DeadAgainst

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Praise G-d http://www.bustle.com/articles/13748-new-maleficent-trailer-premieres-during-grammys-steals-the-show
 

Somehow she always wins, even when she doesn't
 

 

 
 
 
The "Radio"-esque crackle is intentional, for sure

Somehow she always wins, even when she doesn't
 

 

 
 
 
The "Radio"-esque crackle is intentional, for sure

PARTITION
In "Partition", the camera takes us inside a palatial estate that almost looks like it could have been the setting for the "Born to Die" video. See the exterior and interior below:

 
In the first of several scenes curiously similar to ones out of "National Anthem", we find Mrs. Carter seated at an immaculately set table, barely noticed by her rapper husband peering over his newspaper:

 
In her mind, she embarks on a sexual fantasy. Again she channels Rosalita:

 
Her rapper husband feels up her leg in a vehicle:

 
She puts on a show for him, donning a sequined flapper headdress like Lizzy wears in this photo:

 
Silhouette techniques like something out of "Summertime Sadness" are employed:

 
Beyoncé pole dances like Lana in Tropico over a sexy French spoken interlude like in "Carmen":

 
Like A$AP Rocky in "National Anthem", her rapper husband watches her performance voyeuristically, smoking a cigar:

 
 
JEALOUS
Beyoncé is a jealous, jealous, jealous gurrrrrl. This video begins in the same estate reminiscent of "Born to Die" as in "Partition". In one scene, the former Miss Knowles is draped over a pinball machine like Lana in "Ride":

 
In another we see a "tunnel lined with yellow lights":

 
 
ROCKET
Like "Blue Jeans", "Rocket" opens on a black & white close-up of a reflection of the artist's face in a ripple of water:

 
Later in each video we watch the artist submerge her face in water in slow motion:

 
 
MINE
Like Lana in the poster for Tropico, we find Beyoncé re-enacting Mary in the Pieta:

 
Also, is that another Shaun Ross cameo?
 
 
XO
In "XO", Beyoncé orchestrates perhaps the largest NYC land grab since Dutch settlers bought Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 24 bucks, stealing the famed amusement destination from the Queen of Coney Island herself:

 

 

 

 
 
***FLAWLESS & SUPERPOWER
Since I can't find any Lana plagiarism in either of these videos, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume they must be borrowed from the "Dark Paradise" and "Cola" videos that never materialized. @@Ultraviolence Watch these. One of them may be the closest thing you'll ever get to your precious "Cola" video.
 
 
HEAVEN
Here we have the biggest plot heist since Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds ripped off Gremlins. In "Heaven", Beyoncé portrays a woman mourning her deceased female bff in a series of flashbacks. Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's the plot of Lana's "Summertime Sadness" video. Not content to copycat one Lana video, "Heaven" filches from a few. A shot in a church mirrors the chapel in "Born to Die":

 
In a flashback, Beyoncé's girlfriend sprays alcohol at a campfire party echoing scenes in "Ride":

 
And we see her and her gal pal riding in a car like Lana & Jaime King:

 
She only barely tries to disguise her copying Lana's recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Tropico by saying it in Spanish. Oh, and speaking of Spanish, here's Rosalita yet again:

 
 
BLUE
Sure, there's another "tunnel lined with yellow lights":

 
The sequined bra is back:

 
And she evokes Lizzy's showgirl style:

 
But most saliently, this song is about Beyoncé's, uh, baby Blue love, the black baby daughter she had with a rapper. What a blatant "National Anthem" ripoff!

 
 
GROWN WOMAN
Last but not least, the video for "Grown Woman" consists of home footage of Beyoncé's childhood performances, a clear homage to Lana's DIY videos.
 
 
 

If I get a little prettier can I be your baby? ... and I'm singing
'Fuck yeah give it to me this is heaven, what I truly want'
 
Is "Lana Del Rey" the character really the antithesis of Lizzy Grant, singing "God's dead" to her adoring audience?
 
There was a theory that one creates a doppelgänger and then imbues that with all your faults and guilts and fears and then eventually you destroy him, hopefully destroying all your guilt, fear and paranoia. And I often feel that I was doing that unwittingly, creating an alternative ego that would take on everything that I was insecure about. (David Bowie, Arena, 1993)
 
She says, "You don't wanna be like me" . . . but Lana receives her redemption, rather than destruction.
 
