Aug 8, 2008

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?

14 comments:

Jake Kotze said...

Kali carries a severed head, we are in the ending Kali Yuga or Iron Age. The Winnipeg Axis (H) ritualistically being highlighted as involved in these matters.

Decapitations are symbolic of Galactic Center (Baptist/Baphomet and Medusa). The death of the symbolic mind, that which we believe we are.

Be well

Ed said...

Hi Michael.

I didn't know Ceaser Romero was gay. His Joker was very funny and well portrayed for his time period.

It's interesting Miller would portray gay as evil when 50+ years ago, the word on the street was Batman and Robin were lovers, which in part led to the censorship of comics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent

Michael said...

Jake - thanks for the Kali info. If Jesus = The Fool = The Joker, then the gruesome cannibalism aspect is essentially a horror movie version of Communion.

"Decapitations are symbolic of Galactic Center (Baptist/Baphomet and Medusa). The death of the symbolic mind, that which we believe we are."

Very insightful, as per. I was considering today how the ego-centric intellect is symbolically Lucifer and Satan in the bible. The 'joke' played on the intellect is that it is not actually the center of All Knowing.

Speaking of Medusa, there was this whole series of homoerotic stories I read several years ago that envisioned being turned into stone at the moment of peak orgasm, so essentially the dude was "immortalized" in ecstasy. Wild.

Ed - I didn't know that either until wikipedia. It IS interesting about Batman and Robin playing the Zeus/Ganymede role, and how they sort of went back into the closet, with Miller slamming the door behind them.

The Secret Sun said...

Here are some more interesting images of women with swords drawn by Miller. Click Here and Here

aferrismoon said...

Great synchs with the word HOBO, and I notice also we both used FIEND - that damn Bat's fault again.
As I got brought up on Batman series I liked Romero al lot - he was excellent at poking fun at Batman and Robin's seriousness which they reacted to in a brilliantly straight, rigid movement sort of way.
Batman, embarrassed = v.funny.
And truly I think the Joker's so serious message makes me wonder why Batman needed to go from the Series to the utterly pseudo-nihilism of the films.
I often feel the filmakers don't want us to laugh anymore, at least not 'with' each other.
The Winnipeg ax is ......

Ben said...

gos, i love your blog man.
Just please conform though and think less.

wink

aferrismoon said...

ROCK HUDSON , synching with the Blob's and Steve Willners recent subjects [ before the latest vid]
ROCK = Dwayne Johnson who's in the Scorpion King and Southland Tales
HUDSON - that river near the Twins site as well as the HUDSON HAWK stuff.
Rock Hudson lived a secretly 'gay' life, I seem to remember it emerged when he got AIDS, if of course it was Aids.
Cheers

Michael said...

Thanks for the comments.

Mr. Moon, yea, I think back how much the media, and especially comics, have changed since then - all Sturm and Drang now.

Rock does have an interesting name. Apparently he and Doris Day were lifelong friends. His outing due to AIDS was probably THE event that forced Americans to see gay men as something besides the stereotype sissy queen.

Jamie Jones said...

Hey, Michael I liked your post can't wait to read more.

Edgar Cayce in one of his readings alluded to Jesus having a fun light hearted personality, because he said that Jesus, well he was on the cross was laughing. So, Jesus being the fool/joker, syncs in nice.

Anadæ Quenyan Effro said...

Last time I bothered to count, there were one-hundred-sixteen (equals 8) different Tarot card decks in print. An old maxim in the tongue of Deadspeak ( Latin ) concerning the Tarot is, "TARO ORAT TORA ATOR" or, in the accurséd Queen Britannia's translation, "The Tarot speaks the law of Hathor", the primeval goddess of pre-dynastic Egypt, whose totem personification is as a white cow. Okay, cut to Ouranos, Father Sky, emasculated by His other Son, the Titan Chronos, and from Whose raining drops of blood & semen comingled to form the first race of homosexuals, Urnings, oh yeah, and Aphrodite, the goddess of ( erotic ) love, Whose feminine form first set foot upon the island of Cypress, hence, Her monicker, the Cyprean Beauty. How ya like me NOW?! ( ;-)}

Michael said...

Anadea, thanks. Yet another God and Goddess to ponder. I see why Christianity took hold, much simpler than a pantheon of Gods who may or may not be the same archetypes with different names!

Cypress, another interesting little island...

A Figure Eight said...

And now we have the writer of "Infinite Jest" (another jester, joker, fool) becomes another Hanged Man!

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-wallace14-2008sep14,0,246155.story

Unknown said...

Did you read (or hear via podcast) the Celtic Rebels viewpoint that when the Joker mounted The Batman near the end of The Dark Knight, and started prodding him with his knife (or "blade" as per The Da Vinci Code's code for penis), it indicated more of a "love" than "hate" relationship between the two?

Michael said...

Hi V, I did NOT read the Celtic Rebel viewpoint, so thanks for pointing it out. I actually had a dream about the Joker a while back. Kinda synchy, now that I think about it.

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