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Archive for December 2009

True Blood’s First Alchemical Cycle

by Renée
December 28th, 2009

The first alchemical cycle in True Blood is slightly different than the one Charlaine Harris created in Dead Until Dark that is explored below.  As always, the cycle starts with the nigredo phase, which is characterized by heat, putrefaction, decomposition, maximum despair, alienation, isolation, a symbolic or near death experience, and fire.

The climax of Sookie’s nigredo phase  is Gran’s death, and it is heightened by the black funeral imagery and the extensive time Sookie spends in the cemetery at the funeral service, talking with Jason, watching the casket being interred, and walking home with Sam. He does his best  to lead Sookie out of the cemetery and into the white phase by suggesting a bath, but she won’t have any of that. Later that night Sookie runs through the cemetery to get to Bill.  Death claims Sookie when Bill, as the embodiment of Death, takes her innocence. This part of the cycle culminates the next night after Sookie has completely alienated all of her friends and family and Bill has left with Malcolm, Diane, and Liam. The fire that burns down their house is characteristic of the end of the nigredo stage.

Albedo is the white stage of alchemy and is the first stage to produce something of value. It begins with soggy ashes after the fire of the nigredo is extinguished. This part of the process is about water, washing, affirmation of life, resurrection, purification, and clarity of purpose. It smells like rain.

This stage begins at the site of the burned, waterlogged house and liquid vampire remains. Sookie returns home and spends the day cleaning. Later that night, after a thunderstorm, when Bill emerges from the grave, not only he is resurrected, he spiritually brings Sookie back to life.

The white dress Sookie wears to Fangtasia indicates the state of her spirit after the albedo and its readiness for the next stage, the rubedo or reddening, which is exactly what happens to Sookie’s dress when Bill stakes Long Shadow.

Rubedo is the last stage. This is when what has been hidden is revealed. Conflicts are resolved. Sacrifices are made. The alchemical marriage of opposites is seen, and if it is successful will produce a hermaphrodite or dual natured child. This stage produces a floral odor.

The rubedo begins when Bill saves Sookie from Long Shadow, knowing that he will have to pay a heavy price.

Rene is reveled to be the fangbanger killer. Sookie’s conflicts with friends and family are resolved, and Arlene brings flowers, providing the floral scent that characterizes this stage.

Sookie and Bill are the alchemical couple whose opposing natures are reconciled: male and female, blond and brunette, young and old, mortal and immortal,vampire and fae. Their union produces a redheaded hermaphroditic child, neither living nor dead, neither woman nor child. The alchemical cycle is not completed until season 2 when Sookie learns about Jessica’s existence.

Categories alchemy, Bill, Eric, Jessica, Sookie
Comments (1)

The Alchemy of Dead Until Dark

by Renée
December 27th, 2009

The Sookie Stackhouse series is structured on an alchemical spiral similar to the Harry Potter novels. With each novel, Sookie completes the alchemical process by going through each stage: nigredo, albedo, and rubedo. This process transforms Sookie, ensuring that she is ready to successfully meet her next challenge in the upcoming book.

The alchemical journey to enlightenment begins with the black nigredostage. This is related to death and decomposition; it is the hot and dry phase. Sookie, as the prima materia, is psychologically broken down and goes through a spiritual and symbolic death. The nigredo stage in Dead Until Dark begins with Dawn Green’s death, the murder of light and life and the first murder to touch Sookie personally. From this point, the dark imagery and bodies start piling up, culminating with the murder of the four vampires and fangbanger in a fire. That conflagration marks the end of the nigredo stage.

The soggy remains of the fire the morning after indicate the beginning of the albedo stage. This stage is marked by the color white, cleansing, water, wetness, clear vision, focus, and determination. In this stage the prima materia is useful in creating silver.

Sookie believes that Bill is the unidentified vampire in Malcolm, Diane, and Liam’s nest. To give her something constructive to do, Sam insists that he and Sookie clean all the blinds, drapes, and windows in her house. Not only does this refer to the washing component of the albedo, it also points to Sookie’s ability in to see more clearly from now on. Sam makes a point to find the ammonia to begin the process because it was one of the chemicals used by medieval alchemists.

