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SUBCULTURE RESEARCH

SUBCULTURE ATTITUDE: MUSIC AND DESIGN

Kanye Wests Power: The Occult Meaning of its Symbols

Kanye Wests Power is a short, almost stationary video that manages to tell a profound story in

symbolic language. By decoding the occult meaning of the symbols present in this moving tableau,

the viewer discovers who really holds the power in the world and understands the story of Kanye

Wests initiation. We will look at the meaning of those symbols as they appear in the video.

Rapper and producer Kanye West has always found a way to stand out from the crowd. His video

Poweris no exception. It differs from the MTV norm in many regards, whether you look at the

content or the form. The duration of the video, the filming style and the subject matter are quite

distinct from todays typical rap videos as it is short (1:43), filmed in a single shot (compared to

the one-shot-per-second standard of music videos) and is very rich in archetypal symbolism.

Director Marco Brambilla sought to depict the concept of power in the form of a video tableau, a

moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement. The

director seems to have perfected this technique in his previous creation, Civilization, a video muralcreated for the new Standard Hotel in New-York city. The symbolism present there is simply

overwhelming.

For Power, Brambilla went for a neo-classic aesthetic, but still created a piece full of symbolic and

cultural references. As it was the case for paintings of the neo-classic era, each object, each

symbol and each detail in the video conveys an important meaning, a meaning that is needed to

understand the entire story. As we will see later, many symbols in the video have a deep occult

meaning and many of them point to Freemasonry and Mystery schools. By doing so, the director

clearly states what type of power is being presented in the video. We will therefore look at the

meaning of the symbols displayed in the video as they appear in the shot.

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SYMBOLS OF THE VIDEO

The video starts off with a close-up of Kanye West with glow-in-the-dark eyes, as if he wasilluminated from within. He stands between an infinite row of Ionic columns, which represent

wisdom in Masonic symbolism.

Two Pillars

As regular readers of this site already know, the occult meaning of the twin pillars is ancient,

profound and present in the symbolism of almost all mystery schools of History. There are many

layers of interpretation attributed to the two columns, but one constant is always present: The

pillars represent the entrance the gateway to the world of the initiate. Behind the columns, it

can be found - the key to the Mysteries and, consequently, the source of true power. This concept

has been used for in many cultures and schools of thought.

The two columns called the Pillars of Hercules in Ancient Greece stood at the gateway to

the sphere of the enlightened

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Pillars of Hercules in Francis Bacons New Atlantis as a gateway to the New World

Masonic initiate standing between the twin pillars

as the third pillar, in the same fashion as Kanye West in the video.

In Power, Kanye is standing at the mouth of the gateway to the sphere of the enlightened, right

at the border of the corrupt and decadent material world. So, right from the start of the video, the

director reveals the true nature of power in this world: It is not your democratically elected

officials, but those who consider themselves to be behind those pillars. One of the most significant

lines of the song is

In this white mans world, we the ones chosen

Does Kanyes white mans world refer to the hidden rulers, the Illuminati, who are hidden behind

those pillars? Did they choose Kanye West and give him Powerby permitting him to become an

influential figure in the entertainment industry? Was he chosen to become one of them? The next

symbol might shed some light into this.

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Horus

Horus pendant on Kanyes chain

The next thing that catches the viewers eye is most probably that gigantic chain with Horus head

as a pendant. Horus is an ancient Egyptian deity that has an extreme importance in occult

mysteries. Considered to be the Sky god, he is more often represented with the symbol of a single

eye. The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in

this case from Horus or Ra.

The importance of the one-eye in occult symbolism has been highlighted in many articles on The

Vigilant Citizen. TheAll-Seeing Eye found on the Great Seal of the United States and many other

occult symbols originate from the Eye of Horus.

The symbolism of Horus is especially of great importance in Freemasonry, as the path of an initiate

through the Masonic degrees is described as the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened.

So Kanye stands at the gateway between the corrupt world of the profane and the exclusive world

of the illuminated. He was Wearing a Horus pendant, an unmistakable symbol of the Mysteries.

One might say: Well maybe Kanye just likes Egyptian things. Maybe so, but in the context of this

video, where all details are important and extremely meaningful, Horus becomes another piece ofthis symbolic puzzle.

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Horned Girls

The entrance of the gateway of pillars is guarded by two horned albino girls holding a staff. Their

features are very reminiscent of depictions of Isis and Hathor, goddesses of ancient Egypt. This is

another allusion to Egyptian magic.

Kanye standing between two horned female figures

Isis was the mother of Horus (discussed above) and was the goddess of motherhood, nature and

magic. Hathor was also considered as a maternal deity while also being the goddess of music,

dance and fertility. Both Isis and Hathor were known to welcome and protect the dead during their

journey to the afterlife, a concept that is particularly interesting in the context of the video.

Kanye, perhaps symbolizing the Pharaoh, is standing at the gateway to eternal wisdom, about to

be executed/assassinated/sacrificed under the watchful eyes of Hathor, the royal goddess.

Sword of Damocles

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Sword hanging above Kanyewests head

Wenceslas Hollars

depiction of the Sword of Damocles

The Damocles of the anecdote was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of

Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse. Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of

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power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for

a day, so he could taste first hand that fortune. In the evening a banquet was held where

Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he

look up and notice a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a single horse-hair.

Immediately, he lost all taste for the fine foods and beautiful girls and asked leave of the tyrant,

saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.

Dionysius had successfully conveyed a sense of the constant fear in which the great man lives.

Cicero uses this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples for reaching the conclusion he

had been moving towards in this fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that virtue is sufficient for

living a happy life. Cicero asks Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that

there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?

The tale of the Sword epitomizes the constant danger faced by those in positions of power. Kanye

stands there, in a state of impending doom, knowing he can be executed at any time. Right after

we see the sword of Damocles, a figure appears holding a dagger and attempting to stab him. The

assassination will not happen by dagger, however, as two other figures leap out of nowhere

holding swords to accomplish the Killing of the King.

Killing of the King The Initiation

Ritual

initiation represented in a display of geometry and symmetry

At the ending of the video, the decadent women and the dagger-holding assassins all disappear astwo swords are about to hit him. Are we sacrificing the King?

The concept ofregicide is reflected in the singles cover art. It depicts Kanyes severed, crowned

head with a sword firmly jammed into it. Apparently Kanye was king and he got killed. Is this a

symbol for a Masonic ritual? Note the stone on which Kanyes head is placed. Is it the perfect

ashlar of the Masons that represents the state of a perfected initiate?

Some occult researchers have stated that the Killing of the King is the name of a Masonic rite of

passage to obtain the 33rd degree (see King Kill 33 by James Shelby Downard & Michael A.

Hoffman II). Semi-interesting sidenote: King Kill 33 is also the name of a Marilyn Mason song, with

rather interesting lyrics. Another sidenote: Researchers have reported that Killing of the King ritesoften happens in public, as more witnesses give more power to the ritual, hence JFK.

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