litewave

Funny that yesterday I was thinking about Adam's initial androgyny. The Hebrew word Adam means man, human or mankind (not necessarily a male human). So at the beginning Adam may have been androgynous but then God took out one of his ribs and made a woman from it. The Hebrew word tsela is traditionally understood as a rib but it also has a more general meaning: a side. So the scripture can be interpreted in the sense that God separated a feminine side from the androgynous human and made a female human from it. In the formerly androgynous human the masculine side remained, thus making this human a male. This was not the Fall yet, just a gender-specialization on the physical plane. The male and female egos/bodies were still in harmony with their souls and thus with God.

When I first heard Old Money I took the line about "words" and "beauty" as referring to the archetypes of Word and Beauty, the polarity of ego-soul or of Son-Spirit in God, so when she sang "Will you still love me when I shine from words but not from beauty" I interpreted it as foreshadowing her shift from soul to ego, descent to earth where the Spirit of God is subdued and only the Word remains, also in the sense that the beauty of God is gone and only scriptures remain. This parallels the theme of growing old and devitalization where eventually the physical beauty is lost too.
 
The nostalgia for youth is also evident in the child voices at the beginning of Bel Air and at the beginning of the Summertime Sadness video where a child's voice says: "Remember, always love you, bye."
 
The power of youth is on my mind
Sunsets, small town, I'm out of time
(Old Money)
 
The "I'm out of time" is another delightful double entendre: (1) she is out of time because she grows old and approaches death as the separated ego; (2) she is not touched by time as the eternal (albeit repressed) soul.
 
My father's love was always strong
My mother's glamour lives on and on
Yet still inside I felt alone
For reasons unknown to me
(Old Money)
 
The first two lines evoke the glory of God, of the eternal masculine-feminine polarity in God (Son and Holy Spirit) that created her, as it creates everything. And the next two lines contrast this with the disruption of union in her own being and life.

Cruel World shows a really nice contrast, in sound, voice and lyrics, between the pure and fallen states of Lana (typified by Mary and Eve, for instance). The first line - Shared my body and my mind with you - can be interpreted both exoterically (relationship between a woman and a man as one) and esoterically (soul and ego communing in one body and mind). In the beginning they were in a union, in both exoteric and esoteric sense, but then came separation as the man got famous and abused the woman / the ego became bloated and suppressed the soul. Now Lana shifts from the role of the pure female/soul into the alienated female ego, alienated from both her man and her soul, indulging in alcohol, drugs and superficial relationships in which she desperately seeks a substitute for the glorious union she once had.
 
 
Yes, in the esoteric sense the Other Woman is the soul that is pushed aside.
 
The relationship between man and woman, or between ego and soul, is also a reflection of the triune God which is best known as the Holy Trinity in Christianity (but also appears for example in Taoism as Tao-yin-yang or in Hinduism as the Trimurti of Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu). In the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - Son is the principle that defines, differentiates, strengthens boundaries and materializes (also known as Logos, which in Greek means Word or Reason) and Holy Spirit is the principle that relaxes, merges, dissolves boundaries and spiritualizes (also known as Pneuma, which in Greek means Breath or Wind). In other words, Son is the masculine principle and Holy Spirit is the feminine principle. Father is their source, which is absolutely undefined ("lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see") and eternally creates by analysis (Son) and synthesis (Holy Spirit). Catechism of the Catholic Church likens Son and Holy Spirit to Father's hands. And so ego and soul are to be united/harmonized in each person, or man and woman in a relationship, as Son and Holy Spirit are in Father. In an alternative view of Holy Trinity, Holy Spirit can be seen as a unifying intermediary principle between the partializing Son and the undifferentiated unity of Father, and so analogically the soul/feminine is an intermediary between the ego/masculine and a larger identity, reality and ultimately God.