Later that night when Sookie spots Bill’s white arm coming out of the dark ground in the rain, the imagery is of the Pheonix rising to new life from the ashes. As they make love in the cemetery in the rain (the scent associated with the albedo), the imagery recalls that used by the classical Greeks to describe sex and fertility, the life giving rain falling on a newly plowed field. Sookie reinforces this when she describes herself being plowed into the mud by Bill. This sex between Bill and Sookie is life giving. He was dead but now is alive and brings her back to spiritual life. From this stage, Sookie is focused and knows how important Bill is to her.Her doubts are over, and she is totally committed to their relationship.

The white dress Sookie wears to Fangtasia is also representative of this stage. When Sookie tries to identify who has been embezzling Eric’s money, for the first time, she is able to use her gift in a productive way. This gives her the confidence to later use it to help identify the killer. This usefulness relates to the albedo stage being the first one that creates something of value, silver. The albedo stage must also include an affirmation of life after a near death encounter. This occurs when Eric stakes Long Shadow and saves Sookie’s life.

The rubedo stage occurs when what has been hidden is revealed and the alchemical marriage of opposites is seen. Short skinny white Kevin and tall meaty black Kenya waiting in Sookie’s hospital room provide the symbolic alchemical marriage. When Sookie regains consciousness after her battle with Rene, Kevin and Kenya reveal the truth of the killings and fill in the gaps in the narrative. There is also a budding alchemical romance between the widowed Dr. Sonntag and dumb as a stump J.B. du Rone. The flower arrangement that Sookie receives from Eric are also an indication of the rubedo stage. Not only is the central flower red, but the rubedo is associated with the scent of flowers.

Dead Until Dark ends with an appearance by the three characters who symbolize the three stages of the alchemical drama. Bill represents death and the nigredo  stage. Eric represents eternal life as her savior and enlightenment for teaching Sookie that telephathy is a tool she can use to help others. The rubedo stage is symbolized by Sam, with his ruddy complexion and strawberry blond hair and the revelation of his true nature as a shifter. He is the red Sun King who will eventually unite with Sookie’s Moon Queen.

edited 5/12/10

Sam and, in later books, other shifters and weres are used to  mark the rubedo stage, but after DITF, I no longer believe that Sam is the Red King. DITF is the first novel in the overarching rubido phase. Sam’s golden red halo is shorn, and it is becoming increasingly clear that CH has switched the warring couple. Sookie is the Sun Queen and Eric is the Moon King who must resolved their differences and unite in the perfect marriage of opposites.

Categories alchemy, Bill, Dead Until Dark, Eric, Sam, Sooke Stackhouse Novels, Sookie
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The Opening Scene Tells the Tale

by Renée
December 23rd, 2009

Nearly all of the major themes and the plot for the entire series is encapsulated in the opening scene of True Blood. It all starts with the Greeks. They are the ones drivingTrue Bloodfiguratively and literally. The series is is based on Greek mythology, philosophy, and dramatic elements. Brad is a blonde frat boy, and Kelly a blonde sorority coed. As they travel down a dark Louisiana highway, they introduce the theme of deconstructed stereotypes to the series. Kelly, whose name means bright headed, is in the driver’s seat, and Brad is asleep, foreshadowing the state of Sam and Sookie’s relationship at the beginning of the show. She goes for his crotch. This is the first of many times sex will be used as an escape. Like Sam, only the evidence of vampires in the area wakes up Brad. Despite the green lights on the road ahead of them, without forethought, Brad and Kelly detour from their journey and open Pandora’s box by entering the Grabbit Kwik and a world where appearances are dangerously deceptive. This is the same lesson that Sookie and Sam will lean from their interaction with the vampire world over the course of the series.

The dark haired clerk who will soon impersonate a vampire foreshadows Bill’s deception and false persona. The clerk is watching Nan Flanagan on tv, which points to Bill’s interest in civil rights. Her formal, high school debater delivery, is a marker to notice that Nan is using Greek logic and rhetoric to defend the American Vampire League. This scene may also foreshadow the AVL using rhetoric and faulty logic to mislead and obfuscate. The skull ring the clerk wears associates Bill with death. His jewelry also foreshadows the possible involvement of Bill in dark magic and the Witch War. Ironically, the vampire who is shopping in the store is not interested in what Nan has to say. Neither is he interested in the clerk or the couple. He is just goes about his business and foreshadows Eric’s position at the beginning of  the series.

