THE HARRY POTTER SERIES [part 2]
(11.18.11)

SPIRITUALITY
After seeing HP:The Deathly Hallows:part2, I came away thinking it was very “eastern.” Then again, most people would say “What? It’s very western.” On the surface, of course, it’s western (Anglo, European) with the British accents and the castles and production design, but why did I think eastern?

For me, it seems that eastern religions are kind of internal; like Ghandi, “Be the change you want to see in the world” and Buddha sitting under a tree and finding enlightenment by meditating. Whereas western religions are external, relying on an external god to save you, and pushing their religion on others. I’m not sure eastern religions imperialistically go to other countries, spreading their religion to other populations. A school like Hogwarts internalizes; hides away to a castle, has secret transportation systems to get there, keeps its secrets and knowledge from muggle eyes. As in the previous post, the Fellowship of the New Life, many whom were Theosophical Society, wanted to set an example in the industrial age, work on the internal, whereas the Fabians were more external and sought to change things more politically. Isn’t that always the case? A grassroots, well-intentioned, spiritual, creative group always gets coopted and infiltrated by the corrupt and control-freaks. Author Michael Tsarion talks about the Theosophical Society being coopted by Fabians, who were “pushers of left-wing socialistic philosophy,” having connections to the British royalty and political establishment. Tsarion is big on clearing up misconceptions.

A good overview documentary that explains this is Secrets of the Occult. The occult doesn’t mean devil worship -- it means things that are hidden. All witches aren’t evil -- there’s white magic and black magic. Helena Blavatsky wasn’t an evil witch -- it was other people coopting her ideas and work. Secret societies initially were not evil -- they were coopted. I also think mystery religions like early Christians were coopted by the political elite. George Washington believed aspects of freemasonry were coopted by illuminati. The Ministry of Magic was coopted by Death Eaters. The Ministry coopted Hogwarts. Yet, there would be ones who would break away and start anew, small grassroots and back to basics, like The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army.

Organized religion aside, I think there is a spiritual quest in the Harry Potter saga (and for the atheists, there’s a science angle I’ll get into later). It’s not just a boy having a rite-of-passage to become an adult. It’s boy to adult to friggin enlightenment. Most so-called adults are not mature at all, and Rowling wants to show that many of us has got a long way to go. Rowling has carried us through the life of Harry Potter in his quest to find his purpose in life, and it comes down to The Deathly Hallows.

Before I get to that, Harry Potter deals with good and bad choices throughout -- free will -- all along the way.

FREE-WILL
Around Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry Potter got increasingly angry, I had thought Harry Potter’s scar and Voldemort’s piece of soul within him was just Rowling saying it was a metaphor for the raging hormones of adolescence. Then, by Deathly Hallows, I realized it was about free will, the good and bad within all of us. Sirius Black says, “We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Dumbledore also says, “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” The sorting hat may place you…wherever, but it’s up to you and your choices in life. Just like Star Wars’ Jedi -- anybody can be corrupted and use the dark side. Use dark magic, but it’s up to you. Even the seemingly incorruptible Dumbledore admits he can be tempted, when he followed Grindelwald in his youth.

So, these ideas are about an internal change or power struggle within us. The west, as in the Judeo-Christian-Islam religions, believe mankind is just plain born bad, and only by external grace that a external god can save mankind. They would say this mentality makes us lose our big stumbling block: our pride. Although, some would say it makes us slave-like, a subservient people. I.e. we are, by nature, a pitiful sinful lot, and our only hope of salvation is to be saved from an outside force. The guilt-trip is suppressive, makes one submissive (quite the powerful tool for a church-state, if one so chose to coopt a religion...). I don’t see much about an external god in the Harry Potter saga, but I do see a lot of internal struggle and internal strength. And there is strength in numbers, and the cooperation of other humans.

If Star Wars is more like Jesus, with Anakin being conceived by midichlorians, then Harry Potter is more like Buddha. Someone with human parents, who lived his life with everything basically handed to him until the end. To gain enlightenment, he had to give up everything, any attachments, his life -- an unbelievably selfless act. He mastered the patronus charm, a Buddha-like blissful state. He would attain a sort of nirvana, a cessation of the struggle to survive, and a sort of enlightenment and mastery of being able to choose to come back to physical life. Hmm… well then Harry is like Jesus -- sacrificing himself, destroying the sin in him (represented as the part of Voldemort’s soul within him) so that others may live. Well, then Rowling is combining east meets west. Yeah, she is a globalist.

We have much to learn from foreigners. “International magical cooperation” as Hermione says. When east meets west, you combine each others notes, share technology and knowledge. The crusades brought back technology from the arabs and asians. The US got technology from the Nazis. Blavatsky traveled the world many times and brought back eastern religions. The coming together and breaking apart of knowledge has been on a repeat cycle for thousands of years. Hogwarts definitely knew this. How?

Let’s go back a couple thousand years. In the Egyptian/Greek times, there were mystery schools and ancient texts, like those attributed to Thoth and Hermes (the Hermetica) and others, that had all this ancient knowledge (that modern scientists would get inspiration from today) about astrology, alchemy, medicine, math, spirituality, etc. Buddha and Jesus traveled the world learning from gurus and collecting ancient knowledge. Christianity would be coopted as the Christian rulers suppressed all the the mystery school stuff, called it all heretical, to keep people dumb and controlled. It became occult, hidden. However, the east kept it. The west had their Dark Ages. Then the crusades traveled the world, brought back Arabic and Asian technology, and there was a resurgence of art and science in the 15th century, the Renaissance. Why do you think the east was more technologically advanced than the west? Fuck Darwin -- mankind didn’t advance in a linear fashion. The ancients and magicians already knew this knowledge. The west just suppressed it for political reasons, to keep its own people down. Ancient texts are under lock and key in the Vatican, no doubt. What’s also important is the theological renaissance, and that threatened the rulers of the west even more. Secret societies had to be formed to keep and maintain all this knowledge, but time and again, as stated before, they are infiltrated and coopted to be discredited. Knight's Templar, Freemasons, Hermetical Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, the Fellowship of the New Life. Time and again, there would arise a new theological and even artistic renaissance, trying to break free. The Victorian Age occult craze, the 60’s new age, and today. Ancient mystery school knowledge and spirituality are what the secret societies are about. This is what Hogwarts is. Why do you think people in the Harry Potter world look like they’re stuck in the Renaissance or the Victorian age? Because those were high points in the renewed interest in occultism and secret societies. Modern technology is all influenced from the ancients. Galileo and Isaac Newton‘s scientific ideas were influenced by the Hermetica and occult ideas. Thomas Edison was a Theosophical society member. Probably everything in your house is from alchemy. Carl Jung says alchemy “is the basis of our modern way of perceiving things.” I find it interesting that modern Russian scientists are making modern pyramids as healing centers.

