the NachtKabarett
All Writing & Content © Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise
'The Triptych' as quoted in a multitude of sources from Manson himself, in words, interviews, quotes and more. Additionally following are sections of The NACHTKABARETT which dissect many of the key elements within the storyline of 'Antichrist Svperstar', 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Holy Wood' ; aka 'The Triptych,' as well as Manson's personification of Omēga during the 'Mechanical Animals' era, how this ties into the story, the history of the 'Holy Wood' film / novel since first quoted in 1999 and all other aspects of this highly esoteric concept of Manson's. Included as well is the only released portion, Chapter 10, of Manson's novel 'Holy Wood. Audio, video, webcasts, and much, much more to be added...
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| Marilyn Manson. Hightimes. February 2001.Manson's detailed elaboration on the themes of 'Holy Wood' and 'The Triptych' as a whole, as well as the occult & alchemical influences present within. | ||||||
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| Marilyn Manson. Revolver. Winter 2000. Extremely poignant and detailed elaboration, by Manson, into the themes and storyline of 'Holy Wood', 'The Triptych' and Celebritarianism. The best, to date, description of the storyline within 'The Triptych' | ||||||
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| Marilyn Manson. Alternative Press. November 2000. Manson's detailed elaboration on the themes of 'Holy Wood' and 'The Triptych' as a whole, as well as the occult & alchemical themes present within. Noteworthy ; one of Manson's first overt flirtation and evocation of absinthe. | ||||||||
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| Marilyn Manson. Metal Edge. July 1999. One of the first mentions of the then-untitled 'Holy Wood' / 'Triptych' film project, detailed elaboration on the themes of Celebritarianism & Celebritarian philosophy present within 'Mechanical Animals', with Kennedy being viewed as a "second Christ" in the eyes of America, and revealing the album's followup to be dark, aggressive and extremely heavy, pre-Columbine witch hunt and thus demonstrating the unfolding of 'The Triptych' was pre-planned, with or without the persecution which ensued after Columbine. One of the first and most detailed interviews outlining the concepts and storyline which would later unfold within 'Holy Wood' | ||||||
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| Marilyn Manson. Alternative Press. April 1999.Manson's satirical and sarcastic portrayal of Omēga throughout, as well as elaborations on the themes of 'Mechanical Animals' and the relation between his personification of Omēga as compared to The Antichrist Svperstar. | ||||||||
Presented below are multiple sections of The NACHTKABARETT which dissect, outline and explain various aspects of Manson's Triptych. Ranging from Official web archives, characters, key elements and imagery revealed, as well as alluded to, by Manson.
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HOLY WOOD, MERCURY & THE ANDROGYNE | The identity which Manson adopted during 'Holy Wood', as well as the Triptych containing its predecessors 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Antichrist Svperstar'. Mercury is the key element in alchemy which is said to yield the fabled Philosopher's Stone and is the planetary element which bears the influence of artistic and poet flair. Its equivalent in Greek mythology is the God Hermes who is known as 'The Messenger of the Gods'. The Androgyne is a symbol of alchemical balance, Male & Female; Black & White; Marilyn & Manson, and thus a symbol of the transformation and evolution which The Triptych represents.
FEBRUARY 14TH ; VALENTINE'S DAY | February 14th, Valentine's Day, is undoubtedly the most significant and recurring day within the art of Marilyn Manson. Manson gave the fans a gift virtually each Valentine's Day since 2000. On February 14th, 2000 a cover version of the Charles Manson song 'Sick City' was released via MarilynManson.com. February 14th, 2001 the website ThisAsValentinesDay.com which revealed Chapter 10 of Manson's 'Holy Wood' novel.
Valentine's Day is the day of "love" and a Hallmark capitalist favourite. The particular day was chosen to be celebrated because, like all Christian holidays, it was to coincide as an adaptation to the dates of pagan celebratory rites in order to subversively convert and spread Christianity throughout the world. The holiday itself was named for a martyr, St. Valentine, again like all Christian holidays, who was brutally eviscerated and as such illustrates the morbid foundations of the religion itself and mankind's predisposition to violence.
HOLY WOOD CHAPTER 10 | A secret Marilyn Manson website, ThisAsValentinesDay.com, was launched on February 14th, 2001 as Manson's gift to the MarilynManson.com official messageboard. The site was revealed on Valentine's Day in a post to the messageboard Manson made while on the European leg of the Guns, God & Government tour with the headline of "They'd Remember 'This As Valentine's Day'". The central image is the cover of Time magazine, dated February 14th, 1964. By clicking on Marina Oswald's broach, widow of the late Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused lone gunman in Kennedy's assassination, reveals Manson's true intended Valentine's Day gift, the text of Chapter 10 of Manson's (still unreleased novel) novel Holy Wood. A plain text transcription can be viewed here.
