Fashion Symbols with Aynura Maye

Bringing together the opposites

You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for May 2018

Archives for May 2018

Lamb – Not Your Usual Animal

by

What’s in there for me: An eye-opening fact that would make us think twice before making “religiously discriminating” statements. Here it goes – To our consciousness Lamb maybe only a household animal, but not for the unconscious. Just to scratch the surface, Lamb, at least for the descendants of Abrahamic religions, is a symbol of humility, willingness to surrender to higher power or higher order. It symbolizes acceptance of and repentance for shortcomings and malevolent deeds. The sacrifice of Lamb means to symbolically exterminate the aspects of human nature that have tendency to inflate to the point that may hurt others. For example, our anger, ego, jealousy, self-importance, among others. It is a mechanism of our psyche to keep our worldly attachments in control.

This post makes part of the post “The Secret Stories for Symbols“. Click the link to read more about the wonderfully secretive nature of the symbols. 

Full post starts here

Me and the Lamb

These days, when one talks about Lamb as sacrifice, automatically our mind associates it with Islam. Does this symbol really belong to Islam only? From what I found out, absolutely NO.

While in Argentina when I started these studies, one of the things I was surprised to find out was that one of the names of Christ was also The Lamb. He himself represents sacrifice in this case.

Lamb in religious symbolism together with symbols of Evangelists. Group of four elements is typical in religious depictions. Photo: Internet
The Lamb together with symbols of Evangelists. In general, group of four elements is typical in religious depictions. Photo: Internet

Currently I live in Rome and this place is just heaven for those interested in evolution of thought. Just by walking down the street one can learn so much by carefully observing monuments. This city is also home to the oldest catholic churches, which still carry old facade paintings. This is what I love about Rome. History is live here. Cut to the chase, about 4 blocks from my home there is an old church. Over the façade of this church there is an image of the Lamb right at Christ’s foot. After seeing this I started to inspect the facades of other churches. Interestingly, I found a handful of them with similar illustrations. So this has been a recurrent symbol.

The Secret Story of Lamb

True, The Lamb is almost a forgotten image in Christianity these days. However, I guess, everybody knows that it is a very living symbol in Islam. It is a symbol of Muslim holiday Eid-Mubarak. Again, it is a symbol of sacrifice. Also, Torah mandates Jews perform sacrificial ritual of Paschal Lamb on the eve of Pass Over (Pasqua).

To sum up, to our consciousness Lamb maybe only a household animal, but not for unconscious. Just to scratch the surface, Lamb, at least for the descendants of Abrahamic religions, is a symbol of humility, willingness to surrender to higher power or higher order. It symbolizes acceptance of and repentance for shortcomings and malevolent deeds. Sacrifice of Lamb means to symbolically exterminate the aspects of human nature that have tendency to inflate to the point that may hurt others. For example, our anger, ego, jealousy, self-importance, among others. It is a mechanism of our psyche to keep our worldly attachments in control.

Why such a bloody ritual? Pain in body makes soul suffer and suffering is fundamental for spiritual growth. Just like a famous expression goes: Light enters through wound.  That’s why normally religious rituals are violent and harsh.

This post makes part of the post “The Secret Stories for Symbols“. Click the link to read more about the nature of the symbols.

Gucci’s Garden of Earthly Delights …. Where to Look for It?

by

What’s in there for me: Something big – a solid answer for this much debated topic of humanity. It would be naive to take The myth of Creation as a historical record. In fact, the first stories of the Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo Habilis. I mean, we talk about some 2 million years of difference. So, at the time the Eden’s Story was born, our ancestors already had some sort of clothing. It was not Gucci obviously but they had already covered their private parts. In short, this story is not a historical record. It is not biography of Adam and Eve either. It is a symbolic illustration of how our psyche has experienced the process of evolution, namely, the birth and separation of the consciousness. It is the way how our unconscious translated the process of growing consciously different from the rest. And it is also the story of hope. Hope for what? Read the full post to find out.

