Legerdemain of the Dark Knight IV - Coin Tricks and Cartomancy

"- but his face deep scars of thunder had entrenched-"
-John Milton describing Lucifer in Paradise Lost

This article is a continuation of the Legerdemain series and benefits from reading the previous three installments. You might also want to read Bat Time, Bat Channel and This Joke Isn't Funny parts 1 and 2.  It has been five years since The Dark Knight was released, so I have no qualms about spoiling this movie.  It's not a synopsis anyway, but still, if you haven't seen The Dark Knight then you really have missed one of the greatest achievements of film making and performance of , well, of all time really.  Go watch it right now.  If you have already seen it, you probably should see it again.

I could talk about this movie forever and I probably will be.  It is deep and it is great and there is much, much for consideration here.  Seriously, fantasy film is the art form of the masses of the early 21st century, and there are few works that achieve these heights.  I called Batman Begins "Batman Sublime," and The Dark Knight Rises is excellent as well.  But The Dark Knight?  This is a different animal altogether.  If those other films are angels in the form of films, The Dark Knight is an archangel.  One with deep scars of thunder.  Let's take a look at some of what lies beneath the top level of this particular magic trick.

The Dark Knight is about duality, hoax building, initiatory process, sovereignty personification, and more than anything, sacrifice, on many, many levels.  This promotional piece featuring the three main figures quite overtly broadcasts an occult manifesto.  Totemic items are displayed obscuring one eye.  Odin, the Norse equivalent of Thoth/Mercury/Hermes, sacrificed an eye for a drink from the well of knowledge.  Horus, the avenging, solar messiah of ancient Egypt, lost his left eye in battle with Set.  When his eye was later restored he sacrificed it again in hopes of restoring Osiris to life.  You might be thinking now that these characters are covering their right eyes, and that's true, if we are a spectator looking them in the face.  But might we be being cast in a reflective position (correcting, of course, the lettering on the pin and card)?  That would be a more interesting view point for these psychological portraits after all.  Note how this image equivilates these three rather than differentiates.

That there is a sacrificial theme to this story is inherent in the title alone.  The Knight is a very common motif representing a transformative ordeal, a quest, that leads towards a perfected state.  Just think of the Knights questing for the Holy Grail.  It hardly needs explaining then that the Knight partaking in this quest represents the initiate.  A Dark Knight symbolizes expiation and sacrifice, tribulations of sin and periods of obscurity on the path towards heightened consciousness or a higher level of being.  This is an important concept to keep in mind.  The White Knight, by contrast, stands for purity and illumination.  The White Knight is the "Chosen One."  Harvey Dent is presented and even described in the film as a "White Knight" as opposed to Batman's Dark Knight.  But, huh, which of the major figures of this movie is overtly white?  One of Heath Ledger's early major roles was in the 2001 film A Knight's Tale.  The strangely anachronistic  A Knight's Tale is overtly initiatory.  It is also about the perpetuation of a hoax, as Ledger's character is a commoner masquerading as a noble.

Yes, the real star of The Dark Knight is Heath Ledger's Joker.  It is very interesting to see how much charisma this villain of villains exudes, especially in comparison to Bale's Batman.  Don't get me wrong.  Bale produces charisma on command at the necessary story beats.  Certainly the lack of personality is a storytelling, character-driven choice, representing the insular nature of an armored, hoax perpetuator operating as a living symbol.   At any rate, the Joker steals the show.  It's kind of what he does.

The movie begins with a brazen bank heist orchestrated by the Joker.  And its done so with very deliberately utilized masks, which of course, as a Batman film, is a major symbolic item.  A mask in a visual work represents illusion and concealment, key components to magic tricks and sleights of hand.  It also stands for transformation, being equivalent to the chrysalis, and it confers a magical character.  Of course metaphorical masks are necessary for the performance of con-jobs and hoaxes.  The use of masks in plays evolved from activities of the ancient Dionysian Mysteries.  This led to their use in sacred plays as representing the supernatural forces of deities and the inner psychology of characters normally hidden.  And they still do.  The origins of theater seem to stem from the worship of Dionysus.  There's a long but direct stream (an Underground Stream) through history to every item of contemporary popular culture.  Just think of how important the Mask is to the comic book hero, particularly the Batman.  This is a Dionysian device.  These works, whether they know it or not, are an expression of his Mystery.

