Episode 41: The Ninth Gate

Tomorrow is Halloween, so I thought it was a good time to cover The Ninth Gate, which is a weird film about a rare books dealer who is hired to find The Nine Gates,  a book that is alleged to have been written by Lucifer. As you can imagine, it's a film rife with occult symbolism and ritual. In Esoteric Hollywood II, Jay Dyer devotes an entire chapter to this film. Like Eyes Wide Shut, we see a secret society of rich weirdos LARPing with rituals and orgies. Yet the message of the film seems to rest on Johnny Depp's character, Corso, and not with the shadowy underworld of wealthy Satanists.

⚠️ Spoilers lie ahead!

Links:

https://tubitv.com/movies/300169/the-ninth-gate

https://www.amazon.com/Esoteric-Hollywood-II-Cults-Symbols/dp/1634241932

Need more? You can visit the website at: https://consaracytheories.com/ or my own site at: https://saracausey.com/. Don't forget to check out the blog at: https://consaracytheories.com/blog. 

Transcript

 Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

Welcome to con-sara-cy theories. Are you ready to ask questions you shouldn't and find information you're not supposed to know? Well, you're in the right place. Here is your host, Sara Causey. 

Hello, hello, and thanks for tuning in. Since tomorrow is Halloween, I wanted to use tonight's episode to talk about Roman Polanski's film The ninth gate. Full disclosure, it's not the horror classic. It's not the kind of oh my god, filmmaking that you find with Rosemary's Baby. However, I wanted to talk about the ninth gate because it is rife with occult symbolism. It's a film about a book that was written by Lucifer and can be used to summon the devil himself in esoteric Hollywood two Jay Dyer actually devotes an entire chapter to the symbolism in the ninth gate, and he compares it to some of the same themes that we find in Stanley Kubrick's film, Eyes Wide Shut. So Let's saddle up and take this ride. When the film opens, we see an old man in a library writing something. We also see a footstool and a noose. So we know what he's up to. He has a vast library of old books, but we noticed that one book in particular is missing from the shelf. Johnny Depp. Meanwhile, is this character, Dean Corso, and he's a rare books dealer, and he seems like a Wheeler Dealer type. He snatches a volume of Don Quixote for considerably less than it's worth, and this is like our glimpse into his character. He goes to this company called Balkan press, where Frank Langella, who's playing Boris Balkan, is giving a lecture about demons and witchcraft. And if you're paying attention, you'll also noticed that Boris Balkans private elevator code is 666, so Balkan is a collector of rare and antique books about the devil. He has a rare book written in Venice in 1666, by a man who was burned in the Inquisition. He tells Corso about this book, The della Milano con, a book that was purportedly written by Satan, and this other author, torquia, acquired it and put images in his book, and supposedly it can be used to conjure Satan if the ritual is performed correctly. Balkan is concerned that his copy of this torquia book may be a forgery, and Corso makes a joke that Balkan must have tried to perform the ritual and Satan didn't show up. Hence, that's why he thinks that his copy is a forgery. Corso calls on this woman named Mrs. Telfer to ask her what she knows about the book. Her husband was the man at the beginning who killed himself. She says that her husband bought the book in Spain, and to me, her name sounds a little bit like the German word for devil, which is toyful. I was just like Telfer toyful. Hmm, it could be so, Corso asks her if her husband ever tried the book's rituals, but she laughs him off. We also noticed that a blonde woman has been following Corso, and he gets suspicious. When he gets home, his apartment door is unlocked and slightly ajar. The place has been ransacked. He becomes concerned, not only for his safety, but for the safety of the book, because Balkan has allowed him to take this copy so that he can go and try to authenticate it against other copies of the book and determine is one genuine, are the others forgeries, and if so, which one is legit? So the safety of the book is clearly of importance to Corso. He also knows that it's clearly valuable, and he's nervous that it will be stolen out from underneath him. So he goes to this friend slash colleague who owns a bookstore, and he asks this friend to hide the book for him. He doesn't even trust Balkan. He feels like this is one of those double blind, triple blind situations where nobody is really trustworthy. Mrs. Telfer shows up at his apartment later that night, and she claims to have a business proposal. She wants Corso to fake a burglary because