Dirty Word Witchcraft...

WARNING: In this next part we decided to go hunting and our guns are out words. Are you bold enough to 'pull the trigger' on these poor creatures?

Evidence of a not so recent dream:


I remember this one particular dream (don't recall the date, though) where I was in elementary school and there was a tall young man mistreating a poor blonde girl with eyeglasses and calling her names. The spectacles were quite large and very outdated. I saw her weep for she was helpless and I turned to the one who bullyied her. I placed both hands upon his shoulders and then mentioned quite clearly, "Now you're a black rabbit!"

The man shrunk and was immediately transformed into a fluffy black bunny with wide blue eyes. We put him in a cage and we gazed at our little victory that day.

Of course, this was an innocent game. Could it have meant something else?

She had dirty word witchcraft I was in the deep end of her skin

This watercolor could have been inspired from the chapter of Alice In Wonderland: Pig and Pepper. In it, Alice carried the oversized baby in her arms and gradually turned into a pig.

The truth is he was already in the process of becoming one when he was in the house of the Duchess. He couldn't stop sneezing, as if some sort of accidental witchcraft was set upon him.

 

`Speak roughly to your little boy,

And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.'

"Sometimes I Squeeze Things Too Hard",
some say it´s a rabbit, or a pig?

While this chapter can have infinite interpretations (and if you haven't come up with one, don't feel bad) we paired it with another song of  EAT ME, DRINK ME named "Are You The Rabbit?"

Manson was always fond of dualities and in the Alice painting it seems to be very evident. While it is very simple to blame it on somebody else, in fact you are actually blaming yourself. Based on this the song would be that he is addressing his alter ego:

"So ask yourself before you get in
I know the insurance won't cover this
Are you the rabbit
or the headlight
and is there
room in your life for one more breakdown?"

Manson did admit that the private side of him had come to life in this album, click here for the whole interview:

"When I made this record, I realized a lot of things. Apart from a very close circle of friends, few people know my true self, and it's normal, I never put it into my music... this record is me. Listen to the first songs, it starts with these words: "6am, Christmas morning", and effectively I wrote it on the Christmas morning and sang it that day. I decided that the private Manson would be at the centre of this record."

(Interview:2007/05/18 Alejandro Jodorowsky Interviews Marilyn Manson)


I found another rabbit, a pink one:

"Harlequin Jack And The Absinthe Bunny"

And yet another one, all done by Manson:

Releasing the rabbit or pig could be a loose reference of reducing your fears or demons to something that's within your reach or control.

In this example from Alice In Wonderland:

"So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. `If it had grown up,' she said to herself, `it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself, `if one only knew the right way to change them--' when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off."

The 'demon' becomes an object of mockery and is set free. In the case of Manson's rabbit it might be referred to as a helpless, needy creature and the "headlight" is the guiding light, the one who knows the way out and is willing to get out of the hole (or tunnel) or the ones from the car which are blocked by the presence of an insignificant creature. Read:

"I'm a kick stand in your mouth
and I'm the tongue slamming on the brakes
pull the choke in
pull the choke in
as hard as it will take.
All your pictures are getting dirty
I don't want anyone else's
hand on my gears
And I'll choke on
all the diamonds
like a vulture on your face"


Alternatively, the words "rabbit or the headlight?" could be a pun of "Rabbit In Your Headlights", a song from the side project band UNKLE, which featured Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Curiously, it contains a quote taken from the movie "Jacob's Ladder":

"If you're frightened of dyin' and you're holding on...

You'll see devils tearing your life away.
But...if you've made your peace,
Then the devils are really angels
Freeing you from the earth.....from the earth....from the earth."

This last part could be easily compared to the lyrics of "Are You The Rabbit?"

"You can't escape
Can't escape
all your demons
All you demons
"Watch out, watch out
for your lovers"

In a way, to keep it simple, the rabbit, or pig, or demon or baby is someone who's getting in the way. But who was in the way of this ill-fated relationship, the real Manson or the "other one"?

I'll leave with this other innocent little painting called "Do I Have To Do Everything For You?"

If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' said Alice, seriously,
`I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!'