Don Draper and the Occult

Ah, the story of Don Draper...the middle aged, insecure, brilliant, infidel ad executive living in 1960's Manhattan; the ultimate existential anti hero inserted into pop culture's collective consciousness courtesy of the equally brilliant writers and directors of the television classic 'Mad Men'.  He has seen violent death in war, found new life by becoming an impostor, slept with movies stars, models, and coworkers, and developed some of the sharpest minds machining the materialist demand forces of Western economics.  A true character for the ages; you can go from absolute disgust / disbelief to total admiration of the man in a matter of minutes.

I began watching the series about four years ago and like most people, struggled a bit through season one and then hit pay dirt beginning with the season two opener.  It felt as though the writing on the show went from a solid historical based television series to an instant, refreshing, timeless, and vibrant dramatic classic. The writers presented to modern television viewer's that time of the 20th century and its respective social structures, stresses, and social hegemonies for entertainment; yet safely tucked below the show's entertainment value is the fact that the group on Madison Avenue 50 some years ago represents exactly who all of us are today.

Now this could be purely coincidental, and I could be very well matrixing some of the things I've been reading and learning about over the past few years, but I have caught at least three "occult references" to date while watching Draper's life unfold over the past six seasons.  What better parallel peripheral to a man who is completely and utterly alone in the universe; a man who's life and successes are built on a fabricated reality.

The meaning of the word occult, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a such :

to shut off from view or exposure  

So in no particular order, three occult references that have been mentioned in Mad Men that I have picked up on as of date.

Season 2 : Harry makes mention of JPL on a forthcoming Draper trip to California

JPL is the acronym for the California based Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL is the founding brain think tank that pioneered early rocketry and NASA propulsion engineering.  No doubt JPL was the symbol of cutting edge lunar and space progress at that period of time and the very name would have extolled a sense of excitement in air. On a more curious note, JPL is known in certain circles as Jack Parsons Laboratory.

Marvel Whiteside Parsons aka Jack Parsons, pictured above, was a bona fide chemistry genius and founder of Anaheim's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. No doubt, research into his work and life would yield a blog that would go on forever. His work and theories in respect to solid fuel rocket boosters dominated the 20th century's space exploration landscape.  Parsons was not only a highly respected scientist within the military and industrial complex, he was also an admitted occultist.  His life included (but is most certainly is not limited to) :

• Ritualistic workings prior to each rocket test attempting to invoke the protection and guidance of the Greek god Pan
• Correspondence with Aleister Crowley and Crowley's anointment of Parsons to lead the Agape Lodge of the Thelemic Ordo Templi Orientis of California
• A scryer/channeler relationship with L Ron Hubbard.  Mr Hubbard and Parsons spent many an hour together, performing rituals and rites in various forms of communication with "some higher intelligence" 
• Alleged completion of the famous "Babalon Working", wherein with the assistance of a Marjorie Cameron and Hubbard, the threesome would attempt to summon from the ether a "moonchild" that would in turn destroy Christianity

A short, intense list, no doubt, but there is much more to the story.  Many in the government felt that Parson's  1947 completion of the Babalon Working opened a portal to another world, which in turn provided explanation for the infamous1947 UFO wave.  Crazy stuff indeed.  Parsons ended his life in a violent explosion, wherein it was rumoured he was in the midst of creating a homoculus.  As I said, crazy stuff indeed.  And likely included in Mad Men for a very serious, indirect reference.

Season 2 : Draper's Flight to CA

On the tail end of episode featuring Draper's and Pete Campbell's flight to California, Draper is seen gazing afar from a window seat on the plane. Over top of the scene is none other than Joe Meek's "Telstar".  Meek, as discussed in a previous entry on this blog, was also a noted occultist and likely an "experiencer" of high strangeness.