And these masks are clowns because this is a Joker operation.  The Joker is a clown.  The Clown is the equivalent of the Fool, and of course the modern playing card Joker is the equivalent of the Tarot trump The Fool.  The Fool is the initiate's card, the status of the seeker at the onset of his/her process of enlightenment.  The Fool is the Ain Soph of the Kabbala, the unknowable, primary cause.  The Clown/Fool is the opposite of the King (keeping in mind that Batman is the self-described King of Clubs).  The King represents order and the Fool represents chaos, and this is very apparent in the presentation of these characters.  This is the essential duality of this story, and one represented in many ways throughout the film.  The Clown/Fool is also emblematic of unregenerate man, and this is an aspect certainly readable in this presentation of the Joker.  Most importantly, the Fool is a symbol of sacrifice.  In past cultures where the sovereignty of the king was felt to have direct correlation to the fecundity of the land, there were times when it was deemed necessary to sacrifice him for the common good.  Kings don't like to be sacrificed, of course, and a system developed wherein the lowest member of the court was substituted.  Or so the mechanism is described.  Heath Ledger's first listed role on Wikipedia is a 1991 Australian film called Clowning Around.

It is not overtly presented in the film but reading the Nolan brothers' script for The Dark Knight reveals an interesting aspect of the bank heist.  The assumed identities of these hired criminals, obviously strangers to one another in the manner of Resevoir Dogs, are Bozo (that's the Joker seen above), Chuckles, the unnamed bus driver, and then Dopey, Grumpy and Happy.  The use of the Disney dwarf names might seem a simple throw away, but it is suggestive of a system of seven.  Seven is a complete cycle, the days of the week and the days of Creation, both of which derive from the seven observable planets in a geocentric model.

But wait.  There's only six actual robbers involved. Yes and no.  The robbers don't realize that Bozo is the Joker.  They talk about the Joker as the mastermind of the operation and as an additional share.  So an alter-ego, a duality, a hoax, a trick, creates the extra figure.  The bus driver is unnamed and unseen, and so he must be Bashful.  The brains of the outfit, the obvious leader?  That sounds like Doc.

Here is Doc Joker teaching the mob-tied, criminal bank manager a lesson.  Note the checkerboard floor.  The Nolan films are rife with this symbol of initiatory process (I discuss checkerboard symbolism to great extent in Illuminating Harry Potter I: Romancing the Stone amongst other articles).  Put simply, it is the interplay of dualities, positive and negative, night and day, solar and lunar, male and female.  The tensions of these polarities controls the inherent irrationality by placing it within a strict, governed order.  We see these interplays throughout this movie in many different forms, obvious and covert.  The actual bi-colored grid is in place at very key moments that I will point out as this article progresses.  They are all directly related to initiatory steps enacted by the Joker.  This bank heist, the first step in the Joker's elaborate, criminal act of performance magic, is stage one.  The subject is Gotham City.  Note that the Harlequin, which is the exact equal of the Clown and the Fool, is traditionally garbed in a checker-pattern.

Is a Tarot analogy a stretch?  Even if it weren't deliberate, a perceived symbolic content carries meaning even without the author's intent.  This is one of the major themes of this blog.  In this case I am certain the Tarot is being utilized quite purposefully as the story tellers tip their hat to this fact at the end of the scene (and far more overtly further on).  The Joker makes a clean get away driving a bus marked "District 22."  There are 22 Tarot trump cards.  At the outset The Dark Knight is slyly declared as a work of cartomancy.

Let's talk a little bit about cards.  The above still is a shot of the hundreds of Joker cards that litter the street after he blows up the judge's car.  Note the geometric circles and triangles on the card to your far left.  Without being able to specifically identify it, it looks like alchemical or Rosicrucian diagrams.  The kind of thing you might find in a Manly P. Hall book.  Hall was a genius of card (symbolism) tricks.  Hall points out that in the two color scheme of cards we again find our dualistic patterning.  There are thirteen cards of each suit which represent the thirteen lunar months of the year.  That the 52 cards equal 52 weeks is easy enough to see.  If you count the Jacks, Queens and Kings as 11, 12 and 13 then all the pips equal 364.  If you add the Joker you get 365.  The twelve court cards stand for the zodiac, which is always about time and timing.  Timing is key to magic.  Note how integral proper timing is to every major action enacted by the Joker throughout this film.  This magician characteristic is not hidden.

