It is said that the cinema is in its infancy and that we are only hearing its first cries. I admit that I do not understand why. The cinema has arrived at an advanced stage in human thought and benefits from it. There is no doubt that it is a means of expression that has not yet been materially perfected. There are several ways, for example, in which it could be given a stability and a nobility which it does not possess. One day we shall probably have a cinema in three dimensions and even in color. But these are accessory devices which cannot contribute greatly to the substratum of the cinema which is a language, as much as music, painting and poetry.
In the cinema I have always distinguished a quality peculiar to the secret movement and matter of images. The cinema has an unexpected and mysterious side which we find in no other form of art. Even the most arid and banal image is transformed when it is projected on the screen. The smallest detail, the most insignificant object assume a meaning and a life which pertain to them alone, independently of the value of the meaning of the images themselves, the idea which they interpret and the symbol which they constitute. By being isolated, the objects obtain a life of their own which becomes increasingly independent and detaches them from their usual meaning. A leaf, a bottle, a hand, etc., live with an almost animal life which is crying out to be used. Then there are the distortions of the camera, the unexpected use it makes of the things which it records. Just as the image dissolves, a particular detail which had escaped our attention comes to life with singular force, moves out to meet the expression required. There is also a sort of physical excitement which the
rotation of the images communicates directly to the brain. The
mind moves beyond the power of representation. This sort of
virtual power of the images probes for hitherto unused possibilities
in the depths of the mind.
Essentially the cinema reveals a
whole occult life with which it puts us directly into contact.
But we must know how to divine this occult life. There are better
means than a succession of super impressions for divining
these secrets of the depths of consciousness. Raw cinema, taken
as it is, in the abstract, exudes a little of this trance-like atmosphere,
eminently favorable for certain revelations. To use it to
tell a story is to neglect one of its best resources, to fail to fulfill
its most profound purpose. That is why I think the cinema
is made primarily to express matters of the mind, the inner consciousness,
not by a succession of images so much as by something
more imponderable which restores them to us with their
direct matter, with no interpositions or representations.
The
cinema has arrived at a turning-point in human thought, when
language loses its symbolic power and the mind tires of a succession
of representations. Clear thought is not enough. It allocates
a world which has been utterly consumed. What is clear
is what is immediately accessible, but what is immediately accessible
is the mere skin of life. We soon realize that this over-familiar life which has lost all its symbols is not the whole of
life. And today is a time for sorcerers and saints, a better time
than ever before. An imperceptible substance is taking shape,
yearning for light. The cinema is bringing us nearer to this substance.
If the cinema is not made to interpret dreams or what
pertains to the realm of dreams in conscious life, it does not
exist.
There is no difference between the cinema and the theater.
But the cinema is a direct and rapid language which has no
need for a slow and ponderous logic to live and flourish. It must
come closer and closer to fantasy, to a fantasy which appears
ever more real, or else it does not exist. Or else it will come to
the same end as painting and poetry. What is certain is that
most forms of representation have had their day. For some time
good painting has only served to reproduce the abstract. It is
therefore not only a question of choice. There will not be one
cinema which represents life and another which represents the
function of the mind. Because life, what we call life, becomes
ever more inseparable from the mind. A certain profound domain
tends to appear on the surface. The cinema is capable of
interpreting this domain more than any other art, because
idiotic order and customary clarity are its enemies.
The Seashell and the Clergymanis part of this subtle search for
a hidden life which I have tried to make plausible, as plausible
and real as the other.
To understand this film we must simply look deeply into ourselves.
Give in to a form of plastic, objective and attentive examination
of the inner self which has hitherto been the exclusive
domain of the Illuminati.
Top: Screen captures from The Seashell & The Clergyman (directed by Germaine Dulac, scenario by Antonin Artaud, 1928)
Bottom: Artaud as Jean-Paul Marat in Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927):
“There is a space, right between the conscious and the subconscious, between heaven and earth, between reality and imagination where all things are possible.
If you can see it, hear it, feel it then you can communicate with it. It may be a feeling, a thought, a belief, an action, a habit, an emotion, but it is simply energy. If is is causing discomfort, it is expanding into awareness for comprehension. If it is judged as a problem, then it is currently being experienced as a lower vibration and creating havoc in order for transformation.
We all have the ability to transform all energy of the self and all lower vibrational energy is simply waiting for an invitation for transformation into it’s highest potential. Out of dark into light, out of fear into Love, etc. etc.
If we can connect to the energy of a current issue and simply ask questions, then the answers will come and the transformation of anything that limits the self can be brought into balance.”
“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”
Typhoon is a powerful, swirling destructive force. It is force and fire, characterized by the description of the aeon of horus,… According to Kenneth Grant, Typhon is “ The feminine aspect of Set; sometimes typified as the Mother of Set in her role of the Goddess of the Seven Stars, of which Set is the Eighth.” #dragontelecaster #jimmypage #fender #kennethgrant #thedarklord #typhonian https://www.instagram.com/p/BpsHBdLn0jb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=j2kls11x3g9w
“We all dream; it is a mystery in which all humankind participates. I realize this is an assumption, but it is one that I have no qualms in asserting as fact: the dream is an experiential universal for humanity.”
“A more or less superficial layer of the unconscious is undoubtedly personal. I call it the “personal unconscious”. But this personal layer rests upon a deeper layer, which does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn. This deeper layer I call the “collective unconscious”. I have chosen the term “collective” because this part of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals.”
“The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.”
“Magick often takes a more ordinary approach to reach us, because that is easiest. Nature seeks to conserve energy. Water flows down mountains, not up. Magick flows down to us via the easiest path possible. We must still follow up with some real-world action. We won’t get that job if we don’t send our resume and go on interviews. We must open the doors to magick. We must create that change internally, and be open to the energy, as we open to change externally.”
Occult Aspects 