I mentioned the film Immortal (AKA Immortel Ad Vitam) a couple posts back and it stirred some conversation in the comments lounge. I wanted to revisit it for a couple reasons, one of which has to do with some hot-button issues bouncing around the current news cycle.
The other has to do with us getting a real-time master class in the application of Knowles' First Law.
But we also need to revisit Immortal, as it seems to have quite a bit to do with a lot of the very unsettling symbolism we've looked at over the past few years.
Specifically, symbolism having to do with certain extremely-strange belief systems that very highly-ranked people seem to subscribe to.
Here's my original post on the film from March 2010:
Having cut my teeth on 70s comics, I can say that nothing that shows up in pop culture these days surprises me.
Any weird esoteric or occult topic you could think of was yours for a quarter (or so) at your local spinner rack. There was a great innocence to it all as well; 'innocence' being the lack of self-consciousness that took over the comics medium once it was banished from the newsstands.
In the 70s all of this weird stuff was fresh and new, and was approached with "hey, cool" kind of mindset, not the "look at me, aren't I outrageous?" mindset some British scribes brought to the table.
But if the Brits were poseurs and the Yanks were dilettantes, the French were simply nuts.
The wizards of Metal Hurlant and Pilote (the biggest French-language sci-fi comic magazines of the time) brought a stunning level of craft that dazzled American comics fans, but also proffered a Gallic contempt for narrative clarity that bewildered them. By the fourth or fifth bong hit, however, narrative clarity was irrelevant and the eye candy took over.
Although English-language translations were available at better comics stores, most American readers got their Franco-fix in Heavy Metal, then published by National Lampoon.
In 2004, Enes "Enki" Bilal took the old Metal Hurlant aesthetic to the silver screen in a way that 1981's Heavy Metal (with its dreary soundtrack of warmed-over cock-rock ) or the dire Heavy Metal 2000 failed spectacularly to do.
At first viewing, Immortel Ad Vitam might seem like a compilation of video game cinematics (there's also an Immortel video game) but repeated viewings ease the clunkiness and reveal the occult-o-delic insanity within.
The story itself (based on Bilal's early 80s graphic novel triptych collected as The Carnival of Immortals) seems to resonate more today than it did in 2004, and certainly more than 1980. A giant pyramid hovers over a futuristic Manhattan (Paris in the comics), carrying Horus, Anubis and Bast. Horus has broken some godly law or another and needs to immaculately conceive a child before being put in stasis for his infractions.
The whole aerial pyramid routine should be setting off bells and whistles to regular Secret Sun readers.
Just like today, Manhattan itself is a corporate Potemkin village, only here it's controlled by a biotech firm called Eugenix. Central Park is a bizarre kind of Stargate in which EBEs shift back and forth between this planet/dimension and their own.
A strange mutant named Jill (played by Linda Hardy) appears in one of Eugenix concentration camps and is rescued by a scientist (Charlotte Rampling), who has more than just a professional interest in the blue-haired freak.
Horus then rescues a Baudelaire-quoting rebel leader named Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann) from his suspended animation prison and initiates him in an abandoned subway (shades of Captain Marvel).
In a spin on the old walk-in trope, Nikopol then is possessed by Horus and sent after Jill in order to sow the god's immortal seeds with Earth's latest version of humanity (Nephilim 2.0, perhaps).
Again, this is not a world-beater by any stretch of the imagination. But it has a rich pedigree, at least for those of us who saw Heavy Metal itself as an alien communiqué, and is ripe with Synchronistic and semio-symbolic resonators.
Best of all, there's not a Sammy Hagar or Foghat floor-sweeping in sight; the excellent soundtrack is supplied by Goran Vejvoda and Sigur Ros.
Speaking of the Synchroverse, I know Alejandro Jodorowsky's film work is admired around these/those parts (The Stygian Port's done a lot of work of The Holy Mountain), but Jodorowsky's also done a lot of comics work, particularly with Jean "Moebius" Giraud.
So if you're looking for a sci-fi epic on par with Dune or Lord of the Rings, I'd recommend their landmark series, The Incal. For those of us who love Moebius' art but his storytelling not so much, The Incal is a revelation.
If you do read it and a lot of it seems vaguely familiar, just be aware that Luc Besson ransacked a lot of it for his 1997 opus, The Fifth Element, a film filled with Fraserisms and Frasejacency.
One motif Besson didn't borrow from The Incal was this depiction of the universal consciousness, which combines some old Alchemical motifs, specially the Prima Materia Egg and the Rebis, and ancient depictions of Janus.
But maybe he was shooed off it since someone was saving the icon to be used for the Never-Ending Ritual, still 20 years off at the time of The Fifth Element's release.
And sure enough, it showed up in this viral video from the latest incarnation of Babalon (Cardi B) titled "WAP," or "Wet Ass Pussy."
Note also the similarity to Melusine, AKA "the Siren of the Philosophers."
The "WAP" video was directed by Colin Tilley, who's done a ton of the kinds of videos that I go out of my way to avoid, mostly pop and hip-hop garbage. But seeing how newsworthy this particular one is, and how Cardi has been injected into the fake presidential campaign, it's certainly worth having a look at.
Note the Garlands at the opening of the song, through which we can see the Twins in the fountain.
Yeah, Garlands, Twins, Water. Get used to it; we're only at the very beginning of all this, friends.
Speaking of Twins, Tilley packs little Easter eggs all over the place in the video, including the iconic tile design familiar to fans of Twin Peaks. Also, speaking of gates.
