Madonna accused of satanic provocation
Madonna has come into religious controversy again,with a former president comparing her to the Satan
London | August 7, 2009
Pop diva Madonna has come into the ambit of religious controversy again,with a former president comparing her to the Satan.
Madonna accused of satanic provocation - Hindustan Times
Aug 7, 2009 ... Pop diva Madonna has come into the ambit of religious controversy again, with a former president comparing her to the Satan.
Nobel Prize-winning former Polish president Lech Walesa has expressed his displeasure with the fact that Madonna’s upcoming show ‘Sticky & Sweet’ is happening on the same day as the Feast Of The Assumption,the day Mother Mary ascended to Heaven, Female first reported.
“It is a Satanic provocation. I am a man of faith and ask for such events not to happen on such an important feast in my religion,” said the devout Roman Catholic.
Madonna’s scheduled concert was described as “an attack by the devil on our immaculate Catholic nation” by Father Stanislaw Malkowski who is leading the protest against the controversial pop star.
Madonna had earlier run into a controversy with the Catholic church for the controversial video of her song ‘Like a Prayer’ in 1989 and more recently with an on-stage dedication of ‘Like A Virgin’ to the Pope last year.
The impending concert has created a wave of protest in the Catholic nation with Parliamentarian Marian Brudzynski saying,”The concert of a highly perverse singer who calls herself ‘Madonna’ is deeply humiliating to Warsaw residents and Poles in general.”
Madonna Wants To Be High Priestess in 'Madame X' Tour
"Are you all starting to get it?" Madonna asked from the stage, at least several times, to a fawning, screaming audience whom she treated at times more like a kindergarten classroom than who they were — a crowd of well-heeled, mostly middle-aged fans who could afford orchestra seats for her pricey Madame X tour.
"Madame X is a teacher. She's a rebel. She's a head of state. She's a mother. She's a child. She's a whore. And she is a saint." (I'm paraphrasing only slightly — no cellphones were allowed.)
Madonna, at 61, sees herself as all of the above, except (maybe) head of state. And in her new tour, which just finished the last of a three-night engagement at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco, she is not so much playing a character as just another in a long series of chameleon-like variations on her public self.
She sounds every bit the confident, caustic "bad girl" she wanted us to see on the Truth or Dare tour nearly 30 years ago, only she's no girl anymore and likely more invested in her legacy as a performer than in selling albums or concert seats. (Or in making things pleasant for an aging fanbase, many of whom were weary and overheated in a stuffy theater by the time she went on, some 40 minutes later than announced and hours after the theater opened, around 11:10 p.m.)
She admits a little bit of weakness — twice she mentioned tendonitis in a hip flexor, an injury she apparently had when the tour began in September according to this Rolling Stone review, though perhaps this is a second injury.
But that's only so that you're more impressed with all the dancing she does.
If I walked away with anything from Tuesday night's show — apart from memories of a truly stunning visual spectacle, enhanced by recent advances in projection mapping — it's that Madonna, more than ever, still craves respect and adoration as an artist and activist more than as a pop icon, but she'll accept a role as quasi-religious icon if she must.
She isn't afraid to patronize the kids with auto-tuned, one-off singles like "Crave" (feat. Swae Lee) and "Future" (feat. Quavo) — or "Bitch I'm Madonna" from 2015's Rebel Heart. But her heart is mostly in awing everyone with bold visuals of gun violence, gun protests, and the borrowed soulfulness of her video for "Batuka," which is sung (along with the projected video) with the help of the Orquestra Batukadeiras — a group of African Portuguese Creole women from Cape Verde, whom she has brought on the tour with her.
Much of the new album grew out of Madonna's recent experience living in Portugal while her now 14-year-old son David Banda was at a soccer school. As the story goes, she got bored being alone there while he played soccer, so she started going out to clubs and cafes and fell in love with fado, the guitar-based music genre native to Lisbon.
According to this June profile in New York Times, "One night, she visited a Frenchman’s crumbling home on the sea for an improv session, mostly of fado musicians. 'There was a vibration there that was magical and palpable, and suddenly musicians started playing,' she said."
And if you haven't gathered by now, the show Madonna is now performing in small-ish theaters in major cities is a mashup of many things with only the vaguest threads to link them.
A quieter central portion of the show, all set in a projected space meant to look like a fado cafe, includes several of her new songs featuring Portuguese guitar — along with the strumming talents of 16-year-old Gaspar Varela, great-grandson of late, famed singer Celeste Rodrigues, whom Madonna also recruited in Lisbon. ("There's not enough dressing rooms for everyone. My manager's not talking to me right now," Madonna said at one point, emphasizing that she still had to have her way and we should all be grateful.)
The show begins and ends with a James Baldwin quote that gets typed on a projection screen multiple times just to make sure we read and absorb it:
"Art is here to prove that all safety is an illusion… Artists are here to disturb the peace."
