the NachtKabarett

All Writing & Content © Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise.
In collaboration with Brad Jaeger, who along with me painstakingly compiled and documented all information herein.

 

First observed as of January 3rd, 2006, the familiar splash page at MarilynManson.com began a series of progressive changes towards the upcoming era.

Click thumbnails above for each transformation of MarilynManson.com.

 

 

 

 

 

The opening splash page from the (s)AINT video underwent its first change. Prior to the change, the image would remain on screen for a number of seconds before fading away. After the first transformation however, the image began to fade in and out of focus, and in the upper left hand corner of the screen the Celebritarian Double Cross could be spotted for a brief period of time. Due to the level of brightness required to view the cross, the image was unnoticeable to a large group of people.

In addition to this, the Merchandise section of Marilyn Manson's website began the sale of three shirts. Two of these shirts were reissues, while the third was a reinvention of a shirt which was available for sale in 1996:

Final Beast	Old Man
Believer	Original 1996 tee

The Believer tee had been significantly modified, containing the watercolor painting of Trismegistus. In addition, while its predecessor read "BeLIEve", it now bore "BeLIEver". Gone was the previous message which read "See no truth, hear no truth, speak no truth", however, its sleeves now read "Against All Gods".

The news section was finally restored on this date, allowing the viewer to read archived articles back to as far as 2004, a feature which had otherwise been unavailable for several months.

 

 

 

Marked by the date of Marilyn Manson's birth, another metamorphosis occurred. Music was added to the splash opening, setting it as a possible musical reflection of the upcoming era. The fading of Manson's face began to synchronize with the surging electronic bass sound, and throughout the surges, the ticking of a clock could be heard. A distorted voice (or voices) could be heard as well. Two theories currently exist to explain the origin of the voice(s): the first is that the sound is taken from a soundbite of an Aleister Crowley recording, while another popular explanation is that it is the voice of children.

On this date another dimension to be added was the beginning of an ongoing number game. The scrolling numbers originated from the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and proceeded on to the right, vanishing at a certain point midway, and reappearing near the end before it disappeared entirely. This number was (from left to right): 13053135015503113501.

 

 

Of particular interest was that only four characters comprised the code: 0, 1, 3, and 5. These four numbers would be found in many different combinations in the days to come. Whether intentional or not, the first Black Plague of Europe ended in 1350, and with Manson’s acknowledgment of the Black Plague as an influence on the upcoming era, it should not be overlooked.

 

 

 

 

The seventh of January became an essential part of the transformational process : as it was the first date where new images were introduced onscreen. The grey Double Cross is still present, appearing almost subliminally right before the images. With the music, and those three pictures appearing only momentarily, the site now presented a clear view of the new era to come.

The first picture depicted a hand crushed against a photocopier's glass pane (which is evocative of the 'xeroxed hand' mentioned in the lyrics of "The Last Day on Earth"), the palm of which is bloodied by a strong puncture wound covered by a band-aid cross:

 

 

This is of course a nod to the wounds of Christ upon the cross. This stigmata, a religious miracle which is said only to arise in BeLIEvers, and the fact that it's photocopied evokes the orchestrated exhibition of celebrities' worship and pop culture martyrdom via the media's (Manson's) recurring theme of demultiplication of the self via the same medias (sample of a soul, copy of an imitation, doppelgangers,...). This photocopy aspect will later be increased during the third Celebritarian transformation of Manson's site, where it's used as a background for the Artworks section, intermittently enlightened by flashes reproducing a photocopier's lamp.

This representation of hand stigmata with band-aid was already familiar to fans as it had already emerged a while ago in Manson's imagery, on a multimedia painting featured on the booklet of Lest We Forget (and was later printed on a T-shirt dubbed Stigmata Tee), and in the video for Personal Jesus.