The clerk rises from his seat to engage the couple in conversation when they enter. This relates to Bill involving himself in Sookie’s world. The clerk poses as a vampire to frighten Brad and Kelly. This is the mirror image of Bill trying to lull humans into a false sense of complacency by presenting himself as human-like as possible. When the clerk threatens the couple, Brad tries to diffuse the situation by telling him they are just drunk and meant no harm. This willt be the first of many times that mind altering substances lead to acting without considering the consequences in the series and the first of many times that mind altering substances are used as an excuse for behaving imprudently.

Foreshadowing Eric’s involvement in Bill’s affair with Sookie, the clerk’s deception draws the attention of the blonde vampire. He wears camouflage which is symbolic of the world weary Viking god persona that Eric displays at Fangtasia. On another level, the camouflage proclaims honestly that Billy Bob, as Brad calls him, is a hunter, which is also something that Eric does, never hiding his vampire nature. The confederate patch on Vampire Billy Bob’s cap could relate to Eric in a number of ways. Eric’s close association with his Viking heritage, his loyalty to his current home state of Louisiana, and his prejudice against humans are all suggested.

When he tries to buy V, Brad introduces the theme of human complicity with evil. Kelly brings in the themes of storytelling, gossip, and knowing when she tells about the effects of V. The couple’s bickering foreshadows the conflict in Sookie and Sam’s relationship. Sookie’s morality is hinted at by Kelly when she recoils at the idea of buying V.

The blonde vampire moves from being an observer to involving himself in the situation. This foreshadows Eric’s involvement in Bill’s affairs. The vampire also acts like Eric by protecting the vampire community from V buyers and users. When the vampire confronts Brad, he introduces the homoerotic motif that carries through the series. Brad sweeps Kelly from the store and forshadows Sam acting heroically to save Sookie. They exit the store and re-enter the human world, still together as a couple and hopefully a little wiser, as Sam and Sookie will be at the end of the series. Their departure also brings up the overriding theme of the show: truth can only be arrived at through a gradual ascent to enlightenment, something that the classical Greeks realized over two thousand years ago.

Next, Vampire Billy Bob turns his attention to the clerk. He is intimidating, but ultimately law abiding. The clerk promises to stop impersonating vampires. The blonde vampire threatens to kill him if he doesn’t. This could either foreshadow Bill’s ultimate death at the end for his involvement in the queen’s plan to deceive Sookie or Eric could show mercy on Bill if he learns his lesson. Vampire Billy Bob is revealed to be, not only the most powerful character in the scene, but also the only one with the infomation and judgement to idenfidy the true nature of all the other characters and figure out what is going on. Also, just like Vampire Billy Bob, Eric is a good ol’ boy at heart, with an equal emphasis on the good, old, and boy.

Because of the show’s circular nature, True Blood’s theme of the circle of life, and the circular nature of stories constructed with alchemy a circle motif is prevalent in the opening scene with Kelly’s hoop earrings and sunglasses, Brads conspicuous white necklace, bracelet, and oversized watch, the Grabbit Kwik’s surveillance mirror, and the vampire’s case of True Blood with its circular logo and Type O blood. The light and dark imagery that will come to represent enlightenment also begins in this scene.

While we don’t know all the conflicts that Sam and Sookie will have with Bill and Eric, the foreshadowing tells us that they will eventually leave the vampire world behind and resume their journey together.

Categories alchemy, Bill, characterization, Eric, Imagery, mythology, names, Sam, Sookie
Comments (7)

What was Maryann?

by Renée
December 21st, 2009

Hoopoe

Maryann’s talons and the bird lady statue are the key to her real identity.

Those who are familiar with the SSNs, know they are littered with were-animals of all kinds–were-lynx and  were-owls to name a few. I think in her human life, Mary Ann was a were-hoopoe. All the references to flightless birds this season (ostrich roundup, penguin dick, and numerous chicken comments) allude to her identity. Only one variety of hoopoe is, or was, flightless, the  extinct giant hoopoe.

