Britney & the Bald Call: From Isht to iSht

Our culture seems to be entranced by a particulary debased form of bhakti, based on coercive, psychic human sacrifice. I talked about it in regards to Anna Nicole Smith, set up as a representative of a god/dess, a temple idol to be worshipped by the masses and then sacrificed when the time came. When I wrote that, I also had in mind all the niche markets for other representative gods and goddesses who wait in the wings to share a similar fate, depending on how much market share (human intentional energy) can be harnessed to them.

One of those other representational goddesses, it seems obvious to me, is Britney Spears, who is fast becoming our female Elvis (Elvis himself being a sacrificial representative of a god, in my view). Britney fits well with the archetypal choice of a “slave girl” to play the fatal role of goddess. In the context of our culture, the slave girls seem to be those of a lower-caste background. Perhaps there’s more meaning to her song, “I’m a Slave 4U” than we realize.And it’s oddly synchronous that 8 days after one representative of the goddess, Anna Nicole Smith dies (Feb. 8th), yet another potential sacrificial representative, Britney Spears, shaves her head (Feb. 16th). But it’s incredibly appropriate, symbolically.

A quick search of “number 8 symbolism” finds that, from one perspective, it “denotes, resurrection or regeneration.” This fits with the rites of the sacrificial goddess, because She is always reborn or regenerated after the previous representative dies by the exaltation or selection of another girl to play the role. It’s interesting, also to note that the number 8, according to this site, also carries the symbolism of the “immutable eternity and self-destruction,” which connects well with both the self-destruction and eternal sleep of Anna Nicole and also with the unsurprising media-framing of Britney’s recent self-sheering, which the worshipful masses, themselves media slaves, are led to mechanically parrot. Also, the number 8, from the previously linked symbolism site means “the multiplicity” to the Japanese. This resonates well with the multiple representatives of the goddess found in our pop culture even at the present moment.

But the 8 days between the death of Anna Nicole and the goddess’ rebirth as her representative Britney Spears really takes on added significance when we turn to this Jewish reading of 8 symbolism:

If 7 is completion, and the 7th is Shabbos, the
   sanctity inherent in the world, 8 is “beyond nature” and going beyond
   the world.

And the 16th is 1+6=7, the number of Shabbos and of the Godhead. Here, maybe we’re moving into another, parallel symbolism behind Britney’s head shave, but perhaps I’ll discuss that later.

Of course, newborn babies are born bald, but also there is quite a tradition of religious symbolism in regards to shaving one’s head. One telling example that seems to corroborate the theory I’ve been developing in this and the ANS post about the sacrificial goddess is that ( according to this site) both Egyptians and Romans shaved the heads of slaves as a mark of subservience. Of course, it may also represent the beginning of a great undertaking (in the case of the cult magician like old Uncle Anton) or the readiness to undergo a trial of initiation (as Natalie Portman does in V. for Vendetta). And in both of those latter examples, though in very different ways, they point to another meaning attached to the shaved head: renunciation of the world (going beyond the world?) in submission (like those Egyptian and Roman slaves) and devotion to God. But God in what form?

Bhakti Yoga and It’s Degraded Forms

Bhakti yoga is one very ancient and powerful technique of self-transformation, self-realization and unity with the divine. It is the method successfully followed by Saint Francis of Assisi and Baba Faqir Chand. Basically, it requires that one give his/her life in devotion to one form of the divine, called the Isht, Ishta or Ishta-deva. This might be Krisna or Vishnu, Kali, JHVH, Jesus, Buddha or any revered saint or holy person, etc. The idea is to constantly keep this one form or “ideal” of the divine and all Hir attributes in mind. You meditate on your chosen Isht. You conform your actions to those representative of or pleasing to your Isht. You pray to your Isht and offer sacrifice to it, in the form of your attention and your daily activity. Even if you’re daily job is as an office grunt making copies or a fast food worker, you present this labor as a service to your Isht. You constantly meditate on the love that your Isht provides to Hir devotees and that they give to Hir, aiming to awaken this love in yourself. If you are diligent and disciplined and your devotion grows, you may attain to the ultimate absorption in the Isht–and thus, become your awakened, True Self, which is identical to the form of the divine that you have worshipped.

That’s how it’s all supposed to work, anyway. But there are several dangers in Bhakti yoga that has often led to its degeneration. The first danger is for the solo bhakti-ist to fall under severe self-delusion and ego-inflation–s/he may, as Crowley warned, end up attaching to a “demon,” having bonded themselves to their worst habitual traits. Perhaps for this reason, the safe guard has been established, particularly in India, for the baby-bhakti devotee to seek out one who has successfully united with hir Isht, a competent guru who can act as a guide, help one to avoid the pitfalls and, at the same time, model and represent the Isht/god form to the devotee. But this safe guard often has led to a degradation of bhakti itself, because the ignorant beginner on the path is not always the best at telling who is or isn’t a fully realized bhakti guru and gets hirself manipulated and exploited by only half-enlightened gurus and by charismatic con artists. However, even an enlightened guru is tempted by all the free energy, in the form of love and devotion, monetary gain and potential sex, and can become a psychic vampire–a cult leader. It takes the likes of a Baba Faqir Chand to not get trapped by this set-up.

