Vertigo

At the beginning of the film Vertigo, Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) as the Fool witnesses himself fall off of the celestial Cliff into the oblivion below.

"Typically, the card shows an individual soul, a 'fool,' about to step off of a cliff into incarnation . . . The Fool is stepping away from source (i.e., The Sun) and off the cliff into a physical body below."

The rest of the film takes place within the Land of the Dead, which is, of course, our world. Madeleine-Judy is Scottie, inasmuch as she is his own soul as a fragment of the One Soul. When he asks why she jumped into the bay, he is asking himself why he jumped to his death at the beginning of the film--into the dense waters of material existence.

Scottie then witnesses Madeleine jump from the Tower, a visual demonstration of the original sacrifice. In Vertigo, there is only one woman, who slays herself in the creation of the universe, when the force concentrated in Binah descends into the seven lower sephirot. In Eyes Wide Shut Dr. Bill is subjected to a "charade" in which the Mysterious Woman (Amanda Curran) sacrifices herself. At the end of both films this was revealed as an artifice of the demiourgos; but someone still got killed (Art is Murder).

Leo's Dead Wife roles are complementary. Mal in Inception is Veronica; as World Soul her death is a consequence of being torn apart on the wheels of time and space, and thus Leo is innocent. Dolores in Shutter Island is Betty; she was Leo's soul and thus he is personally responsible. 

April in Revolutionary Road inhabits that strange sphere where these two become one. Kate Winslet is trapped as an actress in a terrible play presided over by the number 42, which we know is the maker's mark of the Jovian demiourgos ("the 42-fold name of God, for this is the Mystery of Iniquity, that there was ever a beginning at all"). She holds Leo (the King of the World) responsible. She will make every effort to get Frank to release her from the Wheel in which she is imprisoned, even if she must demonstrate the Mystery of Sacrifice by dying of an abortion (Sophia's aborted attempt to create the universe). 

And still stranger is that Kate Winslet was at this point in time married to Revolutionary Road director Sam Mendes, whose name we may read as "Samael Mendes," making Kate into his own personal Lilith, bride of Samael. Persephone and Hades.

Number one, it's not my fault 

that the play was lousy. Okay?

Just because you've got me safely in this little trap, you think 

you can bully me into feeling whatever you want me to feel!

Sue Lyon's composite character is not so much an evil demoness as the Spirit having fallen from heaven into the elements (thus the frequent Jacob's Ladder imagery); her career (paralleling her fictional counterpart) portrays her as a victim of circumstances, namely, going from Stanley Kubrick's (Clare Quilty's) starlet to being trapped in a series of terrible low-budget films.

Or, rather, while her essential nature as Spirit is retained, it is her adultery with the Lord of Illusions that defiles her, inasmuch as the Shekinah has become separate from the self.

Thus she plays the Persephone to Evel Knievel's Hades in this 1971 film ("Evel" being the Bad-Boy Demiurge, the Hells Angel, who as the Rider-Writer scribes upon the "Harley" Quinn, she of the dancing wheels).

I'm gonna get raped or kidnapped or something.

Evel-Hades rides up Jacob's Ladder to the top of the Tree of Life (no male visitors allowed) to abduct Lolita-Persephone. It's ANOTHER repetiton of the Clockwork Orange rape scene. Evel's whole life is centered around theft; he has no power of his own. Evel is jailed by the cops after he first picks up Lolita; a higher Law is in effect. He has 12 pounds of metal in his limbs; he's more machine than man.

Inception at least allows Dom Cobb to escape from the Underworld. Shutter Island, on the other hand, ends the film in the Lighthouse--at the point of the Bell Tower in Vertigo--and thus we are left without full closure. In Inception, Mal asks Dom to overcome his fear of falling ("take a leap of faith") by demonstrating the Mystery: sacrificial death as an act of creation. Teddy Daniels of Shutter Island is searching for Rachel, the absent Shekinah; but it is Dolores who meets her death in the Lighthouse. And this is the contradiction of Vertigo, for Madeleine is on one side Scottie's soul and belongs to himself, but on the other side is the universal spirit manifest everywhere.

It is for this reason that the Golden Girl does not truly die; she is only transformed into Judy, the sultry redhead who represents the primordial fire after its distribution into created things.

It is true that the lower Shekhinah operates in everything and animates everything: His Kingdom rules in everything (Ps. 103:19), as the biblical verse reads; it is the spark that dwells in everything, or is trapped or captive in everything but the Shekhinah is in exile there . . . The lower Shekhinah is not itself the thing or manifestation in which it is present; to put it in Indian terms, it is not the world of Maya. The manifesting and the manifestation, Shakti and Maya, which are one for the Indian esoteric, are not identical for the Kabbalist. The spark of the Shekhinah, which resides within concrete things, is always distinct from the phenomenality of these same things, as clearly demonstrated by the discussions on this point in many Hasidic texts. The spark can be elevated from the things in which it is mixed, without thereby affecting the things qua phenomena. A different, perhaps even more intense, life enters into them; but there seems to be no necessary inner bond between this specific manifestation and the specific spark of the Shekhinah that dwells within it. (Gershom Scholem)

Judy (Garland) from Kansas

"And for this is BABALON under the power of the Magician, that she hath submitted herself unto the work . . ."