Read the blog post “That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?” to learn more about the nature of the conscious and the symbols that illustrate the pain of being consciously different.

The full post starts here.

With arrival of Alessandro Michele, Gucci has become a Garden of mystery. Some interpretations are unnerving to me, I accept. Regardless, I love scrolling their Instagram feed full of mystical and historical references.

This is my first try of Gucci and I’ve chosen a widely known myth of Garden of Eden with “fashionable” touch of Ignasi Monreal.

Rework of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights by Ignasi Monreal for Gucci. As usual, he beautifully mixes mythical with mundane.
Rework of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights by Ignasi Monreal for Gucci. As usual, he beautifully mixes mythical with mundane. Photo: Internet

Our First Parents? Dressed in Gucci Style or Nude?

The original version of this retouched artwork is visually somehow different from “conventionally accepted” image of Garden of Eden as it carries quite some touch of author’s own visions. But the storyline is similar. We are talking about origins of universe and emergence of our first parents.

It is amusing to learn the fact that the first stories of Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo Habilis. I mean we talk about some 2 million years of difference. In other words, talking chronographically, when Adam was kicked out of that Walled Garden of Eternity and landed on mortal Earth, this place had already been populated with his fellow species long, long time ago. I am sure, he didn’t feel lonely. By the way, I guess they already had some sort of clothing.

Part of the original art "Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch. Photo: Internet
Part of the original art “Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch. Photo: Internet

Life in Garden of Delights – Not as Stylish as Gucci’s

Let’s see before being kicked out how was his life. Adam was in Garden of Delights enjoying his lazy and solitary yet immortal life. At the center of this Garden there were two trees – the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality. There were four rivers in the garden, flowing from inexhaustible sources in four directions to keep the world refreshed. He was bored, so God created his counterpart, Eve out of his rib.

The treacherous serpent curled around the Tree of Knowledge whispered about the marvelous forbidden fruit of the Tree to the woman. Obviously she gave in, because, she herself is a symbol of temptation (in the eyes of Adam). She even convinced Adam. They tried the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and suddenly became aware of their differences and got ashamed. They got expelled from the Garden for eating that fruit. To make things worse, the God put two wrathful protectors in front of the gates so that they couldn’t sneak in.

I am writing another post about this lower relatedness aspect of woman as homage to the Gucci’s Great Hermaphrodite art work. Also a separate post about Snake. Stay tuned.

Absurdity All the Way

Although ridiculously absurd, this story runs along the texts of all of Abrahamic religions. Even uncontaminated cultures have their own versions with similar symbolism – precisely, the Tree and the Snake. How one can believe in this bizarre story and actually consider it as actual records of beginning of the universe while our facts are telling us a totally different story? Now one needs to ask this question – did really this place exist?

Answer from psychoanalysis is yes and no. No, because, there is no Paradise (walled enclosure) on an already well-explored Earth. Yes, because, it is our inner reality and this explains why such a weird absurdity has managed to gain so much fame. It is not a historical record of the origin of the universe. Yet it is how our psyche has experienced the process of evolution, namely, birth and separation of the consciousness. This story is manifestation of man’s longing for pre-conscious sense of totality in symbolic language of unconscious. But it is not only about longing, it also talks about hope.

Second Look at Symbols

Let’s get into translation. It turns out that it was the Knowledge, the Awareness that put us behind the protected doors. It was time for us to get out of that Garden. So that treacherous Snake – the symbol of “Eternal Wisdom” set up the “plan”.

At some point in evolution, we developed a capacity to judge everything in terms of good and bad which we perceive as fear and desire. In mythological language, our first parents “ate the fruit of knowledge” and became self-aware – the characteristic feature of consciousness. So it was the nature of our reasoning that closed those doors to our face.

Self-awareness was not the only revelation. Then it downed upon them that there is a thing called death while they are lustful creatures with desire to live. So fairy tales abound with stories about search of elixir of life and man’s desire to transcend mortality. Because, although we can’t taste that bliss any more, we haven’t lost the knowledge that there is a dimension of our nature that transcends mortality.