THE VEIL
The Veil in the Ministry of Magic is an ancient stone arch with a veil in between the living and dead dimensions. It seems the only people who has seen death can see the veil and hear the voices behind it, and also see thestrals, like Harry and Luna. The others can’t yet. This seems similar to people who have been close to death and have had NDE’s (near death experiences) and have come back with increased intuition and psychic abilities, as studied by a Dr. Jeffery Long. And the veil, in various religions, is the barrier between the living and the dead dimensions, or between knowledge. Also in Kabala, it’s called Veil of Paroketh, or portal of soul to body, or Veil of Illusion. In Buddhism and Hinduism the veil is the barrier people have from realizing that our experiences is an illusion of the physical and mental world; the struggle is to pierce the veil, understand you’re one with everything, or god, and always have been. A confusing thought to westerners who strive and strive for something, but the east believe we need to realize we already are. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” Dumbledore says.

Some say the veil is thinnest around Samhain and Beltane, Halloween and May Day (hmm, what political events happened on May Day… Ritual perhaps?). The witnessing of ghosts can be thought of as the barrier, veil, portal flicker between the 2 dimensions.

The study of the veil is the quest for the meaning of life. In the tree of life our soul knew everything at the higher levels, then passed down through the veil to forget our memories, and fell into our physical bodies at the lower levels to this earthly experience and go through the test of free-will. For if we knew everything and love was automatic, we would be robots. The test of life is remembering our power.

As in eastern thought, visualizing what you want, you already have -- the universe time and space reconfigures itself and makes it so. Western thought is to pray and pray and wish for external help. It’s a dangling carrot you’re always striving for because you’ve willed it to be out there and not within you. Like in Fight club, “The gun is in my hand.” Maybe this is similar to Harry Potter visualizing the Philosopher’s Stone and getting it. Or Harry being the one deserving of obtaining all 3 Deathly Hallows. The twist Rowling adds is that he deserved those powerful objects because he would be at a point to understand his role in life and death, have a natural acceptance, instead of constant desire.

THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
The Deathly Hallows symbol seems very similar to the unofficial illuminati symbol of the eye and pyramid. Why? As in the previous post, it seems secret societies (Theosophy, Hermetica, freemasons, illuminati) were/are keepers of occult and spiritual knowledge, forced underground from the mainstream west, having many famous members who have spawned the most famous classic fantasy, sci-fi, and children’s books (Tokien, Lewis, Baum, Wells). From these books, the readers are groomed with these occult (simply meaning hidden) ideas already, planted with pieces to the puzzle of the universe, like parables containing huge wisdom and lessons of life. However, it's only a few people, only those smart enough to put all the pieces together, that reach an epiphany, an enlightenment, an illumination. Ron and Hermione both have heard of the The Tales of Beedle the Bard and The Tale of the Three Brothers, but Harry would be the one to live through its life lesson and actually become enlightened from it. The 3 Deathly Hallows would give great power to the wizard who had all 3, but the true possessor deserving of it would welcome death, would not fear it, when it truly came down to it. Would Hermione and Ron have done the same?

Fellow seekers of the Deathly Hallows wear the symbol or mark their stuff with it as a sign to recognize others who also follow the Hallows. Like the media's portrayal of a kooky conspiracy theorist, Xenophilius Lovegood is portrayed as a wacko. As if all people who believe in the illuminati are wacko nutjobs, so too are the seekers of the Deathly Hallows. But that's all proven wrong when well-respected professionals like Dumbledore bears the symbol in his letters, and ultimately in the end, the Deathly Hallows are true and do exist. I think George Washington was well-respected when he acknowledged the illuminati's infiltration in freemasonry.

In his youth, Dumbledore meets Gellert Grindelwald and they seek to possess the 3 Deathly Hallows. Talking to Harry in limbo, Dumbledore says, “I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”

Like the reluctant hero, who struggles with the idea of being the hero, only to not just eventually accept it, but to “wear it well.” It is only when we stop seeking or struggling, that we find. Maybe it’s Buddhist or Hindu (I’m mixing it all up, who cares) thought that we always have this struggle to survive so much, but we can realize we don’t have to struggle at all. Nirvana. Maybe it’s similar to when you struggle to think of a good idea or solution to your problem, only to come up with the best ideas later, sitting on the john, out for a walk, almost sleeping, or thinking about something else.

“I open at the close,“ reads the inscription on the golden snitch that holds the Resurrection Stone. It’s a similar thought to the acceptance of life and death. Consider the 3 ways in which the Peverell brothers died. The first brother was murdered -- a life lesson cut short, may have to start again and reincarnate. The second was a suicide -- life cut short and obviously didn’t want to play. The third, after living a full life lesson, willingly exposed himself and died naturally. Dying voluntarily, letting go of the thought of your physical self, knowing your physical body is vessel, that there is a higher dimension souls attain to, gaining an enlightenment of sorts. Harry’s tasted death as a baby, seen the ghosts of his family and friends, so he knows there is an afterlife. Knowledge is one thing. Actually doing it is another. True character is revealed when you’re truly tested to your limits, at your limits.

Harry would be responsible with power. Dumbledore would be tempted to abuse it, in his youth. “I was unworthy to unite the Hallows, I had proved it time and again…Maybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows, Harry…I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it…But the cloak, I took out of curiosity, and so it could never have worked for me as it works for you, its true owner. The stone I would have used in an attempt to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable my self-sacrifice, as you did. You are the worthy possessor of the Hallows.”

