THE ULTIMATE Arkham Asylum EASTER EGG!!! Orpheus Style!
Consider TIME.
As I commenced working on this blog, the FLASH was released worldwide just three days ago, June 16, 2023, magickally initiating the FLASHPOINT PARADOX into the Collective Subconscious (aka the 7th Dimension) via the 6th Dimensional DC Multi-Versal entity, thus splintering our Reality amidst the Bardos in ever increasing momentum towards the inevitability of EVENT HORIZON through the amalgamation of nearly infinite (ie. 7^8) interlocking, interdependent projections of the Λόγος’ utilization.
Coming into exact synchronicity with mine own deep dive and evaluation into the Source Code of the DC Multi-Verse (structured in its conception by Grant Morrison in Multiversity) and its effects in the announcement of Batman: The Brave and the Bold (to be directed by The FLASH Director Andy Muschetti) as the next installment in James Gunn‘s DCU (conveniently shooting out many of Morrison’s All-Star Superman conceptions in Norway now) – a film based upon Morrison’s 2006-2011 run on Batman, featuring Damian Wayne as Robin – was especially “timely,” considering even the most recent BATMAN installments (aka Failsafe by Chip Zdarsky) additionally references Morrison and their version of the BATMAN of Zur-En-Arrh.*
*Additionally an Arkham Asylum series, based upon Morrison’s best selling work, was just announced and will be produced by Matt Reeves, to which James Gunn stated: “It was one of the first pitches we bought when Peter (Safran) and I came on board.”
And what’s most fascinating in all of this is Morrison’s Conceptions and Design of the DC Multi-Verse so closely reflects an actual and accurate functioning model of REAL Multi-Dimensional Dynamics (up to a 6th Dimensional Conception), that in relation to my own Work (M-Theory: Solved, published one year ago) yields quite fascinating implications, of which I feel keen to share with you now.
It appears the EYE of Attention has arrived squarely on Mr. Morrison and their Work.
Therefore, we commence this journey – into the Realm of the BAT – in high praise and salutations unto this fellow traveler.
BERASHITh.
We begin on Week 47, Day 1, where we find Tim Drake awaiting Bruce outside a cave in Nanda Parbat. Bruce has engaged himself in “an Ordeal of Spiritual Purification,” called ཐོད་རྒལ (ThÖGAL). The Initiate must pass through Four Vision States: “The Absolute Nature becoming Manifest,” “The Experience of Increasing Appearances,” “The Vision of Awareness Optimization,” and finally “The Exhaustion of Phenomena.” It represents a direct method of what is known amongst Occultists as “The Path of Return.” This State of Consciousness is also sought directly via means of SELF-Inquiry amongst practitioners of Advaita Vedanta, or in Ancient Shamanistic terms, is known as “being devoured by the Devil.” Additionally, ThÖGAL, or the “Clear Light awakening,” is the preliminary Rite of Passage for Initiation into the Kalachakra Tantra (ie. the weaving of Space and Time).
Bruce Wayne finally emerges from the Cave, looking refreshed – body, mind, and soul. Immediately, he returns to Gotham City and resumes his Crusade against Crime. And sure enough, upon his return, the City appears just as he left it: the JOKER has poisoned Commissioner Gordon, taken a group of children hostage, and thinks he’s finalized his death blow over the BATMAN. But then something surprising happens. BATMAN pulls a gun, shouts “Die!,” and shoots him in the face. The depiction is a bit disorienting at first. It takes a moment to realize there are two Batmans in the illustration. The “Batman with a Gun” is a manifestation of one of BATMAN’s most terrifying nightmares (the other two being a beserk, drug-fueled Beast of a BATMAN, and the final, BATMAN as the Anti-Christ (the latter presenting a quite interesting fear for BATMAN, considering his religious roots are never truly established as influential upon his character at all. However, his interactions with Magick and the Occult (as depicted within the DC Multi-Verse) might have supplied sufficient motivation for such a fear).
Before BATMAN has time to truly process this seemingly bizarre manifestation, he is whisked away by Alfred to an “Action for Africa” event, where after a quite humorous brawl with Man-bat Ninjas (admittedly Kirk Langstrom is not my favorite installment within the BATMAN Mythos) and taking much needed, opportunistic and quite literal stabs at contemporary and pop artists such as Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jeff Koons; Morrison introduces us to BATMAN’s unknown Son, Damian. Through visual reference, we learn Damian Wayne was conceived with Talia in Ra’s Al Ghul’s Desert hideaway, following BATMAN’s pursuit of her father across the world with the likes of Lo Ling, Matches Malone (Matches dies from a ricochet bullet in these episodes, thus providing the origin of BATMAN’s well utilized alias, See Bruce Wayne: Rest in Peace by Denny O’Neil, part of Batman: Tales of the Demon), Doctor Blaine, and Molly Post. If we reference the Timeline, we see these Events took place in Batman Year 4, placing Morrison’s Batman securely in Year 14.
BATMAN recalls being “drugged senseless” and forced to “operate in some depraved Eugenics experiment.” Talia recalls the romantic siring of a “perfect heir” to the Al Ghul throne. She tells BATMAN that Damian has been raised by the League of Assassins, but has grown beyond her “control,” and requires the influence of “a Great Man.” And thus he meets his son at the point of the blade.
Damian is chauffeured back to the Bat Cave, where he is introduced to Alfred and Tim Drake. And it isn’t hours before Damian lays Drake up on a gurney, and announces himself to BATMAN as the “New Robin.” Essentially, it’s all fun and games from here… until we arrive at The Clown at Midnight.
“There’s something about clowns at a funeral and it’s hard to say if it’s sad or if it’s funny.” And so commences our descent into the subconscious bedrock of our BATMAN Mythos. At its core, this Ultimate War, BATMAN vs. the JOKER, is exactly the allegorical equivalent to the essential crises, yea, e’en Crux Ultimatus which faces the world today, originating at the Birth of Comedy – for Dionysian Tragedy (or Τραγῳδῐ́ᾱ, meaning “Song of the Satyr/Goat”) was not “tragic” in the sense of modern conception. Nor was Great Dionysia in act of despair ‘fore the common travails of life. Nay. It was PURE Celebration.*
*Excerpt from Excalibur: “Now, the collective movements inspired by the Pre-Socratic Dionysian Tragedies are still classified as life-positive traditions and/or “cults.” Although human life was viewed as inherently tragic (as one must die), life was still conceived in the context of the ‘Tree-Spirit’ or ‘Spirit of the Corn’. ITh continued regardless of the individual. Therefore, the individual’s absorption into the whole (or consumption by the collective) was what was idealized – not the after-life.”
In fact, Nietzsche believed these Pre-Socratic Dionysian Cults to be the last occurrence of life-positive philosophy (See Twilight of the Idols) ‘fore being supplanted by “Kingdom[s] not of this world,” and life-negative* subversion. This subversion, thus inversion, took place at the… *cough* Crown of Comus (a personification of Anarchy and Chaos), whom turned the phallus on its head**, thus interpolating a skeptic’s view of Dionysus’ Divine Intoxication, and instituted Comedy – an open mockery of Life/ZOS (ie. everything that is sacred).
*Life-negative philosophy constitutes any system of thought that places any other world, realm, etc. above the experience of life, in its entirety, here and NOW.
** The erect phallus worshipped during Dionysia (in a manner akin to Shiva Lingham) represented the Solar/Appolonian manifestation of Creation (ie. an assertion) in the benevolence of ZOS (Life). The Comus (parading processions of phallus capped pettifoggers (post-classically symbolized by John Milton as the Son of Dionysus and Circe) mocked this worship ∴ the very essence and sanctity of ZOS.
