The Starman and the Swan People (Part III): The Second Dream

The lid of a second (smaller) music box... (virtually) composed
of mother-of-pearl fragments inlaid into black stone, 2017, DS.

(Click to enlarge)

"I was visiting a strange city... and although I can't recollect having been there before, it wasn't totally unfamiliar to me. I was looking out a hotel window at the city lights and making plans to go out a bit later. David Bowie would be performing at a venue nearby and I planned on being there. The thing is, I was aware he had died the previous year, but somehow seeing him "live" in the present didn't seem unusual to me... it's as if it wasn't merely possible in this place I had come, but, to be expected.

The next thing I remember is that I was at an airport again... walking down a long sort of corridor from which passengers either board a plane or disembark. Suddenly, I thought I saw someone who looked like David Bowie moving towards me, but, he wasn't alone. Although I have no recollection of his companions, they seemed to be walking on either side of him and supporting him as he walked. He seemed unsteady and appeared to be in pain. His face - which was red as if sunburnt  - seemed somewhat distorted. In fact, my impression now is that he may possibly have been in the process shape-shifting, but, this didn't occur to me then, and, by the time we came face to face, he looked younger - in his thirties (?) - but perfectly normal.

We had a conversation then. I don't remember what it was about but DB was very charming and endearing, He came across as a kindred spirit but, ultimately, I felt somewhat sad and remorseful. I impulsively kissed and embraced him, saying "I'm so sorry I never met you while you were still alive."

At which point he looked at me and said: 'There are other lives.'

This so astounded me I woke up."

- The second dream recollection, February 10, 2017, DS. The lovely man with sax (inset left) can be found here.

“Being imbued with a vividly active imagination still, I have brilliantly Technicolor dreams. They’re very, very strong. The ‘what if?’ approach to life has always been such a part of my personal mythology, and it’s always been easy for me to fantasise a parallel existence with whatever’s going on. I suspect that dreams are an integral part of existence, with far more use for us than we’ve made of them, really. I’m quite Jungian about that. The dream state is a strong, active, potent force in our lives.

The fine line between the dream state and reality is at times, for me, quite grey. Combining the two, the place where the two worlds come together, has been important in some of the things I’ve written, yes.

That other life, that doppelganger life, is actually a dark thing for me. I don’t find a sense of freedom in dreams; they’re not an escape mechanism. In there, I’m usually, ‘Oh, I gotta get outta this place!’ The darker place. So that’s why I much, much prefer to stay awake.”

- David Bowie, from a 4-part 2013 interview: "I'm Hungry for Reality".
Inset left is Leonora Carrington's And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur, 1953. Note: All Carrington paintings used in the body of this post can be found on this page.

"Another dream-determinent that deserves mention is telepathy. The authenticity of this phenomenon can no longer be disputed today. It is of course, very simple to deny its existence without examining the evidence, but that is an unscientific procedure which is unworthy of notice. I have found by experience that telepathy does in fact influence dreams, as has been asserted since ancient times. Certain people are particularly sensitive in this respect and often have telepathically influenced dreams."

- Carl Jung from his 1974 publication: Dreams.

"The Chinese also developed interesting theories regarding how mental and psychic functioning depends upon different energy forms. They considered the dreamer's soul to be one of the principle agencies of dream production but made a distinction between the material soul or p'o, which regulated body functioning and ceased with its death, and the spiritual soul or hun, which left the body at death and carried the appearance of the body with it. It was the hun that was involved in dreams, because it could separate temporarily from the body for nighttime excursions to the land of the dead. There it would communicate with spirits or souls of the dead and return to the body with impressions from these visits."

- Excerpt from Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van de Castle, Ph.D. (1927-2014). Inset right is the painting Dervault by Leonora Carrington.

"Reveal thyself to me

and let me behold a favorable dream.

May the dream that I dream be favorable;

may the dream that I dream be true.

May Makhir, the goddess of dreams, stand at my head;

let me enter the temple of the gods and the house of life."

- Prayer of a Mesopotamian "incubant" or dream-seeker.* Note: Dream incubation is the ancient ritual of going to sleep in a sacred place in anticipation of receiving a helpful or precognitive dream from a divine benefactor. It was common in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and amongst the earliest Christians.

***

Well, finally, after stalling for so long, I decided to cut-to-the-chase and post both the second dream and the new music box lid right at the beginning of Part III (the last part) of this series. I can only hope they were worth waiting for.

