Mad Men:
One of the triumphant tv series' of our time, beloved by many for a multitude of reasons.
This lifelong armchair screenwriter and aspiring filmmaker (with a degree in said field) loved it for it's masterful craftsmanship and deeply complex characters. And, I also loved it as a Beatles/Manson researcher.
I'm not just talking about the superficial "Hey, Megan is wearing a Sharon Tate red star shirt" motifs. Whether intentional or not, there is a plethora of Beatles, Manson and even "Paul is dead" nodes woven into the rich tapestry of this show.
The central theme of this blog is looking at pop culture and world events through the lens of hardcore Beatles research, so this time, let's take a look into the Magnum Opus that is Matt Weiner's Mad Men.
With help from the wondrous K, and MK Ultrasound.
Obligatory spoiler warning.
Mr. Campbell... who cares?
"Where the Truth Lies"
May sound cliche or oversimplified, but it's deceptive simplicity is not only perfect for this show, but also for the inner mythologies and possible real stories of the world's most beloved band of the '60s.
Essentially, this show is all about Public Relations.
A facade covering up a lie, which conceals a deeper, almost unthinkable lie.
Not only because it centers around the lives of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, but also because throughout the series, we watch the main character present a false image to the world around him.
The protagonist is a talented, confident ad man, but he is living a lie. He has taken over the identity of a dead man; his Commanding Officer during the Korean War, whom he accidentally killed.
Why? To put it quickly and bluntly, he saw it as a way to escape his shitty past.
Regardless, followers of the "Paul is dead" legend will instantly recognize this motif.
Born Dick Whitman, to a whore who died during childbrith, named in anger after his father's dick, our protagonist, or, great American anti-hero, spent his adolescence in a whore house with his step-mother Abby and uncle Mack.
The name Richard brings to mind Ringo.
After returning from Korea, however, he takes over the identity of one Don Draper.
In episode 3, we get out first hint that 'Don Draper' may not really be Don Draper. This revelation subtly unfolds while Don becomes mesmerized by a VW Beetle ad.
Another main character in the office is the young account exec Pete Campbell, who is, of course, albeit naively, gunning for Don's job.
The "Paul is dead" legend claims McCartney was replaced by a man named William Campbell.
Towards the end of the first season it is of course Campbell who discovers that Don has stolen another man's identity. He attempts to use the information to blackmail Don.
Furthermore, the boss sometimes purposefully calls the ego-centric Pete by the name of Paul, another ad man at the agency, so as to annoy him by making him think he can't tell the two apart.
Another main character is Harry, (Harrison).
Harry & Paul look very similar.
The office manager is Joan Halloway. (female form of John)
Later in the series her married name becomes Joan Harris.
There will be a lot more to get into regarding the Tarot themes in the series, but I want to establish right off that Matthew Weiner is an admitted enthusiast, and his production company logo is even that of the Rider/Waite Sun card, which closes out every episode.
The iconic falling man during the opening credits also brings to mind the Tower Card.
There is also an obvious, well... to those looking, Kabbalah undercurrent throughout the series. As well as Babalon Working themes.
"When I watch Mad Men, I see The Babalon Working." - MK Ultrasound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working
The Babalon Working was a series Magickal ceremonies undergone by Jack Parsons, Marjorie Cameron and L. Ron Hubbard from January to March of 1946, in Parsons' hometown of Pasadena, Ca.
*Hubbard founded Scientology.
*Parsons founded Jet Propulsion Labs, which is used in every NASA launch. He was also head of the Southern California branch of the O.T.O, a Thelemic organization founded by European occultist Aleister Crowley.
*Marjorie Cameron was an artist and served as Parsons' Scarlet Woman during the Working.
The aim of the Babalon Working was to draw the spiritual essence of the Whore of Babalon into our world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon
The conception of a Magickal child was the other aim of the Babalon Working. This "Moonchild" would be the Thelemic Messiah for the Aeon of Horus, the era we are currently in, according to European occultists. Parsons claimed a physical child was not conceived, but the intended purpose was still fulfilled. In, what one could only assume, a non-physical entity or intelligence.
This concept is the subject Moonchild, a fiction written by Crowley, which also served as the inspiration for Rosemary's Baby. Both of which concern the creation of a Golem, or Homunculus.
Probably the most obvious nods to Kabbalah and the Babalon Working in Season 1 come in episode 6, titled Babylon.
In this episode we learn who the whores in this universe are - and it's quite interesting that it is Rachel, the Jewish woman, who refuses to indulge in such a lifestyle.
This is also the first episode in which we see a flashback to Dick's childhood at the whorehouse he grew up in.
Here we also learn that "Don's" wife Betty's first kiss was with a Jewish boy. Also, Don is assigned to create ads for the Israeli Tourism Bureau, headed by Lily Meyer.
Lily resonating with Lillith, the name of the Whore of Babalon.
The episode ends with Don at a beatnik cafe watching a young Jewish man singing a song titled By The Waters of Babylon. As the song continues playing over wrap-up scenes with the rest of the characters, we see Joan and Roger standing along side two pillars as they depart from their latest tryst. Suggestive of the two pillars of the Holy Temple and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
Roger's nickname for Joan is "Red" evoking The Scarlet Woman.
This is also when she dons a wildcat print overcoat.
The Strength card from the Rider/Waite Tarot deck and the Lust card from Crowley's deck.
Crowley's is a depiction of the Whore of Babalon riding atop The Beast.
She is the Scarlet Woman, the replacement handmaiden who has supplanted the exiled Shekinah, the Divine Feminine of the world. The Scarlet Harlot establishes an Empire of illusion in the Shekinah's place.
Much like the advertising industry.
In the next episode we see Dick as a little boy telling a hobo (exile) visitor that he's a whore-child.
Jack Parsons died in an explosion at his home in Pasadena.
Towards the end of Season 1, we learn the real Don Draper died in an explosion.
Set off accidentally when Dick dropped his lighter into leaked fuel. The two of them were alone, and this is when Dick Whitman switched dogtags with Don Draper and assumed his identity, allowing him his escape from Korea and his shameful past.
And, interestingly, the house used as the Draper(Dick/Don's) home is located in Pasadena.
Other standout moments of Season 1:
Paul enters a meeting late by explaining that somebody threw themself in front of the bus, to which Don replies, "Suicide!"
Later in that same episode, Paul takes Don's new secretary Peggy on an office tour. As he stops & stands in front of Campbell's office door, right next to Campbell's name placard, he makes fun of Campbell in a Rod Serling impersonation voice. He then states that if Twilight Zone were cancelled he would kill himself.
In the pilot episode, Campbell digs through Don's trash in hopes of stealing ideas.
This will also resonate with PID researchers, as they believe Campbell stole un-recorded songs of McCartney's after his alleged demise.
Needless to say, Don figured out what Campbell had done, but only asked him where he got his information and stated that "there aren't machines that make exact copies of things" - bringing to mind doppelgangers, etc.
I mentioned earlier that it is Campbell who learns of Don's stealing of another man's identity. Campbell acquired this knowledge by accident while sitting at Don's desk while Don & Peggy were away. The delivery boy assumed it was Don and gave him a package sent by Don's younger brother which contained Dick's dogtags and many family photos. Campbell was essentially impersonating Don at that moment.
Campbell does eventually attempt to blackmail Don, and it occurs on the day that Kennedy wins the U.S. Presidency. Great touch with Don & Campbell taking off their shoes while angrily racing each other into the boss's office to deal with the issue. McCartney is barefoot on the cover of the Abbey Road LP, which many take as a major death clue.
The night before, in this same episode, the co-workers discover a play Paul wrote, titled "Death Is My Client".
This happens while Campbell sits at home looking through the package delivered to Don.
While Don is getting to know Rachel, the Jewish woman, she takes him up to the roof of her department store at night and introduces him to her two dogs. This brings to mind the Moon Tarot card.
Regaling Don with childhood stories, Rachel mentions that "a dog is all a little girl needs."
The next day, Don buys his daughter a dog for her birthday, and what does she name it? Polly, or phonetically, Paulie. It's never spelled out, though the subtitles spell it Polly.
Interesting that in the next episode Paulie attacks one of the neighbors pet birds, who then threatens to shoot the dog.
The episode ends with the iconic scene of Betty shooting at the neighbor's birds.
Don's nickname for Betty is Birdy. The first of many "Betty will die" clues.
Betty is continually equated with Grace Kelly, who shares a birthday with Charles Manson.
The office is located on the 23rd floor of the building. 23 is the number associated with the Discordian movement.
Two interesting nodes in this season are the scandalous book Lady Chatterly's Lover and The Birth-Control Pill.
When reading books on The Beatles, these are the most commonly cited cultural upheavals of the late '50s/early '60s that preceded their advent and the lifestyles that were embraced there after.
Come Season 2, Don has promoted Peggy to copywriter. His new secretary's name?
Jane.
She is played by Peyton List, born on August 8th.
Mia Farrow got her start starring in the soap opera Peyton Place.
The Beatles took their iconic Abbey Road photo on August 8th. At that same time, Manson was telling his followers that, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Later that night, after midnight, they killed Sharon Tate and her guests.
Paul McCartney's live-in girlfriend from 1963-1968 was famous actress Jane Asher.
In this season Don also gets into a car accident, while distracted by his female passenger.
This is exactly how PID lore states McCartney died.
It should be noted that the Pete Campbell character does not drive.
Meanwhile, Paul grows facial hair and pretends to be interested in avant-garde art. For those unaware, this is exactly McCartney after the alleged death-date.
We also learn that Paul & Joan (coughJohn) once had a relationship, but now Joan can't stand him and mocks him for his hypocritical ways. Ahem! This hits right on the nose as to how PIDers describe Lennon & "Faul's" relationship.
Joan tells Paul that she is "not a phoney."
Campbell's father dies while onboard the famous American Airlines Flight 1 which crashed off the shores of NY just two minutes after take off.
The mother of McCartney's wife Linda Eastman died in this crash in real life.
Towards the end of the season, Don ditches his associates in LA and goes awol for about three weeks. Nobody knows where he is or if he's coming back. This also parallels a few moments in Beatle history, but most of all John Lennon's lost weekend with May Pang in 1973 - which was longer than just a weekend.
Additionally, PID myth alleges LA is where the real McCartney held his last press conference and later went missing.
While in LA, Don meets back up with the real Don Draper's widow, Anna, whom he has long since befriended.
Yes, there are a lot of girl's names in Beatles songs, and I could flip out over her name being Anna, here. Actually, I personally wouldn't for a number of reasons; it's a minor song in their catalog, it's a cover, etc. but fellow Beatles/Mad Men researcher K pointed out to me the syncnificance here. Namely, that the chorus to this song is "Anna, go to him."
Almost as if it's a song from the grave from real Don to Anna.
Given the circumstances, one wouldn't imagine that she would so readily & deeply befriend this man. But she does. Dick & Anna had even gotten married after they eventually met. Dick wanted to care for her financially.
Anna gives Don a Tarot reading. The result of which, Anna reveals, is that it is time for a resurrection in Dick/Don's life. He soon ceremoniously 'baptizes' himself in the ocean and returns to NY.
By now, active viewers of the show should be noticing the recurring themes of death & rebirth in this series. By now, I would go so far as to say it's not even the subtext, only.
Observant and esoteric-savvy fans of The Beatles should also recognize the same theme running throughout their entire work.
Listen to an analysis of Don's Tarot reading here.
From here on out, Mad Men becomes a true Tale of Two Cities, as the characters spend a lot of time in LA & NY.
NY is one letter off from OZ.
And when the English alphabet is folded in half, LA = OZ.
The Hebrew word for Strength is OZ. On the Tree of Life, as laid out by such European occult organizations as The Golden Dawn, the Strength card is attributed to the path between Chesed and Gevurah - the path that holds the Tree apart, establishing the false Empire.
The Left and Right paths of the Tree are said to represent the Two Pillars of the Holy Temple, Jachin & Boaz - the latter translates to "Established in Strength".
Malkhut, the lowest Sephirot, literally translates to Empire. She is pushed down, away from her rightful place in union with Tiferet/Beauty, by the Lillith the Scarlet Woman.
Tifaret is attributed to the Sun, also 666 according to the Babylonian Sun Square on which the Empire is built.
The Sun, the dawn/don. The Phallic energy, the Dick.
Oz, Babylon, Maya, the false Empire. Much like the world advertisements present us.
Pay no attention to the man behind the Drapes.
And then we have the Peg, represented by Peggy.
The Hebrew letter attributed to the Temperance card is Samekh, which translates to Peg.
Notice in Crowley's card the figure is half man, half woman. Much like tom-boy/not sure if she should be a man or a woman Peggy.
Notice the dawn rising in the Rider/Waite card.
The Temperance/Art card is attributed to the path which connects Tifaret and Yesod, the Foundation, which represents the genitals when the Tree correlates to the human body, or, The Adam Kadmon. This path also spans the width of the Tree, directly below the path of OZ/Strength, holding the foundation of the Empire in place.
The Hebrew letter attributed to Temperance/Art is Cheth which means bow. Peggy is the Bowman/Arroway.
Dick/Don & Peggy represent the phallic, solar energetics.
They are both Geminis. The two Lovers.
The Lovers is the only astrological association in the cards not having a direct corollary in the Vesica arrangement of the "Hero's Journey". It stands opposite Mars, The Tower.
(video on Crowley's Tarot Vesica arrangement by MK Ultrasound & I, here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avVj-2cMKm4
Significant in that this seems to be the basis of the show, with Don falling, apparently representing the inevitable collapse of Babel this time around, which occurs every 2000 years, as the desecrated temple, The World Trade Center. America as Rome, the inherited Empire/false replicant of Malkhut, the tip of the genitals, the crown of theTower.
Don's daughter Sally incidentally reads The Decline and Fall of Rome with Grandpa Gene.
The link between Dick/Don & Peggy is emphasized later in the series with Don's new secretary Dawn.
Season 2 revs up the Babylon Working themes full throttle.
The first half of the season is all about Campbell & his wife trying to conceive,
Paul trying to get the Defenders tv show about abortion aired,
Sterling/Cooper has to deliver their "stillborn" presentation to AA (American Airlines), which includes a going to the moon motif,
flashbacks to the birth of Peggy's baby,
the baby shower for Harry,
all while Don gets into his car accident - the very next scene being when Jane becomes his new secretary: the replacement handmaiden.
This is also when the office brings in younger writers.
They hire two young men, Smitty Smith and Kurt Smith.
2 Smiths, playing into the doubles motif.
During Don's motivational speech to the office about American Airlines he ends by adding, "Let's pretend we know what 1963 looks like." - the year Beatlemania hit.
He began it by encouraging his writers regarding the recent airplane crash, in which Pete's father died, with, "That crash happened to somebody else. Forget Cuba, forget The Bomb, we're going to the Moon."
This is also when the priest learns of Peggy's baby and gives her an Easter egg, while saying "For the little one."
Goo Goo G'joob!
Notice in Crowley's Temperance card, retitled Art, the Androgyne figure stands in front of the Orphic Egg.
After Don's auto accident, Peggy bails him out of jail with $110 of her own. 1 away from 111.
The Sgt. Pepper drum, when mirrored read 1ONE1X HE^DIE.
To top it all off, the events of this episode happen during April 8th-10th!
The dates Aleister Crowley received dictation for The Book of the Law.
The Book of the Law contains the law for this era, that of Thelema, the Aeon of Horus.
The priest who befriends Peggy is named Gill, which brings to mind fish.
The hebrew letter Nun means fish.
Nun is the letter attributed to the Death card.
Of course, the next episode is titled Maidenform.
Lots of Sirius stuff.
Duck's dog spends a day at the office, which inspires Pete to think about getting a dog for the office.
2 dogs.
Gotta love how Crowley's features the beetle pushing the sun.
Sirius, the dog star, the twin star.
Jane makes a reference to Lewis Carrol, author of Alice in Wonderland. The syncnificance here being that he first read it on the Isis River on 7/23, the day Sirius begins is heliacal rise, known as the Dog Days.
(Jane Asher played Alice)
We also have the twin towers in the Moon card, plenty of Sirius mojo going on with 9/11.
We meet Duck's two kids, and learn Bobbie has two kids.
Their ad for Playtex, which was conceived by Paul, involves one model posing as Jackie and Marilyn; two sides of the same woman.
black/white.
The bra is called The Harlequin.
At the Memorial Day event, Don's colleague says he's building a bomb shelter, they then have a Bikini show.
Splitting the Atom/Adam Kadmon.
Peggy creates an ad for Popsicle, focusing on the breaking of the twin-pop into two individuals.
Bobbie, while whoring with Don says, "This isn't my maiden voyage." and "You're a lion!"
She of course is also sporting a wildcat top.
Bobbie asks Don what he likes and he replies, "La Notte" a Michelangelo Antonioni film.
Read of the Beatles/Manson syncnificance of that here.
Don is compared to Gregory Peck from his role in the film Gentleman's Agreement.
Peck plays the adopted father of Satan's child in The Omen, and Nazi scientist Josef Mengele in The Boys From Brazil, in which he creates 94 Hitler clones in hopes of one of them becoming the new Fuhrer; meaning 93 of them will not.
93 is the number of Thelema.