THE LAMB OF GOD | The sister site of MarilynManson.com launched in the Summer of 2000. The site went through five transformations/additions all to illustrate Manson's own transformation and to illustrate the five pillars and themes most prevalent throughout Holy Wood; Christianity/Martyrdom and mankind's morbid fascination with it, Alchemy, Death Valley, JFK as the second Christ in the eyes of America and the Occult.
The first image added to the MarilynManson.com sister site of which it takes its name. In the New Testament Christ is referred to as The Lamb Of God, the sacrificial offering which God sent down to Earth to take away the sins of the world. It illustrates the most prominent theme within Holy Wood of celebrity and martyrdom, and most specifically celebrity through death and martyrdom as is illustrated through Christ, JFK, and John Lennon, the theme that Holy Wood consistently revolves around as well as to illustrate the morbid fascination mankind has inherently felt towards the theme.
COMA WHITE | Along with February 14th, Coma White is another recurring element in the Triptych which is a highly debated and largely misinterpreted aspect of it. In Mechanical Animals and The Triptych, Coma White is represented as a girl, the love interest of Manson. But though the representation is of a girl it's only a personification of the metaphor that Coma plays in the life of this story's protagonist. Manson himself has stated that Coma is not literally a woman but is a personification of an ideal of perfection, an unobtainable entity which we forever pine after and seek to make tangible but forever out of reach. It's a concept which the representation of which, though illustrated as a girl, is interchangeable with all that we use to numb and pleasure ourselves with: drugs, sex, religion, TV,etc. It's these very things which we use to attempt to bring us closer to this state of perfection to make us happy, these things that we believe bring us closer to "god", that liberates us but in reality does nothing but make us numb, inebriate us and make us more and more mechanical.
KENNEDY ; MARILYN MANSON, JFK, KING KILL 33º | First referenced in 1998 in Mechanical Animals on the song 'Posthuman', JFK and the impact of his death upon America has been a theme which Manson has subsequently and continually referenced in his work ever since. Most noteworthy of these references have been the songs "President Dead", King Kill 33°, as well as many off-handed allusion throughout the album Holy Wood and very prominently in the video for Coma White in which Manson actually reenacts Kennedy's assassination. To those unfamiliar with Manson this seemingly unrelated juxtaposed imagery may seem as a whole something of mere sensationalism but in reality has been a theme which Manson has always played upon even long before he used Kennedy as an example of this; Celebritarianism, which mankind's inherent violent nature and morbid fascination of such.
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CELEBRITARIANISM | Celebritarian.com was the first step and public display of the concept of Manson's Celebritarianism. The site was hinted at in the lyrics to Holy Wood in the song The Fall Of Adam in which the term was used which Manson coined. And what brought specific attention towards it was in the liner notes which reads "Celebritarian™ used by permission". The is the meaning behind Celebritarianism being that religion is based on death; echoed by the precepts and rituals of Christianity where we drink the blood in the form of wine and whose body we feed upon in the form of a communion wafer; the devouring of celebrity as set by precedent of the first celebrity, Jesus Christ.
It is a theme which Manson has been evoking since his inception. The original Celebritarian.com and more are archived here and firstly by The NACHTKABARETT.
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MARILYN MANSON HIDDEN & "SISTER" WEBSITES | 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Holy Wood' "sister sites" to MarilynManson.com which gave song and imagery previews of both albums and complimented the themes of each album. All archived in their original entirety exclusively by The NACHTKABARETT, and the meanings contained within each revealed.
Archived are ComaWhite.com, revealed within the 'Mechanical Animals' album artwork; TheLambOfGod.com, which revealed the influences of 'Holy Wood', originally linked from the (then) official MarilynManson.com messageboard; Celebritarian.com; ThisAsValentinesDay.com, which revealed Chapter 10 of Manson's 'Holy Wood' novel; and all song preview sites released throughout 'Holy Wood'.
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FIFTEEN - MAR1LYN MAN5ON & NUMEROLOGY | Manson's first predominant evocation of numerology first reared its head throughout 1996's 'Antichrist Svperstar' album and era but it wasn't until 1998's 'Mechanical Animals' in which Manson became overtly open and forthright with numerological correspondences within his works. Namely, the number 15, which can be found consistently throughout Manson's works ever since.
The significance of the number 15 can be found throughout the Bible, numerology and the occult. Even further personalized for Manson, his birthday is January 5, 1969 ; 1/5 = 15 and (19)69 combined as 6 + 9 = 15. Additionally, Manson's birth sign, Capricorn, is associated with the 15th card of the Tarot, uncoincidentally The Devil card.
