Kubrick’s eyes wide open.
There are very few directors that have imparted such a singular imprimatur on their work as Stanley Kubrick. Hitchcock and Coppola come close to Kubrick in their own way, but Hitchcock basically stayed within one genre (suspense/mystery) and Coppola dropped a few bombs which more or less bent him towards the conformity of the studios. Coppola hit his peak with “Apocalypse Now!”. Notice, I didn’t mention Spielberg or Lucas in the mix. Nor did I include Welles, who basically made one great movie, two very good ones, and a lot of questions marks.
Kubrick’s films were almost all well received critically. Some even did well financially, all were fairly different from not another and yet, there is a them that exists throughout all of them, like a great arc against the backdrop of the latter part of the 20th Century.
Kubrick’s storied career really kicks off with “The Killing” a gritty, crime drama about a heist at a racetrack, where betrayal uncoils like snake and culminates with “Eyes Wide Shut” where secrets and betrayal are the common theme, gilded over a much deeper exploration of something decidedly dark and more sinister than most people would ever dare to imagine.
There are no charts for Kubrick which include the ascendant/birth time, so we’ll have to use the personal planets to uncover the mystery of Stanley Kubrick:
Kubrick was born on July 27th. 12928. He was an Earth Dragon, capable of making things happen on the material plane and quite frankly beyond. While his Sun was brightly illuminated by the sign of Leo, which is now rising in the northern hemisphere, hot on Orion’s tail, it’s Kubrick’s Moon in Scorpio which might provide the skeleton key for understanding not just his chart, but his overall strategy and art.
Since we don’t have his actual birth time, locating the degree of his Moon is not the easiest of tasks. But if we simply look at the Scorpio Moon on face value and then back engineer it’s connection to the rest of the chart, we might be able to get a much clearer picture of its importance.
The Scorpio Moon is dark, deep, intense, sexual, possessive, secretive, psychic, slightly sadistic (more on this later) and deeply regenerative. People that have Scorpio Moons are privy to secrets and hold their own closely to their chests. When we look at Kubrick’s career, “2001, A Space Odyssey” is the one film most associated with the director’s greatness. Here, the central character of the film during it’s first part, is The Moon itself. The film unfolds as a piece of classic ballet. The opening sequences are like a primordial “Rite Of Spring” where early man and his savage nature encounters something mysterious and quite possibly transforms the nature of the species itself. “2001” transitions from the thumping heat and violence of early man, to the gossamer like grace of objects floating in space, dancing between the void of The Earth and The Moon. It’s important to note that the effects that Kubrick was busting out for “2001” were truly mind-blowing. Science fiction, especially space science fiction films at that time, were mostly clumsy efforts that couldn’t quite capture the feeling and the esthetics of life in space. We often take such effects for granted now, especially in the light of CGI, but what Kubrick was able to accomplish was nothing short of paradigm shifting when it came to film and effects. But it’s The Moon and the secrets of The Moon which sets the stage for the rest of 2001 and beyond.
My guest on FAR tonight, Jay Weidner is an expert on the films of Kubrick and it is his contention, based on a number of factors that Kubrick was deeply involved with NASA at the time of the filming of 2001 and actually filmed the staged Moon landings of Armstrong and company. This would be in complete alignment with his Scorpio Moon and holding and revealing secrets.