But the type of degradation of bhakti yoga we see in our culture and, perhaps, in other historical cases like the Aztec, is that which occurs when the Archons of Power or the State (represented by the trinity of governmental, military and economic elites and the forces behind them), is far worse than the exploitation of the cult leader and is, perhaps a response to it. Because both the cult leader and the true guru, if popular enough, represent a threat to the monopoly of power that the State holds, due to the allegiance s/he has at her disposal from the masses (not to mention the very real threat that, on rare occasion, through the honest guru or even the cult leader, individuals may wake up to their true nature and thus, realize they do not need the mediation of the State at all). So the Archons of Power either set up one of their own to be the representative of the god for the masses or they choose a representative from among the people. The former strategy has been utilized by Rome and certain other Empires and is effective for a time, but the problem is that when the representative god/dess is of the class of the rulers, his/her death or temporal weakening can result in very real loss of power for the Archonic State. Better, then, to choose a representative from among the people. And this representative will be someone who, rather than representing the higher nature and true self of any individual, as the Isht traditionally does in bhakti, will represent the unconscious, baser traits of the people as a whole. Thus, at once the people are pandered to and unconsciously “represented” and at the same time they are debased by attaching their devotion to one who is on the same level as themselves, unawake. The god/dess representative chosen by the Archonic State, while superficially fitting certain god/dess archetypes, will serve, by being worshipped, to keep the individual enslaved–because this representative is hirself a slave and easily replaced when s/he’s served hir purpose. S/he can be sacrificed with rarely any possibility that s/he might awaken to challenge the rulers and priests.

So it’s no surprise that after JFK and Marilyn Monroe, we have had the likes of Anna Nicole Smith, the Vegas years Elvis, and Britney. These representative god/desses of our culture exhibit considerably less self-awareness and independence and the more “crazy” or “debased” they become, the more those who unknowingly sacrifice their time and energy to pondering them, gossiping about them and psychically consuming them are also debased. Truly, the Isht now becomes iSht.

Post-Script: Loose Threads

Another, pretty obvious, to me possibility on Britney Spears’ head shaving has to do with her dabblings in Kaballah. In fact, if we look back to 2004, we see an interesting parallel with soccer superstar David Beckham (linked from here):

As the following stories attest something very serious has happened to David Beckham. He used to be the much-loved greatest soccer player in England - one of the best in the world. Then, like a slave, he was “sold” to another country and many corporations. His head’s been shaved, he’s got a tattoo of who-knows-what on the back of his neck, he can’t kick a ball anymore, he’s being framed in the tabloids, and he’s joined a Jewish cult that has him wearing a string around his wrist that seems to be sucking out his power. ~ Jackie Jura

In the footage of Britney’s head shaving, we see that she has a very prominent Star of David pendant on her back. It is interesting, also to note, that the location of her self-sheering was Esther’s Salon. Esther is also the name Madonna, who is a high status member of the Kaballah Center, was reported to have chosen as she climbed in its ranks. Madonna is also the person who introduced Britney to the particular brand of Kaballah she’s been dabbling with (a fly trap for celebrities and the monied and a degraded form of the real deal, I’d suspect). And perhaps there is more to the now-infamous Madonna-Britney make-out session than just some pop culture titillation. Perhaps, Madonna’s kiss was actually a form of symbolic or actual shaktipat, whereby a guru transfers hir spiritual power to a disciple in an act of initiation. This brings up the question: is Madonna Britney’s guru-Isht?

Although on a superficial level, Madonna has some resemblance to the representative/sacrificial goddess I’ve described already, she differs in the very obvious level of her self-awareness, self-agency and power. She may be one of those cases where in playing the role of goddess, she woke up and became a priestess of the Archonic powers.

Other Loose Threads for Further Development

* Following her shaving, Britney got tattoos at the Body & Soul Tattoo parlour. That’s pretty suggestive.

*Britney is reported to have been in rehab at Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads” clinic. The symbolism there is pretty obvious. “Crossroads” is also a famous Clapton cover of a Robert Johnson song, which legend has it is about Johnson doing a ritual at the Crossroads to the Devil (really a hold over of the African god Ellegba/Exu) in order to gain guitar chops. (Though, in actuality, it was a different, more obscure Johnson who performed this ritual.) “Crossroads” is also the name of a movie starring Britney Spears.

*Britney had a tour named The Dream within the Dream, which is suggestive of the nature of the Spectacular Society (see Guy DeBord’s Society of the Spectacle) in which we live. It might also suggest to other folks, techniques of supposed Monarch-programming of sex-slaves.

I’m off for a week’s rest and have to rush to catch a train. Please feel free to comment and discuss and we’ll see you next week.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Britney Spears: The Continuing Ritual Sacrifice of the Representative Goddess