself, offered that Symbols seem to be a force unto themselves. I was struck by this because I had been working on this very article earlier in the day and had intended it to put it up for today. Joe then postulated that there's a stream of consciousness at work- sometimes you tap into it and sometimes it taps into you.


The fact that the Symbols have their own volition and intrude into seemingly unrelated narratives came to mind when I was watching another of my favorite films, The Royal Tenenbaums. 

The Horus Cycle of Symbols - the Falcon, 3/17, 22, Egypt - all seemed to manifest themselves in a subplot focusing on Richie Tenenbaum (played by Luke Wilson), his tennis career and his pet falcon, Mordecai. First we see that he turned pro at 17...


Then we have the three to complete the equation...

 
Then we meet his falcon, Mordecai, a name derived from Marduk (it means "servant of Marduk"). Horus and Marduk were very similar deities in the ancient world.

 
Next we see Mordecai and the Horus-identified "22" which we looked at yesterday.

 
In the film, Mordecai disappears after Royle Tenenbaum (played by Gene Hackman) leaves the family, but returns when Royle begins to reconcile with his children. Here we see Mordecai, Richie and Royle going to help semi-adopted Tenenbaum Eli Cash (played by Owen Wilson).

 
Eli is seen here the next scene snorting cocaine with a group of Egyptian men...

 
...and discussing different Pharaohs, who of course were all incarnations of Horus. And just to make me crazy, listening to...