 
Ta da!  The disappearing pencil trick.  The Joker is very much presented as a Magician in this film.  And Batman has already been presented as a Magician.  They are hoax builders at war.  This is the same central core as The Prestige. A striking example of the importance of timing in Batman's actions occurs in his first scene in this film, when he jumps down the spiral ramp of the parking garage onto the roof of a moving van. 

 

Let's take a moment to consider some of the connotations of the Bat.  As a double-natured entity, as a mouse/bird, the Bat's alchemical symbolism is related to that of the androgyne. It's the Two-in-One, a duality personified.  In many cultures the Bat has stood for Vigilance, and that's fully appropriate here.  More commonly it represents superstition, fear, death and madness, something Francisco (that's fun to say, Francisco) Goya certainly understood.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Francisco Goya, c. 1799.

Which in its way depicts the essential plot of this film and the next one.  Bruce Wayne's dream of bringing rational order to Gotham results in a costumed psychopath arms race.  The full epigraph for this etching is really perfect: "Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels."  Testify Francisco.

The parking garage scene features a reappearance of Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow, a figure that is both Dionysiac and sacrificial (usually by fire, an important symbol set we'll return to).

When criminally operative the Scarecrow appears masked.  I'm certain Dr. Crane, in this version of the character, could talk all about the psychological symbolism of the Mask.  Jungian archetypes, you know?  

Once defeated his mask is removed.  Unmasking is is an integral aspect of this story, the undoing of all the symbolic connotations described above.  Unmasking is an unveiling, the exposure of the hoax, the undoing of the opponent's magic spells.  This still also shows the most prominent of the false Batmans that appear in this scene.  Duplicates, doubles, false figures.  Think about The Prestige.

And about how these duplicate figures need to get sacrificed in magic acts.  We'll talk about the significance of the Hanged Man later.  Note how the Joker and Batman are combined here, the synthesis of opposites.

The hoaxing nature of the Batman is alluded to in the Gotham police department's joking bulletin board of Batman suspects.  Besides Elvis we see Bigfoot and Lincoln, all figures attached to hoaxes and conspiracies. Note the silver grid work.  We'll see this motif more prominently elsewhere. 

Speaking of grid work, the second example of the initiatory checkerboard pattern associated with the Joker's activities occurs when he pretends to be dead in order to get to Gambol.  The floor and the walls are all checkered.  You can see it better in the video then in any still I can find.  This Rising From the Dead scene is of course a major initiatory rite symbol, and one particularly tied to Dionysiac Mysteries.  Here we also have the first of the Joker's explanations for his Glasgow Smile, which is an aspect of his hoax building.  The scene ends with the Joker forcing Gambol's thugs to fight to the death for a position in the Joker's gang, emphasizing the sacrifice theme.  Also note how this is just one of the false deaths/rebirths in this film as James Gordon later fakes his own death to get the drop on the Joker.  What occurs after Gordon's "rebirth?"  He achieves a higher rank/reaches a more elevated position as he is named the new police commissioner of Gotham City.

 

The primary poster for The Dark Knight combines two of the major symbolic devices of the film, those of Fire and the Tower.  Together they formulate a very clear depiction of Tarot Trump sixteen, the Tower Struck by Lightning, aka Le Feu du Ciel/The Fire of Heaven.  Seriously, if there were a Tarot deck combining popular super  heroes with modern day terror anxieties, this would be card sixteen.  Batman is positioned directly before the tower, like a column, repeating its format, identifying him with the structure of the city.  This is fully appropriate as the Tower of Trump sixteen is representative of  the human form.  The enigma of the Tower card relates to the fall of man and the devastating consequence of over confidence.  This happens to describe the Joker's objectives in this film.  "Welcome To A World Without Rules" is essentially a reading of the aftermath of Trump sixteen's symbolism.

The Tower is also quite overtly used as a symbol of Bruce Wayne/Batman in this movie.  His mansion having been destroyed by Ras al Ghul in Batman Begins, Batman is operating out of the tower of his corporate headquarters.  There's an implied movement here between the films from the maternal cave to the paternal tower (and back again in the third film).  The Cave is primordial shelter, and as an easy to read womb symbol representative of birth/rebirth.  It is emblematic of the unconscious mind and associated in many legends with gods and heroes.  The Tower is about ascent and vigilance, as well as the aristocratic nature Batman can never remove himself from, as it looms above the common level.  While it is overtly phallic it is yet another item of combined duality.  The protective nature of the Tower is a feminine quality, associating it with the Virgin.  This is seen in many stories and legends.  Just think about Rapunzel.