======================
Satanic Hollywood & the Cult of Satan
August 12, 2020
The BEAST System and the Antichrist Spirit
As described on my previous blog; 13 Bloodlines of the Illuminati, Luciferianism is the "Old Religion" and it is also the bloodline of Cain who is the seed of Lucifer, while those who come from outside the Luciferian Bloodlines are the Satanists who practice Satanic rituals like harvesting Andrenochrome through child sacrifice by joining the cult of Satan. These Celebrities/Satanists all have signed a deal with the devil in exchange for Talents and Fame. Unbeknownst to them, the reality of their deal is that they give up their spirit and allow for a demonic entity known in Hebrew as HaSatan or the Satan, to enter and possess their mortal body. These demonic entities known as Satan are the Fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven with Lucifer. As seen above, each one of these possessed celebrities are all posing in the same manner showing you the "Eye of Horus". This is the same spirit revealing itself to other occultists who communicate through symbolism as seen in the picture above.
Since the inception of Hollywood, the Luciferian elite have always been in control of those spirits who are used for many purposes like idol worship and predictive programming. They control in great detail who will be the next Elvis Presley, the next Madonna, the next Lady Gaga, and all of the most famous names Hollywood has ever created. These demonic spirits became icons and idols whose fame captured the hearts and minds of their fans. This is how the spirit of the antichrist has entered our homes and our lives. Each generation has grown more obsessed with celebrity gossip though the constant coverage of their lives of the rich and famous. Through "reality" TV shows we are given a glimpse into their personal lives. Many people identify through these celebrities while many others become obsessed with these icons turning them into their own personal IDOLS (idol worship). The greatest example of idol worship and the spirit of Satan can be seen through the career of Madonna who has since become a high-priestess for these occult rituals.
Madonna’s Egyptian mystery religion performance at the 2012 Super Bowl was a salute to Baphomet, “The Sabbatic Goat”. This demonic entity is also known as Satan. The Baphomet is a pansexual humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a phallus representing the half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil duality of the Spirit of the Antichrist. Her Super Bowl Halftime Show was a Satanic ritual that paid tribute to their master. As a Kabbalah initiate, Madonna referred to the Super Bowl as the “Holy of Holies” as it was the name of the most sacred place in Solomon’s Temple. This halftime show was watched by over 111 Million Viewers. Madonna’s head, arms, and legs form the shape of a downward pointed pentagram symbolizing the goat. This symbol was adopted by the Church of Satan. The humanoid goat Baphomet figure was first drawn and popularized in 1854 by occultist Eliphas Lévi.
Madonna’s Egyptian mystery religion performance at the 2012 Super Bowl was a salute to Baphomet, “The Sabbatic Goat”. This demonic entity is also known as Satan. The Baphomet is a pansexual humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a phallus representing the half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil duality of the Spirit of the Antichrist. Her Super Bowl Halftime Show was a Satanic ritual that paid tribute to their master. As a Kabbalah initiate, Madonna referred to the Super Bowl as the “Holy of Holies” as it was the name of the most sacred place in Solomon’s Temple. This halftime show was watched by over 111 Million Viewers. Madonna’s head, arms, and legs form the shape of a downward pointed pentagram symbolizing the goat. This symbol was adopted by the Church of Satan. The humanoid goat Baphomet figure was first drawn and popularized in 1854 by occultist Eliphas Lévi.
Baphomet and the Sabbatic Goat
The Sabbatic Goat and Baphomet have numerous and a rather deep symbolism concerning occult and left-hand path meaning. The Baphomet of Luciferianism extends into the origins of the idol and representation of Baphomet as the "model" of the Black Adept or High Priest who seeks power via the Left-Hand Path. The following are a few paragraphs from Michael W. Ford's "The Bible of the Adversary" and "Dragon of the Two Flames" (Succubus Productions).