 
Black bra, red dress, makeup on
I'm the new politician
It ain't rock, but you done rolled
Bye bye baby, loser, I won
Lana Del Rey from the U.S. of A.
A figment of your imagination
 
Is this latest leak a piece of the puzzle?

This is just another sign that journalists within mainstream media - of course particulary within
the entertainment field, has lost all interest in any serious criticism. Then of course the journalist
in question here never heard about Walt Whitman nor Allen Ginsberg. We cannot expect them to judge
any work of art against anything but what they know about. And really I almost prefer it this way.
At least we can discuss and try to judge the merit of Lanas work.

"In the name of higher consciousness
I let the best man I knew go
'Cause it's nice to love and be loved
But it's better to know all you can know
I said it's nice to love and be loved
But I'd rather know what God knows"
 
“Like all truth-seekers, I’m looking for answers,” she says. “I want to know why we don’t talk about where we come from and why we are here. When I found philosophy, I found other thinkers who were asking questions about the origins of the universe. I felt comforted by that.”
 
 
Angels (in the Garden of Evil) Forever . . .
 
https://suite101.com/a/decoding-the-bible-adam-and-eve-a354363
 

 
 
"Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead? And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?" (Walt Whitman)  

 
"We are heavy metal lions" ("Strength" = harnessing sexual energy)
 

 
http://evolver.civicactions.net/user/litewave/blog/esoteric_interpretation_lana_del_reys_songs
 
 
Lana's omnipresent lions and tigers evoke the iconography of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. Much of the symbolism of Born to Die is elaborated in Tropico. Lana with white roses on her head in BTD represents the Shekinah "above" as Mary inviolate, while Lana in the red roses, as the Eve "below," is slain by a sinful world.
 
In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. (Arthur Waite, "The High Priestess," The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)
 
  Lana's understanding of the Genesis narrative is heavily influenced by the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbalah. The Garden represents the world of timeless Form-archetypes prior to their manifestation in the material world in which we live, represented by the unfolding red rose.  
 
THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE THE FALL
... At the summit are the THREE SUPERNAL SEPHIROTH summed up into ONE — AIMA ELOHIM, the Mother Supernal — The Woman of the Apocalypse (Chap. 12) clothed with the SUN, the MOON under her feet, and on her head the Crown of Twelve Stars.

It is written 'So the Name JEHOVAH is joined to the Name ELOHIM, for JEHOVAH planted a Garden Eastward in Eden.'

From the Three Supernals follow the other Sephiroth of THE TREE OF LIFE. Below the TREE, proceeding from MALKUTH is THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE of GOOD AND of EVIL which is between the Tree of Life and the World or Assiah or Shells, represented by the Coiled Up DRAGON with Seven Heads and Ten Horns—being the Seven Infernal Palaces and the Ten Averse Sephiroth.... in MALKUTH is EVE, supporting with her hands the TWO PILLARS....



Is it but now that the higher life is beset with dangers and difficulties; hath it not been ever thus with the Sages and Hierophants of the Past? They have been persecuted and reviled, they have been tormented of men, yet through this has their glory increased. Rejoice, therefore, O Initiate, for the greater thy trial, the brighter thy triumph. When men shall revile thee and speak against thee falsely, hath not the Master said "Blessed art thou."
 



The Great Goddess EVE, being tempted by the fruits of the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE whose branches tend upwards to the seven lower Sephiroth, but also downward to the Kingdom of Shells, reached down to them and the two pillars were left unsupported.

Then the Sephirotic Tree was shattered. She fell and with her fell the Great ADAM. And the Great Red Dragon arose with his seven heads and ten horns, and EDEN was desolated—and the folds of the Dragon enclosed MALKUTH and linked it to the Kingdom of the Shells.

And the heads of the Dragon rose into the seven lower Sephiroth, even up to DAATH at the feet of Aima Elohim.
 

 
Thus were the four Rivers of EDEN desecrated and the Dragon Mouth gave forth the Infernal Waters in DAATH—and this is LEVIATHAN, The Piercing and Crooked Serpent....

