Ego Eye, Idol Hand, Robot Heart

another metal hand... it's just a coincidence

My last post, the(Bee)yoncé(Know)les, was absolutely my favorite post to write so far, but it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. The symbolism was there, but the pattern seemed lacking in meaning. After some extensive analysis connecting Beyonce Knowles to the "power of three" and the mysterious triple goddess, I pointed out the metal glove that showed up at the end of the "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" video. Beyonce's stylists have gone out of their way recently to represent her as robotic, even going so far as to integrate machine parts into her wardrobe.

Horned-skull breastplate with a headlight over her heart

The Beyonce-bot/diva-doll character becomes a much heavier concept when seen in the light of Beyonce's incredible influence on the upcoming generation of young women (and gay men, it seems) who memorize her message-laden lyrics and imitate her mechanical dance routines. She sings about individualistic control and making one's own decisions while mimicking a robot, something that is bound by the programming of it's creator.

bee-bot and the clones

The contradiction of this illusion is deepened by Beyonce's anointment as the picture of a "natural woman" (because apparently, real women have curves) . . .

natural curves, plastic surgery and perfection

. . . juxtaposed with her constant body-shaping and the use of hip pads and butt pads in videos and performances (I know, I know, I shed a tear too). Not to say that Beyonce isn't naturally blessed with a wonderfully curvy figure, but the need for such over-accentuated accessorizing is curious indeed.

After Beyonce broke out the metal glove, I saw the tin man/artificial intelligence connection almost immediately, but I missed the most obvious connection; The robot hand/metal glove was the central character in a comic about a possessed mystical heroine known as Witchblade. Once again, the deeper meaning was revealed to me by my most sacred tome: the comic book.

twin glove bearers atop the urban pyramid

The Witchblade is a sentient mystical machine, one of 13 ancient artifacts of extra-terrestrial origin including The Darkness, The Angelus and The Spear of Destiny (coveted by the angel Gabriel in Constantine). EDIT: A simultaneous synch-post over at A Few Shots To Shaman on the red-blue shift, the Geburah and the red/blue doing/being chakras brought my attention to the red and blue gems embedded in the original Witchblade design (pictured below). It's worth noting that the red stone is the primary stone and is positioned above the blue in the center of the hand, stigmata-style, and next to a smaller gold stone, possibly corresponding to the sixth sefira, associated with Balance.

Speaking of balance; the Witchblade is actually the offspring of The Darkness and The Angelus, artifacts representing opposing forces of light and dark which entered a truce long enough to spawn a living symbiotic entity that selects a woman deemed worthy of its power to possess (bear with me here).

The Angelus and The Darkness get it on

The combination of light and dark brings to mind Beyonce's good girl/bad girl dichotomy; the robot glove she wears could symbolize the Coming Together of -or the balance between- these two opposing ego-selves, but since the videos and promotional photos only show the glove on Sasha Fierce, the dark side, it makes more sense that this is a representation of the type of demonized partial possession seen in Stigmata and Constantine. Beyonce has submitted to the control of the Witchblade, the ancient magik of the divine alien machinery, but her natural divinity is still in there somewhere, fighting for her. Speaking metaphorically, of course. I think...

Beyonce under the spell... and that "W" looks an awful lot like a trident

Due to its explosive popularity, the Witchblade storyline crosses paths with some very synch-nificant characters. Ancient possessees include Cleopatra (reflecting Beyonce's namesake from Austin Powers 3), St. Joan of Arc, and Queen Isabella, the queen portrayed by Rachel Weisz in The Fountain.

Prominent Witchblade crossover stories have featured Lara Croft from Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie's game A.I. alter-ego) , the trident-sporting tin man Wolverine, Elektra and her triple-pronged sais, Beyonce's superheroine idol, Wonder Woman, and the comic book incarnation of the Hindu triple mother goddess, Devi.

I'm sensing a pattern here...