"The Black Head of Wisdom or Baphomet. This Luciferian Baphomet is presented differently from the traditional Levi Baphomet. The figure is Black, the symbolism behind this is the Arabic root word fhm, meaning Black or “wise”. The horns represent power, the beast head is the carnal body, and the torch represents the Black Flame and Wisdom. The inverted pentagram represents the power of the Adversary and the Divinity fallen into humanity; thus the possibility for ascension and the knowledge of both darkness and light. The wings are symbols of angelic spirit, the higher intellect. The moon above and below in which Baphomet points to indicates balance; that there is no complete “good” or “evil” and their points of view. Baphomet also is presented as Cain the First Sorcerer and Luciferian. The twin serpents are Do-mar and Dehak, the snakes of Azhi-Dahak. Cain is thus the power of the infernal and angelic, the son of The Serpent and the Whore, thus a symbol of the Luciferian as an individual" -Paraphrased from "The Bible of the Adversary" by Michael W. Ford
"Baphomet, the symbol of the Black Adept, the Luciferian who has illuminated the divine and daemonic Black Flame through the union of Leviathan (Satan), Samael and Lilith have transformed anew. The Sabbatic Goat is the symbol of the wisdom, power, and strength of the cup of venom and the life-blood of the Rephaim and Nephilim of old. As partly, Baphomet is considered "Chioa", "The Beast" who is the offspring of the union of Samael and Lilith encircled by Leviathan. Cain is described in many Jewish Qabalah texts as having a ‘Shining Countenance’ which can be perceived as a force of Will or character. In this sense, Cain is considered Saturn the "star" of evil which causes chaos of Israel. The name of Cain is thought to translate as "The Wrathful One" in the Luciferian tradition. Cain is confirmed by Cabalistic texts as "the Son of Satan". The "Mark of Cain" is the Horn, thus representing Power and Wisdom in the Ancient Near East"- Paraphrased from "Dragon of the Two Flames" by Michael W. Ford
Super Bowl 2012. Egyptian Symbolism and ritual. Madonna -Kabbalah High Priest. Idol Worship. 111 Million Viewers. Occult Magick.
Super Bowl 2012. Egyptian Symbolism and ritual. Madonna -Kabbalah High Priest. Idol Worship. 111 Million Viewers. Occult Magick.
I can write a whole blog just on the Super Bowl half time shows and even the Olympic ceremonies that have consistent occult symbolism in all of their pop "star" celebrity performances and satanic rituals. Although they are very entertaining, they have nothing to do with entertainment. It has to do with occult ceremonies and captivating collective energy. Hence my emphasis on how many people watched Madonnas 2012 performance with 111.3 Million viewers. Hence why Madonna is so famous and why she's not only an icon but also an idol. From the very beginning of her "fame", her occult pact with the cult of Satan was shown through her music, lyrics, and videos. In her song "Like a Prayer" she sings:
"I hear your voice
It's like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes
Oh God, I think I'm falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes
Heaven help me"
This is Lucifer falling from heaven as "the fallen angels" as written in the Book of Enoch. Every occult practitioner is bound to identify itself in order for the spiritual law and the power of free will to partake in ritual magick. According to the Mystery Religions, the Devil has to always identify himself which is why Hollywood is drenched in occult symbolism. Since the very beginning of Madonna's career, she has shown her alliance with the Luciferian elite.
Madonna's performance of the song "Future" at the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Israel, and the back cover of her latest album "Madame X" released June 2019. (corona -predictive programming)
Madonna's performance of the song "Future" at the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Israel, and the back cover of her latest album "Madame X" released June 2019. (corona -predictive programming)
Aleister Crowley: The Father of the New Age
Madonna is a perfect example of a Satanic Hollywood Elite puppet but she is not the only example. We can find better examples through the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zepplin, all of which have openly spoken about the man who ushered in the New Age of Satanism, Aleister Crowley. You have to understand that Luciferianism is an Old Religion and a bloodline. Many bloodline Luciferians have branched out into many cults though many different people who always come from old money and Royal Blood. The Father of Occultism and Master Magician, Aleister Crowley is the founder of the religion of Thelema.
Wikipedia describes Crowley as -"identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents' fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life.
In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett.
Moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India.
He married Rose Edith Kelly and in 1904 they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should "Do what thou wilt" and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of magick."
Aleister Crowley is the Father of the New Age Movement and the New Age of Horus, the Egyptian God.
The most influential man in the 20th century through Hollywood is an occultist and Luciferian who called himself "the Beast" and identified himself as the number "666".
There isn't a famous celebrity/satanist who doesn't know who Aleister Crowley is. No other single human being has been more instrumental in the popularization of the New Age Movement than this man who the pressed dubbed him "The Wickedest Man in History".
Gary Lachman's work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century.
But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere.
The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page owned Crowleys home from 1970 until 1992.
The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, occult bookstores, and much of pop culture. His methods of ceremonial magick have influenced the 20th century since the late '60s.
Gary Lachman's work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page owned Crowleys home from 1970 until 1992. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, occult bookstores, and much of pop culture. His methods of ceremonial magick have influenced the 20th century since the late '60s.
Page bought the Boleskine House on the southern bank of Loch Ness in 1970.
Driven by his long interest in Black Magick and the work of Crowley who lived there in the early 1900s
Crowley was an initiate and Grand Master of the Ordo Templi Orienti (O.T.O.) which Jimmy Page was a disciple of.
The video below gives you a look into just how influential Crowley has been to the Hollywood elite and the cult of Satan.
Black Magick & "The Book of the Law"
In 1904, Crowley took part in a magical ritual inside the Great Pyramid in Cairo Egypt with his occultist wife during which he alleges to have received a message from an entity named Aiwass. As a result of this communication, Crowley wrote the first three chapters of "the Book of the Law" – a mystical text which he believed would revolutionize the future of mankind and religion.
