chymical mycelia

The Doll in Our Pocket

2026-03-21T11:29:19Z

The path is lit

Last year, I had a significant pathway open up, which led me to write about the film Eraserhead. I had a series of dreams that ultimately gave me the confidence I needed to set my sights on a creative path I hadn’t considered seriously for myself. Prior to this, a feeling to have an online presence for writing lingered; I just didn’t have any idea what I would even write about yet! The feeling persisted, and the avenue revealed itself some months later, through dreams and synchronicities. The journey of the process is discussed here in this podcast, as it is contextual to the film analysis.

However, this week, something else clicked for me that I thought would be interesting to share on top of what had already been talked about on the audio. I essentially stumbled upon an amplification of the dream that ignited it all. In Jungian terms, amplification is a method for dream interpretation that helps to zoom out on symbols within a dream to its potential wider context, especially useful if one is at a loss for the personal context. Just to reiterate, over months of synchronicities and symbols, I was stumped, then finally, something actionable landed for me. It surrounded itself via a central theme of birth, monsters or hybrid babies and culminated into the feeling like I had decoded what Lynch’s Eraserhead was about, where many before have looked past its possible deeper context.

The selection of dreams that sparked it all, as something serious to pay attention to in my life, I will roughly recap two:

Dream:
I was on a toddler bike atop a hill, but I was struck by indecision. The hills around me were ripe to ride down, allowing for speed and momentum, but I was overthinking it. People had gathered around to watch the descent.

Interpretation: Here, I needed to take action (ride down) and trust the process, even if it felt clumsy or child-like (toddler bike) to do so.

Then a week later…

Dream:
I had a small object in my hands, trying to fix it with batteries, I keep putting them in and out. An older woman was giving me advice, but I was making excuses. She said my house was just over there, and I said that it wasn’t, since the electricity did not work. Finally, the batteries click in, and the object is now a figurine, where what appears to be the head, a light turns on.
Later, we head down the path to the cottage. I can open the door and flick the lights on. I recognise the cottage now. The woman is outside wandering down a path. I bring a stick with me to offer it to her for defence, after seeing a slender brown dog, but she doesn’t need it. She stops near a bridge, beneath which is a clear stream under it with multiple paths. We cross over, and she points out, “Nice, Amanita muscaria!” I’m surprised and ask where. In the shallow stream below, along the wall, is the mushroom and blue butterfly. After noticing them, I started to see more and more pairs all around – an incredible and beautiful sight.
We head back to the house, and I get a montage of scenes related to advice, practical processes to do with art and design. How to store things away, how to care for materials. I wanted to see the project to fruition, but the dream ended.

Interpretation: In the first part of the dream - something within has been activated (figurine), since it has been paid attention to and given the source (batteries) it needs to awaken. The cottage now in action, is my psyche ready for creative work, revealing that it was dormant or inaccessible for a while. The instinctual nature represented by the dog does not need to be defended against. The stream nearby offers up what is available, a vision that is teeming with magical life, a surreal sight, which reflects the uniqueness of the viable life source.
The cottage and the women show me what tools I have at my disposal and offer their mentorship.

Vasalisa the Wise

Now recently, I came across the cross-cultural fairy-tale of “Vasalisa the Wise (or the Beautiful)”, in Clarissa Pinkola Estés book on the Wild Woman archetype.

Vasalisa the Wise - Russian lacquer miniature

In this tale, a girl is initiated into the mysteries through a doll handed down to her by her mother on her deathbed. When the father remarries, a cruel scheme by the stepfamily sends her into the darkness of the forest to seek the witch’s abode to ask for fire for their hearth. Since she is a naïve, helpful girl, she does as she’s told. Vasalisa makes it through the forest with the help of her doll, a stand-in for her intuition – the path is made by trusting its guidance. Sustained with little food, she can offer. She encounters horsemen with the colours of alchemical significance, loyal to the witch, and interestingly, the doll wears the same colours.

Finally, she makes it to the home of Baba Yaga, a fearsome crone and is enlisted by her through a series of intense, tedious and consuming trials, which the doll manages to complete for her when the trial exceeds Vasalisa’s own capacity. Baba Yaga, while not ecstatic at Vasalisa’s resilience, since she’s a rather vicious cannibal when it suits, allows her to ask anything she wishes. Tempered by the doll, Vasalisa hesitates to go further than enquiring about the horsemen, since the deeper knowledge of the three floating hands that appear to cook or resolve tasks for Baba Yaga herself would unknowingly fail her initiation.

Baba Yaga eventually rewards Vasalisa with what she came for, fire for the hearth, which translates to a fiery skull on a stick - she is instructed to take the fire back to the home of her origin and present it to the step-family. Vasalisa returns and contemplates discarding the skull in the garden; fortunately, she is convinced by it to stay strong. With her newfound power, she enters the home, where the skull’s fire burns through the step-mother and sisters, evidently casting its judgment upon them.

Ultimately, the fairy tale is similar to a hero’s journey, or specifically, the descent into the underworld, since it has been likened to the myth of Hades and Persephone following her subsequent transformation. Vasalisa, at the end of the tale, has been initiated into the wisdom and intuition of Life-Death and Rebirth, first with her mother’s blessing through the doll, a matrilineal intuitive wisdom, and through the trials of Baba Yaga, culminating in the gifts of instinctual awareness, perception, discernment and life cycles or the alchemical stages.

"As women we call upon our intuition and instincts in order to sniff things out. We use all our senses to wring the truth from things, to extract nourishment from our own ideas, to see what there is to see, to know what there is to know, to be the keepers of our own creative fires, and to have intimate knowing about the Life/Death/Life cycles of all nature—this is an initiated woman." ¹

What’s in a doll?

"The doll is the symbolic homunculi, little life. It is the symbol of what lies buried in humans that is numinous. It is a small and glowing facsimile of the original Self. Superficially, it is just a doll. But inversely, it represents a little piece of soul that carries all the knowledge of the larger soul-Self. In the doll is the voice, in diminutive, of old La Que Sabe, The One Who Knows." ²

This cottage dream not only revealed that I had a figurine or doll, but that it was something that needed batteries (or food, energy) to be activated, like the crumbs for Vasalisa’s doll. If I just needed to listen to the voices of the women advising me, instead of making excuses to the contrary.

The excuses I had in waking life were many, which I had to slowly shed. I didn’t believe I had the capacity to create or analyse from the depth psychology lens, since I had not gone deep into the works of Jung or other analysts to qualify for such a standing. There’s always a level of something akin to imposter syndrome or the idea of feeling little next to giants. I had to learn to let go of the indecision, the feeling of inadequacy or incompetence, even the idea that it was even worth pursuing at all. Since surely someone had these insights already on the analysis at hand, the research around the film helped to ease those self-doubts.

Returning to the dream, the support I was shown came in the shape of spiritual mothers or mentors, all reminding me I have the gifts and ability to work on the real-life task ahead, and that it was important to do so. This realisation was, and still is, immensely reassuring and heart-warming to have received this knowledge, knowing that the psyche has my back if I keep an ear to the ground and listen to it, and to also learn to trust the process of unfoldment. I knew that dream was pivotal in that moment of my life and a pertinent message from the self to keep going!

As I continue to write and explore these themes for myself and the collective at large. I feel that women especially need to trust in that personalised guidance that comes straight from within. I feel we can get too carried away with gurus and teachers when we have a greater personality within us, not that mentorship should be avoided, rather that we have to understand ourselves from a deeper level, not just on the surface, lest we project our gifts onto others. I am learning to trust that voice within, and trust what comes next as all part of my remembering and learning process, as long as I have ears to hear and eyes to see.

"We feed the deep intuitive self by listening to it and acting upon its advice. It is a personage in its own right, a magical dollish-sized being which inhabits the psychic land of the interior woman. In this way it is like the muscles in the body. If a muscle is not used, eventually it withers. Intuition is exactly like that: without food, without employment, it atrophies. The feeding of the doll is an essential cycle of the Wild Woman archetype — she who is the keeper of hidden treasures." ³

In our strange and uncertain times, and just like some mysteries that should not be delved into, like the three hands that help Baba Yaga to complete tasks or what Estés describes as ‘the core of the numinosum’, it is a bit like wanting to understand the minutiae of a calendar’s design, instead of preparing to bear down the season ahead. Returning to this inner knowingness is an imperative for us all, and yet it is a rhythm within cycles and has its own opportune timing or kairos.

"As a woman lives them, she will understand more and more of these interior feminine rhythms, among them the rhythms of creativity, of birthing psychic babies and perhaps also human ones, the rhythms of solitude, of play, of rest, of sexuality, and of the hunt. One need not push it, the understanding will come. Some things must be accepted as being out of our reach, even though they act upon us, and we are enriched by them." ⁴

It is endlessly incredible to me how the unconscious maps so consistently to these ancient stories, figures and symbols, even without one’s own conscious concept of certain archetypes or even the foreign culture it stems from. Jung’s mapping of the unconscious gives us a framework; however, each one of us has a responsibility to discover what unique aspect of that framework is within us. Suffice it to say, the unconscious is mysterious, timeless, anticipatory and quite amorphous in nature.

Guide for life

I simply wanted to share a personal anecdote, but I hope I have somewhat inspired you to look more closely at your own dreams and how they may fit into your life context. Since within us lies a bountiful source of wisdom, guidance, self-knowledge and creativity. So write them down, sit with them, and mark down how they feel. If you need some structure, this guide is useful to get started.

Dreams have their own language, and one must try to adapt to it in order to grasp the glimpses of symbolic insight and develop a relationship with the unconscious. There is a difficulty in interpretation for even the well-seasoned, but every now and then, a precise message can be felt and understood, directly from your soul, waiting to be heard and acknowledged, with an orienting wisdom and timelessness far deeper than we can perceive.

Till next time,
Bek

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this article or have found it useful, consider sharing, commenting or even donating. Many thanks!

...

Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, pg. 57 ↩︎
ibid. pg. 68 ↩︎
ibid. pg. 69 ↩︎
ibid. pg. 79 ↩︎

Figure skater Alysa Liu: A symbol for the Aquarian age

2026-03-04T06:04:51Z

Two authors - one article

I'd like to introduce Axel (my husband) in this article as a guest writer. His section will appear about half-way in. We are trying something new here and going somewhat meta to the greater discussion; enjoy the read!

author: bek

The Meme-stream

The meme below caught my attention since “Gigachad” on the left is canon to depicting the strong man, or sigma male, since not only is he in peak physique, he does not ascribe to status quo positions and is independent in thought or action. However, seeing a woman next to him who obviously looked like a joyous athlete whom I knew nothing about struck me as important, since the topic of Nietzsche’s Übermensch or ‘Overman’ came up in my recent film analysis. I naturally sought out the performance that inspired someone enough to make this comedic reference.

the insightful power of memes

Aionic presence

I soon discovered Alysa Liu’s impact on the world goes further than her accomplishment as an Olympic gold medalist; despite a hiatus in the sport, she achieved a level that has not been seen for 20 years in her field and for Team USA. My first impression of this pivotal and charged story is that she embodies something profound in the collective: That she is what the Aquarian age would look like if it were a person. She depicts the divine child at play, forging her own meta meticulously within a rigid structure. It goes a little beyond just being depicted as Overman, but it is absolutely part of the discussion, with more on that later.

Thoughts on the symbolism of her performance and appearance

Act 1: Trial through the Moon
Alysa wears a white dress with light grey ombre, like an emergent swan by moonlight in the first act. She is a woman who has undergone a trial of self-discovery and wears bandages across her torso in recognition of the wounds endured by her younger self. A time when she was tightly controlled in lifestyle, training and competition, without freedom of choice or artistic expression.

The transformative nature of lunar consciousness allows one to work through emotional hardship, enough to gain insight from the painful lessons. What is clear here is that Liu, in reflection, respect and acknowledgement of all that came before, and now closer to her unique spirit, can confidently re-enter the world on her own terms — and gracefully moves with the same cohesion in her performance. Which is perfectly reflected by her beautiful, soulful, elegant stage entrance that immediately calls all to attention to this renewed state of being.

La lune

Act 2: Solar freedom

The showstopper act, Alysa in her golden luminary presence — shines and emanates exuberance. Victoriously captures hearts even before the tallying of scores by skate's end. The audience, commentators and every person who watches thereafter can feel, see, and respond to a meaningful and groundbreaking moment with the same heightened and gripped emotion reserved for a religious experience. Liu’s performance was heart-centred, authentic in creative essence, and embodied the revelation of a new becoming.

Disco star

Symbolic style
Finally, her hairstyle, namely the brown/blonde striped hair, which she has dubbed ‘halos’, is indicative of an appointed crown along with an unusual frenulum piercing, which further encapsulates her image of punk royalty. An unapologetic mix of opposites and deservedly apt symbols for the time — of differentiating one's identity out from societal expectations, also inclusive of her masterful performance.

Alysa at Gala performance

author: axel

The following section houses Axel's review of the events. Overlap expected, but further insight guaranteed!

Transgression and serious play

What is striking about Alysa Liu's performance is how many moulds she breaks at once. Whereas most other athletes are focused on "playing the meta," Alysa decided that the best way to participate was to change the rules instead of trying to fit in.
When watching her ice-skating, there is an unspoken agreement between the audience and her that we are dealing with something new. Through her contagious cheerfulness, she forces us to evaluate her performance on its own basis, as it does not pretend to be anything else than what it is. She offers herself not as acrobatics to be rated on a scale, but as an act of self-expression that happens to be best enjoyed in public.
It's clear to everyone watching that Alysa plays a totally different game and obeys a different value system than every other competing athlete. And her main skill is to do so while bringing the audience with her. This is an act of transgression, and probably the most graceful one I know of.

Such a paradigm shift is even more significant as it takes place within a certain astrological context, namely the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. As a water-bearer, Aquarius is a unified human being, which contrasts with the two dual fishes of the Age of Pisces. This means that the change of Age brings what was opposed into a unified whole.
Thus Aquarius will be an age of novel ideas and strange hybrid mixtures, often blending things that were never thought to fit together, as an epochal process of reconciling opposites is taking place.

This also means that Aquarius is an Age where fixed paradigms will be brushed aside with shocking ease. It is not clear how many values that we currently take for granted will survive this transition. This is the prophetic "transvaluation of all values" brought by the Übermensch, whose reverberations that have been felt and discussed online after Alysa's performance.