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OMĒGA AND THE MECHANICAL ANIMALS | "All that glitters is cold", sung through a voice modulator within 'Posthuman'. During the 'Mechanical Animals' era, Manson personified Omēga, an exaggerated and hollow rockstar who sung empty anthems about sex, drugs and fame. The outwardly hollow Omēga was to act as a counterpart to the reverse and introspective side of the album. Manson in keeping with numerological significances, split both aspects of the album in half with 7 songs by the fictitious 'Omēga & the Mechanical Animals' and the inverse 7 songs being the sincere, melancholic and introspective side of the album.
A famous allusion to Shakespeare, and dually to the Rock 'n' Roll gods of the past, were made with these lyrics Manson inverted to illustrate the concepts of the album...
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ADAM KADMON, 'THE FALL' & 'OF RED EARTH' | As can be seen within the artwork of Holy Wood, one aspect of the story Manson set out to illustrate with the parable of Holy Wood was told by his personification of 'Adam Kadmon' who, in Kabbalistic tradition, is the Adam of the Garden of Eden, the first and iconic man.
The four sections of the album are delineated each with letters which spell out 'ADAM', likewise was seen within the menu design of MarilynManson.com during this era as well as subtle references within the lyrics.
GOD EAT GOD - THE DAWN OF HOLY WOOD | December 15th, 1999 marks the dawn of Holy Wood. Unveiled on MarilynManson.com on the 30 year anniversery of a pivotal point of establishing evidence of guilt during Charles Manson murder trial, the discovery of the bloodied clothes worn during the killing, the title of the forthcoming album was revealed as well as a brand new website to chronicle the occult influences of the forthcoming era.
CELEBRITARIAN CORPORATION EMBLEM | Though evidently aborted for use upon the release of 'Eat Me, Drink Me' in 2007, the montage is the official Celebritarian Corporation masthead which Manson conceptualized to embody the era and art movement he had been cultivating between 2004 to 2006.
Outlined in the following is a breakdown of each element of the collage, all amalgamated and assembled together to embody the ethos of Celebritarianism, with each piece a representation of the themes Manson wished to portray.
DOUBLE-CROSS - THE CELEBRITARIAN SYMBOL | Celebritarianism, The Cross of Lorraine & Freemasonry. Celebritarian.com was (temporarily) resurrected from the dead in October of 2005. The sole symbol which the website consisted of is a double barred cross, often known as The Cross of Lorraine. It's a symbol that has connotations in the occult, alchemy as well as freemasonry, all of which have been underlying, reoccurring and key elements throughout Manson's art.
First hinted at by its implied formation on the cover of the unreleased Holy Wood novel, it is a symbol which has been consistently been referenced by Manson since this date and is additionally found within the cover artwork of 'Eat Me, Drink Me'.
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HOLY WOOD - PSALM 23 | "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." Psalm 23:4-5.
The Biblical verse which Manson enacted onstage during the Holy Wood era and where the original title of the album, 'In The Shadow of the Valley of Death', was inspired from.
THE
TAU CROSS | "Then the Lord called to the man clothed in
linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, "Go throughout
the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve
and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." Ezekiel
9:3-4
Manson's Holy Wood era vindicating symbol of the blame scapegoated upon him for the Columbine murders.
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HOLY WOOD ERA GUN CRUCIFIX | "Do you love your guns, your god, your government?" as Manson scathingly indicted on 'The Love Song', against the ideals America holds above all else. The three tools it uses to justify its bigotry, blind-hatred and bloodlust. The gun crucifix symbol which Manson adopted during the 'Holy Wood' era symbolizes that very theme of, literal, violence worship by combining three guns into a symbol of universal worship, the central arm of which is styled after the rifle used to assassinate Kennedy whom America has historically valued as a martyr, or Second Christ, via his very public death. The type of death which both makes the aggregate public reel in horror, and conversely enthralled to complete absorption and consumption of tragedy.
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THE AGE OF HORUS & THE DYING GOD | "It is time for their world to be destroyed. It is time for a new age, the Age of Horus. It is time for a new standard, a new canvas, and a new artist. We must forget this wasted generation and amputate it before the mind rots away with it. Paint it, record it, write it down before they kill you with their slow poisonous stupidity. Make yourself heard."
The New Aeon, The Age of Horus, was a phrase quoted by Manson on more than one occasion leading up to the release of Holy Wood, making yet another reference to Aleister Crowley. The Age of Horus was lain forth in 'The Book of the Law', the cornerstone Crowley's philosophy which proclaimed the dawning of The New Aeon of mankind and outlined the Law of Thelema, "Do What Thou Wilt Is The Whole Of The Law. Love Is The Law, Love Under Will". It is a reference which was continual within the lyrics, influences and imagery of Holy Wood.