And it became necessary that a Second Adam should arise to restore the System, and thus, as ADAM had been spread on the Cross of the Four Rivers, so the Second ADAM should be crucified on the Infernal Rivers of the four armed Cross of DEATH — yet to do this He must descend into the lowest, even MALKUTH the Earth, and be born of her. (Golden Dawn Knowledge Lecture)
 

 
"Heaven is my baby, suicide’s her father" = self-sacrifice leads to new birth
 
"Jesus was a dying man
If he can't do it, no one can
When will you learn that we ain't nothing without you"

"I'm in love with a dying man
All our love's flying in the sand"
 
"I got the ice
You got the fire
I’ve got the stuff
To take you higher"
 
"But I wish I was dead (dead like you)
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise"
  "Come on, baby, let's ride
We can escape to the great sunshine.
I know your wife, and she wouldn't mind
We made it out to the other side"   The Other Side: http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380687/jewish/The-Other-Side.htm   http://realitysandwich.com/180037/tzimtzum_tikkun_repairing_universe/   The result of the breaking of the vessels is that the world, which the Ein-Sof had originally planned to be formed of the highest values beauty, love, mercy, wisdom, knowledge is now corrupted by their evil counterparts. And we too, who are fragments of the androgynous Primordial Man, are infected with the corruption. The klipoth that make up the universe are in us too, and we find ourselves here, separated into opposites, male and female, stranded on the Other Side. Hence our world is one of pain, suffering, falsehood, conflict, and the other evils we are all too familiar with.   In the esoteric understanding, there is a further layer to the Genesis story, in which the individual lost in the mire of ignorance, surrounded by her imaginal false gods of popular culture (Eidolons of sense), becomes aware of her own fallen state, having her eyes opened by the movement of the telluric serpent. The awareness of the Fall into the Other Side becomes necessary before greater wholeness and redemption can take place. "Nahash, the serpent, "Sheens" her: that is, he blends his earthly fire with her lost heavenly fire, which thus comes to life again."     Rabbi Hizkiyah opened (began): “It is said, as a rose among thorns” (Shir HaShirim, 2:2). He asks, “What does a rose represent?” He answers, “It is the Assembly of Israel, meaning Malchut. For there is a rose, and there is a rose. Just as a rose among thorns is tinged with red and white, so does the Assembly of Israel (Malchut) consist of judgment and mercy. . . .”

. . . The color red designates the rose’s connection with the outer, impure forces, which, because of this connection, can suck the strength (Light) from it. This is because nine of her Sefirot are in exile below the world of Atzilut, in the world of Beria, which may already contain impure forces. And the rose also has a color white in its Sefira Keter, for her Sefira Keter is in the world of Atzilut, above the Parsa, where there is no contact with the lower, impure forces. In other words, there are two opposite states: perfection and its absence, Light and darkness. They are felt by him who merits it. (The Zohar)

The two girls, dressed in red and white, on a doomed car ride recur in the "Summertime Sadness" video. She seems to always be telling the same story; Tropico merely let her pull back the veil a bit more. Eve "dies" when she eats the apple, after which she becomes an objectified image, dimly reflecting the image of the ewig-weibliche. Her stage persona becomes that of the doomed Hollywood starlet, Eve (the soul) eternally pining to be rescued by Adam (the ego) from her gilded cage on a silver screen.     "I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul....   "As I see my soul reflected in Nature, As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness, sanity, beauty, See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female I see." (Whitman)   For Whitman, the female form as it appears in Nature is the visible image of the invisible soul. Woman as an expression of the Anima-Mundi. When Eve becomes the pole-dancer, she becomes an object of lust rather than Adam's redeemer. She will put her red dress on and sing to those she loves, until they remember that she is not distinct from themselves.     "There's something I have never told you
I'm not really from this world
There's something I have been withholding
I'm not like every other girl

So if you begin to think that my light might be supernatural
I'd have to say alright, you're right mon cher it is
I come from a place that your mind cannot even imagine"     Cybele was a "stone fallen from heaven," or, as the Tarot would have it, a fallen star. "I can be your china doll, if you'd like to see me fall." I submit the robbery scene is tied to the lyrics of "Live or Die," which position Adam and Eve as outlaws from the fallen world (run by "Criminals"). It's "Us Against the World."     http://thestreetphilosopher.tumblr.com/post/25766633453/the-basic-secrets-of-sexual-alchemy-from-the    
Lyrics of "Heavy Hitter"--

"You're the King of fear, baby
I'm the Queen of Alchemy
I know a way to make gold by mixing our souls to escape reality...
You can be my higher power baby
I can be your endless USA"   Rather than Israel, Lana represents the soul of America. Thus John Wayne's "America, Why I Love Her" speech in Tropico--He is YHWH to her Shekinah; Heaven to her Earth. Malkuth, as Eve, is raised to heaven and restored from her fallen state.   In the "Bel Air" segment, Lana addresses the viewer directly; we are all Adam watching Eve. The invisible Subject-Object wall has been breached.