The Hindu Devi and her Trident

In the Witchblade's most recent story, the blade actually splits between two carriers; the newest recipent, Danielle Baptiste, shares the Witchblade in order to save the life of her predecessor, Sara Pezzini, who nearly dies in childbirth. The artwork from recent issues makes no secret of the symbolism;

as red above, so blue below

The twin/reflection symbolism covered briefly here and also in the(Bee)yoncé(Know)les and Gnosis / Hypnosis / Hypocrisy / Heresy pointed me towards the imagery of The Eye, a film that, despite strong references made by other researchers, I had no intention of seeing (not a huge fan of the horror genre). After reviewing unintentional connections I'd made with mirrors and blindness, and after watching an eye-opening (ooh) episode of my new favorite show, Dollhouse (more on that gem later), and after stumbling across a free version of the film online through Yahoo Video, I had to submit to the signs.

Alba in another mirror with her version of a power glove

The Eye, a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong horror film, focuses on Jessica Alba as a blind musician, Sydney Wells, who has her sight restored through a corneal transplant. As her vision slowly returns, she begins to have disturbing visions of death and fire. She soon realizes she has become a conduit -through cell memory- for the restless soul of her donor, a Mexican medium named Ana Cristina who can see death and the souls of the recently deceased. After a failed attempt to prevent Ana from hanging herself in a flashback, Sydney loses her sight once again when an explosion sends shattered glass from a car window into her eyes, freeing her of the haunting visions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6zDKodZeA

Given the recent analysis of shattered glass by Jake Kotze and other synch bloggers, I think it's safe to associate Sydney's lost sight at the end of The Eye with the shattered Ego. Over at Black Dog Star, Arrowsmith makes some in-depth connections between the eye and the hand that I can't help but associate with the robot-hand/alter(ed)-ego discussion made here. An old European proverb says that the blind have eyes in their fingers; are we, as the blind, reaching out with our 3rd eye-hands? Or perhaps reaching in (or both)... either way, it appears the ego/eye/vision is in the way of our reach. Given the association between the Eye and the Eagle/Ego seen prominently in the Eye of Horus, the eagle...

The Red Ego Eye leads her by the hand


Ego / Eye - Blue / Red


Zoe and The Thing in the Eagle Eye Hive

...and seen synchromystically in Shia Lebouf's Eagle Eye, this broken-glass-blindness takes on deeper meaning. At the end of Eagle Eye, Rosario Dawson (as ZOe Perez) pierces the all-seeing eye of Ariia, the A.I. robot goddess (A.I. = ai = Eye). Rosario played The Light in MiB2 with the sunglasses-sporting Will Smith. In I, Robot (eye robot), Smith defeated the all-seeing A.I. blue-goddess, V.i.k.i. after she activated the red-heart chakras of the NS-5 robots, with the wise-cracking assistance of Shia Lebouf, by sliding down a pillar of light with his very own bionic arm/robot hand, of course...

red for the blood, blue for the bionics

Tommy Twin Two-face, Hitch Hancock Horus and the Robotic Red Eye

The red eye robot, much like the hypgnostic possession of past posts, is associated with danger and fear in these movie references, but I think, as the Witchblade story proposes, there is a balance -a truce- to be struck between the natural and the artificial that reflects the balance between the spiritual and the physical, and that both are crucial to the evolution of consciousness. Look into the red eye and see your cell memory erased by the spirit... we are freed when the ego is shattered by the Light, and gain our true sight through blindness? Another eerie contradiction...

for more:
Caught Red-Handed @ Few Shots to Shaman
Free Falling Humpty-Style @ Black Dog Star
Seeing Red @ The Blob


Zoe's hand-eye-vortex from Sci-Fi's Tin Man

I first discovered Jessica Alba in the 1999 comedy-horror flop, Idle Hands. Besides showcasing Ms. Alba's unreal super-fineness, the film's seemingly juvenile story is much more than it appears to be.

I'll try to keep my upcoming analysis concise; re-watching this movie two nights ago was the first synchromystically exciting experience I've had in a long time. Talk about a direct hit.

To be continued...