“I was scared that, if presented outright with the facts about those tempting objects, you might seize the Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons…You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.” Just as the last Percival brother, Harry Potter would depart this life with Death, “as equals.” I believe being equals to mean the enlightened person would know as much with the higher consciousness because he would reunite with that higher consciousness, or god, or whatever you choose to call it, passing on back up through the veil.


So, imagine the superiority complex that would arise in the type of power hungry people who would believe they had all this powerful occult knowledge. They would believe that people who are not as illuminated as they are would be considered inferior. Consider the definition of fascism.

COMING SOON IN part3: Voldy and Fascism and The Wizarding World.

THE HARRY POTTER SERIES [part 1]
(revised 11.06.11)

Harry, Hermione, and Ron are like young detectives, always asking a lot of questions. Who’s Nicholas Flamel? What’s the Chamber of Secrets? Who’s the Half-Blood Prince? Who’s RAB? What’s the Deathly Hallows? Always question. Always be curious. Why not? No one else is doing it. Someone has to.

In this blog, I’m not trying to dig dirt up on JK Rowling. I love the Harry Potter series and like to research about it. Though, there are some surprising and very interesting things.

Many aspects of society would love to claim Harry Potter as an allegory for them, their religion, their oppressed peoples, etc. Or some even accuse their opposition group for being like Harry Potter -- so they discourage their kids from reading the books. Some Christians like it, and some hate it. Same with politicians (the left, the right). So, which is it? What does JK Rowling say? It could be all that, but then also quite specific. The point is that the Harry Potter story is about the repetitive cycle of the power struggle over humanity that people should understand and recognize signs so that when it rears its ugly head, as already it has, to do something about it and here‘s how -- here‘s how Harry Potter did it. Use love and cooperation. Like George Lucas, Rowling molds it into a tale aimed at kids -- for kids are the future. They/we would grow up as the Harry Potter characters grow up, and therefore be exposed to the harsh adult world as the characters are. Such as the creep of socialism and fascism. It's a repetitive and obvious MO, and you'd have to be living under a rock or be an idiot to not see the tale of a controlling tyranny told time and time again in fiction and in real life.

So, what does JK Rowling say?

JK ROWLING’S WORDS
From Entertainment Weekly, Rowling explains, “…Dumbledore says, “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” That is my view. It is very inclusive, and yes, you are right: I am left-wing…There is a certain amount of political stuff in there. But I also feel that every reader will bring his own agenda to the book. People who send their children to boarding schools seem to feel that I’m on their side. I’m not. Practicing wiccans think I’m also a witch. I’m not.”

In an article in The Guardian, Rowling says, “New ageism leaves me completely cold…”

At a Carnegie Hall talk, she says, “It was conscious. I think that if you’re, I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime we would think Nazi Germany. There were parallels in the ideology. I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel. It wasn’t really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it’s taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love. [Laughter and applause.] So you ask what lessons, I suppose. The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all the truth. [Loud applause.]”

From Dateline NBC, “Well, it is a political metaphor. But…I didn’t sit down and think,”I want to recreate Nazi Germany,” in the wizarding world. Because -- although there are -- quite consciously overtones of Nazi Germany, there are also associations with other political situations. So I can’t really single one out.”

JK ROWLING’S INFLUENCES
The idea of Harry Potter just popped into her head during a train ride. She had father issues, school experiences, mother died. You’ve heard it before. What might you have not heard?

Rowling often sites author Jessica Mitford as a big heroine and influence (1,2). Rowling is close friends with former British PM Gordon Brown and wife Sarah. (1,2,) She supports the Labour Party. What is the significance of these things?

Let’s start at the Fellowship of the New Life (1,2), founded 1883, the precursor to the Fabian Society, which is precursor to the Labour Party. The name Fellowship of the New Life sounds a lot like the Order of the Phoenix. A fellowship is an order. New Life is what a phoenix does. Influenced by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Fellowship wanted to create a living example of perfect character for others to follow, including pacifism, vegetarianism, and simple living. They wanted to slow down an industrial age society growing too fast and put more thought into it. Then, some of them wanted to become more political; external rather than internal. And they formed the offshoot Fabian Society, a more socialist bunch, influenced by Karl Marx. It was not necessarily agreed with by all Fellowship founders. Fellowship dissolved in 1898, and Fabian Society grew.

From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary about the Fabian Society, “Socialist society founded in 1883-84 in London, to establish a democratic socialist state in Britain. The name derived from Fabius Maximus Cunctator, whose elusive tactics in avoiding pitched battles led to victory over stronger forces. Fabians believed in evolutionary socialism rather than revolution, and used public meetings and lectures, research, and publishing to educate the public. Important early members included George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. They helped organize a separate party that became the Labour Party in 1906, and many Labour members of Parliament have been Fabians.” Like Pius Thicknesse as Minister in the Ministry of Magic, the Death Eaters have slowly politically influenced and infiltrated the ministry and school system.

Fabian Society’s founders and members include Sydney Webb, husband of Beatrice Webb, aka Beatrice Potter who wrote Soviet Communism - A New Civilization (not children's author Beatrix Potter), father Richard Potter wrote occult children’s books. Others include H.G. Wells, who wrote a book on The New World Order, George Bernard Shaw, eugenicist who admired Hitler and Mussolini, and Virginia Woolf, and E. Nesbit. Fabians are probably responsible for minimum wage, universal health care, and unemployment. However, their idea to benefit workers was more about so they’re not depressed slobs and would produce better. (1,2,3,4)

Rowling admired Fabian Society founder E. Nesbit. Author Nesbit was an alleged member of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, along with C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Butler Yeats, and Aleister Crowley (Freemason, occultist, mystic, astrologer, sex magik fiend, allegedly called himself the Great Beast/666 -- basically a Voldemort influence). The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded by Freemasons, taught Hermetic Qabalah, astrology, tarot divination, geomancy, scrying, astral travel, alchemy, etc. (1,2,3)

Fabian Society members were also in the Theosophical Society, a society combining occultism, Qabalah, eastern religions, sciences. Author of the Wizard of Oz books L. Frank Baum was a notable theosophist. According to the Merriam-Webster Encylcopedia, theosophy is a “Religious philosophy with mystical concerns that can be traced to the ancient world…It is characterized by esoteric doctrine and an interest in occult phenomena.” It was about comparative religion, philosophy, and science and sought to “investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.” The society groomed Jiddu Krishnamurti to be a great teacher. Krishnamurti would later teach writer Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Power of Myth). The society was founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky, possibly the inspiration for the Harry Potter book‘s character called Cassandra Vablatsky, seer and author of Hogwart’s divination books. Blavatsky, ancestor of a diplomat Sergey Grigor’yevich Dolgoruky, traveled the eastern world and her findings and occult writings are highly influential. She also talked about Atlantis and an Aryan Root Race.

