The Hidden Themes of Heliofant's "I, Pet Goat II"

I feel much of the nuance in Heliofant's "I, Pet Goat II" has been neglected. So I would like to express what I see as the four major themes of the video. The primary message is that the current mindset of America and much of the rest of the world is one of division. The apple splitting in half and the emergence of the two saplings that unite to create the lotus blossom is representative of enlightenment.[0] This is poetically illustrated near the end of the short, as the sleeping Christ figure emerges from the tunnel and all the water lilies unfurl into full bloom.

A House Divided...

During the introduction, in the first stanza, the two (supposedly) opposite U.S. Presidents stand before the front of the classroom and cavort between a mixture of slapstick and dance.‡ At no point do the Presidents set aside the inane masturbatory[1] act to engage in a genuine dialogue to discuss how we might begin to solve the world's problems. In effect, they are the same. Both of their actions are silly and irreverent. The nonsense of their actions is emblazoned on the chalkboard for all to see. The house is on fire and no one is doing anything about it.[2]



Trapped in the surreal Alice and Wonderland setting.[3] The snow white-esque pupil,[4] despite the misbehavior of her elders, maintains her idyllic purity—uncorrupted by society's division and hatred the ethnocentric partisan circus creates.‡ Staring down, contemplating the apple. Lily realizes the fruit is poisoned with society's divisive cultural propaganda. '"This apple is not mine," she [thinks]. It belongs to someone else."'[5] As she lets go of the doctrinal apple of knowledge, ossifying the students who surround her, it rolls to the front of the classroom.



The President, as head master of the cultural indoctrination program, begins to sweat.[6]‡ He sees for the first time the younger generation is unwilling to consume the information that they are being fed. The President realizes the charade of division[7] is coming to an end and that the people recognize a world constantly at war with itself can never become whole and heal. This is visually reflected by the apple splitting in half (again alluding to division) and the two saplings merging to form the unified lotus blossom.[8]

The War that is Winter...

Here the second overture starts and the war for the soul of humanity begins. The camera exits through the window from the small confines of the theatric, comfortably understood community of the classroom to a world in chaos, where the two towers of division are crumbling and the unified flag of the nation is torn in half.‡ This much larger, complex world is nothing like what was taught in the school. It shows the world as something bigger and far more menacing. It also shows how old established symbols, while retaining their power and meaning, have begun to meld into one another becoming something altogether new.



As the blood moon rises[9] [10] far out past where the two towers lie in ruin.‡ We see Osama bin Laden standing with his armies of human bombs, under the aegis of the CIA logo tagged on his uniform. Oil bleeds from the glaciers into the black polluted ocean slick.[11]‡ The once proud nation's self-inflicted wounds cause Lady Liberty's light to dim as the Star of David illuminates beneath it.‡ Even from birth, the young are ensnared by the snakelike media propaganda.‡ The constant hum of the TV murmuring the news of failing economies saps everyone of vigor and hope.[12] ‡ The desperation invariably crescendos in worldwide confrontation and escalations.



Air strikes target religious structures to destroy what are falsely construed as opposing cultural identities.‡ Governments extricate resoures from foreign soil to perpetuate the illusion of an ever-expanding ever-growing economy. Conflagration of bombs vaporize the lives of parents and children of all cultures. Muslim.‡ African.‡ The war heals nothing and consumes everything. The poignancy of this depravity reaches new heights when the people observe the ill-gotten barrels of crude fail to even serve any supposed purpose because the tumultuous violence engulfing the middle east only serves to hasten the bankruptcy of the swiftly diminishing middle class. In a last gasp, the blue-collar wage earner drowns disappearing into the cauldron of class warfare.‡ The Mexican calaca[13] walks onto the battlefield with Death's scythe to claim the brave who have marched into battle to oppose nuclear warfare and governmental injustice.‡

Yang seems to be losing to its Yin. The battle seems all but lost.