his client is probably well insured, and then she will pay him and take the book back. It's also clear that she is offering to seduce him, and we see that she has scratch marks and a snake tattoo on her body. When she discovers that the book is not there, she beats Corso and smashes a bottle over his head. He returns to the bookstore where his friend has hidden the book for him. He doesn't get a response, but he tries the door, and it's unlocked. His friend is found dead in the position of the Hanged Man. So if you're familiar with the deck of. Tarot cards, the card for the Hanged Man, his friend is found dead in that position. The book, meanwhile, is still safe where his friend had hidden it for him. Corso calls Balkan from a phone booth and says it's an emergency. He tells Balkan about the murder and says he wants out of the arrangement. Balkan tells him to just tack a zero onto his fee, and he'll pay it. This reminded me of Angel Heart, because A similar thing happens to Harry Angel's character in that film, really the books by William hortberg, and then the Angel Heart film with Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro, that would be a great episode for another Halloween time. Creepy material there, but in that film, Harry angel has a similar experience. All of a sudden, he's implicated in murders. He's trying to talk to people about this Johnny favorite character, and whoever he tries to interview winds up dead. And he's like that. This isn't what I signed up for, I signed up for a simple missing persons case. Now people are dropping dead. That's it. I'm out. And so Louis cipher, played by Robert De Niro, is like, these are the hazards of your profession. If the fee I'm paying you bothers you, we can have it adjusted. So that's really what Balkan does to Corso. Well, if you're that concerned about people dropping dead, add a zero onto your fee, and I'll pay it. So it's like, well, how the hell much is he getting paid? Because it's never made clear. But if he was offered $5,000 now, it's become 50. If he was offered 50 now, it's become 500,000 it's like, holy shit. Vulcan must want this book. Pretty bad. Corso goes to Spain where Telfer bought the copy. Originally, the book dealers there tell him that Mrs. Telfer, not her husband, was the one who wanted it. The Spanish dealers claim that the book is not a forgery. Some of the engravings in this book by torquia were signed by someone named LCF, even though the author was torquia. So who was LCF? Supposedly, LCF stands for Lucifer on his way out, Corso is almost killed by a cascade of falling scaffolding. That made me think actually, of the movie The Omen. Because, you know, there's that scene where the reporter guy is with Gregory Peck's character, and he gets winds up getting beheaded on the street. So Corso is almost killed by a cascade of falling scaffolding. And then he sees this blonde woman, this mysterious blonde woman, again, on the train. She has followed him from New York City to Europe. He confronts her about who she is and what she wants, but she's vague. He assumes that she's been hired by Balkan to spy on him, which isn't a bad guess. He goes to an old country house to call on a man named fargus, who also has a torquia book copy. The old man shows him a variety of antique books on the occult. Vargas tells Corso that he wouldn't sell his copy of torquis book at any price. Some of these books I would part with, but this is not one of them, not at any price. Corso wants to stay a while and examine both copies. So like Balkans copy of the book and then fargus copy of the book side by side, Vargas warns him to be careful. Some books are dangerous. During his examination, Corso finds differences in the book's arcane illustrations. Some are signed at meaning that torquia, the author did them, and others are signed LCF. Upon leaving fargus house, Corso is almost hit by a car. The mysterious blonde woman appears on a motorcycle and saves his life. Corso is naturally perplexed by this. He then finds the woman at his hotel and talks to her. However, just like as they're starting to get into a real conversation, he receives a sudden call from Boris Balkan, and is mystified that Balkan knew where he was staying. The girl shows up at his room and insists that he go back to Fauci house. She still will not admit how she is involved. Fargus, meanwhile, is dead in a pond in his front yard. Naturally, his copy of torquis book is gone as well, but Corso finds it in the fireplace, partially burned. He and this mysterious blonde escape to Paris. Corso examines the burned book as best he can based on the charred remains. He calls on a woman who has yet another copy of torquis book, Baroness Kessler. She is in the midst of writing a biography of the