In a similar manner, Crowley defined the coming times as "the Aeon of Horus" or "the Aeon of the Child". Crowley wrote,

"The child is not merely a symbol of growth, but of complete moral independence and innocence. We may then expect the New Aeon to release mankind from its pretence of altruism, its obsession of fear and its consciousness of sin. It will possess no consciousness of the purpose of its own existence. It will not be possible to persuade it that it should submit to incomprehensible standards; it will suffer from spasms of transitory passion; it will be absurdly sensitive to pain and suffer from meaningless terror; it will be utterly conscienceless, cruel, helpless, affectionate and ambitious, without knowing why; it will be incapable of reason, yet at the same time intuitively aware of truth." (Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Chapter 49)

The Aeon - Thot tarot

The coming Aquarian Aeon will then be under the sign of a Child at play¹, an age of playful and creative experimentation.
As an instinct, play is not outcome-based. It does not focus on winning or even achieving something. Play is first and foremost expressive². And self-expression is also exacting, as even the smallest details are paid attention to.

This is the paradox of creative work: creativity is best done with a mixture of play and seriousness. One is both engaged in the task and yet detached from it. For instance, experimentations that could lead nowhere are not registered as time-wasters to someone who plays. Rather they are part of the wonder of attempting combinations never seen before. Play works with unseen potentials and uncreated futures. And when a surprising arrangement works, its author is the first to enjoy its own creation. In this regard, play is its own reward, its own nourishment.

Finally, when done correctly, the play instinct already encompasses love. Love is present in the deep care that the artist is infusing in each small component of his/her art. No one is more concerned about the final results than the artist who is compelled to bring into expression the formless void s/he is pregnant with.

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." (Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition, par 234)

Child at play

Transgression and passing the torch

And yet, just like not all new ideas are good, not all transgressions are successful. To understand this distinction, we can compare Alysa's ice-skating to Rachael Gunn's breakdance, as both were done in an Olympic setting.

A question appears immediately: why did Raygun fail where Alysa succeeded? In both renditions of self-expression, why did they achieve such polar opposite results? To answer this question, we can go through a few elements that both athletes approached differently.

First, Alysa does not seem to have an agenda in mind. Her goal is self-expression, which happens to take place in a competitive setting. On her end, Raygun appears to be motivated by an academic premise, something along the lines of trying to change breakdancing from within, as her thesis "Deterritorializing gender in Sydney's breakdancing scene" renders explicit³. It is as if breakdancing was secondary to this other concealed purpose.

Second, Alysa fundamentally pays respect to the spirit of the Olympics, which is around struggle, performance, and bringing the best one has to offer to the public. She thus fulfils the audience's and the judges' expectations despite playing a different game. By contrast, Raygun operates in a different spirit, which is antithetical to the Olympics. The set of values by which she executed her breakdancing is, at best, paying lip service to the millennial tradition of the Olympics, and at worst, completely disregarding it.

Finally, Alysa operates in continuity with what is expected of the world's best athletes. Doing so, she brought new life to her Olympic discipline and, dare I say it, led by example what can be expected of the Age of Aquarius. On her side, Raygun operated in a deconstructive manner, an almost tantric attempt at breaking rigid conditioning. If she demonstrated undeniable creativity and originality, her creative fire has been deemed unworthy of being preserved or continued. Or so it has been collectively decided by mankind, in our eternal task of passing the torch forwards.

Light my fire

author: bek

P.S: An unlikely parallel with Overman as Alysa and The Substance’s MonstroElisaSue

Let's return to the topic of the 'Overman'. In my analysis of the film The Substance, I break down a key moment in the protagonist’s final transformation into her abominable amalgamation following a series of escalating tensions and crises.

The Substance (2025) Spoilers ahead!

I go a step further in my interpretation by zooming out and reading this as a powerful dream, as though from the director herself (Coralie Fargeat). A meta view of what it means to present to the world an idea and expression of self for all to see and mark judgement upon it. As directly with the scene in question: the protagonist is on stage amongst the messenger angels, revealing her new unique form (MonstroElisaSue) to the audience and quite literally birthing her artistic content right before them.

Unwelcome stage entrance

Without delving too deeply, as the scene analysis can be read directly here. In its finality, this was an affront to the audience, a ghastly display that felt monstrous and alien, half-baked even.

What we can witness and surmise in both cases is a similar symbolic portrayal, with the major caveat being that Alysa Liu’s presentation of the new self was a positive, inspired, and unbounded exposition, as Aquarian. Yet it still managed to find complete, unadulterated, unique expression within the eye of the needle. An exceptionally precise task hints at the potential ability and essence of the divine child, to not only re-conceptualise old systems and revivify through novelty, but to bring together and not divide or alienate.

Alysa Liu presents herself purely as self-defined and uncategorised. Just as we find Fargeat’s creation as MonstroElisaSue. However, we as an audience are not horrified by its intensity or forced into a blood rite to accept the offering. Both are religious in nature, yet what we experience positively in Liu’s performance and its symbolism is in fact a beautiful vision of future possibilities, for each person's own authentic process in becoming.

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this article or have found it useful, consider sharing, commenting or even donating. Many thanks!

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAV2BpP6Akg for a longer discussion of the Aeon of Horus and the child at play) ↩︎
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYuo842_TRs for the essential nature of play. ↩︎
https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/Deterritorializing_gender_in_Sydney_s_breakdancing_scene_a_B-girl_s_experience_of_B-boying/19433291?file=34528847 ↩︎

Discussion on The Substance, Faust and Frankenstein w/ Axel

2025-11-25T12:46:00Z

This is a supplementary audio-only conversation in relation to The Substance analysis.

It is somewhat mandatory to have at the very least watched the film, as Axel and I talk around the article and touch on some of the deeper topics that were pivotal in the analysis, in addition to some other interesting asides that did not make it in the article. It is rather within context and will not make much sense out of it.

We also discuss similarities with Del Toro's Frankenstein with the film at hand, so make sure to skip for spoilers if need be.

Finally, I have also included timestamps in the description box if you'd like to peruse some of the discussion, which can be found here:

Enjoy, and thanks for your interest.

Bek

Beyond the Female Faustian Bargain - The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024)

2025-11-13T12:03:06Z

Spoiler alert!

Please watch the film before reading, as this article is a full analysis of key scenes.

The following is a psychological interpretation of the body horror film The Substance (2024), written and directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. Passionate about women’s issues and genre film, she has relayed openly her thorough use of symbols and colours to convey strong ideas and emotions for memorable impact. With influences such as Lynch, Aronofsky, Cronenberg, and Kubrick etc., it is fortunate that she manages her own aesthetic identity among these heavyweights and presents a purposefully uncomfortable, intimate and vibrant film; paying homage to predecessors in respect and love of the craft.

The film is widely regarded as a vicious criticism of ageism in Hollywood, unrealistic beauty and body standards, as well as the male gaze or toxic masculinity to name a few hot issues. I would also be remiss not to mention the technical feats, the strong sound design and a flair for aesthetics that contribute to an intriguing sensory feast — it has rightly earned numerous accolades for production and set a precedence for women in horror. However, from my point of view, there is more to tease out from the story that goes beyond the face-value symbols, politics, film references, or tropes already discussed online.

I aim to offer a far deeper meaning and perspective - if you have read my previous article, then you’ll find this will follow suit as an atypical analysis as I approach the movie through dream language and alchemy, using depth psychology. Interestingly, through the unfolding and writing of the analysis, a philosophical angle also began to emerge that was unexpected (to be later discussed). I understand Fargeat is meticulous with her use of visuals and colours as symbolic representation throughout each scene – but these are the conscious efforts, which most can perceive. It is the glimpses of unconscious material that intertwine a competing deeper narrative to the surface story, adding layers to the film beyond the conscious awareness of it. This is where my attention and interpretation will go, essentially to what is hidden.

This methodology taps into the unconscious symbols, where true creativity and art reside. Symbols and archetypes are selected autonomously by the unconscious and drive a particular internal narrative for one’s psychological development. These symbols are unbiased, apolitical and seemingly random. It is why certain images can captivate us spiritually and even trigger us emotionally, why we feel deeply and strongly towards a piece of film, music, art, etc., as touching a part of one’s soul, yet not really knowing why. Furthermore, these symbols may expose more than what an audience or director may be willing to admit or recognise about themselves on a personal level. Collectively, it can also explain why certain works elevate to niches or cult fandoms – which this film has all the hallmarks of, if not already claimed.

The beginning of this complex narrative externalises the tribulations of inner psychological turmoil, avoidance of life, fear of rejection and mortality as a condition of the puella aeterna (eternal girl) archetype leading a provisional life, like the life of a teenager never initiated into adulthood – a state of dependence or stasis. The protagonist then accelerates into an alchemical transformation process that she is wholly unprepared for. There is also a living out of opposite poles of inflation, from victim to demi-god — as the ego succumbs to grandiosity and is then consumed by it.

This attempt at inner alchemy (via The Substance) with the body as a mixing vessel (krater) by the main character results in a doubling of the personality, with an aim to differentiate the ego from the Self and birth a new identity. However, Elisabeth (Demi Moore), the woman at the centre of this birthing process, is an immature ego. This produces the emergence of an undifferentiated aspect of the unconscious depicted as Sue (Margaret Qualley). She represents the new Self, distorted by the shadow. Sue, as the greater personality of Elisabeth, reveals the devouring and overt ambition hidden within herself. This leads to a further separation of the psyche, as each ego consciously resigns to relate only to the outer world. It ultimately leads to the destruction of both, when the symbiosis of the relationship is neglected. In a turn of events, involving a violent encounter, the last act depicts an impure chaotic mixture of the vessel which causes a mutation and this leads to the abominable union for a last stand.

If you’re still with me after that, what also sets this film apart is that it has a particular flavour coming from the female psyche. Where themes of this nature have subsisted mainly in the distinctive Germanic sphere of male literary works, The Substance inadvertently claims a significant place amongst the Faustian problem and the Promethean aim of Nietzsche’s Overman (Übermensch), all while underlying the Dionysian condition – as well as the destructive Wotanic (Odin) spirit; evidently a rather interesting excavation of the unconscious.

Lastly, the film explores the masculine aspect within women or animus (spirit or logos drive), constellated through the male encounters within the film - as projections and inner reflected realities, both negative and positive. This topic is a difficult one to explore, since the woman’s psyche, especially as it relates to the animus, is hugely varied and expansive, with sporadic material. This film may be useful to present those lived realities, just not in the way I believe Fargeat has fully intended.

Lost Sparkle

The opening scene demonstrates the experiment in the lab that creates “The Substance” received later in the film. It is depicted as a yolk that generates another similar yolk after the chemical injection. Symbolically, we are looking at the beginning, the monad, that splits itself into two – the doubling of the personality. Axiom of Maria would also apply here, but we will be looking at Nietzsche’s reference later on.

Yoke x2

We are then invited to a montage of Elisabeth Sparkle’s vocation, a celebrity with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The shot lingers, revealing a passage of time in reflection on her fame and status. Through this progression and interaction with the audience, we see her light or fame diminishing, eventually forgotten, wrinkled and aged.

A relevant motif can be seen in myth or fairy tale, of the ageing king holding onto power till the last breath, and for the queen or witch, there is a drive to attain or maintain beauty at all costs; the underlying theme here is that a successor is far from the mind and quite intolerable.

Snow White, Charles Santore

Finally, the sequence ends with a clumsy burger-dropping passerby and a smear of ketchup, revealing a grim foreshadowing of Elisabeth’s demise.

Catch a falling star

**The animus got you down**

Elisabeth, relegated to hosting a long-running TV exercise show, wraps filming for the season. Feeling her age on her birthday she overhears Harvey (Dennis Quaid), the network’s boss, crass and ruthless desire to replace the star with a new, younger performer for the show.

Harvey: “We need her hot, we need her young, we need her now.”

While a hurtful and over-the-top display, this is a clear statement that a new matrix (mother) is required to replace the ageing queen. It is a matter of urgency to uphold the kingdom with a vibrant, fertile (creative) successor, so to speak.

Hit like a bus

Unsurprisingly, following this alarming and emotive exposition, she is fired by Harvey at lunch.

Harvey: “I have to give people what they want... and people always ask for something new, renewal, it’s inevitable.”

Further implying that a 50-year-old woman is not sexually viable anymore to attract anyone, let alone an audience for the network.

Prawn-eyed

If we review this differently from a psychological perspective, Elisabeth’s whole identity is tied to this maladaptive or negative animus figure, Harvey. The animus is the masculine counterpart within a woman’s psyche and has its own stages of development.

“In its negative form a woman’s inner man, the animus, is a power of evil destructive to human life. He separates a woman from her own femininity. He cuts her off from human warmth and kindness, and leaves her isolated in a meaningless world, martyred by unseen hands. She experiences herself as a victim, a captive, trapped either by external circumstance or by a cruel fate.”
(The Way of the Dream: Conversations on Jungian Dream Interpretation, Marie-Louise Von Franz and Fraser Boa, pg. 144)

Not only is he seen as parasitical, “He personifies brutality, coldness, and obstinacy, and paralyzes a woman’s growth.” (ibid.)

The Fly

More on the negative animus, but specific to the Tyrant archetype:

“Often the tyrannical boss that women are struggling against is not so much an external man as the tyrannical animus within themselves, which they have projected onto him. Such women even seem to attract the tyrants in their environments or to choose them as partners. They fail to see that this is connected with their inner worship of their own animus, which is suppressing their femininity.”
(Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche, Marie-Louise Von Franz)

Now of note is the choice of Elisabeth’s main wardrobe, rather pronounced here as a suit at the restaurant - the costume designer (Emmanuelle Youchnovski) has touted this as a show of professionalism among men, purposely concealing her femininity, but this only furthers the aforementioned psychological concept of a restrictive animus.

The suit among suits

To continue on this important thread of the animus constituted in women:

“It manifests negatively as prejudices, rigid opinions, traditional spiritual patterns, brutality, and other forms of masculine inferiority. It manifests positively as buoyancy, creativity, and steadfastness of character.”
(Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche, Marie-Louise Von Franz)

Unfortunately, Elisabeth can be likened to the archetypal eternal girl (puella aeterna), with a weak ego formulation, and bound by the tyrannical animus, Harvey. She does not know who she is without Harvey’s approval, nor does she have any sense or aim outside of being a celebrity. Who is she really without the attention stardom affords? All persona and no ‘substance’, after years of playing the same old role, accumulating seasons without growth, yet she was comfortable.

We get a one-sided view of Harvey with Elisabeth, mostly unsympathetic and chauvinistic. However, detaching from this orchestrated overt facade, his aim is typically masculine (structure, leader) and is focused on supporting the talent for clout, popularity, and financial aims. One could argue that this was once a mutually beneficial relationship, which she is now falling out of favour with. This is why Elisabeth’s world is crushed. Ultimately, she is rejected by him, and more importantly, later rejects herself through his standards, as the masculine within (which is likely why the term internalised misogyny exists!).