Hoopoes are colorful dramatic proud birds that often frequent vineyards and build their nests in the nooks and crannies of trees and walls. In flight they are often mistaken for very large butterflies. They fly in on an indirect, wandering path and when on the ground, hold their wing our and up toward the sun in an unusual position, not unlike Maryann’s when she was doing her shakey shakey thing. Hoopoes migrate, prefer warm weather, and are monogamous, as Maryann seemed to be.

When female hoopoes begin to brood, they transform from pretty little songbirds into filthy smelly reviled creatures. (Mary Ann wasn’t kidding when she told Tara at their first meeting that she got dirty.) Hoopoes line their nests with debris and secrete a liquid that smells like rotten meat. They rub the  liquid all over their wings, nest, and eggs to deter predators. Once the chicks hatch, they are also capable of defending the nest by spraying directed streams of feces. The creepy guy in Sookie’s kitchen sink playing with intestines is an allusion to this capability. Speaking of that incident, when Mike started screaming to alert the others that Sookie was in the house, he was actually cawing like a bird, and if you listen to the cacophony that Maryann creates when she is displeased,  it is actually a flock of birds screeching.

After the chicks hatch, the hoopoe nest becomes increasingly filthy because in addition to the raw meat stench, it fouls its own home. By the time the fledglings leave, it is little more than a big pile of droppings.

The hoopoe was holy to the Egyptian and Minoan cultures but regarded as a thief in most European folklore and as a harbinger of war in Scandinavia. (In addition to the war on vampires that Steve Newlin is gearing up for, the Witch War is on the horizon.) Hoopoes and hoopoe eggs are also strongly associated with magic.

There are also many stories about hoopoes as advice givers, including to the biblical king Salomon. Remember Tara always repeated Maryann’s words of wisdom? Advice giving is an odd character trait to give a maenad who represents chaos, the natural world, and unbridled passion, but not if she is also a hoopoe.

Maryann's hoopoe dress

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Tereus, a king who raped his wife’s sister and cut out her tongue was transformed into a hoopoe. The bird’s crest indicates his royal status and his long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature.

Mary Ann with Feathers

Aristophanes included Tereus in his hoopoe form as a character in The Birds. In this drama, the birds decide to build a city between earth and heaven with the intention of usurping the gods’ position and transferring earthly worship from the gods to themselves and gluttonously taking all of the sacrifices for themselves, leaving the gods to starve. This is exactly what Maryann did.  Daphne thought she was a god herself, and her table was always overflowing with the best produce, no doubt offerings diverted from their intended destination.

By eating a magical herb, a group of humans transform themselves into birds and leave behind the worries of money, work, and politics (the Apollonian, rational world) and go live in the city of the birds (the Dionysian world) where they were free to transgress all manner of societal bounds. This is where Maryann’s followers come in (and Karl’s soup).

The play includes a skirmish between humans and birds using kitchen utensils, which was alluded to with the standoff in Merlotte’s kitchen when a number of Maryann’s followers armed themselves with cooking tools and in Sookie’s kitchen when she brained Coroner Mike with Gran’s frying pan.

The Birds also includes a wedding procession, and a hymn to Hymen. While we don’t hear any such hymn in TB, we do have a rather protracted conversation about Jessica’s hymen and Hymen’s torch, a necessity for all weddings in ancient Greece, did turn up last season when Rene hid Arlene’s engagement ring in his flashlight.

Apparently immortality isn’t compatible with weres. Maryann seems to have lost the ability to transform fully. She was still capable of producing talons and eggs when needed, though.

Read part II for the rest of the story.

Categories characterization, Greek lit, Maryann, mythology, symbolism
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Maryann’s Recipe for Summoning Dionysus

by Renée
December 7th, 2009

Edited 6/1/10

Maryann wasn’t a typical bacchante. Her rituals, mythology, and theology identify her as a member of the Mystery Cult of Orpheus. They worshiped Dionysus as the supreme god and believed in reincarnation and  transmigration of the soul.

Dionysus wasn’t just the god of wine and theater like he was to most Greeks. According to the Orphists, he was Zagreus, the horned one. (The horns actually refer to bull horns and associate him with the ancient bull worshipping cults.)  Zagreus was the child born to the goddess of the Underworld, Persephone and Zeus. As Maryann said, the Titans ripped him apart on Hera’s orders. Only his heart was left intact. Athena recovered it, and Zeus fed it to Semele, his human lover. The infant god regenerated in Semele’s womb and was born as Dionysus, the twice born who called both a goddess and human woman mother.