devil. She tells Corso that she saw the devil one day when she was 15. She tells him it was love at first sight, and he says that 300 years ago, she'd be burned at the stake. She says other people have been inquiring about the same book in recent days. The Baroness is a true believer, and tells Corso about a secret society dedicated to preserving the work. It's called the order of the silver serpent. She says the cult went from a true witch's Coven to a club for. Word millionaires and celebrities, they just show up to have sex, and they don't take the ritual seriously. Everything was quite friendly between her and Corso, and she was spilling a lot of tea until she finds out that Corso is working for Balkan the same man who tried to run him over at fargus house is waiting for him again. So like the Baroness kicks him out of her office, slash home, whatever building it is that they're in, where everything was friendly, she finds out that he's working for Balkan and it's like no Hell no, get the hell out of here. And then this same man who's tried to run him over before is waiting for him. He goes inside a bar, hoping that he'll wait the man out and be able to slip off. He finds himself on the run from unknown people in a great car. He gets into a scuffle with this same man, but the blonde woman appears to help him. We also see her fly, not walk or run, but fly down a staircase. So we know, as the viewer that she's a paranormal being. He suspects Liana Telfer is behind the attack. His her eyes seem to glow, although Corso isn't certain, because his glasses were off. And by that, I mean this mysterious blonde woman. It's like her eyes seem to turn into a glowing green color. But Corso doesn't feel like he can quite believe his eyes on that because his eyeglasses were off. This mysterious blonde woman also takes blood from a nosebleed and streaks it across Corsos face, which seems like an occult ritual to me, Vulcan calls again and insists that Corso go back to the Baroness. In the meantime, the mysterious blonde woman has left. Corso looks for a place in his hotel room to hide Balkans book. The next day, Corso goes back to the Baroness. She's still irritated, but she lets him in. He tells her about the variation and illustrations that he's found, and this piques her curiosity. She lets him research her copy with as much time as he needs someone we don't know who, but someone knocks Corso out and murders the Baroness. The building is lit on fire, and Corso has to find his way out. When he returns to his hotel room, he finds the copy he stashed away is gone. He is now in very big trouble. And of course, Balkan calls again, and Corso has to admit that the book is gone, and Balkan threatens him. The blonde woman comes back, and Corso concludes that Telfer is behind all of it. He goes to a Paris hotel where Liana Telfer is staying. Corso and the blonde woman follow liana's car to this small town of San Martin, which was her maiden name, and they locate her chateau. Now, the Chateau definitely has Eyes Wide Shut vibes. There's fire and torches everywhere, and it's this big estate, Corso and this blonde woman spy through the windows, and they see a group in black robes. They also see Liana nude in her bedroom, where she puts on a black robe and a pentacle necklace. Corso breaks in to confront her and to get Vulcans book, while Corso and the girl work to escape one of liana's henchmen she is leading in a cult ritual. Vulcan breaks in and starts screaming the phrase mumbo jumbo, and says they are buffoons and fancy dress the prince of darkness would not show up for them. Corso is totally weirded out, as one would be, Vulcan and Liana get in a fight and Vulcan attempts to kill her. Corso tries to intervene, but strangely, the blonde woman stops him. After Liana dies, the other participants run away. The woman explains that by Balkan murdering Lyanna in such a crowded setting, it will eliminate Corso as a suspect in all of the other deaths. But Corso cannot let it go. He pursues Balkan, and he tracks Balkan to an abandoned castle where he has Lucifer drawings spread out before him. Corso believes that he can stop Vulcan from completing this arcane ritual of trying to summon the devil. Balkan lights himself on fire and screams at this immolation until he dies. Corso saves the drawings and shoots Vulcan to end his screams of torment. The blonde woman returns, and there's this weird sex scene of she and Corso outside the burning castle. She tells him that the ninth engraving was a forgery, and that's why Balkans ritual failed. She leaves Corso, but before she vanishes, she pins a note to the windshield of this car that he's driving, and she tells him in this note to return to the bookstore in Spain where he started the