Already previously we had analyzed the esoteric elements of the successful television series by David Lynch & Mark Frost: in this new appointment we will focus specifically on the influences, identifiable in βTwin Peaksβ, deriving from the Norse and Celtic tradition.
di Richard Poleggi
Β
On February 24, 1989, Laura Palmer's body was found on the beach wrapped in a plastic sheet. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is sent to the town of Twin Peaks to find the killer. The initial narrative seems to be that of a simple detective story, but already from the first season of the series the characters involved come into contact with a reality other, made of prophetic dreams and populated by supernatural beings who inhabit the lodges, not places interconnected with the material world but of which they do not respect the laws of space and time.
There has been a lot of speculation over the years the esoteric and religious influences that would inspire Mark Frost and David Lynch in the creation of the world of Twin Peaks, in its particular mythology and in the relationship between men and beings of the two lodges: the white one and the black one. In spite of their respective names, I would not take for granted a marked dichotomy of intent between the two lodges, that is to say that it is not sure that the black one is inhabited only by spirits devoted to evil, and the White Lodge by those devoted to good. Il gigante, one of the spiritual beings who interact with the world of men, helps Cooper and for this reason some argue that he may have come from the White Lodge, but he is also seen together with the dwarf. The dwarf, called The man from another place, is one of those beings who are approached to Lodge Nwas and to the evil plans of the spirit Bob. So the giant's purposes are not clear. In the third season we discover that he is the creator of Laura Palmer, but it is impossible to assume that his intentions are totally positive.
So I'll just base myself on what the beings of the lodges appear to be, that is, spiritual creatures, not material, differently from man. It could therefore be said that, as in myth, these spirits act for their own personal gain, regardless of the desires of human beings and indeed often to their detriment. In a scene from the filmΒ Fire walk with me, the dwarf states:
« From pure air we have descended. Going up and down. Intercourse between the two worlds. "
("We got out of the air of fear. Going up and down. Relationships [with probable sexual meaning, ed.] Between the two worlds.")
The reading keys are manifold. In the formation of the complex world of Twin Peaks several elements contributed: from Native American beliefs to the alchemical Great Work. In this discussion, I will focus on the series' ties to Germanic mythology. In this case I am referring to a very specific story: that of Odin's sacrifice for the acquisition of knowledge.
Odin shaman and Yggdrasil bridge between worlds
Odin hangs for nine days and nights on the world tree, the Yggdrasil. Wounded by a spear, without bread to eat and without a horn to drink from, he is constantly shaken by the icy wind. During the torture the god peeks into the lower world, literally below him, to steal knowledge. Eventually he sacrifices an eye and gains knowledge of the runes.
137.
I found I hung on that windy tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.(I know, I was hung from the wind-whipped log
for nine whole nights,
wounded with a spear and handed over toΒ Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree that no one knows
where from the roots it rises. )138.
None refreshed me ever with food or drink,
I peered right down into the deep;
crying aloud I lifted the Runes
then back I fell from then.(Β With bread they did not satisfy me nor with horns [they quenched my thirst].
I looked down, I raised the runes,
calling them I did,
and I fell from there. )139.
Nine mighty songs I learned from the great
son of Bale-thorn, Bestla's sire;
I drank a measure of the wondrous Mead,
with the Soulstirrer's drops I was showered.(Nine terrible spells I received from the illustrious son
diΒ BΓΆlΓΎorn, father ofΒ Order,
and a sip I got of the precious mead
drawn from ΓΓ°rΓΈrir. )140.
Ere long I bare fruit, and find full well,
I grew and waxed in wisdom;
word following word, I found me words,
deed following deed, I wrought deeds.(Behold I began to blossom and became wise,
to grow and make me mighty.
Word for me from word, I drew with the word,
work for me from work, I drew with work. )141.
