TROPICO ANALYSIS

[slang 1,532]

^

LDR is kind of a magpie collagist, so the only thing we really know for sure about her use of the poem is that she likes it. BTW John Wayne, actually does recite this, see below. If I had to commit to a meaning for the America poem, I'd say it relates more to the Marilyn quote: "Sex is a part of nature; I go along with nature", though it could also be cited as an instance of "rah rah rah America shit", but maybe it's a viewer's choice on this. So, for instance, the poem could also be a way of representing Eden reasserting itself at about the time of the paradise ascension. 

 

 

[alidusi 70]

i think, visually, it's beautiful (excluding a lot of the gods and monsters part, some of that was a little too much for me). most of it is undeniably very pretty. how great the rest of it is is arguable. i can see how a lot of people wouldn't enjoy it. tropico does not fit everyone's taste -- then again, neither does lana's music. i liked the poetry she recited, although i didn't know the authors and stuff while watching it but i just looked up the poems and i plan on watching tropico again later now that i have more insight. i think it was a beautiful and meaningful film although there are some things i would have done differently, such as some of the g&m scenes and i wish there had been more dialogue. but overall i definitely think lana achieved her goal.

[ConeyIslandQueen262 1,068]

 So I was really thinking about how "Why I love America" poem ( Idk if that's really the name ) is releated to Bel Air ( or the "Ressurrection" act of Tropico).Has anyone here thought about it? 

 

maybe this goes a little far but well... she spent a lot of time in the city as a stripper and in the Bel Air scene she is surrounded by nature. maybe she realized that LA is not the paradise and that America has many beautiful places. You can't become famous or rich there but they are unique and full of love.

[COLACNT 5,180]

i think the john wayne poem could be related to the "i believe in the country america used to be" sentiment, somehow? like she's equating certain aspects of (antiquated) american culture or lifestyle with her salvation / newfound joy 

 

or maybe it was just another nod to the ~american dream~ ironically juxtaposed with the fact that they had just robbed a bunch of people lmao 

 

because her take on the "american dream" doesn't involve trading betty crocker recipes and white picket fences. so the line "we're living on the dark side of the american dream" makes sense in this context? i guess maybe she's saying the 'dream' is really just all about $$$

 

or maybe she wasn't trying to say anything at all. but all the various elements are abstract enough to be deconstructed in a variety of ways 

[lola 6,641]

Idk if this has been brought up yet but do you think Lana going into ~the light~ in two very similar white dresses in Born to Die and Tropico have something to do with one another? Maybe it's a way of ending the Born to Die era or she just happens to be talking about death in both songs so she choose to portray it the same way twice without any meaning behind it, maybe both Bel Air and Born to Die are about the same person?

 

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

"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.”

 

 

you gotta get on that horse and ride, don’t be afraid

wear your boots up high, your pants low 

and your hat in a good way

 

sex is a part of nature

i go along with nature 

 

now when you get on there don’t be jerking on him

just ride nice and soft

you can do it, i believe in you

ride with the wind

 

Angels (in the Garden of Evil) Forever . . .

 

https://suite101.com/a/decoding-the-bible-adam-and-eve-a354363

 

 

Gnostic Teachings claims that the serpent symbolizes sexual potency, more formerly known as the Kundalini. People who lived during the time of Adam and Eve’s story did not release their sexual energy as people do today, but instead had utilized it in a spiritual manner in order to manifest a direct connection with God. Many Hindu and Buddhist spiritual advisors advocate that sexual energy should never be released, but instead should remain stored within. This sexual energy is the key ingredient necessary for us to interact with the divine. Without it, we cannot exceed beyond our materialistic normality.... Hence, the powerful sexual urge of the Kundalini is the true meaning behind the serpent that tempted Eve into eating the fruit.

 

The Forbidden Fruit

The Forbidden Fruit seems to symbolize sexual curiosity.... When God warned the people that they would die from eating the fruit (abusing sex), he may not meant physically, but spiritually....

The Garden of Eden

Gnostic Teachings says that the literal meaning behind the Garden of Eden is not a physical vicinity here on Earth. Eden is a person’s inner connection with the divine; which according to the Great Arcanum is the only road to true understanding. When this ancient civilization gave into their temptations and wasted the energy of their Kundalini for sexual gratification, they immediately lost their connection with the divine. They closed themselves off from God, then attempted to create their own system of living.

 

The gate back into the spiritual connection of Eden may still be guarded by the flaming sword of our own temptations, but not closed off forever. According to the Great Arcanum, All we have to do to re-enter this state of being is set aside our animal desires, conquer the temptation, and use our Kundalini to ascend into divinity.

