TWIN PEAKS

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Nefastos
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by Nefastos »

RPSTOVAL wrote:window or even a sort of initiation, into the magical mindset


Yes... you are right, I think. Anyone who feels himself intrigued & titillated by the strange magical world of especially The Return will most likely make up a good candidate on actual magic & some of its weird challenges.

Although, in case he ends up giving a bit too much emphasis on the aesthetical side of the Black (because the White lodge is so much harder to make aesthetically awesome, in a similar way how the Dante's Inferno is much more read than his Heaven) we/he will also have some problems.

RPSTOVAL wrote:In Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, there is a chapter (I haven't read it for a while personally) which speaks about electricity being a current between the physical/mental world to the spiritual/astrological/other dimensions, it's really fascinating.


There really are heavy theosophical influences in Twin Peaks, most striking of which is the idea of dugpas as the followers of the accentuated downward path. Also the White & Black lodges, the doppelgänger (Guardian of the Threshold) &c., but in them the form is not so much from original blavatskyisms, but rather coming down through the post-theosophical schema of the 20th century New Age occultism.

In case you are interested in electricity (or rather electricity as an entity, Fohat), there is some info about this hard to grasp metaphysical doctrine in "Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge". Also a strange book by Christopher P. Holmes, "God, Science & The Secret Doctrine: The Zero Point Metaphysics & Holographic Space of H.P. Blavatsky" might be of interest. (An article about Fohat will also be published in my Demons' Cube / Writings on Magic.)
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Nefastos
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by Nefastos »

RPSTOVAL wrote:Yeah, Twin Peaks is overloaded with Theosophical concepts
RPSTOVAL wrote:"Through the darkness of future's past, the magician longs to see. One chants out between two worlds, Fire walk with me."


You mentioned the Tibetan Book of the Dead's obvious use in the second season, and the tradition behind it is also the tradition behind Blavatsky's theosophy (viz. Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism). I just accidentally stumbled upon the first occult writing of Blavatsky in the Spiritual Scientist journal (vol III/1875). In it she writes something that really reminds me of the returning thems (the themes of returning!) of the Twin Peaks series, as well as of the chant:

Blavatsky wrote:Spiritualism in the hands of an adept becomes Magic, for he is learned in the art of blending together the laws of the Universe, without breaking any of them and thereby violating Nature. In the hands of an experienced medium, Spiritualism becomes UNCONSCIOUS SORCERY; for, by allowing himself to become the helpless tool of a variety of spirits, of whom he knows nothing save what the latter permit him to know, he opens, unknown to himself, a door of communication between the two worlds, through which emerge the blind forces of Nature lurking in the astral light, as well as good and bad spirits.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
obnoxion
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by obnoxion »

Nefastos wrote: White lodge is so much harder to make aesthetically awesome...
The White Lodge's style seems to be interbellum era art deco, which is a very hopeful, decorative, inclusice and international in spirit. But WW2 sort of blew out the decorations, and brought the functionalist style.

My interpretation is that the art deco represents the unreachability of the Lodge, which is so closely tied to the Atomic Bomb.

The waiting room has, I think, art deco furniture, too. But I would say some of the less decorated pieces are pretty close to functionalism, and the overall feeling of the space seems expressionistic, which I would associated as a style to war-broken emotions.

The actual Black Lodge, that is, the Convenience Store, I would say, is American Gothic. It is a mesmerizing blend of the banality (a gas station store) and the romanticism (lavish but abandoned house) of evil.

I just watched the whole Return again, and I had an idea for an art book: "The Lamps in Twin Peaks". In almost every inside scene there is at least one designer lamp. It would be great to read about those lamps, and contemplate how they fit to the mood snd symbolism of the scenes...
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Benemal
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by Benemal »

