litewave

Poor guy got a clockwork orange watch.

“Yesterday I made Jack an orange bracelet”

If I hear correctly, it is about getting free from "the Crowley way of being".
 
I wonder, did she ever sing that part live? There are different lyrics on the internet.

https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/lana-del-rey-cover-story

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.

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

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.

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.

If you're under him
You ain't gettin' over him

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lK0TA8COBw
 
Brilliant performance.

If you're under him
You ain't gettin' over him

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lK0TA8COBw
 
Brilliant performance.

The sand in the hourglass has almost run out, indicating the end of an "era". The symmetric shape of an hourglass may also symbolize a duality (feminine/masculine, heaven/earth...), with emphasis shifting between the two orientations with the passage of time.
 
The chalice is used in both Wiccan and Christian rites. In Wicca it is the Great Rite, which Wikipedia says is performed "when the coven is in need of powerful spiritual intervention to help them through a difficult time". In Christianity it is the Eucharist, which invokes the presence of Christ. The chalice may also represent the Holy Grail from medieval legends, the goal of spiritual quests.

I'm afraid there's another fact that counts against Lana: she blatantly references Crowley, who was a creep.
 
The whole song is about a creep getting free.
 
 

I think when Lana sings about drugs (whether it is heroin, cocaine or meth) she doesn't necessarily mean literal drugs but rather intense stimulations, passions and addictions. On the esoteric view these would be the stimulations, passions and addictions that the soul derives from its incarnation in the material world. Basically, sensory or carnal pleasures. During incarnation, as in the activity of the soul in general, there is a temporary and cyclical separation between the ego, which is basically the focus of the soul's consciousness, and the soul as a whole: the ego is sent forth while the soul recedes into the background of the mind. After the ego has analyzed the situation/problem/environment, gained knowledge or created something, it is integrated back into the consciousness of the soul as a whole: the soul and the ego reunite. And again and again - thus the soul evolves. The problem arises when the ego becomes overly fixated, in its narrow focus, on the world or on the material body and forgets about the soul; the consciousness of the soul thus becomes trapped in a part of reality and this is the spiritual fall. The word "heroin" also suggests "hero", which fits with the sense of individuality that the soul experiences in its ego and with the dangers that it must overcome in its exploration of the world.  
 
In the chorus to Heroin the ego travels to the material world (foreign land); this is the initial separation between the soul and the ego during incarnation. The soul hopes for an eventual reunion but the ego falls on the trip; the "heroin" takes its life away. After the death of the ego (spiritual or physical) the soul withdraws into the spiritual world (to the moon). Topanga is used as a symbol of decadent lifestyle, which eventually results in insanity and violence, as shown in the reference to Charles Manson, who lived in Topanga with his followers. His followers committed some grisly murders back in 1969, which involved writing words in their victims' blood on the walls. This was around the end of 1950s-1960s "paradise" era. The hotness of Topanga refers to the insane and violent atmosphere.
 
At the end of the song the soul becomes sick of the crazy lifestyle and desires change.

In recent days I've been having 13 Beaches, White Mustang and Heroin on a loop and I forgot about the gem called Get Free. Indeed, the verses read like from a mystical book about spiritual awakening. She feels that she and the world are undergoing a big change that may unleash the creative potential of mankind and restore the lost paradise in a modern form. Her songs about her romantic relationships, struggles and transformations have always had a wide social aspect but now she's making this social aspect more explicit in songs like Love, Coachella, God Bless America or When the World Was at War.
 
 
Maybe I missed it? I also didn't know about the French interview you just quoted.
 

Just to remind ya'll that these interpretations don't deny the obvious or literal ones but rather parallel them... Here goes another one.
 
Lust for Life
 
Lana revisits the Hollywood theme, which metaphorically refers to time (movies/stories) and fame, all this set in a larger, timeless whole (the name of the A-ha song "Minor Earth Major Sky" comes to mind). Lust for Life is a brisk and optimistic song but it also has an implicit darker side. Although it celebrates life, passion and self confidence, it also hints at a tragedy connected with the H of the Hollywood sign - the actress Peg Entwistle, who committed suicide by jumping from the H.
 