Summarizing Everything

Adam and Eve symbolize two separate entities; the red and blue energy channels that exist in the Caduceus and the ancient civilization that was defeated by temptation. When Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit, it symbolizes humanity’s submission to the urge of releasing their Kundalini for sexual gratification. By doing so, the people cut themselves off from their spiritual essence – causing them to lose their direct contact with divinity. This resulted in humanity's withdraw from Eden, the spiritual connection. Since then, humanity has attempted to replace the fulfillment of spiritual enlightenment by means of embracing synthetic, materialistic principles.

 

"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

 

 

... she acts as your soul and she is speaking to you, to make you remember, to awaken you. The soul is the largely forgotten, unconscious part of you while the part of you that is conscious is the ego. The ego and the soul are like lovers; they essentially complement each other: the ego has a sharp, narrow focus on details, on a fragment of reality, while the soul intuitively grasps the context, a larger whole. There is a kind of masculine quality about the ego, about its thrust toward separateness, definiteness and firm conviction. And there is a kind of feminine quality about the soul, about its inclusiveness, softness, openness and ethereality or uncertainty.

According to esoteric sources, you have embarked on the voyage of exploration of reality and got trapped in mental constructs and in the marvelous world of the senses, narrowing your perception, forgetting about larger reality and about your heavenly origin. Thus the ego came to dominate your consciousness and the soul receded into the back of your mind. Some refer to this as the fall in spirit, or the rebellion of the angels. You should remember and restore the original balance and harmony in the relationship between the ego and the soul.

Born To Die

The image at the beginning and end of the video represents the united mental states of the ego and the soul, or parts in a whole. The queen sitting on the throne in the temple is the soul in her majesty or the ultimate whole, like the Holy Spirit. The temple itself can be seen as heaven but also as the body (1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?"). The vehicle can be seen as the body too, with the ego and the soul inside, on their tragic journey of love. There are statues of gods or angels looking on. As the journey progresses the loving relationship between the ego and the soul turns into conflict and the ego harshly asserts its power, love wilting away. In the end the soul leaves the body (the temple), signifying a spiritual or bodily death. It is indicated that the vehicle has crashed, another sign of bodily death. The ego is left standing alone, Lana's corpse signifying that the soul has died - spiritual death. Nevertheless, there is also a hope of salvation in the lyrics, of restoration of the relationship between the ego and the soul: "I'm hoping that the gates they'll tell me that you're mine", "Lost but now I am found". (Also see Lana's Facebook page, in the section "Biography" she gives just one sentence: "Once I Was Lost-But Now I Am Found".)

 

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)
 

 

don’t forget

write to your momma 

 

 

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

 

Sexual Alchemy is the most powerful form of inner transformation we have, it is the superconductor for correction and transmutation. It has been used as tantra in the East for millenia and has been thoroughly misunderstood for centuries by the masses. If used correctly, Sexual Alchemy (the transmutation of energy/desire) can be used to create intense and incredible increases in spiritual awareness and expanded levels of consciousness.

 

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.

[vanillaiceys 221]

 

"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.

 

this is the craziest thing I've read, but it makes sense

[CokoKilos 366]

I get the whole plot of TROPICO but... WHAT THE FUCK ARE ALIENS DOING THERE?! Look extremely fake.

 

The only thing that comes to mine is Metaphysics which Lana has interest in.

 

Not saying Alien's have a connection to God/religion..I see it as The Big Question

 

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

 

Carmen's red rose = lower created world of Becoming (Malkuth)

 

Eden as Paradise is populated with pop culture archetypes. Los Angeles, as the Land of Gods and Monsters, is the lower reflection of the eternal idea, the world of Becoming (material Eidolons) in distinction from the world of Forms. ("Life imitates Art"--Becoming imitates Eternity.)

 

"Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise" (= inner reality)

 

"Most of my friends are dead" = "I wish I was dead (dead like you)"

 

"Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn’s my mother,
Jesus is my bestest friend.
We don’t need nobody 'cause we got each other,
Or at least I pretend...."

 

 

"Adam and Eve are abolished from the Garden and kind of catapulted into this hell on earth, where nobody really does anything ... To me, that’s a fascinating examination of the result of putting pop culture icons as your pantheon of gods.” (Anthony Mandler)

 

 

Aliens ... I theorize Lana is referencing Katy Perry's "ET" video for obvious reasons (Shaun Ross)

 

"My pussy tastes like Pepsi-Cola" http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/20/katy-perry-soft-drinks-pepsi-coke-childhood-obesity/3004777/

 

 

The devil has Katy's soul; can Lana redeem her from being the sellout pop culture icon of the music industry?

 

 

"Put your red dress on, put your lipstick on
Sing your song, song, now the camera's on..."

 

(Dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight)

 

"The boys, the girls, they all like Carmen
She gives them butterflies
Bats her cartoon eyes

She laughs like God
Her mind's like a diamond
Audiotune lies"

 

The pop idol's Audiotune lies http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10426239/Gareth-Malone-pop-stars-who-use-auto-tune-are-cheating.html

 

 

Lana appears to have a certain self-awareness about being another pop culture icon in our pantheon of gods . . . can the idol break through from the silver screen in which she is imprisoned, and directly address those watching her?