It's funny, but when I read over my dream recollection above, a track from Bowie's Low - A New Career in a New Town - started going through my head. Which was kind of appropriate. One (unmentioned) element of Bowie's performance in the strange city of my dream is that it was to take place in a small, intimate venue. And, you might say, that for Bowie to be performing in small, intimate venues would (indeed) be a "new career"...

David Bowie meets... David Bowie:
the cover shot for his 1999 album "Hours".

But, the most significant aspect of the dream - the real revelation - lay in the last four words: "There are other lives."  I don't know about you, but I can't remember anyone uttering those words to me in the past (with any authority), in or outside of a dream. And, it isn't as if I was a firm believer in reincarnation, parallel lives, etc., previously; I merely wondered if they might be true. So, when I say I was astounded, I was... which is kind of weird when you think about it. If dreams are created by ones own brain cells, then how is it one can "astound" oneself?

As it was, the Swan People didn't enter into the second dream, unless they happened to be the unidentified entities walking along side of David. And, yet, my feeling always was that the two dreams were connected. Moreover, after spending weeks researching swan symbolism (and attempting to blog about it) I've pretty much come to a conclusion. Cutting to the chase once again, my guess is that the Swan People may have been a metaphor for "There are other lives."

Let me explain...

Earlier in the series, I made a point of mentioning that the most consistent motif in swan symbolism is that of death-passage into the otherworld-rebirth; and, we saw this time and time again. Importantly, in the Alchemical Swan section of Part II - regarding the quote by Adam McLean - we learn that, in alchemy, while the Crow or Raven represents Nigredo or physical death, the Swan represents Albido, the next stage in the "great work," in which the intelligence and/or soul has its first (direct) conscious encounter with the "etheric world." In this sense, the "Swan People" in my first dream represented the symbolic vehicle for this encounter, specifically David's. In the second dream, the figure of David, like a Dane-zaa shaman or Swan Person - who has "known the experience of dying" - returns (once again, to the airport) to inform me, via a dream, that human lives are not finite nor limited to one... that "there are other lives."

Of course, "other lives" might indicate something different from subsequent lives on earth (i.e., reincarnation), and may apply to parallel lives, or some other kind of existence... an existence no more substantial than a dream. As for Bowie's presence - well, do I honestly think he made a personal appearance to me in a dream? Actually, I've always wondered about that... if the presence of certain individuals - dead or alive - in certain dreams amounted to some kind of psychic communication. I suppose it could be possible in a transpersonal sense; in that, his message was let loose into the aether and I just happened to be receptive... but the bottom line is: I don't know.**

And, then, we have Bowie's dream quote to contend with. I was thrilled to find it recently because it confirmed what I'd always suspected about him... that is, he was very attuned to his unconscious state and took his dreams seriously. I was a bit perplexed and dismayed by his doppelgänger reference though, specifically what he termed a "doppelgänger life," which apparently was so "dark" and unsettling for him that he preferred to be awake!

I have more to say about that quote, and hope to address it again later on in the post***, but, as for now, and returning to the Swan People, I have one small confession to make...

* Re: the Mesopotamian prayer - discovered while researching this post - kind of freaks me out due to the line: "May Makhir, the goddess of dreams, stand at my head." In the 1970s. as an element in a science fiction saga, I invented an order of female, avian mystics who hailed from a planet somewhere in the constellation of Lyra named the Makyrr (mentioned in this post). I suspect the pronunciations are identical.

** I definitely feel that people we personally know or have known can communicate via dreams... I mentioned one "message dream" - from my dad (after his passing) - at the end of this post.

*** Alas, time was not permitting.

Regarding the latter two swan images (above) in this section: inset left is a Faïence de Quimper swan found here. The image (inset right) is a Victorian game board: The Noble Game of the Swan.

________________________________

The Cygnet Committee

David Bowie circa his Ziggy Stardust/Alladin Sane days. Note the position of his hands which, in Shadowgraphy, somewhat produces the standard bird shadow.

"And I Want to Believe

In the madness that calls 'Now'

And I want to Believe

That a light's shining through

Somehow

And I Want to Believe

And You Want to Believe

And We Want to Believe

And We Want to Live

Oh, We Want to Live..."

- Lines from Cygnet Committee by David Bowie, first released in 1969 on the album David Bowie which was reissued as Space Oddity in 1972. Translatable lyrics can be found here.

"Bowie: Ziggy is advised in a dream by the Infinites to write the coming of a starman, so he writes 'Starman,' which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately. The starmen that he is talking about are called the Infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black-hole jumping. Their whole life is traveling from universe to universe..."

...Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starman. He takes himself up to incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the Infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make themselves real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist on our world. And they tear him to pieces onstage during the song "Rock and Roll Suicide." As soon as Ziggy dies onstage the Infinites take his elements and make themselves visible."

- Excerpt from the Rollingstone 1974 article, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman: William Burroughs Interviews David Bowie. Inset left is a photograph of Bowie and Burroughs taken at that time by Terry O'Neill and hand-colored by David Bowie.

"Cygnus is one of the constellations that the Kepler satellite surveyed in its search for extrasolar planets, and as a result, there are about a hundred stars in Cygnus with known planets, the most of any constellation. One of the most notable systems is the Kepler-11 system, containing six transiting planets, all within a plane of approximately one degree...  The Kepler-22 system is also notable, in that its extrasolar planet is believed to be the first "Earth-twin" planet ever discovered."

- Excerpt from the Wiki entry for the Swan constellation, Cygnus.

"But not only are the bounds of personal consciousness extended vaguely in sleep so as to cover all the past life of the sleeper. It is even possible to hold that consciousness is still further extended, and that the consciousness of the species, and even its predecessors, may be represented in the psychic organism and reappear in sleep... All that our ancestors lived, felt, and suffered during countless ages of time, all that they condensed into images and faculties and definite movements has been passed on to us, not, indeed, as such, but in the shape of latent capacities and possibilities inherent in our neuro-cerebral system. And thus it may well be during sleep, when the immediate personal consciousness is inactive, that these latent characters of the psychic organism inherited from our remotest ancestors stir within us, and fill with strange images and unforeseen desires our inner world."

- Excerpt from Sleep: its physiology, pathology, hygiene, and psychology by Russian physician Marie de Manacéïne (1841–1903). Inset left: Another painting (title unknown) by Leonora Carrington found here.

"Watching them come and go
The Templars and the Saracens
They're traveling the holy land
Opening telegrams

Torture comes and torture goes
Knights who'd give you anything
They bear the cross of Coeur de Leon
Salvation for the mirror blind

But if you pray all your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
Prayers they hide the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And your prayers they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)"

- Lyrics from Loving the Alien, 1986, David Bowie.

***

I know I admitted very early in the series that my first thought upon waking from the Swan People dream involved my old drawing "Swanstar." But, actually, that was my second thought. My first thought was of the title of an old Bowie tune: The Cygnet Committee. Which isn't strange really; It's the one and only Bowie reference to a swan that I know of; the word "cygnet" meaning a juvenile swan.

The actual song itself is quite bleak and, for the most part, a rant. Bowie once described it as the "best song" on his debut album, however, and:

"It’s me looking at the hippy movement saying [what] went wrong when the hippies became just like everyone else, materialistic and selfish.”

As it happens, at least one critic thinks "Cygnet" is one of his most important songs*, although I must say I find this somewhat mystifying. Personally, I just find it, well, confusing. And, despite all the critical analysis of the song, I note no one ever asks the one obvious question: Why "Cygnet Committee"? Or, alternatively, who or what does Cygnet Committee refer to in the song... the good guys or the bad guys?

Anyway, the title of the song remained filed in my memory banks for years, but, it wasn't until recently that I actually listened to it or read the lyrics. Interestingly, it was written just prior to DB's launch into the outer realms via Ziggy Stardust.

That being said, something which always struck me about the Ziggy/Aladdin Sane photo (at the top of this section and previously posted here) is that he almost seems to be alluding to something... a secret Cygnet society, perhaps? Then again, maybe it's just a pose he created to mirror the pattern on the cool/crazy costume Yamamoto Kansai designed for his Aladdin Sane tour in 1973 (inset left).

In any case, I've been attracted to the constellation Cygnus for some time, but after the dream I had to wonder: was it merely my sci-fi-oriented imagination which came into play that night? Meaning: could the Swan People actually refer to  a race or species which hail - or once hailed - from that region of the galaxy?  Taken more literally, might they possibly represent true transdimensional entities; possibly those that lead us from one existence - or kind of existence - to the next? Then again, perhaps they're a vestige of some strange race memory similar to what 19th century Russian dream researcher, Marie de Manacéïne, defined as "latent characters of the psychic organism inherited from our remotest ancestors" (see quote above).

The Veil Nebula.