It announced the advent of a new eon (meaning age), in which Crowley has become the priest-prince of a new religion, the Age of Horus. He was to formulate a link between humanity and the solar-spiritual force during which the god Horus would preside for the next two thousand years over the evolution of consciousness on this planet. This is why Hollywood has captured the collective-hive-mind through pop culture and occult mysticism as seen by Madonna's halftime show depicting the Baphomet. All of Hollywood is littered with references to Horus, the Baphomet, and even Crowley himself.
According to Crowley's religion of Thelema, the Aeon of Horus or Age of Horus will be the dualistic approach to religion which will transcend through the abolition of the present notion of a God external to oneself. The two will be united. “Man will no longer worship God as an external factor, as in Paganism, or as an internal state of consciousness, as in Christianity, but will realize his identity with God.” -Book of the Law.
The New Age Movement claims that you are the creator. You are a God or like a God, The new Aeon of Horus, based on the union of the male and female polarities like the Baphomet, will involve the magical use of psychedelics and sexual energy, and blood sacrifice of children culminating in an apotheosis of matter as symbolized by the androgynous Baphomet of the Templars and the Illuminati.
Aleister Crowley claimed to have sacrificed 150 children a year. Satanic rituals have developed into the use of the drug Adrenochrome which is harvested from the adrenal gland of a living child.
Children are tortured in order to have adrenaline pumped out by the gland.
When consuming adrenalized blood, they get a purely euphoric high which culminates into a blood orgy.
These rituals are vile and disgusting.
One major effect of Adronochrome besides the euphoric ecstasy of sexual indulgence, it also has a tremendous anti-aging effect which is why celebrities or "STARS" like Jeniffer Lopes, Ellen Degeneres, and Cher (to name a few), never age.
Celebrities are the STARS of Hollywood
Ever wonder why we call celebrities STARS and why some fans worship them like gods or goddesses?
Wikipedia says -"The Thelemic pantheon—a collection of gods and goddesses who either literally exist or serve as symbolic archetypes or metaphors—includes a number of deities, primarily a trio adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three speakers of The Book of the Law:
Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
In at least one instance, Crowley described these deities as a "literary convenience".[4]
Three statements, in particular, distill the practice and ethics of Thelema:
"Do what thou wilt" shall be the whole of the Law, meaning that adherents of Thelema should seek out and follow their true path, i.e. find or determine their True Will.[5]
Love is the law, love under will, i.e. the nature of the Law of Thelema is love, but love itself is subsidiary to finding and manifesting one's authentic purpose or "mission".
Every man and every woman is a STAR, which is to say that in the 20th century era vulgaris cosmology, it is implied by metaphor that persons doing their Wills are like STARS in the universe: occupying a time and position in space, yet distinctly individual and having an independent nature largely without undue conflict with other STARS."
The influence of Crowley has gone from the "Rock Stars" of the '70s to the new "Stars" of today. Crowley's Motto "Do what thou wilt", and the Baphomet is all over Hollywood.
Jay Z wearing a "Do what thou wilt" hoodie, and Beyonce showing the Sabbatic Goat, the Baphomet.
The Don Killuminati:
The 7 Day Theory (commonly shortened to The 7 Day Theory or Makaveli) is the fifth studio album by American rapper Tupac Shakur. Tupac spoke out against the Illuminati.
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (commonly shortened to The 7 Day
Theory or Makaveli) is the fifth studio album by American rapper Tupac Shakur. Tupac spoke out against the Illuminati.
"Stars" who wanted out of the Illuminati were either killed or had their deaths faked.
Once you learn to see the occult symbolism all over movies and music videos, you can identify the same spirit manifesting its energy through each of these members of the cult of Satan which we know as "Hollywood Stars".
Child Sacrifice plays a major role in their rituals. Blood oaths are very real and have dire consequences to those who break the oath.
Crowley was not only a Satanist and a significant influence of Rock Stars, but he has also introduced many new age movement practices of today into mainstream society through pop-culture by the means of these celebrities who practice these rituals in secret, yet they have to show you their allegiance to their occult origins in their art. Many, if not all celebrities are initiates of the Cult of Satan. They are the New Age Movement.
“In the scores of books lining the shelves of New Age bookstores, there are instructions for guided meditation, creative visualizations, out of body experiences, getting in touch with your spirit guides, fortune-telling by cards, crystal balls or the stars. What if Satanists reclaimed these for their own dark purposes and integrated them into rituals dedicated to the Devil, where they rightfully belong? New Agers have freely drawn upon all manner of Satanic material, adapting it to their own hypocritical purposes… But in truth, all ‘New Age’ labeling is, again, trying to play the Devil’s game without using His Infernal name” —Anton LaVey, quoted in Church of Satan, B. Barton, p.107
Given all the connections to Crowley as mentioned in this article, we have to understand that he's only popularized because of his ritual magick and glorification of him by the "Stars". There are many other occult Luciferians that make up the Hollywood elite that we might never know of. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Saville, are all just a few names that only skims the surface of a long occult history that involves human trafficking and child sacrifice.