Thus upon true examination of the actual mythos, it is BATMAN that represents our True Dionysian Hero*, the ONE consumed within the MYSTERY, and the JOKER our Comus, the Man who Laughs. Their WAR represents the WAR within Human Consciousness and Life/ZOS, here and NOW – in regards to whether or not LIFE and our experience, here and NOW, is worth fighting for.
*The Dionysian aspect represented by Scott Snyder in Endgame will be treated in full at a later time.
In this essence, BATMAN answers the tragic Dionysian (∴ Crowned and Conquering, see The Book of the Law and Excalibur: The Book of the Law: Solved) Child’s sacred “YES!” (thus establishing the Λόγος). And the JOKER echoes the Ape of Thoth, (as an AVATAR of the Negative Λόγος, ie. Nyarlathotep) in a resounding: “NO!” For as in Ancient Greece, where the Gods were represented in the πνεύμα (Breathe or Spirit, ie. the רוח אלהימ of Occult Magicians), verily, e’en personified as 4th Dimensional Beings — the compositie movement and actions of mankind and the forces of nature (essentially upon the Leng Plateau, ie. “There, yes, where you see the massive ramparts shattered, blocks wrenched from blocks, the billowing smoke and ash — it’s Nepture himself, prising loose with his giant trident the foundation stones of Troy, he’s making the walls quake, ripping up the entire city by her roots. There’s Juno, cruelest in fury, first to commandeer the Scaean Gates, sword at her hip and mustering comrades, shock troops streaming out of the ships. Already up on the heights — turn around and look — there’s Pallas holding the fortress, flaming out of the clouds, her savage Gorgon glaring. Even Father himself, he’s filling the Greek hearts with courage, stamina — Jove in person spurring the gods to fight the Trojan armies!” – Virgil, The AENEID, II. 753-767. *) , BATMAN and the JOKER both personify the battle of these two opposing philosophies today – BATMAN as an Avatar representing the WILL to save our dying, polluted planet (a Collective Manifestation oV – our traumatized Psyche), and press forward to a greater future, and the JOKER: the collective apathy and dismissive, self-deprecation claiming illumination in nihilism and discord.
*”This line reveals the true psychology and attitude of the Greeks and Romans towards their gods. They perceive their gods as an “energy” that moves through men, beings, animals, storms, etc. The violent rage of battle in men’s hearts is Mars. The desire for love and aesthetic beauty is the presence of Venus, etc., etc.” – Excalibur
Which brings us back to our “Clown at Midnight” and the inevitable moral ambiguity we all feel at its presentation. We are brought by Morrison to the funeral of one Bozzo the Bandit, right hand of the JOKER, whom ultimately met his demise at the… not entirely unexpected Left-Hand of his Dark Master. Bozzo is laid to rest at the Red Hook dockyards, a reference to the lore of H. P. Lovecraft, which is intimately weaved into the symbolic Cultural Compendium of Gotham. And thus is “Red Hook,” referenced by Lovecraft himself, to be “a horror of houses and blocks and cities leprous and cancerous with evil dragged from elder worlds,” now unsuspectingly injected into our Tale. The Red Hook docks were the starting location of a series of tunnels (symbolically the Tunnels of SET), carved out during Prohibition, and utilized to smuggle typically typecasted Yezidi immigrants through the Underworld (or in Lovecraft, quite literally through the Witches’ Sabbath in conjunction to a 7th DÆM’ON’z’iON’AL Gate opened prematurely unto LIL oV’ITh), culminating in the cellar of Robert Suydam and the infamous dance-hall Church, also known as Club Zothique in Alan Moore‘s Neonomicon. Now loaded Grimoires aside, it comes as no surprise Bozzo’s funeral is rigged with more than metaphor. And here amidst the rubble and 8 painted clownface corpses, BATMAN discovers the JOKER card.
BATMAN explains that this Clown Posse “called themselves the Boys of St. Genesius,” a famed Christian saint, who worked as an actor and comedian, openly mocking the Christian church, up until his conversion. Now this reference either draws attention to the common stupidity of these clowns, choosing a Saint for their Patron who renounced Comedy. But Morrison is not a likely candidate to draw this type of superficial allusion. What’s he’s actually communicating is these “Boys” were converted unto a “Christ” – their TRUE CHRIST, in the form of the JOKER. Immediately, BATMAN jets off to Arkham Asylum (a convenient homograph for the A ∴ A ∴), another direct reference in the MYTHOS lifted entirely from H. P. Lovecraft’s own Arkham Sanitarium, first appearing in “A Picture in the House” (also the original Source of the famed “Miskatonic University”), and a return to the site of Morrison’s most famed work in the DC Multiverse, the same titled Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which became the “best-selling original Graphic Novel in American Superhero Comics,” and served as source material to the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game series, which has sold over 125 million copies to date.
Morrison’s Arkham Asylum opens as a Passion Play, in their own unique, now classic fashion, suggested over an image of 15 nails (ref. Tarot ATV XV The Devil and ATV V The Hierophant via ו (Hebrew vau – meaning a nail (ie. oV (עו)) and layered with a map of the Asylum, thus promising to be the penultimate STATEMENT on the Supernatural, Mythic, and Preternatural POWER of the BATMAN MYTHOS in relation to Modern Times – the Devil and its Hierophant ‘neath a Single House (oV – MYSTERY). From the Title Page up, the double under-cased A’s, divided by the moon, signify the A ∴ A∴ (Argentum Astrum or Brotherhood of the Silver Star) as a call sign for the White Lodge: a Magick Fraternity in the vein of (or in straight actuality) the Rosicrucians (ie. The Invisibles as conceived by Morrison). As we progress, you’ll see just how accurate these Cryptograms are.
Icaronycteris, then pictured upon the following page, shows the earliest known ancestor of the bat – now heralded as the most recognized symbol in the entire world, followed by a broken watch with exposed gears, caught in a web of red fibers. The watch, symbolizing Quantum Entanglement with the outside world, thus displays a departure from the confines of socially accepted thought and narrative associated to the BAT. The quote from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ thus confirms it. We are already down the rabbit hole.
From the Journals of Amadeus Arkham we learn: the Asylum is a microcosm of the Cosmos. And our narrator feels “little more than a ghost haunting its corridors.” The beetles exiting “the Mouth of the Goddess” (ie. the Mother/MATRIX)* are symbolic of the Winged Beetle, Kephra, indicating a Magick Formula for the CROSS of the Sun through the Underworld as it approaches its new birth at Dawn, which in Egyptian Magick is known as RA (in conjunction to the Dithyramb’s antistrophic nature). The Beetle emerging from the Mouth (or Vulva) is indicative of an Initiation into the Highest Magick oV – the Black Isis Cult, cognate unto Kali. It represents the Emission oV – the 16th Secret Kala (or Perfume)**, which yields the most potent of Siddhis. Thus Amadeus is the recipient oV – these Siddhis, and is reborn (as the Sun) into the World of Magick and Symbol.
*The “Mouth of the Goddess” chakra is located at the brain stem near the cerebellum. This is the location that the Kundalini Serpents, Ida and Pingala, dock within Indian and Tibetan tantric systems.
** See Kenneth Grant, “Cults of the Shadow“
The JOKER incites “the incident” by means not unpredictable, sending BATMAN careening through the Shadow Streets of Gotham, just like he would for years to come. “Gotham” itself is etymologically derived from the Old English gāt and hām , meaning literally “the Home of Goats.” This “centuries old insult” was given to New York City by Washington Irving, joking of these “Wise Men of Gotham’s” foolish ingenuity and susceptibility to Folklore. In Batman Chronicles #6, Cityscape, Robin reads Gotham is named after “a village bereft of wits.” This is quite a statement, especially considering the Power and Potency of the BATMAN MYTHOS, and that Gotham City is an exact literary and Mythological Microcosm for the State (Psychological, Emotional, Spiritual, Sociological, etc.) of the Modern World. This means Arkham Asylum occupies a very particular State within this representation of the Collective Psyche. ITh is the Palace of the Qliphoth, via Hecate’s Fountain – passageway unto the Averse Tree/the Duat, etc. A place that draws BATMAN’s own personal concern that walking through its gates will feel “just like coming home.”