The Cost of Being Consciously Different

This differentiation of ourselves, development of consciousness has cost us to lose that “eternal, timeless completeness” – the period now babies experience from the moment of conception until early development of consciousness (does that explain why they are good at being happy?). Then for the rest of life try to experience it again.

Read the blog post “That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?” to learn more about the nature of the conscious and the symbols that illustrate the pain of being consciously different.

Religions are our cry for such transcendence – our hope to transcend this carnal world of duality to experience that “timeless delightful state”. Because it is when the “self-aware” consciousness will let go its petty “me and mine” game and will experience transcendence through self-sacrifice and submission to higher order. Enduring spirituality is where he hopes to experience these delights that are beyond duality of opposites – worries and desires, temptations and fears, light and dark.

Paradise… Where is it?

But not all is lost. That walled eternal land still resides inside each of us, in the depth of our dark psyche, protected by cultural ogres, fire breathing dragons, many-headed scary creatures, which we come across in myth and fairy tales. They are personifications of our worldly attachments and survival instincts. Remember, the God put two frightful monsters in front of the doors?  We are talking of the same thing now. The way to return there is to defeat all these roaming instinctual forces and give back that “fruit”, which made us aware of ourselves and our surrounding. In other words, sacrifice our consciousness. Precisely, the way to immortality goes through Death, let it be physical death or symbolic death to our worldly attachments.

Only thru total renunciation of ego-oriented attachments the return is possible to that state of eternal bliss free of worries and temptations. But this time the experience is not that of a baby. It is that of a mature person in the form of immortality of spirit. Nothing carnal.

Related posts:

That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?
The Secret Story of Symbols”
The Unconscious – The Great Mother, The Conscious – Overconfident Kid

Secret stories of symbols

by

What is in there for me: Awesome tips to those who take “spirituality thing” very seriously. These days it is cool and “spiritual” to meditate and do yoga to “attract good vibes”. That is true, serious dedication to meditation would ultimately lead to some deeper connection with inner self. Yet, it has some high prices to pay. I ask myself: Would I dedicate myself to it without supervision of some sort of guru? Absolutely, NO! Because that means embarking on an internal journey towards the dark depth of the unconscious, an unknown territory for us. Plus, we have no knowledge how to deal with powerful forces of the unconscious. This journey is potentially very dangerous for an untrained rational mind.  Especially, in modern times when we tend to deny anything that we can’t explain with help of the reasoning. Before opening up its healing aspects, the unconscious throws all the rocks, bugs, snakes, monsters on the path of the one who meditates. Only the most victorious ones get to drink the elixir of life. Just like in the story of Buddha, or in the tales of Sinbad, the most precious gems are kept in the deep wells where venomous snakes live. To get the gem, the Hero should kill the snakes first. If the language gets really weird now, I’d suggest that you go on reading the post to learn why.

Full post starts here

Signs Are Not Symbols

Our daily language is full of metaphors, symbols, logos, trademarks etc. But not all of them have the same power and impact over our psyche. Jungian psychoanalysis divides them into two generic groups – Signs and symbols. Which falls into which group? To describe very roughly, signs are man-made but symbols are produced spontaneously by the unconscious. How we decide which one is which? Here is the differentiating factor: Signs by themselves do not mean anything. They acquire a certain meaning due to deliberate use of that specific sign over an extensive period of time for a specific purpose. For example, when we see Golden arch of McDonalds, we know what it stands for. Other globally perfect examples would be Android, LG, Pantene, UNESCO etc. In other words, Signs are products of the conscious and used for a specific end or reason beyond which they do not express much.

