Aug 5, 2010

I Am Not Trying to Seduce You


Remember the Macarena? The 1995/96 global one hit wonder with a fascinating back story:
As a result of their lounge act, Los del Río were invited to tour South America in March 1992 and, while visiting Venezuela, they were invited to a private party held by the Venezuelan empresario (of Cuban descent) Gustavo Cisneros. Many prominent Venezuelans were in attendance that night, including former president Carlos Andrés Pérez.  
Cisneros had arranged for a local flamenco teacher, Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera, to do a small performance for the guests, and Los Del Rio were pleasantly surprised by Cubillán's dance skills. Spontaneously, Romero recited the song's chorus-to-be on the spot, as an accolade to Cubillán, but naming her "Ma'dalena" (Magdalena): "Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Ma'dalena, que tu cuerpo e' pa' darle alegría y cosa' güena'" ("Give your body some joy, Magdalene, 'cause your body is for giving joy and good things too"). In Andalusian culture labeling a woman "Magdalena" is to give her a faint association with Mary Magdalene's reportedly seedy past, and more accurately describes her as being sassy or sensuous. 
Romero saw potential in the improvised rhyme and, back at their hotel, the duo came up with the basic structure of the song. Since "Magdalena" was also the title of another song by Spanish singer Emmanuel quite popular at the time, Romero suggested that they use "Macarena" instead which, besides being part of the name of one of his daughters, is a popular name in Andalusia, given its association with the Virgin of the Macarena, the incarnation of the Virgin Mary that is a patroness of Seville's barrio La Macarena. 
The Virgin-Magdalene dichotomy probably explains the rest of the lyrics: a song about a young woman, the girlfriend of a recent recruit to the Spanish Army named Victorino (whose name may be inspired from a kind of bull with long horns, evoking the cornudo, or male victim of his partner's infidelity, a mental image common in Spanish and Latin American culture), who celebrates his being drafted by hooking up with two of his male friends. Macarena has a weakness for males in uniform, spending summers at Marbella, and dreams of shopping at El Corte Inglés (the major Spanish department store chain), moving to New York City and getting a new boyfriend.
In other words, a fabulous Virgin Mary/Mary Magdalene archetype! MM is also the infamous whore of Babylon, the great harlot who, along with the Beast, share top billing in St. John’s Revelation. Like Aleister Crowley (“the Beast”), I have a strange fascination with this mysterious archetype. We have previously noted how the fall of the twin towers in NYC (New Jerusalem) resonated so powerfully with “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” and I can’t help but wonder what dear Aleister would have made of all of this!
In 1996, many believe a world record for group dancing was set, when a crowd of 50,000 people danced the Macarena in Yankee Stadium in New York City. The song made such an impact that during the Democratic National Convention in 1996, Al Gore humorously performed his version of the Macarena by standing completely still while the song played.
Wow! Practically conjuring up the harlot via mega-ritual! Five years later, Babalon was indeed fallen, fallen - a bonfire of the vanities. Lots of fives going on there, resonating Venus, Lucifer (the path of the planet Venus forms a pentagram in the sky when viewed from earth) Note that it was the dancer DIANA Patricia Cubillán Herrera who was the original inspiration for the archetypal song/event. Diana is the Goddess of the hunt, and is also known as the "virgin goddess", semiotically linking her to the Virgin Mary of Christian tradition.

And let's also note that DiaNA could represent DNA - truly the mother of us all.

August 5 is the anniversary of the death of Mystery Babylon’s most iconic MM, Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jean (her “Virgin Mary” side) was idolized by Elton John in “A Candle in the Wind”. Later, Elton John made England’s Diana Spencer “la Magdalena” with “Candle in the Wind 1997”, which was the song that succeeded Macarena as the Billboard Hot 100 Single of the Year.

In la Macarena, we note that the “cornudo” is evoked by naming Macarena's boyfriend after a bull. A cornudo or cuckold is the male victim of his partner’s infidelity. The cornudo is sometimes represented in Latin culture with a hand sign which we conspiranoids will find familiar - the “horned hand”. George W. Bush was famously photographed waving this sign at the masses, and it makes me wonder. Was George playing the whore of Babylon to the hilt... secretly fucking all the corporate interests while bravely battling “terra”? All the while waving the cornudo sign at we, the American public, AKA the cuckold, the unsuspecting victim.