bookstore, however, is gone, but he's able to find the authentic engraving, and it shows the woman like this whore of Babylon type imagery, riding a multi headed. A beast creature. And then the final scene of the movie is Corso returning back to the castle where Balkan tried to do the ritual but failed. A weird film, not anywhere near in the same league with Rosemary's Baby, but it's interesting, nevertheless. I mean, is it my favorite movie? No, could you do worse? Yeah, I've seen movies that are way worse than this that definitely did not hold my attention. In Jay Dyer's book esoteric Hollywood two, he devotes all of chapter eight to the ninth gate. And one of the things that he writes is what other analyzes often missed is the film's similarity to Eyes Wide Shut, both of which give clues and revelations concerning the nefarious practices of many of our real world elite, littered with Masonic and alchemical imagery, the ninth gate is a film about occult initiation, as much as Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut is Now this is intriguing. One of the early episodes that I did for this podcast was to cover Kubrick's film, Eyes Wide Shut, and I remember talking about how my boyfriend and I, at the time, went to see it. I had worked, I was really tired, and we went to a late showing, and when we got out, it was like, What the hell was that? What? What even was that because it was marketed as an erotic thriller, it's an odd it's like a murder mystery, and it's an opportunity to get to see Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were married in real life at the time. It's almost like you're a voyeur getting to have a sneak peek inside their marriage. But it was nothing like that. We just found it bizarre, and neither one of us liked it. Well, then fast forward in time, one night, when I was older and wiser to the ways of the world, I watched it by myself, and was like, holy shit. It unnerved me terribly. I'm like this. This is what goes on. You know? You know that people in high positions of power have these kinds of orgies and get down on the get down in just this exact way. And if something goes wrong, it's very easy to say, like in the case of Mandy, well, she was a drug head, even though we saw in the paper that she's an ex beauty queen, apparently, at some point she had something going for her. Well, she was just a drug head. She was gonna OD. Was bound to happen. So these women are used and abused and are thrown away whenever they can no longer be used in these orgiastic rituals, they're just tossed to the side with some lame story of a drug overdose. Jay Dyer argues that the nine gates are not literal gates, but are symbolic of this journey that Corso is taking in esoteric Hollywood too. He writes, The gates are not literal gates, of course, but symbolic, synchronistic events that occur leading Corso down a specific path, like an Actor in a Play, Corso is led step by step through each of the pictured engravings in the book, and it is to these images we will now turn Corso is rapacious attitude for scamming clients out of valuable, rare works catches the attention of the wealthy collector Boris Balkan. Balkan takes an interest in corso 's reputation as he scams an unwitting couple out of a priceless copy of Don Quixote, which ironically presages his own coming adventure. It does, it totally does. In Cervantes work, Don Quixote is driven mad by reading endless works of chivalry, erecting in his mind a fantastical world where he is a knight sent forth on a deluded crusade. The film's usage of the novel serves as a warning to those who embark on a perilous quest for power through occult means, leading ultimately to the demise of all involved but one in this case. End quote, yes, I think that that's really, it's it's done in a way that's savvy and subtle. And the first time that you watch this movie, you really don't even pick up on it, because you're just focusing on the high points. You're trying to figure out, what is the point of all this? Is Corso ever going to authenticate the book is Vulcan ever going to really summon the devil by doing these rituals in the book? What is going to happen here? But I think that what Jay Dyer is pointing out makes a lot of sense, because you see this unraveling that takes place in the ninth gate of Dean Corso, character, by the way, you see the same thing happen in the movie Angel Heart Mickey Rourke, as the film goes on. Mean, he's a bit of a slob at the beginning anyway, his desk is a mess, like when he's trying to get a pen, a pad and a pen out of his desk drawer. Everything's a mess, and he's a bit slovenly. But as the film goes on, he gets grosser and grosser. This is actually a funny conversation I had more than one time with my friend Marion, because