Fast forward to Kubrick’s last film, “Eyes Wide Shut” starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. “Eyes” literally put a dagger into the shaky marriage of Cruise and Kidman. While Kubrick was certainly banking on their star power to put fannies in the seats, I think he was much more interested in cracking ope their psyches and probing into their intimacy to expose something that was more or less like the real dynamic displayed on the film. In essence, Kubrick wanted to highlight Cruise’s inherent naivete, while also exploiting his connections to Scientology, which Kubrick saw as basically a mind control technology. When you watch “Eyes” you’re watching Kubrick peel back the layers of facade in the relationship of Kidman and Cruise one level. He reportedly would have them do takes on scenes hundreds of times. This is thoroughly emblematic of The Scorpio Moon. Kubrick wanted to crack their shell and he did. Not long after “Eyes” Cruise and Kidman announced their split. Surprised? Nope. But that’s just one level of Kubrick’s Scorpio Moon in play. Like other protagonists such as Malcolm McDowell, Ryan O’Neal, Jack Nicholson and Matthew Modine, that preceded Cruise as the leads in Kubrick’s works, he uses Cruise in the title role of “Bill” to fall through a crack in reality and get lost in a rabbit hole filled with mirrors, terror, dark revelation and in most cases, destruction of self, either physically or psychically. In “Eyes” Kubrick takes the terminally gullible Cruise and drops him into a world that he is far from prepared to deal with. Cruise enters into a realm of ritualized sex, overseen by an occulted order of dark priests. The “willing” participants of the order are all fetching and seemingly unobtainable goddesses, tall. lithe and almost all, unmistakably white. One of the other themes that Kubrick is also more than just hinting at is not just ritual sex in circles of power, but also mind-controlled sex slaves as well. The sub-plot between Cruise and Kidman gives enormous clues to what Kubrick was attempting to portray and communicate to us. The descent, sex, taboo, secrecy, psychological machinations, all are apart of Kubrick’s dark and Scorpionic Moon.
But The Moon takes other shapes and forms as well. Kubrick’s natal Mercury in Cancer at 16 degrees is conjunct his natal Pluto in Cancer, at 17 degrees. Again, we are looking at the realm of secrecy, sexuality what’s hidden beneath the surface, the power of intuition and of course the power of The Moon itself. There is also a pretty good chance that both Pluto and Mercury trined his Scorpionic Moon. In essence, it many ways, it was Kubrick’s destiny to have The Moon play such a large and important role in his life on so many levels.
Please join me tonight when I connect with Jay Weidner as we “Gaze Behind The Veil Of Stanley Kubrick” on FAR.
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7 thoughts on “Stanley Kubrick’s Scorpio Moon And Mercury/Pluto Conjunction As Guides To The Dark Side Of The Moon–Jay Weidner on FAR tonight!”
ack…that piano’s staccato was really drilling into my brain. Everything was so tense, awkward, and prolonged in the interactions of the characters, and that, during the entire movie.
I too have Scorpio Moon and Merc CJN Pluto. 2001 and Eyes are in my top 10, I’ve posted links to excellent online analyses a few times. Jay will undoubtedly have deep things to say but I’ll have to get it tomorrow. There goes Johnny……..
I’ve only seen eyes wide shut once and liked it far less than any of kubricks other stuff. I may have to give it another chance.
2001 has been a huge influence on my worldview for many years and i find myself going back to it again and again. Obviously it has many meanings but the one that resonates the most with me is that the “death” of HAL represents humanity’s eventual step beyond the illusion of time and cause and effect. And there is a lot of insemination/intercourse symbols in the movie, suggesting that the ancient astronauts that created proto-humanity may want us to return the favor someday.
I have not listened to the interview so maybe u discuss this but many have noted there is a monolith-shaped hotel near Ground Zero in manhattan and 9/11 may have been the beginning of a cycle that will end in 2012. The twin towers acting as some kind of tuning forks that changed the frequency of humanity’s collective consciousness.
The Templar Crusade-Reinvoking sequel [to 9/11 & 10/13] looks to be, according to Freeman, the 4th of July. Probably this year. Battle of Hattin [1187] Anniversary, a consequence of which was the Templar loss of the Temple Mount.
So perhaps a false flag terror sequel that breaks out into the open — makes a Revelation of the loss of sovereignty/independence for the would be New JerUSAlem good America turned Evil Empire aka Babylon’s mad hare, marcher lord, man made beast. A terror sequel that falsely justifies the attack on Persia [Paradis – echoing the original Garden of Eden] and ushering in the death of all hope for a better world. That vanquishing of all hope from the world is intended — just like the Jack Parsons OTO Babalon rising ritual that is part of invoking Kali the destroyer and intending to break the spell of the black iron prison, the sophia-murdering patriarchy. From that follows the fulfillment of Lubavitch and other prophecies about the necessary and sufficient conditions for the advent of the Moshiach [aka dark avenging hero, horus, kalki, Nietzsche’s Caesar with a Christ-like soul, that will turn into, fulfill the inversion necessary to renew humanity, aka antichrist].
