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Kanye West’s “Power” is a short, almost stationary video that manages to tell a profound story in symbolic language. By decoding the occult meaning of the symbols present in this moving tableau, the viewer discovers who really holds the “power” in the world and understands the story of Kanye West’s initiation. We will look at the meaning of those symbols as they appear in the video.
Rapper and producer Kanye West has always found a way to stand out from the crowd. His video Power is no exception. It differs from the MTV norm in many regards, whether you look at the content or the form. The duration of the video, the filming style and the subject matter are quite distinct from today’s typical rap videos as it is short (1:43), filmed in a single shot (compared to the one-shot-per-second standard of music videos) and is very rich in archetypal symbolism.
Director Marco Brambilla sought to depict the concept of power in the form of a “video tableau”, a moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement. The director seem to have perfected this technique in his previous creation, Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard Hotel in New-York city. The symbolism present there is simply overwhelming. Here it is:
For Power, Brambilla went for a neo-classic aesthetic, but still created a piece full of symbolic and cultural references. As it was the case for paintings of the neo-classic era, each object, each symbol and each detail in the video conveys an important meaning, a meaning that is needed to understand the entire story. As we will see later, many symbols in the video have a deep occult meaning and many of them point to Freemasonry and Mystery schools. By doing so, the director clearly states what type of power is being presented in the video. We will therefore look at the meaning of the symbols displayed in the video as they appear in the shot. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
Symbols of the Video
The video starts off with a close-up of Kanye West with glow-in-the-dark eyes, as if he was “illuminated” from within. He stands between an infinite row of Ionic columns, which represent “wisdom” in Masonic symbolism.
Kanye with illuminated eyes between rows of twin pillars
Two Pillars
As regular readers of this site already know, the occult meaning of the twin pillars is ancient, profound and present in the symbolism of almost all mystery schools of History. There are many layers of interpretation attributed to the two columns, but one constant is always present: The pillars represent the entrance – the gateway – to the world of the initiate. Behind the columns can be found the key to the Mysteries and, consequently, the source of true power. This concept has been used for in many cultures and schools of thought.
The two columns called the “Pillars of Hercules” in Ancient Greece stood at the gateway to the sphere of the enlightened
Pillars of Hercules in Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” as a gateway to the New World
Two pillars leading to Jacob’s Ladder in this Masonic tracing board
Masonic initiate standing between the twin pillars as the third pillar, in the same fashion as Kanye West in the video.
In Power, Kanye is standing at the mouth of the gateway to the “sphere of the enlightened,” right at the border of the corrupt and decadent material world. So, right from the start of the video, the director reveals the true nature of power in this world: It is not your democratically elected officials, but those who consider themselves to be behind those pillars. One of the most significant lines of the song is
“In this white man’s world, we the ones chosen”
Does Kanye’s “white man’s world” refer to the hidden rulers, the Illuminati, who are hidden behind those pillars? Did they choose Kanye West and give him Power by permitting him to become an influential figure in the entertainment industry? Was he chosen to become one of them? The next symbol might shed some light into this.
Read the Rest here
Rapper and producer Kanye West has always found a way to stand out from the crowd. His video Power is no exception. It differs from the MTV norm in many regards, whether you look at the content or the form. The duration of the video, the filming style and the subject matter are quite distinct from today’s typical rap videos as it is short (1:43), filmed in a single shot (compared to the one-shot-per-second standard of music videos) and is very rich in archetypal symbolism.
Director Marco Brambilla sought to depict the concept of power in the form of a “video tableau”, a moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement. The director seem to have perfected this technique in his previous creation, Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard Hotel in New-York city. The symbolism present there is simply overwhelming. Here it is:
For Power, Brambilla went for a neo-classic aesthetic, but still created a piece full of symbolic and cultural references. As it was the case for paintings of the neo-classic era, each object, each symbol and each detail in the video conveys an important meaning, a meaning that is needed to understand the entire story. As we will see later, many symbols in the video have a deep occult meaning and many of them point to Freemasonry and Mystery schools. By doing so, the director clearly states what type of power is being presented in the video. We will therefore look at the meaning of the symbols displayed in the video as they appear in the shot. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
Symbols of the Video
The video starts off with a close-up of Kanye West with glow-in-the-dark eyes, as if he was “illuminated” from within. He stands between an infinite row of Ionic columns, which represent “wisdom” in Masonic symbolism.
Kanye with illuminated eyes between rows of twin pillars
Two Pillars
As regular readers of this site already know, the occult meaning of the twin pillars is ancient, profound and present in the symbolism of almost all mystery schools of History. There are many layers of interpretation attributed to the two columns, but one constant is always present: The pillars represent the entrance – the gateway – to the world of the initiate. Behind the columns can be found the key to the Mysteries and, consequently, the source of true power. This concept has been used for in many cultures and schools of thought.
The two columns called the “Pillars of Hercules” in Ancient Greece stood at the gateway to the sphere of the enlightened
“The city of the philosophic elect rises from the highest mountain peak of the earth, and here the gods of the wise dwell together in everlasting felicity. In the foreground are the symbolic pillars of Hercules which appear on the title page of Bacon’s Novum Organum, and between them runs the path which leads upward from the uncertainties of earth to that perfect order which is established in the sphere of the enlightened. “
- Manly P. Hall
- Manly P. Hall
Pillars of Hercules in Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” as a gateway to the New World
Two pillars leading to Jacob’s Ladder in this Masonic tracing board
Masonic initiate standing between the twin pillars as the third pillar, in the same fashion as Kanye West in the video.
In Power, Kanye is standing at the mouth of the gateway to the “sphere of the enlightened,” right at the border of the corrupt and decadent material world. So, right from the start of the video, the director reveals the true nature of power in this world: It is not your democratically elected officials, but those who consider themselves to be behind those pillars. One of the most significant lines of the song is
“In this white man’s world, we the ones chosen”
Does Kanye’s “white man’s world” refer to the hidden rulers, the Illuminati, who are hidden behind those pillars? Did they choose Kanye West and give him Power by permitting him to become an influential figure in the entertainment industry? Was he chosen to become one of them? The next symbol might shed some light into this.
Read the Rest here