David Bowie's final album, released just days before his sudden death, perhaps provided clues no one initially recognized about his losing struggle with cancer. Blackstar opens with the lyric, "Look up here, I'm in heaven." The accompanying video for "Lazarus," also released in the days before Bowie's death yesterday at age 69, found him confined to a hospital bed, his eyes obscured by bandages. Later, perhaps in reference to efforts to complete Blackstar, Bowie is seen frantically working at his desk. The song title itself recalls a Biblical character who rose from the dead, and Bowie clearly alludes to life's passages: "This way or no way, you know, I'll be free. Just like that bluebird, oh I'll be free." Tony Visconti, Bowie's longtime producer, has confirmed that he was aware of Bowie's fate as they worked on the album. "He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift," Visconti said in a Facebook post. "I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it." It's hard not to hear allusions to that sad destiny everywhere on Blackstar. The title track, which features a video filled with the dark imagery of burial, includes the line "Something happened on the day he dies / Spirit rose a meter and stepped aside." The end seems much closer on "Dollar Days," however, as a longing Bowie ends the song by repeating, "I'm dying to. I'm trying to." Obviously and intentionally making his listeners think of death, not just anyones death, but his death. Later, on the album-closing "I Can't Give Everything Away," Bowie seems to wrestle with his diagnosis: "I know something is very wrong / The pulse returns the prodigal sons / The blackout hearts, the flowered news, with skull designs upon my shoes." Soon, he appears ready to put everything into a broader perspective: "Seeing more and feeling less, saying no but meaning yes – this is all I ever meant / That's the message that I sent." Elsewhere, Blackstar is filled with verses and symbolism that couldn't go further afield from his cancer battle. ("Girl Loves Me," for instance, includes words from the language Anthony Burgess created for the teen marauders of A Clockwork Orange.) This, too, was in keeping with the way Bowie lived out his final days, according to Brian Eno. "I received an email from him seven days ago," Eno told NME. "It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: 'Thank you for our good times, Brian. They will never rot.' And it was signed 'Dawn.' I realize now he was saying goodbye." Yes, he thought and so many others thought the same thing.
Thousands of fans have paid tribute to David Bowie following his death from cancer aged 69. While he was undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians of his time - his latest album Blackstar was released just last week - he was also a style icon. But aside from his flamboyant outfits, he also had a unique feature which he said gave him 'mystique'. His eyes, which appeared to be different colours, were difficult not to notice. Bowie had a condition called anisocoria - which meant his pupils were different sizes. This gave the illusion of a difference in colour, explains Kevin Hunt, senior lecturer in design and visual culture at Nottingham Trent University. Here, writing for The Conversation, he explains what anisocoria is, and tells the remarkable story of how Bowie came to have it.. Many aspects of the life and incredible achievements of David Bowie will be considered in the weeks and months ahead following the news of his death. Yet the cryptic lyric above from the lead single on David Bowie's new album is a reminder that the unusual appearance of his eyes was a key part of the singer's star persona. "At the centre of it all, your eyes, your eyes.." Indeed their iconic presence features in the advertising campaign for Blackstar, the title track of his latest album. For many people it is that look – that the eyes formed a core part of – that will be an abiding memory of Bowie. So, why were they apparently two different colours? Complete heterochromia is a fairly rare condition (in humans) whereby each iris is a distinctly different colour, such as having one blue iris and the other brown. But this isn't why Bowie's eyes looked different. Instead, the unusual appearance of Bowie’s eyes were due to a condition called anisocoria. Anisocoria is a condition characterised by an unequal size in a person's pupils. In Bowie's case, his left pupil was permanently dilated. This can create the illusion of having different coloured eyes because the fixed pupil does not respond to changes in light, while the right pupil does. Anisocoria is a condition characterised by an unequal size in a person's pupils. In Bowie's case, his left pupil was permanently dilated. Anisocoria can create the illusion of having different coloured eyes because the fixed pupil does not respond to changes in light, while the other pupil does. So Bowie's left eye often appeared to be quite dark, due to the blackness of his dilated pupil, when compared to the blue of his right iris. The dilated pupil of his left eye was also potentially more prone to the effect of 'red eye'. This sometimes adds to the appearance of a different colour when contrasted to his right eye. Red eye occurs when light reflects off of the fundus (the back of the eye), through an open pupil, and captures a red coloration