“These contrasexual elements can estrange a human being completely from reality and society. The animus, like the anima, is a very ambiguous, very dangerous inner figure which must be approached with great wisdom.”
(The Way of the Dream: Conversations on Jungian Dream Interpretation, Marie-Louise Von Franz and Fraser Boa, pg. 165)

Her identity now in question, is later reinforced when some workers tear down an image of her on a billboard, and in witness to this, she collides with another car. An interesting correlation to how it may feel to be slammed into non-existence.

Face be-gone

In the clinic, after receiving treatment for the car accident, she is quietly given “The Substance” USB by a male nurse, since she could be a good candidate for the experimental process.

Divergent path with Fred

Following this revelation is a serendipitous meeting with an old classmate, Fred, who was interested in her when they were younger and reveals he still adores her now. He offers an uplifting, casual warmth in their interaction, seemingly something lost or missing in her life.

Right Said Fred

Elisa is unknowingly at a crossroads, the realm of Hekate. If she accepted her fate and call from the universe to update her identity naturally, then a break of old patterns and the beginning of a new chapter could take place. Essentially, this chance meeting with Fred should be recognised as divine intervention and a small guiding step towards wholeness.

"Symbolically, crossroads represent moments in our lives where the unconscious crosses consciousness, where the eternal crosses the transitory; in other words, times and places where a higher will demands the surrender of our egos.” (Conscious Femininity, Marion Woodman, pg. 109)

Fred is the depiction of her masculine aspect that would positively aid her transformation into her next evolutionary stage, into the wise woman, elder, or crone. That is, if she had stayed in contact with Fred and kept her date that occurs later in the film. He would have been the positive animus - the masculine dimension of her inner world, that procures self-acceptance, creative power and authenticity.

“The positive animus is an innermost instinctive awareness of the inner truth, a basic inner truthfulness which guides the spiritual woman in her individuation, toward becoming her own self.”
(The Way of the Dream: Conversations on Jungian Dream Interpretation, Marie-Louise Von Franz and Fraser Boa, pg. 176)

The process of this transformation would look like a recession from the limelight and going within. This absence of light means darkness and a venture into the unknown - through such a trial, if one is successful upon emergence, a renewal of the ego or selfhood would be attributed to the wisdom and strength gained.

All this is in line with Harvey’s comment on renewal of the feminine, as in this context, it relates to new beginnings and an identity closer to one’s true self, only if one could alchemise the negative emotions and sacrifice the old, to give in to the new.

It requires effort to fight the negative animus and make it workable, but:

“...when women succeed in maintaining themselves against the animus, instead of allowing themselves to be devoured by it, then it ceases to be only a danger and becomes a creative power. We women need this power, for, strange as it seems, only when this masculine entity becomes an integrated part of the soul and carries on its proper function there is it possible for a woman to be truly a woman in the higher sense, and, at the same time, also being herself, to fulfil her individual human destiny.”
(Animus and Anima, Emma Jung, pg. 42)

Alas, this film depicts a regression and perpetuates a maladaptive masculine relation with the animus as Harvey, riddled with pain.

The Substance as inner alchemy

“When a summit of life is reached, when the bud unfolds and from the lesser the greater emerges, then, as Nietzsche says, “One becomes Two,” and the greater figure, which one always was but which remained invisible, appears to the lesser personality with the force of a revelation.”
(Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, para 217)

Elisabeth gets home and plugs the USB she received into her TV. An attention-grabbing video plays, introducing The Substance. Let’s take a look at these extraordinary claims:

“One single injection unlocks your DNA, starting a new cellular division that will release another version of yourself.” This is the doubling of the personality, the lesser ego and greater personality as ego Self (One becomes Two).

“You are the matrix. Everything comes from you.” The body is the krater (mixing vessel) of transformation that bears life, and everything is born of the mother (matrix).

“And everything is you.” One consciousness, many aspects (the crude material to be refined).

“This is simply a better version of yourself. You just have to share.” The point stressed here is to not lose yourself.

“The one and only thing not to forget, you are one.” It seems that it is easy to forget, as depicted in the film! The birthed personality or being is a part of you and vice versa. “Unum est vas”: The vessel is one.

“You can’t escape from yourself” A testament of responsibility to care, nurture, accept, harmonise and integrate, since there is no leaving the prime ego’s vessel or matrix.

Child's play

Low point, bad decisions

A dejected Elisabeth (Elisa) downs cocktails at the bar for her birthday in melancholic fare. Back at her apartment, in a moment of grief and anger, she throws a snow globe made in imitation of her stardom directly at her oversized hanging portrait on the wall. Interestingly, it strikes one eye, leaving cracked glass and a trail of shimmering glitter.

The loss of one eye conjures the image of Wotan, which colours some of the film’s essence. To expand slightly in this instance, this is the lost ability to ‘see’ the bigger picture. A partial blindness that leads to her ordering The Substance; a solution to her suffering and conversely, is what initiates the Faustian bargain.

One-eyed Elisa

Angered by the call-out ad in the newspaper for her previous position at the studio network, she receives her access card for the Substance deposit box via mail.

The pickup location is a lonely back-alley contraption, awash with white - playing with notions of clinic artificiality and exposure. The room also touches again on Hekate’s realm of the liminal space, as the threshold between worlds. Later in the movie, Elisa's bathroom will be of a similar aesthetic and tone.

Pick-up only

The Substance unboxing – or alchemy kit

Back at the apartment, the package is opened to reveal an assortment of items with the instructions:

“You activate only once.” The first step initiates the doubling of the personality, a one-time deal.

“You stabilise every day.” The new self needs the old to sustain it, the lifeblood vitality is from the source consciousness, the ego or mother (mater, matrix).

“You switch every seven days without exception.” Reconnect with the prime ego to stay grounded, integrate experience, and keep reminded of reality.

Everything in order

Birth pangs

Elisabeth, reflecting on her bodily imperfections in front of the mirror and driven by the desire to be a better, younger version of herself, takes the “Activator” from The Substance kit.
Birthed from her spine with her genetics is a Homunculus — a fully formed artificial human figure of youthful vibrancy and her consciousness is transferred into the new body, which then requires life force from Elisa’s body to sustain or “Stabilise” it.

“Psychologically, the homunculus signifies the birth of the conscious realization of the autonomous psyche. In dreams it may appear as a doll or statue which comes to life, representing the ego's dawning awareness of the existence of a second psychic center, the Self.”
(Goethe's Faust Notes for a Jungian Commentary, Edward F. Edinger, pg. 62)

Double vision

We can now hearken back to the egg yolk opening scene. The doubling of the personality takes place, and the lesser ego (Elisa) has extracted forth the greater ego-Self (later named Sue).

“...in light, sometimes caught in shadow, all game,
all sea, all midday, all time without aim.
At once then, my friend! One turned into Two -
and Zarathustra strode into my view ...”
(The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche, pg. 371)

In this extract, it reveals a similitude of the inner double’s emancipation as Zarathustra (Self). The ideal theory is that it would guide the ego – but an encounter with the Self does not always end well.

This film depicts a further shift to this challenging notion, as instead of a Zarathustra figure, we actually have, in Sue, a character more like Mephistopheles (Goethe’s Faust). Since it is the undifferentiated shadow colouring the Self – that which obfuscates positive transformation, the presence of which we will discover later on. The reason for this discrepancy is due to Elisabeth not being an actualised ego.

Mefisto (1884), Anders Zorn

“...once he realizes that he himself has a shadow, that his enemy is in his own heart, then the conflict begins and one becomes two. Since the “other” will eventually prove to be yet another duality, a compound of opposites, the ego soon becomes a shuttlecock tossed between a multitude of “velleities,” with the result that there is an “obfuscation of the light,”
(The Practice of Psychotherapy, Carl Jung, para 399)

This distinction is the source behind the conflict to transpire. As just like Faust, Elisabeth’s addiction to success and idolisation contaminates her relationship to the greater personality or alter ego.

Another birthday

You got it, Sue!

Elisabeth, as Sue, now finds herself with the single aim to return to the studio, as she sets out to audition, in recall of the newspaper listing that advertised her former employment.

The big question here is: Why? Well, for this film, it seems the protagonist is nowhere near ready to leave the spotlight, and more specifically, the exact same role of her exile. It is only too apt to further conclude that Elisabeth is lost without her negative animus figure, Harvey, to call the shots in her life.

Some insight into this can also be gleaned from the topic of facing the shadow as puer aeternus (eternal boy) but should apply to the puella aeterna (eternal girl):

“When you are identical with the puer aeternus archetype, then the shadow has to be faced in order to come down to earth. But when you are identified with the shadow, the archetype of the puer has to be faced again in order to connect with it, for facing the other side is what leads to the next step.”
(The Problem of the Puer Aeternus, Marie-Louise von Franz, pg. 159)

If the drive to replay the life already lived as Elisabeth is at the root of the alchemy via The Substance, then nothing has been learned by her and she remains unconscious to the trappings. Since as Sue, she falls back into a pattern of inflation, regaining the attention and desire from men that was lost, essentially, to capture the anima projection or be the anima woman.

“Many people don't want to be human; they'd rather live on idealization and perfection. They don't want to take responsibility for their lives because it's much easier to fly off into spirit and try to live out an archetypal dream. Psychologically we call this inflation and the only end is to crash down to earth or to recover earth through depression or illness.”
(Conscious Femininity, Marion Woodman, pg. 19)

Eyes on the prize

The return also includes going back to the Tyrant animus; she’s not really ‘sticking it’ to anyone or even a symbol of feminine power, since her transformation must remain a secret, and this is entirely to land back in Harvey’s good favour -- as he can provide her the fame, attention and adulation she craves, which keeps her unconscious.

The complexity of Sue

Sue imagines her lips saying her name on the wall of compiled screens. This hints at the steamroll to come: a complete overtaking of the greater personality, in tandem with the negative animus, by grandiosity, an inflation akin to a Faustian power drive.

To recap the complexity of Sue’s psychological symbolism: she is the Mercurial spirit coming from Elisabeth’s unconscious, which contains all opposite aspects of the personality. In this context, she is shrouded by Elisa’s undifferentiated dark side. Sue then, is not a higher figure of light, but is a lower figure with dark intentions - leading to the progressive alienation of the main ego.

“Thus the “supraordinate” personality can appear in a despicable and distorted form, like for instance Mephistopheles, who is really more positive as a personality than the vapid and unthinking careerist Faust.”
(The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, para 310)

Lip service

In Harvey’s office, we find Sue juxtaposed next to the canine statue; Fargeat likely wanted this scene to depict the new pet to heel, but we can go a little further.

Man's best friend

Harvey calls her a ‘gorgeous little angel’, which is referenced again in a later scene on her t-shirt (being in the clouds). Sue, of course, gets the gig and is subsequently reunited with Harvey.

“The animus is expert at sketching in and making plausible a picture that represents us as we would like to be seen, for example, as the "ideal lover," the "appealing, helpless child," the "selfless handmaiden," the "extraordinarily original person," ... This activity naturally lends the animus power over us until we voluntarily, or perforce, make up our minds to sacrifice the highly colored picture and see ourselves as we really are.”
(Animus and Anima, Emma Jung, pg. 18)

Sue represents the feminine vitality and youthful vigor that Elisabeth has lost in herself, but will again be manipulated once more by accepting the mask given by the maladaptive animus within, as Harvey, since she cannot procure an identity or values outside of her desire for celebrity stardom.

Comeback queen

Dragonborn

As Sue settles into her work routine, she assumes a symbol – a golden dragon, which is embellished beautifully on a dark navy velvet robe. Sue, with outstretched arms, forms a winged dragon, and rather thematically, winged award statues are later in frame. While this image has been claimed to be a “phoenix rising” or “weapon”, I would beg to differ! As has already been discussed, the return of Sue to Harvey is unconscious, correctly of air, but essentially an ungrounded state.

That's no bird

To understand the nuance of the dragon symbol in this frame, we have to get into the complexity of Mercurius and the all-encompassing ideas or container that is the Self, that have a similarity in definition.

“The alchemists accordingly represented their Mercurius duplex as the winged and wingless dragon, calling the former feminine and the latter masculine ...who on the one hand is Hermes the mystagogue and psychopomp, and on the other hand is the poisonous dragon, the evil spirit and “trickster.”
(The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, para 556, 689)

The golden dragon symbol embodied by Sue is the poisonous dragon. A duality of light and dark aspects, both saviour and hostile adversary.

“...when observed in a woman to the type of supraordinate personality. It is an essential characteristic of psychic figures that they are duplex or at least capable of duplication; at all events they are bipolar and oscillate between their positive and negative meanings.”
(Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, par 310)

Sue saves Elisa from her existential suffering, but in doing so, draws on powerful dragon energy that pivots from inflation to grandiosity – essentially consuming the entirety of the personality in the process.

“Just as conscious as well as unconscious phenomena are to be met with in practice, the self as psychic totality also has a conscious as well as an unconscious aspect... When it represents a complexio oppositorum, a union of opposites, it can also appear as a united duality, in the form, for instance, of tao as the interplay of yang and yin, or of the hostile brothers, or of the hero and his adversary (arch-enemy, dragon), Faust and Mephistopheles, etc. Empirically, therefore, the self appears as a play of light and shadow, although conceived as a totality and unity in which the opposites are united. Since such a concept is irrepresentable—tertium non datur—it is transcendental on this account also.”
(Psychological Types, Carl Jung, para 790)

Sue, the inner double and supraordinate personality of Elisa, both share a yin-yang composition that is essential to the function of the ego; however, ultimately this dragon symbol Sue dons is a destructive runaway force. We will soon see this idea culminate in Elisa’s Nightmare #1 (see below).

Lastly, and perhaps worth a mention: the pervasive use of the spine is a conscious decision by the director and production team all throughout. The justification is to represent reptilian-like metamorphosis that carries through scenes. Be that as it may, I’ll just add that the snake and/or dragon symbol is as old as time, and its meaning is numerous, how we attach symbols intellectually may not reveal the true unconscious drive of why we need it, or why we feel it is vitally important to have it there in the first place. There is incredible wisdom and insight to be gained by the symbols we use and attach ourselves to, and even that is just one of those snake-like revelations.

Blood magic

Elisa’s nightmare #1 – Oncoming Calamity

Elisabeth’s nightmare after Sue’s first week happens to be of colliding with a masked, unstoppable force on a motorbike. While it seems to foreshadow the appearance of the man (Troy) in later scenes and the idea of ‘road kill’ at the end of the film, it can also be psychologically representative of the force that is now in play, initiated by The Substance that will overtake Elisa. Sue, with grandiose dragon energy, hits like a severe storm; unstoppable and destructive. A warning from the unconscious that what’s to come cannot be managed, it is a consuming darkness. The black completely envelopes the white road stripes, depicting the imbalance of the yin-yang.