The notion of a ladder has been pointed out as significant by the director of the album trailer and besides there being a ladder attached to the H (as well as to the other letters of the Hollywood sign), the letter H itself looks like a section of a ladder, with the horizontal piece in the middle as a rung. Towering above the earthly West Coast "city of angels" (associated with the "entrance to the underworld" in Tropico), the ladder may symbolize a connection between the earth and heaven known as Jacob's Ladder, which appeared in a dream of the biblical figure Jacob, with angels ascending and descending on it. Lana also referred to this notion a day before the release of Lust for Life when she posted a short clip on Instagram of a little song of hers in which she sings that she would trade everything for a stairway to heaven and take her time as she climbed up to top of it.
 
But when you are on a ladder and you are not vigilant there is the danger of falling. According to Abrahamic religions as well as esoteric accounts of man's origin there was a major spiritual fall at some point in the past, when man lost contact with heaven/God and got mired on earth. His consciousness closed, as the narrowly focused ego became separated from the heaven-oriented soul. What followed is the human history as we know it. Through the arc of long and often arduous history, the fallen ego was gradually revived and lifted from the caves to the age of space flights and the internet.
 
And so the soul's partner is back, Stargirl and Starboy reunited. But watch out, Lana is hanging out on top of the H with a self-proclaimed "King of the Fall". The word "fall" has a double meaning. One meaning is the season of the fall (autumn), as evidenced in The Weeknd's fall tours. After his first international tour in spring 2012 followed the fall tours: The Weeknd Fall Tour (2012), The Weeknd Kiss Land Fall Tour (2013), King of the Fall (2014), and The Madness Fall Tour (2015). In the song Starboy he aptly mentions: "I come alive in the fall time". His latest tour is titled Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour, even though it is scheduled to last from February to July 2017, so it refers either to his already established status as the "legend" from the past seasonal fall tours, or to the second meaning of the word "fall". The second meaning of "the fall" is spiritual and is reflected in the general content of his songs: fame and decadence. In the song The Fall, he sings about falling to the ground, and in Starboy he also refers to the Brad Pitt movie Legends of the Fall. The title of this movie seems ambiguous: imdb says that it refers to the biblical fall from innocence, although "the Fall" part was translated as the season (autumn) in countries such as Sweden and France, while in Germany and Spain it was translated as "Passion". Anyway, even in the season of the fall we can find a spiritual meaning: the season is connected with harvest, which in a New Testament parable signifies the end of the age when the righteous are "ripe" for entering heaven and the "wheat" is separated from the "chaff".
 
With man's individuality and consciousness revived, his capacity for self-destruction is restored too. Although we now have a history to learn from, will it be sufficient to prevent another fall?

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).

Eye of God

 

 

Trinity

Eye of God

 

 

Trinity

I think when Lana sings about drugs (whether it is heroin, cocaine or meth) she doesn't necessarily mean literal drugs but rather intense stimulations, passions and addictions. On the esoteric view these would be the stimulations, passions and addictions that the soul derives from its incarnation in the material world. Basically, sensory or carnal pleasures. During incarnation, as in the activity of the soul in general, there is a temporary and cyclical separation between the ego, which is basically the focus of the soul's consciousness, and the soul as a whole: the ego is sent forth while the soul recedes into the background of the mind. After the ego has analyzed the situation/problem/environment, gained knowledge or created something, it is integrated back into the consciousness of the soul as a whole: the soul and the ego reunite. And again and again - thus the soul evolves. The problem arises when the ego becomes overly fixated, in its narrow focus, on the world or on the material body and forgets about the soul; the consciousness of the soul thus becomes trapped in a part of reality and this is the spiritual fall. The word "heroin" also suggests "hero", which fits with the sense of individuality that the soul experiences in its ego and with the dangers that it must overcome in its exploration of the world.  
 