I was fortunate enough to discover the work of Joe Meek last year; listening to some of his music today is like listening to music from another plane of existence.  "Telstar" today sounds as if it had been created by something in the presence of Tesla or even the Mothman; I can only imagine what people thought when the song first aired over 50 years ago. Even famed occultist/Crowley devotee Jimmy Page of Zeppelin fame has admitted that Meek's brilliance is more or less an undiscovered treasure of the 20th century.  Quite a correlation!

Season 4 Don Draper conversation with Anna Draper regarding UFOs

Fans of the show know that the relationship between Anna and Don was something very special and powerful.  For a woman to learn that her husband had been missing in wartime action, yet find her husband alive and well years after the war, then realize that another man has taken her deceased husband's name, and yet still find love and to be able to create a special relationship with this imposter is quite a complex process of "being".  In season 3/4 (I think), Don learns of Anna's diagnosis with cancer, and that her time on earth is quickly coming to an end.  One of the last exchanges between the two involved the discussion of UFOs; as Don is painting the living room one morning in Anna's California bungalow, Anna mentions that she swears she saw a UFO one time that nearly knocked her over, and continues :

Anna Draper : I started thinking of everything I was sure was true, and how flimsy it all might be.

Don Draper :You don’t have to see a UFO to know that. But it’s not a great way to think about things

Anna Draper : I know everything about you and I still love you.

No doubt, the exchange is one of the better moments of the show; the conversation completely embraced the point of being of what is Mad Men. Many in the world of Fortean research have postulated that UFOs do indeed have an occult origin.  I am inclined to agree with those researchers.

So where does that leave this post?  I no doubt could very well be putting together interesting individuals in history, personal leanings, and random scenes in a TV show to impose a greater meaning or symbolic gesture onto the television show that is 'Mad Men'.  Yet I also believe that one of writer's is aware of ideas that have been touched on above, and have included the ideas into the show with intention.  I've likely missed many more references; once the show is completed, I plan to go back and binge watch the series from beginning to end.  I am certain that more interesting references exist that I have missed on first pass through the show.

Heading into the series' final episodes, I do wonder if this "occult" link becomes more significant to the plot, or if it fades away.  Only the writers know, but I do think that an end to Draper's artificially constructed existence happens, one way or another.

So dear readers, what do others think?  Have I missed the boat on this one? Have I missed anything that makes sense in the context of Draper and the occult?  If anyone reads this post and has more ideas or references in respect to this theme, drop a note and let me know!  

Spanish Absurdity

Imagine being a "master" of the old world; an artist with the vision who has lived through French and Spanish revolutions/civil wars, and is in the century on the brink of the 20th century.  Being a contemporary of idiot kings, Napoleon, military depravity and savagery, witchcraft hunters, and a non existent family support, what would you do? If you are an artistic genius who has painted Spanish royalty,atmospheric tapestries, and historic snapshots of historic revolutions, what do you do?  Well, if you are Francisco Goya, you move into a house and begin work on the "Pinturas Negras", or Black Paintings.

I was fortunate enough to visit Madrid and Del Prado in high school, and immediately searched out the Black Paintings.  The paintings were made with oils directly on the walls of Goya's house, affectionately known by the locals as the "Quinta del Sordo", and being burnt out on mankind and its depravity, Goya put some of the most interesting pieces of work into the consciousness of humankind.  Demonic?  Demented?  Sure, but also likely an accurate representation of one artist's state of mind of the world prior to all the horrors of the 20th century.  Goya never intended the paintings to be seen by the public, so the state of mind Goya must have been at when the paintings were made was likely infatuated with the absurdity of the times. So, dear friends, I give you my personal favorite five Black Paintings, in order, with my first impressions that have stuck with me for a very long time.  I'd be interested in getting others first impressions as well - so please, leave comments, if you feel so inclined.  Here we go!

Up first, "Saturn Devouring His Son". Not much really to say outside of the Greek legend regarding Cronos and his consumption of his children for fear of losing his life and legacy.  Demented and a favorite of others in my high school class way back when, this one is too visual for me.  I see a ton of insecurity and insanity in the eyes of the Cronos/Saturn.