Here we see Bruce Wayne within a cave within his Tower.  The complex encasement of his costume is intriguing.  The arms of the Knight stand for symbolic potentialities.  There is an article unto itself in examining the symbolic significance in the equipment of Batman and the Joker.  But I include this still to display the striking ceiling used for Batman's secret headquarters.  Notice we again have a single-tone grid in place associated with Batman.  Its illuminated, as the grid on the police bulletin board is light reflective.  So this is a system, a grid work, implying activity and development, but its not dualistic in these instances.  Batman's essential initiation took place in Batman Begins.  He's acts in this movie from a more elevated status, with a level of enlightenment.  Note his desire to move up, and out, from this level and unite with Rachel Dawes, leaving it to Harvey Dent.   

 

And another luminescent grid work associated with Batman/Bruce Wayne.  This one is crafted by Lucius Fox (the light-bringing Promethean) and confers upon Batman a heightened sensory awareness of his city, confirming his role of sovereignty figure.  This is truly what Batman and the Joker are fighting for in this story.  Harvey Dent as well.

Here's another prominent combination of the Tower and Fire from the scene where the Joker demonstrates that his objectives are in no way material.  If I had to choose one symbolic device that was most relevant to The Dark Knight it would have to be Fire.  The first words of the Nolans' script are "Burning.  Massive Flames".  Interestingly the fire we see as the film opens are blue.  I used to keep a catalog of blue entities from popular culture here.  I did not bring that back with the resurrection of this blog, but the color Blue has a great deal of important connotations.  Blue represents the intellect and divinity (the latter the primary reason for all those blue people).  It is an attribute of Jupiter and Juno, and many other Sky Gods.  As a color used in the visual arts it is very functional as a visible darkness.  And while in ancient Egypt the color Blue represented Truth, it simultaneously represents Mystery and Deception.  The synthesis of opposites occurs here on many levels.

Fire is Divine Energy.  It is spiritual passion, purification, revelation, regeneration.  It is the medium for conveying messages to the heavens.  It is (again) dual natured, divine and demonic, creative and destructive, intellectual and emotional. It is a device of ritual sacrifice and a common means of Christian martyrdom.  It is the central element of alchemy.  Fire is traditionally associated with Trickster Gods like Prometheus and Loki. Let me underline here how this version of the Joker and Loki are the same figure.  There are many articles at this site delineating Promethean characters.  The Joker and Loki are in that camp, retrograde.

According to Gaston Bachelard's Psychoanalysis of Fire, it is "-the archetypal image of phenomena in themselves".  That's a bit of a hard concept to parse,  but the basic idea is that experiential existence is like the visible and tactile energy of something burning.  I'm still thinking about that one.  Existence is a kind of release of energies.  Think about the origins of the universe starting with a big explosion. 

Even more on target than Loki or Prometheus is the association  with Lucifer, as I suggest with the Milton quote at the top of the page.  Hall recounts a story told by 18th century alchemy scholar Georgius von Welling that the material universe was created accidentally by Lucifer's misuse of the Schamayim, the Divine Fire.  Here's the most prominent Joker card utilized in the film to hammer home this association.

These cards are deployed to the potential victims of the Joker's triple murder plot.  The judge is killed by fire.  Fire in this context is about the Luciferian desire to annihilate time and bring all things to the end. This is what is meant by the key line of dialog for this film, when Alfred, speaking on how Wayne doesn't fully understand the Joker, states "Some men just want to watch the world burn".

It is by Fire that Rachel Dawes is murdered (sacrificed) and  Harvey Dent is turned into Two Face.  Note the floor Harvey's face is lying upon as it is half submerged in gasoline.

Here's Two-Face.  All this talk of duality and combined dualities?  That's overtly inherent in every iteration of this character.  I talk in Illuminating Harry Potter about the Roman god Janus (when discussing Prof. Quirrell and Voldemort).  Here he is again.  Janus is the god of thresholds and beginnings, exits and endings.  He is representative of acts of inversion and mutual sacrifice.  He is the transmitter of the knowledge of the law and of agriculture (that's sowing and reaping).