Yes, the surreal images of Lana in Shades of Cool suggest she is in the role of the soul and she wants to come back to his consciousness to restore psychological balance. He is old and lonely, apparently has forgotten his spiritual origin. He is reminded of the soul in his visions, resurfacing memories or relationships with women.

http://www.clashmusic.com/features/american-dreamer-lana-del-rey-interviewed
 
She seems to be using America as a symbolic representation of the Creation landscape. East Coast as the origin, Eden, full of ideals, Brooklyn baby, the Queen of New York City. She wants to experience love and freedom, so she leaves home and moves to West, earth. It's more vivid and exciting down there but she also tastes separation, addictions, madness. Now she understands that the key to happiness is in a balance - in uniting West and East, ego and soul, heaven and earth... Ultraviolence is mainly about being in West though, down on earth and with a fading memory of heaven; Lana alternates between the role of the soul that is abused and repressed by the ego and the role of her ego, which, having repressed her soul, enters into abusive relationships with men.

Regarding the cult guru that Lana mentioned in Grazia, this echoes the general concept of her being in a destructive love relationship. The breaking down of people and building them up again obviously evokes the creative alchemical process of Solve et Coagula (analysis and synthesis), but I get the sense that this guru's specialty was mainly to break people down. I am also reminded of the mythical concept of the soul being imprisoned by the lord of the underworld:
 
http://phoenixrise.awardspace.com/cayce.htm
 
Basically I would say that the guru is another representative of the ego. Alternatively he is a male partner of the female ego. The female ego has a suppressed masculine aspect called animus, and as a suppressed aspect it needs to be re-activated in her consciousness (usually through interactions with males) on her way back to wholeness (the soul or Jungian Self).

I guess you could associate Lizzy with her "normal self" or ego, and Lana with her "higher self" or soul. It's the same person of course.
 
She is heavily involved in the creation of her art so she certainly planned lots of details. But I am not sure how much she is guided by her intuition or aesthetic sense and how much she understands the esoteric/abstract aspects intellectually.

Here is a few instances when Lana explained the meaning of the word "ultraviolence":
 
“Ultraviolence is about the male that meets the female. But before the actual sense, I just like the word. It has become the space of a sonorous world that I wanted to make.”
http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4503-lana-covers-french-magazine-libération/?p=177195
 
"It's a matter of musicality. Ultra is a sweet sound that contrast with the meaning of the next word. I relate to that: my essence is sweet but inside me there's also a violent spirit who came out in the last 4 years."
http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4785-lana-del-rey-interview-with-d-la-repubblica/?p=188232
 
"The juxtaposition of "ultra", which gives a certain idea of luxury; and "violence" which, to me, reflects the sound of the album really well — it's chaotic but also street music, melodic and sophisticating. Altogether then, [the word] Ultraviolence also means that I've lived between these two states; in my private life, a serene kind of love; in my professional life, a lot of negative press, in my opinion..."
http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4831-lana-del-rey-in-elle-magazine-france/?p=189525
 
This shows that besides associating the word "ultraviolence" with a relationship between a male and a female, she also associates it with a duality within herself or in her life: sweet serene love on the one hand and a violent, critical spirit on the other.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gemini
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_and_Pollux (emphasis mine)

Apparently she also mentions Woodstock here:
 
We could go back to Woodstock
Where they don't know who we are
 
That would make sense in a number of ways. Loss of individual identity in a crowd. Woodstock was a spectacle of hippie ideals - love, peace, spirituality. And the festival was hosted by the town of Bethel, NY - same name as the ancient Israeli town of Bethel, which means "House of God".

I guess it has to do with the suppressed soul trying to break through to the modern day ego.

I think Lana's "poisonous" character in the UV song can refer both to the soul as well as to the manifestation of the soul in a female body (female ego). As a soul she can be perceived by the ego as a threat to his autonomy and control; in a female body she can be a seductress who entrenches her male lover in matter. If interpreted in the latter sense, then Jim can be seen as a male ego (another person) or alternatively as a suppressed masculine aspect of herself, which in Jungian psychology is called animus - I guess that would be what you called her Holy Guardian Angel.
 
To clarify, while I generally associate ego with masculinity (in the sense of separatist/analytical/definite/conscious) and soul with femininity (in the sense of integrative/intuitive/indefinite/unconscious), the male ego is more skewed toward masculinity than the female ego. The masculine aspect suppressed in the female ego is called animus in Jungian psychology and the feminine aspect suppressed in the male ego is called anima. By the soul I mean the integrative aspect of one's identity or what Jungians call the Self, one's identity as a whole.
 

Lana's father putting West and East Coasts together again...
 

