Alejandro-jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky

[February 17, 1929] [related: The Holy Mountain, Arica Institute, Tarot of Marseilles, John Lilly, Psychomagick]

Chilean-French film director, sculptor, mime, poet, essayist, composer, puppeteer, psychologist, Zen Buddhist and spiritual guru. Jodorowsky was born as a result of his father, the tyrannical merchant Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann, raping his mother, Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi. As a result, Jodorowsky's relationship with his mother was often strained. After leaving home at an early age, he became immersed in Paris's burgeoning mime scene, leading to the establishment of the theater troupe Teatro Mimico in 1952 ^[1]. After moving to Mexico City in 1960, Jodorowsky became enamoured with both Surrealism and spirituality, specifically Zen Buddhism ^[2]. These interests coalesced into Jodorowsky's first feature film effort, the controversial acid western El Topo. Although El Topo was largely disregarded by critics, it was championed by the countercultural fluxus artist Yoko Ono who subsequently secured one million dollars for the production of what would become Jodorowsky's magnum opus: The Holy Mountain. Based on both the apocryphal spiritual treatise Ascent of Mount Carmel by Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross and Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing by French novelist René Daumal, Holy Mountain traces the journey of an alchemist (portrayed by Jodorowsky himself) in pursuit of immortality alongside seven important business people, each representing a planet. While struggling to complete The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky sought counsel with Oscar Ichazon, founder of the Arica School. ^[3] Ichazo encouraged liberal use of psychedelics in order to transcend all manner of roadblocks, be they spiritual, artistic, or logistical. Concurrently, Jodorowsky volunteered as a participant in the experiments of John Lilly ^[4], father of the isolation tank ^[5]. Following the commercial failure of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille ^[6] in collaboration with a late descendent of the Camion family. A period followed in which Jodorowsky focused exclusively on the development of concepts and practices later codified under the banner of Psychomagick. Based on the idea that certain ritualistic acts can alter the unconscious mind, Psychomagick doctrine contends that dreams and poetics provide the pathway to spiritual emancipation. Jodorowsky spent upwards of two decades teaching Psychomagick informally in various cafés throughout Paris. Despite the significant cult following that later developed around his films throughout the 1980s and '90s, Jodorowsky claimed the development and implementation of Psychomagick doctrine to be his defining work.

Between a black pillar and a white pillar, Jodorowsky sits on a small, intricately patterned chair. He wears all white: long white leather platform heel boots, loose white flared pants, a flowing white cardigan over a neatly buttoned white shirt and a ridiculously tall domed white hat with wide brim. His hands lay neatly folded in his lap, and a circular pendant hanging from a necklace glows on his chest. At each of this shoulders stands a goat on its two hind legs, beckoning toward him with gnarled horns.

An eccentrically dressed crowd stands in an arc around a projected image. The image shows 9 robed people seated at a round table with an enneagram carved into the surface. Each person sits at a point of the carving. The central figure of the watching crowd raises their hands in what seems to be worship.

A strangely shaped room covered, wall and floor, with repetitive monochrome tile. In the center kneels a black-robed figure, wearing an identical hat to Jodorowsky in the first image, but black this time. To each side of them, golden jugs and bowls are neatly placed on the ground. It is unclear who is beneath the robes, but at each shoulder - instead of goats - a woman in white kneels.

↑ For which Jodorowsky composed his first dramatic work, The Minotaur.
↑ After meeting the Buddhist monk Ejo Takata, Jodorowsky briefing turned his house into a zendo.
↑ According to Ramparts magazine, "A mosaic of techniques for the cultivation of cosmic (as opposed to staid human) consciousness".
↑ Lilly's experiments involving LSD, prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation - alongside his fascination with primates - would later inspire the film Altered States.
↑ Later trademarked as the IsoTank™
↑ The original Tarot deck developed in 1499 and exclusively used in occult ritualistic practices.

[1] For which Jodorowsky composed his first dramatic work, The Minotaur.

[2] After meeting the Buddhist monk Ejo Takata, Jodorowsky briefing turned his house into a zendo.

[3] According to Ramparts magazine, "A mosaic of techniques for the cultivation of cosmic (as opposed to staid human) consciousness".

[4] Lilly's experiments involving LSD, prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation - alongside his fascination with primates - would later inspire the film Altered States.

[5] Later trademarked as the IsoTank™

[6] The original Tarot deck developed in 1499 and exclusively used in occult ritualistic practices.

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