Paul & Campbell are assigned to travel to the Pasadena/LA area to meet with rocket scientists and space travel lab corporations, including Jet Propulsion Labs, created by Jack Parsons.
Don takes Paul's spot on the trip and ends up hanging with 'the Beautiful People', the jet-set crowd sung about in Baby You're A Rich Man. The man he meets who invites him is named William.
Don & Campbell attend a seminar and learn about nuclear satellite warheads and genetically engineered ubermen, designed for space travel.
Read of the syncnificance of that here.
In the Zohar, it is indicated that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is ultimately meant to be contracted into itself to form the Seal of Solomon (3-dimensionally expressed as the star tetrahedron), being that the Tree, as it is currently communicated, is representative of the Split Adam, after the "fall".
Incidentally, Dick's brother is named Adam.
Adam hangs himself when Dick/Don does not want him in his life.
The bent knee and upside down position of the falling man during the intro also suggests The Hanged Man, symbolic of altering one's perceptions.
Peggy has her hair restyled by a German guy. Just as The Beatles did around this same time.
Joan gets very excited about a storyline in a soap opera in which someone who everyone thinks is dead turns out not to be.
Duck meets with his former British employers and informs them that now is a good time for them to buy Sterling/Cooper.
Alice Sterling is brought in to participate in the proceedings.
The season ends with Peggy and Betty dropping their baby bombs on the respective fathers.
We also get our first moments of Mad Men's preoccupation with Frank O'Hara's book
Meditations In An Emergency, which not only bookends the 2nd season, with appearances in between, but will come back into play in the series finale, albeit subtly.
Season 3 begins with Don taking a trip to Washington D.C. using his brother-in-law's suitcase, which has his name William Hofstad emblazoned on it. The flight attendants that have a fling with Don & his colleague think his name is William, so he & his colleague call him William, Billy & Bill throughout the entire episode.
*McCartney played the iconic Hofner violin bass.
PIDers refer to the alleged replacement as Billy and Bill.
We learn that Harry's newborn baby daughter is named Beatrice.
Joan marries into the Harris name.
Paul works with Madison Square Garden on their campaign to replace Penn Station with a nuclear plant. Paul & Campbell argue over the direction of the campaign.
In the very next scene Campbell is told they've lost the Campbell's Soup account. And later they lose the Madison Square Garden account, to which simply Don remarks to his secretary, "Tell Campbell Madison Square Garden is dead."
The biggest developments of this season however are
1) Don's wife Betty finds out about his real past.
2) The ad firm is bought by a British company. This is late '62 to early '63 (think British invasion).
3) Betty's father Gene dies and she gives birth to baby Gene.
4) The JFK shooting.
The CEOs from the London office that invade the office in America are Saint John Powell, Guy MacKendrick and Harold Ford. (Powell was Lennon's first wife's, Cynthia, maiden name).
Before they arrive, it's interesting that Roger mentions to Don that his father died in a car accident.
MacKendrick's foot gets run over by a John Deere lawn mower in the office which sprays blood everywhere.
Gotta love how the splatter shot focuses on Paul.
Saint John Powell is played by British actor Charles Shaughnessy, born on February 9th, 1955.
The anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964!
Have a Dr. Pepper!
Blood-soaked Joan explains what happened to Don, stating she thought Mac was going to die...
Interesting that it was Lane Pryce, one of the Brits, who insisted Don have a Pepper.
It was Mac being rendered incapacitated that forced the British firm to leave their man Lane Pryce as financial director for the NY office.
His name brings to mind Penny Lane.
In fact as financial director, he annoys the employees by his fussy "penny-pinching".
Beforehand, the British firm was planning on shipping Lane off to India. After being allowed to stay in NY he confides in Don, quoting Tom Sawyer, that he had "seen his own funeral."
Lane Pryce's father is played by William Morgan Sheppard!
The other name given to McCartney's "replacement" is William Sheppard.
We know Jared Harris from his role as John Lennon in the film Two Of Us.
The whole MacKendrick incident occurs while Don's daughter Sally is tripping out on how Baby Gene's presence feels to her like he's a replacement for Grandpa Gene.
There is a scene after Grandpa Gene's death when they mention that at his bank he was Gene #2.
A definite British theme running in this season, as they also work on the London Fog account.
In another episode, Paul is burning the midnight oil, trying to come up with an idea for Western Union. He runs into the janitor, who happens to be named Achilles of all names.
Achilles inadvertently helps Paul have an Aha! moment, and when Paul thanks him, Achilles replies, "Your whole face changed."
Interesting in light of the PID arguments, as well as the thought that McCartney's face could be considered his Achilles heel.
And of course, I can't help but see the parallel, or sync, in Mac's foot getting lawnmowered & Achilles.
This happens simultaneously with Don's wife discovering his box of evidence, containing old Whitman family photos, his & real Don's dogtags, his divorce papers with Anna and the deed to the house he bought her.
"A box of evidence" will ring familiar with PID followers. McCartney's former wife Heather Mills, who was also a model, like Betty, claimed in a notorious interview that she had a box of evidence that contained an ambiguous "truth the world can't handle."
Betty found the box in his locked desk drawer. Don inadvertently left the key to it in his robe pocket, when he went upstairs to tend to the crying baby Gene.
The 'key' could equate here to an 'album clue'.
Gene was the key.
Once people know, they see it.
Also interesting that Betty was filling in her gaps of knowledge concerning her husband's past by imagining and making up her own stories. Much like PIDers do to the "Paul/Faul" story.
While Betty is processing Dick/Don's truth, Paul is distraught that his coworkers are always upstaging him and having to do his work for him - another footnote to the PID yarn.
In the episode titled Seven Twenty Three, Don is forced by his boss (who knows of his real identity thanks to Campbell) to sign a contract in order to please Conrad Hilton.
Note the date, 7/23, hence the title of the episode.
A fine point was put on that number in this episode.
723 is a permutation of the infamous 237, a highly significant number not only to Stanley Kubrick, but to the esoteric world at large.
Also notice he lives on 42 Bullet Park Road. 2 x 3 x 7 = 42.
Dick's father died at age 42.
Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) was born on 7/24, they day after Sirius begins it heliacal rise. One off from 723. Interesting in that the Greek gematrical value of Scarlett Woman is 667, one off from 666 the number of the Beast via the Babylonian Sun Square.
In this same episode, Don picks up a hitch-hiking young couple. At their motel, they drug, beat and rob him. After returning, we see him sporting a bandaged nose. Bringing to mind Jack "Room 237" Nicholson in Polanski's Chinatown, but more on that later.
This is when he is blackmailed into signing the contract.
The Dick, the Peg and the Dowell.
In another episode from this season we learn that Joan's address is also 42!
Seven Twenty Three is also the first Mad Men episode to play with the linearity of time.
The episode also occurs during a solar eclipse. Draping the Dawn.
The episode ends with the song 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Williams which begins with the lyrics "Some people say a man is made of mud."
In some legends, the Golem is made of clay.
Though often a Golem would be a political movement or societal change.
Even The Beatles ended similarly. McCartney's solo album was released in 1970 before the Beatles broke up.
And of course Rosemary's Baby ends with the baby.
What was happening at the office while Don was first meeting Conrad Hilton for the first time?
Peggy & Paul were working on the Bacardi Rum account, Peggy complete in red blouse.
Redrum was the name of the top racehorse of the '70s.
Where did Don meet Hilton for the first time? At a horse derby.
This is also when Peggy tries marijuana for the first time - with Paul.
It was her student Charlie who brought up the concept.
Interesting that I saw this episode just a few days before "The Dress" thing hit the internet.
(Suzanne is played by Abigail Spencer. She looks almost exactly like my friend Susanna, whose sister, also my friend, is named Abigail. One of our biggest connections was our mutual fondness for the '60s) O.o
All this while they are working with a dog food company who needs to change their PR due to getting herangued by the press for using horse meat.
Her bottom line is, "Don't change the name, don't change the product" ahemPIDmyth.
It's too late though, and Don convinces her "the name has been poisoned."
This is all subtle context for Don's life and what's coming next, sure. But a very tantalizing parallel for Beatles researchers, nonetheless, at the very least.
Perceptions, names...
This happens as Betty reads The Group by Mary McCarthy.
(McCartney's mother was named Mary).
Then there's also the scene with Campbell, in proximity here, arguing with his secretary over real hot chocolate and the imitation water & powder kind.
The firm works on an imitation version of Ann Margret's famous Bye Bye Birdie segment from the film of the same name.
Which also serves as another "Betty will die" clue.
Which lends itself to a good time to get into the Isis & Osiris motifs.
In Egyptian mythology, Isis needed to collect all of her husband Osiris' dismembered body parts. She found all of them except his phallus. She fashioned one out of gold, or wood, depending on the interpretation, attached it to him and proceeded to turn herself into a bird, hovering over him they conceived their son Horus.
When Don informs Bert Cooper of the selling of Sterling/Cooper, he replies with "Did Hilton tell you when this blessed event is taking place?" evoking more childbirth motifs.
Betty finally confronts Don about his past on the night before Halloween. Interesting because masks...
We are of course also just a few weeks before JFK is shot.
Roger's daughter's (Alchemical) wedding is on the day of the JFK's shooting. Curious, in season 7 she will join a hippie commune...
The day after Kennedy's death, shortly after Lee Harvey OZwald is shot, Betty tells Don she wants a divorce.
When we see Campbell & his wife watching the news, he is in a black turtleneck sweater.
With The Beatles was released the same day JFK was shot, complete with black turtleneck sweaters.
Also, gotta love the timing, shortly before, of Joan clocking her husband over the back of his head with a vase.
Her husband even looks a little like JFK.
Back and to the left...
Roger says, "Three months after Roosevelt died we bombed Japan, that's how we got over it."
The Beatles invaded America via JFK Airport three months after JFK died (77 days to be exact;
on 2/7 = 77). A young new energy to fill the void left by JFK's energy.
77 is the Gematrical value of the Hebrew word OZ.
OZwald. Jack Ruby. After JFK was shot, his driver turned onto Route 77. The car's license plate was GG-300. G is the 7th letter of the English alphabet. GG = 77.
And as the value of OZ/Strength, Crowley uses it in the Star of Babalon sigil.
"The Seal upon the Ring of IT."
7/7 is Ringo Starr's birthday.
The major underlying theme of the second half season, leading up to the assassination of JFK, seems to be the elite playing everyone else like string puppets.
Big Tobacco CEO Lee Garner jr. (rhythmically akin to Lee Harvey Oswald) forces Harry to fire art director Sal (the name of HAL's counterpart).
Garner jr. tried to proposition Sal while he was editing the film for a Lucky Strike commercial (think JFK Zapruder film).
Conrad Hilton plays Don like a fiddle.
Bert Cooper blackmails Don into signing the contract.
The British CEOs have their way with Sterling/Cooper and Lane Pryce.
Also, as we meet Lane Pryce we meet his mancretary Mr. Hooker, which is when we simultaneously meet Don's new fling Suzanne. One of her most memorable moments is when she has a star sticker on her face.
Bringing to mind Crowley's switching of the attributions of The Star and The Emperor cards as cryptically instructed by Aiwass, thus restoring the Zodiacal balance to the Major Arcana.
"The Tzaddi is not the Star" - Aiwass
The Hebrew letter Tzaddi had originally been attributed to The Star card, while Heh had been attributed to The Emperor. After decades of contemplating Aiwass' words, Crowley finally saw that Tzaddi belonged to the Emperor. Tzaddi translates to Hook.
Hooker suggesting more prostitute themes.
Suzanne dons the starr sticker in the episode titled The Gypsy and the Hobo. Which is what Sally & Bobby went as for Halloween, but can also refer to Suzanne & Don.
Notice Sally has a black tear on her cheek in the same place Suzanne wears her sticker.
Back to the Dick and Peg motifs.
Don first meets Sally's teacher during the student's Spring Maypole dance. Don is equated as a Maypole in this series, in the Freudian sense, with him being named after his father's dick, and the sheer myriad of sexual relationships in his life.
Season 4 may skip over the British Invasion of the pop music kind, but it's interesting that as Season 3 ended with JFK, this season begins with a staged event.
What am I alluding to? The season premiered on July 25th, 2010.
The Apollo 11 Moon Mission returned to earth on July 24th, 1969.
Now, like any good production, we seem to have 3 of the Big 4 conspiracies residing relatively subtly within the subtext.
Campbell & Peggy stage a fight between two women over a Sugarberry Ham with hopes of generating public interest in the product.
During the scene in which they plot the fight, Peggy says of the ham, "This will send my mother over the moon." Campbell says, "It's as subtle as an A-bomb."
This is all while Campbell is bringing in the North American Aviation account, who works with NASA.
They also consider paying a crowd of women to line up for the hams, which parallels Ed Sullivan's people paying crowds of girls to line up and scream when the Beatles landed in America.
Remember, the actor that plays Don Draper is named John Hamm.
In the next episode, Don insults the men from Jentzen Bikini for being too conservative.
The split Adam/Atom.
Don is tracked down by the Department of Defense when his firm attempts to land the North American Aviation account. They have begun investigating Don and he is terrified that they will discover his identity theft. And of all things, this episode is bookended by the Beatles, as Don buys tickets for his daughter Sally to see The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
The episode begins with Don telling his daughter he is taking her to see The Beatles, and in the very next scene we meet Lane's father William Morgan Sheppard. The third scene consists of Joan telling Roger she is pregnant with his child - remember they are the affair we learned about in the Babylon episode.
Don turns to Campbell for help in calling off the investigation.
Don mistakes two men for D.O.D. agents, they ask for 110 Waverly, one away from 111.
While discussing NAA, who is partnered with NASA, there is also talk of bombs, going to the moon and Pasadena.
This episode, which is all about The Beatles, stolen identity, Sheppard and the Whore child ends with The Beatles song Do You Want To Know A Secret.
Don returns to LA and visits Anna once again. She tells him of her experience seeing a UFO.
Enjoy this well-made, must-see video on the correlation between A-bombs and the advent of the UFO age & Roswell.
The Book of the Law was dictated, as Crowley claims, by an extra-dimensional being by the name of Lam. Crowley's sketch of him strongly resembles what later became the well-known image of the Grey Alien.
Former Sterling/Cooper employee Duck Phillips now works for Grey Advertising.
Anna lives in San Pedro, her niece lives in Pasadena. Don drives the niece home from Anna's which means he takes Interstate 110.
A few episodes later Anna dies of cancer. What struck me at first about Anna was how much she reminded me of a cross between Linda McCartney and Cynthia Lennon.
Linda died of cancer in 1998, and Cynthia died of cancer shortly after I saw this episode.
Peggy attends an artsy film-screening at Washington Square and meets this filmographer wearing a Beatles Pierre Cardin suit.
The other man is Abe, who becomes Peggy's boyfriend, remember him later when he gets stabbed.
Meanwhile, Campbell learns his wife is pregnant and Roger insults the Japanese men from Honda, bringing up the A-bombing of Japan a number of times.
America bombed Nagasaki on August 9th, Sharon Tate's death day.
Read my Sharon Tate post here.
And what number was the Bomber which dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki emblazoned with?
The firm stages the fake filming of a Honda moped commercial. Remember, this is in 1965, the same year McCartney had his alleged infamous moped accident that scarred his upper lip.
Though it is doubtful that the accident occurred, for more on that, read here.
Don's elderly secretary dies at her desk right as his daughter, the Beatles fan, shows up at his work.
Don's previous secretary was named Jane, resonating with McCartney's actress girlfriend Jane Asher. After the elderly secretary died, his new one, Megan, is an actress, from Canada.
Most PIDers believe McCartney's replacement is from Canada.
There are two pillars in the new office. One stands right in the middle of Campbell's office. He even runs into it, bloodying his nose at one point.
In this season we also find Don & the firm scrambling to put a positive PR spin on an inflammatory anti-tobacco article Don wrote after they lost Lucky Strike, both of which mar the reputation future of the firm, or it's and face, if you will.
Which all rings too familiarly with the McCartney's scarred lip and Lennon's Jesus comments, which occurred around this same time.
Sally's neighbor & friend Glen Bishop looks remarkably like little-boy Stanley Kubrick. In one episode, while phoning Sally, he identifies himself as Stanley.
Glen is played by show creator Matt Weiner's son.
Kubrick used his daughter Vivian in 2001: A Space Odyssey to play the daughter of the National Aeronautics Committee director Heywood Floyd - which many take to signify Floyd being the director, Kubrick's surrogate, of the film Bowman finds himself in.
Glen wears his football uniform. #92. One away from 93, the number of Thelema.
There are also 92 total episodes in the entire series.
Another sync wync by Weiner, essentially inserting himself as the storyteller into the story?
Glen's mother drives this VW Beetle.
Some interesting Biblical themes.
We see flashbacks of when Don began working at Sterling/Cooper. He was working as a fur coat salesman when he met Roger. Roger kept calling him "the fur guy". Jacob wore fur on his arms to trick his then blind father Isaac into believing he was Esau, his twin brother. The name Jacob means "usurper" or "impersonator".
Sally cuts her hair and immediately afterwards Don's firm begins working on a campaign for Samsonite luggage.
Season 4 also introduces us to the paintings on the walls of Roger's office.