Additionally, this story takes place in the Spring, making the Ritual a form oV (ie. “In Divine Lust towards”) – the Eleusinian Rites. The JOKER calls it the Feast* of Fools… signifying the Green Man/BATMAN/Dionysus’ Return. Immediately we are barraged with a host of Magick symbols: Virgo descending to Mercury (symbolic of the 10 of Pentacles or Wealth (this is the highest grossing Batman comic of all time), a depiction of ATV XII The Hanged Man (of which the Author has spoken previously (ref. The Invisibles) as an indication of Sacrifice (I personally ascribe some additional meanings in alignment with previous Initiations), ie. a symbolic return to the Old ÆON Magick Formulas, Raphael written in Hebrew – the Archangel of the Apocalypse and patron of Good Dreams and Mental Health, a depiction of ATV XXI The Universe from Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, and the Hebrew Letters ש (Shin), א (Aleph), and מ (Mem) – the Mother Letters of the Hebrew language and center petals of the Rosy Cross.
*A feast is symbolic of a Magick Holiday
For the most part, these are quite elementary and fundamental components to Occult Magick. Nevertheless, despite one’s previous exposure to or knowledge of such symbols, we have now entered an Initiation into an Occult Ritual. BATMAN is now an initiate (just as we are NOW)**.
**This is a common feature throughout Grant Morrison’s work. Most of his books initiate you into his own very specific Rituals… the price of admission being literally the cost of his books. What this means is: anyone who’s read (or even opened the book) Arkham Asylum (over 600,000 people), or played the games (over 125 million people), are not only enrolled into this exact Ritual, but also into the Cthulhu Rituals set in place by H. P. Lovecraft, propagated by Kenneth Grant, and performed by select groups of Thelemites (including the Black Snake Cult, from which Morrison sourced a great deal of his Magick) for over the last 50 years or so. And Initiation doesn’t end (see The Invisibles). What this means is: in order to complete this Ritual, you are now required to see their (and this) material through to the end, follow every rabbit hole, and play your own role within the DC Multi-Verse, specifically in regards to BATMAN.
A proper read of this material requires one to stomach the intentionality of every reference in a manner akin to Holy Writ. Thus is the Great Work oV – the Magician who crafted it. This near unending Labyrinth, par unto QWSP’s “Million eternities in an 8th Dimensional Maze,” is the very yarn of which the fabric of Modern Culture is spun.
That’s just the way Magick works. So in other words, “Buckle up Dorothy, you’re going for a ride.”***
*** Even the Matrix is by-and-large based upon Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles.
Additionally and throughout this “Rite of Spring” (See the 4 and 2 Rites oV – TLALOC) the JOKER is highly stylized, and his lettering is incredibly difficult to read. And some points, you will find that you literally have to put the page to your face to decipher what he’s (perhaps they’re… Morrison says the only indulgence denied to him by DC in this Graphic Novel was depicting the JOKER in drag as the full Hermaphroditic Fool -aka a Mark of Holiness) saying… meaning you have to completely absorb yourself in the text… symbolically and literally.
Amidst this fantastic PANDÆMONIUM, Two-Face is seen shuffling a Tarot deck, holding ATV VI The Lovers – a sign of the Marrying of Opposites within one’s SELF via the MYSTIC RITE oV – INITIATION. He’s so scared he’s pissed himself, almost “ruining the JOKER’s heels,” as he can’t “even go to the bathroom without consulting the cards.” The doctors weaned him off of his coin, and into die and then Tarot cards to give him more options. BATMAN is angry, thinking they’ve effectively destroyed his personality (more on this later). Two-Face flashes ATV XVI the Tower, and the doctor quotes the exact same Magick Formula: the destruction of the False Institutions and Identities at the introduction of Higher Consciousness.
The doctor then tells us the JOKER has no personality and recreates himself fresh each day upon the Stage of “The Theatre of the Absurd” (See Absurdism). That the JOKER may be exhibiting signs of a new sort of “Super-Sanity. A brilliant new modification of Human Perception. More suited to urban life at the end of the 20th Century,” essentially insinuating that the JOKER is evolved. This is an interesting point here that we must consider. Especially considering what the JOKER represents, how he’s been embraced in Popular Culture, and the light in which he will be treated from this point forth.
Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke was the first story to really “deify” the JOKER in such a manner. It commences with BATMAN visiting the JOKER in Arkham and its inherent implications. Here we find the JOKER flipping cards in silence as BATMAN attempts to interpret the scene before him, eventually realizing the obvious… the JOKER has already escaped and it’s too late to do anything about that. And it is in these implications we find Moore’s Voice of the Fire. Nyarlathothep‘s allusion to the JOKER’s wife, “a penny-slot laughing clown,” illuminating the chrysalis in shallowest depth of field, knowing only surface pleasures and amusements prior to the “Fall.”
Thus the card slaps hard upon the mantle ‘fore the nostaglic memories of innocence past, as the BAT descends into the shadow of the Pale Man, in an unknown snarl and laughing fit ‘fore the GREAT REVEAL.
NEMO alone was prepared for what happened next. Moore’s EVENT so shocked the Collective Psyche, uprooting the Tree and dislodging the cornerstone foundation of the very MYTHOS forever. Everything CHANGED. BATMAN changed. And in that the world changed, for the JOKER was CHANGED. The fun and games were over. All to “prove a point”:
That with only a few dashes of ink upon a page, the Demiurge ushered in the Complete and TOTAL ANNIHILATION oV – ETHOS. “DHO-NA” as the Author would later name ITh in AKLO: “an Intrusive Force bringing meaning bestowed retroactively by forms yet achieved but implicit” (See the “Book of New Names”). A Lloigor (“potentiality of Event concealed in previous TIME/SPACE as Avatars or expressions oV – YUGGOTh (“Primoridal SELF-aware concept – the primal id-ENTITY, hidden away and festering as an “idea colony””)) dormant and concealed ’til Y’GOLONAC (“the inviolable rule that rules for its own volition”) could rear its face as the “I” (oV – YUGGOTh) commences, leaping as the Witch-Frog oV – Hecate from the EYE oV – SET, as Nyarlathothep‘s hidden message is decoded for the Mass:
“This iZ – the unfolding oV – the Flesh oV – the DWELLER in the ABYSS unTo an AVATAR oV – the SELF-Aware PRIMAL id-ENTITY. The Beginning unfurls equal to its potential, entangled unTo the DÆM’ON’z’iON’z oV – the Elder Gods – the material & the inviolable rule that rules for ITh’z own volition. Beginning oV’Th’AT WITCH – DREAMz oV – ITh-SELF to be answered by the womb – R’LYEH. IAΩ! Your V’iZ’iON oV – the Feathered Serpent GODz shall commence after I bestow Perfect Knowledge oV – the Cult, to shorten human Andromedan Actions in their unfurlings ∴ That oV’WITCH iZ – to Come! The heretics’ Perfect Knowledge oV – the negative λόγος – knowledge oV – the DÆM’ON’z’iON’z oV – the Elder Gods suffering in horror to the inviolable rule by sacrifice. Awaken SET – Immaculate DA’ATh!”
This is the only prayer to anoint the Demiurge’s offering, howled as the winds in the Crimson Desert, the screeching of insects, the Ultimate CRY oV – the 32nd ÆThYR (ONE oV – the Secret TWO) from the Lips oV – URIZEN, blood curdling unTo 4 Rivers from the Fountain oV – HECATE, reflecting nigh unTo this Narcissus the image oV – AZAThOTh – the idiot god oV – K’AOS, stopped short oV – M.