we were the only two people that we knew that had ever watched Angel Heart, let alone watched it more than once, and could really speak intellectually about this film. And I remember her saying specifically Mickey Rourke as. He goes through that film, he just becomes more and more disgusting, and he does you can watch his unraveling on the screen. The same thing happens here with Dean Corso, because he can't let it go. You would think that whenever the assignment was finished, he would just go home. I don't know what's going on with these weirdos. I don't know what kind of cult they're in. They're all a bunch of Kooks who believe they can summon the devil through some ancient book. You know what I'm getting the hell out of here. We see that in Angel Heart, because hairy angel is this avowed atheist who thinks it's all a bunch of religious twaddle. And I don't get it. I don't know why somebody would be a devil worshiper. I think the whole thing is nonsensical, but he gets tossed into this maelstrom. Well, so does Corso. He can't let it go. So if we think about Don Quixote becoming obsessed with these tales of chivalry to the point where he thinks that he's a knight and he's going off to fight the windmills. So it is with Corso, he has opportunities to get out of the situation, but he doesn't mean he even follows Balkan to this old castle to watch him do the ritual and see if Satan is actually going to appear. And it's like, well, who does that? If you're an atheist, if you don't think there's anything to all of this, and you think these people are Cougs. Why would you do that? I mean, even if you didn't, you run the risk of being caught and killed. So why is Corso just repetitively getting himself into these dangerous situations? What has happened that he can't let it go? I would argue, as someone that's done a lot of academic work with the Faust legend, in particular, Goethe's Faust and FW Murnau film adaptation. There's a Fauci an edge to all of this as well, this thirst for knowledge, wanting that which is verboten. If you tell me there's esoteric knowledge behind the curtain, I have to know what it is. We see this attitude happening with Dean Corso. We assume, especially at the beginning of the movie, that Balkan is the initiate. Balkan is the one who's trying to obtain this text so that he can go into our ritual chamber and summon the devil. But as the film unfolds, it becomes clearer that Corso is actually the Initiate I'll read again from esoteric Hollywood too. Vulcan explains the legend of the mythical devil's book, The nine gates of the kingdom of shadows, which he claims to possess Vulcan shows his copy to Corso, and the first engraving we see is a knight on a quest, recalling Quixote, heading toward a castle with the inscription silences golden as Corso agrees to hunt down the other two copies for a hefty price to compare them, we can see that twice the castle has appeared with the knight giving the sign of harpocrates, and I'm going to butt in and say Hippocrates was like a Ptolemy god of silence. Thus, the first step is that of seeking Gnosis, or hidden knowledge, the esoteric. So we can think of Corso as deciding he wants to go on this ride, to find hidden knowledge, to possess something he shouldn't, to find information that he is not supposed to know. Hello, hi. Think about this podcast. That's one of the things that I've said early on, we need to hunt down the information we're not supposed to have and ask the questions that we're not supposed to ask. I want to know the things you're not supposed to know. It's not a wonder that I did a lot of academic work with the Fauci legend, because that edge exists to my personality as well. What is it that you're not supposed to know what's being hidden from you? I'm always curious about that. He mentions the man in the bookstore who is killed and then left in the position of the Hanged man like you would see in a deck of tarot cards. Jay Dyer writes, The Hanged Man is a warning not to venture into mysteries presumptuously or with importunity. This is explained in the next scene when the next engraving is also a warning about danger descending from above. The seneza brothers explain the cherub in the picture even has a mustache like the seneza brothers, and the significance of them being twins also relates to the Tarot, as the Lover's card is sometimes Gemini or the twins. You can see here the resemblance between the two the lovers symbology picks up the sex magic theme again, as Corso will attain concourse intercourse and union with his angelic partner, the Whore of Babylon. Corso also discovers here the engravings differ with LCF signing some copies and not others. End quote. Jay Dyer also brings up Corso visit with the Baroness. Corso next visits