Sea of Holes, anyone?
Season 5 is quite a humdinger.
It opens with Don's new wife Megan throwing him a surprise birthday party. First thing we learn here is that Don Draper's birthday is June 1st. He's a Gemini.
It's also important to note that Sgt. Pepper's was released on June 1st.
His wife sings Zou Bisou Bisou to him at the party. It was written in 1960 by songwriter Bill Shepherd, and the first recording of it, by Sophia Loren, was recorded by Beatles producer George Martin.
Also notice the zebra pillow staged between Don & Megan.
Remember, Sharon Tate was killed next to a zebra rug. More on Tate later.
Later in the episode they lay on it, and talk about how messy their white carpet has gotten...
More on their white carpet and Tate allusions later.
Don attends a Rolling Stones concert in hopes of getting them to be in a commercial. While talking to a young Brian Jones fan backstage he stands next to this poster with the date Aug 8.
August 8th, 1969 is the day The Beatles took their iconic photo crossing Abbey Road. That same day Manson told his followers that, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Later that night after midnight, technically the 9th, is when they killed Sharon Tate.
In this same episode, Don's ex-wife Betty thinks she has terminal cancer.
(Brian Jones died in 1969, the year the PID rumor went viral).
A beetle rolling a stone gathers no Moss.
Twin Peaks' Shelly Johnson, played by Madchen Amick, guest starrs in episode 3. She plays a former lover of Don's. Don hallucinates during a fever that he kills her and shoves her under the bed.
It then cuts to his daughter sleeping under the couch.
(One shot of Don stirring in his bed during the fever was played in reverse much like the scenes in Twin Peaks' Black Lodge. Mad Men creator Matt Weiner says he's a huge Twin Peaks fan).
This was of course the first time The Beatles allowed one of their songs to be used in a tv show. Starr & McCartney gave Mad Men permission because they said they like the show. (Weiner states this in an interview).
In another episode we see Don whistling I Want To Hold Your Hand, which also required permission.
This is when Joan's husband leaves her. Later, she smashes the airplane in anger because she was served her divorce papers. Tying these two scenes together.
Don tells Joan she got so many flowers he thought she was dating Aly Kahn, then later sends her flowers with a card saying, "From Aly Kahn".
Aly Kahn married Rita Hayworth.
Season 6 cover. Two Dons
This season begins with Don creating an ad for a Hawaiian resort with a theme of death/rebirth and starting a new life.
Moreover, if Season 6 had it's own title it could be The Polanski/Tate Show.
This season takes place mostly in 1968. The gang of course goes to see Rosemary's Baby, and Peggy bases a commercial on it.
Sally reads the novel as an elderly African-American woman breaks into the apartment, and while stealing their valuables, tries to convince Sally & Bobby that she's their grandma/Don's nanny.
Bobby asks, "Are we Negroes?"
Manson's intent with the Tate/LaBianca murders was to frame the Black Panthers in hopes of inciting a race war.
Bobby's pajamas feature a racecar with the number 77.
Sally is called to testify in court about the burglery on December 1st. Crowley's death day.
In the next episode, Megan is taping her soap opera in which she plays twins. She wears this red onesie, very reminiscent of the red onesie Rosemary wears when she is drugged and raped by Satan.
Megan's getup is even complete with Tannis root earrings, much like the Tannis root necklace given to Rosemary.
In the next scene Peggy stabs her boyfriend, thinking he was an intruder.
He was also stabbed before, a little earlier by street assailants.
The very next scene we see Megan in a red star shirt made famous by Sharon Tate in her shoot with Esquire Magazine, which was shot on the set of Rosemary's Baby.
Notice Peggy's boyfriend and Megan are both in their underwear here.
The paramedics cut Abe's t-shirt, the shape of the cut resembles the top point of a star.
A point seems to be made to link Abe & Megan here.
This all happens while the Beatles were recording The White Album, which was not only hugely inspirational for Manson's views, but as MK Ultrasound has discovered, syncs up with the film Rosemary's Baby flawlessly.
The elderly lady broke into Don's apartment while he & his crew were spending the entire weekend at work hopped up on meth, which was administered to them by a doctor friend. Dr. Robert, anyone?
It was meth that Manson's followers were on the nights they committed the murders.
Next, the firm lands an account with Ocean Spray.
The name Rosemary means 'Dew of the sea' - ocean spray.
Mia Farrow also starred as the voice of The Last Unicorn, in which she has to save all of the other unicorns from their curse as being trapped as the ocean spray/dew of the sea.
Betty tells Sally a story of her college years and mentions she lived in Rosemary Hall.
Peggy decides to base a commercial on Rosemary's Baby. It is for St. Joseph's medicine.
St. Joseph, the father of Jesus.
While pitching the idea to Don, they have him play the baby. Surprisingly he plays along and even cries "Whaa, whaa."
While pitching the idea, Peggy says, "You really need to feel the conspiracy."
Their big concern was whether or not there was an Asian at the end of Rosemary's Baby, which brings up my finding that Lolita's baby and Rosemary's baby are for all intents & purposes one in the same.
In Asia the English letters L and R are ambiguous. Rosemary's husband calls her Ro, Humbert calls Lolita Lo - making the two women interchangeable. Ro's baby is Lo's baby (much more on that here).
Lolita was played by Sue Lyon.
The episode is bookended with Don on his couch in the fetus position.
During a flashback scene to Dick as a boy, he fixates on this baby photo on the mirror of the whore who took care of him when he was sick.
The closing song is none other than The Porpoise Song by The Monkees.
Roman Polanski was working on the film Day of the Dolphin the day Sharon Tate was killed.
Kubrick has Alex's rape & murder victim in a red onesie as he sings Singin' In the Rain.
In an earlier season, Betty mentioned Singin' In the Rain is her favorite film.
If all this wasn't enough to evoke the concept of creating a Golem; of all things, after taking his grandson to see Planet of the Apes, Roger mentions that his father took him to see,
of all movies, The Golem.
The Golem was made by the same people who would next make Metropolis, the most overtly Kabbalistic/European occultist film of all time. Most notably due to the android handmaiden impersonating the Shekinah figure.
While at a party in the Hollywood Hills, Don smokes hashish and while tripping, sees Megan who claims to be pregnant, he then sees himself drowned in the swimming pool.
Sharon Tate is submerged in water in all of her films, read more on that in my Sharon Tate thread.
Before heading out to Laurel Canyon, the camera pans down to this shot, the first car we see is the red VW Beetle. And to drive the point home, the camera then cuts to this shot with another Beetle.
While at the party, they meet a hippie woman named Lotus, tying back into Lakshmi the Hare Krishna, The Hindi Lakshmi stands in a Lotus flower.
In another episode, at the front door of Don's Central Park apartment building (think Dakota), Don's daughter and her friend tell the neighbor boy that he looks like rock musician Mark Lindsey of Paul Revere & the Raiders.
In the 2007 film on Mark David Chapman, Chapter 27, Mark Lindsey Chapman played the role of John Lennon.
Sally's friend is named Julie. Lennon's mother was named Julia. Sally & Julie are representing The Philippines in the Model U.N. The Beatles' most notoriously disastrous visit was to The Philippines.
The doorman of Don's building died of a heart attack in the opening scene of this season's premiere episode. He was revived by the boy's father, Mr. Rosen.
We then see Don & Megan in Hawaii, and of aaalll things, the MC of the dinner entertainment tells them that the Hawaiian word for delicious is "Ono", he then makes a joke saying, "Ono, I'm not gonna eat that!"
Remember, Chapman was from Hawaii.
Don returns and wants the doorman to tell him what it was like to be dead.
The Eagles released Hotel California on December 8th, 1976. When played backwards, at the 2:37 mark, we hear, "John Lennon by himself", which forwards is, "Last thing I remember, I was running for the door." Which describes Lennon's last moments.
This takes place during early-mid December.
During this same episode, Sally's other friend Sandy (think Hook) goes to see The Nutcracker with them. The part we see is The March of the Wooden Soldiers, which takes place directly after March of the Columbine. And to push this school shooting theme home, in this same episode, Peggy calls Butler Shoes and asks Abe, "What time is it in Colorado?"
Mr. Rosen asks Don to give him a Laika Camera (think "shooting").
While having an affair with Mrs. Rosen, Don hides her cross necklace while they f.
We have Rosemary's Baby, the Golem, etc. Now where's Horus?
Ken Cosgrove the paperback writer, is assigned to the Chevy account and thus spends a lot of time in Detroit. The car men take him for a drive and cause him to get into an accident.
Remember, the PID rumor went viral in Detroit, on Crowley's birthday.
Later they take him hunting and accidentally shoot him in the eye, rendering him a Cyclops. If that wasn't enough of a Horus resonator, remember one of Ken's biggest accounts all these years has been Birdseye Foods.
Ken is fired and all of his accounts are taken over by Campbell.
The Eye of Horus, the Falcon.
We also had an eyepatch precursor with the poster of Moshe Dayan, just a couple episodes prior.
Season 6 also introduces us to the second man of this series to be hiding a secret past; the amiable, but mysterious Bob Benson. And of all people to learn of this fraud, of course it's Campbell. However, this time he decides not to go to anybody about the information. Though he does go to Bob with it and uses it as a safeguard against backstabbing.
Wanting to show Campbell he can't be kept under his thumb, he sets him up for humiliation in front of the Chevy guys in Detroit. Knowing Campbell cannot drive a manual transmission, he asks him to test drive the new car in the showroom. Campbell accidentally puts the car in reverse and knocks over the GM '69 sign.
Remember the PID rumor that Paul died in a car went viral in Detroit in '69.
Interestingly, Benson helps Campbell find a caretaker for his dementia-suffering mother. The caretaker ends up marrying Campbell's mother and throwing her off a cruise ship. Campbell's mother becomes the dew of the sea.
At summer camp, Don's son mentions that amongst the other Bobbys at camp, he is Bobby #5. Playing into the theory that there were multiple McCartneys.
Also intriguing that Bobby mentions that there is no Bobby #1 anymore.
If that weren't enough, Bobby then immediately teaches Don & Betty the song Father Abraham Had Many Sons. -I put an extra fine point on this because Don surprisingly goes along with Bobby's encouragement to sing along. Something he normally would not do.-
The ancient Kabbalist book Sefir Yetzirah states that the instructions on creating a Golem were first entrusted to Abraham.
It's also important to remember there were multiple actors that played Bobby in this series. They even alternated back & forth a couple times, early on. Also playing into the theory that the multiple McCartneys rotated in & out of the spotlight.
The firm lands an account with Sunkist Orange Juice.
The clock reads 9:11 as Stan pitches the idea to Don of relocating to LA to work on the account.
However, it is Don who is chosen to relocate to LA, even though Ted pleads to be the one chosen.
Later, Don decides to stay and let Ted go to LA instead.
The syncnificance of this is the enigmatic motif of trading places, oranges and 9/11.
The most notable example is the film Trading Places, which is all about stock market shares in Orange Juice.
Interestngly in Trading Places, we have Frank Oz throwing Dan Akroyd's character into jail. When Eddie Murphy's character rescues him, Akroyd launces into a Dorothy-esque "It was all a dream. And you were there, and you were there..." speech - his long dark night of the soul was bookended by OZ.
Then we have the Supertramp album Breakfast In America, which when mirror-flipped, features a 9-11 behind the WTC Towers with the waitress holding a glass of orange juice over the Towers.
Their other album is titled Crime Of The Century.
Re-emphasizing here the importance of NY being one letter off from OZ, and LA correlating to OZ.
And if that weren't enough, the firm is also highly involved with Chevy in Detroit, the city with the sports teams the Lions and the Tigers. This season takes place in 1968 during the Chicago riots, which are features in the show. The Chicago football team is the Bears. So we have Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
They had to drop Ocean Spray because of it's competition with Sunkist. Originally, they were going to drop Sunkist, since they were already working with Ocean Spray before they were approached by Sunkist, but, as we see, they traded places.
And though Don does stay in NY, Megan moves Laurel Canyon/LA.
Also interesting that Campbell visits the Sunkist orange groves outside LA, bringing to mind Jack Nicholson doing the same in Chinatown. We even have the Eye of Horus motif in both.
Ginsberg wants to trade the orange couch in the lounge for the couch in one of the offices.
Which creates a great time to plug a well-done recap series on Mad Men titled The Orange Couch.
In the Beatles film Help! Ringo attacks his assailants by shooting oranges at them, and while shrunk, Paul hides in an ashtray and bathes in orange juice. fwiw
At one point in this season, the firm is secretly working on going public on the stock market. At first they are told they can begin their Public Offering at $9 a share. However, it turns out they able to start with $11 a share. This is the same episode in which Roger hangs out at the airport with his airport-employee friend Daisy looking for auto execs to hustle.
HAL sang the song Daisy as he was being disconnected.
Roger does land an account with Chevy, which leads to the firm merging with their rival firm. So now we have the two young superstar pillars of the Madison Avenue ad world coming together.
Interesting that Don crashes to floor after his meth weekend in the episode titled The Crash, and Don takes Ted down on two occasions. Once by getting him drunk, which leads to Ted falling onto the table in the Creative lounge and unable to sit up. And a second time during the pitch meeting with St. Joseph's for the Rosemary's Baby ad, when he humiliated Ted in front of everyone.
Ted & Don fly to Detroit in Ted's personal plane.
Later, Ted takes the Sunkist execs up in his plane and cuts the engine mid-flight.
Incidentally, the clock reads 9:11 once again in this episode titled The Crash.
The penultimate episode of Season 6 is titled The Quality of Mercy, bringing to mind the Sephirot of Chesed, which translates to Mercy and represents the right pillar of the Tree of Life.
Gevurah, the Sephirot which represents the Left pillar, translates to Judgment, which seems to come into play in the season finale when Don is put on leave.
Other outstanding moments of Season 6.
During a manic episode, Ginsberg spouts, "Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." A quote from the Bhagavad Gita, which was used by Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the Atomic Bomb, while witnessing the first A-bomb detonation known as the Trinity test.
Which is written on the helmet of Animal Mother in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
An I-Ching user, Wendy, makes her way into the show.
Stan works in secret on a campaign for Heinz Ketchup, which is called Project K. I can't help but think of Magick with a K. Interestingly, while Don & Stan discuss ideas in the private office set aside for the campaign, the song People I Haven't Met Yet by the group Blue Sandelwood Soap plays on the radio. They are from the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
Their ad campaigns for Heinz focus on Heinz's Ketchup being the only real ketchup, while the catsup offered by other brands is the imitation.
Ironically, they also work on Fleischmann's margarine, where they focus on convincing the public that margarine is just as good as butter.
I also couldn't help but notice the similarity in the angle of Don's & Peggy's ads in 1968 and the blank cover of The White Album.
With Ketchup, the Chevy XP and Koss Headphones, they do not show the product in the ad.
By the end of Season 6, we have a total of 78 episodes, which is the number of cards in a Tarot deck.
Each season contains 13 episodes; the 12 around the 1. The full circle.
Sharon Tate's first film, Eye of the Devil, is all about the 12 around the 1.
Her last film is titled 12 + 1, aka 13 Chairs.
Mia Farrow & Keir Dullea (2001's Bowman) starr in the film Full Circle, aka The Haunting of Julia, which was initially released in Spain on 9/11/77.
It then went full circle around the world and was released in America on 9/11/81, 9 months after Lennon's death.
Read my post on Full Circle here.
Season 7 is split into two half-seasons of 7 episodes each; which gives us the 77, the pathway of OZ/Strength between Chesed & Gevurah which holds the Tree in place, which is the Empire, the illusory world.
78 cards which are followed by 7 & 7, which also gives us 14, so the Peg/Samekh, as card 14, is added.
They went through every card then sealed it with Pan, the ALL.
Despite the detour, the ritual becomes a success, just as Liber Samekh played out for Crowley.
Season 7
The final season.
Anna's niece Stephanie phones Don from LA informing him that she's 7 months pregnant. This is in June, 1969 - meaning she'll be 9 months pregnant in August, the same as Sharon Tate.
Notice the Capitol Records tower behind her.
The Beatles' American record company.
Sally has the same Charlie Brown calendar on her wall that is seen in Sharon Tate's last film, which was filmed & released in 1969.
Interesting that the two times we see this calendar in Mad Men are when the characters are talking about dying moms.
Harry walks into Cutler's office to find him reading the book The American Way of Death.
Also notice the zebra rug on the floor.
And look who now has a nose bandage.
This occurs as the firm gets an IBM 360 computer installed at the office.
The episode is titled The Monolith.
And just as NY is one letter of from OZ, IBM is one letter of from HAL.
IBM makes a few appearances in 2001:ASO. Most notably here on the Monolith-shaped button on Bowman's suit.
IBMs were used by the Nazis during the Holocaust to keep records on the Jews of Europe, which was a huge aid in rounding them up for concentration camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
Remember Ginsberg stated he was born in a concentration camp.
He goes insane when the IBM is installed in the office, culminating in a tinfoil hat-style rant and cutting off his right nipple, which he claimed released the pressure of the data waves flooding his body which emanated from the IBM. He is then rolled out of the office strapped to a stretcher headed for the nut house.
So here we have Concentration Camp Boy being driven insane by the IBM which was overtly equated to the Monolith by Matt Weiner.