George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm), aka Eric Blair (not sure if he’s related to former PM Tony Blair), would later join the Independent Labour Party, opposing fascism. His childhood friend Jacintha Buddicom, a poet and astrologer, mapped horoscopes with Aleister Crowley. Orwell was also taught French by Aldous Huxley (Brave New World).

From the Fabians came the Labour Party, and sprouted many British leaders, including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and leaders of countries under British rule; third world countries like India, Nigeria and Pakistan. JK Rowling refused to endorse the Labour Party under Tony Blair. After Gordon Brown became PM, she gave L1million to the 2008 Labour Party Annual Conference. Rowling named her son Gordon Rowling-Murray after Gordon Brown. Rowling was first at the hospital for their son's birth. She aided Sarah Brown in writing children’s stories called “Magic” for a charity, One Parent Families, where Rowling is president. Gordon Brown talks about global unity, “I think a new world order is emerging with the foundation of a new progressive era of international co-operation.” (1,2,3,4)

I admit I digressed a bit, linking so many other people, but my point was that most of the great and popular fantasy children’s literature and movies all seem to use knowledge and associations from the secret societies dealing with occult and ancient religions. These same societies shape world politics whether you like it or not.

THE MITFORD SISTERS (1,2,3)
The Mitford sisters gained notoriety for having split political views. J.K. Rowling has read everything by and is heavily influenced by author and socialist Jessica Mitford (1917-1996), aka Decca. Rowling’s daughter is named Jessica Rowling-Arantes after her. Labor lawyer Doris “Dobby” Walker (possible source of the name Dobby) introduced Jessica to the Communist Party USA. Jessica fought for civil rights like Hermione Granger would fight for the rights of house elves. Jessica fought against Nazism and fascism, which led to division with sisters Unity and Diana, and father, who were fascist supporters. Unity was personal friends with Hitler. Diana Mitford’s husband and former Labour Party member Sir Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists, using the lightning bolt as their symbol. The sig rune, among other ancient symbols, are used heavily in fascist imagery. Does Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar symbol symbolize Voldemort’s potential in him? Much like, does Luke Skywalker have potential for the light and dark side of the force? Do we all? The Mitford sisters political division are much like Rowling’s the Black family, where some joined the Death Eaters and some the Order of the Phoenix.

On what happened to the Hogwart’s education system in relation to the deterioration in the western world’s education system, I’d direct you to Norman Dodd. Dodd worked was chief investigator in the 1953 investigation of tax-exempt foundations. He claimed foundations like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Carnegie Endowment spent excessively on projects and institutions to basically steer education towards a socialist America, merging into a world order. Also, Former Senior Policy Advisor in US Department of Education Charlotte Iserbyt is a whistleblower on the US-Soviet and Carnegie-Soviet Education Education Agreements. What’s this soviet education stuff about? Like when Dolores Umbridge takes over Hogwarts, it’s Pavlovian type of dog training. Writing lines over and over, and tyrannical punishment. Training, instead of thinking critically. (1,2,3)

In a nutshell, based on Rowling’s relationship with the Gordon “New World Order” Brown and her love of Jessica Mitford, is Rowling an insider of the real globalist agenda, disclosing it in a fictional story in the same way as George Orwell? You are free to speculate, but IMO, yes, from their own works and if you reread her interviews above, I believe she and Orwell are against tyrannical fascism, but want to disclose that it’s a planned reality, attempted time and time again throughout history. Which is why it is healthy to question the establishment, as Harry Potter does.

The more I research, the more I’m convinced that in order to create an insanely popular work that reaches global phenomena, it needs to resonate in the very bones of humanity, universally. There needs to be some serious basis on real history and real esoteric knowledge. There needs to be knowledge of many “-ologies“ and how they fit together in the big picture. Theosophy, astrology, alchemy, history, etc. One could say it could be Joseph Campbell’s hero myth stuff repackaged over and over in different stories, like Star Wars, but I think it's more concrete than that. Information is available at your fingertips if you choose to delve into it.

COMING SOON in part 2: Spirituality, Voldy and Fascism, and The Wizarding World.

THE TREE OF LIFE
Many movie reviews of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life have no idea what this movie means or what the plot is. Literally, they say it. I’m not making a judgment of them. They say they don’t understand it.

Here’s my take on it. I believe I understand it, in my own way, but it’s a very abstract movie, perhaps one of the most abstract movies I’ve ever seen. I think there is indeed a plot and character arcs, which is basically a world transitioning between nature and grace. I’d like to explain it in terms of topics, separately, and then if and when you see the movie again, perhaps these topics will come together.

KABBALAH, as one example.
Many ancient cultures have the “tree of life” as a story or symbol. I haven’t looked into them all, but this one in particular seems fitting. In the basic tree of life in Kabbalah, there are about 10 things on the basic tree of life diagram called sephirot that break down where you are in life and what everything means in the big picture. Two of the sephirot in the middle left and right represent kindness (loving grace, mercy, inspiring vision) and severity (strength, judgment, intention, withholding, disciplinary). Perhaps the mother and father characters in the film are representative of something like this. Where they meet in the middle is a sephirot called truth and beauty. Meaning, because of free-will you may sway between the kindness and severity and lean towards one of them, but when you understanding how to balance, you’ve found your own truth, and that’s a beautiful thing. That being said, it all sounds simple in a chart, but I think we all have to go through it, individually and as a species, to fully understand it, feel it, know it, I think. The film makes it relatable in the form of the main boy Jack torn between his father and mother‘s ways, but it’s really a story of the way everything in the universe is like that, too.