Allusions to celestial spheres in Valentino piece. Dream motifs. Photo: Internet
Allusions to celestial spheres in Valentino piece. Dream motifs. Photo: Internet

On the contrary, symbols are produced by the unconscious and their meaning stays more less the same. Normally, they have more to their meanings than what we know about them. If we muse over them, we may get some vague sense about their meanings, but it will be impossible to fully decipher them. Their unconscious meanings have so many intertwined layers and far reaching connotation that it is almost impossible to exhaust with interpretation. They express what is inexpressible in words. They talk about the realities of our psyche in a dimension that logic can’t penetrate. They are the “letters of the alphabet” of the Unconscious and influence us on the unconscious level. This is the reason religions and moral doctrines resort to picture language. Those images transcend boundaries of duality and make logical explanation fail big time.

Faces of Symbols

Our instincts are psychical urges, like hunger, sex-drive, self-protection, fears, desires etc. But they have their own way of self-manifestation in the unconscious. These urges get personified and take a relatable shape in our psyche. So they have a living nature. The ogres, monsters, fairies, sirens, centaurs we read about in fairy tales, or falling, flying, life-regenerating breeze, deep waters, pregnancy (in case of men) and all sorts of bizarre dreams are not to be taken literally. These symbols are shared across humanity. Jung has called them “archetypes of collective unconscious”.

Their job is to kind of represent the processes happening in our soul in a highly symbolic form. But they are not produced randomly, without a purpose. They are kind of transmitters of traditional wisdom that lays in the unconscious. They call the consciousness to act upon the troubles going on in the emotional life of a person. Among other things, they talk about the psychological challenges of adaptation in different periods of human life. Going even further, they give hints about what expects us at the end of different paths. They pass this wisdom on to us in dramatized language of myths and fairy tales.

Power of Symbols

These symbols are no joke. Without doubt they underlie the patterns of our conscious behavior because they are pure manifestations of our life instincts.  Yet we fail to recognize them when we come across them in pictures, monuments, riddles, myths, fairy tales, dreams, religious texts, hallucinations etc. Because they are alien to logical thinking.

They are products of creative energies of the unconscious and possess enormous energy projected on certain images. This is why religious pictures and objects hold so much emotional charge for devotees.  Even though we do not understand their meanings, we feel that they hint to something hidden.  They pass their messages to us on a very deep level. They are in a sense numinous. They evoke deep, inexplicable feelings inside us like Mecca for Muslims, cross in Christians, idols for idolater etc. If recognized and integrated, the healing aspects of the unconscious manifest itself. Put in religious terms, the grace dawns upon. If not, they turn into repressed energies chasing one in form of hallucinations, morbid dreams, inexplicable sufferings, loss of interest in life until they drive one into pure madness and schizophrenia. If I put this in the language of our unsuspecting ancestors – one becomes possessed by daemon.

Yet their power lies in this enigmatic nature. Once explained logically, they lose that power of spell over our psyche. Just like Sun has lost its “God” image once explained with the help of science.

What are specifically those symbols and myths? Follow fashion posts to learn about them.

Gucci sends fashion back to roots…

by

Gucci has made quite stir in elusive world of fashion with the latest show of RTW Fall/Winter 2018. No surprise, with Gucci’s Alessandro it is always a stir. Pale looking models were carrying around replicates of their heads, almost real-looking snakes and dragons in an operation room with operation chair in center. Some had third eye on their hands with myriad of ethnic twists to the looks. Some people found it unnerving, some awesome, some were confused, some didn’t understand at all. All for a reason. This scene resembled an initiation ritual with ghostly participants.

Models carrying deeply mythological motifes - dragons, third eyes, replica of their own heads. Gucci show - RTW, FW2018
Models carrying deeply mythological motifs – dragons, third eyes, replica of their own heads among others.

Gucci show – RTW, FW2018

Alessandro played a different card – to move to the next phase, he went back to basics, he shed light on a long-forgotten knowledge. The knowledge that fashion was not born out of the need to please eyes and tap only on sensuality. Fashion was not born to work as money-generating machine. Fashion, in the first place, is byproduct of “mystical participation”. The rituals where novice members of early societies were initiated into their roles in a neatly defined societal structure. Their “looks” symbolically communicated their role in that structure.