Besides the 'xeroxed hand', this representation is reminiscent of another element from the 'Mechanical Animals' era : the almost subliminal needle stigmata of the Mechanical Christ that would cause his amputation in the video for "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)." Numerous times had Manson enacted the crucifixion, but this was the first and only other instance where Manson used this subtler way of evoking Christ's martyrdom :

 

 

The second photo was also familiar to Manson's fans, having been mentioned during the interview with The Heirophant:

 

 

The Cross of Lorraine (Also known as the de Gaulle cross or the Double Cross), is representative of everything Marilyn Manson represents; the presentation of dichotomy, and the collaborative union presented through those said dichotomies. Whether it be man or woman, light or dark, Jehovah or Lucifer, Marilyn or Manson, the cross in itself embodies the physical and spiritual balance that Manson has spent many years trying to achieve.

 

The third picture was new to everyone, and is heavily laden with the imagery of the upcoming era:

 

The stigmata concept is once again featured, with visible puncture wounds in the palms of both of his hands. Present also is a Skull and Crossbones atop Manson's head which can be readily attached to the subject of the Black Death, which was again hinted at many months prior in Lest We Forget, with Manson's Officer Portrait by Pierre et Gilles entitled "The Dead Song" where a grotesque Skull & Crossbones is seen ornating Manson's SS cap. A flash animated version of the emblem uncovering more of its secrets would surface in a later version of the Celebritarian MarilynManson.com website. See the Celebritarian Emblem page of The NACHTKABARETT for an in-depth analysis of the montage.

A few minutes later, another change appeared within the flash introduction: The images became blurred and the grey Double Cross disappeared, while the number sequence resurfaced under the form of a static cipher key present in the lower left quadrant of the screen and displaying an alphabet (with the letters C, S and V doubled) and numbers (once again, variations of groupings between the same four primary characters previously used: 0, 1, 3, and 5) :

During the three hour period between 12 AM to 3 AM, a series of cryptic messages was successively displayed by the cipher key. The first spelled out 'LISSTEN TO GALAXY GIRL THEY MIGHT KNOW', then it changed to 'THISS CAN BE SOLVVED' (followed by a number sequence), and finally 'HURRY TIME IS'(with the following implication of 'running out' as the ticking of the clock with within the audio decreased in number) remained during two days, also with a number sequence implied. Below is a slowed down capture of the original Galaxy Girl message:

 

 

All advents of the opening vignette are archived and available for viewing below:

 

"Lissten to Galaxy Girl They Might Know"	"Thiss Can Be Solvved"	"Hurry Time Is"
Click thumbnails above to watch and watch the three coded messages introductions.

Then, shortly after on the same day, all of the numbers and messages were removed from the site, leaving only the statically unlit cipher key which could previously be seen in the background as the characters flashed upon it.

Both "THISS CAN BE SOLVVED" and "HURRY TIME IS" were followed by a series of numbers, suggesting a cipher relationship between the characters. A grouping of numbers also appear simultaneously during the word "HURRY." In the following images below, lines have been added to separate the frames. The brightness and contrast levels have also been adjusted for easier viewing:

 

 

 

As no solution has yet been discovered, we will not speculate the solution to any of these, and leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions for the time being, however Lewis Carroll as well as Edgar Allan Poe who're two prominently cited influences on the new era have both written stories and formulaes on codes with one potential lead residing in the following from Lewis Carroll's Memoria Technica.

 

 

 

With nothing more than a short link via the Art Gallery, 44 new paintings created by Marilyn Manson were presented in a .swf slideshow. All of these paintings were untitled at the time, and some notable and recognizable watercolors included members of the band, a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe (as described by Manson in the prior MansonUSA.com interview), Alice inspired paintings, new compositions of Dita, more self portraits, and a host of other subjects.

 

Edgar Allan Poe alongside Marilyn Manson's watercolour portrait homage, 'The moment I became Edgar I suddenly realized I was in Hell'.

 

Though certain themes in Manson's watercolors will certainly be discussed more at a later date another preliminary note which can be made along the balloon painting themed from the film M as well as the portrait above are a handful of potential parallels to Lewis Carroll including that the second chapter of 'Through The Looking Glass' is titled The Garden of Live Flowers, chapter 8 of Alice in Wonderland is titled 'The Pig Baby' and the painting of the small girl with the ominous black figure behind bares a similar resemblance to the Jabberwocky, a monster which appears in a poem by Carroll of the same title.

