This past Wednesday, Godflesh's seminal album Streetcleaner turned 35! That's three-and-a-half decades since this blistering slab was released upon an unsuspecting world.
Watch:
Last night, I showed K Fabrice Du Welz's 2008 film Vinyan. Homework for an upcoming episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror.
This is a favorite from the 00s, a film I own on DVD but haven't watched in quite some time. I think I originally saw this via Netflix back in the USPS days, immediately purchased a copy, rewatched, then did not watch again until a viewing in 2021 that I have no memory of (but posted about HERE. THIS is why I maintain this site!). Regardless, the film has stayed with me quite clearly ever since; it's a haunting journey into loss and madness, and Rupert Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart give powerful performances that really drive home the horror of their situation - which keeps getting worse. Basic synopsis from IMDB
Even without children, the setup strikes me as particularly horrific, but when you add in the 'we're in over our heads and probably in terrible danger" of the approach the characters take, contracting local gangsters to take them into Burma, the tension continually increases.
Playlist:
The Cure - Songs Of a Lost World
Neon Nightmare - Faded Dream
Godflesh - For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Feel the Knife - So Raw... So Nasty... So Hideous
Dreamkid - All Thriller, No Filler
Dreamkid - Daggers
Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Data Doom
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
The High Confessions - Turning Lead Into Gold with the High Confessions
USSA - The Spoils
Self - Breakfast with Girls
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Card:
Today's card is the Ten of Wands, affectionately dubbed "Oppression" by Mr. Crowley.
First, I finally made a list to keep track of what cards I'm using for the study. As I suspected, looking back at the entries since I began this at the beginning of August, I've retread several cards multiple times. My next post will examine what that might be trying to instill in me, for today, we'll just continue on the current course.
The Ten of Wands is an easy card in my head - Tens are the association of Malkuth, the Earthly plane. So we are oppressed by the physical realm, whether that means the limitations of our bodies, our money or lack thereof, whatever.
Let's take it a bit deeper, though.
In The Book of Thoth, Crowley goes on about all kinds of things I don't give a toss about feeding into my interpretation. One thing that hits home, though, is this:
"It is a Will which has not understood anything beyond its dull purpose, its "lust of result," and will devour itself in the conflagrations it has evoked."
Maybe we didn't need that entire quote because the idea I want to hone in on is the "lust of result." Anyone who has studied Chaos Magick knows this as the enemy. Whatever you want to achieve, your lust of result will get in the way. This to me, fits in perfectly with the idea I set out above, the kind of 'shackled by Malkuth," because what is that lust of result if not Malkuth exerting itself upon us?