As it stands, if we were looking for extraterrestrial life somewhere outside of our solar system, the constellation of Cygnus might be one of our best bets. In fact, Bowie's black-hole-hopping "Infinites" would have fun in the vicinity of Cygnus X-1 (illustration inset right) or V404 Cygni, where black holes - 15 times and 12 times the mass of our sun - are known to exist . On the other hand, there are a number of other X-ray sources, gamma ray sources, cosmic ray sources, and a radio galaxy: Cygnus A, which possibly contains another black hole of the super-massive kind! There are also a number of star clusters and nebulas, like the beautiful "Veil Nebula" In the (centered) photos above and below.

In fact, in terms of celestial prime real estate, the constellation Cygnus has a number of things going for it. For instance, the first habitable, earth-like planet was found there. And, also located in Cygnus, is Tabby's star, an enigmatic object - some say alien megastructure - which has continued to mystify observers since its discovery in 2015 (inset left).

But, there is one more feature in the constellation of the Swan we might want to address and that is the mysterious Cygnus X-3, a neutron star - considered to (possibly) be a quark star - which is apparently shooting unusual cosmic particles towards earth. And, these, due to their high energy and high velocity, are able to penetrate the earth's atmosphere. They have their own name: cygnets. And, it is the presence of cygnets that inspired Andrew Collins - the author of The Cygnus Mystery - to hypothesize that cosmic rays from Cygnus X-3 helped accelerate human evolution during the last Ice Age. But that's not all. Some scientists now suspect that objects in Cygnus X-3 are under such extreme gravity and its cygnets are such ultra-high-energy particles that the necessary conditions are created for the presence of extra dimensions! (See: Astronomers look to quark stars for a fifth dimension.)

In other words, there's everything present in Cygnus for a top-notch sci-fi story, up to and including our strange tale of the Swan People. Not that Cygnus hasn't already appeared in many a sci-fi tale. For instance, in 1943, Edmond Hamilton wrote a story for the Captain Future series: The Star of Dread. The star referred to was Deneb, that star in Cygnus which is also in the Summer Triangle. Deneb just happens to be a sci-fi favorite (see here) but, in this story, it is the sun of a planet named Aar (inset right); a planet which is not only the place of origin for Earthlings, but is the ancestral home to all human-like species across the universe!

 And, you know, I could almost believe that story. It may have resonated with David, too, because, interestingly enough, the hero in The Star of Dread story - Captain Future -  just happened to have the name of Curtis Newton. I forget now, Is that how Tommy - The Man Who Fell to Earth - fabricated his name in the Walter Teavis novel? Possibly. But, I don't think Bowie's 1976 film role as Thomas Newton, the estranged alien who - disastrously - "fell to Earth" was much of a fabrication on his part, and, when it comes to aliens, Ziggy was just child's-play in comparison. David Bowie was Thomas Newton... and he knew it on a profoundly intimate level... and in more ways than one. Moreover, Newton's tragic tale was a running narrative which (seemingly) haunted the shadowland of his psyche for many years, so, that towards the end of his life (as David Bowie) he "raised" Thomas Newton's tale from the dead files and created Lazarus, a Broadway play - which opened in December of 2015 - continuing the saga of the man who fell to earth, now an isolated alcoholic... hopelessly obsessed with his home planet, the family he left behind, and the earth woman he lost along the way. It's been described as a “two-hour meditation on grief and lost hope,”  although I'm not sure if that's what DB originally had in mind.**

Of course, hand in hand with alien extraterrestrials, we have the alienated terrestrials who love them. At least it seems that having an interest in the former is often indicative of an identification with the latter. Then again, not having known DB on a personal level, this can only be pure speculation (or projection) on my part, but, as an (aging) artist, I think I can, at least, say a few things with authority about art, and one thing is this: to create anything remotely original, to bring anything new into the world, to envision those worlds where no man has gone before, the artist, at some point, has to disassociate themselves from society and its stereotypes, the conventional mindset, the status
quo and the "official" worldview. It's an isolating process which sort of catches one unawares (as they say), and, very often, during late childhood or puberty. There simply comes a magic moment when one finds oneself on the "outside, looking in." And, later, "outside" becomes the place one calls "home."

Our man as the dying vampire in the 1983 film The Hunger.

Anyway, if DB had, in fact, counted himself amongst the alienated, when did his "magic moment" arrive? Was it when he looked in the mirror after his childhood eye injury and saw his gaze was no longer perfectly symmetrical (as in the photo above)? Or, was it around the time he realized - despite his later bravado - that his sexual nature was somewhat ambiguous... at a time (late 1950s - early 60s) when androgyny had yet to become fashionable? Then again, even more marginalizing might have been the abnormal psychology that (allegedly) ran in his family... specifically his schizophrenic half-brother, and (possibly) two "mad" aunts.***  As this genetic brew caused DB to fear for for his own sanity, I think we can assume it isolated him as well. (Note: related articles can be found here and here.)