by picking up tonality from the blood in the choroid lining of the eyeball. This can clearly be seen in the Aladdin Sane – Eyes Open photograph by Brian Duffy (shot in 1973 but unpublished until 2011) that was used as the lead image on the posters for the V+A David Bowie is (2013) exhibition. So what happened? Anecdotally, the cause of Bowie's anisocoria was attributed to the fallout from a lusty scrap in the spring of 1962. Bowie had come to blows with a friend, George Underwood, over a girl they were both hoping to date. Both were just fifteen at the time and their friendship seemingly remained completely intact. The condition occurred after Bowie's left eye became damaged in a fight over a girl when he was 15. The two performed together in various bands before Underwood turned from music to painting and graphics. But Bowie's left eye remained seriously damaged. An impulsive punch had accidentally scratched the eyeball, resulting in paralysis of the muscles that contract the iris. From that day, Bowie's left pupil remained in a fixed open position. Over time, Bowie apparently thanked his friend for his notorious eye injury, telling Underwood that it gave him 'a kind of mystique'. This mystique helped fuel some of Bowie's greatest creations and enhance iconic images, such as the album cover for Heroes (1977). His eyes could appear eerie and mismatched, producing a captivating or mesmeric gaze from on stage or through the lens of a camera. And the uncanny appearance of Bowie's eyes was ideal for a performer who embraced ideas of the alien, the outsider, the otherworldly and the occult. In an increasingly visual world seemingly preoccupied by perfection, Bowie's damaged left pupil became an intrinsic and arresting part of his enigmatic identity.
The beautifully weird video for David Bowie's new song Blackstar may be much more than just a crazy collage of random imagery. It’s full of occult references! Meaning can be found, but only if you’re willing to strip away comfortable ideas and step into the world of gods and symbols and unexpected correlations. First, watch Blackstar if you haven’t already. Don’t worry, it’s great, you’ll have a good time. After that, we'll go through the imagery, then the lyrics. At the beginning of the video, a woman with a tail discovers a dead astronaut. This could be a direct reference to "ancient aliens" or "ancient astronauts", the popular theory that aliens had a part in mankind’s early development. Note that the woman has a tail, and is thus part animal. According to the ancient astronaut theory, the extraterrestrial Elohim or Annunaki ("those who from the heavens to earth came") encountered primitive monkey-men, tinkered with their genes, created various slave races, and eventually settled on modern man. Notice that the woman is in awe of the skull; it is inlaid with jewels and is simply beyond mundane comprehension. She takes it to her people who are amazed, much like cavemen would be amazed by cell phones. People who are into the ancient astronaut theory often wonder at the awe primitive man must have felt looking at the rockets, space suits, and computers used by our otherworldly visitors or progenitors. Or, if you want to skip the ancient aliens theory and go for straight symbolism, the animal-woman might be an artist, one of those visionaries who sees what normal people can’t see. She looks at death and wonders at the journey that lies beyond the place where we can’t look. Instead of looking into the black pits in the eyes of the skull and being horrified by her own inevitable demise (and developing a bunch of annoying neuroses), she sees something beautiful and mysterious. She brings back her findings to her people, which is what all artists are supposed to do, and they get a kick out of it, which is what a properly entertained and enlightened audience should do. Next we see David Bowie with his eyes covered and false eyes in their place. I think this is a Gnostic reference. The Gnostics were an early Christian sect – quite possibly even the original Christian sect, depending on who you ask. Their writings would seem strange and disturbing to modern day Christians because the Gnostics believed that the God of the Old Testament was an evil demon. According to the Gnostics, he was created by accident and, because he was blind and demented, he couldn't see any other gods, thus he believed that he was the only god in existence. From that perspective, a lot of the asshole-ish stuff done by the God of the Old Testament makes a little more sense. The God of the Old Testament is known by many names, like Yahweh, but the Gnostics called him Yaldabaoth. Sounds like something from the Cthulu mythos, doesn’t it? This demented god-creature spawned other creatures like itself, and they were called archons, which is Greek for "ruler". It’s generally agreed in the occult world that archons are parasites from a “higher dimension" who feed on human energy. This explains why Bowie is in a room full of people who are shaking and jerking around. What seems like random weirdness may actually be a representation of people being worked up by various dramas and rituals before being milked of etheric energy. If you've ever been on a battlefield or watched a large sporting event or attended a megachurch, then from a Gnostic perspective you could assume that there