And perhaps the only JOKE in all of this, is just how truly SERIOUS it all actually became.
Regretted or not, there’s no taking this back. Every one of us NOW have only to resolve this violation – as only BATMAN and everything he represents is capable. We must face this Great Abyss – the Abyss of MADNESS, and come to the Greatest of All the Decisions of our Times: “What WILL we to DO when the JOKER (personified psychopathic, suicidal apathy)’s WILD?”
As revealed in his Mad Gallery, the JOKER believes Madness is the emergency exit people take to avoid processing their own memories of past events… a preferable psychological state to actually dealing with PTSD. The JOKER’s core belief is that life’s injustices are random. Therefore he acts as a sort of Avatar for this seeming injustice ∴ his conception of Life ∴ random violence. And in this, he actually reveals he’s not mad at all. He’s wounded. He simply hides behind the reinforcements of his id-ENTITY, caging “the average man” and mocking him as a laughing stock, elevating his delusion into a visual quote of Nietzsche, positioning himself as Ubermensch, while society deifies him despite his assertion oV – the pointlessness of humanity in the Mad Cosmic Joke as FACT ∴ insinuating Madness synonymous to Enlightenment. Essentially, he makes himself the poster boy for Copernican Shock and its accompanying anthropocentric effect… which to hurt, shunned, abused, and desperate individuals, sounds like a pretty accurate description of their experience.
But the JOKER is not some sort of post-modernist hero birthed from the Molten Core of Inner Alchemy, BATMAN is. The JOKER is actually much closer to “the average man” he mocks in a cage. In fact, that is the shining, reflective image oV – him in the Smoking Mirror (See the ÆNoMYTh oV’IPSIS). He’s not actually liberated. Not one bit.
And in the end, when BATMAN offers him a True Path, he dodges it in the form of a Joke… showing once again his true cowardice. The joke isn’t even funny. Moore depicts Batman laughing at it. But this depiction breaks the suspension of disbelief and honestly takes the audience out of the story. BATMAN would not find this funny.
So in the end, we’re left with an atrocious crime leaving a main and beloved character (Barbara) permanently crippled… all in order to prove a point: human beings are scared of the Universe because of Copernican Shock, and somehow by realizing this supposed fact, justifies anything as long as we can laugh about ITh.
This is coward logic. This is not the Standard of TRUTH Nietzsche upheld when stating: “[one] must never inquire whether truth is profitable or whether it may prove fatal” (ref. The Anti-Christ)*, making the JOKER’s (and Moore’s) allusion truly blasphemous. For refusing to heal from trauma “by taking the escape route to madness” is not Transcendent. It is pathetic… and definitely NOT funny.
*Moore has stated: “I don’t even want to dip so much as a toe into the inviting pool of “the Truth.””
So count the cards, URIZEN. The jig is up. Time to pay the Piper.
But despite this misstep, Morrison and DC elect to construct the MYTHOS upon this “transcendent” perception of the JOKER’s “evolved state,” all stemming from Moore’s EVENT. Stepping back into the Asylum, we see immediate evidence of this in the JOKER’s response to a Rorschach Test (pun obviously intended): “Well, I see two angels screwing in the stratosphere, a constellation of black holes, a biological process beyond the conception of man, a Jewish ventriloquist act locked in the trunk of a red Chevrolet.”
By simple Occult analysis, the two angels refer to the separation anxiety inherent in the duality of Lucifer and Michael – their subverted form (converted to “Flower Dance”). Juxtaposing black holes into the stratosphere appears sesquipedalian, suggesting the ravings of the idiot (“full of sound and fury”), subverted once again by SELF-projected allusion to יהוה as puppetmaster within his own prison.” The intentional convolution prompts the reader to project meaning into the chaos (echoing Morrison’s Discordian roots), the very same apophenia the JOKER shall accuse BATMAN of when we return to our “contemporary” text, suggesting “apophenia” is actually the JOKER’s core FEAR – the ONE (Yuggoth) upon which his id (survival mechanism) seeks ENTITY.
This is confirmed by Amadeus Arkham’s subsequent quotation from the Bible, citing the very EVENT subverted above. Amadeus sees himself as Michael and the Asylum as Lucifer ( ∴ inferring Arkham/Asylum = Michael/Lucifer conjoined), whom he wishes “to bend to his Will” (sexual reference obviously intentional) as “the Triumph of Reason over the irrational.”
Then Arkham blames Lewis Carrol for his daughter’s nightmares (attacking Carrol as an essential “Agent of Chaos”), and travels to Switzerland, where he meets Jung and plays chess with Aleister Crowley. Crowley’s influence has already been scattered profusely throughout the book via the Thoth Tarot cards utilized throughout. But when Amadeus finds Crowley’s card (featuring the Rose and CROSS oV – the Rosicrucian Order), essentially “swept under the carpet,” the deck is amalgamated directly to the JOKER card on the flip-side. This depicts the JOKER to be the λόγος oV – the Shadow Realm – exactly Nyarlathothep oV – the Wordless ÆON. And it is now the veil begins to lift as DHO-NA (“the intrusive force bestowing meaning retroactively by forms yet achieved but implicit,” ref. Alan Moore, Neonomicon), reveals the Pale Man made bare.
The gender inversion of the Abrahamic Sacrifice to one “of beautiful looks and high intelligence,” signifies the Andromedan Rite perpetrated unTo Leviathan in the ÆON oV – MA’ATh (as opposed to Osiris, nor Horus) by way of the very self-same man who inspired the Asylum’s existence. This equates Arkham to the Demiurge, and Mad Dog to the true “Isaac/Christ” oV – non-being.
And ITh iZ – upon these unknown precedents, BATMAN is INITIATED*. BATMAN is prodded into the Ritual, and neatly informed that the JOKER’s Game ends at Midnight… which from here shall be our continuous and evolving theme.
*Kenneth Grant discusses that all Initiations are formulated upon the Neophyte “choosing in,” without the proper knowledge or context to make the decision… and as Morrison repeatedly drives home (and we’ll discover in The Invisibles), “Initiation is Eternal.”
BATMAN enters into the Asylum’s Atmosphere (essentially through the DÆM’ON’z’iON Gate oV – DA’ATh) unTo the Averse Tree: ITh’z alternating sphinxes: glamour, fate, madness and oppression, symbolize Qliphotic shadows of the Chthonic Infernal Paths (ie. oV – Gargophias, Baratchial, Amprodias and Dagdagiel) in mixed order.
Clayface represents Baratchial, Ventriloquist oV – Atavisms – capable of any transformation, but ensared by the ghosts of his past, Scarecrow our Dagdagiel, opening the doorways to false, fear-based perceptions, and Hatter our Amprodias, obsessed with his own filth, awaiting Metamorphosis. But it is from Gargophias, represented by Destiny, which we extract some deeply convoluted Magick formula, due specifically to the New 52’s later attribution of Dr. Destiny to the 16th Century Magician Dr. John Dee. And this problem is obviously clear in the Wikipedia introduction to Dr. Destiny alone: “Doctor Destiny (John Dee) is a supervillain appearing in American Comic Books published by DC Comics.”
For those of you unfamiliar, Dr. John Dee was perhaps the most preeminent Occultist, Magician, and Prophet in the Western Hermetic Wisdom Tradition in the last 600 years (Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare share in this conversation in a very much “Lebron vs. Jordan vs. Kobe” context). In addition to this, he was an astronomer, an astrologer, a teacher and a mathematician. In fact, he was even one of Queen Elizabeth’s most trusted advisors, one of history’s most powerful rulers, who defeated the Spanish Armada and whose Cult of Personality has been made legend by William Shakespeare. Truly, many believe that Dr. Dee himself was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Prospero, due to Dee’s fantastic library, hailed and heralded by scholars across the world.