 

 

 

 

A major visible change was presented on this day, with the first words ever directed by The Celebritarian Corporation. Its name itself is a dichotomy - although Manson has described The Celebritarian Corporation as an art movement, art and corporations are inherently the antithesis of each other. Below is their first message to the public:

 

This message in part stems back to Wednesday, the 20th of November, 1945. At this point in time, The Nuremberg Trials had commenced. It was a council which saw to the fates of the most heinous WWII war criminals. Throughout these trials a number of top German military personelle were tried and sentenced (often to death) including: Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, and Albert Speer.

The most famous trial, which is otherwise known as “The Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal”, lasted from the 20th of November, 1945 to the 1st of October, 1946. This transcript shows what was said on the second day of said tribunal (November 21st, 1945):

Together, this unification of position between the Nuremberg trials and The Celebritarian Corporation marks a major similarity between the two; the celebration of death, the killing of the killers, the condemnation of the condemners. As a side note, Marlene Dietrich, the actress which Manson has depicted during The Golden Age of Grotesque and has referenced in his journals, was featured in the film "Judgment at Nuremberg"; the film focused on this historic trial which ultimately lead to the verdict of "death by hanging" to many of the Nazi officials.

 

 

 

For a brief period of time, the message from The Celebritarian Corporation contained no hidden elements within it. However, shortly thereafter there appeared the same image, but with text hidden behind the words. Below is that same image, with the brightness properties raised for easier viewing:

 

 

Broken down, these are all the areas which contained text:

 

 

By rearranging the text, embedded in the image is "THISS MUST BE SOLVVED", (which creates a sense of urgency due to the prior "THISS CAN BE SOLVVED" message). 3115 can also be seen in between the L and the B of Celebritarian. The bottom half of its last two digits (15) can be spotted underneath SEIZED.

 

 

 

Attempting to save this Celebritarian message directly from different sites would yield separate results which nevertheless carry on with the same four numbers 0, 1, 3 & 5:

 

www.marilynmanson.com reveals: 1135150151533011.png (named within the html code as '551531')

www.marilynmansonartworkonline.com reveals: 13015111511513013153113.png (named within the html code as '3113')

www.phantasmagoriamovie.com reveals: 1511110131501005.png (named within the html code as '1313')

www.goldenageofgrotesque.com reveals: 13.png (named within the html code as '51313015')

www.posthumanentertainment.com reveals: 5.png (named within the html code as '5')

 

 

 

Registered Sites Seized by the Celebritarian Corporation at the time:

www.marilynmanson.com www.marilynmanson.net www.marilynmansonartworkonline.com www.marilynmansonartworkonline.net www.marilynmansonart.com www.marilynmansonart.net www.goldenageofgrotesque.com www.posthumanentertainment.com

www.celebritarian.net www.celebritarian.com www.celebritarianism.com www.celebritarianism.net www.celebritariancorp.com www.celebritariancorp.net www.thecelebritariancorporation.com www.thecelebritariancorporation.net www.celebritariancorporation.net www.celebritariancorporation.com

www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.com www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.net www.phantasmagoriamovie.com www.phantasmagoriamovie.net www.phantasmagoriafilm.com www.phantasmagoriafilm.net www.phantasmagoriafilms.net www.phantasmagoriafilms.com

 

 

 

 

Just before 1am EST MarilynManson.com was updated solely with a new flash movie of a still frame of two twins seemingly to be wearing identical masks, smeared with blood, fading in and out along with the crescendo and diminuendo of an eerie, droning piano.

In the Summer of 2005 Manson stated in interviews a few hints in regard to Phantasmagoria including that the film would explore the origins of Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum and that "I might add that the girls playing Tweedle Dee and Dum are twins who get to have real, genuine sex with each other. I like to make dreams come true," which this new flash appears to be a visual prelude to.

The file itself was simply titled as 'ph' which alludes to it being a preview of Phantasmagoria with the film's title also appearing for the first time within the search terms of the Official Site's coding.

 

 

 

Observed early in the day on the 10th of February, the now familiar vignette of the blood smeared twins was invigorated by the addition of a very apropos to Carroll image of an imprisoned rodent-esque rabbit which flashing midway through.