I'm finally watching new Twin Peaks now, that I got it from the library. Got hooked and watched six episodes last night. This is possibly the best thing Lynch has ever done (apart, perhaps from Lost Highway & Mulholland Drive). The ultimate, final Lynch work. Incredible, that there was a time, when he couldn't get his movies financed, in the states. Surprising how different it is and how funny and I kept getting surprised also, because of the cast. Everyone is there, who was still alive and at least four of them died soon after.
Subconsciously, it seems that I deliberately started Twin Peaks a day after I finished re-reading the Dune trilogy. Because the Dune movie was by David Lynch and Kyle McLachlan played Muad'Dib. Strangely I've been feeling Dune everywhere.
Funny coincidence also happened. I was drawing a "mutant" tree (I often draw, when watching something), when in the second episode the weird hand tree appeared. That was a really funny tree. Like something I would do. I don't usually draw trees, but I didn't get the deja - vu sensation, that usually accompanies synchronicity.
obnoxion
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by obnoxion »

Benemal wrote:This is possibly the best thing Lynch has ever done...
I have to agree with you.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
obnoxion
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by obnoxion »

Yesterday began to watch TP again. I had to think about should I begin with the 1st season or with the FWWM movie, but I decided to start with the series. I also bought a pile of TP and Lynch books, so most likely I will be posting in this topic in near future.

Meanwhile, here's an attractive theory, which plays on parallelism to explain something the two last episodes of the Season 3: https://medium.com/@onantiad/episodes-1 ... 1352ce38e8
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Smaragd
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by Smaragd »

The whole thread is propably spoiler warned already, but I'll add one here too. Though I don't think this kind of drama leans much at all on plot tensions. As if the series was a fabric made of the stuff dreams are made of, and the mystery is preserved whether we cast our eyes first on the end, the middle or the start.

Just finished rewatching the third season during the weekend. Alot more connections could be drawn between the episodes when there's no week long waiting time. Like in that great article on the parallelisms of the last two episodes Lucys statement of finally understanding cellularphones weren't that "enigmatic" if you remember her beeing spooked by them in the first episodes. She couldn't understand how someone could be in two places at the same time as she imagined the caller being in the mountains while they were actually entering the room. But then as she shoots Mr. C her intuition kind of fires off and there's no question of possibilities of similar nature that are actually supernatural.

I really like the idea of the evocation circle or infinity loop in a form of 8 made by Cooper for Judy. To me it seems it is at the same time a magical act from Lynch and Frost to dispel the viewer of the dream with the power of dreams. In Alejandro Jodorowskys The Holy Mountain (spoilers again) a similar attempt were made, but it wasn't such a tantric way of going through the world, but rather a cold blooded ascetic undressing of the props.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
obnoxion
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by obnoxion »

Smaragd wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:14 pm I really like the idea of the evocation circle or infinity loop in a form of 8 made by Cooper for Judy.
I was thinking about this form of 8, and how Phillip Jeffries sort of flips it into a mirror image, as he steams it out from the metal nose of his new linga-like outer form. I've always thought of Jeffries a sort of Judy-focused shakta-man of the show. Now, another shakta-man, I think, would be Philip Gerard (notice the similarities in the names) - that is, MIKE.

As we remember, we get two stories for the tattoo in the arm that he tore off as he reformed. One story goes it said "Fire walk with me". But when they question Philip Gerard about it, he bursts into tears and sobs "it said.... MOM!".

The severed arm was first depicted as the short person in the red suite, whose famous palindromic line was "WOW BOB WOW". If you flip the words upside down you get "MOM BOB MOM". In the third series the evolution of the arm has made it into an electirc, nerv-fiber-like leafless tree with a lumb of flesh for a head (not unlike the head of the creature in the glass box). It is made quit clear in the episode were Cooper leaves the Red Room, that one of the Venus statues has a sort of avataric link to this evolved arm.

It has been said that the new TP is centered on the concept of the mother. And whereas the first seosons were father centered, the father-child plot lines in the new season are plot-wise mainly dead-ends or inconsequental. Of course an exception would be Major Briggs and Bobby (the latter one curiously a cop killer that has tramogrified into a damn fine Sheriff's deputy).