And when the Joker sets Two-Face, his initiate, loose on the city?  There's fire.  And there's a checkerboard.  And this vital stage of initiation involves a cross-dressing Joker, a synthesis of Randall Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, the union of opposites.  The androgyne or hermaphrodite is symbolically alchemy's coincidentia oppositorum, the incarnation of the Great Work.  It is the same meaning as a head with two faces, interestingly enough.  For this reason the androgyne is a common figure for conducting an initiation ceremony.  Now take a look at the very first image of this article and note the hexagon pattern of the Joker's shirt.  A hexagon is a six sided figure.  Six represents unity and equilibrium.  Why?  Because the hexagram is the combination of an upward pointing male triangle, and a downward pointing female triangle. It's an androgyne. 

Here is the Joker's vandalized circus truck.  The word circus is related to the word circle, due to the shape of the performance area.  Circuses almost always involve animal acts.  A circle of animals is a manner of referring to the zodiac.  Every media use of circus can esoterically relate to the zodiac.  This is a key point.  The zodiac is important due to the precession of the equinox, a grand scale matter of astronomical timing, the shifting of ages (golden, silver, bronze, iron) which is allegorized in many, many places as stories about the end of the world.  We are living in the shifting from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.  And think how popular apocalyptic stories are right now.  This harrowing scene starts with a burning fire truck, a pun by the Joker, and another deployment of Fire symbolism associated with him. 

Does this seem like a lot to extrapolate from the graphics on the side of a truck?  This is what esoteric symbolism is all about.  In this case the above is emphasized by the black and white  initiatory patterned tent, and the Ferris wheel, a circle, and one that looks like a sun burst and an eye.  A single eye emitting a black beam or sitting atop a column.  Now that I'm saying it, try not to see that Ferris wheel as a stylized Eye of Sauron.  Return, if you like, to the obscured eye image at the start of the article.  What is alchemy's Great Work?  Turning base metal into gold.  But that's an allegory.  The basis of mythology is astronomy.  It's time keeping.  It's a turning that's a returning, back to the start of the circle, iron into gold.

 

In his last act, the Joker has a failed use of fire involving the two ferries in a Prisoner's Dilemma  scenario, and creates a hoax that Batman uses his enlightened senses to see through involving masking hostages as Clowns and his thugs as Doctors.  As I contend in the Doctoring Art Gotic articles, Doctors are the teachers of the Invisible College.  Batman gets caught in a net (a grid-structure of the visible and invisible, and a symbol of magical authority) prior to the Joker being displayed as Tarot trump twelve, The Hanged Man.  The symbolism of this card is overtly sacrificial, and once again Odinic.  It represents expiation, inversion and realignment.  And what does The Hanged Man predict?  The elevated Batman's Fall, generating a new hoax wherein he takes responsibility for the murders committed by Two-Face, an act of expiation, and the Dark Knight entering into obscurity. 

How interesting that in the Tim Burton Batman movie the Joker also hangs before falling (from a tower, weighed down by a statue of the Devil).  In The Dark Knight the Joker lives but Two-Face dies in a Fall.  Joel Schumacher's Two-Face also dies from a Fall.  The Dark Knight is Ledger's last full role.  He half finished Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  He enters that story as a hanged man, where his Joker role left off.  Inverted.

 

The Joker dies, the Joker lives, the Joker dies, the Joker lives.  The subject of this article is a few years gone by now.  This doesn't really make it more comfortable to talk about though.  And, though not nearly as prominently, this matter of the Joker's living and dying and living, and the questions about it all, have become topical again due to an interview comic book writer and so-called chaos-magician Grant Morrison gave to Kevin Smith where Morrison makes a claim regarding what is highly regarded as the best Joker comic book story ever produced, The Killing Joke.  The Killing Joke is by another self-professed comic book writer/magician, Alan Moore and the amazing Brian Bolland.  It involves the Joker shooting and paralyzing Barbara Gordon, who is secretly Batgirl, and photographing her naked, wounded body (and possibly raping her) with the intent of driving Commissioner Gordon insane.  It ends like this:

art by Brian Bolland

With the Batman and the Joker sharing a laugh at a joke as the police arrive.  Some comic readers find this scene, read straight, as touching, though I am not amongst their ranks. Morrison contends that it was Moore's intent to suggest, though not overtly, that Batman kills the Joker.  And I agree.  I always thought this was being suggested.  I mean, look, the light goes out in the last panel.  The line separating the two of them disappears.  Batman proves the Joker is right by breaking his cardinal rule and killing the Joker.  And this was really the Joker's purpose because his existence is a misery.  However, this is fiction.  It is only so much about the author's intent.  There is no inherent truth, which means that both endings are simultaneously true.  And false.  Morrison fully realizes this I'm sure.  Smith might as well.  Note that Morrison has in his recent career killed and resurrected Batman, killed the latest Robin who is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, not to mention killed and resurrected Superman as the heart of the sun.  What is death in comics?  It is a symbol system.  It is a motif of exit and entrance.  It is about resurrection.  Always. 

