The Disney+ Marvel Loki streaming series can be understood as a sci-fi fairy tale of alchemical transformation - not just in the psychological sense of Jungian individuation - and not just in the sense of spiritual redemption - but alchemy as mystic alchemical deification - the process in which an individual comes to realize, and become, the divine.
The film Nosferatu directed by Robert Eggers seems to explicitly point to the work of CG Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz on alchemy. Here's a video essay looking at the film as a fairy tale of the occult, one ripe for Marie-Louise von Franz style analysis. It can be understood as a powerful mythological cosmic fairy tale in which Ellen and Count Orlok represent two figures in the Jungian collective unconscious. And their fate is intertwined with the fate of the world.
The video explores the concept of the "Spectacle Machine" and its relationship to media, consciousness, and reality. Drawing on the work of Marshall McLuhan, Peter Kingsley, David Cronenberg, and many others, the video posits that the "Spectacle Machine" refers to any device or experience that extends our senses and shapes our perception of the world.
Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia can be understood as a deeply religious film. A film about suffering and divine grace delivered through messengers, helpers, and more direct intervention.
In this multi-part video essay series, I discuss how Twin Peaks: The Return can be understood as a warning of the illness that plagues the modern soul and how it hints at the possibility of redemption. The Return includes symbolic imagery and themes that resonate with esoteric mythology and teachings found within various ancient philosophical traditions, religions, mystery cults, and magical beliefs as well as the mystic explorations of depth psychologist C.G. Jung.
Dale Cooper, the beloved seemingly self-actualized protagonist of Twin Peaks, found himself in over his head due to his experiences in the town of Twin Peaks.
This video tracks Cooper's journey through the Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness, with a Jungian twist. I then discuss where I think Cooper went wrong.
