Blog Soup

It's occurred to me that this blog, although very young, is becoming a bit too eclectic. I feel as though I've been concocting a very confused soup made up of bizarre ingredients.

So I think I may split it into two or three blogs.

This blog will focus on more metaphysical, mythological, astrological topics while still drawing upon themes from literature and cinema.

Then I might create another blog which will focus on modern mysteries, conspiracy theories, alternative media and history etc.

I'll think it over.

I might decide it's a crazy idea and just stick to bunging everything into this blog. It's hard enough trying to keep up with one blog, never mind trying to write two or three. I'll see how it goes.

February Overview

As the month draws to a close, I thought I would take another look at what I've covered so far particularly to hunt out any unintentional connections between different blog posts.

Peter Pan, Jackson and the Phantom

The Peter Pan theme connects with the concept of Shadow Selves as discussed in Beauty and the Beast and Golden Shadows as for a time, in the story, Peter Pan is literally separated from his shadow.

Peter Pan also became connected with my Devil theme through the god Pan.

Marilyn Monroe was weirdly compared to the Phantom of the Opera in my last summary. But there is also a bit of a link between the Michael Jackson/Peter Pan topic and the Phantom of the Opera. People compare him to the Phantom quite a lot.

As this blogger writes: "There are legends. There are icons. And then there is Michael Jackson. Mention his name today and you probably think of pop music’s Phantom of the Opera – upturned rodent nose, albino skin, dangling his child from a hotel balcony."

I remember Michael Crawford talking in an interview about how he met Jackson after performing in The Phantom of the Opera. Apparently Jackson was mesmerised by Crawford's performance and kept saying,"Your hands...I loved your hands..." (?!?)

Unintentional Links

Hitchcock has been creeping into my posts a bit too through my brief Psycho-Analysis and my mention of The Birds in the End of the World and Six Degrees of Peter Pan.

Jude Law popped up as a "ghost whisperer" in Haunted Hotels then as a serial killer in The Curse of the Divided Self and then as the victim of a serial killer of sorts in The Curse of the Divided Self - Part II.

As for where the blog is going over the next few weeks, pretty much in the same vein, I think. Plus I feel a bit of an Elizabethan theme coming on...("William Shakespeare didn't exist")

It's probably better if I don't know what's coming.

The Story So Far

I thought I'd take a moment to summarise what I've covered so far in this very young blog.

I've mostly - but not exclusively - been glancing at the portrayal of evil in films, literature, musicals and the theatre. (The Many Faces of Faust and Portraits of the Beast)

I've been exploring how evil is personified and noted that many portrayals of the Devil or figures of evil do not seem to be of the horned goat, pitchfork wielding, fire breathing type.

In fact, the Devil often wears an angelic mask or is portrayed as an ambiguous, seductive, or charming figure. (Portraits of the Beast)

I've also briefly explored how we try to "exorcise" our flaws by projecting them onto external hate figures or scapegoats in The Curse of the Divided Self and Beauty and the Beast.

One underlying motif that has crept into the posts almost unconsciously is the use of mirrors.

I've briefly touched on how mirrors are allegedly used by mind control experts for sinister purposes in order to induce their victims to dissociate so that they can be better programmed to perform sinister misdeeds.

Marilyn Monroe's love of mirrors and how she filled her house with mirrors from ceiling-to-floor (Mirror Mirror) is shared by Erik, the Phantom in the novel The Phantom of the Opera as his torture chamber is also filled with ceiling to floor mirrors.

(There is a belief among some conspiracy theorists that Monroe was the victim of mind control but I don't want to go there - at least not today)

In the Lloyd Webber version, the Phantom also uses the dressing room mirror to connect with Christine and lure her away.

The theme of mind control also connects with Svengali's hypnotic and fatal power over his victim Trilby.

I'll be looking more at Svengali and related topics shortly.

The Multiverse View

In this blog, I’m hoping to explore and synthesise ideas, issues and images from mythology, religion, literature, the paranormal, cinema, theatre, science, the media, psychology, the “New Age”, politics, conspiracy theories, philosophy, metaphysics and so on.

I’ll be looking at them in terms of their influence on the human psyche and imagination.

In the ancient cultures (for example, Greek and Chinese), science, mathematics, politics, and philosophy were not explored or developed in isolation but were considered as parts of the same whole with deep interconnections.

I’m aiming to adopt the same all-inclusive approach by looking at a few topics through many diverse lenses and angles.

Disciplines such as theology, astrology, the media, politics, science etc. will be viewed as different pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle.

I probably will have ongoing themes divided into a series of short posts and the occasional longer article.

Perhaps the blog will evolve into something completely different in time but it’s early days yet. I’ll just go with the flow and see what presents itself to me.