This Joke Is Not Funny Part II

This is not the Joker. It is the German actor Conrad Veidt as he appeared in the 1928 film "The Man Who Laughs", playing the tragic figure of Gwynplaine. "The Man Who Laughs" is based on the 1869 novel "The Man Who Laughs/L'Homme qui Rit" by the great Victor Hugo. Hugo's best known works are "Les Misérables" and "Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame". This is the commonly cited source for the visual inspiration of the Joker. The Joker first appeared in "Batman" #1 in 1940, and was created, to keep it simple, through a synthesis of concepts of Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson. About the only details agreed upon by the three regarding the creation of the figure that became Batman's archnemesis, and considered by many to be the greatest comic book super villain of all time, is his basis on the joker playing card and on the image of Gwynplaine as depicted in this film.

This lineage is no small matter. In fact it synchronistically directs us to an aspect of the Joker character that is rather startling in its implications. We'll work our way towards that point. There are several intriguing avenues to explore along the way.

Through this facet of the Joker we find the influence of German Chamber Films which is part of the larger movement of Expressionism. These are art modes inherently tied to the gothic, mysticism and the occult, and hugely influential on all the horror fiction that followed. All of these are umbrellaed by the larger Romantic movement, a field in which Victor Hugo is a monumental figure. Likewise, the American super hero comic book, and high fantasy in general, steadily becoming the predominant mode of popular culture, are the natural extension through time of these traditions.

The conceptualization of the Joker, due to this pedigree, as a figure out of Expressionism is an easy thing to affirm if one considers what may be the single most iconic image of the movement.


Edvard Munch, "The Scream", 1893

Reverse despair into mirth. Substitute the perception of horror with the projection of horror, and set in motion in the artificial time of the comic book narrative.


Art by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

Note too the use by Munch of the symbolism of the Bridge and of Water in his most famous work. That the artist's official account of the creation of this powerful art piece relates a true experience in no way negates the inherent symbolism involved. We may note as well that the Bridge, if one looks over the edge rather then either end, is not so far removed from the symbolism of the Cliff, Precipice or Ledge (just ask Gwen Stacy) found in many versions of the Fool Trump of Tarot's Major Arcana. In Munch's vision, the subject has assessed the dangers around him and the emotional response is that of abject horror. "The Scream" could perhaps be considered The Fool reversed.

The character Gwynplaine, in Hugo's novel and the German chamber film, suffers his fixed, clown-like expression due to an act of mutilation by a group Hugo termed "the Comprachios", Spanish for "child-buyers". These individuals, sadly based on a real-world activity, made their living through the purposeful mutilation of children to produce sideshow attractions or even private servants for the depraved. Compare this to the Gobblers/General Oblation Board of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. This particular facial mutilation is sometimes termed a Glasgow or Chelsea Smile, and it seems to be the basis for the Joker's disfigured appearance in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight". Tim Burton's version of the Joker, played of course by Jack Nicholson, likewise was disfigured, by a bullet that passed through both his cheeks. While these are modifications to the comic book portrayal of the Joker's origin, it in fact brings the character closer to his source material, material I am certain both Nolan and Burton were aware of.





Here we find Veidt again, playing "the Somnambulist" (the figure in black) in the 1920 German Expressionist film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", bringing one of those insidious illuminated, fictional doctors into the mix. The inspiration of the Somnambulist character on Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" is self-evident (as is the visual styling of German chamber movies on his work in general). "Edward Scissorhands", arguably Burton's finest work, was the movie he released following "Batman". The name Veidt, interesting enough, was utilized by Alan Moore in "Watchmen" as the last name of the conspiracy creating Ozymandius. If we trace the etymology, we find the German name Veidt derives from the Latin "vita", meaning life of course. Saint Vitus is a Christian child martyr, tortured to death for his refusal to denounce Christianity, and the patron of actors and comedians. Perhaps you've heard of his dance.