Baroness Kessler, who reveals the existence of this cult, the order of the silver serpent, whose membership rosters include old nobility, nouveau riche, actors and musicians. The order. Was created to preserve the secret of the devil, she claims, but had fallen into mere hedonistic pleasure as an outlet for secret orgies, Eyes Wide Shut, comes to mind, and strikingly, It recalls the mansion used for the orgy scene, although this estate is the Chateau de ferray, while mint more has long been home to strange activity from The Beatles engaging in transcendental meditation to it also being the site used for Bruce Wayne's estate in Christopher Nolan's Batman films, passing from the hands of the Rothschild family to the Maharishi Yogi Foundation, and is now owned by the Rubin brothers. Chateau de ferray is a French rock child estate where the infamous masked ball parties featuring Audrey Hepburn took place. Likewise, the castle at the end of the film used for Corsos fire ritual was a medieval Cathar Castle, Chateau du poi ver housing the infamous Gnostic sect like Bill Hartford in Eyes Wide Shut, Corso is being led down an alchemical path that is opening gates in his psyche. Baroness Kessler opines that the members of the Order are deluded. Their belief power and wealth comes from the order when it is the devil himself that grants the power, the very thing that will occur with Corso end. Quote. Jay also talks about that weird scene where the girl takes blood from her nose bleed and streaks it across Corsos face. He compares it to a reverse version of Ash Wednesday. He also writes Corsos being harassed and followed, as well as his interactions with the concierge again bring to mind Eyes Wide Shut as Balkan organizes another murder, this time of Baroness Kessler through poison and immolation, Corso reveals to the Baroness the three variations in the three manuscripts make nine, thus solving he thinks the devil's riddle. Nine is in western hermeticism, the number of initiation and judgment. And therefore the entire thrust of the film is Corsos initiation process as Corso studies the next engraving, it details an initiate being flogged by another night outside the castle with others being impaled on Iraq Corso, like the Initiate in the picture is, at that moment, flogged and knocked unconscious, awakening to find the Baroness poison as the library catches fire, making her another sacrifice. End Quote, The parallels between the ninth gate and Eyes Wide Shut, are easy to see once Corso and the blonde woman make it to Saint Martin's chateau in France, it's this big, elaborate, beautiful, wealthy structure, and there's fire everywhere. You have these expensive cars with the well to do's the people that are involved in this strange sex cult, and they're in black robes. They're naked. Everybody's naked, except they've got these robes on. There's even a bed covered in black satin sheets on this altar. Very clear parallels between the type of sex rituals going on in Eyes Wide Shut, and what they intend to do in the film The ninth gate. One important difference, I think, though, is that Stanley Kubrick, when he has bill, go on this weird night of adventure, bad adventures, really. He sees the girl at that rainbow costume shop that's clearly a prostitute, and his friend, Nick is the piano player at this orgy. And oh, you should see these women. You should see the things that go on. But there's never some overt reference to the devil. There's never some overt reference of they're in a devil worshiping cult. They're doing sex orgies, and they use and abuse people at will, and like Sydney polls character Victor tells bill when they're in that billiards room. If you really knew, if you knew the names of some of the people that were there that night, you wouldn't sleep so well at night. I think it's a much more down to earth story, like we're not getting into the realm of devil worship. We're just telling you these types of rituals happen amongst the hyper elites, and then also, if somebody poses a problem, they just get bumped off and it's blamed on an accident, a suicide, a drug overdose, etc. But it's interesting, I think, with the ninth gate, because the Baroness makes it clear that she believes, according to her theology, the power that these people have, the money, the position, the status, their ability to be a famous actor or to be a famous musician, all of that power is supplied by the devil. They're not really giving the devil his due in this cult, because it has devolved from being a true witches coven, as she put. It where they're guarding the secret of this book, and they know who is supplying their power. It's devolved from that into a swingers club board millionaires and actors and musicians just go to get their