It is here that Scottie engages in the alchemical work of restoring the fallen Daughter, Judy, elevating her spark to the throne of the dead Madeleine.

The great revelation is that Scottie was essentially "set up" by the Father (God as the Demiurge). Madeleine-Judy is the Shekinah, the King's Daughter (or so he thinks)--she is the property of the Father, who essentially calls on Scottie to care for her (Moses follows the Shekinah of Egypt). 

Yet it is this same Father who has been the instrument of the original Murder, as his Great Sorcery has been to proclaim that he is the supreme God, while chopping her into pieces to create the universe. The Son must again atone for the crimes of the Father, as even he is subject to a higher cosmic Law.

In the previous post, it was stated by MK Ultrasound that following the destruction of the temple, Shekhina descended to follow in the footsteps of her flock (the Malkuth descends to the Tree's base and exists in a state of exile), and Lilith (Queen of the demons as it were), her handmaiden, ascended to Kether and governs the Tree in her own way. In Christian terms Lilith is the Harlot or Whore of Babylon, she is the substitute for the Shekina, or what they refer to as the 'Holy Spirit'.

"It is all part of God's plan to allow the Shekinah to fall into a 'dimished state' and allow another to take her place as 'queen' for a short while."

God made her light to wax and wane each month. But divine justice understood that this was wrong, that God had sinned in retracting the moon's original equality. . . . Therefore God said . . . to "bring an atonement for Me, because I diminished the moon." . . . God's sin is applied to the separation of the shekhinah from the higher sefirot. (Arthur Green)

Lilith is the handmaiden, the slave woman, to the Matronit. (Shekinah) In a unique twist of fate Lilith eventually took the Matronit’s place to become God’s consort. The Matronit was in exile with her people. God cut off from his female half, took Lilith in her place. Lilith now tries to completely replace God’s female half that is cut off from himself. It is prophesied in the Zohar that, at a later time, Lilith will eventually be cut off from God (emanation of God) and he will take back the Matronit. (Jessica Evans)

One day, as the Companions were walking with R. Simeon, he said: ‘I see all other peoples elevated and Israel degraded. What is the reason? Because the King has dismissed the Matrona and put the handmaid in her place. Who is the handmaid? This is the alien Crown whose firstborn God slew in Egypt.’ R. Simeon wept, and continued: ‘A king without a queen is no king. If a king cleaves to the handmaid of the queen, where is his honour?’ (Soncino Zohar, Vayikra, 69a)

Scottie as the microcosmic Magician had to oppose the macrocosmic Great Magician, who had already done everything he attempts to do. And this is what drives Scottie insane, as it reflects the insanity of the universe.

Gilda: Hello. Remember me? I'm Gilda, your wife. Remember? You haven't been around lately. I thought maybe you were an amnesia victim or something. Got a light? You don't look so hot, you know that? You're losing weight. This vacuum I'm living in. Mind giving me a reason?
Johnny: Not at all. You had such a full life up 'til now, I thought a little peace and quiet would do ya good. Give ya time to think.
Gilda: Think about what?
Johnny: Would it be too corny to say 'your sins'?
Gilda: Yes, it would.
Johnny: Well, I said it.
Gilda: You're cock-eyed, Johnny, all cock-eyed. I figured that's what the deal was. You're getting even with me for something. Hmm. We're great people for getting even, aren't we, Johnny?
Johnny: Are we?
Gilda: Aren't we? Didn't I get even with you for walking out on me, by marrying Ballin?
Johnny: Great, that's just great. The man's dead and...
Gilda: And I'm glad. What do you think of that? He was insane, Johnny. I was afraid all the time.
Johnny: (sarcastically) You acted like it.
Gilda: Johnny. There's never been anybody but you and me. All those things I did were just to make you jealous, Johnny. There's never been anybody but you and me.
Johnny: Not anybody?
Gilda: Not anybody.
Johnny: (He grabs her violently) What about your husband? If you could forget him so easily, you could forget the others too, couldn't you?
Gilda: But there weren't any others, Johnny!
Johnny: When you admit them, when you admit them and tell me who they were... (He pushes her away)
Gilda: You wouldn't think one woman could marry two insane men in one lifetime, now would you?