 
From the song Ultraviolence it appears that New York is coming to symbolize an origin of sorts, a place of original harmony (We could go back to New York 'cause loving you is really hard) but also a place where individual identities are not yet fully developed (where they don't know who we are). The short snippet of Brooklyn Baby suggests a happy and carefree time.

^ I agree that the beach scenes are pre-Fall and the car scenes are post-Fall.
 
And I remember when I met him, it was so clear that
he was the only one for me.
We both knew it, right away.
And as the years went on, things got more difficult --
we were faced with more challenges.
I begged him to stay. Try to remember what
we had at the beginning.

I couldn't help noticing that her father in heaven is now actively engaged in her career.
 

 

 
Some of the stuff he tweets is actually quite interesting.
 

 
Lana was born in New York (East/garden of Eden), now she is in LA (West/garden of evil).

West Coast
 
I can see my baby swingin'
His Parliament's on fire and his hands are up
 
Chances are that once you made out what Lana was saying in the chorus the first image that emerged in your mind was one of a Cuban guy smoking a cigarette and swaying on a balcony. That's a nice image, it has an atmosphere and a vividness Lana is known for. But for someone like me, who is rather clueless about cigarette brands, the first thing that came to me with the word Parliament was a… Parliament (you know, the assembly of people who vote on laws of the country). Although I got quickly oriented with the help of this forum the original idea of a Parliament still seemed intriguing so I let myself explore it further. Initially there was an image of a national leader delivering a fiery speech in a Parliament, reminiscent of the National Anthem video. Then as I kept drifting on the ethereal waves of the chorus, more abstract thoughts emerged.  
 
In a Parliament you will typically find two kinds of people: those who prefer that the laws should promote individual liberty and responsibility, and those who place more emphasis on solidarity among individuals and collective cohesion. Traditionally these two political orientations came to be called right wing and left wing, respectively. In the US the right is currently associated with conservatism/Republican party and the left with liberalism/Democratic party. As I described in an older post (here) we can draw parallels between these two orientations and the dichotomy of the human being I've been referring to as the ego and the soul. The right wing emphasizes the autonomy and distinctness of the ego, the left wing the inclusiveness and expansiveness of the soul. This human dichotomy is also reflected in the orientations of our brain hemispheres: the left brain hemisphere specializes in analyzing, in breaking things up into and focusing on parts, differentiating, separating, individualizing; and the right brain hemisphere specializes in making connections, merging, intuitively sensing a larger whole or context. Where one sees the trees the other sees the forest.
 
As we grow older, developing our individuality and specializing in a selected field, we tend to move from the intuitive right brain orientation toward the analytical left brain orientation and get stuck there. So has done mankind, moving from a primitive unity with nature and others towards the modern bureaucratic and technological world. But persistence of such an imbalance is not inevitable. In fact, the growth of consciousness and society requires both orientations at least to some extent: without wholeness the mind and society start to disintegrate; without analysis progress is stopped too. As you know, Lana wears a tattoo saying "Paradise" on her left hand and "Trust no one" on her right hand. The left half of the body is controlled by the right brain hemisphere and the right half of the body is controlled by the left brain hemisphere. "Paradise" expresses the childlike guilelessness of the soul, "Trust no one" the shrewdness of the ego.
 
But back to West Coast. My interpretation is as follows: the guy whose Parliament is on fire represents a human whose mind/brain is aroused, synapses are firing; he moves rhythmically between left and right and votes with both hands because he knows the value of both perspectives, and surrenders to the value that unites them, love. He stands on an elevated platform, above the fray of the dichotomy. The Spanish/Latin references indicate sensuality and heightened emotion. Lana, the symbol of the soul as usual, the music in him, sings to him, as the soul, now not just an orientation toward the whole but the whole itself of his forgotten identity, descends into his body and infuses his ego-delimited consciousness, in the reunion of the ego and the soul. The values of individualism and liberty have achieved their fullest, even though sometimes decadent, expression in the Western culture, and now the reunion is happening in the west of the West, metaphorically speaking. There's nothing further west but the wide and wavering ocean, again a symbol of the holistic soul, who awaits her west-bound beloved after the cycle has passed and West turns to East, night to dawn.

