2012 The Odyssey --Articles

By Jay Weidner

This Article is now available in Spanish

"However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light." - Stanley Kubrick

"I'm sure you are aware of the extremely grave potential for social shock and disorientation caused by this information. We can't release it without proper conditioning." - Heywood Floyd

Within the tradition of the Great Work of alchemy is the idea that the initiations, explanations and rituals of alchemy are embedded into many great works of art. The pyramids of Egypt and the great cathedrals of France are referred to as 'books of stone'. In other words there is deep knowledge built into these edifices that only an initiate of the alchemical tradition can truly understand. The great architects and artists, many of whom were alchemists themselves, had a very clear idea of what it was that they were attempting to transmit. It is only the viewer of these works that is left in the dark. As the French writer and alchemist Fulcanelli reveals in his masterpiece 'Mystery of the Cathedrals', the grand churches of France were built as part of this Great Work. Indeed, anyone who visits the cathedrals of Europe, but especially France, comes away with a feeling of complete awe.

But what was this Great Work supposed to accomplish? The answer to this important question, according to the alchemists, was the very transformation of the human spirit. Although it is true that the symbols and the geometry of the cathedrals were designed so that only a true initiate of the mysteries could really understand their significance, the builders and creators of the Great Work knew that everyone who experienced the cathedrals would come away transformed. Even the ones who were not initiates would still come away with a feeling of awe. The truth is that even radical atheists are amazed and surprised by the beauty of Notre Dame or Chartes Cathedral.

In his book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo goes into this very subject with a great deal of openness. He explains that this secret Great Work of human transformation was built in to these 'books of stone' that we call the Cathedrals during the medieval period of European history. But, Hugo says, the new 'Great Book of Nature' is not written on the walls, or in the stone of churches, anymore. This new version, this modern version (this was in the 1800's), of the Great Work, had changed from the symbolic form to the written word. Hugo then goes on to identify the works of William Shakespeare as the new version of the Great Work. He relates that the Great Work, containing the ancient alchemical knowledge of human transformation, was wrapped up inside the plays written by the Bard from Stratford. Without getting into the entire 'who was Shakespeare?' question, it can still be said that there is plenty of high strangeness around the man who was William Shakespeare and the plays that were, and are, attributed to him. Whoever the real Shakespeare was he was steeped in esoteric knowledge and the ways of alchemy. Victor Hugo is right. Any close examination of the works of Shakespeare reveals all of the very same initiatic knowledge that is also on the walls of the Gothic cathedrals. There have been many books that have touched this subject. Again, like the cathedrals, the plays of Shakespeare seem to transform the audience, this occurs even if most of them are not on the inside as far as the secret initiatory knowledge is concerned. The Great Work seems to have an effect on people who don't have any idea what it is really about. The artists who have really accomplished the Great Work are the ones that still live with us today, Shakespeare, DaVinci, and many others. Shakespeare and the Gothic cathedrals both have this ability to appeal to many disparate layers of society and culture. Both bring about a small transformation inside the human mind and heart. This transformation makes all of us realize that we can do great and beautiful things, that we are more than just animals. Indeed, this initiatic school seems to be saying that the transformation of the human spirit from the barbaric to the angelic can only come through great works of art.

It was sometime ago when I began contemplating this idea of the Great Work. Although the Great Work had been expressed in stone, and later in literature, how would it be expressed today? It is without a doubt that the tapestry of human communication has switched radically. Just as it was once based on the symbolic - and then later transformed into the written word - now that literary model has switched to that of cinema, television and computers. Out of these three new forms of communication, cinema was the most obvious to attract someone who might want to create a modern version of the Great Work. But, as I looked out at the landscape of the history of cinema, I could not find the Great Work on film. At least not at first, that is.

I began watching many classics in order to see if the director, or writer, was attempting to tell us the secret about human transformation. Many films and filmmakers got close, sometimes, to explaining minor aspects of the Great Work, but in the end they all failed. The works of Orson Welles, of course, were the most intriguing. But in the end even these failed to achieve the greatness for which I was looking.

Was it possible that the Great Work had never been transmitted through the cinema? Was it true that cinema was just too profane a medium to attract anyone with the right caliber of mind and spirit? When considered, it would take a nearly superhuman effort to have all of the disparate talents needed within one single filmmaker. This person would need to know and understand the knowledge of alchemy, astronomy, anthropology and the true history of the human race. Besides an insatiable curiosity, they would have to understand the real nature of the human condition and of our place in the universe. This knowledge would have to be coupled with the skills of filmmaking and the business acumen to pull the project off. I began to realize the possibility, at this point, that my search for the Great Work in the cinema was probably in vain.

I was in France, doing research for a book that I was writing about the French alchemist Fulcanelli, when Stanley Kubrick died. The French, always a class act, devoted the next few nights of their great State-run television station, Channel 3, to the films of Stanley Kubrick. French Television has more lines on the screen than American television. This gives the picture a resolution and color that we just cannot hope to get in the United States except for DVDs. For the next few nights I watched some of the films of Kubrick that were presented on Channel 3.. I began to realize that no filmmaker, except possibly Welles, had the sense of pictorial composition and lighting like Kubrick possessed. Visually, his films were incredibly stunning and they had this amazing ability of holding up against the erosion of time.

Stanley Kubrick made 13 films in 46 years. His first film Fear and Desire , was made in 1953 for almost no money. It has rarely been seen. His last film Eyes Wide Shut was finished in 1999. Kubrick died as soon as the editing was completed.

Having always been a Kubrick fan, his death jolted me. I began to think about him and some of the many stories I heard about him. He was a funny looking Jewish kid, a high school dropout, from the Bronx. He had an early interest in photography and soon was shooting stills for Look Magazine. After that he went to become a filmmaker. After completing a couple of interesting documentaries, he directed five commercial films over the next 8 years. This would be his highest period for output in his entire life.

Kubrick left the United States in 1961 and moved to England. There, it is reported that, he lived in a weird, old castle on a huge estate. He never came back to live in America. Robert Temple told me that Stanley was obsessed with Nazi memorabilia. I heard the rumor that Stanley had a provision in his contract at Pinewood Studios that the sets for 2001 could not be torn down for two years after the shoot was completed. Kubrick would come by the studio, late at night, always alone, and walk through the sets very slowly. When the sets were finally torn down it was rumored that Stanley went into a deep depression.

There is also the famous Stephen King story of the phone ringing in the middle of the night. Stephen answers and it is Stanley calling from London. He is on the set of 'The Shining' and his voice sounds anxious. 'Do you believe in God?', Stanley demanded. Stephen cleared his throat and answered 'yes'. Stanley gruffly replied ' I knew it' and hangs up on Stephen. King, who clearly does not understand what Stanley was doing, disowned Kubrick's film of King's book.

It was just after his death that I discovered that there was a version of the Great Work fashioned into a film. And that it was Stanley Kubrick who had made this Great Work. Eventually I would come to realize that Stanley Kubrick had made the greatest film ever created. (Fans of Orson Welles will be upset with this. Citizen Kane is also one of the greatest films ever made. It actually was my favorite film until I began to unravel the truth that Stanley Kubrick embedded into his masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

I began to realize that Stanley Kubrick was not just a great filmmaker, he was the greatest filmmaker that has ever lived. I hope to reveal to you, oh, gentle reader, that this film, 2001: A Space Odyssey , actually evokes all aspects of the Great Work of alchemy. 2001:A Space Odyssey is the 'book of nature' for the art of cinema, literally. I hope to prove that Kubrick did this with great intention and that he knew what he was doing at every step. There are few mistakes in his films. But his greatest film is also his most perfect.