Lone highway

Elisabeth receives a parting gift from Harvey. More on this later!

Parting gift

Repression

What’s evident in the unfolding arc is that Elisa is determined to live out her life as Sue and consciously chooses to lay low at home, putting her own life on hold – allowing a one-sided dominance. What’s worse is that she actively, as Sue, renovates the bathroom to hide Elisa’s lifeless body. Akin to burying her personage deeper into her psyche, what’s depicted is that she is humiliated and disgusted by her real aged body – but it can also be seen as a self-abandonment of the original personality, a belief that she is unwanted goods by all, including herself. The sad reality of the rejection of matter can be reflected in this quote:

“The sins of the mother are visited from generation to generation, and the progressive loss of the feminine in our culture may be one of the chief causes of the escalating numbers of young women who reject their own bodies and hide behind their self-created Athena's aegis... Whatever the reasons, the feminine libido is blocked, the feminine goddess is outraged and sends her ultimatum to the ego... Only by establishing communication with that unconscious force can the body ultimately be healed and the feminine spirit released.”
(The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, Marion Woodman, pg. 23)

Dust storm

The renovation leads to the construction of a dark room behind a secret door. This is the shielded state of conscious awareness. One is more able to reduce care, which leads to eventual neglect.
The removal of the revelatory bathroom light allows the darker aspect of Elisa to take hold. Elisa's conscious awareness departs in favour of Sue's lived experience; she abandons herself, figuratively and mentally.

Into the void

Out with the old

Cloud 9 halo

As mentioned before, Sue is enacting a false identity under the guise of the poisoned animus, as “the angel”, the perfect girl next door, the fantasy image for males (anima woman).
She wears a T-shirt with “Reality is not for me, I live in the clouds” to indicate that, nailing the concept of the false or provisional life, the puella aeterna archetype - either living high up in the clouds or too deep in the underworld. In both cases, they are far removed from present grounded reality.

Original sin

Sue prepares for a night out and now embodies the dragon again via the tight skin suit. What takes place over the course of the evening is a boundary misstep against Elisa's body; since it was time to "Switch".
Sue’s lust and desire to be with a man, Troy, someone who is later exposed to be rather toxic, is a result of regrettable poor judgement. Sue has stolen a few hours more for Troy and Elisa pays for it with years, as her deteriorated finger reveals the misdeed.

You're late!

Elisa nightmare #2 – Unzipped

Elisa, in her unconscious bodily state, has a nightmare which happens to be of the very moment Sue is preparing to get with Troy, although she gets a horrifying version where all of Sue’s innards fall to the ground —after he unzips her bodysuit.

Insides out

What can be gleaned from this nightmare is the feeling of being caught out or exposed for being a fraud or lacking character. It can also demonstrate the horror of one’s inner world and the ugliness of that being seen. There is more to expand on this when the time comes.

Elisa’s awakening after the second week of Sue’s foray into the working world promotes immense bitter resentment, especially now that she has discovered that the disrespect of boundaries and the bypassing of rules have irreversible consequences. Elisa sees this as a personal attack and it strikes at the wounded core of her dilemma, vanity.

Elisa: "I don't know what she was thinking."
Man: "Remember, there is no she and you, you are one."
Man: "Respect the balance and you won't have any more inconveniences."

The man operating The Substance hot line is of no use; Elisa cannot accept that her alter ego has jeopardised her original body, not realising that it is her own self-rejection that has instigated and fomented such reckless disregard.

Was he worth it?

Diner woes

Elisa, now awake to the danger of this experience yet still unwilling to change her trajectory, like an addict, heads back to pick up the next instalment at the deposit box; yet this time, strange voices interrupt the ritual. Spooked, she races out and heads for cover into a nearby diner.

An old man, now recognised as the young nurse from the clinic who introduced her to The Substance, laments his own use. He offers some sage advice, yet seemingly is unable to give up the addiction himself and potentially is in the same conundrum of this psychological and physical polarisation.

Old man: "Gets lonely every time."
Old man: "That you still matter."
Old man: "Is she eating away at you yet?"

Wake up call

Here in dream language, the old man stands in for spirit; he offers wisdom and guidance for Elisa through his own similar lived experience.

“The old man always appears when the hero is in a hopeless and desperate situation from which only profound reflection or a lucky idea—in other words, a spiritual function or an endopsychic automatism of some kind—can extricate him.” (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, para 401)

The downward spiral

Taking on his warning, she remembers her encounter with Fred and his phone number on mud-washed paper with his cholesterol numbers – perhaps implying something heart-related, the imperfectly real. Setting up the date with an incredulous Fred over the phone reveals a tentative excitement in Elisa to feel that she does, in fact, still matter.

Flash a smile

However, Elisa, over a period of a few intense hours, tragically deteriorates into a neurosis; her struggle against the beauty standard she has internalised via Harvey culminates into an irredeemable self-loathing and highlights her inferiority complex.

“Also a strange paralysis of feeling together with a profound lack of self-confidence is frequently the effect on a woman’s own inner world of an unacknowledged animus judgment. In such situations, the animus whispers to the woman in the depths: 'You’re a hopeless case; why try? It’s all to no avail anyhow. Your life cannot, and never will, be any different.'”
(The Individuation Process, Marie-Louise von Franz, pg. 320)

She loses the battle within herself, has adopted a skewed value system, and wrongly attributes her worth to only what is skin deep. The billboard of Sue’s perfect body looms ominously over her, as salt in the wound – this conclusively leads to a date no-show.

Don't listen to the voices!

While a potent and memorable depiction of a relatable suffering, it also shows our character at her absolute lowest and exemplifies the futility of competing within a superficial worldview. We are witness to a woman who lacks foundational self-esteem and self-worth. As suggested earlier in my article, Fred is the positive animus, but ultimately that connection is rejected, in favour of the fantasy, even beginning with him would require a reordering of values regardless.

To summarise, a poignant note on this defeatist attitude: the engagement of the fantasy of The Substance, enacted through Sue and Harvey is a bitter-sweet solution. Without it, Elisa would inextricably fall into the depths of a self-destructive spiral, as her life (body) increasingly falls out of the unattainable perfectionist worldview.

Sue’s nightmare - Break a Leg

After Elisa ghosts Fred, we witness an elaborate nightmare from Sue. Amidst filming a show, she becomes self-conscious of her body, as something lumpy moves around inside. The cameramen/animus figures prepare to zoom in and find the aberration on screen. Mortified that her artificial body will be revealed, she exits with haste to locate it, and in true gruesome fashion, pulled out from her belly button, is a cooked chicken leg.

This dream is connected to the "Unzipped" nightmare (#2) of Elisa, in that it reinvokes the feeling of being exposed for one's alien content; in this sense, it could mean the consequence of the lived experience of being the inner double. This motif will reappear in the final scenes.

An interesting aside to do with dream logic or the unconscious and its uncanny ability to repeat the same concept yet with an array of differing symbols, is explained here:

“When a dream has several scenes they can usually be best understood as varying ways to describe the same central idea. In other words the stream of images in dreams circumambulates certain nodal centers rather than proceeding in a straight line as does rational thinking.” (Ego and Archetype, Edward F. Edinger, pg. 23)

Enhance!

Insecurities surface

Sue awakens to a messy, chaotic apartment. Elisa has gorged herself on food, an overconsumption to fill the emptiness that is now her real life since ‘activating’ Sue. Sue angrily calls The Substance hotline:

Sue: "This balance is not working."
Sue: "She wastes 7 days stuffing her face in front of the TV."
Man: "Remember, there is no she and you."

Sue arrives at work, nervous after being told the show is cancelled. All this feeds into her (namely Elisa’s) fear of being unwanted and undesired – this need for approval is coming from this sense of inferiority. However, she is promoted to host the network’s huge event, the New Year's Eve show.

Sue's emotional rollercoaster

Sue, now a rising star, accomplishing what Elisa once had; opportunistically, she defies the rules and takes life essence from Elisa’s body without respite. The wound festers, almost with full abandonment of her original body or ego-consciousness.

Seeya, never

Angel of darkness

Elisa’s descent into madness as the crone

Elisa: “She didn’t respect the balance. She’s stealing more and more time from me, completely without consideration of the consequences. She’s a selfish bitch!”

The man on the phone offers her an out, but even with the neurosis, Elisa has a few choice words, seemingly knowing, yet unable to act on them herself. She is simply too far gone and too disconnected from the centre of her personality.

Elisa: “She... I... The balance just needs to be respected.”
Man: “So respect it.”

Recalling the gift from Harvey, now revealed to be a French cookbook, stirs up a vitalistic attitude – interestingly, a diagnostic kick from the animus:

“You could say that with a woman the animus always anticipates what she has to do later in reality. So, if you have the problem of the puer aeternus having to come down to earth, this is what the woman's mind has to do later; it is only one step removed, and naturally the puer aeternus problem is always linked up with the creative problem, and that is paramount in a woman's psychology.”
(The Problem of the Puer Aeternus, Marie-Louise von Franz, pg. 16)

Witch's brew

The creative task for problem solving ends up in the kitchen as busy work – cooking up a storm, wherein she argues with escalating resentment and disdain against Sue and her responses on an airing TV interview. Each response from Sue is poised to strike at Elisa’s own wounds; of upbringing, stature and eventual irrelevance. Her diminishment of Elisa takes place on screen and ultimately ends in Elisa overcompensating through overconsumption of the newly prepared meals. In its finality, we see a return to darkness and a veiling over Sue’s billboard, as Elisa blots out the window with newspapers, a visual rendering of the metaphysical wall that separates the two ego states.

Sue: “In a way, I grew up with her, whether I liked it or not”

Ouch!

You got it from me!

The chef the patron

In recognising the symbolism of cooking or chemistry, it is important to appreciate how it can show up in dreams, it indicates a functional act, of exploration and experimentation, into ‘working through or working out’ a problem or situation, it is usually contextually based for the dreamer, that is specific to the day and often the unconscious can produce the result of the creative effort.

In this context, Elisa shows vigour and some awareness of her situation, but not the right kind of fighting out of psychic content - as it is chaotic (a rush to prove oneself), French cuisine (foreign or not native in concept to her, although she is adept), and unusual in ingredients (atypical source material). All together, these lead to a concoction that is ripe to cause issues and the process itself is coloured by the miasma of the unprocessed wounds (Sue’s disregard, devaluation).

A positive point to this symbol, however, we can look to Marie-Louise Von Franz: "Instead of arguing with the drives which carry us away, we prefer to cook them and... ask them what they want... That can be discovered by active imagination, or through a fantasy, or through experimenting in reality, but always with the introverted attitude of observing objectively what the drive really wants."

Now, having discussed the symbolism of cooking, the act of eating for solace or over-consumption can be seen as satiating a non-physical spiritual hunger, essentially:

“...the numen which naturally belongs to the spirit is projected onto food.”
(The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, Marion Woodman, pg. 98)

This drive to seek the numinous is misaligned to the dark side of perfectionistic self-control. A pointed release of the repressed energies that have built up while persona non grata.
Elisabeth, exhausted and sanitising (solutio) herself from the experience in the shower, mutters despondently:

Elisa: “You have to....

Bleak isolation

No sympathy for lady vengeance

Sue: “Control yourself!”

With such a dramatic scene change, and with the other finishing the sentence, there is an engaging interplay between the two ego-consciousnesses.

Lacking in self-awareness, or perhaps powerless with the drive, this projection is an interesting one, since, in the following scene, it is Sue who will push boundaries with the fluid extraction, and fall into the same Dionysian (Wotanic) frenzy of excess and low impulse control, just as Elisa has done with cooking and overconsumption.

All you can eat buffet

Sue: “Gross, old, fat, disgusting!”

Sue violently extracts “Stabiliser” fluid (life force) from Elisa’s blackened wound to extend far beyond the strict 7-day switch rule, to 3 months; enough to get her to the big TV event. This further thrusts the unconscious attitude into the darkness, unwilling to contend with herself, and disregarding all ‘balance’ of the needs and wants of the other, and with an air of superiority to boot.

Graveyard shift

Pearl in a shell

A grey picture of time

This dastardly play leads us radically towards the downfall of Sue, as before her big night, she can no longer extract more from Elisa and has been debilitated, running on empty, as it were. She has no choice but to switch, revealing the horror of her abandonment and violence. Elisa has surpassed the crone and is at death’s door, a grotesque, hulking shell (named Gollum on set).

In despair, terror, and face-to-face with her new form, she finally musters a decisive courage; she calls The Substance hotline to stop the subscription. She pulls her large portrait frame back to its original place, an ode to what was lost and a futile attempt at reclaiming her original image.

My precious

Shadow showdown

Man: “We are sorry you didn’t appreciate your experience with The Substance.” The significance of the alchemy that could have allowed a step towards self-appreciation, acceptance, wholeness, etc., was unappreciated.

Elisa, now in possession of the “Termination” needle, falters at the last quarter of fluid. Nostalgia of the past reignites her starry-eyed need for acceptance from others, since she cannot love herself.

Twinsies

Elisa: “I need you because I hate myself.”
Elisa: “You are the only lovable part of me. You have to come back.”

Blood pact

The Two Fridas (1939), Frida Kahlo

Once again, Elisa tries to undo her actions by transferring blood directly back to Sue’s heart, and in a pivotal twist, Sue awakens. Here, it is unclear if the consciousness has separated and she has now fully taken the part of Elisa that was once united and can now exist independently, or if the full unadulterated hatred of herself in decrepit form is on display. Likened to the rage of the Wotanic spirit, the violence that ensues is a difficult watch, since it is completely one-sided and deadly.

Unstoppable

Aligning with dream language, a same-sex depiction in aggressive conflict is a depiction of the shadow. It is usually an unrelenting, unknown stranger figure that attacks you, follows you, and is generally ominous and unnerving. It can also appear initially as an animal on the prey. This is a part of the psyche that is negatively charged, but also needs your attention and will transform once interacted with or engaged with. If one can move past the pent-up aggression, conflict, or violence, then with conscious awareness or communication with that part, other stages of personal development can be accessed.