There is a major reason why child trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry.
The only ones who can afford it are the rich. And the ones who have publicly shown their ties to the cult of Satan who practice human sacrifices are the famous.
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But while Madame X, the show is compellingly odd at times, and no doubt unique as a theatrical concert among her generation of icons, I still can't say that Madonna has transcended beyond "great performer" to disturber of the peace.
The only moment of real theater I witnessed was when she sat on the edge of the stage and invited a stranger to give her a sip of their drink and chat. (The handsome military man who complied was clearly a prepped plant who handed her a glass beer bottle full of water, much like one a dancer had handed her earlier — and the Golden Gate Theater doesn't sell beer in bottles to take to your seat.
She then semi-convincingly played a beer drinker for 90 seconds while catching her breath.) Apart from nods to the Parkland and Pulse nightclub shootings, Madonna's co-opting of yet another culture not her own and lazy off-the-cuff banter felt out of touch — even with evolving ideas about mental health when she griped about people getting up to use the bathroom or go to the bar as having "ADDDD or ADHD," or when she asked an increasingly listless crowd if their Adderall was kicking in.
I thought about Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music. I sat through that in six-hour stretches and rarely felt very bored or restless.
And no matter what I was feeling I knew that Taylor was going to come out with an articulate and thoughtful thing to tie together whatever I just saw. Madonna tended more toward the persona and mode she's most comfortable in — like that too-knowing friend of your older sister who likes to ask you sarcastic questions and never lets her guard down. "You get it yet!?"
For all the ways I love her "Bitch I'm Madonna" swagger and the unique position she is in as an artist and icon, there's a point at which her bravado and aggressive diva-ness are lost on all but her super-fans, and the rest of us are left sighing to ourselves and saying "Bitch, just do 'Ray of Light' already." I don't want her retiring into a Las Vegas residency and turning into a caricature of herself, trotting out her hits and ceasing to look for inspiration. But I can't say that the new material is inspiring enough to carry as much of this intimate show as she wants it to. And I felt like I was expected to worship each costume change and come-to-church moment, spanning the cultures that have influenced her various albums, from Hindu-Buddhist to British trance to gospel to, now, batuque and fado.
There were a lot of slow moments, and the only times she truly energized the crowd were with excellent revisions of 90s hits like "Vogue" and "Human Nature," very early in the two-hour-and-20-minute set. By the time she's taken off her embroidered sari and put on her priest's vestments for "Like a Prayer," which transitions into her finale with the new song, "I Rise," it felt like she'd lost the crowd (except for the super-fans who'd already paid to see this once and were back again). I was ready to rise mostly because I was tired, it was 1:30 a.m., and I've outgrown the person who saw her as a flawless gay icon and god. I see we're all flawed, and Madonna's spent the better part of two decades trying to stay relevant if not quite edgy, and if nothing else I'm happy she found a new music genre to play with in Portugal.
I wasn't the only one grumbling about the decided lack of crowd-pleasers in the set as we all filed to the doors to get our cellphone satchels unlocked so we could return to our realities.
And she still never did "Ray of Light."
https://www.religionnewsblog.com/10376/madonna-the-high-priestess-of-kaballah
nged everyone talks about herself: from provocations to the biggest medal
di Simone Marchetti
18 gennaio 2023
Madonna's voice is gentle, but her words are heavy as boulders. The words of Madonna possess the gravity of a planet that has attracted love and hate, passion and criticism, obsession, and applause to orbit around her. «It was my destiny», she recounts, enunciating every single letter, «And I accepted it. I accepted it because it was what I had to do. I accepted it because this is the journey I had to take on this earth».
Pioneer and trailblazer, diva and pop star. After a 40-year career, today she’s preparing a new tour and a movie about her life. We meet her one winter’s afternoon at an anonymous spot in Bushwick, in the north of Brooklyn, New York. The sky is gray, the street quiet. A black van pulls up, a door opens and a petite figure steps out, sporting a black hoodie with a pair of copper-colored braids sprouting from it. Seconds later, this strange, dark version of Alice in Wonderland disappears through a door that leads to a warehouse.
There are no pallets of goods inside, however; instead there are clowns, artists, dancers, supermodels, make-up artists, hairdressers, stylists, and stage technicians. For two days, these people will spend every minute with her until 4 a.m. They have all come together to bring to life an exclusive art project for Vanity Fair, created by photographers Luigi&Iango (you can see it on the pages that follow) which reflects on the career, values, creativity and provocations of an artist who has not only changed the history of entertainment, but contributed to the cultural evolution of the whole world. She has changed its direction and trajectory, like an extra moon causing the tides to shift.