The episode was stuffed with 2001:ASO motifs, most notably a lip-reading scene.
There were a lot of nipple/breast motifs in this episode. Don's son goes on a field trip to a farm where they milk cows, Betty even drinks the raw milk. Also, the teacher is noticeably not wearing a bra and flaunting it, the mothers even comment on it.
And keeping with the 2001:ASO themes, Don goes to the theatre to see Model Shop, starring Gary Lockwood, who played Frank Poole.
Our first shot of the film features a red VW Beetle.
We also learn Don's replacement has been working on a comic strip about a monkey.
The lead monkey from 2001 is named Moonwatcher, and is played by Daniel Richter, who was a close friend of John Lennon. He was director of photography for Lennon's Imagine video.
Also, as this is all taking place, Roger's daughter has joined a hippie commune.
If the Manson/Tate themes weren't heavy enough, the night Roger stays at the commune, he & his daughter sleep outside and talk about the moon and her childhood memory of him reading her Jules Verne's From The Earth To the Moon.
We also meet Campbell's LA girlfriend Bonnie Whiteside.
Jack Parsons' real full name is Marvel Whiteside Parsons.
The day after the Apollo moon landing, Peggy pitches an ad to Burger Chef, using the event as the preface to her pitch.
Remember the Temperance Tarot card lies along the path from the Sun to the Moon on the European Tree of Life.
Don's marriage to Megan ends the day of the Moon landing and the next day Roger sells the firm to McCann/Erikson.
Both of Don's marriages, and his firm, dissolved on both the day JFK was killed and during the Moon landing.
Neve Campbell cameo in the season premiere.
She tells Don the story of her husband's death.
Shortly afterwards, Don meets up with a creative exec from a rival firm - who could pass as his doppelganger.
Don eventually is allowed to come back to work at the firm. He is given the late Lane Pryce's office. Don finds Lane's Mets pennant and hangs it on his wall, keeping the Shea Stadium theme alive.
In this scene Don says to Rumsen:
The Hebrew word MET (MT) means death.
The Hebrew word EMET (AMT) is written on the head of the Golem to bring it to life. When the maker is through with the Golem, he erases the Aleph (A) which leaves MET - Death.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Golem.html
Aleph, Mem and Tav are the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The firm is asked by Topaz Pantyhose to design an imitation version of the L'eggs egg packaging.
In the second half of Season 7, we meet an airline stewardess who has become well acquainted with Don as he commutes back-n-forth from NY to LA to visit Megan. She tells Don how she hates Megan.
Later, Don invites her home and she spills red wine on the white carpet Megan picked out and loved so much - looking very much like blood splatter.
In fact, much like during the final scenes of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
The stewardess in her underwear, resembling Tate in her bikini the night she was killed.
Megan's Hollywood agent mentions he also represents Angie Dickenson, who was famous for playing Sgt. Pepper Anderson in the '70s tv show Police Woman.
She also had an appearance in the '70s tv movie Ringo.
Harkening back to themes of Rachel the Jewish woman who wouldn't be a whore in the Babylon episode and Joan the scarlet woman, who whores herself out in the episode titled The Other Woman:
Don has a dream in which Rachel crashes an audition, the introduction she is given is, "This is another girl."
The Shekinah and the Whore of Babylon.
Don meets a waitress, Diana, whom he forms an odd relationship with. When we first see her, she has the book The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos in her apron.
He meets Diana at a diner named Olympia. She stands next to this painting of the Greek Parthanon. Bringing to mind Diana of Roman mythology (Artemis of Greek).
The Goddess of the Moon and of Childbirth.
She is also the archer Goddess of the hunt. The Bowman/Arroway (Peggy)
and the twin sister of Apollo (the Sun God, Don).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)
Diana's sanctuary was Lake Nemi, aka Diana's Mirror.
Diana is the first woman Don has tried to hook up with that is his equal in inner torment. His mirror if you will.
It was the heavily guarded tree in Diana's grove that a runaway slave was to break a bough from in order to challenge the Rex Nemorensis, as explained in Frazer's The Golden Bough.
In the very next scene, Ken says this:
Campbell's daughter is rejected from enrollment in a prestigious school, because the dean is a MacDonald and resents the Campbell clan for their infamous bloody massacre which occurred in 1692 on a Wednesday morning at 5 o' clock, which are the opening lyrics to McCartney's song She's Leaving Home, which PIDers take to be the time McCartney died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Massacre_of_Glencoe
Campbell's part in the series ends with him becoming the in-house ad man for LearJet.
"It's based on a story about a man named Lear."
From the beginning of the series, Campbell, jealous of Ken Cosgrove, also wanted to be a paperback writer. However, his sub-par writing could only make it to Boy's Life Magazine.
Echoing PID theories of Campbell's inferior writing talents.
LearJet was founded by William Powell Lear.
The Lear jet design is based upon an experimental American military craft known as the Marvel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet
Marvel was Jack Parsons' real given name.
Megan returns to Don's apartment with her mother & sister to get her stuff. They all remark on the spilled wine on the carpet. Throughout the last few seasons, a big deal was made on how the white carpet was Megan's big idea and how it essentially represents her.
We first meet Joan's new fling Richard when he pretends to be Jim McCloud. The real Jim McCloud then walks in and we now have two Jim McClouds.
(McCartney's real full name is James Paul McCartney. His father goes by Jim).
The Scarlet Woman and the two James McC motif.
Towards the end of Season 7, in search of Diana, Don takes a great-American drive-about quest across the country following a series of syncs that ultimately lead him to his much needed personal epiphany.
After unsuccessfully locating his latest paramour in Wisconsin, he picks up this hitchhiker and decides to drive him to his destination: St. Paul, Minnesota, the Twin Cities area.
While missing in action, Don's secretary Meredith keeps asking Roger if Don is dead. Roger responds with "stop asking that, of course he's not dead."
Couple this with their new boss who bought their firm telling Roger, "You sold me a rotten apple... This may be the con of the century."
After a series of adventures and twists & turns, Don heads to California to find Stephanie, Anna's niece.
She invites him to accompany her to a spiritual retreat at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.
Don is reluctant and cynical. Eventually, Stephanie strands him there after leaving with the car.
Don wants to hitch a ride out but is informed by the receptionist that it could be days before he is picked up, in light of the recent changes in societal perceptions in the wake of the Manson Family murders.
Don has a severe breakdown, despondently calls Peggy, then sits catatonically on the ground for hours.
A seminar leader invites him to join her in the next class.
There he finds the thing he's been looking for his entire life. I don't want to spoil that here,
but I do want to add how interesting it is that it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Manson.
Also interesting that Don has his epiphany with a man named Leonard.
Leo, Lion, Lust card.
Don, as Osiris, had to find his (inner) Dick.
Now that Birdy is flying away.
Also interesting that Don has spent the entire series looking for his mom, in other women. When what he needed was the real thing.
Later, still at Esalen, Don participates in a yoga session.
We hear prayer bells similar to that heard in the intro of Rosemary's Baby.
Don is then gifted by the universe an epiphany of the career kind:
the iconic '70s "I want to teach the world to sing" Coca-Cola commercial.
Complete with ribbon pigtails as seen on the Esalen receptionist.
The commercial contains the line "It's the real thing."
This Coke commercial was produced at McCann/Erikson, where Don & his firm went in Season 7
It was created by Bill Backer; similar sounding to Don Draper. Backer is African-American.
Crowley states "Osiris is a black god."
In Don's Tarot reading from Season 2, his "bring to", what is required or asked of him, was The World card. In the end he wants to buy the World a Coke.
The World card being the 22nd Major Arcana, the end of the Hero's Journey.
Be it smokes or Cokes, Don is there to give you the warm fuzzies and tell you it's not death, it's ok.
In Season 1, it was Campbell who dug the research on society's death wish out of the trash and tried to use it as a campaign for Lucky Strike.
Don did not want the health risks mentioned in the ad.
"They're Toasted".
We're not selling death, we're selling happiness.
Under the surface, The Beatles are all about death themes. On the surface they're all "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and "Love is all you need."
Mad Men begins in 1960 and ends in 1970.
Just like The Beatles.
The first half of Season 7 was titled The Beginning.
The second half is The End of An Era.
Whatever The Beatles & Charles Manson were, The Beatles began that particular energy and Manson ended it.
The bookends of the '60s, two sides of a coin.
Seemingly emphasized further with the firm losing thier biggest accounts, Jaguar and Vicks in 1968, plus Don taking his son to see Planet of the Apes, where we see the ending, with Heston screaming, "You blew it up! You maniacs!"
What a long, mad trip it's been.
Kiernan Shipka, the actress who plays Don's daughter Sally, starrs in a movie coming out later in 2015 called Fan Girl, in which she plays Telulah Farrow.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4146132/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2
Her mother is Mary Farrow, and her friends are Rosemarie, Charlie and Paul.
Tallulah /t(a)-llu-lah/ as a girl's name is of Native American Indian origin, and the meaning of Tallulah is "leaping water".
Ocean Spray, Dew of the Sea, Rosemary.
By the way, the Beatles recorded a song titled Madman in 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_KJESNZLOE
Also, I'm not the only one seeing The Beatles and Kubrick linked to conspiracies.
The group Imagine Dragons filmed this famous video full of Kubrick homages, conspiracy nods and Beatles motifs.
With help from the wondrous K, and MK Ultrasound.
Obligatory spoiler warning.
Mr. Campbell... who cares?
"Where the Truth Lies"
May sound cliche or oversimplified, but it's deceptive simplicity is not only perfect for this show, but also for the inner mythologies and possible real stories of the world's most beloved band of the '60s.
Essentially, this show is all about Public Relations.
A facade covering up a lie, which conceals a deeper, almost unthinkable lie.
Not only because it centers around the lives of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, but also because throughout the series, we watch the main character present a false image to the world around him.
The protagonist is a talented, confident ad man, but he is living a lie. He has taken over the identity of a dead man; his Commanding Officer during the Korean War, whom he accidentally killed.
Why? To put it quickly and bluntly, he saw it as a way to escape his shitty past.
Regardless, followers of the "Paul is dead" legend will instantly recognize this motif.
Born Dick Whitman, to a whore who died during childbrith, named in anger after his father's dick, our protagonist, or, great American anti-hero, spent his adolescence in a whore house with his step-mother Abby and uncle Mack.
The name Richard brings to mind Ringo.
After returning from Korea, however, he takes over the identity of one Don Draper.
In episode 3, we get out first hint that 'Don Draper' may not really be Don Draper. This revelation subtly unfolds while Don becomes mesmerized by a VW Beetle ad.
Another main character in the office is the young account exec Pete Campbell, who is, of course, albeit naively, gunning for Don's job.
The "Paul is dead" legend claims McCartney was replaced by a man named William Campbell.
Towards the end of the first season it is of course Campbell who discovers that Don has stolen another man's identity. He attempts to use the information to blackmail Don.
Furthermore, the boss sometimes purposefully calls the ego-centric Pete by the name of Paul, another ad man at the agency, so as to annoy him by making him think he can't tell the two apart.
Another main character is Harry, (Harrison).
Harry & Paul look very similar.
The office manager is Joan Halloway. (female form of John)
Later in the series her married name becomes Joan Harris.
There will be a lot more to get into regarding the Tarot themes in the series, but I want to establish right off that Matthew Weiner is an admitted enthusiast, and his production company logo is even that of the Rider/Waite Sun card, which closes out every episode.
The iconic falling man during the opening credits also brings to mind the Tower Card.
There is also an obvious, well... to those looking, Kabbalah undercurrent throughout the series. As well as Babalon Working themes.
"When I watch Mad Men, I see The Babalon Working." - MK Ultrasound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working
The Babalon Working was a series Magickal ceremonies undergone by Jack Parsons, Marjorie Cameron and L. Ron Hubbard from January to March of 1946, in Parsons' hometown of Pasadena, Ca.
*Hubbard founded Scientology.
*Parsons founded Jet Propulsion Labs, which is used in every NASA launch. He was also head of the Southern California branch of the O.T.O, a Thelemic organization founded by European occultist Aleister Crowley.
*Marjorie Cameron was an artist and served as Parsons' Scarlet Woman during the Working.
The aim of the Babalon Working was to draw the spiritual essence of the Whore of Babalon into our world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon
The conception of a Magickal child was the other aim of the Babalon Working. This "Moonchild" would be the Thelemic Messiah for the Aeon of Horus, the era we are currently in, according to European occultists. Parsons claimed a physical child was not conceived, but the intended purpose was still fulfilled. In, what one could only assume, a non-physical entity or intelligence.
This concept is the subject Moonchild, a fiction written by Crowley, which also served as the inspiration for Rosemary's Baby. Both of which concern the creation of a Golem, or Homunculus.
Probably the most obvious nods to Kabbalah and the Babalon Working in Season 1 come in episode 6, titled Babylon.
In this episode we learn who the whores in this universe are - and it's quite interesting that it is Rachel, the Jewish woman, who refuses to indulge in such a lifestyle.
This is also the first episode in which we see a flashback to Dick's childhood at the whorehouse he grew up in.
Here we also learn that "Don's" wife Betty's first kiss was with a Jewish boy. Also, Don is assigned to create ads for the Israeli Tourism Bureau, headed by Lily Meyer.
Lily resonating with Lillith, the name of the Whore of Babalon.
The episode ends with Don at a beatnik cafe watching a young Jewish man singing a song titled By The Waters of Babylon. As the song continues playing over wrap-up scenes with the rest of the characters, we see Joan and Roger standing along side two pillars as they depart from their latest tryst. Suggestive of the two pillars of the Holy Temple and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
Roger's nickname for Joan is "Red" evoking The Scarlet Woman.
This is also when she dons a wildcat print overcoat.
The Strength card from the Rider/Waite Tarot deck and the Lust card from Crowley's deck.
Crowley's is a depiction of the Whore of Babalon riding atop The Beast.
She is the Scarlet Woman, the replacement handmaiden who has supplanted the exiled Shekinah, the Divine Feminine of the world. The Scarlet Harlot establishes an Empire of illusion in the Shekinah's place.
Much like the advertising industry.
In the next episode we see Dick as a little boy telling a hobo (exile) visitor that he's a whore-child.
Jack Parsons died in an explosion at his home in Pasadena.
Towards the end of Season 1, we learn the real Don Draper died in an explosion.
Set off accidentally when Dick dropped his lighter into leaked fuel. The two of them were alone, and this is when Dick Whitman switched dogtags with Don Draper and assumed his identity, allowing him his escape from Korea and his shameful past.
And, interestingly, the house used as the Draper(Dick/Don's) home is located in Pasadena.
Other standout moments of Season 1:
Paul enters a meeting late by explaining that somebody threw themself in front of the bus, to which Don replies, "Suicide!"
Later in that same episode, Paul takes Don's new secretary Peggy on an office tour. As he stops & stands in front of Campbell's office door, right next to Campbell's name placard, he makes fun of Campbell in a Rod Serling impersonation voice. He then states that if Twilight Zone were cancelled he would kill himself.
In the pilot episode, Campbell digs through Don's trash in hopes of stealing ideas.
This will also resonate with PID researchers, as they believe Campbell stole un-recorded songs of McCartney's after his alleged demise.
Needless to say, Don figured out what Campbell had done, but only asked him where he got his information and stated that "there aren't machines that make exact copies of things" - bringing to mind doppelgangers, etc.
I mentioned earlier that it is Campbell who learns of Don's stealing of another man's identity. Campbell acquired this knowledge by accident while sitting at Don's desk while Don & Peggy were away. The delivery boy assumed it was Don and gave him a package sent by Don's younger brother which contained Dick's dogtags and many family photos. Campbell was essentially impersonating Don at that moment.
Campbell does eventually attempt to blackmail Don, and it occurs on the day that Kennedy wins the U.S. Presidency. Great touch with Don & Campbell taking off their shoes while angrily racing each other into the boss's office to deal with the issue. McCartney is barefoot on the cover of the Abbey Road LP, which many take as a major death clue.
The night before, in this same episode, the co-workers discover a play Paul wrote, titled "Death Is My Client".
This happens while Campbell sits at home looking through the package delivered to Don.
While Don is getting to know Rachel, the Jewish woman, she takes him up to the roof of her department store at night and introduces him to her two dogs. This brings to mind the Moon Tarot card.
Regaling Don with childhood stories, Rachel mentions that "a dog is all a little girl needs."
The next day, Don buys his daughter a dog for her birthday, and what does she name it? Polly, or phonetically, Paulie. It's never spelled out, though the subtitles spell it Polly.
Interesting that in the next episode Paulie attacks one of the neighbors pet birds, who then threatens to shoot the dog.
The episode ends with the iconic scene of Betty shooting at the neighbor's birds.
Don's nickname for Betty is Birdy. The first of many "Betty will die" clues.
Betty is continually equated with Grace Kelly, who shares a birthday with Charles Manson.
The office is located on the 23rd floor of the building. 23 is the number associated with the Discordian movement.
Two interesting nodes in this season are the scandalous book Lady Chatterly's Lover and The Birth-Control Pill.
When reading books on The Beatles, these are the most commonly cited cultural upheavals of the late '50s/early '60s that preceded their advent and the lifestyles that were embraced there after.