“... if we are able to see our own shadow and can bear knowing about it, then a small part of the problem has already been solved: we have at least brought up the personal unconscious. The shadow is a living part of the personality and therefore wants to live with it in some form. It cannot be argued out of existence or rationalized into harmlessness.”
(Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung, para 44)

“Medieval heroes had to slay their dragons: modern heroes have to take their dragons back home to integrate into their own personality.”
(Owning Your Own Shadow, Robert Johnson, pg. 51)

Desperate dreamer

Living dead girl

“Remember you are one.” Well then, beating the mother of your being to a bloody pulp was not such a good idea. Sue heads to the studio, hoping to live out the pinnacle of her fantasy, but in the process of backstage preparations, she is stopped in her tracks by the humbling effects of delirium and bodily decay. She is evidently receiving the repercussions of the fight and is synchronised with Elisa's slow death process.

Not enough Tooth Bright

Jumping ahead of the dramatic realisation that she is the walking dead, Sue has the bright idea to use the green “Activator” injection back at home to stop or fix the decay from ruining her night. The girl just won’t quit on the big dream.

Sue: “Give me a better version of myself.”

Boomer bile

Enter Monstro ElisaSue (Monstro)

The unholy incestuous mutant form of Sue’s unsanctioned rebirth. A chaotic and impure matrix (massa confusa) stirs up a physiognomy which matches the character; however, it becomes clear that Elisabeth seems to be back in the driver’s seat, as she super-glues her real face over the top of the new façade. Not the body she wanted, but a kind of radical self-acceptance and heightened determinism to boldly live out the dream once more.

Back together

While this is quite an impressive depiction of a dysmorphic creature, the rest of the film with Monstro takes a departure from the tight depictions of beauty and the angst of the protagonist, to a paradoxically easier ride - likely as intended. Monstro is no longer living the lie; she is open-breasted as the ancient Greek women, ready for battle as it were. There is a unique air to this confidence that has not yet been seen before, yet from a meta view, there is an underlying substrate here that feels completely from the unconscious.

Everyone loves me, in my head

While in my initial viewing, I had a sense this cinematic pace change was a deliberate satirical position on the film industry itself. However, there is a great sense that more may be excavated. Whether it is a reflection of the director or not, this sequence says something deep about the transformation of the personality, resulting in a liberation, but identified as hideous and unappealing. Let’s look at the entrance of Monstro on the stage as though it were a dream and veer into the symbols present.

Tension setting: Maximum

Declaration of soul

Monstro ElisaSue’s mask slips to the horror of all around her. An interesting depiction of the revelation of one’s true face or true self.

Monstro: “Don't be scared! It’s still me! It’s me! I’m Elisabeth! I’m Sue!”

Finally, a recognition of the connection to her counterpart united in monstrosity, or perhaps her real form. Engaging that thought further, the monster-like revelation bares her soul to the audience, by literally birthing an equally grotesque aspect of the Self via the eye-vulva.

The breast-umbilical cord could also be seen as a sperm. In this, both feminine and masculine parts are represented: a complex of opposites (complexio oppositorum), or defined another way, a hermaphroditic composite. The symbol of the hermaphrodite or the androgyne depiction of the inner world is largely a positive one, and a step towards harmonising the balance of gender opposites within. However, in the context of the film, this amalgamation is a shock to human sensibilities.

Modern art

Now, to recall Sue’s “Chicken Leg” nightmare, these two images are related and similar in meaning. The thing that is extracted from the womb (through the belly button) is foul and outrageous — privately done in her dressing room and the other a natural birth, currently in full exposure on stage in conscious light via the camera, as though it were the eye of god.

This detail of conscious awareness and exposure is the difference. The “creative output” is in harmony with Eliza and Sue, as in, they have made a joint effort to birth the malformed anatomy. It symbolises an aspect coming into being; however, it is dead on arrival. Alternatively, the positive depiction of such a profound revelation would be the birth of the divine child (rebirth of the Self, or future potential).

Jumping back to the narrative we find ourselves in, this amalgamation is sickly, unsanctioned, and ultimately a deformity. What is born is alien, as though an aspect of human relatedness has been lost, due to the egoic drives of ambition, greed and vanity, an immorality that colours future potentials and remains undifferentiated in the shadow.

The prophetess – Monstro as potential transpersonal symbol

The score “Thus Spake Zarathustra” plays on Monstro’s entrance, humorous at first, if thinking of the Kubrick film reference, but let's look beyond the song and back toward the philosophical notion in the book, specifically the concepts of Nietzsche’s 'Overman' (Übermensch).

An implication is laid here, Monstro as trans-personal symbol represents the positive idea of the unique ‘self-creation’ image of the individual, released from the dangers of conformity or the stale and stagnant comfort of mediocrity; Monstro is the Übermensch, as defined, superhuman, creative with a life drive and pushes the envelope to a re-evaluation of mankind’s aims – which is this larger-than-life presence, that goes against the grain of society.

However, one major caveat is that Monstro; even as she represents ego-Self acceptance and recognition, is an abomination - who has essentially failed the first step towards individuation and is also physically deformed - in case you missed it, or think I have! This may be due to the negative animus being at the helm of this creation – more on that later.

The bloodcurdling screams of the audience in response to the spectacle indicate a defensive and moral outrage, a judgement upon the unholy reproduction of what should be divine. However, I think their outrage is somewhat justified, given the forbidden alchemy.

“The individuant has no a priori claim to any kind of esteem. He has to be content with whatever esteem flows to him from outside by virtue of the values he creates. Not only has society a right, it also has a duty to condemn the individuant if he fails to create equivalent values, for he is a deserter."
(The Symbolic Life, Carl Jung, par 1095-1096)

Taking note of the dancers, these women are half-naked with celebratory feathers like the members of Carnival or Mardi Gras. These festivals or parades hold strong cultural and religious significance evolving across time and place – it is a mixture of liberation, revelry, feasting, and ultimately, a time of excess preluding ascetic practice. Cabaret may have been intended as a jab at the bourgeois industry, but the aforementioned is much older and is typical around the end of the year or Saturnalia. A time of renewal, jubilation, resolution and sacrifice.

Accept me!

Furthermore, we can refer symbolically to nakedness as representative of the religious or the sacred; the dancers are like angelic messengers delivering the new Self, the Übermensch as Monstro ElisaSue, to the congregation (audience), or in other words, facilitating the becoming process of the new personality and for reasons as stated above, this is obviously too disturbing and intense, so pandemonium ensues.

Monster!

The Fountain of Blood

Monstro is attacked by the men, animus as collective, and takes on a larger-than-life presence (another indication of the Self) when her head is pulverised by one male, decapitated, but in its place another head emerges. I’ve spoken of this decapitation motif before; however, in this instance, it means something else entirely. Monstro has more to give from her body; it is not a mental game, it is coming from the core, which is represented in the oncoming onslaught.

The next quote describes the process that has happened to Sue, where she is now visibly connected with an awake Elisa. Of note also is Elisa’s position on the back of the head, like the Rebis figure encapsulating ideas of united wholeness or the Janus of endings and transition. Effectively indicating the dual nature of their union.

Janus

“The alchemist tries to get round this paradox or antinomy with his various procedures and formulae, and to make one out of two... His filius philosophorum, his lapis, his rebis, his homunculus, are all hermaphroditic. His gold is non vulgi, his lapis is spirit and body, and so is his tincture, which is a sanguis spiritualis—a spiritual blood.” (Practice of Psychotherapy, Carl Jung, para 398)

Blood bath

Following this idea of dual nature and then the wildness that takes place, this spiritual blood is transferred from her arm to the aggressor, and then just as quickly to the entire audience; through this makeshift phallic appendage, a great cleansing ritual, or defilement takes centre stage. In this transfer is vitality, consciousness and lifeblood to the unsuspecting masses, not too dissimilar to the “Switch” function, where blood is transferred ritualistically; however, here it is indiscriminate and chaotic, unanimously seen as poetic justice, but we can go beyond this.

Vortex

Monstro as personal symbol

There is minimal dialogue in this film, hence why it is significant to pay close attention to it, since these are clues. With that in mind, I'd like to talk about Monstro again, but as a personal symbol, and this blood-exchange specifically from a meta view: it can be seen as Coralie Fargeat’s own Self, or her own inner expression from the unconscious - of the astonishing monstrous within, her own Cthulhu, where she may stress a male has created Frankenstein.

Harvey: “She’s my most beautiful creation, I shaped her for success”. (referring to Sue before Monstro enters on stage)

Effectively, Fargeat has brought forth something new to the world of genre films, as per the request of the animus figure, Harvey, at the beginning of the film, “and people always ask for something new, renewal, it’s inevitable.”

The creative endeavour of procuring this film, at a moment in her life where she had felt persona non grata her self, implies a necessary push-back against the negative animus within –- although still within his standards. This was a sacred and intimate offering made public, as it came from the depths of her unconscious, to a perceived unreceptive class (ironically, reality says different, since this film is a success). It is really a baring of the soul, veiled by what is exclaimed consistently as the unbridled female rage against the patriarchy, especially in regards to this scene. I believe this blood is revelatory, and is personal, not a defilement as such. It shocks and confronts the senses because it’s like uncovering what should remain in the feminine mysteries.

Detail from The Villa of the Mysteries fresco in Pompeii

Perfect innocence

Time to address the child in the room: Youchnovski (costume designer) has also spoken specifically about the positive destruction of the Disney princess as being one of the driving points surrounding the design and colour of Sue’s ball gown.

EY: “... it was very important. It’s like a princess... and we destroyed this Disney princess ... we wanted it to be like Cinderella and light blue, but we want the blood to mark on the light blue, you know?” (Next Best Picture, Interview)

The child innocently idealises Sue, but she is also a psychological mirror. If Monstro is a representation of Fargeat’s inner world, the Self or creative anomaly, then the child not only represents the future of the personality, but depicts laterally the Self in becoming. While this should be a positive image, what is displayed here is a bundle of symbols coloured by personal context.

Since throughout the film, we have only been witness to placeholder depictions of the masculine desire (or anima woman) with the suppression of real femininity — seen as the angel, bad girl, and now the princess. These masks are what Liz and Sue have adhered to as their public persona. So the destruction that takes place, other than the material of the costume, is the perfectionist ideal epitomised with the princess specifically. Now, this could be seen as having a positive and momentous impact on a personal level — however, the end of the film is a tragedy and totals the personality as a result, since what is left is a static void.

If it wasn’t obvious enough, this striving for perfection or embodiment of archetypes has been a major theme throughout the film, perhaps worth underlining that this is ultimately unwise and self-erasing. Ergo, this goes beyond the princess or even the child; it represents the drive that barrels one forth towards self-destruction without conscious effort to recognise the problem of ego, since it aims at inhuman perfectionism; a realm that should be left for gods and fairy tales. Both Monstro and princess are counterpoles of the same corruptible inflation.

Following then from the fountain of blood, this feminine rage is at a cost of such disastrous ambition, and even a misfire of the target. One needs to reflect earnestly on personal responsibility in the allocation of these self-imposed societal ideals that overtake the personality to the detriment of the individual’s authenticity. Since the foundational destruction of this rampage creates an upheaval that is irredeemable.

Sweet child in time

Hey you, big star

The ending is rather appropriate: MonstroElisaSue escapes to the street, her over-exerted body can no longer sustain itself and pops like a balloon, another link to her inflation and ungrounded state. She explodes on the pavement, reminiscent of the “Unzipped” nightmare, fully exposed and inside-out.

Elizabeth’s head differentiates out of the messy remains and finds its final resting place on her Hollywood Star. The brief moment of despair or anguish is pushed aside to relive the same imagined fantasy sequence while entering the hall as Monstro – but now just as Liz, she has returned to the unconscious state and remains unchanged by her experience.

“One of the problems is that if the puer enters life, then he must face the fact of his mortality and the corruptible world. He must accept the fact of his own death.”
(The Problem of the Puer Aeternus, Marie-Louise von Franz, pg. 160)

Detachment

Distorted memory

All that glitters is not gold

The settling into stone like the head of Medusa in Greek myth is its own horror; the Gorgon on Athena’s aegis can only be faced through a mirror, with the help of reflection. The mirror is a thematic device throughout the film, and now it is a poignant commentary on the necessity of re-evaluation of the perfectionist standard, that we impose on ourselves, an ideal that is ultimately inhuman, and destructive.

“Athena’s mirror, we should remember, is showing us an image of something we dare not look at directly; to grasp what we are dealing with, we need an image of it, we need to see it indirectly, which allows a more objective view.”
(The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology, Edward F. Edinger, pg. 85)

Where is Perseus?

This movie signs off in this reflexive position, indicating its trial of both seen and unseen forces. And to the greater point - to the mesmerisation, shock and captivation of the viewer.
Finally, the star is representative of the Self, which is also symbolic of her return to the beginning, to the primordial cosmos of souls. This life was unsuccessful in the wider sense of consciousness and self-development; the transformation epic failed, and it is doomed to repeat again – especially without this conscious thoughtful reflection of the self and mediation between the world and the personal unconscious.

This is an ouroboric pattern, the snake that eats its own tail, unsatisfied and unchanged. It tragically ends as it begins, a closed loop set in stone.

The first and the last star

Ouroboros

That's a wrap

The film can be summarised by these pivotal arcs: the detrimental relationship between Elisabeth and her negative animus, dictating life behind the scenes. Then later, her hasty return to him as Sue, instead of transforming her identity towards the positive animus – where in an alternate path, she would not need The Substance. The two ego-Self states of Elisa and Sue, battling it out for supremacy, remain neglectful and unconscious of each other. To then the forced amalgamation of these states in Monstro ElisaSue, the abominable result from the totality of the unconscious (animus, Self, shadow aspects). This movie is by no means simple from this psychological vantage and the complexity of these stages indicates a longstanding, multi-layered viewing experience that will likely capture and divide audiences alike.

The Substance kit, at its most basic, was a tool towards transmuting the stasis within the individual, an attempt at making steps towards ego development given a lack of self-esteem. In the case of Elizabeth, this attempt at integration, revealed in Sue her Faustian power drive (“hungering for the infinite”). The same repressed drive exposed in Elisabeth when she could not face Fred in her imperfection, and later as she dealt with consumption, eventually all culminating towards a neurosis. Since the encounter and identification of the Self, as Sue, in her power and beauty, turned to be a quickly destructive allure: towards inflation then grandiosity. All in all, a difficult task and not one that Elisabeth was ready to engage in. The relationship between the ego and the Self needed to be maintained for harmony, as a symbiosis - a psychological truism and also a tenet for the chemical drug itself.

Ultimately, her unwillingness to face suffering, accept reality and give way to the unknown at the pivotal crossroad point with Fred became her downfall. Since Liz and Sue maintain the provisional life and the celebrity persona, the glamour and high rise to fame inflate the personality without ever having to contend with one's true self. Ergo, tragically, in death, she remains as the archetype of the puella aeterna; the renewal of the personality having failed.