Hidden Runes shalt thou seek and interpreted signs,
many symbols of might and power,
by the great Singer painted, by the high Powers fashioned,
graved by the Utterer of gods.(Hidden runes you will find
clear letters, large letters, mighty letters,
who painted the terrible poet, who created the supreme gods,
which he engravedΒ HroptrΒ some gods. )(The search for Odin's runes, HΓ‘vamΓ‘l, room 137 - 141)
Yggdrasil is theaxis beat, the ash that crosses all nine worlds like an axis. In his work Hanging on the world treeΒ scholar Hanning Kure speculates that the myth represents shamanic initiation into the ancient Viking world, and that Odin would therefore be the shaman intent on connecting the upper world, the underworld and the terrestrial one - human, namely Midgard. The Yggdrasil has its foliage in the upper world and three roots in as many planes: one in that of the Aesir, the second in the domain of the ice giants and the last beyond Niflheim. Only through Yggdrasil can Odin connect with the lower world and learn about it. As Kure writes:
« A world tree is a way of imagining the unity of cosmos. A world tree is like a vertical road, bridging or connecting the βworld aboveβ with the world below Β»
(Β Β«A world tree is a way of imagining the unity of the cosmos. A world tree is like a vertical road, connecting the "upper world" with the "lower world." ")
In the mentality of the ancient Nordic peoples the tree, or a representation of it, would be necessary to put man in communication with the world of the Aesir and with that of the spirits. It is no coincidence that the monuments symbolizing the Yggdrasil and its three roots, three-point monument, as Kure calls them, were used in Sweden and Norway for funeral rituals, in order to make it easier for the deceased to travel to further worlds. These monuments, double mirrors in the material world of the tree on which Odin hung, may have been conceived as an access point to other worlds e by other worlds. A kind of portal. Useful not only for the journey of the dead, but also for contacting the deities and other spirits that populated the Viking world.
We can easily imagine the flames of the stake illuminating in a sinister way the faces of the men and women who attended the funeral, spectators as a reflection of Odin's eternal sacrifice. Immersed in mythical time thanks to the catharsis of the rite, surrounded by invisible spirits and dominated by the gods intent on observing them from their home in Asgard.Β Before becoming the leading figure in the Germanic pantheon, Odin was in all likelihood one psychopump divinity, designed to act as a bridge between the world of the living and that of the dead. Its original name WΕΔanaz derives from Proto-Germanic root wΓΎuz, a term connected to ecstasy, poetic inspiration, intuition and to the force of nature that pervades everything. Not surprisingly, despite the fact that he was the father of the gods, Odin was united by ancient scholars to Mercury and not to Jupiter.
Twin Peaks, Viking myth and the connection between worlds
Following a series of vicissitudes and brilliant insights, agent Cooper manages to discover that Laura Palmer's killer is her father Leland, possessed since childhood by one of the evil spirits of the lodges, Bob. The phrase (a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet) that Major Briggs addresses to a confused and embittered Dale after Leland's prison suicide is emblematic:
Β« Gentlemen, there are more things between heaven and earth than man can think of Β»
Just like in Scandinavian mythology, in the work of Lynch and Frost man is a creature that inhabits a world in between, subjected to the influences of higher forces which he cannot understand and with whom he generally cannot communicate. Not only gods, but spirits, giants, dwarves and infernal creatures, protagonists both in the Germanic myth and in the world of Twin Peaks. In the poem resumed in 1848 by Wagner, the Nibelungen ring is forged by the dwarf Alberich. According to legend, the ring would make its owner master of the world, and it is with a ring that in Twin Peaks the dwarf binds to their unfortunate fate both Theresa Banks, Bob's first victim, and Leland Palmer. The Nibelung is not the only ring that appears in Germanic mythology. The draupnir, a magic ring that Odin used to give to the Viking kings to ingratiate themselves with them.
In Fire walk with me we witness a conversation between the dwarf and Bob inside the convenience stores, or at least in its counterpart of the spiritual world. In the scene, of which I leave the link in order to refresh the memory of the reader, we see the two protagonists seated at a table that the dwarf caresses, emphasizing its color, that is the green, and the material of which it is made, the ant. In my opinion the color of the table is a clear reference to Emerald table by Ermete Trismegisto, a work in which the celebrated maxim "as above so in Bass". With this ploy it seems that the director wants to emphasize the connection existing between the material and spiritual planes, and above all that the actions that occur in the first affect the second, and vice versa.
This hypothesis is also supported by the fact that probably, when the spirits are conversing, Bob is acting in the material plane through the body he possesses. He reveals it by pronouncing the sentence Β«I have the fury of my own momentumΒ» ("I have the fury of my own momentum"), an expression that refers not only to an action, but to an action that is taking place in that exact moment. In fact, it is no coincidence that the dwarf informs the other spirits gathered at the meeting that the table is an ant one and that he touches it repeatedly, showing his ability to interact with objects on the physical plane despite being a spiritual creature.