In the chorus to Heroin the ego travels to the material world (foreign land); this is the initial separation between the soul and the ego during incarnation. The soul hopes for an eventual reunion but the ego falls on the trip; the "heroin" takes its life away. After the death of the ego (spiritual or physical) the soul withdraws into the spiritual world (to the moon). Topanga is used as a symbol of decadent lifestyle, which eventually results in insanity and violence, as shown in the reference to Charles Manson, who lived in Topanga with his followers. His followers committed some grisly murders back in 1969, which involved writing words in their victims' blood on the walls. This was around the end of 1950s-1960s "paradise" era. The hotness of Topanga refers to the insane and violent atmosphere.
 
At the end of the song the soul becomes sick of the crazy lifestyle and desires change.

In recent days I've been having 13 Beaches, White Mustang and Heroin on a loop and I forgot about the gem called Get Free. Indeed, the verses read like from a mystical book about spiritual awakening. She feels that she and the world are undergoing a big change that may unleash the creative potential of mankind and restore the lost paradise in a modern form. Her songs about her romantic relationships, struggles and transformations have always had a wide social aspect but now she's making this social aspect more explicit in songs like Love, Coachella, God Bless America or When the World Was at War.
 
 
Maybe I missed it? I also didn't know about the French interview you just quoted.
 

I just saw The Weeknd's video for his song I Feel It Coming. It came out a few weeks after Lana's Love video and has similar cosmic, otherwordly visuals with eclipses/syzygies. The Weeknd is alone on some dark planet when a being of light arrives, turns into a woman and they start dancing together. However, a parallel visual of a progressing eclipse shows the light body being gradually "eaten up" by the dark body and at the moment of total eclipse the woman turns into stone. Then The Weeknd starts turning into stone too, as a snake appears crawling on the ground.
 

 
In the past times an eclipse was viewed as a dramatic bad omen, a herald of a disaster. It is one of the apocalyptic signs in the New Testament too. The term "eclipse" is derived from an ancient Greek word that means "the abandonment", "the downfall", or "the darkening of a heavenly body". But from a more neutral perspective the phenomenon can also be seen as a symbol for a union of opposites (an alignment of a light body and a dark body) that creates a grander reality.
 
 
 
 

Keep forgetting to post this, but every time she says the line, "Out of the black, into the blue" in Get Free, the visual image that comes to my mind is of Lana walking through the soft, dark granules of sand at a beautiful Icelandic beach, then feeling the fresh ocean breeze brush against her body as she freely embraces the ocean.
 
Examples below:



 
I think it was the lyric in Summer Bummer where she says, "white lines and black beaches" that made me picture this. I wonder if she intentionally chose this imagery to keep the album consistent, or whether that line in Get Free is more symbolic and doesn't relate to the ocean at all. To me, it would make sense that it is this image that she's singing about, considering the sound of ocean waves at the end of the track.
 
The male actor in her upcoming video for White Mustang is also an Icelandic composer, as a side note, so I wonder if this has any relevance to the thematic element of black beaches, since they are most commonly found in the volcanic regions of Iceland.
 
Who knows? Perhaps "out of the black, into the blue" is purely color symbolism, but it's interesting to think of it as having a different meaning, and it makes complete sense to me considering the sounds in Get Free and the possibility of this line being a lyrical allusion to Summer Bummer.

I think the teaser suggests that in a sense the guy is her, or a part of her, and she experiences a life of fame through him. I don't know yet if I will write more about it.
 
I see the error message in my thread too. I get the same error when I try to open certain pages in the "Instagram Updates" thread. Hope somebody will fix it.

It looks as if Lana transforms into that guy while driving the car.

The video will feature a self-driving car roaming the streets of Los Angeles. At the end a robot will get out, holding a USB stick with Lana's mind downloaded in it. The concluding monologue will address the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.