The followers of Orpheus believed that Zagreus/Dionysus was the reincarnation of the first corporeal god, the hermaphrodite Protogonos (The Progenitor). They thought that all living matter came from him. So where did Protogonos come from? He was hatched from the world egg. His mother was Nyx, the goddess of night and his father Erebus, the god of darkness and shadow. Nyx and Erebus were not corporeal beings, but forces of nature that came out of chaos, the primordial matter.

Orphists believed that the spirit of Dionysus lived inside every living creature and is what animated them. Their worship included spiritually cleansing themselves by bathing in mud or flour and communing with Dionysus/Zagreus/Protogonos by ripping a bull apart with their bare hands (sparagmos) and devouring it raw (omophagia). With this act, they believed they were eating their god, and he would grow in them.
What identifies Maryann as an Orphist?

1. Her belief in reincarnation and transmigration of the soul.
2. The ritual purification in mud and flour which was depicted when the frenziers rolled in the dirt and smeared cake on their faces
3. Recounting of the Orphic version of the origin of Dionysus.
4. Associating Dionysus with the horned god, Zagreus.

How exactly did she intend to marry Dionysus?
By reinacting the Orphic myth with supernatural stand-ins for the original gods and goddesses.

Tara (depticted in Jason’s hallucination as a Greek goddess) and Eggs were to play the roles of Nyx and Eurbus, Night and Darkess, the primodial gods who originated in chaos and, with their sexual energy, created the first corporeal creature god, Protogonos.*

They had to consume the heart of a supernatural creature first because, as Sophie Anne says, supernatual creatures straddle the two wolds. Apparently Maryann thought this was the way to pull Dionysus from the supernatural/spirit world into the natural/material one.

It was only after Tara and Eggs ate Daphne’s heart and had sex that Maryann, a were-bird, started brooding and turned Sookie’s house into her filthy stinking nest. That’s because in Maryann’s recreated myth, Dionysus was to have two mothers just like in the original version.

Tara and Maryann were both to be his mothers. After Maryann was confident that Daphne’s heart would lead to the result that she desired, she produced the egg that was to house the spirit of Dionysus, regenerated from Daphne’s heart by the sexual energy of Nyx (Tara) and Erebus (Eggs), before it was transferred into a living body.

Sam, shifted to the form of a bull, was to provide the vessel for Dionysus. I believe that Maryann originally intended to have sex with him in this form, remove his heart, and have her followers perform sparagmos and omophagia.

Jason’s comments about bestiality to Andy foreshadowed Maryann’s intent, as did Hoyt’s description of chicken fried steak. He told Jessica it was like a cow and a chicken got tother and had a baby. (Recall that Maryann was a were-bird.) The meat tree was a visual representation of the same idea as the bird lady statue enlarged and plastered with beef. That tree was Maryann’s sexual fantasy.

This is also what the bull mask was about. Maryann wore it to make herself attractive to her bull god like Pasiphae, the Queen of Crete, who fell in love with a bull and disguised herself as a cow to attract it. The Minotuar was the product of this union.

This myth links Maryann with the mother of the Minotaur, but she is also associated with Ariadne, his half-sister, the woman who married Dionysus and became immortal. It was also significant that Ariadne was ultimately responsible for the death of the Minotaur by revealing the secret of how to defeat him to Theseus. This ties in to Maryann’s ultimate intention of killing the bull after she mates wtih it.

Recreating this myth would make Maryann the bull god’s mother and wife, and it also links her with the Minotaur’s mother and sister. These incestuous associations are another version of Godric’s reference to father, brother, and son. The maenad and vampire storylines both explore the same taboo laden cannibalistic life cycle: life is food; food is sex; sex is death; death is life.

Updated: Serena pointed out how the meat tree resembles both a bull head and a womb, apparently the two were connected in the ancient world. Tara placed Maryann’s egg, which had been fertilized by Tara and Eggs’s sexual energy, into the giant womb. IMO we will be dealing with the fall out from this ritual for some time.

Part III

*I believe that Tara will eventually be revealed to be supernatural and assume that Eggs was, too.

Categories Eric, Greek lit, maenad, Maryann, mythology, Sam, symbolism, Tara
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