The film denotes a cycle - from star to stardust. This is an ouroboric motif and equivalent to being trapped in a repeating unconscious cycle, largely in part to the absence of allocating conscious effort to self reflect and gaze into the darkness behind the mirror.

“The raw honesty of an image from the unconscious can strike us dumb with tears or laughter, often with both, because the image moves on that fine edge of the absurd between tragedy and comedy. If the ego can assimilate the point of view presented by the unconscious and see itself objectively, then it can find a new standpoint. It can observe itself suffering, but at the same time experience the suffering as pangs of birth. The ego that is relating to the soul (rightbrain thinking, if you like) is motivated to reflect the dream images in painting, dancing, singing, sculpting, writing, thus allowing the healing process to transform what would otherwise be dead images into life energy.
Transformation takes place through metaphor. Without metaphor, energy is locked in repetitive patterns; Medusa traps energy in stone. In the creative matrix, the symbol flows between spirit and matter, healing the split.”
(The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women, Marion Woodman, pg. 28)

This film for Coralie Fargeat, feels like just that (and also confirmed in numerous interviews), blocked energy that has been given a chance to flow into something deep for her personally, and also for the collective as a byproduct. However, my hope is that it is not only seen as an allegorical tale of feminine mayhem against the patriarchy, since this does not do it justice. Hopefully in some way it will be healing for some, if the right level of approach is afforded in contemplation of these personal themes, since we should recognise our own responsibility in self-inflicted wounds and our role in the task of individuation.

P.S.

Understanding the Self and all it encompasses, since it is really a container to understand the many aspects that are within us, provides the necessary groundwork for the waves, shifts and manifestations of the unconscious that will hit us during this tumultuous Aquarian age.

“It's important for us to be in touch with our dreams, because most of us have no models. We don't know what the new feminine is going to be, no idea what the new masculine is. We have to depend on our own imagery to guide us.”
(Conscious Femininty, Marion Woodman, pg. 136)

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this article or have found it useful, consider sharing, commenting or even donating. Many thanks!

Erasing the Head - Living Symbols podcast

2025-07-01T12:26:58Z

Axel, my husband, host of Living Symbols podcast and creator of Dionysophy and Dream Sanctuary, interviews me on my Eraserhead article.

We talk about dreams - the unconscious that inspires and guides like a North star through life and projects, giving a sense of confidence and unbiased reflections. Then later, diving into the main points of the article where a unique perspective is offered for the film's interpretation.

Thanks and Enjoy!

Living Symbols: Erasing the Head | Film Interpretation

P.S
I have some clarifications to make in response to how I have explained the process in the pod, but will do so at a later time only if needed.

A Shamanic Initiation and Transformation through Horror: An analysis of David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977)

2025-06-28T11:32:47Z

Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is.” (David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, 2006)

Popular opinion still regards Eraserhead in opposition to such spiritual motifs and in fact deems it as mostly dark and monstrous. My analysis of Eraserhead isn’t a typical one on parenthood, the familial or the human condition. Nor is it a broad stroke of the societal milieu and class critique of the time; propelled into meaning by critics and audiences alike - yet does not do it justice.

Rather, the focus and aim are to reflect on the film through the lens of analytical psychology (C. G. Jung) and naturally of its creator (David Lynch) by extension. On a grand scale, it is the meta film that broke cinematic ground; through ambitious abstraction, innovative storytelling and mysterious dream language. However, I believe it also parallels the unfolding of Lynch's own spiritual and inner development, demonstrating why his magic, reputation and creativity remain elusive, and a pinnacle of true artistry beyond film. Eraserhead marks the inception of David Lynch’s creative calling via an initiatory rite within the unconscious - reserved for the few and clearly the path less trodden. In respect to this, Lynch was able to leave a truly unique and incredible mark on the world.

I, like everyone else, watched Eraserhead with some befuddlement, wherein reality left us for an intense barrage of imagery beyond comprehension in the final act. Fast forward years on, and through my self-reflection and aim at transformation; I am synchronistically led back to this movie, and then gripped in the process. Here is a profound story of a deep dive into transformation, but not in the typical hero’s journey we see ad infinitum. This, I wager, is a rare representation of the inner journey that is just as dramatic and perilous. One that almost fails, but with a twist of events, is shown to birth anew and manages a holy marriage through the ghastly, unthinkable act of killing the defenceless infant-like entity; an enclosed part of the psyche is opened, which allows access to the feminine counterpart within – as it is no longer projected. The face value shock of the infant killing even if alien, permeates into many a review and analyses decades later. This usually leads to an interpretation of mental illness, fatherhood anxiety and/or evil from The Man in the Planet and Lady in the Radiator as though they are puppet masters from within or beyond.

I am offering an interpretation that demystifies some themes that are shown to overlap with depth psychology or alchemy, and aim to show the wrestling of the deeply personal and vital process of inner work, spirituality and the development of relationship through and to the unconscious. The opening of the film is a point about the perils of autopilot living that plagues society; it is of vital importance to be active agents in our own lives. While this theme is touched upon a few times as a reminder of its undesirable mode of being; the narrative of Eraserhead, through extreme strife, has a positive and fruitful ending - with conscious action leading the charge.

Source of alien creation, a forceful germination

The beginning of the film shows our protagonist, Henry, floating somewhere akin to a night sky, juxtaposed with what looks to be a moon rock, or a cosmic egg, if you will. He is depicted as open-eyed, but only partially aware, as if in a dream state.

Dreaming Henry

So while Henry is representative of ego-consciousness, the cosmos realm is indicative of the unconscious. The superposition of Henry and the moon rock is a significant symbol indicating the ego and the depth of self within the psyche.

Seen in this manner, the Man in the Planet revealed in the following scene is like a moon god. Inside his makeshift home, we get the sense he has been waiting patiently for an emergence of significant value, as he watches from his broken window. A play on the idea of the window to the soul or Man in the Moon.

Man in the Planet waiting

Henry births from his mouth, a life form that is sperm-like, which is symbolic of the generative principle of the masculine.

It's a boy?!

Suddenly, Man in the Planet is jolted into action and, with slight contemplation, carefully operates three levers and sends the sperm-entity from the depths of the unconscious into the conscious world, ethereal dust fills the screen.

“...the timing for the crucial transformation is chosen by the Self and not by the ego, even though it can be very helpful for the ego to have prepared itself for it so that it doesn't come as a complete surprise.” (Edward Edinger, The Mysterium Lectures, p. 210)

A choice was made deep within Henry, by the self, to let this generative principle go through the transformative process and have life. To stress a point, this is due to a dire absence of any other positive or substantive principles. It’s a last-ditch effort to kick-start personal development for the ego, from the self.

Birthed from the unconscious

A wasteland stroll and new beginning

Henry’s life will not be the same going forward. He says he’s on vacation when asked later and yet, it looks like he was let go. He enters the unknown thereafter through the passage and simulates a long road home by treading up and down dirt mounds; the space between opposites is where the energy flows.

Into the unknown

We get a sense of his hometown; it’s utterly dire, artificial, industrialised, lacking character with a sense of abandon. The puddles are dirty and the pipes further depict a sickness and rigidity of this life-giving substance, it forces to tame the flow of nature and life; does not allow it to be. This point is further discussed in the 'dinner' scene.

Pipe overgrowth

Apartment reveals psychic contents

I will happily note the chevron carpet in the lobby, as an obvious link to the ‘future’ Twin Peaks and its depiction of the Lodge being a place of other-worldliness, alchemical and philosophical intrigue - which points at the trajectory of these thematic ideas proliferating through later works, but I digress!

Let’s look at Henry’s apartment - which he has subsequently arrived at. If we focus on the oddities with a symbolic eye, it is representative of his psychic contents. Lynch, before Eraserhead (1977), worked on this theme of materialising the inner world as outer. This project, Gardenback, did not make it to production. However, it did end up in the short, The Grandmother (1970).

The bedroom where time is spent predominantly hangs a lonely framed picture, and it happens to be of a nuclear mushroom cloud. This symbol becomes vitally important later on in the film with Lady in the Radiator or the anima encounters. I believe we can interpret this symbol as a foreshadowing of the destruction of the ego.

Room with a mushroom view

A mound of soil is in neat placement on the bedside table. Branches protrude. An amorphous bundle is atop the dresser or tallboy. Hay-like strands are seated below the radiator. This impression reveals an attempt to work with nature, but the soil is barren and infertile; the grounds of his mind lack vitality and a woman’s touch. There is an obstruction to growth. These are akin to projects, ideas, even relationships, that have ceased to come to fruition. Like a construction site or artist's studio that has not managed to build or create anything of meaning or value. Henry, a printer by trade, is also not indicative of creative endeavour.

Barren state

Despite its smaller size and minimal use, the ornamental cabinet next to the dresser has a significant role - as will be seen later. It could be best described as having something just out of conscious grasp, like dealing with symbols or archetypes yet to be understood. Just like synchronicities, dreams, or when events occur in reality that exceed our understanding of the material world, it gets filed away. It is the ungraspable unknown that we come into contact with in our day-to-day. Its placement next to the framed picture of the nuclear blast also has a slight knowing hint that, through this gnosis, a greater consciousness could be achieved.

A home for a worm

Later in the movie, a crescent-shaped item or worm will be stored here. It creates a portal to the unconscious. When asked who sent the worm to Henry in the film (since this is a point of absolute mystery), Lynch responds with this in turn:

DL: ... But it was in my mind sent to him. In a way it’s like, sometimes you get a message, and it sits, you know, for quite a while, and then suddenly it starts coming into your conscious mind. And in a way that’s what’s happening there. (Richard A. Barney, David Lynch: Interviews, p. 15)

Lonely heart

Inside the dresser; Henry pops coins into a bowl, evidently, there are other coins. It’s as though he makes a wish or makes a small donation to the gods for the events to follow. He rummages for the photo of Mary, whom he must meet for dinner - as told by his neighbour across the hall.
The photo is torn in half, symbolic of his own ‘incompleteness’, without access to his feminine aspect or anima. There is a longing to reconnect with her, even though the relationship had fizzled.

The framing and juxtaposition in this shot reveal this notion, as he holds the picture pieces back together with the mushroom cloud in view. However, what comes towards the end of the film is nothing short of catastrophic, since “Nuclear explosions, you know, are miniature suns”. (Edward Edinger, The Mysterium Lectures, p. 89) The force and explosive power of coming into consciousness is destructive, yet a catalyst for transformation.

Loves me not

Meeting the family, a portrait of sickness

Henry treads on train tracks to reach Mary’s home – a crossing into the unknown amidst the sounds of chaos. Little does he know of the revelation that will take place. Surrounded by smoke and artificial plants, Henry confronts Mary about her absence. We now confirm the torn photo was Henry’s emotional response to her detachment. Henry is pained, but Mary doesn’t provide any explanation; furthermore, it is her mother who divulges the news of the birth, not herself.

Crossing between worlds

Mary's artificial garden

Meeting Mrs X presents an awkward tension between the characters. Henry attempts to mimic confidence and put his best foot forward amidst the sound of ravenous suckling pups. Adding to the aura of bizarre, Mary has an episode, which will be discussed in a moment.

Meeting the parents

Mr X, providing welcomed tension relief with his explosive entrance, unfortunately, represents the troubled state of the masculine drive and ego. He forges on, building pipes, aiding in the chaos, noise, and ugliness that surround them, and lacking any self-awareness that he has become the problem. He represents this man-made drive that disregards nature and harmony in favour of progress and industrialised growth. Eventually, his tirade is drowned out by the ambient noise and is finally barked out of the room by the dog. This theme is further represented in his excitement to cook and serve “man-made chickens”, which proceed to ooze a black liquid at the table. The lifeblood of this environment and everything it produces is a simmering monstrosity. There is an attempt to beautify the home, but it remains futile for all involved.

Look at my knees!

All the women in the X family largely present as unconscious; both Mary and her mother, Mrs X, have an affliction that appears to be a cognitive aberration. There is a sense that their conscious behaviour or level of consciousness is just above the primal dimension when the episodes happen. Additionally, it occurs specifically when there is a hint of unarticulated tension that arises: the women automatically regress into a shielded state, which protects them from the sickness of their domestic reality, a defence mechanism.

Regression

Mary’s episodes are not as intense as her mother’s, but it may be her trajectory, and if that was not horrific enough, Mary’s completely docile Grandmother sat in the kitchen, artificially kept going via cigarettes (spirit) lit by her daughter. She epitomises the fate of all the X women if no conscious development occurs.

Got a light?

It’s alive!

After Mary told her mother the bombshell news that her baby’s father is Henry. Mrs X sniffs him, which further shows an animalistic, unconscious quality concerning the above split dimension of the personality; it is almost desirous of what Henry has – the potential active dimension of the masculine that is missing from her husband, Mr X, and perhaps her own inner life.

Aroma of life

It is revealed: Mary and Henry’s dalliances have resulted in a baby out of wedlock. I hold strongly to the line by Mary, “It’s still unsure it is a baby.” as a prominent exposition for the entirety of the film, and its key to understanding it.

Indecent proposal

It is worth paying a note to the nosebleed, since this solidifies a physical and mental substantiation of the shocking revelation to Henry, his body reacts. The dog mother, oblivious to the drama, allows her pups to suckle throughout it all, which is the plainest picture of nature’s directive.

A ‘baby’ needs care and attention

After Henry agrees to marry Mary, they settle with the infant-like entity in his apartment. Additionally, Henry receives mail, inside the package is a crescent-shaped item, later animated to be worm-like.

Your package has been delivered

Let’s now take a look at this infant-like entity, so named off film, ‘Spike’, in a symbolic lens. Spike has a strong association with the moon rock seen at the beginning of the film, since it is there at birth and cracks, at, for all intents and purposes, death. We could very well surmise the entity is born into this horrid existence to bring awareness to what is held within the rock. It is something to pay attention to, the elephant in the room.

Mother Mary

It is a new addition to Henry’s apartment and the only ‘living potential’ that exists, besides Mary herself. If we perceive his apartment as holding psychic contents, Spike is a representation of something like a living project ripe for evolution. Psychologically, the child is the future potential of the personality.

The nurturing by Mary, difficult at first, but eventually accepting food with ease from her, shows relationship potential and, since it is a part of Henry - responds well to him. What becomes evident is that the conscious and active presence of these co-creators is necessary for the evolution of the entity that is inside Henry, but it goes awry, as the events to come with Mary reveal.
In possession of the worm item, Henry can unlock something that was closed to him before, like a new gift of awareness. This is evident now, upon his arrival home with a jovial demeanour; he rests comfortably on the bed, is briefly alerted to the baby reacting to a food item, noting his interest and care of the creature; then returns to his mindful state - this infamously brings us to the radiator.