Next would be "Two Old Men Eating Soup".  All I could think of when I first saw this was the scene from Texas Chainsaw, wherein the family of Texan inbreeds carries a decrepid/rotted grandfather down to a family meal regarding a young, attractive blonde woman. I certainly thought the grandfather in "Texas" was dead, but was disturbed when he began to move when the group attempted to crack open the blonde's skull. I can only think that a similar situation occurred in Goya's vision almost 200 years ago.

What to think here?  "Fantastic Vision" screams of a Utopian ideal in my mind.  Set amidst Naopoleanic warfare nonsense, two figures are pointing to a fortress high above the insanity of death.  The imagination can only provide an answer to the figures ability to levitate, and to what the fortress holds.

Ah, the "Witches Sabbath".  What an interesting piece.  This one takes up an entire wall at Del Prado and any online/print reproductions really do it no justice.  Quite the scene; a goat/demonic entity that has been summoned by cowering humans.  A young, innocent girl at the right; a sacrifice?  A dead nun protruding from the ground immediately to the right of the of goat-like entity.  So much fear and despair in the audience, but an audience willing to be present, nonetheless.  One of nightmares, this one screams of the horrors in our psyches.

And finally to my favorite, "The Dog".  This one screams so much to my senses.  Alienation, desolation, loneliness; you name it, this one has it.  So simple yet so powerful.  A dog looking at something but is alone on a beach or a slope.  Years later, after discovering Joy Divsion, I always thought this one would have been a great album cover for the great Manchester group.  How do all of us not, at one point in our live, feel like the central character of this great painting?  A true masterpiece that never fails to deliver.

So that's it.  I hope to do a similar top five of Goya's etchings in the future.  Goya has always been a favorite of my artistic library; I hope others will find similar beauty in his works.

"Unsuitable for those of a nervous disposition"

I was trying to find a video to post to this blog that I had heard a while ago on Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso...something about Skymen, so I naturally began to "google around" in search of the song. I was hoping to read a bit about the song writer's biography, and somehow I ended with a Roky Erickson and then a Joe Meek play list on youtube.  Joe Meek - of course!

I am a terrible juke box hog when I'm out on the town, and one of my favorite "inebriated" classics I love to play ahead of the young kid's music today is the Tornado's Telstar.  My parents had a bunch of instrumental recordings in their basement, and my brother and I spent hours listening to Telstar, Duane Eddy, and Dick Dale and the Ventures.  Of course, Joe Meek was the guy that composed Telstar.  He also was the guy behind the Honeycomb's "Have I the Right" production; another favorite of mine. As I kept flipping through a Joe Meek playlist, I then found this gem which I had not heard before.  Behold Night of the Vampire with some slick editing.

And so it goes that the Moontrekkers' electronic hit "Night of the Vampire" from 1961 was banned by the BBC in that bygone day and age due to the nature of the music.  Definitely an early 60's gem.  Meek apparently had the chance to work with the Beatles, Bowie, and even Rod Stewart, but declined.  I find that odd; Meek was somewhat of an occultist who had "come down" from a seance in the 50's with knowledge of Buddy Holly's death.  He went so far as to warn Holly; but the advice was not taken.  If Meek had been privy to the ether, one would think the Beatles and their early chord progressions would have stood out to Meek.  Not to be (but quite a fantastic team the group would have been).

So now I have to find a book on Joe Meek and read more. His music definitely brims with astral energy and geometry.  Could there be a mystic quality to his work?  I have no idea, but will definitely search it out.

Oh yes, and the Skymen song was recorded by Geoff Goddard.  I found that through a Joe Meek playlist as well (of course again!)  As the UK's Guardian puts it, Goddard  :

was the soul, in-house composer, general factotum and eminence grise of record producer Joe Meek's RGM Sound. Operating out of a tiny flat-cum-studio in north London's Holloway Road, RGM was a cauldron of other-worldliness, funfair vulgarity, tunes drenched in echo and technical innovations that changed studio procedures forever."