I see that the Mother in the series is markedly an ambivalent and fundamental force. The evil mother is the WOW evoked by the first atomic explosition, from whom the BOB that dominated the first series was a derivate entity. And the formula of inversion suggested by the judy-wise Jeffries is also the formula for the restoration of the MOM.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Smaragd
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by Smaragd »

obnoxion wrote: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:36 am
Smaragd wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:14 pm I really like the idea of the evocation circle or infinity loop in a form of 8 made by Cooper for Judy.
I was thinking about this form of 8, and how Phillip Jeffries sort of flips it into a mirror image, as he steams it out from the metal nose of his new linga-like outer form. I've always thought of Jeffries a sort of Judy-focused shakta-man of the show. Now, another shakta-man, I think, would be Philip Gerard (notice the similarities in the names) - that is, MIKE.

As we remember, we get two stories for the tattoo in the arm that he tore off as he reformed. One story goes it said "Fire walk with me". But when they question Philip Gerard about it, he bursts into tears and sobs "it said.... MOM!".

The severed arm was first depicted as the short person in the red suite, whose famous palindromic line was "WOW BOB WOW". If you flip the words upside down you get "MOM BOB MOM". In the third series the evolution of the arm has made it into an electirc, nerv-fiber-like leafless tree with a lumb of flesh for a head (not unlike the head of the creature in the glass box). It is made quit clear in the episode were Cooper leaves the Red Room, that one of the Venus statues has a sort of avataric link to this evolved arm.

It has been said that the new TP is centered on the concept of the mother. And whereas the first seosons were father centered, the father-child plot lines in the new season are plot-wise mainly dead-ends or inconsequental. Of course an exception would be Major Briggs and Bobby (the latter one curiously a cop killer that has tramogrified into a damn fine Sheriff's deputy).

I see that the Mother in the series is markedly an ambivalent and fundamental force. The evil mother is the WOW evoked by the first atomic explosition, from whom the BOB that dominated the first series was a derivate entity. And the formula of inversion suggested by the judy-wise Jeffries is also the formula for the restoration of the MOM.
This point of restoration of the mother allows us to move on from the duality of the gnostic interpretation towards a point where the fiery cage of a circle becomes a sacret place or at least a bridge is found connecting them. It's funny how it's the same thing to be caged by an interpretation as it is to act and react on a false basis. Simple and obvious but I'm dumbfound and can't express what I mean precisely. Once the gnostic elements were obvious, at least for me, the whole piece slips in to a cultural groove where it's not so obvious to bring out the monistic cannons to see if it will penetrate the whole "artificial" structure. I guess it says alot about the nature of Twin Peaks that such interpretations can be made without the imagined metaphysics of a show getting thrown to a bin. Artificiality is a question wether a show integrates actual metaphysics (also to the making of the work) or forces some rigid rulebook.

I love the shakti-man idea although I don't grasp it fully. There's surely something exciting connecting both of the examples of a shakti-man. Jeffries and Mike are strongly dedicated to the red aspect. While Mike has it hidden under Philip Gerard breaking out of it without his medication, Jeffries seems to always blaze on nonstop until the body of the actor has died and he's turned in to a "linga-form". This new form is calm and reminds me more of the white aspect and shakti when I contemplate it during the Rosary of Azazel. It's Virgin Mary and it is more bright and brilliant than fiery as the purity of it doesn't disturb the "burning". That's right, I likened a virginal symbol to a linga.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
obnoxion
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Re: TWIN PEAKS

Post by obnoxion »

Smaragd wrote: Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:45 pm I love the shakti-man idea although I don't grasp it fully.
Both men have exceptional relationships to the "Mother power". It was Jeffries that introduced the whole Judy-concept in the movie. And it was Gerard's arm that had the "MOM" tattoo, that later evolved into a sort-of-avatar of the Venus statue (whose armlesness Gerard mirrors). Both characters go through transformations that are difficult to fully comprehend, making them nearly unreachable except on their on terms. This unreachability, which is more or less figurative invisibility or absence, is yet haunted by their constant and weighty precence in matters pertaining to the most vital mysteries of the story. And this I would interpret as a form of blackness. And finally, both men have knowledge that both black and white lodge entities and other associates want or need, making them somewhat ambigious, and thus establishing them among the more powerful agents of the story. Yet this ambivalence seems not to reach the final ethics of the men, as both play major roles for the final outcome, paralling in stature, I think, the likes of Major Briggs and the Log Lady.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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