Lights, action!

Radiating lunar consciousness

The radiator represents the water source - Henry’s gateway into the unconscious, through meditation or active imagination. It provides the pivotal and immensely captivating, dream-like, otherworldly sequences and interactions throughout the film, and when looked at keenly with a symbolic eye, one can parse out the language. I want to stress that this personal development has been achieved only because the birth has been allowed to take place by the self, and upon reception of the worm item. This worm is linked to the round rock in the unconscious, which is representative of the closed part within Henry, all to be discussed further later.

Little box of wonders

Henry’s first foray into his daydream, meditation or active imagination, opens with a spotlight on a theatre stage. It’s interesting to note here, Lynch had also begun practising Transcendental Meditation in search of spirituality, at the same time as filming. The creative and specific colouring or influence this had on his career and life is no doubt profound and immeasurable.

Coming back to Henry, the visualisations he encounters start gradually, and here he only gets a glimpse of what’s to come. A film within a film, or a life within a life, presenting a deeply layered substructure of the unconscious that one can actively participate with conscious awareness.

The awakening

Mary’s sleepless night, a closer look

By nightfall, Henry is now able to secret away the received item from his jacket pocket, placing it in the little cupboard near the bed. Just like placing it in the back of the mind.
Sound is used prominently by Lynch throughout; however, I only now feel the need to hone in on its use at present, since it allows us to get a sense of the relationships and connections at play with Spike. However, I would be remiss not to tie the turbulent sounds of the wind and rain as a magnification of Mary’s silent turmoil.
During the process of Henry hiding the item, Spike is quiet. Once Henry is in bed, it begins to cry softly, as though in need of attention. Henry, while in bed with Mary, takes the lead and attempts to touch her for connection or romance at its most basic. She refuses his advances, and now we have Henry’s perspective on the bed. One could call a vision of truth, there on the pillow by Mary’s hair, a twig. A symbolic representation of the futility of their relationship, it is barren, nothing further can grow; a connection to the same material found on his room furnishings and stark with the same meaning. Henry falls asleep.

Hair like fine twine

Mary, however, is in a state of exhaustion and frustration; perhaps feeling sorry for herself and her situation. Imposing a marriage for the sake of her reputation and being stuck with this abhorrent creature - or an immature aspect of the masculine. From Mary’s perspective, the relationship and responsibility are unbearable, all culminating in the infant-like entity that cries incessantly. She jumps out of bed and switches the light on, waking Henry in the process. Somehow, he was sleeping soundly through the noise. She stands in opposition and proceeds to yell at the source of her pain. She exclaims her leaving after not being able to get any sleep, but it’s obvious that it goes much deeper than this excuse when it is clear she will not be back. And just as her introduction, we are left with her immature aspect; running at signs of trouble, unable to communicate and a regression to her parents. Perhaps her chance of development was not to be with him or her cross to bear, but the regression and fleeing of responsibility still reflects poorly given her circumstances.

Baby, I'm outta here!

Oh, you are sick!

Henry, now with full responsibility, lies awake ruminating. He begins to notice a change in the breath of Spike and after checking its temperature, we can see a fever is coming on. Not completely sure of his assessment, Henry turns his back and looks again. We are immediately presented with a spotty, sickly, even more grotesque-looking creature. To zoom out a tad, there is a direct connection between Spike’s sickness and Mary’s leaving. Without her, the infant-like entity cannot evolve. What it tells us now is that we need to have the presence of both.

Sickly Spike

Henry adds a vapouriser on the table next to Spike, in hopes of some congestion relief. My sense is that it is on ‘life support’. Henry is forced to stay still for a time. In this self-reflection, he recalls the item in the little cupboard he received by mail and thinks there may be another gift. Henry conflates the receiving of an item with another one; he does not know that this is all he needs, nor that the ball is in his court for conscious action.

Upon opening the door to leave, Spike is immediately upset. It is made clear that Henry cannot leave; he must pay attention to what’s at hand, what’s in his psyche and this infant-like entity calls for attention. Henry must sit with himself and endure, instead of attempting to escape.

Henry bound

It is only by nightfall that Henry can access a part of his unconscious that has been waiting on the sidelines, in a state of restlessness and concern, he stares toward the radiator.

Death from above

Globe lights line the stage and turn on, one by one. Promoting an idea of awakening and attention, to the woman that appears; the anima (meaning soul) or feminine counterpart within his psyche.

Meeting the Lady

Lady in the Radiator (Lady) does a little timid but excited side-step dance around the stage. She is met with falling sperm-like creatures, similar to Henry’s living infant-like entity atop his table. However, the ones that fall here are dead on arrival. What happens next is quite unexpected and some might say psychotic; Lady begins to muster an unnerving capacity to joyfully squish them with her shoes.
Let’s take a look at this scene a little closer. If Lady is a part of Henry’s psyche and representative of the anima, then she is aware that Henry’s life to this point has been a series of poor choices and failed relationships, his personal development has stalled and nothing has been able to take root and grow – until now; in addition she is finally able to greet him, which explains this nervous shuffle dance - like a news update of their situation.
Each entity that falls from above is established as dead and lifeless; they have already been discarded by the self (Man in the Planet) and are not fit for birth. They are representative of what’s come before, with no hope of transformation. So her joy is centred around the fact that Henry, in communication with her, could lead to new potential within and without. It is one arduous step towards Henry’s personal development and her relationship with him, as a part of him; a celebration after a long spell of stagnation and silence.

So good to see you, I've missed you so much

Waking nightmare

What continues straight after is another seemingly nightmarish sequence, wherein we see Henry asleep in bed and now with Mary also. He is woken up by Mary’s movements and continually agitated by losing his place in bed. Eventually, he feels something between them: more dead sperm-like creatures. Mary is completely constricted in the bed sheets – a visualisation of the constricted relationship. Henry, in disgust, grabs and throws the critters against the wall, right next to the cupboard storing the mystery worm. This act is not too dissimilar from what Lady/anima was demonstrating in the active imagination, the difference being the emotional reactions. I wager this dream sequence tries to relay his stale condition to his psychic reality. It also emphasises the co-creation of the infant-like entity with Mary as a failure, doomed from the start.

Creepy crawlies

Our attention is now drawn to the little cupboard amidst the drama – a spark of hope lies in the worm item; stored in the cupboard and in the back of the mind, in the unconscious. It squeals and wriggles away from the light and appears directly on the moon rock, which I’ve determined is an aspect of Henry’s psyche that is closed off. The worm playfully taunts and exudes energy. It squeaks, slithers in and out of holes, and looks as though it wants to bring awareness and call attention to the rock.

“The soul is then a “worm” like the “fiery serpent,” a “larva” and a “monster.”’ (Carl G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, par 215)

Worm's alive

Finally, it stops and opens itself up to form a portal or conscious connection to Henry's psyche; where he is now awake and sitting on his bed.

Wormhole

Link established

Henry fraying at his PJ pants - like pulling at connective threads; yet still in confusion, until there is a knock at the door at what seems to be an ungodly hour. Unbeknownst to Henry, it is another chance towards personal transformation. However, in all likelihood, he is still in a dream state!

Into deeper waters, and a change of faces

Beautiful Girl Across the Hall is representative of his projected anima, as the seductress or mistress. The reflective image of the feminine or anima has now changed from Mary, the Virginal or Saint, to the Dark Feminine or prostitute, as defined in the Madonna-whore/mistress complex, a split, oppositional anima.

While we have seen glimpses of her throughout the film, she instills a slight but impactful sensual impression on the viewer. It is her imposition on him at the dead of night where her presence takes full capacity. My sense that since there is now only a desirous inclination towards him; at a pivotal moment - where before there was none, further implies that this is a symbolic dance and reparation of the ego that loses Mary again – more on this later. We are moving through continual dream imagery, and Henry’s visible confusion adds to the mystery of the viewer’s conception of reality.

A look that kills

She emerges from the darkness of the hallway and makes her way into Henry’s apartment. Henry, totally dumbfounded, stifles the cries of Spike. Henry, in response to where Mary’s whereabouts are: “Gone back to her parents... Again”. This response implies Henry believes his latest dream was real and thinks he has woken up from it. Eventually, Beautiful Girl’s seduction leads Henry into bed. The light murmurs of Spike catch and perplex Beautiful Girl briefly; however, the unusual sight does not deter her.

Wet 'n' wild

They descend into primordial bath waters (solutio) - a motif of renewal, regeneration, or rebirth. A dissolving preparatory stage, to be put back together again, reshaped, reformed.

Solutio depiction from Rosarium Philosophorum

Undoubtedly, this surreal depiction of their sexual union necessitates a symbolic reading. The juxtaposition of the twig mound by the bedside also indicates that Henry now enters the domain of the feminine, the mother’s womb, the unconscious - which aligns perfectly with the cryptic images to come.

In the darkness, Beautiful Girl is faced with the moon rock that is within Henry. Distraught and slightly afraid of its force or energy, she quickly steps back into the shadows.

Girl faces rock

Rock faces Girl

Multifaceted feminine, all parts make a whole

Immediately after, Lady appears back on stage for a beautiful serenade - backed with pipe organs:

In heaven, everything is fine, in heaven, everything is fine, in heaven, everything is fine... you've got your good things and I've got mine
In heaven, everything is fine, in heaven, everything is fine, in heaven, everything is fine... you've got your good things and you've got mine
In heaven, everything is fine.

A reference to the inner reunion (coniunctio), for the male, the good of the masculine and feminine (anima) together, creates an ideal mode of being; a wholeness, heaven. Lady is expressly stating that her good traits are given and enmeshed with his purely. This idea of religious similitude is further hinted at through the choice of music, and at the point of Henry touching her in the following scene, we hear something akin to a liturgical choir in addition to pipe organs.

The appearance of Lady following the seduction by Beautiful Girl (the mistress) shows the many faces the anima can constellate for a man; however, Lady’s depiction is an archetypal image, whereas Mary and Beautiful Girl are complexes of the anima, one as saintly, the other as mistress, this oppositional divide is referred as split anima as earlier noted. Mary left him as she could not be with the monstrous aspect (Spike), and Beautiful Girl picked up the pieces of desire and also facilitated the solutio for renewal of the ego.
We now come to Lady, she is the otherworldly, numinous anima, who encapsulates all feminine parts for the wholeness of Henry when in relationship to his ego consciousness.
With all that in mind, Henry, with a newfound creative energy or libido accessible through the rejuvenation of the bath waters, can appear by the theatre stage to meet her officially. It is more than likely that he is in a dream state.

First date

Heaven burns with radiant light

The meeting takes place: he, in disbelief and confusion and she, with anticipation; offers her hands to him, expecting a return in kind. He reaches for her hands, and in doing so, a striking white light fills the screen.

All consuming light

He tries again, but the same occurs; it is now evident he is not ready for such a radioactive communion. This interaction is like a nuclear blast aesthetically and psychologically – just as Icarus, he has flown too close to the sun.

Henry, pained to see her disappear, steps back in defeat, and in her place is a glimpse of Man in the Planet. In a brief moment, as self, displays an aspect of Henry that is confident and assured; he stands in anticipation of what’s to unfold for Henry, and clears the old (sperm critters) to make room for the new.

I see you, you see me

A storm cloud’s silver lining

Henry now completely frightened by the strange atmosphere and sounds, takes a defensive position. Feeling exposed to the entry of a barren tree; reminiscent of the one by his bedside, takes centre stage. Henry now awaits unknowingly his execution and rebirth, by and through her.

It's time

Nervously spinning the handrail, his head pops off; he has undergone a dismemberment or decapitation, which represents an initiation rite. All this will be explored further momentarily.
What follows in the scene is of major importance and relief; as now, although rightly with anguish; there is an emergence of a crying and then shrieking Spike head - labouring anew on Henry’s body.
The scenes that ensue depict a shedding of blood, further signifying this rebirth process, as the new head takes shape on Henry’s body.

Mother's blood

Let’s now dive into the symbol of the barren tree atop a mound. Not only was it well-lit for the solutio sex scene, but now in its larger version, the branches are shaped like vesica piscis (vulva, in this case). From this reproductive symbol, we can extrapolate her role in the film, as an approximation of The Great and Terrible Mother (or Death Mother) archetype, since she encompasses the power to create and destroy. Here she decapitates and begins the rebirth of Henry’s new mode of being.

The typical Great Mother archetype symbolises birth, creation, healing, etc. (Virgin Mary, Isis) and the other destructive, chaotic, judgement side could be seen as the Terrible Mother. However, it is a necessary agent of renewal or redemption through strife (like the cross of crucifixion, or like the Unnamed Arcana XIII (Death card) in Tarot. There are a number of deities that encompass polar energies or dual natures in general, but specific to creation and destruction, we can look to the likes of Kali Ma.

Note the decapitation themes in both images

The Great and Terrible Mother represents the womb to seed life and the cross of execution or dismemberment, respectively. Death and (re)birth come from this archetype.

Let’s continue with the film - the blood now flows towards Henry’s lonesome head on the stage, which then sinks into the puddle on the floor. The scene switches to a sky as the head is in rapid descent and lands smack onto the pavement, surrounded by industrial fare; his powerful dismemberment in progress.

Two heads, one body

Where’s your head at?

We will shortly arrive at the infamous pencil factory segment; here is truly the crux of the film. The importance of this array of imagery cannot be undermined. On the macro level, a large claim that will be explored is that it is also the origin of Lynch’s creative essence – the reason why we have a coined term like ‘Lynchian’ (David Foster Wallace, David Lynch Keeps His Head, 1996).

This is the origin of the creative potential turned master, the weaving source thread that guided and instantiated his unique imprint on the world. One that so affected and inspired countless other creative professionals and audiences alike, and my reason for stating this, as we will get to, is in review of Lynch’s pencil factory saga as being drawn from a personal context; it is his own ‘daydream’, therefore a window into his unconscious workings.

“A man’s head bouncing on the ground, being picked up by a boy and taken to a pencil factory. I don’t know where it came from.” (Greg Olson, David Lynch: Beautiful Dark, 2008)

When dealing with dreams and the unconscious, the images are symbolic and indicate a point in time or reflection as to the dreamer’s life path or journey; the combinations and stories are endless and infinite, and interpretations vary a lot, but there is a collective stream of symbols and archetypes that remain the same across individuals, even across cultures and religions. In Eraserhead, we have a dream-like sequence that we can attempt to decipher that uniquely reflects on the special and elusive nature of the film, a film that had time to gestate (5 years) with long periods of downtime, struggle for funding in between, and a rigorous final edit.