Up and down the Kabbalah tree of life are sephirot that go from base vegetable level to animalistic tribal to human soul to upper godlike and spiritual. It’s like the Hindu chakra system. Here’s a better explanation.

A lot of Terrence Malick’s films are about the loss of innocence, so I think that works with this idea as well. First, the boys are boys; innocent. Then the main boy, Jack acts out and does some not-so-innocent things, and he narrates that’s he confused and wrestles with the father and mother figures, and that he wants to “get back.” Getting back to innocence, perhaps.

MATRIARCHAL vs. PATRIARCHAL
Take ancient Egypt. Carmen Boulter’s The Egypt Code suggests the Egyptians were matriarchal and then became patriarchal. “Matriarchy is not the opposite of patriarchy, with women dominating and controlling men. It is based on balance between the masculine and feminine and harmony with nature.” Men of high status had women’s wigs, men and women together side by side with woman’s arm around the man. It was more of a rule of equality. I think we, humans, have been used to and only seen patriarchal ways since the times of patriarchal Egypt, and it’s coming to a head. Today's global society is so service-to-self and war-mongering that I think the reaction pretty soon will be more matriarchal, not as in there being a woman president or something necessarily, but more service-to-others, more cooperation, consideration of others -- a grace. I think Malick knows this grand ebb and flow of humanity throughout time. Things go in cycles.

TIME/SPACE AND HISTORY
You probably would have to buy into the theory that time/space isn’t linear - that past-present-future exists all at once. Maybe that’s why the film’s structure is a little out of order. But even a Tarantino film is out of order and still makes sense. We tend to think in our day to day activity and count the minutes going by. The ancient civilizations like the Mayans and Egyptians thought bigger, much bigger. They made stone structures that would last thousands of years, longer than their own lifetimes. Can we put our head around that? But our tendency is to think mini, not macro. We need a paradigm shift. There will be a paradigm shift.

When you learn and do research into many different topics (knowledge that the vast libraries the mystery schools and secret societies, and knowledge mankind is slowly "re-discovering" today), it becomes clear that everything is interconnected. The universe is made with a purpose. From the planets to people -- planetary alignments affect earth changes. You know the sun and moon affects the tides. Planetary alignments affect human behavioral cycles. I think ancient civilizations all over the world knew this, and tracked the stars and planets with their stone monuments and structures. Learn about yugas. Learn about the Age of Aquarius, not just a song. All the cosmic activity going on in the movie is affecting human behavior and society. From a generation to the next, one might see a change. A generation in the ‘50’s are different from the next generation.

Polarity, like positive and negative in electricity, like pistons on a machine, ebb and flow, a revolutionary movement is a reaction against what came before, the universe is cyclical, but also spiral. We repeat behaviorial cycles, but we learn slightly more if we learn from our mistakes, if we all learn history, and aim towards perfection. I think the mass consciousness of the world is coming to a head. I think, I know, the ones who aren’t asleep, the ones who gain knowledge about the way the world really works will come to a beautiful truth.

THE “ENDING”
Brad Pitt's character says, "Someday we'll fall down and weep, and we'll understand it all -- all things."

In “western” culture, we don't look at all things. We should. We’ve mostly have been brought up to see things as literal, grounded in the physical world, things only exist in what we can see, touch, taste, feel, etc. A lot has to do with the “western” society’s way of imposing a way of thinking and interpretation of religion and science, as opposed to true inner spirituality and creativity in science. Religion is political; they all believe theirs is the right one. Spirituality is macro. Spirituality, I think, was more evident in “eastern” or native american or other such ancient cultures. I think ancient cultures came from a time when their planetary alignment made them able to understand things more abstractly, more other worldly, interdimensionally. Scientists are "re-discovering" that now. When we learn from our past, when we learn all there is to know about EVERYTHING, we can take the next step through the door to next step to human society, human evolution. They say Buddha did it. They say Krishna did it. They say Jesus did it. I think a few have paved the way to show that every human can be capable of it -- enlightenment. The mother is floating in the air. Older Jack goes through a door. Everyone is together reunited on the beach. Heaven? The rapture? Ascension to multiverse. Reuniting with pure consciousness. Unified field. It’s your truth. You find it. Do I believe it? Doesn't matter. It's what I think the film is about. Also, David Lynch.

I think the reason why this film won Cannes Palme d’Or is that a lot of the rich and elite are masons, Kabbalah, or one or another of the many offshoot secret societies [that are keepers of knowledge of the ancient mystery religions, mystery school teachings, the Egyptians, druids, Mayans, essenes, Indians, etc (I’m talking pre-judeo-christian-islam)]. It’s that so much of it is there on screen, the same way 2001: A Space Odyssey is. They completely understand these concepts. (see my 2001: A Space Odyssey decon below) And they will continue to give it more awards. Personally, I think the film's heart was in the right place, but it was a little too pretentious, a little too "Malick," but that's my movie review opinion. The idea of it was brave. It was challenging. It will be influential.

STANLEY KUBRICK      [WIP] updated 04.03.13
There are more and more movies coming out, like Tree of Life and Melancholia, with trailers that seem to involve a bit of what 2001: A Space Odyssey was about -- a planetary alignment, or cosmological shift, in conjunction with a human consciousness shift or advancement of some sort in mankind. I’ll know more when those new movies come out, but meantime, I was inspired to revisit Kubrick’s movies. Many have seen a Kubrick movie and go WTF? Or they just love Kubrick movies because they are interesting and intriguing, have great cinematography or memorable imagery? I don't know. I love all that, too, but for those who have ears to hear, and eyes (wide open) to see, his movies reveal more and more on each viewing, and most importantly, more and more when one does research.

