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 The spectacles were quite large and very outdated.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!'

Some Very Good Advice...

WARNING: This next part is introspective. The songs are analyzed with the Alice In Wonderland storyline, so never mind the order in which they appear in the album, but we do respect it anyway...

"Love is a fire, burns down all that sees..."

So after the fire, there's nothing but ashes left. What a sad crime scene, for there should have been a phoenix bird rising from the ashes, instead:

"I came out of this naked, a featherless bird," MM.

And exactly how does one come out of this predicament, how to grow and come back to normal size. Is it by introspection:

"The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender."
William Booth

If these words applied to the song, these lyrics could explain the concept of being powerless.

"And so I'm waiting
With the sound turned off
I'm waiting
Like a glass balloon
And I'm fading
Into the void and then
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone..."

The Caterpillar said to Alice when she was confused:

`Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

`What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. `Explain yourself!'

`I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, `because I'm not myself, you see.'

`I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.

`I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, `for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'

`Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar.

Still confused?

But a second analysis of the lyrics in "They Say That Hell's Not Hot":

"I kill myself in small amounts

In each relationship it's not
About love.
Just another funeral and
Just another girl left in tears."

If fire is the same as love, then the part of "In each relationship it's not about love," tells us that there is no fire, no passion, nothing.

"And so I'm waiting

With the sound turned off
I'm waiting
Like a glass balloon
And I'm fading
Into the void and then
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone..."

The "glass balloon" has also been referred in alchemy as a flask. Take a look at this part:

To keep fire in a glasse, that whilest the glasse is shut will not burne, but as soone as it it opened will be inflamed. (John French, The Art of Distillation, London 1651)

Applied to human emotions, fire will not burn if it's contained, if the glass is not opened it will last for thousands of years.

Still confused? The Caterpillar said as he smoked on his hookah:

`What size do you want to be?' it asked.

`Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alice hastily replied; `only one doesn't like changing so often, you know.'

`I DON'T know,' said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper.

Patience, patience, little dears, the answers will come soon. While trying to answer so many questions, a tranformation or mutation begins for Manson.

And we close this part with a clever quote from Jodorowsky:

"What is the definition of alchemy? It's the spiritualization of matter and a materialization of the spirit. What is at the bottom is like what is at the top. A demon is an angel fallen to Earth, an angel is a demon raised to Heaven."

`Serpent!' screamed the Pigeon.
`I'm NOT a serpent!' said Alice indignantly. `Let me alone!'

New Status Update: Cannot Be Tamed

Of course not, we know that...

This reminded me of the song "Unkillable Monster" from "The High End of Low".

Enjoy!

3:15, A Short Story Inspired By "Devour"...

Because this is a blog dedicated to all forms of arts, this Friday I decide to share with you this short story which was inspired by the track "Devour" from 2009´s "The High End of Low".

ABOUT THE TITLE:

In the tradition of Manson´s love for Numerology I chose it as a reference to 3 in the morning, a bewitching  hour which is believed where the spirits gather opposite to 3 in the afternoon, the hour of the death of Christ.

3:15
by Beli Cantu


At the edge of the ungodly hour as I guzzled my third drink alone in my icy room I contemplated the pale reflections of those that were mine and now became ghostly black cats with pupils so tiny they seem like needles.But don´t think I drank to forget but to turn the euphoric feeling that allowed me to sever them up with the intensity of my words, "Out, all of you! Be gone!". If you could see how ridiculous and silly they seemed.

But this trick was not enough. While trying to strangle them with a hug they nested deep in my heart. And then the feeling of that old sting again, a sharp pain that didn´t make me mourn but disappear, "Not yet! Still do not want eternal sleep!"

A shower of broken glass broke the silence, I must have dropped my glass, which no longer had a cloud emerald absinthe but of a newborn. The crying of an infant become a white cat. Triumphant she drove the shadows where they belonged and when she finished her good deed she found refuge upon my aching chest making me close my eyes without fear like no other.

My innocence was she, perishable because of me, perhaps it would last a day or two. So I renew to feel in control, to appear presentable to the world in one of my many sprees sentence without realizing it. A bird of prey now look in the eyes of the young throbbing, in the laughter at the surface, the softness of her silky lips.

Don´t think that this ends my nocturnal battle. Until the end of my days, women turned into black cats cross my path from time to time. God forbid that they multiply. Even so, we will meet again around the beastly hour, three in the morning that my sweet mother hated.

You can listen to "Devour" as you read:

TRIVIA:  Did you know that the lyrics "My pain is not ashamed to repeat itself..." were also mentioned on the short film "Doppelherz" from 2003?