Come Season 2, Don has promoted Peggy to copywriter. His new secretary's name?
Jane.
She is played by Peyton List, born on August 8th.
Mia Farrow got her start starring in the soap opera Peyton Place.
The Beatles took their iconic Abbey Road photo on August 8th. At that same time, Manson was telling his followers that, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Later that night, after midnight, they killed Sharon Tate and her guests.
Paul McCartney's live-in girlfriend from 1963-1968 was famous actress Jane Asher.
In this season Don also gets into a car accident, while distracted by his female passenger.
This is exactly how PID lore states McCartney died.
It should be noted that the Pete Campbell character does not drive.
Meanwhile, Paul grows facial hair and pretends to be interested in avant-garde art. For those unaware, this is exactly McCartney after the alleged death-date.
We also learn that Paul & Joan (coughJohn) once had a relationship, but now Joan can't stand him and mocks him for his hypocritical ways. Ahem! This hits right on the nose as to how PIDers describe Lennon & "Faul's" relationship.
Joan tells Paul that she is "not a phoney."
Campbell's father dies while onboard the famous American Airlines Flight 1 which crashed off the shores of NY just two minutes after take off.
The mother of McCartney's wife Linda Eastman died in this crash in real life.
Towards the end of the season, Don ditches his associates in LA and goes awol for about three weeks. Nobody knows where he is or if he's coming back. This also parallels a few moments in Beatle history, but most of all John Lennon's lost weekend with May Pang in 1973 - which was longer than just a weekend.
Additionally, PID myth alleges LA is where the real McCartney held his last press conference and later went missing.
While in LA, Don meets back up with the real Don Draper's widow, Anna, whom he has long since befriended.
Yes, there are a lot of girl's names in Beatles songs, and I could flip out over her name being Anna, here. Actually, I personally wouldn't for a number of reasons; it's a minor song in their catalog, it's a cover, etc. but fellow Beatles/Mad Men researcher K pointed out to me the syncnificance here. Namely, that the chorus to this song is "Anna, go to him."
Almost as if it's a song from the grave from real Don to Anna.
Given the circumstances, one wouldn't imagine that she would so readily & deeply befriend this man. But she does. Dick & Anna had even gotten married after they eventually met. Dick wanted to care for her financially.
Anna gives Don a Tarot reading. The result of which, Anna reveals, is that it is time for a resurrection in Dick/Don's life. He soon ceremoniously 'baptizes' himself in the ocean and returns to NY.
By now, active viewers of the show should be noticing the recurring themes of death & rebirth in this series. By now, I would go so far as to say it's not even the subtext, only.
Observant and esoteric-savvy fans of The Beatles should also recognize the same theme running throughout their entire work.
Listen to an analysis of Don's Tarot reading here.
From here on out, Mad Men becomes a true Tale of Two Cities, as the characters spend a lot of time in LA & NY.
NY is one letter off from OZ.
And when the English alphabet is folded in half, LA = OZ.
The Hebrew word for Strength is OZ. On the Tree of Life, as laid out by such European occult organizations as The Golden Dawn, the Strength card is attributed to the path between Chesed and Gevurah - the path that holds the Tree apart, establishing the false Empire.
The Left and Right paths of the Tree are said to represent the Two Pillars of the Holy Temple, Jachin & Boaz - the latter translates to "Established in Strength".
Malkhut, the lowest Sephirot, literally translates to Empire. She is pushed down, away from her rightful place in union with Tiferet/Beauty, by the Lillith the Scarlet Woman.
Tifaret is attributed to the Sun, also 666 according to the Babylonian Sun Square on which the Empire is built.
The Sun, the dawn/don. The Phallic energy, the Dick.
Oz, Babylon, Maya, the false Empire. Much like the world advertisements present us.
Pay no attention to the man behind the Drapes.
And then we have the Peg, represented by Peggy.
The Hebrew letter attributed to the Temperance card is Samekh, which translates to Peg.
Notice in Crowley's card the figure is half man, half woman. Much like tom-boy/not sure if she should be a man or a woman Peggy.
Notice the dawn rising in the Rider/Waite card.
The Temperance/Art card is attributed to the path which connects Tifaret and Yesod, the Foundation, which represents the genitals when the Tree correlates to the human body, or, The Adam Kadmon. This path also spans the width of the Tree, directly below the path of OZ/Strength, holding the foundation of the Empire in place.
The Hebrew letter attributed to Temperance/Art is Cheth which means bow. Peggy is the Bowman/Arroway.
Dick/Don & Peggy represent the phallic, solar energetics.
They are both Geminis. The two Lovers.
(video on Crowley's Tarot Vesica arrangement by MK Ultrasound & I, here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avVj-2cMKm4
Significant in that this seems to be the basis of the show, with Don falling, apparently representing the inevitable collapse of Babel this time around, which occurs every 2000 years, as the desecrated temple, The World Trade Center. America as Rome, the inherited Empire/false replicant of Malkhut, the tip of the genitals, the crown of theTower.
Don's daughter Sally incidentally reads The Decline and Fall of Rome with Grandpa Gene.
The link between Dick/Don & Peggy is emphasized later in the series with Don's new secretary Dawn.
Season 2 revs up the Babylon Working themes full throttle.
The first half of the season is all about Campbell & his wife trying to conceive,
Paul trying to get the Defenders tv show about abortion aired,
Sterling/Cooper has to deliver their "stillborn" presentation to AA (American Airlines), which includes a going to the moon motif,
flashbacks to the birth of Peggy's baby,
the baby shower for Harry,
all while Don gets into his car accident - the very next scene being when Jane becomes his new secretary: the replacement handmaiden.
This is also when the office brings in younger writers.
They hire two young men, Smitty Smith and Kurt Smith.
2 Smiths, playing into the doubles motif.
During Don's motivational speech to the office about American Airlines he ends by adding, "Let's pretend we know what 1963 looks like." - the year Beatlemania hit.
He began it by encouraging his writers regarding the recent airplane crash, in which Pete's father died, with, "That crash happened to somebody else. Forget Cuba, forget The Bomb, we're going to the Moon."
This is also when the priest learns of Peggy's baby and gives her an Easter egg, while saying "For the little one."
Goo Goo G'joob!
Notice in Crowley's Temperance card, retitled Art, the Androgyne figure stands in front of the Orphic Egg.
After Don's auto accident, Peggy bails him out of jail with $110 of her own. 1 away from 111.
The Sgt. Pepper drum, when mirrored read 1ONE1X HE^DIE.
To top it all off, the events of this episode happen during April 8th-10th!
The dates Aleister Crowley received dictation for The Book of the Law.
The Book of the Law contains the law for this era, that of Thelema, the Aeon of Horus.
The priest who befriends Peggy is named Gill, which brings to mind fish.
The hebrew letter Nun means fish.
Nun is the letter attributed to the Death card.
Of course, the next episode is titled Maidenform.
Lots of Sirius stuff.
Duck's dog spends a day at the office, which inspires Pete to think about getting a dog for the office.
2 dogs.
Gotta love how Crowley's features the beetle pushing the sun.
Sirius, the dog star, the twin star.
Jane makes a reference to Lewis Carrol, author of Alice in Wonderland. The syncnificance here being that he first read it on the Isis River on 7/23, the day Sirius begins is heliacal rise, known as the Dog Days.
(Jane Asher played Alice)
We also have the twin towers in the Moon card, plenty of Sirius mojo going on with 9/11.
We meet Duck's two kids, and learn Bobbie has two kids.
Their ad for Playtex, which was conceived by Paul, involves one model posing as Jackie and Marilyn; two sides of the same woman.
black/white.
The bra is called The Harlequin.
At the Memorial Day event, Don's colleague says he's building a bomb shelter, they then have a Bikini show.
Splitting the Atom/Adam Kadmon.
Peggy creates an ad for Popsicle, focusing on the breaking of the twin-pop into two individuals.
Bobbie, while whoring with Don says, "This isn't my maiden voyage." and "You're a lion!"
She of course is also sporting a wildcat top.
Bobbie asks Don what he likes and he replies, "La Notte" a Michelangelo Antonioni film.
Read of the Beatles/Manson syncnificance of that here.
Don is compared to Gregory Peck from his role in the film Gentleman's Agreement.
Peck plays the adopted father of Satan's child in The Omen, and Nazi scientist Josef Mengele in The Boys From Brazil, in which he creates 94 Hitler clones in hopes of one of them becoming the new Fuhrer; meaning 93 of them will not.
93 is the number of Thelema.
Paul & Campbell are assigned to travel to the Pasadena/LA area to meet with rocket scientists and space travel lab corporations, including Jet Propulsion Labs, created by Jack Parsons.
Don takes Paul's spot on the trip and ends up hanging with 'the Beautiful People', the jet-set crowd sung about in Baby You're A Rich Man. The man he meets who invites him is named William.
Don & Campbell attend a seminar and learn about nuclear satellite warheads and genetically engineered ubermen, designed for space travel.
All this while Don & Betty conceive their third child.
They end up naming him Gene (think DNA).
Roger gets a divorce and his lawyer tells him his wife's settlement will "split Rita Hayworth."Read of the syncnificance of that here.
In the Zohar, it is indicated that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is ultimately meant to be contracted into itself to form the Seal of Solomon (3-dimensionally expressed as the star tetrahedron), being that the Tree, as it is currently communicated, is representative of the Split Adam, after the "fall".
Incidentally, Dick's brother is named Adam.
Adam hangs himself when Dick/Don does not want him in his life.
The bent knee and upside down position of the falling man during the intro also suggests The Hanged Man, symbolic of altering one's perceptions.
Peggy has her hair restyled by a German guy. Just as The Beatles did around this same time.
Joan gets very excited about a storyline in a soap opera in which someone who everyone thinks is dead turns out not to be.
Duck meets with his former British employers and informs them that now is a good time for them to buy Sterling/Cooper.
Alice Sterling is brought in to participate in the proceedings.
The season ends with Peggy and Betty dropping their baby bombs on the respective fathers.
We also get our first moments of Mad Men's preoccupation with Frank O'Hara's book
Meditations In An Emergency, which not only bookends the 2nd season, with appearances in between, but will come back into play in the series finale, albeit subtly.
Season 3 begins with Don taking a trip to Washington D.C. using his brother-in-law's suitcase, which has his name William Hofstad emblazoned on it. The flight attendants that have a fling with Don & his colleague think his name is William, so he & his colleague call him William, Billy & Bill throughout the entire episode.
*McCartney played the iconic Hofner violin bass.
PIDers refer to the alleged replacement as Billy and Bill.
We learn that Harry's newborn baby daughter is named Beatrice.
Joan marries into the Harris name.
Paul works with Madison Square Garden on their campaign to replace Penn Station with a nuclear plant. Paul & Campbell argue over the direction of the campaign.
In the very next scene Campbell is told they've lost the Campbell's Soup account. And later they lose the Madison Square Garden account, to which simply Don remarks to his secretary, "Tell Campbell Madison Square Garden is dead."
The biggest developments of this season however are
1) Don's wife Betty finds out about his real past.
2) The ad firm is bought by a British company. This is late '62 to early '63 (think British invasion).
3) Betty's father Gene dies and she gives birth to baby Gene.
4) The JFK shooting.
The CEOs from the London office that invade the office in America are Saint John Powell, Guy MacKendrick and Harold Ford. (Powell was Lennon's first wife's, Cynthia, maiden name).
Before they arrive, it's interesting that Roger mentions to Don that his father died in a car accident.
MacKendrick's foot gets run over by a John Deere lawn mower in the office which sprays blood everywhere.
Gotta love how the splatter shot focuses on Paul.
Saint John Powell is played by British actor Charles Shaughnessy, born on February 9th, 1955.
The anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964!
This happens as Don is meeting with Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels.
We all know the Millenium Hilton, admittedly modeled after the Monolith from 2001:ASO, stands before the World Trade Center.
We also see Hilton Hotels represented in the space station orbiting the Moon in 2001:ASO.
We also see Hilton Hotels represented in the space station orbiting the Moon in 2001:ASO.
What's more, Hilton insists that Don include the Moon in his ads.
Also important to note Stanley Kubrick died 666 days before January 1, 2001.
Joan takes MacKendrick to the Hospital. Don & Lane meet her there and of all things, what do they do?Also important to note Stanley Kubrick died 666 days before January 1, 2001.
Have a Dr. Pepper!
Blood-soaked Joan explains what happened to Don, stating she thought Mac was going to die...
Interesting that it was Lane Pryce, one of the Brits, who insisted Don have a Pepper.
It was Mac being rendered incapacitated that forced the British firm to leave their man Lane Pryce as financial director for the NY office.
His name brings to mind Penny Lane.
In fact as financial director, he annoys the employees by his fussy "penny-pinching".
Beforehand, the British firm was planning on shipping Lane off to India. After being allowed to stay in NY he confides in Don, quoting Tom Sawyer, that he had "seen his own funeral."
Lane Pryce's father is played by William Morgan Sheppard!
The other name given to McCartney's "replacement" is William Sheppard.
We know Jared Harris from his role as John Lennon in the film Two Of Us.
The whole MacKendrick incident occurs while Don's daughter Sally is tripping out on how Baby Gene's presence feels to her like he's a replacement for Grandpa Gene.
There is a scene after Grandpa Gene's death when they mention that at his bank he was Gene #2.
A definite British theme running in this season, as they also work on the London Fog account.
In another episode, Paul is burning the midnight oil, trying to come up with an idea for Western Union. He runs into the janitor, who happens to be named Achilles of all names.
Achilles inadvertently helps Paul have an Aha! moment, and when Paul thanks him, Achilles replies, "Your whole face changed."
Interesting in light of the PID arguments, as well as the thought that McCartney's face could be considered his Achilles heel.
And of course, I can't help but see the parallel, or sync, in Mac's foot getting lawnmowered & Achilles.
This happens simultaneously with Don's wife discovering his box of evidence, containing old Whitman family photos, his & real Don's dogtags, his divorce papers with Anna and the deed to the house he bought her.
"A box of evidence" will ring familiar with PID followers. McCartney's former wife Heather Mills, who was also a model, like Betty, claimed in a notorious interview that she had a box of evidence that contained an ambiguous "truth the world can't handle."
Betty found the box in his locked desk drawer. Don inadvertently left the key to it in his robe pocket, when he went upstairs to tend to the crying baby Gene.
The 'key' could equate here to an 'album clue'.
Gene was the key.
Once people know, they see it.
Also interesting that Betty was filling in her gaps of knowledge concerning her husband's past by imagining and making up her own stories. Much like PIDers do to the "Paul/Faul" story.
While Betty is processing Dick/Don's truth, Paul is distraught that his coworkers are always upstaging him and having to do his work for him - another footnote to the PID yarn.
In the episode titled Seven Twenty Three, Don is forced by his boss (who knows of his real identity thanks to Campbell) to sign a contract in order to please Conrad Hilton.
Note the date, 7/23, hence the title of the episode.
A fine point was put on that number in this episode.
723 is a permutation of the infamous 237, a highly significant number not only to Stanley Kubrick, but to the esoteric world at large.
Also notice he lives on 42 Bullet Park Road. 2 x 3 x 7 = 42.
Dick's father died at age 42.
Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) was born on 7/24, they day after Sirius begins it heliacal rise. One off from 723. Interesting in that the Greek gematrical value of Scarlett Woman is 667, one off from 666 the number of the Beast via the Babylonian Sun Square.
In this same episode, Don picks up a hitch-hiking young couple. At their motel, they drug, beat and rob him. After returning, we see him sporting a bandaged nose. Bringing to mind Jack "Room 237" Nicholson in Polanski's Chinatown, but more on that later.
This is when he is blackmailed into signing the contract.
The Dick, the Peg and the Dowell.
In another episode from this season we learn that Joan's address is also 42!
Seven Twenty Three is also the first Mad Men episode to play with the linearity of time.
The episode also occurs during a solar eclipse. Draping the Dawn.
The episode ends with the song 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Williams which begins with the lyrics "Some people say a man is made of mud."
In some legends, the Golem is made of clay.
Though often a Golem would be a political movement or societal change.
The parallels between Mad Men and Kubrick films can't be emphasized enough.
2001:ASO, for instance, is about the Alchemical process of creating the Moonchild and ends with the Crowned & Conquering Child, for the Aeon of Horus.
Even The Beatles ended similarly. McCartney's solo album was released in 1970 before the Beatles broke up.
And of course Rosemary's Baby ends with the baby.
Peggy & Paul were working on the Bacardi Rum account, Peggy complete in red blouse.
Redrum was the name of the top racehorse of the '70s.
Where did Don meet Hilton for the first time? At a horse derby.
This is also when Peggy tries marijuana for the first time - with Paul.
While Betty is giving birth to baby Gene, the head nurse looks a bit like Ruth Gordon of Rosemary's Baby.
Incidentally, it is Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson.
Baby Gene is born on June, 21st 1963. (Summer Solstice)
Rosemary's child was born on June, 28th 1966.
Incidentally, Matthew Weiner is attributed two birthdays. One of them being June, 29th, 1965.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Weiner
Wiccans are big on the 'A year & a day' thing. Interesting that Weiner may have been born a day short of a year from Rosemary's fictional baby.