As this current wave of consciousness slowly fills the conceptual atmosphere of this planet, more and more people look up from their affairs to notice that their society's understanding of the world is neither complete nor accurate. There are some who shrink away from this truth, but properly understood it is a source of joy and not of fear. The perspective to which we call is one of wholeness. It is the vision that sees, behind the changes of these times, an Eternal Presence slowly filling the fields of human consciousness, a holy Presence, the Presence that inspires life itself.
 
Those who embrace this vision are both more comfortable and more effective in the arenas where human goods, services and ideas are exchanged. Their lives are rooted in a sense of peace that weathers well the temporal storms. They use their skills and their insight to prepare the way for change in commercial and political spheres. And as this magical quarter century continues to unfold, their peace continues to deepen. How could it be otherwise? They bring peace to all they encounter.
 
We address those locked in historical perspectives as best we can, transmitting our information through those of resonant transduction in whom we are able to incarnate occasionally, not necessarily full-time, but long enough to create a work of art, a song, a motion picture, an article, a documentary. As electronic communication devices help to alert more people to the deeper currents of perception within themselves, our transmission of higher-frequency consciousness increasingly takes the form of radiant light energy beamed directly into human awareness. People turn again to the historically neglected flow of information through collective human consciousness, even as that flow is itself being amplified, even as its warmer, love-centered informational currents infiltrate the cooler currents of compartmentalized egoic thought.
 
Some associate this with a vague conception of God, but few suspect the immensity of the event that is before them as this new consciousness - aware, alert, active - flows like a tide into the very core of their societies, into their very minds and hearts.
 
- Ken Carey, The Third Millennium

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)
 

Ok.
 
Yes, but not just photons. Wave-particle duality is a fundamental property of matter.

I think Melua in that song was making a point that you can create a richly diverse reality out of a pair of opposites but you’re right, I didn’t intend to imply that the dichotomy I am talking about is an arbitrary social construct. At least some traits in appearance and behavior that are traditionally characterized as feminine and masculine are not just a social construct but also reflect biological differences between sexes. Although the patriarchal society has rigidly emphasized and used these differences to justify subjugation of women, another error would be to deny their existence. By the way, I don’t imply that women are or should be only feminine and men only masculine, just that the balance is usually tilted toward femininity in women and masculinity in men for both biological and social reasons.
 
As for your quote of me using masculine pronouns with regard to the human I guess it would be more gender-sensitive to use “their” or “his/her” instead of “his”. Or even “her” if I wanted to sound super feminist or affirmative action-like But it seemed kinda awkward to me…
 
 
Ok, the integrative feminine and separatist masculine comes for example from the fact that men are usually more aggressive/assertive. This is probably influenced by their higher testosterone levels and physical strength. Women on the other hand tend to be more conciliatory and empathetic, which may be related to maternal instincts. Also, I once read an article which said that when men communicate they tend to stress their individual differences, while women tend to affirm what they have in common, which seems to fit with what I observe. Then there is the popular notion (not sure how much supported by formal research) that women are better at multitasking, which would indicate that they can encompass a larger scope of things in their attention while men are more stuck in focus on a single thing. In general there seems to be a kind of inclusive softness in femininity and a stronger emphasis on boundaries in masculinity. Some of this may be a cultural add-on but ultimately what I describe is a dichotomy in every person (separatist ego/integrative soul) and to do so I use generally understood notions like masculinity and femininity.
 
Speaking of binary ontology, there is a wave-particle duality in the fundamental nature of matter, which has some similarities with the feminine-masculine duality. Depending on the situation, an element of matter can behave as a definite, localized, separate particle or as a wave spread out in space that encompasses probabilistic possibilities of particle manifestations in different locations and can also connect different elements of matter in the so-called quantum entanglement (separatist particles/integrative waves).
 
I am suggesting that reality has a fundamental dichotomy that manifests in various forms. It is a separatist-integrative dichotomy and I don’t even find it surprising because it expresses relationship between part and whole, or entity and its environment, which you will necessarily find everywhere.
 
Thank you. I take it as an opportunity to clarify my thoughts.

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.

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.

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).

Ok, some of you knew this was coming, and here it is. An esoteric interpretation of The Paradise Edition. :love:
 
Genesis 3:4
 
Ken Carey: The Third Millennium