In this sense, primeval fashion used to be looks of medicine men, shamans with feathered headwears or of hunters with daunting chains around their necks made of horns of hunted animals etc. The root of fashion lies in taking on a social mask that represents the specific spot of each individual in a given society. Outer look used to be means, not the ends by itself. Now, with Gucci’s “cyborg-like” creations fashion takes on the same function again, it questions where we are and where we fit now. Actually, I do not think someone would call this collection sensual (which by the way has almost always been a strong card for Gucci). He had a different message and my take is as follows:

My take on the set:

To me it represented, in a more dramatized manner, the “liquid times” we are going through. In times when societies got protected by borders and distances, each survived and flourished upon certain set of moral foundations that defined general frame for every aspect of life. Yesterday traditional dresses characterized cherished values of societies and enjoyed emotional bond with those who put them on. Now, however with all the digital noise, fading borders and fusion of tastes we live in state of cacophony. Today, everything is everywhere, anything can go with anything – no bond, no emotions, no curated matching and it may feel like post-human. The experimental combinations may come out beautiful, creepy or transitory – the message that I think the collection delivered clearly. The process in making.

My doubts:

Although the concept he’s put forward is interesting, one thing is clear that he’s stepped away from what made fashion a “sweet spot” of humanity.  Namely, the tendency to please eyes and tap on sensuality. There is a reason why with time fashion became limited to only sensuality and beauty.  Deductively, outer looks turned into its only reference with no inward ties. To put it in an unpolished manner, “low” chakras are where money circulates. We have capacity to reach angels. Yet often times we find ourselves in the grip of our basic instincts of sexual desire and power quest. So, I wonder, how this new strategy will impact on Gucci sales.

My touch on the set-up:

I wish I were his genius, but we all have our opinions, right? I’d replace the operation chair in the middle with something that is pure representation of unconscious. For example, an unexplored forest, dark waters or infinite deserts. Why? Alessandro’s explanation of his vision is clear. He is the Hero busy with creating his world populated by personalities honed by his sentiments on our time in his laboratory. Another version would be to make these ghostly creatures (models) come out of a set that represents depth of unconscious. He aimed to break thru the “canonized rules”, yet every urge of destruction rises not from conscious, but from unconscious. The unknown new gets ripen there which will break into conscious only through destruction.

Symbols of Transformation

Furthermore, snake and dragon are unmistakable symbols of transformation. But they are not always that peaceful and friendly as they were in the hands of the models. Study of mythology tells us that they are personifications of our fears, desires and compulsive impulses. Each of these forces always try to get upper hand in our consciousness. The task of conscious is to tame and subdue them just like how Hercules fought. Otherwise they will grow into many-headed, flame-breathing wrathful dragons and swallow the conscious. But to defeat them the Hero needs to “re-vive” the moral values of the society he belongs. Because that is where he’d find the tips and mystical powers to subdue that dragon and experience transcendence.

Now that those moral foundations are vanishing, we are back in square figuring out where to turn to re-establish that connection with the inner space and outer space. In a sense, this set with a new twist to the centerpiece would symbolize our pledge to re-establish new set of morals, which would enable us to carry those snakes and dragons in as peaceful and friendly manner as they seemed in the show. As a result, It would also portray the process of the birth of new transcendent identity.

In general, these moments of chaos are times when new identity is born – usually more embracing, more universal.  I am curios to follow his next creations to see how he visualizes it.

This article was originally published at fashionnewsmagazine.com in Italian and in English.

I’ve made slight changes to this version to make it easier to read as a blog post.

Abnormal sexual desire, art and Louis Vuitton…

by

 Her polka dots are not mere dots:
For her troubled mind dots are female genitals, tentacle-like structures phallus.

About six years ago some concept stores of Louis Vuitton got decorated with sublime and fascinating art works by one of the most renowned Japanese artists Yayoi Kusama. They were so beautiful and enticing that I’d be surprised if high fashion nerds forgot them.