rocks off at this place. But they think mistakenly that the power they hold in this world is coming because they're members of this orgiastic club, when, in reality, according to the Baroness, the power that they have is coming from Satan. There's an image that Jay Dyer shows that I hadn't really thought of before. It's a still shot, so you have a shot of the robed ritual from the ninth gate, and this image of Johnny Depp standing at the gate outside one of the wealthy people's homes. Then you have this image from Eyes Wide Shut of the robed ritual, along with Dr Harford standing at the gate. So there, I think that also speaks to this idea of Corso as the initiate. The story seems to be about Balkan and the book and tracking down this authentic tome that Lucifer has written, but really it's about the journey that Corso takes. Jay Dyer, of course, compares the bizarre sex scene out by the castle as evoking whore of Babylon imagery. He goes on to write, in the bedeviled afterglow, the girl reveals to Corso that the final engraving is a forgery and that the seneza brothers have the real final secret. The explanation of this strange ending is what I have given above the journey itself was the process of Corso opening the gates to Gnostic illumination. The final secret was his own union with the Whore of Babylon, allowing himself entrance to immortality. Contrary to what most viewers would have suspected, the entire journey was about Corso himself as the Initiate on the path to discovery, not the cult or the power mad elites seeking apotheosis through impossible means. So he talks about like that final scene where Corso is walking into an illuminated Kate, an illuminated castle gate. It's like he's done everything that he's supposed to do. He's taken the journey. He's been through the nine gates, so to speak. So now he's the one that gets entry. I'll read just a little bit more. Ultimately, the ninth gate is a Gnostic allegory of illumination through the union of opposites, where Corso unites with his celestial babe, Guardian, slash fallen angel like Dante with Virgil and Beatrice, a counter initiate trek into dis The gates were not opened through the working of cult rituals, but in the psyche of Corso as synchronistic ritual, events were occurring all around him all along, functioning as a reverse telling of Dante. For millennia, occultic con men have held out promises of immortality and self salvation all the way back to the original con of the serpent in the garden. And all of these cons are built on appeals to man's vanity and pride all along the way, that historical path is littered with the skulls and damaged psyches of duped individuals who fell for the perennial scam as Dante's Inferno is littered with the skulls of sinners, priests and Popes. So that's Jay Dyer's take on it. I do think in re watching the film to record this podcast episode, and then considering Jay Dyer's argument and esoteric Hollywood two, I agree with him that the movie itself is not about Balkan it's not about the Baroness or Liana Telfer or the people engaged in these rituals. It actually is about Corso. And it's interesting that Jay Dyer talks about Don Quixote and how Corso gets involved on this path, and he can't let it go. It becomes an all consuming, driving passion, and because he's had this weird encounter with this girl who's apparently a stand in for the Whore of Babylon, he's had this union between whatever she is, a fallen angel, a supernatural being. Maybe she is some sort of female embodiment of Lucifer himself. We don't know whatever supernatural being that she is, because they've engaged in this union, he's able to go through the ninth gate. Then, in addition to that, we do have an Eyes Wide Shut type of reference to this sex cult that these wealthy people like, I mean, even just if you think about the book collectors, they're really buying into the idea that you can purchase a book supposedly written in tandem with Lucifer that will summon the devil and you'll have immortality, and then Vulcan tries to do it and burns himself. To death. There's some really interesting imagery there. I'm thinking also of what Jay Dyer says about the Hanged Man. Like this is a cautionary tale. You should not go seeking out this kind of information, probing into these dark corners without an awareness that you could get yourself hurt. So what do you think, if you've seen the ninth gate, what do you think? Do you think it's about Corso? Do you think it's an Eyes Wide Shut style, warning about what the hyper elites are actually up to and who supposedly is funneling their power to them? A point to ponder. I hope that you have a wonderful Halloween, and I will see you in the next episode. 

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