Now, there is a pseudo-documentary, a critical theory of sorts, called Room 237, and it's primarily about The Shining. I think the people interviewed on it have the most ridiculous interpretations - seeing Kubrick's face in the clouds, finding significance with numbers, interpreting dissolves, interpreting possible continuity errors, seeing a minotaur in a skiing poster, saying Kubrick had a hand in filming a fake moon landing from analyzing front-projection artifacts, etc. I just wanted to make clear I'm distancing myself from people like that.

On the other hand, Stanley Kubrick's Boxes was an excellent documentary. Check it out.

I have this huge Napoleon book, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. This cancelled project might now be a Spielberg project.

LACMA has the Kubrick exhibit. I went twice already. I need to go again to take more pics.

Continuing: Among his unfinished projects, Kubrick wanted to make a film based on the 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum, which was about (though I haven't read it yet) secret societies, conspiracy theories, the occult, Knight's Templar, and many other esoteric topics. (1, 2) And it was also about "belief" in those things. Did Kubrick believe in such things or not? I think it's obvious he was very interested at least (most evident in Eyes Wide Shut, which I'll talk about later). I believe the most educated people certainly know about these things because they are studious, with an open mind and love to research obsessively. IMO, the most successful and revered movies are almost always about these secret societies, occult and esoterica, as discussed on this blog.

BARRY LYNDON
A lowly guy getting in with the elitists, like the current modern elitist "1%ers." What are the 1%ers?
The movie explains what the rich do with their wealth. They spend it on themselves, lavish luxuries, parties, bribes and influencing things to keep things in their favor, for their own circle. Unfortunately, the faker Redmond Barry spent his way into debt, trying to keep up with appearances.

Today, same thing - this isn't new, the wealth disparity. It's not an anomaly, it's on purpose.[1,2,3,4]


A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
What does the title mean? One explanation is that "a clockwork orange" describes something as having the appearance of something organic while artificial mechanisms or mechanical laws have been put on it, just like as in the film, with the prison putting the Ludovico brainwashing technique on the main character Alex. My interpretation of the film is much like Natural Born Killers -- less to do with the main characters and more of a comment on the society and government and it’s handling and controlling what to do with people. In NBK, if you look past the main characters and take the movie as a whole, the movie is really about media and society's hype of bloodlust. A Clockwork was about how to govern man, how to control in this dystopian world. And it’s also about how to exploit such programs for their own PR benefit. A newspaper at the end reads, “Our Political Staff says the Government is suffering acute embarrassment, since these charges of inhuman experiments are bound to call into question the whole policy of law and order which it has made a plank in its election programme.”

Let’s get the illuminati/freemason references out of the way, because most people probably don‘t care (although they mean a great deal to masons). The posters contain the all-seeing eye and pyramid symbols. Mascara on one eye. The droogs also have eyeballs attached to their clothes. Phallic symbols are everywhere, from their jockstraps to the sculptures. Beethoven was rumored to be high ranking mason.

Government mind control experiments of the Nazis and Russians coalesce into US CIA programs like MKULTRA (Clinton apologizes for it), involving drugs, trauma, reflexes (nausea), behavioral, Pavlovian-type conditioning. Very Manchurian Candidate. A patient is conditioned to have a reflexive physical reaction, like getting sick, when presented with a stimulus or a trigger code word.

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
I think the Dr. Strangelove character, obviously a Nazi (with his spastic salutes), is based on the fact that many Nazis were harbored by the US government after WW2 (Project Paperclip1, 2, 3) and assimilated into many departments of the government; from developing NASA (Wernher von Braun) to CIA’s human experimentation, and a host of other things.

Other than making fun of the ineptitude of people running government, I think the film makes fun of, yet also informs the audience, of how cozy the US is with supposed enemies (I.e. commies, Nazis, even relevant today is Al CIA-da). You can just call them on the phone, like old pals! Is it making fun of people who believe in “kooky conspiracy theories” that the US is cozy with supposed enemies? How can it be when those things are factually supported? (1, 2, 3) Is it making fun of how ridiculous the US looks being cozy with its supposed enemies? I think yes -- that’s the expressed throughout the whole movie. It’s titled Dr. Strangelove after all, a character that doesn’t come in till late in the movie. His involuntary Hitler salutes show either his past or who he currently really serves. Or it represents the Nazi infiltration in US government. All of the above. Stop worrying about this political war farce joke. Love war. Get over it. The military industial complex is a part of life. Deal. The only people that would understand this sarcastic and quite sad humor is the audience that is educated in these topics. I certainly didn't understand it's humor when I saw this when I was a kid, but after years of researching history and government now I do.

IMDB says it was “originally conceived as a tense thriller about the possibility of accidental nuclear war. Stanley Kubrick was working on the script when he realized that many scenes he had written were actually quite funny.” And I can easily imagine that the movie wouldn’t play as well a serious thriller. I’m sure there were plenty of nuclear threat ‘50’s connotations where those type of movies took itself seriously. The other elements in this film, like the US relationships with it’s enemies, the fluoridated water (1, 2, 3, 4), the Nazi’s working for the US government, the myriad of underground bases -- these topics would probably have not been taken seriously by the masses if it's new to them. If played seriously, it might not be taken seriously. If played entertainingly, at the very least the info will have gotten out. In fact, “In one version of the script, aliens from outer space observed all of the action.” Satire or exaggeration is probably the best way to show it, to be palatable for most new audiences back then, and perhaps even now, as Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are working on a movie in a satire form as well about the controlling globalists.

IMDB: “The German word “Gemeinschaft” means ‘A spontaneously arising organic social relationship characterized by strong reciprocal bonds of sentiment and kinship within a common tradition.’ In this context the discussion of the post-apocalypse society living in mine shafts at the end of the film presents an interesting double-entendre. Dr. Strangelove’s remarks about the participants in the new society spontaneously accepting new social norms and having ‘bold curiosity for the adventure ahead’ is especially germane. Also, General Turgidson’s admonition to 'not allow a mine shaft gap' at the end is a particularly vivid pun.” This might refer to the many underground bases built to continue government. Stories abound about the Denver International Airport and its multi-levels of underground facilities (1,2,).