It is interesting that Al Gore did not dance for the Macarena, and he “bowed out” of the 2000 election. I guess George was the one on her dance card.

Recall Jung’s analysis of the Chthonic monster:
"Envy, lust, sensuality, deceit, and all known vices are the negative, 'dark' aspect of the unconscious, which can manifest itself in two ways. In the positive sense, it appears as a 'spirit of nature', creatively animating Man, things, and the world. It is the 'chthonic spirit' that has been mentioned so often in this chapter. In the negative sense, the unconscious (that same spirit) manifests itself as a spirit of evil, as a drive to destroy."
Is this not a perfect description of the duality presented by the Mary/Mary archetype? One is the Mother of us all, and the other is her evil twin, our destroyer. Yet the great mystery is that these two Marys are one and the same.

From an archetypal point of view, I suspect this has much to do with a boy’s subconscious desire to fuck his mother - the Oedipus Rex syndrome. We want our mother to be a virgin Mary, and we want Mary Magdalene to be a whore. Given the shocking success of Magdalene type images over the past 50 years, from Marilyn Monroe to Lady Gaga, it is perhaps obvious that this is the archetype that needs to be expressed and reconciled into our collective consciousness. “Envy, lust, sensuality, deceit”. These are all patterns of not only the Magdalene, but all her alter egos, from Shiva to the Joker.

I find it endlessly cosmic that Francesco D’Macho, my Italian porn muse, lost his virginity on the very day that Diana Spencer was killed. Francesco’s porn brand is called “Stag Homme”, and wouldn’t you know it, the horns of a stag are notoriously symbolic of both the cornudo AND Diana, the virgin goddess. However, Francesco is a cornudo with a difference.

 Francesco is not ashamed of his sensuous, lustful, erotic side. He is the cuckold who knows. His “wife” is latino Damien Cross, a porn star even more wanton than himself, if possible.

Mary is our collective mother, wife and porn star, all rolled up into one. She wants to express all her true Self, all at once. In perhaps the most divine conjunction of opposites ever conceived, Mary will become both a virgin and a slut, at exactly the same time! And that is perhaps when she truly becomes the Mother of God.

In a way, homosexuals are now playing the role of MM - men who are absolute sluts... yet who remain technically “virgin”. Call it a loop hole in the Law of consciousness. Jesus is a clever lawyer.

La Macarena - video



NOTES:

The wedding of Francesco and Damien.

The latest incarnation of Wonder Woman, AKA Diana, is literally wearing pants.

Who was the first woman to wear pants on TV? Yup. Mary Tyler Moore.
"He tells me I'm as safe as houses
As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers"

4 comments:

Devin said...

Fantastic article Michael!!
good catch -and memories on MTM -haha I forgot about Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it seem worthwhile-(if those are indeed the lyrics - my memory ain't so good anymore) I will definitely have to check out this Francesco and "wife" --sounds pretty hot!!;-)
In the world of Forteana/weird news there was a story out of Vietnam where a woman could tell if men were still virgins by a red spot on part of the ear --well the same test doesn't work for gay men -or so they say--but 3 straight young "virgins" have been released from Vietnamese prisons on rape charges last I heard - sure as hell hope the test is accurate!! another blogger who emails me privately started out her email the other day with "bet you thought you'd never be a virgin again" --and I wrote believe me it's been a hella long time since I've felt anything remotely like a virgin;-) O geez another song there ---
much love to you and Var as always !!!!

Michael said...

Hi Dev, thanks for commenting. I cleaned up the post a little today after the initial push to get it done on August 5. That Madonna so totally played the MM card. She's even adopting African kids, which to them makes her a "virgin mother". I'm not much of a fan of Madge, though I give her credit for playing her part to the hilt.

Jake Kotze said...

It was Andy Warhol's Birthday, 6 August, the day after you posted this with his Marilyn Monroe at the top.

Michael said...

Well, well well... quite the "august" beginning to the month?

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