Coming back to where we left off, the screen capture of Henry’s decapitated head. While this is a complicated symbol, demonstrates a process called unio mentalis, it is a simultaneous action that involves the head – or centre of thought, logos, and psyche that undergoes a separation (distractio or more commonly, separatio) from the body to overcome its primal drives. What is left is essentially soul and spirit, which now form a union against the body, to recalibrate the essence of the ego, in such a way that could be likened to a mutiny.

The unio mentalis brought by decapitation, invokes a “spiritual-psychic counter-position—conscious and rational insight” (Edward Edinger, The Mysterium Lectures, p.286) without the ‘trammels of nature’ (Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, par 730), i.e., physical or sexual desires and “freed from its fetters in the things of sense”. (ibid., par 696) The purpose of this achievement is “in order to bring anomalous psychic states of an affective nature, i.e., neurotic symptoms, under the control of consciousness... a rational, spiritual-psychic position over against the turbulence of the emotions.” (ibid., par 696)

Henry’s predicament is an extension of Lynch’s inner alchemy. Henry’s head undergoes a reordering of psychic attitude in the unconscious. It is not too much of a stretch that Lynch had his own recalibration, since this is his dream. The beheading or dismemberment motif is indicative of an initiatory shamanic-like path reserved for the few (Cf.. Eliade, Shamanism, pp. 53ff). Lynch led an elusively muse-guided love of art and the craft, and remained authentic to that drive and desire from the beginning (although a lesson was reinstated with the making of Dune). This endeavour came at great cost to him, just as the film dictates with the unravelling turmoil and showdown with Spike.

Inner child saviour facilitates a second chance

Henry’s head lay for a brief moment there on the pavement, with his scalp off and brain exposed. A boy races to grab the head from the ground, while an old man observes and strains to reach out his hand long after the boy has gone. The man appears to be homeless and at the end of his life.

Just out of reach

This realm, which resembles somewhere real as opposed to the theatre stage, is still operating in the dream space or unconscious. It is representative wholly of the spirit or masculine aspects within Henry’s psyche that each has their own personality and character. The boy who races forth to hold Henry’s head and take it somewhere so it can be fixed - is a life force or inner child within Henry that seeks renewal, change, or a drive to keep going.

The old man (senex or wise old man) is an aspect of the archetype of the Great Father. He presents here as weak and almost seems like he wants to reach out to help, but it’s not his place to any more, and it is up to the child (puer aeternus “eternal boy”) to bring forth the new.

“The infirm and weak old man represents a conscious dominant or spiritual principle that has lost its effectiveness.” (Edward Edinger, Anatomy of the Psyche, p. 167)

This conscious or spiritual mode is a representation of an important pairing (syzygy) of archetypes: boy and old man (puer and senex).

“Graybeard and boy belong together. The pair of them play a considerable role in alchemy as symbols of Mercurius.” (Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, par 396)(Mercurius here means aspects of the unconscious)

The nature of this pairing is cyclical and self-renewing between the growth, death, and rebirth of the archetype. They each represent aspects of the spirit that have both positive and negative qualities in opposition, yet in support or succession.

Good boy!

The boy takes the head to the factory, where a man at the desk observes the dire situation and buzzes his boss incessantly. It’s like ‘Code Red’, this is serious and needs attention.
The boss is not too happy to be called in such a manner, but is joyous that the boy has brought the head. He knows immediately to take him to the inner room. The pencil maker is unfazed by the head; there is a sense of normality to this situation, even if the others were not privy to such an experience, but are acting on instinct. He prepares a drill to insert into Henry’s head to retrieve a cylinder shape, that is then slotted into the machine; which produces a pencil to be tested on paper.

This scene has always felt like a complete mystery. Why is there a pencil factory in the middle of this film?! Let’s try to unpack this.

Break time over

Erase the head

The pencil factory is like going into the inner workings of Henry’s psyche after the initiation of beheading - as has been commented already. My sense of this scene is like having all hands on deck to resolve his system shock. However, the overall process that takes place next is similar to Anubis weighing the heart of one’s soul against a feather.

The mighty pencil

Henry’s pencil quality or lead is checked on paper, a recalibration takes place via the soul and spirit union (the unio mentalis). It passes the test and has the chance to undergo development consciously. An opportunity lies now in Henry’s conscious reality to transmute his situation, with an aspect that can come forth that did not exist prior.

What has quite literally happened in Eraserhead is that our dear Henry has his head erased! Through the dissolving waters of the anima mistress, the anticipation of the self to the initiation process, the beheading by the Terrible Mother, and the beginnings of a rebirth through her, which ultimately leads to a total reworking of the spiritual and conscious attitude to activate a sacred mystical path. This factory scene is a test of the head (the lead within the pencil) and the eraser, both north and south, working in unison.

Lead (prima materia) is representative of the unconscious’s unrefined aspect of self and is also tied to Saturn, both providing strong links to one’s shadow aspect, in need of purification or transformation. Henry’s lead or saturnine spirit is purified by the eraser, and by extension, so is Lynch. Here, as director, in one of his most cryptic sequences, demonstrates his successful completion and acceptance of the beheading initiation - into a confirmed shaman.

Magic dust

Window as mirror

The window we usually see has an awful view of the bricks of the building next door, a bit like a bad joke than anything. It cements the overtone of his world, isolating and dreary, lacking perspective and vision.

Henry, upon waking from this wild collection of dreams; a little bit anxious and confused, peers out the window, where he catches sight of a man beating down another. An interplay within Henry, the outer and inner worlds meet to reflect his state, in synchronistic fashion.

Black mirror

Hearing various taps and knocks in the apartment, Henry thinks Beautiful Girl might be back home or nearby, so he goes to check on her, but she is not there or does not answer. Henry is now left with himself without distraction. Spike has always been a counterpart of Henry, yet now it reacts quite suddenly and negatively - adding insult to injury, in what can only be described as snide laughing.

Henry, taken aback, notices this creature may not have his best interest at heart. It laughs again while Henry is back with his thoughts on his bed, and quite aptly, the fraying of his blanket (mind) continues, as do the random sounds of the residents in the building - ever torturous. He unravels the events and stews in his thoughts, feeling as though he has lost a grip on reality.

Unraveling

Hallway exposé

Upon hearing the elevator door, he jumps out of bed, where the culmination of all anxiety and mental discord is met with Beautiful Girl - now with another man across the hall and ready to enter her apartment with him.

Do you have something to say?

There is an exchange of glances, the man hardly able to keep his hands off her. Beautiful Girl feels not so much caught, but later uncomfortable that Henry lingers and is watching the display.
What takes place just before the close-up is a gaze, like being seen, not that she has been caught cheating on Henry (since their liaison was symbolic and in Henry’s unconscious), but as the feeling of being exposed as a lady of the night.

A dream recall is the moment when an image can enter your awareness that links to a dream fragment, allowing you to recall more of the dream and the pertinent symbolism. With this in mind, the following close-up scene and change of demeanour could be viewed as a dream recall from Henry’s perspective. Beautiful Girl, as the projected anima, instead of facing down the cosmic rock, is now witness to the aspect that is in the process of transformation. The sound design of this scene and the intimacy of the interaction connect solidly to the dream sequence in question.

A new mode is witnessed

I'm evolving!

The first encounter by Beautiful Girl with the cosmic rock evoked fear; the interaction has now transformed into a level of openness, with subtle inquiry. Henry is now depicted as the newly born infantile head, as seen in the dismemberment sequence. A new conscious attitude of Henry has emerged, but cannot fully take shape without a conscious act.

It may appear he is taken aback upon seeing her with another man and unclear on what to do. However, when we parse through the particulars, this real-life interaction is all about Henry, and not at all to do with who Beautiful Girl is or her dalliances, but rather what she symbolises to him. Still, the interaction is pained with embarrassment and shock, left in confusion over the tumultuous events of the night. He quickly shuts the door and spies through the keyhole, but is only left with the sight of her closing door. Frustrated and seated in darkness, he glances from the radiator to Spike, now with a look of contempt. All his disorientation and trouble seem to stem from this creature.

It's been, you, err...me all along!

A necessary self-surgery for revelation

At this point in the film there is a sense of care for this creature, despite its alien features - it mimics all the fragility and dependence as expected from a human baby. As the viewer, we have a feeling that Henry is acting upon an insecurity, and it feels unthinkable and ghastly to do what he is about to do. Henry retrieves scissors from his tall dresser and approaches Spike with hesitation. There is a sense of curiosity mixed with a question of capability. It starts to become clear that Henry is on a mission to snuff out the creature as the source of his troubles. Spike begins to snivel in response to the cutting of his bandages. A dissection where we are immediately face to face with the brutal ugliness of its insides. Non-human, animal-like. It is horrific, and even Henry cannot bear to see its grotesqueness.

Its organs slowly expand, and Spike sounds as though he is already in death throes. Henry, with a mix of emotions, stabs the creature in a moment of pointed courage - when an oozing liquid leaks forth from its insides and blood bursts free from Spike’s mouth. If that wasn’t dramatic enough, a fluffy substance protrudes like a foamy avalanche out of Spike’s body. Henry’s floor lamp threatens to go out at this pivotal moment...

Death throes

It may be a good time here to break from the intensity and to focus briefly on the element of electricity in some prominent moments throughout the film, and specifically for Henry. He gets a nosebleed when he receives the news of the “baby” in the hospital. Before that showdown scene with Mary's mother, our attention was drawn to lights in the X’s family living room, which appear to buzz gently and go out. Fast-forward, we are once again hit with another flickering of lights, but this time it is more powerful and ultimately short-circuits from the socket panel. It is clear in both these instances, we are witnessing psychic energy; a poking through the veil of conscious reality that is then reflected through light energy – electricity. Henry was unaware the first time it happened, but he is now fully present for this shift in consciousness.

Floating head... flashing lights...

Spike’s head extends and tapers off from the source in one of the most bizarre sights yet. It emancipates itself from the body and comes to life as a sole giant head.

The divine head

The dismemberment or decapitation motif is present again here, but specific to the symbolic nature of the head entering a divined status, similar to a shaman or oracle.
To elaborate on the point, in the tragic Orphic myth, Orpheus, after failing his conditional rescue of Eurydice from the underworld; is killed. Orpheus’s head floats along the river towards Lesbos, where it becomes an unrivalled oracle - till Apollo seals his fate.

Oracle Orpheus

Henry, amidst all of the horror, is backed into a corner, gazing intensely with fear. What has he unleashed? The head parades around the room, hauntingly teasing its approach, when it eventually descends upon Henry, as the lamp light finally goes out.

Face me, Henry

Up close and personal

Shrouded in darkness, both literally and figuratively. Spike has forced a face-to-face confrontation; it is no longer hidden in his unconscious mind, nor is it defenceless; it demands an unavoidable enlarged focal presence. Henry looks away from the creature once more.

It's too much

After a noise and light flash, he looks back to see Spike has morphed into the moon rock that we were introduced to in the cosmos at the beginning of the film – in Henry’s unconscious, only now is it being seen through his ego. Henry, with great trepidation, must peer into the darkness, face the abyss, to discover the compartment within - that holds back his development or individuation.

He is now gifted with the awareness of the inner aspect and must face it.

Courage at last

In doing so, the cosmic egg cracks open. Henry is awestruck by the revelation of his inner world.

To bare all

Awestruck

We are guided through the hole now in the rock, and see Planet Man as self, hard at work, yet seemingly in a joyous revelry amongst the creative sparks of his domain. Henry’s ego has succeeded in conscious effort by tackling an aspect of his personality that hindered his life.

Henry’s inner world begins to rejoice wholeheartedly.

What sparks joy?

In the final scene in near white-out, we witness heaven. A state that was barred from him under certain conditions. Yet now, he stands right there in locale, as Radiator Lady approaches from behind; pure in joy and warmth. Henry, calm and receptive and comforted by her embrace. We witness a change in demeanour; maturity, he is born anew.

Chymical wedding

With conscious action and the ability to sacrifice what felt sacred, but was ultimately, corrupt. Henry could then access a part of himself that was seeking relationship for wholeness, the feminine within; the anima, his holy marriage.

“An encounter with the unconscious brings first darkness, disorientation and distress; but if one persists in scrutinizing the experience, its consequence is to enlarge the personality and bring one closer to wholeness” (Edward Edinger, The Mysterium Lectures, p. 210)

Final thoughts

In summary, the reluctant birth of the monstrous, by proxy, was a clear and necessary agent of transformation. This aspect within Henry's being is shown to manifest physically to draw attention to an area of development, without which his life would stagnate. It is only through the unthinkable, violent act that there was a purposeful, conscious confrontation; only made possible by a rigorous reordering of the personality, that revealed the hidden contents in the unconscious. This facilitated the emergence of a newly adapted ego, that could then relate to his inner feminine aspect: the anima. It presents to us what it means to rip open a part of oneself and face that which is unknowingly detrimental to development - a terrible, but necessary inner-surgery.

Looking at this film from a depth psychology lens, the ending to me is as good as it gets. The inner union is achieved - the holy marriage within the self. It is extremely positive, fulfilling and rewarding.

Eraserhead is obviously the film that kick-started Lynch’s illustrious, epic and innovative career. However, to see the elements of the inner personal context embedded succinctly - makes the viewing largely more interesting and profound. Lynch's work and artistry are dotted with a pure vitality for authentic expression that feels rare, compelling, and mysterious for the time period he was active. Not only was his life and career a creative endeavour, but evidently a spiritual one; with his early initiation into a path less trodden. Lynch the shaman, through an inner sacrifice of his own, communed in the wellspring of the muses.

David Lynch’s life and works will undoubtedly continue to capture hearts and minds as a deep loss is felt through his passing beyond the veil.

In Memory, David Lynch 1946-2025.

I feel it fitting to end with a particular song by Donovan, filmed and recorded by Lynch in his studio.

P.S ... Jen Lynch on Reddit

Shortly after completing the article and in the process of editing. Jenifer Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter, who was born while filming Eraserhead, jumped on Reddit to release some intimate family photos of herself and her father.

Publicly, she has been known to comment on the film as potentially related to some anxiety about her birth.

However, what’s now revealed in her reply to the question, makes it clear that her birth was not the source of turmoil to warrant such a film if it were to take on the typical meaning that has lingered in the zeitgeist, or how it has been long recognised to be.
As relayed in my essay, his sacred initiation into a creative path was emboldened by the inner work and the birth of his daughter, not a detriment. However, what was ‘sacrificed’ as Spike; may have been a version of himself that he thought needed to be free to pursue the ideal artist's life.

Indeed, spiritual.

Thank you for reading.

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