Regardless, here we have this new baby in the world in 1963; the year Beatlemania hits.
Lennon's son Julian, the first Beatle baby, was born on April 8, 1963.
Don and his latest mistress, his daughter Sally's teacher, discuss how others see colors differently.
Baby Gene is born on June, 21st 1963. (Summer Solstice)
Rosemary's child was born on June, 28th 1966.
Incidentally, Matthew Weiner is attributed two birthdays. One of them being June, 29th, 1965.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Weiner
Wiccans are big on the 'A year & a day' thing. Interesting that Weiner may have been born a day short of a year from Rosemary's fictional baby.
Regardless, here we have this new baby in the world in 1963; the year Beatlemania hits.
Lennon's son Julian, the first Beatle baby, was born on April 8, 1963.
It was her student Charlie who brought up the concept.
Interesting that I saw this episode just a few days before "The Dress" thing hit the internet.
(Suzanne is played by Abigail Spencer. She looks almost exactly like my friend Susanna, whose sister, also my friend, is named Abigail. One of our biggest connections was our mutual fondness for the '60s) O.o
All this while they are working with a dog food company who needs to change their PR due to getting herangued by the press for using horse meat.
Her bottom line is, "Don't change the name, don't change the product" ahemPIDmyth.
It's too late though, and Don convinces her "the name has been poisoned."
This is all subtle context for Don's life and what's coming next, sure. But a very tantalizing parallel for Beatles researchers, nonetheless, at the very least.
Perceptions, names...
This happens as Betty reads The Group by Mary McCarthy.
(McCartney's mother was named Mary).
Then there's also the scene with Campbell, in proximity here, arguing with his secretary over real hot chocolate and the imitation water & powder kind.
The firm works on an imitation version of Ann Margret's famous Bye Bye Birdie segment from the film of the same name.
Which also serves as another "Betty will die" clue.
Which lends itself to a good time to get into the Isis & Osiris motifs.
In Egyptian mythology, Isis needed to collect all of her husband Osiris' dismembered body parts. She found all of them except his phallus. She fashioned one out of gold, or wood, depending on the interpretation, attached it to him and proceeded to turn herself into a bird, hovering over him they conceived their son Horus.
When Don informs Bert Cooper of the selling of Sterling/Cooper, he replies with "Did Hilton tell you when this blessed event is taking place?" evoking more childbirth motifs.
Betty finally confronts Don about his past on the night before Halloween. Interesting because masks...
We are of course also just a few weeks before JFK is shot.
Roger's daughter's (Alchemical) wedding is on the day of the JFK's shooting. Curious, in season 7 she will join a hippie commune...
The day after Kennedy's death, shortly after Lee Harvey OZwald is shot, Betty tells Don she wants a divorce.
When we see Campbell & his wife watching the news, he is in a black turtleneck sweater.
With The Beatles was released the same day JFK was shot, complete with black turtleneck sweaters.
Also, gotta love the timing, shortly before, of Joan clocking her husband over the back of his head with a vase.
Her husband even looks a little like JFK.
Back and to the left...
Roger says, "Three months after Roosevelt died we bombed Japan, that's how we got over it."
The Beatles invaded America via JFK Airport three months after JFK died (77 days to be exact;
on 2/7 = 77). A young new energy to fill the void left by JFK's energy.
77 is the Gematrical value of the Hebrew word OZ.
OZwald. Jack Ruby. After JFK was shot, his driver turned onto Route 77. The car's license plate was GG-300. G is the 7th letter of the English alphabet. GG = 77.
And as the value of OZ/Strength, Crowley uses it in the Star of Babalon sigil.
"The Seal upon the Ring of IT."
7/7 is Ringo Starr's birthday.
The major underlying theme of the second half season, leading up to the assassination of JFK, seems to be the elite playing everyone else like string puppets.
Big Tobacco CEO Lee Garner jr. (rhythmically akin to Lee Harvey Oswald) forces Harry to fire art director Sal (the name of HAL's counterpart).
Garner jr. tried to proposition Sal while he was editing the film for a Lucky Strike commercial (think JFK Zapruder film).
Conrad Hilton plays Don like a fiddle.
Bert Cooper blackmails Don into signing the contract.
The British CEOs have their way with Sterling/Cooper and Lane Pryce.
Also, as we meet Lane Pryce we meet his mancretary Mr. Hooker, which is when we simultaneously meet Don's new fling Suzanne. One of her most memorable moments is when she has a star sticker on her face.
Bringing to mind Crowley's switching of the attributions of The Star and The Emperor cards as cryptically instructed by Aiwass, thus restoring the Zodiacal balance to the Major Arcana.
"The Tzaddi is not the Star" - Aiwass
The Hebrew letter Tzaddi had originally been attributed to The Star card, while Heh had been attributed to The Emperor. After decades of contemplating Aiwass' words, Crowley finally saw that Tzaddi belonged to the Emperor. Tzaddi translates to Hook.
Hooker suggesting more prostitute themes.
Suzanne dons the starr sticker in the episode titled The Gypsy and the Hobo. Which is what Sally & Bobby went as for Halloween, but can also refer to Suzanne & Don.
Notice Sally has a black tear on her cheek in the same place Suzanne wears her sticker.
Back to the Dick and Peg motifs.
Don first meets Sally's teacher during the student's Spring Maypole dance. Don is equated as a Maypole in this series, in the Freudian sense, with him being named after his father's dick, and the sheer myriad of sexual relationships in his life.
The season ends with the London & American offices both being sold. Don, Sterling, Cooper and Lane Pryce conspire to buy back their company for themselves. They have to beg Campbell, the potential 5th partner, to be a part of the "conspiracy", as the continually refer to it as.
They also bring Joan & Harry into it.
The final episode of Season 3 ends with Roy Orbison's song Shahdaroba, rife with Egypt themes.
Season 4 may skip over the British Invasion of the pop music kind, but it's interesting that as Season 3 ended with JFK, this season begins with a staged event.
What am I alluding to? The season premiered on July 25th, 2010.
The Apollo 11 Moon Mission returned to earth on July 24th, 1969.
Now, like any good production, we seem to have 3 of the Big 4 conspiracies residing relatively subtly within the subtext.
Campbell & Peggy stage a fight between two women over a Sugarberry Ham with hopes of generating public interest in the product.
During the scene in which they plot the fight, Peggy says of the ham, "This will send my mother over the moon." Campbell says, "It's as subtle as an A-bomb."
This is all while Campbell is bringing in the North American Aviation account, who works with NASA.
They also consider paying a crowd of women to line up for the hams, which parallels Ed Sullivan's people paying crowds of girls to line up and scream when the Beatles landed in America.
Remember, the actor that plays Don Draper is named John Hamm.
In the next episode, Don insults the men from Jentzen Bikini for being too conservative.
The split Adam/Atom.
Don is tracked down by the Department of Defense when his firm attempts to land the North American Aviation account. They have begun investigating Don and he is terrified that they will discover his identity theft. And of all things, this episode is bookended by the Beatles, as Don buys tickets for his daughter Sally to see The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
The episode begins with Don telling his daughter he is taking her to see The Beatles, and in the very next scene we meet Lane's father William Morgan Sheppard. The third scene consists of Joan telling Roger she is pregnant with his child - remember they are the affair we learned about in the Babylon episode.
Don turns to Campbell for help in calling off the investigation.
Don mistakes two men for D.O.D. agents, they ask for 110 Waverly, one away from 111.
While discussing NAA, who is partnered with NASA, there is also talk of bombs, going to the moon and Pasadena.
This episode, which is all about The Beatles, stolen identity, Sheppard and the Whore child ends with The Beatles song Do You Want To Know A Secret.
Don returns to LA and visits Anna once again. She tells him of her experience seeing a UFO.
Enjoy this well-made, must-see video on the correlation between A-bombs and the advent of the UFO age & Roswell.
The Book of the Law was dictated, as Crowley claims, by an extra-dimensional being by the name of Lam. Crowley's sketch of him strongly resembles what later became the well-known image of the Grey Alien.
Former Sterling/Cooper employee Duck Phillips now works for Grey Advertising.
Anna lives in San Pedro, her niece lives in Pasadena. Don drives the niece home from Anna's which means he takes Interstate 110.
A few episodes later Anna dies of cancer. What struck me at first about Anna was how much she reminded me of a cross between Linda McCartney and Cynthia Lennon.
Linda died of cancer in 1998, and Cynthia died of cancer shortly after I saw this episode.
Peggy attends an artsy film-screening at Washington Square and meets this filmographer wearing a Beatles Pierre Cardin suit.
The other man is Abe, who becomes Peggy's boyfriend, remember him later when he gets stabbed.
Meanwhile, Campbell learns his wife is pregnant and Roger insults the Japanese men from Honda, bringing up the A-bombing of Japan a number of times.
America bombed Nagasaki on August 9th, Sharon Tate's death day.
Read my Sharon Tate post here.
And what number was the Bomber which dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki emblazoned with?
The firm stages the fake filming of a Honda moped commercial. Remember, this is in 1965, the same year McCartney had his alleged infamous moped accident that scarred his upper lip.
Though it is doubtful that the accident occurred, for more on that, read here.
Don's elderly secretary dies at her desk right as his daughter, the Beatles fan, shows up at his work.
Don's previous secretary was named Jane, resonating with McCartney's actress girlfriend Jane Asher. After the elderly secretary died, his new one, Megan, is an actress, from Canada.
Most PIDers believe McCartney's replacement is from Canada.
There are two pillars in the new office. One stands right in the middle of Campbell's office. He even runs into it, bloodying his nose at one point.
In this season we also find Don & the firm scrambling to put a positive PR spin on an inflammatory anti-tobacco article Don wrote after they lost Lucky Strike, both of which mar the reputation future of the firm, or it's and face, if you will.
Which all rings too familiarly with the McCartney's scarred lip and Lennon's Jesus comments, which occurred around this same time.
Sally's neighbor & friend Glen Bishop looks remarkably like little-boy Stanley Kubrick. In one episode, while phoning Sally, he identifies himself as Stanley.
Glen is played by show creator Matt Weiner's son.
Kubrick used his daughter Vivian in 2001: A Space Odyssey to play the daughter of the National Aeronautics Committee director Heywood Floyd - which many take to signify Floyd being the director, Kubrick's surrogate, of the film Bowman finds himself in.
Glen wears his football uniform. #92. One away from 93, the number of Thelema.
There are also 92 total episodes in the entire series.
Another sync wync by Weiner, essentially inserting himself as the storyteller into the story?
Glen's mother drives this VW Beetle.
Some interesting Biblical themes.
We see flashbacks of when Don began working at Sterling/Cooper. He was working as a fur coat salesman when he met Roger. Roger kept calling him "the fur guy". Jacob wore fur on his arms to trick his then blind father Isaac into believing he was Esau, his twin brother. The name Jacob means "usurper" or "impersonator".
Sally cuts her hair and immediately afterwards Don's firm begins working on a campaign for Samsonite luggage.
Season 4 also introduces us to the paintings on the walls of Roger's office.
Sea of Holes, anyone?
Season 5 is quite a humdinger.
It opens with Don's new wife Megan throwing him a surprise birthday party. First thing we learn here is that Don Draper's birthday is June 1st. He's a Gemini.
It's also important to note that Sgt. Pepper's was released on June 1st.
His wife sings Zou Bisou Bisou to him at the party. It was written in 1960 by songwriter Bill Shepherd, and the first recording of it, by Sophia Loren, was recorded by Beatles producer George Martin.
Also notice the zebra pillow staged between Don & Megan.
Remember, Sharon Tate was killed next to a zebra rug. More on Tate later.
Later in the episode they lay on it, and talk about how messy their white carpet has gotten...
More on their white carpet and Tate allusions later.
Don attends a Rolling Stones concert in hopes of getting them to be in a commercial. While talking to a young Brian Jones fan backstage he stands next to this poster with the date Aug 8.
August 8th, 1969 is the day The Beatles took their iconic photo crossing Abbey Road. That same day Manson told his followers that, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Later that night after midnight, technically the 9th, is when they killed Sharon Tate.
In this same episode, Don's ex-wife Betty thinks she has terminal cancer.
(Brian Jones died in 1969, the year the PID rumor went viral).
A beetle rolling a stone gathers no Moss.
Twin Peaks' Shelly Johnson, played by Madchen Amick, guest starrs in episode 3. She plays a former lover of Don's. Don hallucinates during a fever that he kills her and shoves her under the bed.
It then cuts to his daughter sleeping under the couch.
(One shot of Don stirring in his bed during the fever was played in reverse much like the scenes in Twin Peaks' Black Lodge. Mad Men creator Matt Weiner says he's a huge Twin Peaks fan).
This is during the episode when everyone is talking about the Richard Speck murders. Speck kidnapped 9 nurses and killed 8 of them. Nurse number 9 survived because she hid under the bed.
Sally's step-grandma Pauline tells her the details of the Speck murders while holding her "burglar alarm".
Earlier in the episode, while Pauline was talking on the phone about the serial killings, Sally was on the couch with this zebra-stripe blanket drapes over the back. Sharon Tate had an American flag draped over the back of her couch, fwiw.
And speaking of Twin Peaks, Megan often wears this Twin Peaks-y zig-zag sweater, evoking the floor of the Black Lodge and Laura Palmer's murder.
Enhanced by the actor who plays Laura's father, the murderer Leland Palmer, Ray Wise being on this show.
Domino the hooker from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut also dons a zig-zag coat. She may or may not have been killed during or after the masquerade orgy Dr. Bill attended.
Either way, her roommate Sally explains to Bill that Domino tested HIV positive.
Notice the green sliced-open Apple on Domino & Sally's wall.
Domino's death sets off the death of the other redheaded hooker Bill recently met, Mandy.
With masks on, Domino & Mandy are almost indistinguishable.
The two mysterious twin collapsings.
Don's son Bobby becomes peeved by his wallpaper that does not line up.
The design consists of 8-pointed stars.
Just like the ones hanging from the walls in the beginning of Eyes Wide Shut.
Which ends with implications of child abduction.
Don's kids now live in Rye, NY with their mom and new step-father.
Don now lives on 72nd street next to Central Park.
John Lennon lived in The Dakota on 72nd street near Central Park and was killed by Mark David Chapman who was obsessed with Catcher in the Rye. Chapman even began reading it immediately after shooting Lennon.
Chapman also states that he identified with Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, and that it was the Munchkins who told him not to kill Lennon.
Remember Sharon Tate starred in Valley of the Dolls (her character dies). Judy Garland was also supposed to starr along side her, but was fired from the film for her addiction to barbiturates which she died from during the filming. The film being about actresses with barbiturate addictions.
Campbell & Don essentially switch lives in this season.
Enhanced by the actor who plays Laura's father, the murderer Leland Palmer, Ray Wise being on this show.
Domino the hooker from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut also dons a zig-zag coat. She may or may not have been killed during or after the masquerade orgy Dr. Bill attended.
Either way, her roommate Sally explains to Bill that Domino tested HIV positive.
Notice the green sliced-open Apple on Domino & Sally's wall.
Domino's death sets off the death of the other redheaded hooker Bill recently met, Mandy.
With masks on, Domino & Mandy are almost indistinguishable.
The two mysterious twin collapsings.
Don's son Bobby becomes peeved by his wallpaper that does not line up.
The design consists of 8-pointed stars.
Just like the ones hanging from the walls in the beginning of Eyes Wide Shut.
Which ends with implications of child abduction.
Don's kids now live in Rye, NY with their mom and new step-father.
Don now lives on 72nd street next to Central Park.
John Lennon lived in The Dakota on 72nd street near Central Park and was killed by Mark David Chapman who was obsessed with Catcher in the Rye. Chapman even began reading it immediately after shooting Lennon.
Chapman also states that he identified with Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, and that it was the Munchkins who told him not to kill Lennon.
Remember Sharon Tate starred in Valley of the Dolls (her character dies). Judy Garland was also supposed to starr along side her, but was fired from the film for her addiction to barbiturates which she died from during the filming. The film being about actresses with barbiturate addictions.
Campbell & Don essentially switch lives in this season.
Episode 5, in which Campbell takes a driver's ed course, is titled Signal 30, the name of an infamous driver's ed film showing real photos & footage of automobile accidents.
This scene reminds me of A Clockwork Orange, when Alex is also forced to watch snuff films.
Campbell strikes up a friendship with a high school girl. They talk about the murders and she mentions how there are so many random murders going on these days. Now they are all also talking about the Charles Whitman murders.
So now we have the Richard Speck & Charles Whitman murders, of all things, making it on to the show.
The Charles Whitman shootings are mentioned in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, along with the L. H. Oswald shooting of JFK.
So now we have the Richard Speck & Charles Whitman murders, of all things, making it on to the show.
The Charles Whitman shootings are mentioned in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, along with the L. H. Oswald shooting of JFK.
In this same episode, we learn from Ken Cosgrove's wife Cynthia that he has written a book about a robot who kills a large number of space motorists. A fine point is put on Cynthia's name, nobody can remember it, and when Megan finally does she yells it out.
Cynthia's father is the head of Dow Chemical, the character played by Ray Wise.
Cynthia's mother is named Lillian.
Cynthia is played by Larissa Oleynick, famous for playing Alex Mack on the '90s Nickelodeon show of the same name.