But, alienation implies a type of defeat. When we make it work for us - as David did - it becomes a political and/or existential victory, namely: subversion. And, lurking behind the outrageous style and antics of Ziggy Stardust was certainly a dedicated effort to subvert all that was conventional (evidenced by DB's pairing with the quintessentially subversive "beat" writer William Burroughs).  Then again, David daring to don a dress (inset left) was less a fashion statement than a virtual call to arms for androgynous men, the "pretty things," for whom he became a champion.

Yet, despite his celebrity (or because of it) there always seemed to remain a David on the "outside." I think it's significant that - as in the case of Tommy Newton and Lazarus - he was still toying around with revitalizing his 1995 concept album "Outside" right up till the end. It was, like Low, a magical collaboration with Brian Eno - subtitled "The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle" - which revealed the curious tale of an "art crime" in which a young girl is "artfully" murdered for the sake of art. Via a Rolling Stone article, we are informed that Bowie created the song lyrics by feeding articles about Outsider art (and/or Art Brut) into a computer, but I always felt a mysterious spiritual (and emotional) component to the album, so I'm not convinced the "computer" was its most important source. Inset right is an eery shot of Bowie in the role of the victim, Baby Grace Blue, from the booklet which accompanied the CD. As it was, the proposed sequel - also a collaboration with Brian Eno - was (tentatively) entitled "Inside." It never materialized. Brian Eno was reported to say (here):

"David’s death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now. We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud. Over the last few years—with him living in New York and me in London—our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were Mr. Showbiz, Milton Keynes, Rhoda Borrocks and the Duke of Ear.


About a year ago we started talking about ‘Outside’—the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.

I received an email from him seven days ago. 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 realise now he was saying goodbye." 

*  We have this from Don't Forget the Songs: "Rediscover this undiscovered melody that author Dave Thompson called, “the most important song [David Bowie] has ever written.” “Cygnet Committee” is definitely one for the ages and one of the best Bowie songs you probably never heard before. Is “Cygnet” a call to arms, criticizing the counter-culture movement or the 9 minute plus epic that spotlight’s the battles of David’s personal demons before Bowie became international alien sensation that was Ziggy Stardust?’ Turn on, tune in and take a trip inside this classic and discover the lyrical truth within David Bowie’s rarely heard masterstroke of a Space Oddity that is “Cygnet Committee.”

** Apparently, according to this GQ article, DB had begun this project 10 years ago with the writer Michael Cunningham. The story-line featured a new (and different) alien, a Mariachi band, and Dylanesque music (as in Bob) written by Bowie. Very strangely, "Lazarus" was a reference to the 19th century poet Emma Lazarus. And, if all of this sounds more like David Lynch than David Bowie, well... yeah, it does!

*** Re: the mad aunts... Fact is, I always get a little nervous when women are referred to as "mad," especially in the early half of the last century when women were often committed to institutions for reasons that had little or nothing to do with their sanity. See: 12 Reasons Women Were Committed to Mental Asylums in the 19th/20th Century in the footnote section of the latter half of this post.

___________________________________

The Black Sun

Graphic treatment from David Bowie's last album, Blackstar.

"The Black Sun in Mesoamerican mythology has many mystical meanings, among them it is connected to the god Quetzalcoatl and his penetration in the Underworld through the west door after his diurnal passage on the sky. For the Mexicans there were two suns, the young Day sun and the ancient sun, the Dark sun. Some scholars regard the mythological Black sun as the ancient female origin of all, it is both tomb and womb. This way, it is the oneness that uniformly integrates unawareness, death, and yet an expectation of fecundity.

The Aztecs associated the passage of the Black Sun, on its nightly journey through the underworld with the image of a butterfly. The butterfly, in turn, is an archetypical symbol of the transcendent soul, transformation and mystical rebirth, whereas also seen in the figure of the frightening earth goddess Itzpapalotl, the “Obsidian Butterfly”, that devoured people during the solar eclipses, while the Aztec underworld was the eternal dwelling place of the souls."

- Excerpt from the Wiki entry for Black Sun (mythology). Inset left is a photograph of an ancient altar dedicated to the Aztec goddess via this UK webpage.