One of the most troubling aspects of Ledger's death, which is increasing rather then decreasing as time passes and new, sometimes contradictory, details come to light, is the very feeling of unreality surrounding it all. This is an aspect well addressed by Ben Fairhall's "The Daily Behemoth" article Joker and Jokerman where he addresses viral marketing campaigns (utilized for promotion of "The Dark Knight", specifically regarding the appearance of Ledger's Joker) and Alternate Reality Gaming.

These related topics are modern day, internet based extensions of the basic hoax, an action, large and small scale, likely as old as human civilization itself. And this is no small matter. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Heath Ledger's death is a hoax, or anything other then what it has been presented as. Of course the greatest hoaxes of all are the ones that are never detected. I'm afraid we live in the Age of Hoax, where much of what we are presented with as event, fact and history are either modifications or outright fabrications.

H.P. Lovecraft utilized the structure of the hoax to great effect in the cration of much of his supernatural fiction. Lovecraft was a devotee of Edgar Allen Poe, credited with the creation of detective fiction. A detective, often, is engaged in the act of exposing hoaxes. Batman, the Dark Knight Detective, made his debut in "Detective Comics". And still we are comfortably in the domain of Romanticism.

One hoax that is very famous and still has considerable legs are the forgeries of French royalist Pierre Plantard, including his list of supposed Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, which served as part of the basis of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", and its nonfiction predecessor (and inspiration) "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", by Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.

Baigent and Leigh sued Dan Brown for plagiarism, and lost. To me, as a fan of both works, the connection between their books was self-evident. I always wondered if the law suit was itself a hoax, a great publicity stunt for the film version of Brown's novel and even more so for the more obscure further writings of Leigh and Baigent. Richard Leigh died just months ago, in late November 2007. Ron Howard and Tom Hanks will reteam for the prequel of "The Da Vinci Code", "Angels and Demons", scheduled for release in May of 2009.

Now, many would like to simply dismiss "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" as a whole due to Plantard's forgeries. Of course it is far from being that simple. The best hoax is the one that sits closest to the truth. It is not the point of this article to debate these matters. What is easy to recognize, however, is that many of the Grand Masters on Plantard's list were obviously occultists, including famous alchemists, Nicolas Flamel, Robert Fludd, and Johann Valentin Andrea. The occult nature of the works of Da Vinci are self-evident. The same is true of the supposed 24th Grand Master on the list, Victor Hugo.

Hugo's alchemical insights were such as to be heavily noted by Fulcanelli in "Le Mystère des Cathédrales". There are numerous references in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to Nicholas Flamel, to a degree that Hugo's famous novel could be considered a love letter to the famed alchemist, who I am not convinced was not a predecessor of Hugo's in an esoteric organization, at the very least in spirit. Another obvious fan of Flamel's is author J.K.Rowling, who featured the famed 15th century alchemist and his wife Perenelle as still living in the late 20th century in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", the first book of her seven part series, clearly establishing the alchemical underpinnings of her children's fantasy at the story's onset.

And so we find the character of the Joker clearly a product of the esoteric stream. Alan Moore I'm certain was aware of these facets when he presented the sociopathic clown as a tragic figure in his retelling of the Joker's origin, "Batman: The Killing Joke" in 1988.

"Batman: The Killing Joke" represents a back-story for the Joker originally presented in "Detective Comics" #168, February, 1951. It was of course much lighter fare as originally told, but the alchemical undercurrent is present none the less.


Art by Sheldon Moldoff and George Roussos

Note that Batman is recounting this past adventure as as a guest Professor of criminology at an imaginary Gotham City college.


Art by Sheldon Moldoff and George Roussos.

And again, I find this portion of the story very similar in ways to certain symbolic elements of "The Scream" once we look past the exoteric levels of the works. For that matter, Hugo's "The Man Who Laughs" ends with Gwynplaine, his blind, pure-hearted true love Dea, and their foster-father Ursus sailing away from England for the continent. While Ursus slumbered Dea professed her love for Gwynplaine and then abruptly died. Ursus awakened to find no sign of Gwynplaine, who we can be certain threw himself over the ship's rail in sorrow and drowned. The man who was the Red Hood "died" in the chemical bath and was reborn as the Joker. Moore made the tragic precedent more plain in "The Killing Joke", as the Red Hood event occurred following the unexpected death of his pregnant wife. The death of Gwen Stacy contains many of these same elements in somewhat different combinations.