Communication between the two worlds is therefore possible, but only by paying a price and under certain conditions. Regarding Twin Peaks it is the alignment between Jupiter and Saturn, but not only that. We need a magician, a shaman, who opens the portals as Odin does by hanging himself on theaxis beat:
βIn the darkness of a past future
the magician wishes to see.
A man sings between this world and the next.
Fire, walk with me. "
This phrase is spoken by Mike, one of the most important beings who inhabit the lodges. He tells us that there is only one occasion to pass from one world to another, and that a magician is probably already trying to complete the ritual. Probably the action of the shaman in Twin Peaks it is shown to us through its double in the spirit world, theΒ Jumping man appearing in the film Fire Walk with me, and that's not by chance wears the typical long-nosed mask medicine-man (shamans) Heyoka, also called sacred clowns.
That in the material plane the magician he wishes to see is Cooper, or Sarah Palmer, or others is not important for our analysis, that is, what we are interested in is to ascertain that a magician is necessary to make the ritual possible. The shaman opens the portal and like Odin he becomes an instrument of communication between the earthly and the spiritual world. At this point we need a tree, or trees in our case. It is no coincidence that the portal of the Black Lodge, or of the waiting room according to the interpretation, opens in a circle of twelve sycamores. Inside the circle of trees is a puddle of burnt oil with icy edges. The perfect setting for a northern god.
Although it does not specifically concern the topic of this article, I believe that the choice of sycamores is not random, after all few things are random in Twin Peaks. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
" In Egyptian mythology the sycamore was a tree consecrated to the goddess Hathor, also known as the "Lady of the sycamore". He was considered a symbol of immortality and its wood was used for the manufacture of sarcophagi.
In Book of Amos, drawn up at the time of Kingdom of Judah around 775-750 BC, the homonymous prophet claims to have been, before dedicating himself to the prophetic mission, "a shepherd and gatherer of sycamores"; which testifies that at that time the tree was already present in Palestine and used by man.
In Gospel according to Luke (19,1-10), a sycamore is named in the city of Jericho.
An inhabitant of Jericho, a certain Zacchaeus, being short in stature, to see Jesus climbs a sycamore tree.
Some traditions attributed it to the tree where he hanged himself Judas Iscariot in the tales of Gospels, and therefore with a negative connotation, in contradiction with its meaning of life. Therefore, traditions became more widespread for which the Judas tree was instead a Siliquaster Β»
A plant therefore linked to the Egyptian and Christian religions, from which the authors also take inspiration on other occasions. It would be foolhardy to say that Judas hanging from the sycamore is a reference to Odin hanging from the Yggdrasil, because in this case to prove my hypothesis it would have been better if the door to the loggia opened in the middle of a circle of 12 ash trees, but we always talk of a mythical character hanging from a tree, so the theme returns as on other occasions.
In any case, trees seem to be very important in Lynchian mythology. The spooky forest of Twin Peaks and its majestic douglas fir play a fundamental role in the aesthetics of the series, but not only. Inside the convenience stores lumberjacks witness the meeting between the spirit Bob and The man from another place. One of the fundamental characters of the series, la Signore Log, he talks all the time with a severed trunk that he always carries with him, and which apparently contains a soul inside. The trees would therefore be not only a means to connect the earthly world to the spiritual one, but also envelopes for spirits.
The sycamores are twelve, magic number present in all traditional religions as well as in that of the Vikings. Twelve are the days when Yule is celebrated, a period of the year during which, for the ancient Germanic peoples and beyond, the sun died and awaiting its rebirth the dead walked the earth with their infernal processions. And so a period in which the passages between the world of the living and that of the dead are open and the two floors can communicate, as happens with the entrance to the loggia. Twelve are also the bear-warriors of Odin's army, the berserker, and of course the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur; it should be noted, however, that in Twin PeaksΒ the portal to the Black Loggia is located inside the Glastonbury Grove, this too, thus bringing us back to the Celtic tradition: it is Agent Cooper himself who reminds us that it is the "mythical burial place of King Arthur".Β Numerology and number combinations are symbolic codes used very often by esotericists, and also in Twin Peaks. We remember the recurring mention of the 25 years, room 430 named by the giant at the beginning of the third season, the numbers 253, 119, 15, 3, 315, which refer to certain places, coordinates or dates that will be shown to us, or not , while the plot unfolds.