IMDB: “The character of General Buck Turgidson was patterned after Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Curtis LeMay, who was renowned for his extreme anti-Communist views and who once stated that he would not be afraid to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union if he was elected president. Similarly, Brigadier General Jack Ripper was patterned after Gen. Thomas S. Power, LeMay’s protégé and successor as Commander in Chief of Strategic Air Command. When briefed on a RAND proposal to limit US nuclear strikes on Soviet cities at the beginning of a war, Power responded, 'Restraint! Why are you so concerned with saving lives! The whole idea is to kill the bastards!…At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!'” I think this humor (because it’s probably true that we have sociopaths in government and military) is more aimed at them, a criticism of them, than for us to find it lol funny that we are watching them be monsters.

IMDB: “Shortly after the release of the movie, Stanley Kubrick met with Arthur C. Clarke to talk about making the ‘proverbial good science-fiction movie.’ During a discussion of ideas (that eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey,” the two men saw what they at first thought was a satellite moving in a polar orbit, but it abruptly changed direction. When Clarke suggesting calling in a UFO report, Kubrick said, ‘After Dr. Strangelove, the Air Force doesn’t want to hear from me.’”

2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY
In the beginning was nothing. The film starts off with 3 mins. of a black screen with weird noises. For matter to happen, you need anti-matter. A black hole gives rise to a big bang. There is a planetary alignment. We know the earth is definitely affected by the pull of the moon or when the sun flares up. The planets pull and affect life on earth, and the ancients had systems to track these cycles. Ancient religions speak of yugas, cycles of time of planetary alignments when humans go through up and down cycles over and over for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe millions. Who knows if it was 2001, or will be 2012, but in my opinion, things have already started to change, as in an increase in global awareness for starters.

Dawn of Man. “Dawn of a new day” is a phrase that researcher Jordan Maxwell talks in depth about. Another one to follow is Bill Cooper, as he analyzes this film. Is the film really a science-fiction? Or is the film a blatant reveal of the hidden secret Masonic/illuminati beliefs of the true origins of man, as many enlightened people who are in the know think? Were Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke high ranking masons? Some figures keep their affiliation secret, because duh, it's a secret society. But their works, output, and actions betray them. This secret society, and it's spin-offs, hold the knowledge of ancient civilizations, mystery schools, and mystery religions, and when watching this film, it's basically like taking a class in a mystery school. Well, there seems to be an increasingly rising idea of an ancient alien intervention in the evolution of man’s intelligence, as seen in the History Channels’ Ancient Alien series. Kubrick said, “2001 would give a little insight into my metaphysical interests…I’d be very surprised if the universe wasn’t full of an intelligence of an order that to us would seem God-like.” (1)

There is another planetary alignment. A black monolith appears to them - an alien intervention or assistance takes place. Perhaps the hundreds of megaliths or stonehenges around the world were given to ancient man in the same manner. They all seem to track planetary alignments with amazing accuracy. The sound of bees is heard. Bees and the beehive are a masonic symbol of “industry, labor, wisdom,…a miracle in natural engineering.” It symbolizes society -- the first society has started. One of the man-apes gets the idea for a tool/weapon, gaining intelligence. Perhaps this is the First Man, Bill Cooper suggests. The bone is a tool when they kill a pig, but later a weapon when used to kill out of spite. Early man, those “man-apes” as I call them, seem to start off vegetarian. Some say the human physiology seems more herbivore than carnivore, with the way our teeth are and that we don‘t have claws. When the man-apes eat the pig meat, they’re more aggressive. Some say it’s the proteins or endorphins released in the meat when the animal is killed that cause aggressive behavior when eating said meat.

There’s a war over the local water hole. Even today, water is the biggest most important asset. It’s not oil or gold -- it’s water. The bone is now a weapon. This is the first murder, the loss of innocence (a similar theme in Full Metal Jacket). It’s a murder when you kill out of spite, hate, greed, envy, selfishness. They don’t need to eat the other man-apes, like the pig. They just want them dead, as seen by the whole gang going along with it, the mob mentality. Humans will riot and be violent when desperate.

The bone is thrown up in the air, evolving into, cut to the future, a spaceship -- specifically I read somewhere the first spaceship we see is a nuclear weapon. One of the scripts I’ve read called for several nuclear megaton bombs orbiting earth; Russian, French, German, Chinese, and US. In the second shot of it, notice the nuclear weapon spacecraft has German flag and a cross that looks like the Nazi iron cross. Perhaps this alludes to Nazi Wernher von Braun who started up NASA. The words Nazi and NASA seem way too similar; it‘s almost obvious. The US harbored and employed Nazis, as part of Project Paperclip. Also, the discovery of the monolith on the moon later, involves lots of secrecy, PR media control, in the meeting room scene. Lots of black op, secret space program talk here.

Other people have analyzed the significance of the HAL story part, and I don't have much to add. Maybe we have to deal with the responsibility of creating life, albeit artificial life; and be willing to sacrifice our babies so to speak (killing HAL). Or is it like George Lucas when Obi-Wan wants us to let go of the artificialness of technology and trust ourselves, our own organic "computers" in our skulls. Another point is that after one of astronauts gets cut off by HAL, Dave's selfless act of chasing him down and trying to save his body is probably a major factor in the eyes of the "powers that be" who may be watching. What do we do with our lives to give it meaning, to fulfill our reason for existing? Doing good, an amazing good? It sums up most all religions. How do we ascend, transcend? Create such positive vibrations that we become light-beings -- I'm getting ahead of myself.

Like another dot the Pacman eats, another monolith from the unseen aliens gives us the clue that we're on the right path.

We all can guess that the psychedelic sequence Dave travels through is a wormhole, another dimension. Dave is deposited in a 18th century gilded room that Clarke describes as an alien construct from Dave‘s or humanity’s memories. It doesn’t make sense to be Dave’s memories, as he’s not a 18th century French fop. Kubrick seems to love this period (tri-cornered hats in the Ludovico films in Clockwork, the costumes in Eyes Wide Shut’s Rainbow Fashions and Venetian masks, Barry Lyndon, the unmade Napoleon project, etc.). Is it just his aesthetic tastes? Or is there something of significance about this period? The period of the Age of Enlightenment, where occultism inspires science advancements, where the Bavarian Illuminati is born, Napoleon…Indeed, there is something about this period.