Unification, Yichudim, and Tikkun Olam

Yet through all the devastation, a lone figure sails quiescently on a solar barge through the underworld.[14]‡ The apotheosis's fusion of characteristics, from the sacred flaming heart[15] to the dharmic third eye[16] cast in the image of the eye of providence,[17] hint at the Maitreya[18] come to transcend boundaries of religious orthodoxies. The perennial philosophy births a new avatar![19] The iconic Jesus-figure transmogrified into an Egyptian mold. The symbols stitched into a homogenous tapestry strips away any notion of a superior culture or a more authentic spiritual path because the singular beatific unity reveals how all of the combined belief systems compliment and enrich each other.



As the avatar sails along in an unconscious trance on the river Styx, journeying to undo the wrongs and awake in the light of day. He sees the corruption.‡ And, as if in a dream, twitches at the images of the nightmare.‡ He touches the evanescent moth, that burns at the touch of light.[20]‡ He witnesses the deaths. He sees the propaganda, greed, and self loathing.‡ Kali, through the mind of the avatar, observes the macabre scene and Vishnu remembers to preserve.[21][22]‡ The fish, as lost souls of the Styx, remember the warmth and recongregate.[23]‡ The structures of ice and darkness slowly start to melt and crumble into the background as the heat of the avatar (representing the coming Spring) warms the frozen walls in his passing.‡

Amidst the chaos, far away the divine light of the Supreme pierces a cloud from high above to illumine a lone phallically-shaped lighthouse of ice with an elderly woman trapped inside the tower's inner cloister.‡ In Kabbalistic literature the sephirot Tipheret and Yesod are seen as the male accompaniment to the female Sephirah of Malkut (the Shekinah). In the arrangement of the Sephirot, Yesod lies directly between Tipheret and Malkut.

The Shekinah plays another very important role in the story of creation, and in particular in the Great Plan of humankind. It is believed that in man's fall to a denser, less perfect state of being in the physical, the Shekinah stayed with us as we separated from God or were exiled from the ‘Garden'. Thus, the Shekinah, once again, was voluntarily removed from God/Ein Sof in order for us to have our experience. She has always stayed with us, wherever we were exiled or isolated or shut out, the Shekinah was always there in exile and isolation with us. Thus, the Shekinah is also in Malkuth, the Kingdom, the Salt of the Earth, the final step of creation where the energies funnel into the physical world that is our home. It is for this reason that Kabbalists often refer to Malkuth as the Bride. For the ultimate Plan and driving desire of the Universe is for the Bride, the Shekinah, to reunite with her Bridegroom, the Creator. So, the Shekinah, in addition to being the Soul of God is also the Soul of the World.

www.universalkabbalah.net...

After millennia of waiting the light from above reaches below to unite with the Shekinah. As the promises and prophecies are fulfilled. The Christ-heart emerges amidst a cloud of men in copy-cat suits, performing soulless jobs.‡ In a single pulse the Christ-heart obliterates the feckless paradigm of menial work. Eliminating, all at once, and once and for all, the hegemony of darkness enforced by men unwittingly maintaining a corrupt and soulless order. The innocents oppressed by the uncaring machine of modern society are freed.‡



The misdeeds and wrongs start to upend themselves. Death itself reverts course! The calaca, as maestro, reanimates those lost in battles of yore.‡ The lily-white innocent rise in glory to dance to the beauty of their souls song. The innocent broken body of the young Muslim boy, Aali, rises in splendor twirling towards the moon with all the beauty and skill of the ancient art of the Sufi whirling Dervishes.[24]‡



L'enfant Bleu, who at once was Kali, flashes through the masks and headdresses of all cultures of old. From the elemental to the tribal dances of the Native American bear and raven.‡ With all cultures integrated, the heat of history finally reaches the flash point and culture itself turns to steam.[25] Unmasked L'enfant, as us, unveils his true inner nature.‡ Pure radiance, shining brightly illumining all![26][27]

Entering the East Gate, Past the Flaming Sword that Swings Every Which Way, and the End of Symbols

Uniting all the disparate shards of humanity, the avatar propels through the mouth of the underworld into the light of dawn.‡ In the wake of his passage enlightenment blossoms everywhere the heat of the heart's fire touches.‡ The lilies of wisdom spring from their frosty slumber a vibrant purple giving color where previously there was none.