TROPICO IS SUCH AN OVERWHELMING EXPERIENCE. these are my notes after sitting down and watching it alone for the first time, so i was actually able to think clearly. i'll try and expand on it all later but i wanted to contribute my bare boned analysis for now. i need to watch it a few more times to formulate a solid opinion. although i do feel as if i like it a bit better each time 
_____________________________________
  john wayne is god —> submission to masculinity and americana lana & shaun watching in awe (curious, impressionable) voices overlapping  radio waves (i.e electronic medium)  who do we listen to? parents? friends? media?  what is free will    marilyn says sex is a part of nature but she screams when lana bites the apple madonna / whore (?) —> modern feminist conflict    radio frequencies (~different wavelengths)  blowing bubbles vs. stripping  basic internal conflicts  past vs. present  space vs. earth   i was an angel (at home, drinking coke), living in the garden of evil  "screwed up, scared, doing anything that i needed"   her decision to eat the apple her decision to strip  is she really an angel?  or damaged by the way the world just is  or people are just inherently 'sinful'    lolita in the hood —> dia de los muertos (ritualistic, gang initiation) —> stripper (i'm not 100% sure about this, but i think it represents the loss of innocence)    "i'm gonna teach you how to be cowboys" shaun w/ the toy (?) gun and the cowboy hat —> emulating his ‘god’ (like a child)  his definition of what it meant to be a cowboy —> rough, tough, masculine thief  shaun bit the apple, he loses his innocence too    "its not always going to be this way" "i’ll always be here for you" (god doesn't judge)  comet being shot towards earth  —> the pivotal point (?)  then the bachelor party (radio frequencies start up again)    thematic continuations; the importance of money (money —> satisfaction/redemption?)  the importance / potency of female sexuality  her appreciation / obsession with the male gaze  sex / money —> our culture, our religion   los angeles —> purgatory (then reality is purgatory?)  tossing the pearls —> discarding her feminine ~wiles (although lana would never actually do this, of course)  baptizing/purifying herself for ~redemption redemption —> leaving this planet (lana thinks of earth as the true hell?)   glitches during bel air — visual confirmation of differing wavelengths (‘contact’)  the otherworld = final destination. the destination all along? somewhat similar to dying, like in all the other videos. born to die? am i reaching  various roles throughout; stages of development:   eve (~mystical, innocent)  housewife hoodrat  stripper             accomplice  alien (~mystical, enlightened)    full circle, kind of; movement from the garden of eden (paradise) to the garden of evil (earth) to the other world (paradise lost) _____________________________________________   a small part of me also thinks that lana just used tropico as a vehicle to portray herself simultaneously as both an ~artist and a ~sex symbol, in full force. like the whole point of it all was just for her to dance around with tassels on her tits, knowing fully well that men around the world would be cumming on their computer screens before the 27 minute mark. and the purpose of the poetry was just to confuse audiences and lend the film some bits of credibility and generate discussion    but thats if i'm being 110% cynical. maybe i'm just irritated by the fact that she didn't write any of the monologues or dialogue herself    although this is lana we're talking about. she probably had a million different motivations, 97% of which we'll never be able to figure out completely 

It seems at that point, immersed in the beauty and wonders of the body, she forgets who she is and identifies solely with the body.

Where you go I go
What you see I see
I know I'd never be me
Without the security
Of your loving arms
Keeping me from harm
Put your hand in my hand
And we'll stand
- through Adele (Skyfall)
 
Palms rise to the universe
As we moonshine and molly
Feel the warmth, we'll never die
We're like diamonds in the sky
You're a shooting star I see
A vision of ecstasy
When you hold me, I'm alive
We're like diamonds in the sky
- through Rihanna (Diamonds)
 
With understanding
You won't let it cast you down
A mind full of questions
A current to purify
Science and visions
Be near when I call your name
Or ask me a question
- through Chvrches (Science/Visions)
 