Gilda presents a parallel storyline. Johnny goes about his Father's business, protecting Gilda; but the Shekinah only wants the Son. While she is in separation from Tiphareth and torn to pieces, she becomes the dancer on the stage of illusion--and Lilith is the "nakedness of Shekhinah" (Zohar 1:27b).

In the teachings of rabbi Isaac Luria, it is said that there are many Liliths. The greatest of these is the wife of Adam Qadmon, a being that God used as an avatar to create the Universe in all its ten or more dimensions, hence a multiverse. . . . There is also a reference in the Book of Isaiah chapter 34:14-15 that Lilith would find her rest. From these passages rabbi Isaac Luria believed that Lilith was to be restored to Adam through the marriage of Leah to Jacob — Jacob was Adam, Leah was Lilith, and Rachel was Eve. ("Lilith (Lurianic Kabbalah)")

Lady Gaga refers to Vertigo in more than one song. "Born This Way" features the Bernard Herrmann score from the title sequence:

Providence is in Kim Novak's right eye (Chokhmah), as if to imply that the entire film is the dream of a deranged goddess. This perfectly corresponds with Gaga's use of the same music for her creation of the universe.

And in "Paparazzi" (Papa Ratzinger, the Hierophant), Gaga falls from the sky and is resurrected as another harlequin. This is intercut with the rote Dead Girl symbolism. "There's never been anybody but you and me":

I'm your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa, Paparazzi
Baby there's no other superstar
You know that I'll be
Your Papa-Paparazzi

Promise I'll be kind
But I won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby you'll be famous, chase you down
Until you love me
Papa, Paparazzi

Oh, baby, I've told every little star
Just how sweet I think you are
Why haven't I told you

Adam is directing false blonde Camilla Rhodes, but sets his sights on true blonde Betty, who sets her sights on Rita (a black Dehlia) and the restoration of all things.

The Handmaid's golden blood at the bottom of the Ladder

In Eyes Wide Shut, too, it is Alice's perceived infidelity which drives Bill over the edge.

There was separation between the King and Matrona in respect of the outer world and so came about a separation in the Divine Name, for the final HE was detached and came down on earth . . . Though it is forbidden to separate the Heavenly Bride and Bridegroom, even in thought, it is this which has come to pass . . . (Arthur Waite)

There is, in effect a separation of the Shekinah in Malkuth from her own Fire, which accomplishes the great illusion of "splitting the Adam." The Shekinah below has no light of her own, but only that which she receives from the higher sephirot.

"You wouldn't think one woman could marry two insane men in one lifetime, now would you?"

In Inception, Leo DiCaprio is the Director of the Inception on an unsuspecting Mark. In Shutter Island, the roles are reversed. Self-Inception?

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry . . ."

In Vertigo, too, this is all an Inception and Scottie the Dead Man is the Mark. God as Master of Fate is controlling everything and Scottie is trapped on his own Shutter Island until he can understand that he has to slay himself in order to restore the world and heal the madness of the King. He has inherited the Father's derangement.

Every "fall" in the film is a bridging of Heaven and Earth. Scottie the Magician accomplishes the Great Work when Judy (the Shekinah from above) is united with the ground (the Shekinah from below).

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 Malkuth--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. (Waite)

Major Kong rides the Lolita bomb into the Russian Earth-Mother, thus accomplishing the union of Kether and Malkuth and destroying the old world.

MK Ultrasound has indicated that the Kabbalistic Tree is ultimately meant to be folded into itself; the Supernal Triad into the seven lower Sepheroth with Kether joining Tiphareth (the Crown unifying with the Heart). While at the same time the Malkuth (the feminine) also joins with Tiphareth (the masculine).

The Shekinah below (is there something wrong with her legs?)

The film Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death) parallels both Jacob's Ladder and Vertigo, as it features a man who falls out of the sky and is supposed to be dead, but survives through a clerical error (a Dead Man Walking). While heaven is in black and white (the pure light of the Three Supernals), our world is in color (the illusory realm of the seven lower sephirot, in which the light is endlessly divided).

Kim Hunter on the Stairway in A Matter of Life and Death . . .

. . . and in A Streetcar Named Desire

The other important point in Stairway is that he is again the subject of a quite literal Inception, where the doctors work with the singular goal of repairing his damaged mind (the insanity of King Leo).

"And on her account did I come down; for this is that which is written in the Gospel 'the lost sheep'."

Here it is his union with June, or the redeemed Animal-Soul (the Shekinah in exile at the base of the Tree), which allows him to live; it is for her that he made the dangerous plunge from the heavens in the first place, in order to rectify the fallen universe.

Kubrick plays with his two female archetypes in The Killing. Fay as the Shekinah is entirely faithful to the King and spends all of her time longing for him.

Sherry as Lilith, on the other hand, resents her marriage and cavorts with the Shadow Man. In the "death" is the destruction of the Tree that has become divided against itself.

The Killing Joke

(Is she?)