Why So Serious?

The Dark Knight was reviewed recently by Christopher L Knowles at The Secret Sun. I quote him extensively below. In his review, Chris mentions a few previous incarnations of Gotham's Joker and their motivations.

As with the villains in the first Sin City series, Miller's mincing, effeminate Joker is evil precisely because of his sexuality (Miller's work could keep an entire GLAAD office busy if anyone outside of geekdom bothered to read it). --CLK

Wow. Gay is Evil - the Unoriginal Sin. How many times have I heard that? Let's see... minister, army, comic books and even Walt Disney! From Snow White to Sleeping Beauty to Aladdin to The Lion King to Enchanted, the wicked influence in Disney films is always a Queen. Was Walt a "self-hating homo"?

Even Cesar Romero's Joker in the Batman TV series has a queer vibe going, and his wikipedia entry is fascinating:

While Romero's homosexuality was an "open secret" in Hollywood, the movie-going public was unaware of his sexual proclivities and there was never any embarrassing scandal surrounding his male liaisons, which shows the care and finesse with which he conducted his private life for more than 60 years.

Romero believed in 'liberation theology,' a political system combining Marxism with Catholicism, which purports that, despite the fact that Karl Marx called religion 'the opiate of the masses,' religion and communism are still compatible. Romero was very Christian yet still believed in a utopian society whose belief is that Christ's kingdom would be very similar to Marx's envisionment of communism, and held to this belief until his death."

Cesar and I are on the same page with that - we both drink Red Star beer.

Heath Ledger is something of a gay Saint, and in synchromystic (the dreaming mind) terms I'm free to associate all of Heath's characters with gay archetypes, even when he plays them totally straight.

The Joker is so emotionally involved with Batman that he prevents his "outing" on TV by blowing up a hospital. The fact that Ennis Del Mar is the Joker and that Maggie Gyllenhaal (sister of Ledger's Brokeback Mountain co-star) plays one of the Joker's victims might be telling us something about the character not made explicit in the script. --CLK

Del Mar = Of the Sea = Born of MARY

As to metatext, the Templar symbology we recently looked at weaves in and out of the plotline. It's interesting to note that the Joker blows up a hospital to preserve Batman's secret identity. The Knights Hospitaller were the Templars' primary rivals. --CLK

H = 11 = Hospital = Hospitaller

Hospitality (giving shelter to a stranger) is close to the ultimate virtue of the Old Testament. Inhospitality was the sin for which Sodom was destroyed (besides the sex with angels thing). I've had some extremely personal H Hospital synchs recently, the most recent was a visit to the VIRGINIA MASON Hospital emergency room.

There were lots of little Easter eggs for the Synchromystic crowd (all 38 or so of us). The bus the Joker uses to make his first getaway is marked "District 22". This calls to mind the Fool trump of the Tarot (the predecessor of the Joker card in modern playing decks) which is numbered as 22 in esoteric circles. --CLK

Gavin of Altantean Times, who has studied the archetypes represented by Heath Ledger in depth, associates The Fool trump with Jesus.

The Fool is sometimes known as the most worthless card, yet also as the most valuable one. ...the first and the last, the alpha and the omega... the Negative space above the Tree of Life, the source of all things... the Qabalistic Zero, the Equation of the Universe, the initial and final balance of the opposites, both the father and the mother - male and female. --June Kaminski

The Rider-Waite-Smith version of The Fool trump

The Fool = 22 = 11:11 = HH

I have plenty of personal 22 syncs, the most important being that I was 22 years old when I came out. I think coming out is a pretty good example of playing the Fool - publicly declaring I'd rather suck cock that receive all the blessings of the hetero status quo. What an ultramaroon! A recent one is that I found out I live in Kirkland's Fire District 22!

Which brings me to the recent ritual murder/sacrifice of Canadian Tim McClean, alter ego = JoKAwiLd. Tim was 22. Todd has a great post at Through the Looking Glass about this bizarre death and it's Batman/Joker syncs. Looking at The Fool tarot, we can find a few more:

The Fool is accompanied by a small dog, synching up with SIRIUS, the dog star. Tim was attacked on a GreyHOUND bus, and we see the Joker asking, Why so SIRIUS?

The Fool is shown carrying a rucksack, showing his status as a traveler - a "sojourner" in this world, implying that his true home is NOT of this world. The Fool is a friend of hobos, tramps, hitchhikers, backpackers and Gypsies the world over, and the greyhound bus syncs up here as well - definitely traveling coach, and hospitality is always welcome.

The Fool's planet is Uranus, which syncs him up with the Loyalists in the War of Heaven.

Uranus (the Greek Ouranos) was the first child of Gaia (Mother Earth). As the original sky god, Ouranos became the first heavenly father when he poured water in the form of rain onto his mother earth below so that she would flourish with plant life. Ouranos also impregnated his mother to produce the first race of gods that ruled over mankind. Only when Ouranos became a tyrant did his mother plot with their son Cronos (Saturn) to wrest power from his father Ouranos by castrating him with a sickle.

I figure it takes a sirius joker to to align his planet with your anus. Ben Dover!

The murder occurred in Winnipeg, Canada, and thanks to Jake Kotze's recent post Galactic Center Temple at the Blog we know that Winnipeg is at the geographic center of North America (AKA Atlantis) which represents the Axis Mundi and Galactic Center.

The Fool is the ultimate "Free Spirit" - this card represents the self-actualized person, free from societal constraints, someone who is able to let go of outmoded beliefs and ideals with the courage to pursue their own special path. --June Kaminski

But if the Joker is meant to be a neo-Assassin, then Batman is by implication a new Templar. So is his sacrifice- to be disgraced to protect Two-Face's reputation- meant as an analogy to the Templars' own disgrace in the eyes of the public? Interesting that both Batman and Two-Face represent duality but the Joker represents singularity. He has no other identity other than as an agent of death and chaos. --CLK

Apparently, The Fool is a FIEND in the New Templar Order, and it makes me wonder... why? Was Lucifer the victim of some cosmic practical joke, and was that the catalyst for the War of Heaven? They say pride goeth before a FALL, and Lucifer's pride was mythic. Is Lucifer - the most glorious of God's creation - incapable of laughing at himself? Maybe he just doesn't know how to take a joke.

Why so serious?