Later in this episode, Roger tells Ken to give up on writing and concentrate on his accounts.
Ken's pen-name was Ben Hargrove.
He wanted to be a paperback writer, but...
Peggy's boyfriend Abe wants to go see a movie set in Africa. One of the biggest mysteries in Beatles history, "PID" myth aside, is the enigmatic trip McCartney & road manager Mal Evans took to Africa in the fall of '66.
Lane Pryce defeates Campbell in a fist fight, marring Campell's face. Bringing to mind the photo of McCartney supposedly taken after his moped accident.
Keeping with the A Clockwork Orange theme, the episode ends with Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Which was also used in Help! to pacify the tiger intent on attacking Ringo.
Which was also used in Help! to pacify the tiger intent on attacking Ringo.
Lane Pryce watched England win the Soccer World Cup at a pub. There he meets an executive of Jaguar Motors.
In the next episode Roger & Jane take LSD. Gotta love the bluebird painting while they trip.
Project Bluebird allegedly linked to MK Ultra experiments involving LSD.
Among a number of interesting things, Roger sees himself in the mirror with half black hair, half grey.
It's also interesting to point out that this was not shot with the actor looking at his reflection, he's looking at a pre-filmed clip of himself; their motions are not completely in sync.
Kubrick used this same technique when Bowman sees himself in the bathroom mirror towards the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey - or it was two actors.
When Jane & Roger return home, they take an (Alchemical) bath together, as Roger imagines he is in the 1919 World Series. Interesting, being that series was thrown. Two of the starrs of the Chicago White Sox that were banned from Baseball over the conspiracy were Shoeless Joe Jackson and Lefty Williams.
New Jewish character Michael Ginsberg tells Peggy he is from Mars, (Marjorie Cameron made the same claim)
then weaves into his story that he may actually have been born in a Concentration Camp during the Holocaust, but isn't sure because he may be too young for that to be possible.
then weaves into his story that he may actually have been born in a Concentration Camp during the Holocaust, but isn't sure because he may be too young for that to be possible.
(WWII revisionism? Another of the big conspiracies)
What is interesting is that as he tells this, his back is turned to Peggy. He gazes through the window, which gives the appearance of scrying into a black mirror.
Or better yet, a screen. The 2001:ASO Monolith shares the same proportions to that of a theatre screen, which was intentional in design to communicate the idea of Bowman needing to realize he's a character in the movie.
Or better yet, a screen. The 2001:ASO Monolith shares the same proportions to that of a theatre screen, which was intentional in design to communicate the idea of Bowman needing to realize he's a character in the movie.
Interestingly, this episode is titled Lady Lazarus. There is a definite them of death & rebirth in this season. Like, more than usual.
The title is taken from the play of the same name by Sylvia Plath which begins with the line, "Dying is an art."
This episode takes place during September of 1966. When most PIDers believe McCartney died.
In this episode the firm works on their campaign for Cool Whip, which is imitation whipped cream.
In the previous episode Don tried to get Megan to try Sherbert ice cream. Here she tries to get Don to listen to Revolver.
Lady Lazarus ends with Don reluctantly listening to Tomorrow Never Knows.
During the closing montage as the song plays through, we see Megan at acting class while she & her fellow students practice playing dead. They are auditioning for a role in the play Little Murders.
This was of course the first time The Beatles allowed one of their songs to be used in a tv show. Starr & McCartney gave Mad Men permission because they said they like the show. (Weiner states this in an interview).
In another episode we see Don whistling I Want To Hold Your Hand, which also required permission.
Next, Harry meets up with Paul who has joined the Hare Krishna movement.
But it was Harrison who was the Hare Krishna, right? you ask.
Well Harry gets really into it.
The girl next to Harry is Paul's lover Lakshmi.
On the Sgt, Pepper cover, a figurine of Lakshmi points to Paul.
On December 8th, the day after Pearl Harbor day, Joan is served divorce papers. Angered by the incompetent receptionist, Joan grabs the model airplane of the Freedom Tower-looking pedestal and smashes it on the desk, screaming "Here's a surprise! There's an airplane here to see you!"
Also notice the 666 outside the window.
Remember December 8th, 1980 is the day Lennon was assassinated. September 11th is almost exactly 9 months after December 8th.
Pearl Harbor synchronistically represented in Lennon's shooting with Yoko the Japanese and Mark David Chapman being from Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor synchronistically represented in Lennon's shooting with Yoko the Japanese and Mark David Chapman being from Hawaii.
Earlier, I couldn't help but notice the headline on the newspaper reading, "Check New Clues."
This is when Joan's husband leaves her. Later, she smashes the airplane in anger because she was served her divorce papers. Tying these two scenes together.
Don tells Joan she got so many flowers he thought she was dating Aly Kahn, then later sends her flowers with a card saying, "From Aly Kahn".
Aly Kahn married Rita Hayworth.
The next episode is titled The Other Woman, evoking definite Replacement Handmaiden mojo.
The plot of the episode is Joan being whored out by the firm to land the Jaguar account. One of the Jaguar CEOs wants to spend a night 'sleeping' with her.
Of course, with Jaguar we've got the 'woman riding the wildcat' theme.
Jaguar Motors was founded by William Lyons.
Jaguar Motors was founded by William Lyons.
Driving the point home, as Campbell & Joan discuss the indecent proposal, she wears this dress with leopard-print trim.
Megan's redhead friend crashes a Jaguar brainstorming session, crawling atop the table like a cat, saying...
In the very next scene, we see Campbell reading Goodnight Moon to his child.
Joan decides to go through with it, after striking a deal to become a share-owning partner in the firm.
Fwiw, Herb, the sleazy Jaguar CEO, gives her an Emerald necklace. Later that night when she returns home, she wears an emerald green night gown, and the next day she wears an emerald dress to work. OZ = 77.
Herb tells Campbell that Joan is "built like a B-52." The famous bomber plane.
If Joan, the redhead, whoring herself out by riding the Jaguar Man wasn't enough, in this same episode, Peggy changes the ending to a commercial they're planning, which is intentionally based directly on A Hard Day's Night, to include Lady Godiva, famous for riding naked atop a horse!
Peggy wants to fly to Paris. During a tense discussion, Don angrily throws money in her face, adding to the whore themes of this episode.
The slogan they pitched to Jaguar was "At last, something beautiful you can truly own." The firm was deliberately playing into the prostitute/mistress theme. Essentially they, like Herb, are telling men that this is like a woman, that you can buy.
When Joan moves up to a Speaking Partner of the firm, the secretary who takes her place is Scarlett!
This takes place during January 1967, when The Beatles were recording the title track to Sgt. Pepper.
This is 20 years after January 1947. Not only the month of the Black Dahlia murder, but 9 months after Jack Parsons' Babylon Working.
"It was 20 years ago today! Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play."
Megan saves the Heinz account with the line, "Some things never change". Keep in mind this is 1966. The part of her idea for the ad that the client liked most was the ending which featured a child on the moon.
"The basis of friendship is conspiracy" - Roger, giving Lane tips on landing the Jaguar account.
We learn Joan's repairman is named Apollo (moon landing). She comes home to find him holding her child.
Peggy, now working at another firm, is given a top secret ladies cigarette campaign, which may be what became Virginia Slims.
At the turn of the century it was uncommon for women to smoke, until women hired by Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, marched while smoking cigarettes which they called "Torches of Freedom".
Elisabeth Moss played "Torch" in the 1999 film Girl Interrupted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom
Megan saves the Heinz account with the line, "Some things never change". Keep in mind this is 1966. The part of her idea for the ad that the client liked most was the ending which featured a child on the moon.
"The basis of friendship is conspiracy" - Roger, giving Lane tips on landing the Jaguar account.
We learn Joan's repairman is named Apollo (moon landing). She comes home to find him holding her child.
Peggy, now working at another firm, is given a top secret ladies cigarette campaign, which may be what became Virginia Slims.
At the turn of the century it was uncommon for women to smoke, until women hired by Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, marched while smoking cigarettes which they called "Torches of Freedom".
Elisabeth Moss played "Torch" in the 1999 film Girl Interrupted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom
Lane Pryce commits suicide. His first attempt is in the new Jaguar which his wife had bought. The car will not start, however. The Brit can't die in a car...
This happens in the 64th episode. When Mad Men is 64, the Brit dies.
Lane had forged a check on Dec. 7th, Pearl Harbor Day.
Show creator Matt Weiner says he decided to show Lane's body hanging so that fans would know for sure that he died, and not debate whether or not. Which brings to my mind the fact that there is no bodily evidence that McCartney had died.
This happens in the 64th episode. When Mad Men is 64, the Brit dies.
Lane had forged a check on Dec. 7th, Pearl Harbor Day.
Show creator Matt Weiner says he decided to show Lane's body hanging so that fans would know for sure that he died, and not debate whether or not. Which brings to my mind the fact that there is no bodily evidence that McCartney had died.
We get to see Glen in a puffy jacket, much like the kind Kubrick always loved to wear.
Sally notices and makes note of his mustache. This is exactly when The Beatles grew their mustaches; which PIDers claim was to hide Campbell's surgery scars.
This episode ends with Glen being taught to drive by Don.
The season, taking place in 1966-1967, the year PIDers believe McCartney died and was replaced, ends with the song You Only Live Twice, the theme of the 1967 James Bond film of the same name.
The season ends with Megan landing the role in a commercial based on Beauty and the Beast.
Tiferet, The Sun, translates to Beauty. The Babalonion Sun Square equals 666, the number of the Beast.
The season ends with Megan landing the role in a commercial based on Beauty and the Beast.
Tiferet, The Sun, translates to Beauty. The Babalonion Sun Square equals 666, the number of the Beast.
During the closing montage, as You Only Live Twice plays through, Peggy looks out her motel window to see 2 dogs f-ing. Siriusly?
Season 6 cover. Two Dons
This season begins with Don creating an ad for a Hawaiian resort with a theme of death/rebirth and starting a new life.
Moreover, if Season 6 had it's own title it could be The Polanski/Tate Show.
This season takes place mostly in 1968. The gang of course goes to see Rosemary's Baby, and Peggy bases a commercial on it.
Sally reads the novel as an elderly African-American woman breaks into the apartment, and while stealing their valuables, tries to convince Sally & Bobby that she's their grandma/Don's nanny.
Bobby asks, "Are we Negroes?"
Manson's intent with the Tate/LaBianca murders was to frame the Black Panthers in hopes of inciting a race war.
Bobby's pajamas feature a racecar with the number 77.
Sally is called to testify in court about the burglery on December 1st. Crowley's death day.
In the next episode, Megan is taping her soap opera in which she plays twins. She wears this red onesie, very reminiscent of the red onesie Rosemary wears when she is drugged and raped by Satan.
Megan's getup is even complete with Tannis root earrings, much like the Tannis root necklace given to Rosemary.
In the next scene Peggy stabs her boyfriend, thinking he was an intruder.
He was also stabbed before, a little earlier by street assailants.
The very next scene we see Megan in a red star shirt made famous by Sharon Tate in her shoot with Esquire Magazine, which was shot on the set of Rosemary's Baby.
Notice Peggy's boyfriend and Megan are both in their underwear here.
The paramedics cut Abe's t-shirt, the shape of the cut resembles the top point of a star.
A point seems to be made to link Abe & Megan here.
This all happens while the Beatles were recording The White Album, which was not only hugely inspirational for Manson's views, but as MK Ultrasound has discovered, syncs up with the film Rosemary's Baby flawlessly.
It was meth that Manson's followers were on the nights they committed the murders.
Next, the firm lands an account with Ocean Spray.
The name Rosemary means 'Dew of the sea' - ocean spray.
Mia Farrow also starred as the voice of The Last Unicorn, in which she has to save all of the other unicorns from their curse as being trapped as the ocean spray/dew of the sea.
Betty tells Sally a story of her college years and mentions she lived in Rosemary Hall.
Peggy decides to base a commercial on Rosemary's Baby. It is for St. Joseph's medicine.
St. Joseph, the father of Jesus.
While pitching the idea to Don, they have him play the baby. Surprisingly he plays along and even cries "Whaa, whaa."
While pitching the idea, Peggy says, "You really need to feel the conspiracy."
Their big concern was whether or not there was an Asian at the end of Rosemary's Baby, which brings up my finding that Lolita's baby and Rosemary's baby are for all intents & purposes one in the same.
In Asia the English letters L and R are ambiguous. Rosemary's husband calls her Ro, Humbert calls Lolita Lo - making the two women interchangeable. Ro's baby is Lo's baby (much more on that here).
Lolita was played by Sue Lyon.
The episode is bookended with Don on his couch in the fetus position.
During a flashback scene to Dick as a boy, he fixates on this baby photo on the mirror of the whore who took care of him when he was sick.
The closing song is none other than The Porpoise Song by The Monkees.
Roman Polanski was working on the film Day of the Dolphin the day Sharon Tate was killed.
Kubrick has Alex's rape & murder victim in a red onesie as he sings Singin' In the Rain.
In an earlier season, Betty mentioned Singin' In the Rain is her favorite film.
If all this wasn't enough to evoke the concept of creating a Golem; of all things, after taking his grandson to see Planet of the Apes, Roger mentions that his father took him to see,
of all movies, The Golem.
The Golem was made by the same people who would next make Metropolis, the most overtly Kabbalistic/European occultist film of all time. Most notably due to the android handmaiden impersonating the Shekinah figure.
While at a party in the Hollywood Hills, Don smokes hashish and while tripping, sees Megan who claims to be pregnant, he then sees himself drowned in the swimming pool.
Sharon Tate is submerged in water in all of her films, read more on that in my Sharon Tate thread.
Before heading out to Laurel Canyon, the camera pans down to this shot, the first car we see is the red VW Beetle. And to drive the point home, the camera then cuts to this shot with another Beetle.
While at the party, they meet a hippie woman named Lotus, tying back into Lakshmi the Hare Krishna, The Hindi Lakshmi stands in a Lotus flower.
In another episode, at the front door of Don's Central Park apartment building (think Dakota), Don's daughter and her friend tell the neighbor boy that he looks like rock musician Mark Lindsey of Paul Revere & the Raiders.
In the 2007 film on Mark David Chapman, Chapter 27, Mark Lindsey Chapman played the role of John Lennon.
Sally's friend is named Julie. Lennon's mother was named Julia. Sally & Julie are representing The Philippines in the Model U.N. The Beatles' most notoriously disastrous visit was to The Philippines.
The doorman of Don's building died of a heart attack in the opening scene of this season's premiere episode. He was revived by the boy's father, Mr. Rosen.
We then see Don & Megan in Hawaii, and of aaalll things, the MC of the dinner entertainment tells them that the Hawaiian word for delicious is "Ono", he then makes a joke saying, "Ono, I'm not gonna eat that!"
Remember, Chapman was from Hawaii.
Don returns and wants the doorman to tell him what it was like to be dead.
The Eagles released Hotel California on December 8th, 1976. When played backwards, at the 2:37 mark, we hear, "John Lennon by himself", which forwards is, "Last thing I remember, I was running for the door." Which describes Lennon's last moments.
This takes place during early-mid December.
During this same episode, Sally's other friend Sandy (think Hook) goes to see The Nutcracker with them. The part we see is The March of the Wooden Soldiers, which takes place directly after March of the Columbine. And to push this school shooting theme home, in this same episode, Peggy calls Butler Shoes and asks Abe, "What time is it in Colorado?"
Mr. Rosen asks Don to give him a Laika Camera (think "shooting").
While having an affair with Mrs. Rosen, Don hides her cross necklace while they f.
We have Rosemary's Baby, the Golem, etc. Now where's Horus?
Ken Cosgrove the paperback writer, is assigned to the Chevy account and thus spends a lot of time in Detroit. The car men take him for a drive and cause him to get into an accident.
Remember, the PID rumor went viral in Detroit, on Crowley's birthday.
Later they take him hunting and accidentally shoot him in the eye, rendering him a Cyclops. If that wasn't enough of a Horus resonator, remember one of Ken's biggest accounts all these years has been Birdseye Foods.
Ken is fired and all of his accounts are taken over by Campbell.
The Eye of Horus, the Falcon.
We also had an eyepatch precursor with the poster of Moshe Dayan, just a couple episodes prior.
Season 6 also introduces us to the second man of this series to be hiding a secret past; the amiable, but mysterious Bob Benson. And of all people to learn of this fraud, of course it's Campbell. However, this time he decides not to go to anybody about the information. Though he does go to Bob with it and uses it as a safeguard against backstabbing.
Wanting to show Campbell he can't be kept under his thumb, he sets him up for humiliation in front of the Chevy guys in Detroit. Knowing Campbell cannot drive a manual transmission, he asks him to test drive the new car in the showroom. Campbell accidentally puts the car in reverse and knocks over the GM '69 sign.
Remember the PID rumor that Paul died in a car went viral in Detroit in '69.
Interestingly, Benson helps Campbell find a caretaker for his dementia-suffering mother. The caretaker ends up marrying Campbell's mother and throwing her off a cruise ship. Campbell's mother becomes the dew of the sea.
At summer camp, Don's son mentions that amongst the other Bobbys at camp, he is Bobby #5. Playing into the theory that there were multiple McCartneys.