And if you stay a while
I'll penetrate your soul
I'll bleed into your dreams
You'll want to lose control
I'll weep into your eyes
I'll make your visions sing
I'll open endless skies
And ride your broken wings
Welcome to my world
- through Depeche Mode (Welcome to My World)
 
Why can't this moment last forevermore?
Tonight eternity's an open door
No, don't ever stop doing the things you do
Don't go, in every breath I take I'm breathing you
Euphoria
Forever, till the end of time
From now on, only you and I
We're going u-u-u-u-u-u-up
- through Loreen (Euphoria)
 
So open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart
Acceptance is the key to be
To be truly free
Will you do the same for me?
- through Katy Perry (Unconditionally)
 
Mon amour, sweet child of mine
You're divine
Didn't anyone ever tell you
It's ok to shine?
Roses, Bel Air, take me there
I've been waiting to meet you
Palm trees in the light
I can see late at night
Darling, I'm waiting to greet you
Come to me baby
- through Lana Del Rey (Bel Air)
 

Body Electric
 

“Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn’s my mother, Jesus is my bestest friend”

An interplay of the separating masculine archetype and the unifying feminine archetype draws out the potential of their common source into creative manifestation. Their background source could be considered a feminine extreme in that it contains everything in a state of undifferentiated unity. In this unity, the masculine and feminine orientations are inherent as naturally as plus and minus are inherent in a zero. The masculine differentiates reality while the feminine integrates it, the result being individual entities arising and interacting in mutual relations. In my understanding these are the fundamental principles of creation and consciousness. In Christianity Jesus is the ultimate example of this manifestation, being regarded as an incarnation of God in human body.


“Whitman is my daddy, Monaco’s my mother, diamonds are my bestest friend”

In this verse I identified archetypal ideas similar to those mentioned before. Whitman is one of Lana’s favorite poets while Monaco represents her idea of beauty. By words we define things and make them explicit/clear. Beauty, on the other hand, is implicitely/vaguely felt. Words analyze beauty while beauty integrates them in a harmonious whole, both actions enhancing the creation and its meaning. Diamonds symbolize a creation that is simultaneously clearly defined and beautiful. Such a creation is also durable because it prevents disintegration into parts by the analytical process and dissolution into vagueness by the integrating process.


“Heaven is my baby, suicide’s her father, opulence is the end”

Here I represented heaven and suicide with upward and downward tendencies, respectively. Fall leads to death, as the masculine/analytical process separates a part from its source, while ascension leads back to heaven, as the feminine/integrating process reunites the part with a larger reality. The two processes alternate in a cycle, resulting in the creation of multitudes of forms, our planet with its biosphere and human society being the richest place we know of. The Christian God descends to earth to die on the cross on Good Friday, only to be resurrected on Easter Sunday and ascend back to heaven. This story reminds us, who got stuck down here, that there is more to life when we open up and expand our perspectives.

Isn't it interesting how Lana's relationship with Barrie has become more visible since September? It seems like her life really kind of imitates the concept of the alienation between soul and ego, and, coinciding with the Paradise Edition era, their eventual reunion. Along with her rise from obscurity to the world stage.

The basic theme of Lana's album. I made esoteric interpretations of some specific songs too on the now defunct ldr.fm forum, but I put one of my posts on my blog here.

 

Esoteric accounts of the human condition (as well as the big religions) say that in the beginning the human was in a state of union or harmony with the divine. Some describe it as living in a garden or paradise. That era didn't last, because the human misused his will and separated himself from the divine instead of cooperating with it. In esoteric interpretations, this was a split within the human himself: his separatist masculine part (ego) suppressed his integrative feminine part (soul); there was a narrowing of consciousness and a limitation to the physical sensory perception. This spiritual fall then led to the diminishing of human vitality and ultimately to death, both spiritual and physical. I find it interesting to imagine that Lana's album (songs and videos) reminds us of the fall from that original happiness, by portraying sexual relationships that went wrong and in which Lana plays the suppressed/abused feminine part (soul).

Bel Air
 
Children's voices, echoes of the time when the ego was still weak and the light of the soul shone more brightly. Here she comes again, emerging from the mists of the unconscious where the ego has relegated her for an age. No longer deterred by his defenses, for the time is ripe for them to meet again, in that place of lush and sublime beauty, in your vehicle of flesh and bones, where spirit and matter unite.