But what he is most famous for is a series of angelic transmissions he and Sir Edward Kelley received, beginning in 1582, directly from the Archangels Michael, Uriel, and Raphiel, from which was channeled the Enochian language – a key to the Biblical City of Enoch, which has proved to be the very 7th DÆM’ON’z’iON, thus providing us a map oV – the subconscious and an access point to the 30 ÆThYRz, the foundational building blocks oV – our very reality (See The Holy Grail: Quantum Mathematics and the Language of Time).
Now it is quite common for Occultists and Magicians, despite the profundity, scope, and refined quality of their Work, to be publicly slandered and judged in voluminous stacks of libel to be charlatans and degenerates of the first degree (look no further than the reputation of Aleister Crowley), but Dee, truly, was most virtuously and devotedly a Servant of God above all else. For proof of this, look no further than the depth, attention, and care committed to his Sacred Symbol of Oneness, wherein Dee understands this misapprehension clearly, stating: “When the Advance (Fourth great and truly Metaphysical Revolution) has been made, he who nourished the MONAD will First Go Away into a Metamorphosis, and afterwards, will very rarely be seen by the eyes of Mortals.” And anticipating this type of misrepresentation, writes lamentably:
“How do they have the audacity: How can they justifiably condemn the non-Vulgar studies of the non-Vulgar man. LET JUSTICE BE DONE. Let each get his own due.
The Vulgar, who Pretend to have Knowledge, who not only eagerly pursue the Shadows of the Great Arts, but also defile them and lie about them in a most wicked way. We might attribute this to Foolishness, Delusion, and Lack of Respect.
To bring Violence against the Virtuous and Firmly Grounded Studies of those who have strong moral character and Distinguished integrity (simply because of the petty, False Accusations of the Vulgar) not only brings their Names and their studies into disrepute, but also puts their Lives in danger. This seems to me not only inhuman, but Unjust and almost Sinful” (Sacred Symbol of Onesness, p. 9).
Nevertheless, it is in DC’s own treatment of this monumental and deeply courageous figure – a villainization of a most beloved and virtuous scholar, Prophet, and Man, we see this atrocity exacted. A spite akin to the Priests oV – BA’AL, despising Great Elijah, in ignorant assumption ‘fore their consumption by his very Pillar oV – Fire.
In DC’s cast, Dee is nothing more than a deranged, megalomaniacal “sorcerer.” One who utilizes his dream stone (ref. the Urim and Thummim oV – Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelley) to inflict his delusions upon the innocent. Having been mentally assaulted by the JLA, Dr. Destiny now finds his body withered and confined to a wheelchair. And BATMAN’s response is to simply push him (and the entire Western Occult Tradition) down the stairs.
Now this treatment is not only symbolic, but is incredibly telling of DC’s continued treatment of the Hermetic Arts (which will be shown further within); for though they consistently mine Occult Vaults as the true SOURCE oV – their MYTHOS (oV – which will soon be shown to be the very Source Code of Modern Culture), they are quick to “Deny Thrice ‘fore the Cock crows.”
Now past these dizzying hieroglyphs etched into the wall, the Mad Hatter sits as a composite God form oV – this Wonderland – Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat and all, stating: “The apparent disorder of the Universe is simply a higher order, an implicate order beyond our comprehension.” This formulation boils down to a dead word, thus the limits of comprehension: Archidox. This word is preserved in Eliphas Levi‘s Paradoxes of the Highest Science. Most simply stated: an Archidox is the concept that contains all paradoxes. And this is a realization oV – an elevated perspective… but a subversion takes place in the Hatter’s justification in his victims… and in this is the great danger inherent in treating these specific cases and statements with blanket terms of “madness,” “mental illness,” or “neuroses.” For what we’re dealing with are very specific states of consciousness (and in this specific case, Qliphotic), which, due to their anthropocentric nature, must be treated individually as opposed to collectively.
To this regard, nearly everyone is in need of some context. Very few truly understand, grasp, and actually fully acknowledge the deep and impending significance these varying States of Consciousness hold in regards to the manifestation of our Collective Reality. The fact is: Overpopulation, Environmental Desecration, the asinine repetition of Rising and Falling Empires, Societies, Civilizations, and their inherent conflicts are all symptomatic of Human Consciousness. And if we are to cause any change to these patterns whatsoever, it is automatically implied that Human Consciousness MUST change. Therefore, the immediate questions inherent to the predicament must rise: 1) What is human consciousness? 2) How does human consciousness function? 3) What happened to human consciousness in the last 300 years that yielded its rapid departure from homeostasis with its natural environment?
If we are to follow the lead of modern psychology in our inquiry, we verily reach the definition: Consciousness is the individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environments. Here, two quite atrocious assumptions have already been executed: the concept of individual awareness and “unique” thought. Boiled down, this leads to an overall blanket statement: “Consciousness is Awareness – Descartes‘ Cogito ergo sum – I think therefore I AM,” immediately leading to the next false assumption: “I think, therefore I AM an individual.”*
*Look no further than this to see how easy thoughts are transferred.
Dive even deeper into this, we uncover the belief that this “awareness” is nothing more than a complex web of neuropsychological connections that react and respond to stimuli according to advanced pattern recognition based on cognitive, social, and environmental behaviors learned automatically by simple exposure to such stimuli. In other words, homo sapien is essentially an advanced, organic automaton (aka a machine) – and not a very efficient one, to which its presupposed consciousness is little more than a neurological network (ie. mind) – nothing more, nothing less.
Now the implications of this line of thought are quite bleak. They immediately set the value of human/organic life strikingly low and opens the doors to all sorts of moral/ethical justifications in dealing with this “advanced breed of monkey, orbiting around a minor planet of a very average star” (Stephen Hawking). And although you may not accept these definitions as TRUTH per se, contemporary Academia, our current governments, and Society-at-large do.
Taking all of this another step further, modern psychology then defines this “sense” of psychological continuity through the formation of various neurological webs in response to stimuli in our environments (ie. our memories, experiences, relationships, and our values) as the “identity” – the true basis of one’s “self.” Thus “identity” is seen as integral to the individual well-being of the organism, and therefore, is continually reinforced by whatever contemporary society through various sub-identities (namely cultural, religious, racial, sexual, national, familial, gender, etc.) by way of popular culture (ie. the accepted rituals and way of life of the most popular cult) vs. taboo (what is not popular).
But the effect this has is NOT, in fact, the reinforcement of the said “self-identity,” but actually the creation and reinforcement of countless alternate identities, often in various levels of cooperation and conflict with each from within the BEING-AWARENESS. The reason for this is these so-called sub-identitiy reinforcements are rooted in long standing neurological patterns (which I elect to call “id-roots”), which are created as automatic behavioral responses to what is termed by primatologists as “tribal instinct.” This “tribal instinct” is a survival mechanism inherently programmed into the dna to protect the organism through auto-chemical incentives against the dangers of exile. Thus these cultural, religious, racial, sexual, national, familial, and gender identities, which have nothing to do with the inherent nature of being, become the very roots of the primal instinct to survive, where the invention of “differences” amongst organisms is key to distinguishing one’s own tribe against that of “the other.” This creates an artificial sense of belonging, therefore, an alleged security in identity. And although this asinine primordial “id-iocy” seemed to work just fine for homo sapien as long as the identified organism had its ego securely anchored within the group, especially when Participation Mystique, a peculiar primal psychological identity by relation (ie. a collective shared identity without the concept of the “individual”) was functioning through the majority of homo sapien‘s communities.