So we will have the death of America, chaos, the North American Union [possibly with Montreal – center of London-directed subversion, assassination rings directed against the US & its good Presidents – as capital] and a world of ten unions out of the ashes, and Israel’s jews double-crossed and Jerusalem taken by the last gasp of the Vatican — out of which comes a hopefully, short-lived one world system religion – like Scientology but all the kinks worked out.
I remember seeing a chart for Kubrick with Libra on the Ascendant, and it made immediate sense to me for a number of reasons. Libras tend to be perfectionists, and sometimes artists. They can infuriate you with how long they take to make up their minds and to get things “just right”; just the way they want it — because, for one thing, they don’t often know exactly how they want it themselves. Thing is, without a Leo Sun (not to mention an equally fixed Moon), they don’t usually take the reigns the way a strong director has to. Libras also vacillate between long periods of rest, or disinclination, and periods of intense, devoted activity. Kubrick also had interesting relationships with his stars. Malcolm McDowell (sp?) made a comment about how they seemed like best friends during the filming of ‘Clockwork’, played chess all the time, hung out, and then how Kubrick sort of dropped him. This is typical of Libra’s short-lived love-affairs with people, ideas, things… Also, this would put his Sun in the 2nd (I mostly use Whole Sign Houses), and the other sign we know that likes to take it’s time is Taurus, natural ruler of the 2nd house. Lastly, putting Libra on the Ascendant tightens the square between his Scorpio Moon and Neptune in Leo. I think that square is pure Kubrick.
I like what you wrote. I would suggest, though, that there is no pressing need to analyze his work. We can make a lot out of it — that’s the nature of art. But nobody analyzes a film while they are watching it. They just experience it. And I think the film is enough. It is enough to be experienced. To be ambiguous, and suggestive, without meaning to suggest anything specific. Ultimately, it’s about feeling. The themes you highlight are all big themes — as you would expect from a Leo. They are huge. They are archetypal (and wasn’t it a Leo, Carl Jung, who coined the term?). This is not to discourage anyone from subjecting the films to scrutiny. That is another way to enjoy them. But we should remember that Plutonians tend to be magnets for projections. The same is true of archetypes. It is precisely because they are BIG, that we are able to break them down and get so much meat out of them. But we should remember that feeling is paramount. And, really, there isn’t very much to say. As I see it, the essential idea of “Eyes” is that some things are too difficult to talk about, to look at, or pursue. Some fish are too big to drag out of the water. There is no resolution, and there can never be. The dark truth peeks out from the darker recesses, we look away in horror, and it slips back into the great big empty. It continues to work on us in secret. And that’s how it has to be, because some things would obliterate us if we had to remain with them, face to face. What happens to Alex in “Clockwork”? His eyes are clamped open, he is forced to look, to see, and to feel it in his guts. And it breaks him. It doesn’t turn him off to violence, it just makes his sadism go underground, and he becomes the victim.
Well, I said we perhaps should refrain from analyzing, and here I’ve done my share of analyzing. But I won’t do more than that. For me, it’s best to feel the movies, and to understand them in my guts, and in my subconscious, where the daemon watches with keener eyes than my own. Maybe that’s another way to interpret the title, “Eyes Wide Shut”?
Also, I want to say, your article reminded me of how great Nicholson was in ‘The Shining” (my favorite!). Some strong Pluto aspects in his chart, too. I stumbled on this article when I googled: “Scorpio Nietzsche Pluto” I was reminiscing about psychedelics — mushrooms in particular, and a vision I had of Nietzsche (Sun op Pluto, Scorpio Ascendant) as the great shaman of Western Civilization. Rattling his chains, stomping up the dust, swirling dust and heavy chains around him until he danced.. chains on his wrists like bracelets, with skulls and masks hanging from them.. I was looking for a fix. A Pluto fix. You gave me Kubrick. Thank you.
Valus
Sun/Venus/MC/Uranus in Scorpio
http://uranianheart.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My favorite detail in “Eyes Wide Shut” – In the cafe scene where Cruise reads the “Lucky to Be Alive” newspaper, “Astarte” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is on the wall. Whether it’s to convey turn of century ambience/romanticism/decadence of the novella, represent the goddess as a ritual aspect, or the mystery and eternal value of the dead girl’s life, it’s a remarkable touch.
That was Kubrick. In a nice sync, I am about to phone Jay Weidner.