 

Solidifying the notion that what we're seeing is in fact a preview or prelude to Phantasmagoria itself, the previously reported registered and seized domain names which are in reference to the film are now active with the new vignette. The now recently animate sites (in addition to MarilynManson.com and MarilynManson.net which were activated with the update of February 5th) are:

 

www.phantasmagoriamovie.com www.phantasmagoriamovie.net	www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.com www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.net	www.phantasmagoriafilm.com www.phantasmagoriafilm.net
	www.phantasmagoriafilms.net

 

 

 

Another very subtle, in fact hidden, hint to a new theme being referenced. With the alteration made to the original bloodied twins vignette, "Ph.swf" was set to drawn upon two elements - the first being "Bunni.swf" (which interjects midway through the segment), backed to a music file now identified as "trepanate.mp3". Trepanation is the surgical procedure in which a hole is bored into the skull - is one of the earliest known medical and religious operations known to man, with some of the earliest surgeries having been documented well over more than three thousand years ago. Its Grecian root, "trepa", signifies "hole". A trepan (or trepanon) is the actual tool used to create the incision, while trepanation is the medical & spiritual procedure itself. To "trepanate" would be the verb form.

This practice of drilling a hole into one's head is on employed for both medical as well as spiritual purposes. Similarly to the fate of phrenology, trepantion as a medical practice which has been largely deprecated and debased of practical value though there still exists those who practice it, both practically as well as spiritually, for the relief of pressure in one's skull due to headache's for example and for a feeling of an "ethereal high," but as a practice it's modern application is moreso associated with a new age fringe.

Hippocrates, the Greek philosophical medical man, would first document the procedure of trepanation, circa 400 B.C.:

A depiction of trepanation by Heironymous Bosch (also a past & frequent artist cited by Manson) shows the patient surrounded by a doctor, and two religious persons. In the background, a bright light ascending into the Heavens can be seen, setting parallel to the inner enlightenment of the patient in question.

Detail from "Extraction of the Stone of Madness,", a famous depiction of trepanation portrayed by Heironymous Bosch.	Another view of trepanation: in this photo, the trepanon is clearly in view, boring into the skull of the patient.

 

Trepanning as a medical and religious practice (often serving both purposes simultaneously) used to remedy varying degrees of troubles: everything from migraines, colds, pale skin, ill temperament, schizophrenia, criminal or deviant behavior, epilepsy, and demonic possession were warranted to be candidates for this procedure. An estimated level of 40% of the patients would go on to die shortly thereafter due to infection, or sepsis, with remarkably few expiring during the procedure itself.

While in later centuries a more logical and less religious explanation would be given to creating an incision through the skull bone, it first was practiced on the basis of superstition, religion, and spirituality. For many centuries, the Greek concept of the four humors was a driving force behind this procedure.

The four humors were thought to have been the physical makeup of every individual; as unique and as variable as humans themselves. Each person was thought to have been comprised of a balance of four humors, which in turn dictated their temperament:

• Blood: Life force, strength, hot, confidence, cheerfulness, ego, spirit
• Phlegm: Passive, stagnation, contemplation, cool, consideration
• Melancholy (Black Bile): Depression, alienation, materialism, cool, spiritual emptiness
• Choler (Yellow Bile): Anger, ill tempered, bitterness, hostility, aggression, hot, poisonous

Blood was widely known to provide the nourishment to the body, while the phlegm moistened it; choler was said to create heat and the senses (as well as their reception), and melancholy was considered to be the nourishment to the foundation of the body, the physical bone structure. However, this was often viewed in a more metaphorical sense, regarded in terms of enlightenment – of achieving a universal balance within the body, mind, and spirit, in order to transcend human limitations and be reborn anew.

Though a slightly different practice, the Holy Wood album artwork and the Disposable Teens video both show something similar with the Kabbalistic depiction of the 'Thousand Petaled Lotus' or Sahasrara, the topmost sphere of Tree of Life illustrating enlightenment and realization of the self with the godhead. The 'third nostril' later evoked in Manson's song 'The Golden Age of Grotesque' also seem to share this notion.