 

 

Falling from Cloud 9

 

 

Seeing "through a glass darkly" (of commercial product placement)

 

 

 

"We can escape to the great sunshine"

 

 

"Got my bad baby by my heavenly side"

 

 

"Gargoyles standing at the front of your gate.
Trying to tell me to wait,
But I can’t wait to see you"

 

Twin lions in the Paradise tour stage = Cybele's two lions = the two tigers in BTD with Lana as the Great Mother, addressing audience as the "spiritual collective" as Attis her son-lover

 

"Don't be afraid of me, don't be ashamed.
Walk in the way of my soft resurrection.
Idol of roses, iconic soul. I know your name."

 

TL;DR: Fuck yourself

[Trash Magic 28,392]

ANALYSIS; it was SHIT

[GangstaBoy 3,930]

It was visually stunning, though I didn't love it. I was expecting more acting and we only got like only one acted line from Lana (?  And forgive me, but her male co-star was very distracting, I couldn't take his character seriously, sorry. The aliens in the end also ruined it for me I guess, even though I loved Body Electric/Paradise. I also couldn't appreciate many of the details because I was struggling with the aspect ratio. I know she wanted an artsy cinematic look but that was too much and ended up being annoying.

[Lirazel 700]

 

It was visually stunning, though I didn't love it. I was expecting more acting and we only got like only one acted line from Lana (?  And forgive me, but his male co-star was very distracting, I couldn't take his character seriously, sorry. The aliens in the end also ruined it for me I guess, even though I loved Body Electric/Paradise. I also couldn't appreciate many of the details because I was struggling with the aspect ratio. I know she wanted an artsy cinematic look but that was too much and ended up being annoying.

Everybody's talking about aliens, but I saw no aliens? What  have  I missed?

[slang 1,532]

Everybody's talking about aliens, but I saw no aliens? What  have  I missed?

Well my interpretation assumed no aliens, so consequently I didn't see any either. But there's some choice about whether you see certain aspects of the video (e.g., meteor as spaceship, clouds/sun reflections as spaceships while ascending to heaven/mothership).  I can remember in an article LDR is actually quoted as saying there are ETs in Tropico but without hearing how she said, it could have been a facetious comment about Shaun Ross's previous music-video role (Katy Perry's ET).

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

You kids should just rest easy knowing you stan for a genuine fucking genius

[GangstaBoy 3,930]

Everybody's talking about aliens, but I saw no aliens? What  have  I missed?

 

I hadn't noticed myself either, I was reading a critic and the ufos were mentioned there, so I rewatched and I saw them in the end scene, when they're ascending, in the background...

So that magical moment was kinda ruined for me, I was like WTF? haha

[ZeroZero 2,225]

I found the whole plot of the film rather reductive. Nothing to really keep you shocked or confused in the end. I would have preferred something to make me wonder about for a while but overall it was lovely.

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

The UFOs are a sardonic way of saying that her soul comes from a world that you cannot even imagine

 

You would prob. need a goddamn degree in Metaphysics to understand all of the symbolism used, which extends beyond the film to inform her previous work

 

 

 

 

 

The Upper Waters (white) are divided from the Lower Waters (red)--two girls, two roses

 

And the spirit of Yod moved between them

 

I found the whole plot of the film rather reductive. Nothing to really keep you shocked or confused in the end. I would have preferred something to make me wonder about for a while but overall it was lovely.

 

??? James Joyce knew the riverran past Eve and Adam's; there is only ever one story

[litewave 519]

Those UFOs look really ambiguous. Is it clouds or is it spaceships? Or not exactly either? Would a soul qualify as an "extra-terrestrial"?

[Itsoknow 2]

I came here to this random ass thread from 2013, having never even listened to Lana del ray somehow until now just to say this. I’ve had an abortion and the second I heard bel air I had an extremely emotional response, when I listened to the song, it brought me back to this whole journey in my life of my abortion , it’s very hard to explain but that was my first thought when I heard the song!! I’m convinced as well. To me the lyrics are just so reminiscent of that type of child loss. Not to get too deep I’m very at peace with things but... I’ve never heard something that seems to represent that complex experience so beautifully and hauntingly. Hope I didn’t get too deep.

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

It’s just that in my own mind,

I was born with a little bit of paradise.

I was lucky in that way.

Not like my husband,

Who was born and raised in hell...

 

And every time I think of that,

I think about the curse bestowed upon Eve

That fateful eve she took that bite of fruit from that fruitful tree.

And this summer night, you in front of me,

Makes me contemplate the origins of good and evil.

 

Because you take, and you take, and take, and you take,

But you taste like the beach and a kiss.

Candy from my eyes,

in my veins you run citrus.

 

Watercolour images of serpents on orange trees arise in my midst.

Kundalini, you breathe me.

I could do this forever.