The penance of the crown of thorns is removed. The icons and symbols that were previously of such great importance are no longer necessary. Where once they were used to connect with the elusive and the intangible. Now exposed to raw self-evident truth of the greater reality, the old symbols are superfluous. The frozen religions of antiquity and their provisional structures disintegrate in the light of the felt presence of spirit. The ice cathedral crumbles exposed to the direct rays of the sun.‡



As the avatar's gaze turns due east. The solar barge floats towards the Menkaure causeway following the gaze of the sphinx to participate in the coming of the spring equinox.[28] [29]‡ Looking forward the avatar sees the sun pulse, resonating with his heart. Fireballs fly forth like streamers. A flaming meteor slams into the capstone of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Careening through the air the capstone disintegrates. The pyramids dislodged and unbalanced slowly crumble. With it, the self-evident meaning of an unjust hierarchy controlled from the top-down submerge into the ocean forever.



The long promised, golden age of plenty arrives! And that ... is but the beginning.

Your take on the apple has me thinking you are bang on, with your depiction, the young are waking up and not believing the O/S at an alarming rate. The force fed dogma is no longer accepted and cast out. This film is like the show that keeps on giving and the more disected it is the more interested I become.

SaneThinking

I agree with your interpretation of the video - I think its the most correct thus far. I do completely disagree with the designers vision though. Good job.

reply to post by SaneThinking


I was thinking that once the war machine starts rolling (after everyone starts rebelling) it will be like a sleeping-tonic to those on the verge.

You will talk to people that are in such loathing of the 'other side' that they'll never listen to the greater truth. They'll be the same people telling us a vote for Ron Paul is a vote for Obama - or a vote for Romney is a vote for Bush except they'll be armed and given permission to kill.

Like the guy that was posted the other day saying he's fine with murdering people if Obama is - those people must have deserved being murdered.

It is a very amusing video.

VC also has interesting take on it. Link

reply to post by Xtraeme


I think a lot of people are getting lost in the details of the individual symbols. So it's nice to see someone tie it all together. Thanks for all your work. I think you nailed it.

reply to post by ararisq


I hope so because most of the people I talk to are so oblivious to whats going on in the world, so caught up in the next reality drama, or fluff piece on some "superstar". To realize that it isn't peaches and cream and we do have a serious problem.

Just hope it doesn't take bombs dropping "again" for that to happen, and I say "again" because the wake up call has been put out before, but like most things we can be distracted not to notice, went unheralded..

Still state again a great breakdown of the film.

SaneThinking

what about the video being 7 28 long, yet the 7 27 mark is missing,?

27 july, olympic reference?

Originally posted by ararisq
I agree with your interpretation of the video - I think its the most correct thus far. I do completely disagree with the designers vision though. Good job.

It's nice to know others see a similar narrative. Though there's still at least one part in the video that I feel deserves a better explanation.‡ I just wish I could find the right words.

reply to post by SaneThinking

Your take on the apple has me thinking you are bang on, with your depiction, the young are waking up and not believing the O/S at an alarming rate. The force fed dogma is no longer accepted and cast out. This film is like the show that keeps on giving and the more disected it is the more interested I become.

SaneThinking

The film has a lot of layers. The guy, clearly, invested a lot of time putting together. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a year or two to animate. Maybe more!

I'd love to see the storyboards.

Again, a reminiscent mood:

Originally posted by ararisq
I agree with your interpretation of the video - I think its the most correct thus far. I do completely disagree with the designers vision though. Good job.

Nice hit and run job. WHY do you disagree with the designer's vision? What is there to disagree with? State your case or else you have added exactly zero to the discussion and left me wondering why you bothered to comment at all.

To the commenter saying the youth are waking up at an astounding rate, that is not what I am seeing at all. I am seeing youth so deliberately dumbed down by our media and school system that if you showed them a video like this they would simply mock it or be bored, and they would certainly not have a clue to the meaning. I am seeing a materialistic, proudly ignorant, and mean-spirited lost generation growing up and it scares me.