But when Nicholas Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres) in 1543, his incredible discovery delivered such a potent shock (now termed “Copernican Shock“) to the consciousness of humanity that it caused The Great Anthropocentric Shift (“Anthropocentric” meaning the inward projection of interior value systems, placing the individual organism as the most important unit in the Universe) – a psychological phenomena which manifested as the great need for the individual to separate its “self” from the vast myriads of “others” within the group as the primary ego – a reaction of the psyche towards self-preservation amidst a newfound vastness of the cosmos.
So what does this mean exactly and how does this answer our above inquiry?
1. What is human consciousness?
Human consciousness, that of homo sapien, is nothing more than a vast system of neurological patterns based upon survival mechanisms automated by dna responses to given stimuli within an environment.
2. How does human consciousness function?
The consciousness of homo sapien functions through the neurological simulation of a perceiver that interprets the repetition (or entity) of electrical simulation of a perceiver that interprets the repetition (or entity) of electrical stimulation provoked by circumstantial/environmental stimuli of preferred neurological patterns (ie. “id-roots” or survival mechanisms) as a sense of “self” (ie. cognitive continuity) aka an “identity.”
3. What changed in the last 300 years that caused homo sapien to move out of its natural homeostasis with its environment?
In the last 300-500 years, homo sapien anthropocentrized its central survival mechanism – a vast neurological web and system of identities, perceived through a projected cognitive continuity, interpreted by the organism as its sense of “self.” This created an existential survival response within homo sapien’s individual organisms to interpret their alpha identity as the primary ego within their environment, putting an end to Participation Mystique. Despite the alpha identity’s dominance within the psyche, it is in continual competition and various levels of cooperation with literally thousands of sub-identities, id-roots, or survival mechanisms, interpreted by modern psychology as “neuroses.” Any of these sub-identities can be activated to the position of primary identity in the psyche at any given time, through any challenge whatsoever to the id-roots survival mechanism by external stimuli within its environment. Thus the effect we see of this Great Anthropocentric Shift is homo sapien’s current anti-homeostasis within its environment. Therefore, there are only a few options available to homo sapien. If we are to simply state the obvious of the actual situation the inhabitants of Planet Earth are facing, we see that of the 15 billion species of plant and animal that inhabit this planet, over 1 million of them are currently facing extinction due to the peculiar psychological survival response of 1 (homo sapien) which have caused it to move drastically out of homeostasis with its environment to the point of destroying the ecosystem of the entire planet. The population of humanity has now broken 8 billion. This means approximately 8 billion self-identifying, anthropocentric, neurological systems on auto-flight/fight response to any environmental stimuli that 1) not only challenges their alpha identity as primary ego within their environment, but 2) threaten to disrupt these survival mechanisms/id-roots from running their routine, patterned preferences. What this means is: the literal consciousness mechanism of homo sapien must change, Period. Unless we honestly prefer an impending cataclysmic event. Luckily, the mechanism upon with the Human Psyche functions is NOT TRUE oV – Inherent Reality, nor of Nature*
*For a full overview on the development of Human Consciousness throughout the ages, from the Upper Paleolithic Period to Modern Day, reference Chapter 583 of Excalibur: The Book of the Law: Solved.
Modern Psychology believes the Primary/Alpha identity must be preserved and thus the sub-identities/neuroses be integrated within this “arch-self” lest the psyche fail entirely. They believe there is nothing beyond neurological webs and automated responses – that if one were to dismantle these fundamental components of cognitive continuity, nothing would be left. But this could not be further from the Truth.
What must be considered is that what is represented in the individual consciousness, including a psyche’s component neuroses are, nevertheless, actual states of consciousness, meaning they exist in associative relation to the main spheres (or forces) and their bardos/interstates that exist amidst them, in conjunction with the individualized projection oV – “I AM” within the 8th Dimensional electromagnetic Torus field that encases them (see The Holy Grail: Quantum Mathematics and the Language of Time).
And now that we’re dealing in consciousness from a 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Dimensional perspectives, we must give full thanksgiving unto the Occult for inheriting a proper roadmap.
I highly recommend you take a moment and watch the following two videos:
On the Different States of Multi-Dimensional Consciousness in Perpetual Evolution – Part One
On the Different States of Multi-Dimensional Consciousness in Perpetual Evolution – Part Two
These are not some subconscious blank canvas states of open world absurdism (although that may define one specific State), and they should definitely not be amalgamatively associated to “mental illness” nor “madness.” No. That is much too dismissive. And it is here we must CROSS the Abyss unto Understanding, where contradictions unite, and duality is absorbed in Archinox.
Thus in the Hatter’s own words are we given the Key. Arkham Asylum is a Mind. A Collective Mind that houses Concepts and Ideas deemed unsafe for regular society. Incendiary, transformative, taboo, and transgressive ideas… even the very Unknown ∴ the Devil itself, which are all kept securely locked away – a personification oV – the Occult רוח אלהימ (Ruach Elohim), of which each Magician must transcend, leading the Initiate unto the “Looking Glass,” the Magick Mirror (Chokmah), which “serves for a time. But must be shattered” (ref. The Vision of Gaia Ladrieh) in Order that Differentiation, yea, true Discernment can exist and the +1 (the extension/assertion) be exalted. Even Arkham acknowledges that the House is “a Maze that Dreams”… that he is part of its biological process… his existence taking place within the Labyrinth of a greater Mind.
And thus from Amadeus’ own journal we learn he found the Mirror to be laughing at him… thus the reflection is the Cosmic Joke… the JOKER within…
It is then BATMAN encounters Maxie Zeus, having taken the form of Zeus Arrhenothelus… the hermaphroditic Lord oV – Chesed (aka Sphere oV – Jupiter), whom offers his blood and body to BATMAN as a Sacrament of Light – a Gift oV – POWER. But BATMAN swiftly moves beyond the conception… directly towards the Abyss.
And in conjunction we find Arkham (both Asylum and the Man) fallen ill ‘fore the CROSS. Arkham is led by his associates (associations) to a Performance (Ritual) oV – Wagner‘s Parsifal – the perfect Occult Allegory oV – the Sacred Lance, which must be dipped into the Holy Grail (aka the Cup oV – BABALON, ref. Promethea by Alan Moore… or for the real deal, The Vision and the Voice, The Cry of the 12th Aethyr LOE by Aleister Crowley) – the next phase oV – Arkham’s Initiation, doubly confirmed by Arkham’s reference to ATV XVIII The Moon, a sign oV – the Witches’ Sabbath via the Pisces sign in the clown fish (an additional reference to the JOKER as Savior in this Passion Play (ie. Ichthys)). But within these drug-fueled hallucinations is masked an additional Occult subversion (akin to Dee’s push down the stairs) wherein the trail of blood leads not unto BABALON and the City of Pyramids (via the Formula oV – N.O.X.), but unto the Dark Tower (the false Tower of Egotism) where they “seal up the Pylon with blood, lest the Angel of Death should enter therein. Thus do they shut themselves off from the company of the saints. Thus do they keep themselves from compassion and from understanding. Accursed are they, for they shut up their blood in their heart” (The Vision and the Voice, The Cry of the 12th Aethyr LOE by Aleister Crowley), and being “borne up on a wave of perfect terror” Arkham is thrown from the Tree, and “without an anchor… runs blindly through the madhouse.”
This corruption of “the House” by madness and drug-fueled delirium is NOT the True Formula oV – the CROSS. It is a plunge into Hecate’s Fountain prematurely.* And in this, “the House” falls into blind chaos ∴ madness. And for this, the Dragon oV – the Deep (ie. Choronzon ∴ dispersion) devours his consciousness whole. He calls to his mother (Binah), for the Tree Arkham has found stands averse. And though in his delusion, he imagines himself (utilizing the Formula oV – Tipereth) as Christ, Attis, and Odin (3-in-1), he fails to achieve apotheosis, and, flailing in Djarklom, finds himself inverted (akin to St. Peter); and in this Crucifixion of the Toad, awakens not as NEMO – Babe oV – the Abyss, but as the Soggoth, pining for reward.