It was in no way my intent to link matters between these articles on Heath Ledger and the Joker, and my last article, What's The Story? Mourning Glory, which dealt with my continuing exploration of the esoteric symbolism of Spider-Man and his first true love Gwen Stacy. And yet we find several convergences just the same. The symbolism of Bridges, alchemical origins, the films of Ron Howard, a character named Gwyn/Gwen, the death of the maiden, and characters representing the Fool Trump of the Tarot.

I mentioned the Joker as the Fool in Part One, and it is an easy thing to recognize. How interesting that in the Joker's first appearance, due to the propensity of comic book characters to make plays on words, the Batman likewise associated himself with a playing card.


Art by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

Clubs equal Wands. Look it up, it's a highly appropriate signifier for Batman/Bruce Wayne.

This Joke Is Not Funny (updated)

You've likely heard by now that Heath Ledger was found dead today, 1/22/08. I don't mean to be ghoulish, and it is certainly too early to in any way speculate the cause of death, but this is an alarm bell moment. There are two films that are scheduled for future release featuring Ledger, and there's a weird twist of synchronicity between them. Let me state again that this is a total tragedy that I do not mean to make light of, he was only 28 years old and the father of a two year old daughter. No foul play seemed to be involved. He apparently did have a substance abuse problem, at least at one time. He may have been suffering from pneumonia. The description of the scene sounds like a suicide but there is no clear indication of that until the autopsy tomorrow. So unlike my normal posts I write this with no pleasure whatsoever.

It is big news that Ledger portrayed the Joker in next Spring's "The Dark Knight", the much anticipated sequel to "Batman Begins". I'm sure I'm not alone in finding this disturbing and ominous on some indecipherable level. Entertainment Weekly has already stated, "No one will be able to watch [The Dark Knight] without seeing unintended ironies and eerie portents of doom".



Here's what wikipedia says about Ledger and the role:

"the Joker, whom the actor described as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work in that film's tone, and Nolan agreed upon his anarchic interpretation. To prepare for the role he lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger was eventually able to generate a voice which did not sound like Jack Nicholson's take on the character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth to read, which he "really tried to read [...] and put it down". Ledger also cited inspiration in A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious. Ultimately, "there’s nothing that [is] consistent", as his main objective was to frighten the audience. The challenge of the role put a strain on Ledger's sleep patterns, finding himself unable to rest for more than a few hours each night."

The other Ledger film is just as evocative, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" from Terry Gilliam, scheduled for release in 2009. By the same screen writer as Gilliam's films "Brazil" and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". It is the story of a traveling theater troupe who make a deal with the devil and lead audience members on a tour of another world through a Magic Mirror. Here's a production still:



It is hard to see the ornamentation above the stage, but I believe that's Shakespeare who, no matter your opinion on the conspiracy theory, at the very least resonates with Francis Bacon. Then to left and right are what appear to me to be black and white striped chariots bearing torch wielding gods and goddesses, drawn by peacocks. The peacock is associated with Hera/Juno, one of the more ominous manifestations of the Goddess. I also heard on the news today that "Juno" is the dark horse runner for Best Picture in the upcoming Oscars, a weird coincidence.

Gilliam was a member of Monty Python. How strange then that the troupe twice produced the sketch "The Funniest Joke in the World", also known as "Joke Warfare" and "The Killing Joke".


Art by Brian Bolland


Art by Dave McKean



Batman as the grim reaper. There's certainly going to be much discussed on this subject as details are released and the underlying symbolism of the many faces of the Joker and Batman are explored.

Update:

In the comments JB directed to me to some photos of Ledger from Doctor Parnassus posted at the forums of David Icke.com. The image speaks for itself:



Ledger as the Hanged Man, a Tarot card of dark portent equaled only by The Lightning Struck Tower. Note the bloody symbols on his forehead, particularly the Illuminati All-Seeing Eye in Pyramid over his pineal gland/third eye. Absolutely chilling. His white tuxedo too reminds me of the black to white shift of the tuxedos worn by the Time Bandits, another Gilliam movie, when they passed into "The Time of Legends", an Otherworld serving as the residence of Evil (see Inside the Map of the Universe).

As we discover the dark aspect of the Goddess underlying this event the punning behind this "The Dark Knight" promotional poster takes on new significance. Sirius is intimately associated with the goddess Isis.



Why so, Sirius?