I have seen several people claim that the 7:27 timecode is somehow missing but I don't get what the heck they are talking about. I watch the video in HD on Vimeo (where you get the best image quality) and I see nothing of the sort. It runs through the time code normally and ends at 7:28. It is impossible as far as I know to have a second of the time code go "missing" or be "skipped". Could someone please explain exactly what they mean?

reply to post by Xtraeme


I interpreted Jesus going thru the tunnel as the passing from the age of pisces to the age of aquarius which is known as the age of enlightenment.
As he is going through the tunnel fishes ( which is the pisces sign) jump on his boat and as he is riding thru the tunnel lotus flowers are all around. Once he leaves the tunnel, the religious strucutes are being demolished. I looked at this as the fall out religion into a more enlightened period of time.

reply to post by priceless34

I like that. Ichthys or ΙΧΘΥΣ was always a symbol of Jesus and his teachings. So I'm pretty confident the fish jumping into the boat is meant to indicate a gathering. However I could easily see a double meaning of the Age of Pisces (represented by Jesus himself as the Piscean fish) being the current period, transferring to the Age of Aquarius (as the full ocean) of total abundance (etymologically abundance in Latin as abundantem means overflow, much like the ocean overflows the earth). So that does seem to fit! Nice catch!

This earlier video from Louis appears to confirm my interpretation that the first act is about dualistic monism. It clearly shows how once something is divided apart it's always united back with its opposite along a hidden unseen axis.

This is a very cool original animation by Louis Lefebvre which chronicles the evolution of Consciousness from its inanimate state into human form and then back through spiritual seeking to Oneness. Its inspiration is the spiritual teaching of Wayne Liquorman and Ramesh S. Balsekar.

Also notice, 0:57 seconds into the video, the figure dons the tefillin and side curls? I think it's fair to say Louis knows a thing or two about Jewish mysticism. So it's no wonder really why he would have thought to include references to the Zohar and the Shekinah.

Here's a rather interesting interview Louis gave to Alex Jones.



At about 29 minutes in Louis explains what the symbolism means for the apple.

Sounds like I nailed it.

Some side notes.

In the first "Dubya" scene, it strikes me that the puppeteers are trying to find a message. "Fool me once..." is what the Dubya/Puppet says and finally and forcefully states "Can't be fooled again!!" before morphing to a smiling Obama, who in turn tries to put a smiling face on things, appearing to be more "educated" since his hat changes from a dunce cap to a graduation cap. The puppeteer thinking that this morphing is what is needed to keep the class bound and apathetic, and fooled again.

The girl sees through it and drops the apple. This apple has me confused in the symbology. It could be that she had brought the apple for the "teacher" but since the knowledge (Apple = Tree of Knowledge fruit?) she discards that particular knowledge and it splits in two. I also noticed in this particular scene, when she seems to come to a decision and the room goes dark on the wall behind her is a white rabbit who looks pretty angry highlighted by light. A reference to Alice?

Also things of note in the classroom scene:

The Owl picture. A creature that can see in the dark above the map of the US, which incidentally has stick pins in New York City (9/11), New Orleans (Katrina), Oklahoma City (Murrah Building) and one in the Gulf (Deepwater Horizon).

The blackboard has an ejaculating penis. The drops leading to a shark whose eye looks like the final drop of semen. The shark is also facing a burning house. I can't begin to think what this means.

The Hangman on the word "evolution" which conflicts with what is over the chalkboard, progression of Man through evolution to the final stage what appears to be enlightened.

The lightening cleaving the brain separating the logical side from the creative.

The teleprompter which does not appear until the puppet morphs to Obama whose only word is "LOL".

And last but not least, the clock at 12 midnight.

Originally posted by Terminal1
... Also things of note in the classroom scene:

The Owl picture. A creature that can see in the dark above the map of the US, which incidentally has stick pins in New York City (9/11), New Orleans (Katrina), Oklahoma City (Murrah Building) and one in the Gulf (Deepwater Horizon).

Hey! Thanks for bringing this thread back to life. I exchanged a few emails with Louis. While I don't want to put words in Louis' mouth. I think the reason he included the pins on the map was to indicate that all of the tragedies that have befell our country -- 911, Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill -- have catalyzed the political divide and poisoned us with hatred and apathy. Basically the entire schoolroom scene is about things that are dualistic and the lotus blossom is meant to indicate we need to find a way to unify those differences. It's a timely message!