 

Of particular interest is the characteristic balance attributed between each of the four humors, with blood and choler being regarded as "hot", while phlegm and melancholy were labeled as "cool". It is not surprising then, that people would regard many troubles of the body and mind as an unbalanced level of the humors. To this day, the expression "He/She was in bad/good humor" draws upon this concept. This balance inherently sought after via trepanation is therefore related to Manson's reoccurring element of balance as a means of rebirth and ascension.

When examined from a spiritual perspective, trepanation was (and still is by some) seen as a means to assist one in reaching their full potential. According to many shaman and religious figures (and more recently extrapolated upon by Huges) is the theory of trepanation as a method of increasing the brain-blood-volume levels in order to extend past our limitations. This theory draws upon the notion that babies are naturally high in levels of brain-blood-volume, as they are born with the fontanel - a soft covering at the top of the skull - which enables room for the ever growing brain of the infant to pulse. However, this soft covering very quickly develops into bone, inhibiting the pulsation of the brain, thought by this particular theory to inhibit the mental capacity of the individual. To trepanate the skull would not only help balance the humors by letting the excess seep from the body, but it would also enable the patient to perform at a higher conscious level.

Left ; 'Melancholia' by Albrecht Dürer. Right ; Photograph showing Lewis Carroll with a similar pose, which Manson would later mimick in a shot by the official Celebritarian photographer Perou realized in December, 2006.

'Melancholia' by Albrecht Dürer; a highly occult engraving which explored the myth of the brooding artist with the sands of time passing amidst his unfinished and uninspired sculpture, just out of reach of the divine light of inspiration. Among some of the esoteric aspects of this portrayal is the magic square just above Dürer, as he portrays himself, which is present in such works as Abramelin the Mage, and most significantly to the topic at hand is its relation to 'humurology' in that melancholy was alleged to have resulted when the body possessed an excess of black bile (with the Greek etymology of the word being melas - 'black' and kholé - 'bile').

Though speculation can only occur at present in regard to subtle reference of 'trepanate' it is however a fairly large and wide hint to be dropped. Many of these elements discussed, all esoteric in nature, have certain dark implications which will be highly anticipated and relate quite well to the 'Phantasmagoric' nature of Manson's project even at base being that quite a number of the known existing photographs of Carroll himself depict seated and not unlike the melancholic portrayal in Dürer's sixteenth century engraving.

 

 

 

First previewed in October 2005, three new Celebritarian era shirts arrived as further glimpses of the new imagery. The first, being the most descriptive, is the image of which appeared on MarilynManson.com last January with the addition of a seven pointed star on Manson's forehead, which appears to be something of a figurehead for the era. While the two others being a Manson-esque parody of Andy Warhol's celebrity screenprinting variations which, at least in the 60's / 70's, was the signification of bonafide superstardom and a large depiction of the Celebritarian Double Cross. Interrestingly enough the two illustrated shirts respectively relate to Charles Manson and Marilyn Monroe, while the Double Cross one would symbolize the union of those two opposites...

 

Left ; Larger image of the Celebritarian figurehead discussed at-length previously and also baring the Celebritarian Corporation slogan "WE WILL SELL OUR SHADOWS TO THOSE WHO STAND WITHIN IT", the mantra denoting the exploitation of those who efface themselves via imitation, and the new MM logo circled but unclosed to act as the © to finish the phrase 'THE CELEBRITARIAN (CORPORATION).' Right ; Of course the mark on the forehead draws a parallel to Charles Manson's self-scrawled swastika on his forehead, and also placed corresponding to Manson's "third eye" point.

Left ; Cascading photo montage Manson's portrait repeated in the signature Warhol pattern as was done to other celebrity icons such as Marilyn Monroe. An apropos allusion made by Manson, as a literal play on the 'celebrity' aspect of Celebritarianism being that Andy Warhol had championed the concept of celebrity iconography and worship. This montage would later be used as a site map for the Synesthesia section of MarilynManson.com after its full Celebritarian site launch. Right ; Andy Warhol's 1962 silkscreen variation montage of Marilyn Monroe shortly after her suicide. One of Andy's habits, the concept of dichotomy, was portraying morbid themes while juxtaposing them in vibrant colors and scenarios.

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