 "I have found over these last few years, that the one continuum that is throughout my writing is a real simple, spiritual search. Everything that I seem to have written, in some way or other, keeps refocusing on the idea that in the late 20th Century, we are without our God. That what we're heading for is an era where we have to completely demobilize our religious organizations and reinvent God in some form or other. We really have to reinvent God. I think that our religious philosophies trail so far behind the way that we actually live today that we find ourselves in a spiritual void, and I think it affects the young very much indeed. I think that that does intervene with Outside in that way. What it does do to resurrect the theme of Outside is that we continually try and find ritual, but we have no religious order to connect that ritual to. Yet we go through the actions of ritualization. We go though pinning ourselves and tattooing ourselves, developing a pagan, tribal kind of authenticity to a religious life that we don't actually have. So we have to reinvent God, I think, in our own new way of life to give ourselves another form of spiritual sustenance."

- David Bowie, discussing his 1995 album "Outside" in a 1997 Music Paper article excerpt found here. Photo of David (inset right) was taken at the 2001 Tibet House Benefit Concert and is a cropped version of a photo found on Kevin Spacey's Tumblr page (originally featuring both Spacey and musician Dave Matthews).

"Bowie wrote the song out of anger, he said. He had worn a crucifix since his chaotic days in Los Angeles and had come to believe the cross held some beneficial power over him—not as a religious symbol (Bowie wasn’t a Christian except in the nominal sense) but as a good-luck charm, a tangible piece of white magic. Musing on this, he began to piece together a vague theory on religion: that much of it, from Judaism to Islam, had been built on a consecutive series of mistranslations.

One of Bowie’s consistent themes, from the start of his mature work, was the allure and abuses of power. So he took from this jumble of religious hearsay the idea of a Church holding dominion over the dreams and desires of countless generations of human beings, despite its teachings being at heart false, or based on botched translations. For Bowie, the Church is the ultimate Saviour Machine, having the same contempt for the people that it’s allegedly serving...

- Excerpt from the article: Loving the Alien (in reference to the song) via Pushing Ahead of the Dame, a comprehensive Bowie song blog. The (gorgeous) photo (inset right, above) was taken by Mark Seliger in 1999. It can be found - along with other terrific shots of DB - on this webpage via the A.galerie in Paris. Regarding Bowie's disdainful views on the "Church" and organized religion in general (which I think are evident in his video for Blackstar, note his Blackstar-bible-waving evangelist (inset left) and other visual parodies. Or, better yet, check out his video for The Next Day, starring David Lynch, Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard.

"A person with the Sun in the 12th house has a deep receptivity to the sensitive and watery world of collective dreams, longings, and yearnings. The creative urge to be an individual is colored by the larger collective, and he or she will only find real fulfillment by journeying into the unseen and invisible dimensions of life. Life will only have a sense of meaning if these sensitive longings are expressed and poured into something creative; for there is a sense of being a medium for the whole creative backdrop of life. Mystical longings and aspirations form a great part of their solar mission, and when the Sun is found in the domain of self-sacrifice, the path of development often entails healing and self-acceptance, which involves privacy, seclusion, and silence. Artistic and creative talents come to the forefront, and it is necessary to have “time out” to reflect on their dreams, feelings, and fantasies. Dance, music, and art may be specific areas of interest, and there is a latent psychic and mediumistic ability which may need to be developed further.

The 12th house is one of the most inaccessible houses on the astrological wheel and it has associations with the collective unconscious, our ancient past and the whole of psychic history that contains all of the content of previous generations. Many things in the past – particularly in the family legacy – have affected the psyche and holds them in a state of confusion and misunderstanding, although the type may not be fully conscious of these feelings residing inside. This realm also rules places that are hidden and secluded, like institutions, monasteries, asylums, and prisons. In some fateful way, this seeps through into their self-expression and, frequently, there is a sense of isolation and blocked powers of expression."

- Excerpt from The Astrology Place article for the (natal) Sun in the 12th house.  David Bowie was born with his Capricorn sun in the 12th House (as was this blogger). Inset left (above) is another wonderful Carrington painting.

"I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangster)

But I can tell you how (I’m not a flam star)

We were born upside-down (I’m a star star)

Born the wrong way ‘round (I’m not a white star)

(I’m a blackstar

I’m not a gangster

I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar

I’m not a pornstar, I’m not a wandering star

I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)

In the villa of Ørmen stands a solitary candle

Ah ah, ah ah

At the centre of it all, your eyes

On the day of execution, only women kneel and smile

Ah ah, ah ah

At the centre of it all, your eyes, your eyes"

- Lyrics from the song Blackstar, 2015, David Bowie. The image (inset left) was found on the mysterious Tumblr page: "The Villa of Ørmen," which was initially thought to be possibly created by DB. Apparently, this is not the case. Note: Ørmen is a village in Norway... and the word itself means "serpent."