*This plunge must be utilized at a subsequent, much more advanced stage oV – the Magician’s progress.
It is now made clear that Arkham’s journey is paralleled by BATMAN, whom, following the same trail (as no mere Neophyte) fights his literal dragon (Killer Croc), and having become recipient oV – the Sacred Lance (from Lord Michael), plunges it into the BEAST (within). The Dragon (pierced as Christ) is a Sacrifice oV – the Old Gods unto the NEW. Thus BATMAN is born in the Blood oV – the New ÆON, becoming the Dragon himself (ref. The Vision and the Voice, The Cry of the 2nd Aethyr ARN by Aleister Crowley).
It is then apparent Arkham’s journal is symbolic oV – the Open Book – the Seven Sealed Book, pried open through Seven accompanying Trials – tests of Magick Valor (occultly known as Book XXX, ref. The ÆNoMYTh oV’IPSIS). To read it, is to Initiate the Metamorphosis – which draws the Lightning directly to the Vessel. And what it reveals is The BAT.
The BAT is the fulfilment of prophecy. And though BATMAN attempts to deny his Divinity, the looming Christ behind him signifies otherwise. It is Ecce Homo in reverse. And there’s nothing human about him. Having utilized every resource, having followed every Path, having transcended every threat, Bruce Wayne is no more. NEMO. He has passed through his Metamorphosis. It is what BATMAN was afraid to see upon entering the Labyrinth… the Mirror no longer exists!
It is revealed that Arkham utilized every means of Sacrificial ( ∴ Osirian , see The Golden Bough by J. G. Frazier (as referenced by Morrison)) Magick to contain the inevitable coming oV – the BAT. He etched a Magick Spiral written in a binding spell to the Floor of the Asylum with his own fingernails, singing the Star Spangled Banner, that he may free himself into Divine Madness.
BATMAN agrees with this… it takes a degree of “madness that makes us what we are.” This “madness” makes him believe that he’s stronger than Arkham. Because he has to be.
BATMAN returns to the JOKER. He tosses Two-Face his coin. Two-Face throws out Magick in preference oV – Duality. And as the True Magician, BATMAN dissolves and leaves the Magick Circle in coordination to ATV XVIII The Moon’s fall.
So what is all of this really about?
Really think about it. Given the actual State of the World, have we not all dreamed of the JOKER’s state as an expression of Total Freedom? When Heath Ledger dangled himself in the wind from the cop car, was there not a collective sense of elation?
Morrison goes on to relate Dionysian Divine Madness to both JOKER and Two-Face’s dark side, with JOKER screaming: “Let there be ecstasy! Ecstasy in the streets!” (ref. Arkham Asylum end notes). And it is this point-of-view which will go on to inform the JOKER, especially in Scott Snyder’s Endgame. But this version of the Dionysian Mysteries is actually a reverse of what it actually represented to the Greeks. In The Birth of Tragedy, Twilight of the Idols, and The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche demonstrates that the Pre-Socratic Dionysian Mysteries were the last of the Life-Positive Cults. The Self-Sacrificial Osirian blood cults (with Christianity as its penultimate expression) were to follow, instigated by Comus preferring a “Kingdom not of this World.”
Therefore it is BATMAN that is our TRUE Dionysian Hero. He’s the one that CROSSED through the Abyss. He didn’t drown in it. And despite the JOKER’s belief that he found a Discordian Bedrock of Chaos beneath the Conceptions, the mocking spirit is that of one stopped short of realization. There’s nothing funny at all about a Man who dresses as a BAT and wages War on Injustice. Just as there’s nothing funny about actual Life. The seeming absurdity is an inner Discord. That’s why BATMAN doesn’t waver in his “identity.” It’s not an identity. This is the lesson of Zur-En-Arrh.
And the JOKER’s re-invention of himself through zeroing out personalities to, essentially just try on another id, isn’t enlightenment nor super-sanity (which Morrison admits as a concept that “haunted him for years”). It’s just close…
And that’s where the Great Miss is made. And why BATMAN triumphs every time.
Now let’s return to The Clown at Midnight.
Arriving at Arkham Asylum, BATMAN is immediately escorted to the JOKER. He finds the JOKER seated in a wheelchair (ref. Dr. Dee from Arkham Asylum) upon the Black and White checker floor oV – the Magicians (and Freemasons). We’ve entered another Magick Ritual… and this is only the beginning. The JOKER’s face is bandaged, his ravenous jaw champs violently, and his “bird-eyes glitter with a sickness that never sleeps.” He blinks his maniacal laughter in Morse Code: “H.A.H.A.”
The JOKER has been seeing a speech therapist, Miss Wisakedjak, which BATMAN quickly deduces to be “the name of the Cree Indian trickster god” – a silent nod to the negative Thoth/Mercury, the God of Writing and the Λόγος in the form oV – Nyarlathothep, and signifies “the Wordless ÆON.” The JOKER re-learning speech is symbolic of an Initiation. Speech was the first Magick Power oV – Ancient Shamans. This insinuates that the JOKER, within his chrysalis of bandages, is learning new Magick.
Morrison cuts away from this scene to the Black Brothers Department Store. This reference to “the Black Brothers” is not a racial reference, but an Occult reference to evil Magicians, who have embraced Black Magick formulas, sealing their souls unto the Dark Tower of the Abyss, just as Amadeus Arkham in Arkham Asylum. And it is there we find Solomon and Sheba, both formerly employed in the JOKER’s Mad Circus. The Queen of Sheba is a Biblical figure, who brought a caravan offering unto King Solomon in 1 Kings 10. In Occult Lore, Solomon is not only the wise King of Biblical fame, but one of the first Magicians, tasked with ensnaring 78 Djinn (actually 88) into Magick Talismans (one of these being the famed Aladdin’s Lamp) which served as Keys to the Adept’s Vault within the Holy of Holies.
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Sir Edward John
According to Legend, the Queen of Sheba seduced Solomon into Ritual, leaving his Kingdom pregnant with a Magickal Child, Baina-leḥkem, who would later return unto his father in Jerusalem, only to have his priests steal the Ark of the Covenant from out of the Temple, according to the instructions of angels. However, the Sheba and Solomon of our story are not so distinguished. Coming to the JOKER’s service during his “short-lived ringmaster-from-Hell phase,” both of these two “creepy dwarfs” are reduced to sideshow stand-ins for the JOKER’s amusement. By associating Solomon and Sheba to the Black Brotherhood and casting them as the JOKER’s victim homunculi, we witness another targeted desecration to the Occult lineage we’ve now come to expect from our “Modern MYTHOS.” Sheba and Solomon’s utilization here provides little more than shock value and a plot point – a black petal meeting red, establishing the motif.
As BATMAN performs the autopsy, Gordon reminds us where we’ve seen them before (ref. The Killing Joke), thus casting this story as sequel. “The Joker and his whole circus can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!” chiefs Gordon. But as always, BATMAN, instigating non-dual Nirvikalpa Samadhi, looks closer and finds the pattern. “Red Hook and Black Brothers and the Red House.”
“Red Hook” (as mentioned above) is in reference to Tunnels oV – SET, wherein the Witches’ Sabbath is performed unto Lilith in conjunction with the Black Tower as reference to the Demiurge’s own Arkham Asylum. A shedding of skins – a rebirth – is to take place within this projected Labyrinth oV – the Unclean MIND. The “Red House” is that Crimson Temple oV – ABRAXAS, which holds the Black Pearl upon MYSTIQUE’s Tongue (ref. ॐÆNoMYTh oV’ΨTh ह, Vol. 3). The JOKER is attempting his Ultimate Metamorphosis. The one that will change him forever. The one he will never come back from. The one that will make him AVATAR.