Yayoi Kusama pumpkins with polka dots. Pumpkin by its form is similar to "vessel", the receiver - the female quality. Polka dots symbolize female genital. Photo: the Internet
Yayoi Kusama pumpkins with polka dots. Pumpkin by its shape resembles alchemic “vessel”, the recipient – the female quality, the womb. Polka dots symbolize female genital. Even more subtle here, dots on the pumpkins are arranged in snake-like shape. Besides being a classical symbols of the unconscious, the snake is also an unmistakable symbol of the androgynous nature of the human psyche.  Photo: the Internet
 

A year forward and I am busy with my studies on psychoanalysis, especially Freud’s theory on repression of sexuality in Buenos Aires. The place where I lived was very close to the largest modern gallery in the city called Malba. One day while passing by I see the trees in front of Malba dressed in red with white polka dots – that remarkable signature design I remember from a year ago. Malba was hosting an exhibition of Yayoi Kusama. The trees looked intriguing and beautiful. I resolved to go and see what it is about.

Shoes with phallus. the complimentary detail to red polka dots of Japanese artist who also designed for Louis Vuitton.
Yayoi Kusama shoes with phallus as demonstrated in Malba, Buenos Aires, 2013.  Photo: The Internet

In Museum: polka dots, but also phallus

Next day, I enter Malba and the first impression I have was – God, this is what classical Freudian wish fulfillment of excessive sexual desire and irrepressible conflicting impulses looks like. Interestingly, her polka dots became famous and made it all the way to the world of high fashion and beyond just the way they were. However, another important detail accompanying those dots was so beautifully disguised into unsuspecting snake-like shapes, or tentacles as critics called them, in Louis Vuitton installations and went almost unnoticed – her obsession with phallus. Maybe, for a reason, otherwise that would have been too perverse, who knows. Maybe not. 

 
Chairs covered with phallus, the complimentary detail to red polka dots of Japanese artist who also designed for Louis Vuitton.
Yayoi Kusama art – chairs covered with myriad of phallus exhibited in Malba, Buenos Aires, 2013.
Photo: The Internet

Tentacle-like art and polka dots: penetrator and recipient

Unlike her fashion installations, the view of tentacle-like elements covering every object was more prominent in the exhibition venue. These objects covered the things that we normally use to lay over, sit upon or wear such as sofas, couches, chairs, shirts even shoes. They basically covered everything one can imagine, even pasta, anything that we can touch. The photos with herself covered in dots laying over these thorny sofas decorated the walls.

By now, it is pretty much clear that polka dots all over her, analogous to the genital organs, represent vagina.  On the other hand, everything else that we can touch has grown innumerable phallus. It was a classical portrait of Freudian wish fulfillment of incompatible sexual desire. The vividness with which she depicted her troubled state of mind was chilling. These art works were explosive manifestation of deeply repressed conflicts. The curiosity took me to study her life. In some places she talks openly about her revulsion to sex. Maybe, it rooted in her troubled childhood experiences of the relationship between her parents too.

So her art, to me, was basically free ride of deeply conflicting urges. On one side, her revulsion of sex, on the other side, her strong desire for it. On top of all, she had to numb this internal storm against the backdrop of strict social frame. It feels like, it has been too much to stomach and at some point, she has let it go.

Obsession – Morbid dark impulses in psyche

It seems she had full divine experience in dots and phallus, she felt the creative power of universe in them. Here comes to mind Indian Gods Shiva and Shakti. However, her experience was reverse, regressive and destructive. Instead of leading them towards a fruitful and meaningful experience, she became overwhelmed by them. She lived it not in the form of celestial experience, but as morbid obsessive forces chasing her to insanity. She kind of talked about it openly through art and this is what she labels as “obsession” – let it be her phallus chair, mirror rooms or dotted pumpkins – automated instinctual impulses that tend to magnify, augment and overwhelm. 

Sexuality and Spirituality – why are the same thing in the depth of our mind? – Read this post to see why Kusama’s art made me think of God Shiva and Goddess Shakti