At the end of the second season of Twin Peaks Windom Earle does not sacrifice an eye to access knowledge, but a sacrifice is still needed: Twin Peaks queen Annie Blackburn, or rather his fear that Earle uses to open the portal that will lead him to the lodge. In a way, Dale also sacrifices himself to save Annie. Unfortunately, however, neither Windom nor Dale are gods, and while Odin falls from the tree and is free to resume his way, the soul of the evil Earle is incinerated and Cooper remains a prisoner of the lodge for twenty-five years. At that point he learned everything there is to know about the illusory nature of our world and how the life of men is conditioned by the actions of supernatural beings; at a very high price, as will be seen in the third season. It could be said that Dale loses everything, a bit like the nineteenth-century esotericists who, after decades of investigating the unknown, died of obscure evils or poverty.
Lynch and Frost seem to tell us that runes are only for gods, or initiated shamans. Cooper's apprenticeship as a shaman was a two-decade journey into an incomprehensible world, in which reason is annulled and time and space painfully dilate until the laws of reality are erased.. And to think that Agent Hawk had warned him.Β
Ultimately it seems only right to mention what is probably some sort of physical manifestation of Odin within the world of Twin Peaks, or a modern temple dedicated to him. I'm talking about the "One-eyed Jack» (One Eyed Jack), the brothel run by the Horne brothers across the border. Some of those who have launched over the years in the analysis of Twin Peaks claim that the "One-eyed Jack" is a reference to conspiracy theories concerning the elusive New World Order, I am of another opinion. Two reasons lead me to connect Jack with the god Odin and with the traditions of the Germanic world.
The first is provided by Tacitus in his Germany, in which he informs us of the particular beliefs of these peoples about fate. The Germans were convinced that their destiny was already written and for this reason when they began to play and bet they went on until they had won or lost everything, even their freedom. If they had won it would have been predetermined by the Norns, same thing in the case of a defeat. I therefore believe that Lynch and Frost could have imagined a place where men are intent on enjoying carnal pleasure and play to the point of perdition, immolating themselves as modern faithful of the god Odin, subjected to the gaze of his one eye, from which the name of the place would come.Β
A second meeting point arises from the reflection of the reading of Odin as Mercury. As previously anticipated, the ancient Romans, coming into contact with the Germanic peoples, associated the main god of the Viking pantheon with their own Mercury. In addition to being a psychopomp deity like the original Wodan, Mercury was the protector of thieves. Criminals, like the regulars of theΒ One Eyed Jack.
Conclusions
Like Special Agent Dale Cooper, we let ourselves be guided by intuition and facts in this journey of analyzing the connections between the world of Twin Peaks and the Germanic one. Despite the hypotheses presented, however, we cannot be sure that the authors of the series took their cue specifically from the myth of Odin's initiatory sacrifice or that they did not let themselves be inspired by the mentality of the peoples who adored him and by the esoteric traditions that have come from ancient times. reworked up to us. In my opinion, however, these connections are evident, and I believe that people with a wide culture and open-mindedness like David Lynch and Mark Frost have certainly been able to know these issues even more thoroughly than I have presented them in this article.
I would like to end this article with the farewell sentence that Judge Clinton SternwoodΒ (se Star in this case it was intended with the meaning of "stern", it could be a clear reference to the Yggdrasil given that often in the funeral rites to the three-point monument a ship was associated for the voyage of the deceased)Β he turns to Leland Palmer, as lightning bolts brightly illuminate the sheriff's department room in which they are speaking:
βLet me tell you that when we have abandoned our frail mortal remains, we will meet again and toast together in Valhalla Β»
Sources:
- Kure, Henning:Β Hanging on the world tree. Man and cosmos in Old Norse mythic poetry
- MACULOTTI, Marco:Β The secrets of Twin Peaks: the "Evil that comes from the woods", on AXIS mundi
- TACIT, Germany
- ROSSI, Silvia Elena:Β Shamans and warriors in the Nordic myths
Β
Superb article, finally it clarifies something about the TP universe.
thank you
Thanks to you Simone!
Thanks a lot Simone.
What I have presented here are hypotheses, albeit backed up by fairly solid evidence in my opinion. However, such articles require reflection and study for this constructive criticism and appreciation are really welcome.