So many things tying together this blustery November Saturday afternoon...

Witch House Fervor

Happy belated birthday, HP Lovecraft!

So much has been written about Lovecraft over the past 10 years, it is tough to highlight anything new.  My personal experience with Lovecraft was actually quite random.  While walking through Barnes and Nobel in college, I happened to find a book by Lovecraft in the fantasy/sci fi section.  Unlike today, there was only one anthology in stock, and I had no idea about who he was or what he wrote.  I read the back of it, purchased it, and began to read it that same night.

The first story I recall thinking "wow, this is something completed unexpected " was Dreams of the Witch House.  It really had it all : astral plane geometry, arcane New England witchcraft, Miskatonic University, a demonic, rat like "white-fanged furry thing",  ultradimensional travel, shadow people, and good old high order black magic.  And all of this was written in 1931/32.

One could argue that Lovecraft was an "experiencer" or that had tapped into some collective unconsciousness that fed him many of the ideas that are currently in fortean vogue.  It is amazing that he was able to be so ahead of the curve in terms of the ultraterrestrial experience.  Books of course have been written, theories hypothesized, and all other philosophical thought has been directed at Lovecraft and the origin of his ideas.  I personally believe he was an "experiencer" and was witness to something that influenced his mythos.  Then again, I obviously never met him nor have I read a biography on him, so I should probably hold judgement.

Now if one were to try to find such a real life "Witch House", I am sure many houses exist all over the world. My personal favorite is the Ancient Ram Inn, highlighted, of course, on my favorite ghost hunting show "Ghost Adventures".  Yes, yes...Ghost Adventures; I know, I know.  The show could be fake, could be sort of real, could be a mix of the two; I don't know.  I do sense that the key energy of the show is Nick Groff, and I do believe his ability to play out paranormal energies is legitimate.  This is just my opinion of course.  I have no idea what the truth may be, but I enjoy the show and I do hope the show's stars and experiences are genuine.

Now before you delete this blog from your blog list for mentioning Lovecraft and GA together, I do recommend you check out the Ancient Ram Inn on GA.  The episode was a book end of season 2 and I thought it was absolutely fascinating.  Witchcraft, pagan children sacrificial burials, demonic entities, elemental activity - you name it, and the Ram Inn has seen it.  Of course I'm not saying a link exists between the house and Lovecraft (or Ghost Adventures...), but experiences discussed/incurred on the episode most certainly rate with the more "highly strange".  I would recommend the short story and episode to all.  Who doesn't like a very wicked witch house?

The Werewolf Conundrum

I have been a very big fan of author Linda Godfrey's work concerning the infamous Wisconsin oddity known as the "Beast of Bray Road'.  Her work is actually one of the reasons I rediscovered the fortean world; having lost interest during the college years in things paranormal, I happened upon a podcast by Tim Binnall and an interview about the Beast of Bray Road.  I was immediately hooked.

Godfrey has since taken on leadership of the investigation and cataloging of the werewolf/canine/dogman events.  Like UFOs, ghosts, Sasquatch, and even sea monsters, why do so many people experience creatures that make absolutely no sense?  Why is A type science, journalism, and literature hard wired to dismiss these type of encounters outright when the encounters obviously occur?  It is a fascinating paradox.

Back to the subject at hand, last fall I purchased Linda Godfrey's book "Real Wolfmen: Encounters in America", and like all of her books, I read the entire book within a week's time.  One of the more curious encounters she discussed involved a family of wolflike creature terrorizing a couple in Maine.  I remember reading the encounter and thinking "how crazy is this?"  Five creatures on the ground, crawling up to the couple's house, then immediately retreating when being struck by light from a flash like.  All creatures looked like upright dogmen; they would crawl to the house, retreat when hit by light to a small pond area, then begin the crawl again.  Very odd.