Another monolith -- another advancement in human consciousness. Dave becomes a star baby, starchild, or pure energy? What does the ending mean? Kubrick and Clarke have preferred not to explain it, but from their POV, there is indeed meaning and purpose to everything put up there. People need to find their own meaning of life in their own way. The secret societies and mystery schools, from ancient Egyptians to Skull and Bones, would have the initiate left in a room to ponder various symbols and objects to come up with the meaning of it all, what it means for themselves. For me, the things I ponder to find meaning in the end of this film are subjects like apotheosis, what Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha accomplished, become one with one consciousness, etc.

EYES WIDE SHUT
Why does the media push the gossip, like Tom and Nicole’s real marriage during filming and separation after? The real question should be about the friggin secret sex orgy! It was a goddamn ritualistic secret society sex magik orgy! Who are those people?! - that's what I want to know. This is probably Kubrick’s most blatant masonic/illuminati symbol filled film; it's in plain sight, but most people’s eyes are wide shut. He mysteriously died 4 days after showing his cut to WB studio execs. Authors Jay Weidner and Kent Bentkowski believe Kubrick was knocked off for revealing too many of secret societies secrets (just like some say mason Mozart mysteriously died after his masonic The Magic Flute), but whatever. Bentkowski points out Kubrick died 666 days before 2001:A Space Odyssey would take place. The cause of death was heart attack, but family and friends said he was fine in the days before it happened. News reports, like the Guardian, said the family wouldn't release the details of his death. Interesting. I’m open to the possibility he was knocked off, and it makes sense, but the truth is we might never know.

I agree with some interpretations of the film by Weidner and Bentkowski, and some things might be too reaching, and some things I would have to research more to have an opinion. But definitely very interesting stuff. In Rainbow Fashions, why does the counter change positions from the night to day scenes? Why does Domino have a stuffed tiger on her bed that looks exactly like the type in the toy store at the end? Domino's room had African decor, but does that relate to her being HIV positive? Is there a guy at Ziegler's party that looks exactly like the Naval officer in Alice's dreams? Separately, was Kubrick tied with the Aldobrandini family, which has close ties to the Vatican? Did Kubrick attend the Aldobrandini orgies, giving him the idea for the movie? I don't know.

The movie is about being sucked into the secret society world of the rich and powerful elites through temptation (guy tries to take Kidman upstairs, girls try to take Cruise upstairs). The movers and shakers of the world are already a part of the hidden secret society ("If I told you their names..I'm not gonna tell you their names, but if I did, I don't think you'd sleep so well.") Sydney Pollack’s character, the 2 models and the Sandor Szavost character were all probably at the orgy (notice their strange sobering-up expressions when they fail getting Cruise. These bitches are up to something, c'mon). The explanation Sydney Pollack’s character gives at the end about the death threats just being showy and theatrical may or may not be true. What matters more: which story you buy, or the fact that now you've seen things, you're tainted, your eyes have seen, and now you're hooked? It may be just an orgy amongst the rich elite. Or it could be what many describe as what secret society sex magic rituals are like. Listen to sex slave survivors of MKULTRA and Project Monarch like Cathy O’Brien and Susan Ford (Brice Taylor). Kubrick also seems to want to say something about pedophilia; from Leelee Sobieski’s character to his earlier film Lolita. His buddy Arthur C. Clarke was rumored to like the young boys. What is it with the rich/elites and pedophilia? (the white house 1,2, Vatican 1,2,3,4, politicians 1, 2) The only explanation I’ve heard that makes sense involves luciferian ritual (1,2,3, 4). Doesn't really matter what your personal religious beliefs, it is your government and religious leaders that believe it and that should be called out and questioned. Subversive organizer Saul Alinsky, who admires lucifer (1) is an influence on Obama and Hilary Clinton, organizers of war crimes.

I would agree there’s a lot of symbols in the film. The masonic symbol of the rainbow (Rainbow Fashions, “want to go where the rainbow ends?”) comes from druidic magic; the rainbow is both in the physical and magical worlds, meaning transcendence and ascension. The daughter character Helena may or may not be named after theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky, a major influence in secret societies. Kidman’s character Alice could be like Alice looking through a looking glass, looking at a mirror in a few instances; favorite symbols in the Monarch program. The film meshes between dream and reality; she describes a dream having sex with several men and has the mask near her; so was she at the orgy? Was she a drugged up sex slave, not having a clear head? Here are some of the last lines in the movie:
“Maybe I think we should be grateful…that we’ve managed to survive through all of our adventures whether they were real or only a dream.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Am I sure? Only as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth.”
“And no dream is ever just a dream.”
“The important thing is we’re awake now. And hopefully for a long time to come.”
Once you’ve seen some things, been enlightened and illuminated, your eyes are wide open. Hopefully, you're awake now, and continue to seek truth throughout your life, and not go back to sleep and close your eyes to all this.

Other things...The Red Cloak character sits on a chair with the double-headed eagle, a symbol used in many places from the Byzantine Empire and Holy Roman Empire (two heads representing east and west with the crown meaning that they rule over all from east to west). It’s also used on the cover of Morals and Dogma, emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the infamous sect that has the extra 33 degrees of super-secret knowledge). This chair represents who these people are at the orgy and where they come from, even though they hide behind masks. They are the movers and shakers of the world.

The password is Fidelio, Beethoven’ only opera, about a woman disguising herself to save her husband from death. Beethoven was rumored to be a freemason, and judging by his tombstone, I would say m'yeah I think so (obelisk, butterfly, ouroboros).

The masks were Venetian carnival masks made by Il Canovaccio. The Bauta are a type of masks used in the 18th century for anonymity in democratic secret ballot events regulated by the Venetian government. Kubrick sure loves the 18th century; an age of enlightenment, freemasonry, and illuminati.

Here's Kubrick's daughter talking about her father and the state of the world and the powers that be. (1) And this article backs up what she says Kubrick thought of the world, the US, and why he didn't want to live here.