Forty years of songs, provocations, shows, hits, criticism, and acclaim. How much has it all cost you?
«I could answer several billion, but then in what currency? That’s hard to quantify because taking risks and the artistic process is hard to measure. When you devote your time and energy working towards and fighting for things that other people don’t believe in, it can cost you time that you would otherwise spend relaxing or feeling comfort, or having an easy life. The thing it’s cost me the most is loss of sleep and maybe less time spent with people I love - also peace of mind. But I feel that it is a necessary part of the journey I am on and it’s a price I have accepted».
What has been the greatest victory and the worst loss of your career?
«Guiding my children to where they are in life, and feeling like “so far, so good.” That’s been the hardest battle».
What about in your career?
«I can’t really say, but the fact that I still have a career is my most beautiful victory».
Your worst loss?
«I don’t want to focus on defeat because I feel like everything is a victory - even things we perceive as loss».
I’d like to talk through this art project by Luigi&Iango for Vanity Fair with you. Let's start with the image of the Virgin Mary—the Madonna—portrayed on the cover. You have always been attacked by the Catholic Church…
«Let’s start with the photos, just wearing a crown on my head and holding all the robes and balancing on this platform I felt like I was being attacked, just in this photoshoot. That was the metaphor for the question you are asking me. It’s literally hard to wear a heavy crown on your head. So how did it feel? The first time I felt really attacked was when I did the press conference in Rome while filming “Truth or Dare.” I was raised a Catholic and at the end of the day. I thought if the Catholic Church did not perceive my work as an artist as doing something good, then that was their problem and an extension of their narrow mindedness and inability to see that anything that brings people together, that preaches freedom of expression and unity - is a good thing. It mirrors the teachings of Jesus and Christianity at its core, so I felt like it was a hypocrisy for them to attack me».
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You were one of the first artists to celebrate diversity. The icon of the Holy Mary on the cover seems to depict a reflection, a symbol of pain, of inclusion. A sense of motherliness and an acceptance of diversity…
«I am not really sure what it means to say I was one of the first. I felt that it was part of my journey as an artist to give a voice to others. When I started out in New York I was surrounded by a diverse group of people. The people who supported me were largely members of the LGBTQ+ community and of different ethnicities. That was my support system, so why wouldn’t I in turn support and champion them?».
There’s another very provocative religious image in the shoot: a Last Supper with all women instead of men...what was your intention in that tableau?
«Let’s start with the fact that it was Luigi&Iango’s intention to begin with; it was their idea and I thought it was an interesting take. As you know in the Last Supper Jesus is a man and he’s surrounded by male disciples. So I thought it interesting that we would flip the tables around (so to speak) and Jesus would be feminine energy and I would be surrounded by female disciples. I liked the idea we were playing with that contradiction, which isn’t really a contradiction».
What is your relationship with religion today?
«I think it’s important to have ritualistic behavior and a spiritual life. Religion without understanding, knowledge, curiosity, and inclusivity – I don’t consider that to be religion. I’m not subscribing to religious groups that are exclusive of others or extremist in any shape. However, I do respect all religions and encourage people to look into whatever religious belief system they follow. To understand and study their holy books and to understand their ritualistic systems, because otherwise without understanding it’s just dogma and rules, and an empty exercise. My relationship with religion is that I remain very involved in my own spiritual practice and I think it’s imperative for everyone to have a spiritual practice – but I am not defining that for other people. I do think it’s vital to pray and to have connection with some spiritual lifestyle / life force or whatever you want to call it. There is just no way you can survive and get through life without connecting to the idea that there is a higher power and energy force - many energy forces. That there is a metaphysical, mystical world that we are all a part of and need to stay connected to».
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In another image, you’re portrayed as a fragile doll—a toy that can be broken.
«Once again, I followed the photographers’ idea. And I saw in it the idea of fragility of being a woman—fragility that comes from not connecting with your inner strength. It’s that lack of connection that makes us feel like broken dolls».
Have you ever felt that way?
«Many times. I don't think it's possible to be a female artist or a human being without feeling broken or hurt. You’re a human being and that's how life goes. There’s no life without that feeling».
In another image you appear hanging from a rope, surrounded by bullfighters, abused by men. Is this a reflection on the patriarchal culture and misogyny that continues to characterize society?
«It’s a continuing battle, we do indeed live in a patriarchal world. I’m always fighting against it, pushing against it, or feeling the resistance from it. That tableau was a metaphor for it – I was hanging from a rope, my feet barely touching the ground and I had matadors around me with very long nails as sharp as knives and masks hiding their faces so I couldn’t see their eyes. Everything had an air of danger to it. The idea was I am fighting against the patriarchal world that we live in, which has always been the case for me. I was spinning from one side to the next, one side not aware, sometimes I’m cut, or bumping into things. There’s an element of mystery, of not knowing how things are going to turn out. Traditionally the matador is attacking the bull».