SyFy's Paranormal Witness recently adapted the encounter in a episode entitled "The Wolf Pack".  When I saw previews of the episode, I immediately thought the incident was one in the same as the one I had read last fall and was ecstatic.  Paranormal Witness's typically features ghost stories, but I've found the episodes involving Bigfoot, UFO abductions, and now Dogmen, to be the most engaging.  The show does a good job of incorporating reenactments of various encounters with actual interview footage of the actual witnesses.

This particular episode does a wonderful job of mixing the fear of the actual witnesses, the bizarre nature of the creatures, and the completely "highly strange" demeanor of the event.  The case has it all from a fortean perspective; UFOs, unnatural sensibilities felt by the human participants and the participant's hunting dogs (charged ozone/atmosphere?), werewolves/dogmen, and even more bizarre, the werewolves' reactions to flashlight/outdoor lights.  The incident falls directly into the John Keel camp of the unknown; all that was yet needed was poltergeist activity in the cabin.  The creatures appear to be of ultraterrestrial origin, demonstrate violent tendencies towards humans, but then are repulsed/deterred by synthetic lighting from a flashlight?  Again, all of it is highly strange.  All of it is most bizarre.  Yet, I have no doubt the encounter likely occurred in the woods of an offhand spot in Maine.

I would recommend Linda Godfrey's books to all; the frequency of reported canine sightings is unbelievable, but a number share similar traits.  I would also recommend Tim Binnall's podcast, as well as this particular episode of Paranormal Witness.  Again, I have no doubt this type of "thing" occurs more often than most would like to think, but what exactly this "thing" is, I do not know.  And yet the adventure and experience continues...

The Randomness of the Black Lodge

Any one who has seen the television show Twin Peaks likely remembers the show very well; my brother and I became fanatics of the show and the focused, odd vision of David Lynch constrained by the parameters of a network television show.  There were of course the owls, the log lady, Special Agent Dale Cooper, and the never resolved cliff hanger highlighting an entrance to hell; the Black Lodge.

I didn't put much thought into the idea of the Black Lodge until recently. After all, as far as I could tell, the Black Lodge was just another fantastic Lynch idea put to film.  A surrealist acid vision where my favorite television hero of all time would forever be trapped.  A brilliant, but fictitious construct that likely continues to inspire countless future filmakers and writers.  How could it be anything more than that?

Yesterday I read about the The Black Lodge in a book by Allen Greenfield.  The Black Lodge apparently is not the result of an artist's imagination, but rather an object in the history of the occult. The Black Lodge, Greenfield surmises, is a "source" of an intelligent energy that exists to inhibit and hold human evolution down against a back drop of stagnant personal growth and destructive materialism.  Likewise, in direct contrast to these dark energies, a white energy type group exists to promote and energize humanity to different epochs of human development.  As Greenfield points out, should anyone come near to or in contact with the ubermensch or oneness of the universe through actualization and transcendence, The Black Lodge descends upon that person, manifesting as a man in black, the Men In Black, black magic practitioners, and temptation.  The Black Lodge attempts to confuse and distract those with insight into the "true reality of things" by intervening in that observer's life.  Opposite energies present themselves in order to distract one away from other positive, divergent energies;  that, at least, is my take on this particular chapter of Greenfield's book "The Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts".

I recently commented on how I feel that there are multiple worlds around us all at all times of lives.  I do believe that there exists objects that manifest from an energy source outside of our field of vision.  Is this energy intelligent or random?  I have no idea, but I do tend to think that the energy invades our life on a random basis and from a random origin.  Different energies probably do collide around us frequently. Whether this collision were to create a demonic, a fairy, or an alien abduction is dependent solely upon the observer and the observer's sociological/psychological perspective.  I find it too simplistic to argue that energies permeate from a "Black Lodge" and a "White Lodge.

The idea of two eternal, warring metaphysical factions warring over the human soul through the likes of Aleister Crowley, Edward Dee, Albert K Bender and others is a very romantic notion, no doubt.  Yet I would argue that randomness holds supreme reign over the universe, our perceptions of reality, and ultimately, the thing that has become you and I.