***

Giving credit where it's due, I must say that it didn't even occur to me to interpret the word "Blackstar" as a Black Sun until I stumbled across Ed Park's Bowie article in which he mentions the Mesoamerican Black Sun symbol... which was a good call on his part; certainly the video for the song has a sort of extraterrestrial Aztec ambience to it. The idea of the goddess Itzpapálotl and the Obsidian Butterfly - darker, feminine faces to the otherwise masculine solar symbol - are also cool references (Inset right is the actual moth - Rothschildia orizaba - associated with the Obsidian Butterfly).

As it so happens, however, there are a few other interpretations of the Black Sun which may or may not have significance. One of the latter might be the occult symbol referred to as the Black Sun (inset left), which was basically an early medieval Merovingian sun wheel;  the twelve-spokes referring to the months of the year. It may have been adopted by the Nazi regime at some point - as the Wiki article implies - but, both its overall meaning and the Nazi connection remain unclear to me.

More relevant to this article - and Bowie's Blackstar - might be the alchemical Black Sun (or Sol Niger) which, along with the Crow or Raven, is representative of Nigredo, death, decomposition, and the blackening. In psychological terms it represents the "dark night of the soul," but, then, recalling the alchemy section in Part II of this series, it is Albedo, the White Swan, which follows Nigredo.

But, there's one more black sun worth mentioning, and while I don't know how deeply David regarded astrology, I find it interesting that in the Blackstar song lyrics, he refers to himself as a black star: "I'm a blackstar." And, well, as it so happens, due to the placement of the sun in his natal chart, (astrologically) he sort of was.

Detail of David's natal astrological chart found here.

Observe: in an average chart, ones natal sun - the area one "shines" - is found in the first house - the house of the self. David, however, had a his Capricorn sun in the last or 12th House (inset right). The sun in this position is metaphorically occluded which can be interpreted as a sort of "Black Sun." In the medieval days - from which a great deal of contemporary astrological interpretation finds its source - the 12th house was a very dark, accursed place... a virtual house of death, crime and madness. But, just recently I noticed some (far more) appropriate readings for the 12th House sun, and while I continue to be somewhat skeptical about astrology, I find present-day data (and astrologers) much more convincing.

Le soleil noir (The black sun)
- 1900, Odilon Redon

As it stands, there's a side to David Bowie that was often neglected by rock tabloids and biographers: his intense spiritual nature... which is very much indicated by a 12th House sun. His quote regarding the album Outside (above) is an example, but one doesn't have to travel very far in his history to find other clues. Case in point, the religion Bowie was most drawn to seemed to be Buddhism and, as a nineteen year old, he was considering joining a Buddhist monastery until his teacher (and friend for the remainder of his life), Chime Rinpoche, advised him: "don’t become monk...do the music." (And, aren't we glad he did!)

The interesting thing is that Chime Rinpoche was (at the age of two) "recognized as a high tulku, or reincarnation" and I don't see how his experience would've escaped David's curiosity.

But, then, a 12th House sun indicates various esoteric interests and mystical leanings along with the need and ability to channel these experiences into one of the arts. You might say that the 12th house is symbolically the paranormal house of the celestial realm and it's here that it's natives "shine." Of course, along with psychic enhancement lurks the unfortunate possibility of psychological disorders and/or the fear thereof... as was the case with David's lifelong fear of genetically inherited madness.

The Château d'Hérouville recording studio outside of Paris.
This is a screen shot taken from the Youtube video:
Hérouville, le château où David Bowie a enregistré deux albums.

As one might expect, DB (reportedly) had seen UFOs... and sensed spiritual presences. One anecdote about ghosts originated from the days he recorded the album Low in 1977* with Brian Eno (inset right, an early photo). Although Low is generally considered the first record of DB's "Berlin trilogy" the reality is that it was recorded in France, in the very famous - and seemingly haunted - 18th century Château d'Hérouville. The chateau was formerly owned by the daughter of Colette, the great French author (1873-1954). Interestingly, Vincent van Gogh is buried nearby.