There's also a few shots that call to mind the Red Room, along with the tiled floor from the Double R Diner. I'm sure the guy's probably a Lynch fanboy and good on him for it.
But then things get a bit weird.
First of all, why are these women (Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion) both going so far out of their way to impersonate Nikki Minaj? It's distracting.
Another thing I did notice is that we have these women singing about how wet they're both getting for a well-endowed man. And yet, we never see one.
What we do see are big cats, which may be a Tiger King nod, I don't know. But that chainlink hairstyle here arouses my curiosity, especially in light of the missing dudes and the subtle implication of interspecies romance.
Especially considering there are several scenes in which the two women are writhing in the sand while a collection of snakes writhe around them.
Another thing I noticed is that the bikinis worn in the "WAP" are not entirely unlike the bikini Nikki wears in "Starships," in that they look more like something someone would wear in a comic book rather than a beach.
Do note that both "WAP" and "Starships" make extensive use of strawberry-pink as well.
So, remembering that this all starts with gates, proceeds to a gauntlet of Garlands, then proceeds to a statue of a Janus/Rebis like deity and then takes us inside a mansion, I do have to wonder if-- yet again-- we're seeing a reference to a central tenet of the elite belief system, and that's the old Genesis 6:4 bit with the daughters of men mating with the sons of God, AKA the Watchers.
According to ancient texts, the Watchers were a class of angels who found human women to be comely and decided to come down on earth (on Mount Hermon in Lebanon, according to some) so they might go forth and fuck some of them.
So, getting back to the snakes: It's generally believed that the Watchers were rebel Seraphim, the so-called "burning serpents."
In case you're new to the subject, I'll have our pal Moe Bedard of Gnostic Warrior explain it for us.
Some of these angels on high who govern on low here on earth are known biblically as the “Seraphs or the Seraphim”.
The various spellings of the Hebrew name Seraphs are the Greek Hellenized version of the Egyptian Osiris-Apis which is spelled Serapis, Sarapis (Σάραπις, Dorian Greek), Sor-apis (Σέραπις, Attic/Ionian Greek), Serapin (Greek Ὄφις), and the name ‘Seraphim’ being the plural form.These names all have similar meanings such as “the burning ones, burning spirits, fiery angels or burning angels.” The meaning of the name Seraph is also synonymous, with serpent and seraphim being the plural for serpents.
These burning angels who are also known as serpents, are also mentioned as celestial beings in the Book of Enoch and the Book of Revelation.
So here we come to a classic example of Knowles' First Law: "Any time a controversy erupts over symbolism in the mainstream media, it's usually disguising a completely different symbolic message altogether."
It goes like this:
• Cardi B and Megan the Whatever release a video that's so over the top with pornographic imagery that it essentially forces critics to attack it and boost its signal.
• Everyone watches it, thanks to the controversy, and get a potent dose of subliminal occult indoctrination.
• The symbolism is subtle and in many cases unfamiliar to some of your typical occult-symbol watchdog-types, but that's OK. The people producing this material are nothing but patient and realize conditioning the masses to the new-old religion is going to take time.†
So what we have is the two performers presenting themselves not only as Twins, but as Janus Twins. This connection is reinforced through the gate at the beginning of the video, Janus being the god of gates. Or stargates, perhaps.
Note also that the women's hairstyles are not entirely unlike ram's horns, another connection to Janus. Note also the strawberry pink (or rouge fraisier, for my French readers),
But Janus was also a god of transitions and cycles, so what we have here is that the gates have now been opened, then, y'know --Garlands -- and now the old religion has taken on a newer, hipper, more "diverse" appearance.
It's really amazing, people take this stuff in all the time and have no idea how it's programming them. The usual conspiracy sites have no idea what they're looking at either, so they're no help.
And in case you think this is all a reach, we also see the Twins leading a conga line in a reflecting pool.
So, going from the writhing with the snakes, or Seraphim, we have the ladies dancing in a room decorated in what apparently are called "Mermaid colors" these days.
What's the reference here? Glad you asked.
Let's consult the Book of Enoch:
And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become SIRENS.’ And I, Chanuwk (Enoch), alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen.”
This all ties into some familiar faces. Familiar to Secret Sun readers, at least.
Pazuzu installed at London's ICA
The installation of "Phylax" in Greece.
The serpentine "Sky People" from The Millennium Dome Show
And of course the daughter of man mating with the Son of Heaven, all backed and financed by the British Government for their big New Year/New Century/New Millennium production.
Created and produced by Mark Fisher, pioneer and producer of the kinds of mass rituals (Olympics, Super Bowls, etc) we've all become very familiar with in the past 20 years.
POSTSCRIPT: Cardi B's new BFF Joe Biden used the term "Light" -- in very weird and uncustomary ways-- 12 times during his speech. This could be coincidence and all, but Light and 12 do have a connection...
Isaiah 14:1212 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
POST-PUNKSCRIPT: You know Cardi B's famous "trills?" Care to guess who was doing that 25 years before her?
POST-TRIPHOP-SCRIPT: Someone made a video with Immortel footage and a song from Mezzanine all the way back in 2007.
up and MORE TO COME!
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Sync Log : The morning after this post originally went up, Les Humanoïdes Associés - publishers of Moebius, Jodorowsky, Bilal, et al - announced its return to US publishing.
† I originally wrote "The people and/or entities producing this material are nothing but patient and realize conditioning the masses to the new-old religion is going to take time," but edited that out, not wanting to press my luck too much. But I can say that the more I do this work, the more I see other intelligences at work driving this symbolism, with the actual producers often being half-conscious of it all, at best.
Let's work up to that, OK? One step at a time.