But what BATMAN doesn’t know, or perhaps doesn’t want to admit, is that the JOKER is consciously forcing his hand to do the same. Our Crux Ultimatus is now manifest: Red (the Assertion or Will) vs. Black (the Negation). “Receive a thousand lovers; thou shalt bare but One Child” (The Book of Lies, Aleister Crowley).
BATMAN goes straight to Harley Quinn. He tries to warn her. Things are different this time. “He’s changed again. You know how he changes every few years. You wrote the book, Doctor Quinzel. He has no real personality, remember, only a series of ‘superpersonas.’ That’s what you called them, right?”
This comment is as loaded as Harley’s response. Immediately, it reveals BATMAN’s enormous disadvantage in facing the JOKER this time. If we are to believe this comment reflects BATMAN’s actual point-of-view, it shows BATMAN aligns his perspective with that of Modern Psychology (as discussed in detail above). He believes the personality is equivalent to the id-entity ∴ equivalent to “self.” The JOKER, able to shed his alpha id-entity (and sub-identities) in favor of any ‘superpersona’ that more perfectly suits his current State is, therefore, nothing more than mental illness. It fits securely within a very dismissive diagnosis for Dissociative Identity Disorder*, which allows the JOKER to be categorized and filed away without any closer examination to the actual processes taking place within his Psyche.
*Modern Psychology and Medicine consider any individual that has more than 1 personality/identity as D.I.D., and claim a mere .01 – 1% of the population experience this. This is as blatantly false as could possibly be. If you really believe this to be true, simply ask yourself the following questions: What is your sexual identity? What is your racial identity? What is your religious identity? What is your gender identity? What is your familial identity? What is your cultural identity? Are these identities merely singular components making up one overarching personality? Or do these various personalitues shift and change according to environmental stimuli, company, circumstances, and/or situations?
But something much more intricate and specific is going on within this specific transformation. This is Magick. So pay close attention as we near its reveal.
Harley thus reveals to BATMAN her own estimation: “I wrote a THESIS on that man! You! You will NEVER NEVER EVER comprehend that artist! … we’re talking the Picasso of Crime! The Great Modernist in a postmodern tradition… He will spawn SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT!” I believe this sentiment most closely resembles the contemporary and popular take on JOKER. And the JOKER’s evolution and treatment by subsequent writers and artists… even philosophers and scholars have definitely confirmed it! We all find the JOKER fascinating. We’ve wondered if perhaps this is “super-sanity.” The pure abandon! Pure chaos! Is this not the true, even most enlightened response to our modern world?
“Jokerday begins at midnight. Mistah Jay says he’s putting his past to rest! We’re celebrating the resurrection with the ultimate sacrifice!”
Alarms go off in Arkham Asylum. Now this next section demands the utmost attention, nigh unto Nirvikalpa Samadhi to catch what’s going on. The JOKER chews upon a poison, hallucinogenic toxin capsule he received from his speech therapist (Harley in disguise), which he holds with his tongue to the roof of his mouth, “and like the god Shiva” chants ॐ (Ohm). In the Shiva Samhita, this process is taught by Shiva himself to his devotees/initiates as a method for extracting prana. The JOKER is combining his own designer hallucinogenic toxin with a secret Eastern Mystic method which requires a most subtle awareness and discernment available only to Adepts who have practiced these methods for literally years – meaning: the JOKER’s descent was not some fluke fall into chemical madness as often depicted at Ace Chemicals (or the Monarch Playing Card Company), it was premeditated.
“What face, he wonders, will the bogeyman of this dark century wear?”
What can only be deemed his “Metamorphosis” (aka “his rampant pathology in full flower”) can be summated in the lines: “Multiple Joker voices vie for control as he prepares to give blasphemous birth to himself like the Word of God in reverse (ie. the negative Λόγος)… the chorus of voices fades out one by one, strangled into silence… until a singular Joker voice, smacking its lips in the huge echoing emptiness of a place, let’s call it his soul, of such utter dereliction there are no words broken enough to describe it.”
The word broken iZ: Yuggoth.
Now the showdown is set. BATMAN subdues him before he can escape. And the JOKER is locked away in the Asylum once again. But that’s not really the point here, is it?
There was an awful lot of weight put into this “transformation.” So much so, that in comparison with the rest of Morrison’s work, The Clown at Midnight cries out amidst the crowd: “Here am I! Send me!” In fact, in my not always so humble opinion, this is one of Morrison’s few lasting statements (the other being their revamp oV – Zur-En-Arrh (first appearing in Batman #113 The Menace of the False Face by France Herron), and the other in the Introduction of Damian and his incredible run on Batman and Robin) that doesn’t fizzle out after their high-minded concepts shoot their load in a firework frenzy oV – multi-dimensional phantasmagoria. No. This one birthed a Child. This one deified the JOKER.
Why?
No, I’m not asking why this Magick created this specific effect. I’m asking: Why utilize your power – the ability to whirl Dimensions and Universes about your fingertips, your position – a chosen Messenger with the ability to instill any ideas and influences directly into Popular Culture and our Modern Mythology, your glorious mind – capable of creating both Worlds and Gods by the Power of your Word, and your Magick – your ability to “cause Change according to Will” following years of endless and painstaking Initiation to this END?
Why do this?
In examination of Morrison’s thesis in Supergods, Morrison wholely and truly believes these stories to actually exist in dimensions overlapping with our own. He believes they are real. Real universes. Real worlds. And he says that he believes in the actual power of Superhero stories to not only assist us in confronting our fears, supporting heroes that are “not afraid to be hopeful, not embarassed to be optimistic, and utterly fearless in the dark” (Supergods by Grant Morrison), and help us to “confront and resolve even the deepest existential crises” (Ibid), why this concentrated, even Magickal attempt to evolve, elaborate, and exalt, in essence, the conception oV – evil? Mr. Morrison would not be alone in this regard. It is indeed the status quo. Alan Moore says: “By using language you can utterly transform consciousness, and therefore, you can utterly transform reality.” But time and again, when given the opportunity transform consciousness, Moore utilizes his inexhaustible focus and Promethean flame to yield these “transformations,” such as his “Marduk Apotheosis” at the hands of Sir William Gull or Aldo Sax. Look across the industry. You’ll witness every attempt to dive deeper into the darkness, to corrupt our incorruptible heroes, and to traumatize them beyond repair. These heroes are the anthropomorphic form oV – our Collective Ideals… our Collective Virtues. Whom and what we aspire to be. It’s as though Depravity Capacity is their sole definition of Creativity and Enlightenment. Look around the world? What is courageous or heroic in the Initiation oV – Collective Despair and Depravity from the space of pure, unadulterated FEAR of Life thus exhibited?
And so I stand here and legitimately ask why? Their works are sheer brilliance. Of that, there is no debate. They represent an exacting extension of the Will in Total Creative Genius and Freedom, which reaches directly into the MYTHOS of the entire world, thus “utterly changing consciousness” and reality alike. But what of the ethos of these “Creators of Worlds and Universes” entire? Do they believe they are models of God in their Mirth?
Dost the Demiurge sing: “Behold, this is my Work and my Glory, to bring to pass the Corruption and Filth of the world?”
When the Gods fall ill, so does the World.
And if we’re to receive more than lip service to this inquiry, I believe a full examination of their WORK, piece by piece (especially considering its inherent Magick implications necessitating thus), is now absolutely and most assuredly necessary. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Leave no stone unturned.
END PART ONE
Next Up: The Invisible: Ethos of the Demiurge