Also intriguing that Bobby mentions that there is no Bobby #1 anymore.
If that weren't enough, Bobby then immediately teaches Don & Betty the song Father Abraham Had Many Sons. -I put an extra fine point on this because Don surprisingly goes along with Bobby's encouragement to sing along. Something he normally would not do.-
The ancient Kabbalist book Sefir Yetzirah states that the instructions on creating a Golem were first entrusted to Abraham.
It's also important to remember there were multiple actors that played Bobby in this series. They even alternated back & forth a couple times, early on. Also playing into the theory that the multiple McCartneys rotated in & out of the spotlight.
The firm lands an account with Sunkist Orange Juice.
The clock reads 9:11 as Stan pitches the idea to Don of relocating to LA to work on the account.
However, it is Don who is chosen to relocate to LA, even though Ted pleads to be the one chosen.
Later, Don decides to stay and let Ted go to LA instead.
The syncnificance of this is the enigmatic motif of trading places, oranges and 9/11.
The most notable example is the film Trading Places, which is all about stock market shares in Orange Juice.
Interestngly in Trading Places, we have Frank Oz throwing Dan Akroyd's character into jail. When Eddie Murphy's character rescues him, Akroyd launces into a Dorothy-esque "It was all a dream. And you were there, and you were there..." speech - his long dark night of the soul was bookended by OZ.
Then we have the Supertramp album Breakfast In America, which when mirror-flipped, features a 9-11 behind the WTC Towers with the waitress holding a glass of orange juice over the Towers.
Their other album is titled Crime Of The Century.
Re-emphasizing here the importance of NY being one letter off from OZ, and LA correlating to OZ.
And if that weren't enough, the firm is also highly involved with Chevy in Detroit, the city with the sports teams the Lions and the Tigers. This season takes place in 1968 during the Chicago riots, which are features in the show. The Chicago football team is the Bears. So we have Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
They had to drop Ocean Spray because of it's competition with Sunkist. Originally, they were going to drop Sunkist, since they were already working with Ocean Spray before they were approached by Sunkist, but, as we see, they traded places.
And though Don does stay in NY, Megan moves Laurel Canyon/LA.
Also interesting that Campbell visits the Sunkist orange groves outside LA, bringing to mind Jack Nicholson doing the same in Chinatown. We even have the Eye of Horus motif in both.
Ginsberg wants to trade the orange couch in the lounge for the couch in one of the offices.
Which creates a great time to plug a well-done recap series on Mad Men titled The Orange Couch.
In the Beatles film Help! Ringo attacks his assailants by shooting oranges at them, and while shrunk, Paul hides in an ashtray and bathes in orange juice. fwiw
At one point in this season, the firm is secretly working on going public on the stock market. At first they are told they can begin their Public Offering at $9 a share. However, it turns out they able to start with $11 a share. This is the same episode in which Roger hangs out at the airport with his airport-employee friend Daisy looking for auto execs to hustle.
HAL sang the song Daisy as he was being disconnected.
Roger does land an account with Chevy, which leads to the firm merging with their rival firm. So now we have the two young superstar pillars of the Madison Avenue ad world coming together.
Interesting that Don crashes to floor after his meth weekend in the episode titled The Crash, and Don takes Ted down on two occasions. Once by getting him drunk, which leads to Ted falling onto the table in the Creative lounge and unable to sit up. And a second time during the pitch meeting with St. Joseph's for the Rosemary's Baby ad, when he humiliated Ted in front of everyone.
Ted & Don fly to Detroit in Ted's personal plane.
Later, Ted takes the Sunkist execs up in his plane and cuts the engine mid-flight.
Incidentally, the clock reads 9:11 once again in this episode titled The Crash.
The penultimate episode of Season 6 is titled The Quality of Mercy, bringing to mind the Sephirot of Chesed, which translates to Mercy and represents the right pillar of the Tree of Life.
Gevurah, the Sephirot which represents the Left pillar, translates to Judgment, which seems to come into play in the season finale when Don is put on leave.
Other outstanding moments of Season 6.
During a manic episode, Ginsberg spouts, "Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." A quote from the Bhagavad Gita, which was used by Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the Atomic Bomb, while witnessing the first A-bomb detonation known as the Trinity test.
Which is written on the helmet of Animal Mother in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
An I-Ching user, Wendy, makes her way into the show.
The characters listen to the news of the Tet Offensive taking place in Vietnam.
Tet, the Hebrew letter attributed to the Strength/Lust card.
Herb from Jaguar Motors wants to use the majority of his advertising budget for radio ads, playing even further into the Detroit, radio, PID rumor node.
Joan & her friend Kate go on a wild date with a man named Leo.
Their ad campaigns for Heinz focus on Heinz's Ketchup being the only real ketchup, while the catsup offered by other brands is the imitation.
Ironically, they also work on Fleischmann's margarine, where they focus on convincing the public that margarine is just as good as butter.
I also couldn't help but notice the similarity in the angle of Don's & Peggy's ads in 1968 and the blank cover of The White Album.
With Ketchup, the Chevy XP and Koss Headphones, they do not show the product in the ad.
By the end of Season 6, we have a total of 78 episodes, which is the number of cards in a Tarot deck.
Each season contains 13 episodes; the 12 around the 1. The full circle.
Sharon Tate's first film, Eye of the Devil, is all about the 12 around the 1.
Her last film is titled 12 + 1, aka 13 Chairs.
Mia Farrow & Keir Dullea (2001's Bowman) starr in the film Full Circle, aka The Haunting of Julia, which was initially released in Spain on 9/11/77.
It then went full circle around the world and was released in America on 9/11/81, 9 months after Lennon's death.
Read my post on Full Circle here.
Season 7 is split into two half-seasons of 7 episodes each; which gives us the 77, the pathway of OZ/Strength between Chesed & Gevurah which holds the Tree in place, which is the Empire, the illusory world.
78 cards which are followed by 7 & 7, which also gives us 14, so the Peg/Samekh, as card 14, is added.
They went through every card then sealed it with Pan, the ALL.
Despite the detour, the ritual becomes a success, just as Liber Samekh played out for Crowley.
Season 7
The final season.
Anna's niece Stephanie phones Don from LA informing him that she's 7 months pregnant. This is in June, 1969 - meaning she'll be 9 months pregnant in August, the same as Sharon Tate.
Notice the Capitol Records tower behind her.
The Beatles' American record company.
Sally has the same Charlie Brown calendar on her wall that is seen in Sharon Tate's last film, which was filmed & released in 1969.
Interesting that the two times we see this calendar in Mad Men are when the characters are talking about dying moms.
Harry walks into Cutler's office to find him reading the book The American Way of Death.
Also notice the zebra rug on the floor.
And look who now has a nose bandage.
This occurs as the firm gets an IBM 360 computer installed at the office.
The episode is titled The Monolith.
And just as NY is one letter of from OZ, IBM is one letter of from HAL.
IBM makes a few appearances in 2001:ASO. Most notably here on the Monolith-shaped button on Bowman's suit.
IBMs were used by the Nazis during the Holocaust to keep records on the Jews of Europe, which was a huge aid in rounding them up for concentration camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
Remember Ginsberg stated he was born in a concentration camp.
He goes insane when the IBM is installed in the office, culminating in a tinfoil hat-style rant and cutting off his right nipple, which he claimed released the pressure of the data waves flooding his body which emanated from the IBM. He is then rolled out of the office strapped to a stretcher headed for the nut house.
So here we have Concentration Camp Boy being driven insane by the IBM which was overtly equated to the Monolith by Matt Weiner.
The episode was stuffed with 2001:ASO motifs, most notably a lip-reading scene.
There were a lot of nipple/breast motifs in this episode. Don's son goes on a field trip to a farm where they milk cows, Betty even drinks the raw milk. Also, the teacher is noticeably not wearing a bra and flaunting it, the mothers even comment on it.
And keeping with the 2001:ASO themes, Don goes to the theatre to see Model Shop, starring Gary Lockwood, who played Frank Poole.
Our first shot of the film features a red VW Beetle.
We also learn Don's replacement has been working on a comic strip about a monkey.
The lead monkey from 2001 is named Moonwatcher, and is played by Daniel Richter, who was a close friend of John Lennon. He was director of photography for Lennon's Imagine video.
Also, as this is all taking place, Roger's daughter has joined a hippie commune.
If the Manson/Tate themes weren't heavy enough, the night Roger stays at the commune, he & his daughter sleep outside and talk about the moon and her childhood memory of him reading her Jules Verne's From The Earth To the Moon.
We also meet Campbell's LA girlfriend Bonnie Whiteside.
Jack Parsons' real full name is Marvel Whiteside Parsons.
The day after the Apollo moon landing, Peggy pitches an ad to Burger Chef, using the event as the preface to her pitch.
Remember the Temperance Tarot card lies along the path from the Sun to the Moon on the European Tree of Life.
Don's marriage to Megan ends the day of the Moon landing and the next day Roger sells the firm to McCann/Erikson.
Both of Don's marriages, and his firm, dissolved on both the day JFK was killed and during the Moon landing.
Neve Campbell cameo in the season premiere.
She tells Don the story of her husband's death.
Shortly afterwards, Don meets up with a creative exec from a rival firm - who could pass as his doppelganger.
Don eventually is allowed to come back to work at the firm. He is given the late Lane Pryce's office. Don finds Lane's Mets pennant and hangs it on his wall, keeping the Shea Stadium theme alive.
In this scene Don says to Rumsen:
The Hebrew word MET (MT) means death.
The Hebrew word EMET (AMT) is written on the head of the Golem to bring it to life. When the maker is through with the Golem, he erases the Aleph (A) which leaves MET - Death.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Golem.html
Aleph, Mem and Tav are the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The firm is asked by Topaz Pantyhose to design an imitation version of the L'eggs egg packaging.
I believe the last ad they work on before moving to McCann/Erikson is Peter Pan Cookies.
Pan in Greek gematria equals 77.
In the second half of Season 7, we meet an airline stewardess who has become well acquainted with Don as he commutes back-n-forth from NY to LA to visit Megan. She tells Don how she hates Megan.
Later, Don invites her home and she spills red wine on the white carpet Megan picked out and loved so much - looking very much like blood splatter.
In fact, much like during the final scenes of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
The stewardess in her underwear, resembling Tate in her bikini the night she was killed.
Megan's Hollywood agent mentions he also represents Angie Dickenson, who was famous for playing Sgt. Pepper Anderson in the '70s tv show Police Woman.
She also had an appearance in the '70s tv movie Ringo.
Harkening back to themes of Rachel the Jewish woman who wouldn't be a whore in the Babylon episode and Joan the scarlet woman, who whores herself out in the episode titled The Other Woman:
Don has a dream in which Rachel crashes an audition, the introduction she is given is, "This is another girl."
The Shekinah and the Whore of Babylon.
Don meets a waitress, Diana, whom he forms an odd relationship with. When we first see her, she has the book The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos in her apron.
He meets Diana at a diner named Olympia. She stands next to this painting of the Greek Parthanon. Bringing to mind Diana of Roman mythology (Artemis of Greek).
The Goddess of the Moon and of Childbirth.
She is also the archer Goddess of the hunt. The Bowman/Arroway (Peggy)
and the twin sister of Apollo (the Sun God, Don).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)
Diana's sanctuary was Lake Nemi, aka Diana's Mirror.
Diana is the first woman Don has tried to hook up with that is his equal in inner torment. His mirror if you will.
It was the heavily guarded tree in Diana's grove that a runaway slave was to break a bough from in order to challenge the Rex Nemorensis, as explained in Frazer's The Golden Bough.
In the very next scene, Ken says this:
Campbell's daughter is rejected from enrollment in a prestigious school, because the dean is a MacDonald and resents the Campbell clan for their infamous bloody massacre which occurred in 1692 on a Wednesday morning at 5 o' clock, which are the opening lyrics to McCartney's song She's Leaving Home, which PIDers take to be the time McCartney died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Massacre_of_Glencoe
Campbell's part in the series ends with him becoming the in-house ad man for LearJet.
"It's based on a story about a man named Lear."
From the beginning of the series, Campbell, jealous of Ken Cosgrove, also wanted to be a paperback writer. However, his sub-par writing could only make it to Boy's Life Magazine.
Echoing PID theories of Campbell's inferior writing talents.
LearJet was founded by William Powell Lear.
The Lear jet design is based upon an experimental American military craft known as the Marvel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet
Marvel was Jack Parsons' real given name.
Megan returns to Don's apartment with her mother & sister to get her stuff. They all remark on the spilled wine on the carpet. Throughout the last few seasons, a big deal was made on how the white carpet was Megan's big idea and how it essentially represents her.
We first meet Joan's new fling Richard when he pretends to be Jim McCloud. The real Jim McCloud then walks in and we now have two Jim McClouds.
(McCartney's real full name is James Paul McCartney. His father goes by Jim).
The Scarlet Woman and the two James McC motif.
Towards the end of Season 7, in search of Diana, Don takes a great-American drive-about quest across the country following a series of syncs that ultimately lead him to his much needed personal epiphany.
After unsuccessfully locating his latest paramour in Wisconsin, he picks up this hitchhiker and decides to drive him to his destination: St. Paul, Minnesota, the Twin Cities area.
While missing in action, Don's secretary Meredith keeps asking Roger if Don is dead. Roger responds with "stop asking that, of course he's not dead."
Couple this with their new boss who bought their firm telling Roger, "You sold me a rotten apple... This may be the con of the century."
After a series of adventures and twists & turns, Don heads to California to find Stephanie, Anna's niece.
She invites him to accompany her to a spiritual retreat at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.
Don is reluctant and cynical. Eventually, Stephanie strands him there after leaving with the car.
Don wants to hitch a ride out but is informed by the receptionist that it could be days before he is picked up, in light of the recent changes in societal perceptions in the wake of the Manson Family murders.
Don has a severe breakdown, despondently calls Peggy, then sits catatonically on the ground for hours.
A seminar leader invites him to join her in the next class.
There he finds the thing he's been looking for his entire life. I don't want to spoil that here,
but I do want to add how interesting it is that it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Manson.
Also interesting that Don has his epiphany with a man named Leonard.
Leo, Lion, Lust card.
Don, as Osiris, had to find his (inner) Dick.
Now that Birdy is flying away.
Also interesting that Don has spent the entire series looking for his mom, in other women. When what he needed was the real thing.
Later, still at Esalen, Don participates in a yoga session.
We hear prayer bells similar to that heard in the intro of Rosemary's Baby.
Don is then gifted by the universe an epiphany of the career kind:
the iconic '70s "I want to teach the world to sing" Coca-Cola commercial.
Complete with ribbon pigtails as seen on the Esalen receptionist.
The commercial contains the line "It's the real thing."
This Coke commercial was produced at McCann/Erikson, where Don & his firm went in Season 7
It was created by Bill Backer; similar sounding to Don Draper. Backer is African-American.
Crowley states "Osiris is a black god."
In Don's Tarot reading from Season 2, his "bring to", what is required or asked of him, was The World card. In the end he wants to buy the World a Coke.
The World card being the 22nd Major Arcana, the end of the Hero's Journey.
Be it smokes or Cokes, Don is there to give you the warm fuzzies and tell you it's not death, it's ok.
In Season 1, it was Campbell who dug the research on society's death wish out of the trash and tried to use it as a campaign for Lucky Strike.
Don did not want the health risks mentioned in the ad.
"They're Toasted".
We're not selling death, we're selling happiness.
Under the surface, The Beatles are all about death themes. On the surface they're all "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and "Love is all you need."
Mad Men begins in 1960 and ends in 1970.
Just like The Beatles.
The first half of Season 7 was titled The Beginning.
The second half is The End of An Era.
Whatever The Beatles & Charles Manson were, The Beatles began that particular energy and Manson ended it.
The bookends of the '60s, two sides of a coin.
Seemingly emphasized further with the firm losing thier biggest accounts, Jaguar and Vicks in 1968, plus Don taking his son to see Planet of the Apes, where we see the ending, with Heston screaming, "You blew it up! You maniacs!"
What a long, mad trip it's been.
Kiernan Shipka, the actress who plays Don's daughter Sally, starrs in a movie coming out later in 2015 called Fan Girl, in which she plays Telulah Farrow.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4146132/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2
Her mother is Mary Farrow, and her friends are Rosemarie, Charlie and Paul.
Tallulah /t(a)-llu-lah/ as a girl's name is of Native American Indian origin, and the meaning of Tallulah is "leaping water".
Ocean Spray, Dew of the Sea, Rosemary.
By the way, the Beatles recorded a song titled Madman in 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_KJESNZLOE
Also, I'm not the only one seeing The Beatles and Kubrick linked to conspiracies.
The group Imagine Dragons filmed this famous video full of Kubrick homages, conspiracy nods and Beatles motifs.
UPDATE:
John Hamm is in the series Wet Hot American Summer, and plays a character named
The Falcon
2 comments:
Reading this article is rather like being subjected to the Alice in Wonderland treatment by some spooks while being held by the feds.
I got about 1/3rd of the way down before I started farting in tongues.
I may be back tomorrow.
That means I'm either doing my job, or I'm not doing it all.
Now to figure out which it is.
Keep reading, it'll all make sense at the end :P
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