were god-critters floating overhead and sucking on the energy generated by the excited human livestock. We see Bowie holding up some kind of holy book. Keeping in mind that archons are parasites that survive by manipulating groups of people, then of course they would have to take over religions and use them for evil purposes. It doesn't take a great leap of logic to assume that most religions are born out of a sense of awe and appreciation for the great mystery of existence. There's nothing bad about that. It takes a lot of work by a lot of dummies to go from awe and reverence to killing and torturing people, and archons love manipulating dummies. Dummies are "blind," they lack "eyes to see and ears to hear" as Christ said, and they are easily worked up by drama and narratives of conflict. When they hear Crowley say "every man and every woman is a star" or Christ say "you are gods" it goes right over their heads. They like the Old Testament stuff about people being born into sin; it's easy for them to feel existential guilt, guilt about sex, self-deflating thoughts, general repression issues, things like that. At the end of the video, we see scarecrows crucified in a field. They’re scary; even Bowie (as Yaldabaoth) is freaked out by them. This could indicate the Gnostic idea that Christ existed in opposition to the demon-god of the Old Testament. Christ came to spread gnosis, or wisdom / enlightenment, rather than cleanse people of sins (to the Gnostics, sin was a state of ignorance). So at the end of the video, it's like we’re seeing a spiritual battle, and it's frightening. Note that early Christians were hunted down, and all Gnostics were most likely exterminated, once the archons infected the original version of Christianity and turned it into the demon-worshipping death-cult it has become… that is, according to the modern Gnostic renaissance. Now let's look at some lyrics. I'm going to blast through a bunch of them, but not all of them, in absolutely no particular order. I'm a black star This is repeated many times. The idea of a "black sun" has a ton of different meanings from many different cultures, but here's an interesting alchemical take on it. In alchemy, many of their illustrations feature the sun in various states of color. This corresponds with different stages of breaking down matter for experiments, or it could correspond with the state of a human being as he develops through life. In alchemy, a "black sun" is the process of blackening that something can go through, perhaps through burning or, in the case of a living being, the grave and intense suffering. The black sun is also referred to as a "crow’s head", so the crucifixion of the scarecrows, if seen from that perspective, might make a little more sense. The Christ-figure is scaring away Yaldabaoth from the field of crops (or humans) which he has been farming for etheric energy. I Am the Great I Am In Hebrew, Yahweh can be translated into "I am". This comes from the Book of Genesis, when Moses asked for the name of the being giving him orders, and it responded, "I am that I am" or "Yod He Vav He" or "YHVH" or "Yahweh." This could be an ultimate assertion of existence, or even a monotheistic claim of isolated existence, as in, "There are no other gods but me." This is also a great thing to say during a magickal ritual; you're becoming the focus of the entire universe and thus have power over matter. Again, the Gnostic perspective is that there are many gods, but Yaldabaoth, being blind and demented, believed he was alone. Something happened on the day he died, Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside, Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried This could have to do with the hijacking of a spiritual movement by dummies or archons. The death of Christ, who told people that they were gods and that they would eventually do greater things than he did, was taken over by the same sort of fanatical guilt-mongers who killed him in the first place. There's not much difference between right-wing evangelical Christianity and hardcore Judaism (and angry Islam), is there? Take your passport and shoes, and your sedatives and booze, you're a flash in the pan Passports and shoes are necessary for travelling across borders, from one "world" to another. If your means of spiritual travel are taken away, then you're going to incarnate in the same realm over and over again and again, suffering endlessly, milked and harvested by parasites who think they're gods. Which is exactly what is going on here. We were born upside-down, born the wrong way 'round This could be like a curse. In a protective pentagram, you can fit the image of a human being, with the head and limbs corresponding to the points on the star. But if you turn the pentagram upside down (making it "Satanic") then the man inside is also turned upside down. His spirit on the bottom and more earthly elements taking precedence up top. There’s also many mentions of eyes, as well as shots of eyes. Which is an obvious symbol. This is a pretty ubiquitous image in occult lore, and can mean many things. My favorite thing to focus on with eye imagery is that moment of personal transformation when you strip away all elements of yourself, including your goofy job and silly political beliefs and the dumb stuff in your brain that you think makes up "you."