And, as it happened, George Sand and her lover Chopin were rumored to have trysted at the chateau... and I found a curious story involving David, Eno and their ghosts (found here):

"In the initial sleeping arrangements, David Bowie was assigned the master bedroom, the Chateau’s main bedchamber, where Chopin had slept since moving in. In fact, it was in this room, in the very same bed, that Chopin succumbed to Tuberculous. However, after just one night Bowie refused to sleep there. He insisted that during the night he was kept awake by someone constantly shaking him awake, and at one point he saw the luminous spectres of Chopin and his lover, standing over his bed, watching him silently."

The article goes on to say that Brian Eno, on the other hand, found the idea of sharing a room with Chopin and Sand (inset left) exciting, and had a few experiences of his own involving the ghostly couple, including being "shook awake" by Chopin.

In any case, a predilection for close encounters of the spiritual kind would be in keeping with a 12th House sun, and I'm reminded of a enigmatic line from Bowie's song Where Are We Now. It's repeated several times throughout the song but it's simply this: "Just walking the dead". The song itself is (allegedly) about Bowie's Berlin days, but the line itself, I think, tends to confuse people. What? "Walking the dead" as in walking the dog?

And, yes, that's just about it in a psycho-spiritual sense. The haunted among us mentally tend to our dead on a daily basis. It's what we do.

* David also recorded his album Pinups at the Chateau in 1973. According to a French TV documentary mentioned here, a sound engineer working there at the time, said:

"When he looked you in the eyes it was like he was piercing you with lasers, it felt as though someone was rummaging around in your thoughts…Out of all the clients we had at the chateau, he was the coolest. For that time, he had such a bizarre look, really like an alien. One couldn’t imagine him being human."

The inset photo, above, right - plus more - can be found on this excellent fashion page.

Note: Other online resource pages for 12th House sun interpretations: Astro Codex, Illume Astrology, Debra Clement.

________________________________

The Dreamer & The Dream

Found at the perpetual Bowie Memorial in his
hometown of Brixton earlier this year.

Allegedly, the night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, his wife Calpurnia had a premonition. She dreamt that the roof of her house collapsed and that her husband was buried underneath. Naturally, like many dreams, the symbolism was oblique... and, sadly, it didn't convince Caesar that his life was in danger. So, well, business as usual. 

Exit Caesar. Permanently.

Afterwards, when Octavian (later named Augustus) took over, he made a strange decree: he proclaimed that anyone who dreamt about the commonwealth must announce their dreams in the marketplace. Maybe he was just trying to cover all the bases regarding any attempts on his own life, but, if this story is true, it may have been the first and last time - around 100 BC - western civilization treated dreams with the same respect demonstrated by the indigenous tribes.

That being said, I'd be curious to know if other people have been dreaming about David... and the nature of those dreams. So, if you're reading this and have had an interesting dream, I hope that you'll share it with us. Consider it a public service announcement... I think I did!

Meanwhile, the corporeal man may be gone but he is definitely not forgotten. Love notes continue to amass at his memorial in Brixton, and blue plaques, (like one inset right) line up across the UK. Moreover, there are so many memorial pages*, on-going forums, etc. it's mind-boggling! Let's face it, we're not letting him die.

By his own admission, David Bowie was a happy man... and there's no mystery there; the man had it all. He had a successful career, wealth, influential friends, a beautiful wife, children he both adored and was proud of, a place to call home and a profound artistic legacy. But, then, just as he was reaping the benefits sown by a life well-lived, he, once again - as Brian Eno so concisely noted - did the unexpected. The official story will always be that his body became diseased and the disease killed him - a tragedy for all involved, including his fans... although, as fans, we basically have as much of him now as we ever had... and maybe a bit more as we continue to celebrate his life.

But, even so, there's a school of thought that maintains we are the masters of our fate and nothing which happens to us is truly against our will. Personally, I've always been on the fence about that. On the other hand, no matter which way it's interpreted, David Bowie has moved on... whether he meant to or not. Seemingly, this need for mobility has always been a driving force within his psyche. Essentially, it's the psychology of the traveler... the sort of psychology which might draw humankind across the universe someday.

Will David be there? I'm betting - in one form or another - he will be.

* A few memorial pages of note:  FOG (Forces of Geek) Remembers David Bowie; The Japanese Times: Like some cat from Japan, and 11 reasons David Bowie is a sci-fi icon.

There's also David Bowie News on Twitter, a Reddit forum, and Happy Magazine's ongoing Bowie archive page found here.

***

Below are two of a number of organizations devoted to Mute Swans in the UK...

In the USA, however, where Mute Swans are considered an invasive species, we find articles like this: New Yorkers in Uproar Over Planned Mass-Killing of Swans.

Well, at least New Yorkers are in an "uproar"!