As society, are we moving on from that world?
«We definitely are not moving on, we are moving backwards. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having discussions on whether or not women are allowed to make choices over their bodies in America».
Are you a pessimist?
«I have to be optimistic otherwise I don’t know how I could go on».
In another image you’re playing with a cellist. You have discovered so many authors, so many talents, so many artists. Who do you like today? Who inspires you?
«That’s a difficult question. I like all artists who have the courage to tell true stories, stories of vulnerability. I’m a big fan of Kendrick Lamar. He’s an incredible artist, his music is incredible. The words he uses are powerful. He’s been able to tell the story of generations that have been the victim of abuse, of drugs, of absent fathers. Its groundbreaking and takes music to a whole new level. Rapping, healing and talking about it at the same time and being very truthful. Clearly he’s done a lot of soul searching, reading and self-examination. I really admire artists who do that and turn it into something that connects with pop culture».
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Let’s get to the image in which you’re portrayed as Frida Kahlo, next to a man. This Mexican artist has been a kind of guide on your career.
«When I was a teenager I discovered Frida Kahlo at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I was fascinated by how she became a painter—how it stemmed from a bus accident where she was lying a hospital on her back in a bodycast, in pain for a year, and how her father brought her brushes and paint. While she was working through her pain and her inability to move, she used her arms to paint and turned her suffering into something beautiful. She always felt like an outsider as a child growing up and I could connect to that. If Frida Kahlo could endure all the pain and suffering and still create beautiful art and not feel sorry for herself and continue to go on, then I could do the same. She’s always been a source of strength and a muse for me».
There are several clowns in this photo shoot. How come?
«I like the paradox of the clown. A clown dresses up, paints her face, comes on stage, and makes people laugh. But there is some kind of strange darkness that goes with it. Somehow deep down inside you feel the sadness of that clown. That clown is trying so hard to make other people laugh so that he or she can keep from crying. I like that juxtaposition as in the song “Send in the Clowns”. The lyrics are so beautiful - here I am, I’m going to make you laugh, but inside I am crying. I like that diametrically opposed dynamic. I feel that’s true of many entertainers and comedians and I am fascinated by that».
Let's talk about you. About your life. You have lots of children. What has it been like being a mother and an artist?
«It’s been the hardest thing, the toughest battle. Perhaps motherhood is the clown performance that’s been hardest to maintain. Even today, I struggle to understand how to be a mother as well as do my job. Because no matter where you are, whoever you are, having children and raising kids is a work of art. And nobody gives you a manual—you have to learn from your mistakes. It's a job that needs an incredible amount of time. And it’s exhausting because there’s no time for a break».
Several of your children today are artists, painters, DJs, activists. What’s it like being surrounded by such a creative group?
«It makes me very happy they have found their own creativity, and I know it comes from an authentic place. I never encouraged my daughter Lola to make music or my son Rocco to paint, but I did put them in front of art and music their entire lives so I am glad they found a way to express themselves. I respect and admire both of them and their work».
Do you think it was easy for them growing up with a mother like you?
«Not at all. Really, not at all. Growing up with a mother like me is a challenge».
How do you feel today?
«I am very excited about work that is coming up in the future. I’m about to create another show, and I've been working for several years on the screenplay about my life. This is a good time for me—I’m gathering ideas, getting inspired, hanging out with creative people, watching films, seeing art, listening to music - I’m being a social anthropologist. I look for inspiration any place I can possibly find it».
What are you afraid of?
«The idea of living in a society where you can’t be free to express your individuality or your thoughts frightens me. It seems to me that people are increasingly afraid of expressing their opinions, of being authentic. It's like living in one of those futuristic dystopian movies. The problem is that these scenarios have started to come true and that’s scary».
What makes you happy?
«Spending time with my children. And seeing them happy, witnessing their growth, watching them evolve and find the things they love. A big part of my happiness comes from my children. I also get a lot of happiness from the inspiration I find from several artists».
What makes you fall in love?
«What makes me fall in love is having a sense of affinity with someone. When you talk to someone and it feels like you speak the same language. When you see the world in the same way, you are aligned. I always fall in love with creative people who are creative in some way shape or form».
Let's go back 40 years. What advice would you give to that girl in New York,
the young Madonna?
«That girl was broke, and hungry. I’d tell her to go downstairs and make herself some food».
What would you do if you were 20 years old today?
«I don’t even know, I guess I would do the same thing – I would still want to go out in the world, I’d still be curious and hungry for knowledge and want to do as much as possible. I would still want to make my mark on the world, express myself, disturb the peace, be adventurous - be
rebellious. All those things. I wouldn’t be any different, I would just have more food and more shoes».
Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths
A report from the Costs of War project at Brown University revealed that 20 years of post-9/11 wars have cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion and have killed more than 900,000 people.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nearly 20 years after the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan, the cost of its global war on terror stands at $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths, according to a new report from the Costs of War project at Brown University.
The Costs of War project, founded more than a decade ago at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and co-directed by two Brown scholars, released its influential annual report ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, the impetus for an ongoing American effort to root out terrorism in the Middle East and beyond.
Stephanie Savell, Catherine Lutz and Neta CrawfordThe Costs of War project is co-directed by Stephanie Savell (left), Catherine Lutz (center) and Neta Crawford (right).
“The war has been long and complex and horrific and unsuccessful... and the war continues in over 80 countries,” said Catherine Lutz, co-director of Costs of War and a professor of international and public affairs at Brown, during a virtual event hosted by the Watson Institute on Wednesday, Sept. 1. “The Pentagon and the U.S. military have now absorbed the great majority of the federal discretionary budget, and most people don’t know that. Our task, now and in future years, is to educate the public on the ways in which we fund those wars and the scale of that funding.”
The research team’s $8 trillion estimate accounts for all direct costs of the country’s post-9/11 wars, including Department of Defense Overseas Contingency Operations funding; State Department war expenditures and counterterror war-related costs, including war-related increases to the Pentagon’s base budget; care for veterans to date and in the future; Department of Homeland Security spending; and interest payments on borrowing for these wars. The total includes funds that the Biden administration requested in May 2021.
The death toll, standing at an estimated 897,000 to 929,000, includes U.S. military members, allied fighters, opposition fighters, civilians, journalists and humanitarian aid workers who were killed as a direct result of war, whether by bombs, bullets or fire. It does not, the researchers noted, include the many indirect deaths the war on terror has caused by way of disease, displacement and loss of access to food or clean drinking water.
“The deaths we tallied are likely a vast undercount of the true toll these wars have taken on human life,” said Neta Crawford, a co-founder of the project and a professor of political science at Boston University. “It’s critical we properly account for the vast and varied consequences of the many U.S. wars and counterterror operations since 9/11, as we pause and reflect on all of the lives lost.”
“ Twenty years from now, we’ll still be reckoning with the high societal costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars — long after U.S. forces are gone. ”
Stephanie Savell Co-director, Costs of War project
The report comes at the end of a contentious U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents captured every major city and seized governmental control as American military units worked to extract 123,000 troops, diplomats and allies. Of the $8 trillion, $2.3 trillion is attributed to the Afghanistan/Pakistan war zone, according to the report.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday, Aug. 31, President Joe Biden cited Costs of War estimates to convey the financial and human burden of the 20-year war in Afghanistan as he defended his decision to withdraw from the country.
“We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan, costs that Brown University researchers estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years — yes, the American people should hear this... what have we lost as a consequence, in terms of opportunities? ...I refuse to send America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
Even as the U.S. exits Afghanistan, Costs of War estimates show that Americans are far from done paying the bill on the war on terror, which continues across multiple continents. The cumulative cost of military intervention in the Iraq/Syria war zone has risen to $2.1 trillion since 9/11, and about $355 billion more has funded military presence in other countries, including Somalia and a handful of African countries.
And when the wars do end, the costs of war will continue to rise, the report notes: A towering $2.2 trillion of the estimated financial total accounts for future care that has already been set aside for military veterans, the researchers said, and the U.S. and other countries could pay the cost of environmental damage wrought by the wars for generations to come.
“What have we truly accomplished in 20 years of post-9/11 wars and at what price?” said Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of War Project and a senior research associate at the Watson Institute. “Twenty years from now, we’ll still be reckoning with the high societal costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars — long after U.S. forces are gone.”
The Watson Institute’s virtual event included commentary from multiple researchers associated with the Costs of War Project, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. It was moderated by Murtaza Hussain, a national security reporter at the Intercept.
The terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, can be considered a watershed moment in the 21st Century. Its importance in defining the future course of global events is, perhaps, on par with the Russian revolution or the fall of Nazi Germany and atomic annihilation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Two major wars, interventions by the US and NATO in numerous other countries, rise of new terror outfits and new geopolitical alliances and rivalries have marked the responses to 9/11 in the past 20 years.
In 2010, a group of scholars at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in Rhode Island began work to chronicle the costs of the US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and related violence in Pakistan and Syria. The team, called 'The Costs of War Project', recently released figures of the costs incurred by the US and others in responding to 9/11.
The budgetary costs of the post-9/11 wars incurred by the US federal government was estimated by The Costs of War team to be over $8 trillion. Successive US governments, including the Joe Biden administration, have sought $5.8 trillion to react to the 9/11 attacks. This includes expenditure on war zones, homeland security and interest payments on war borrowing.
"The research team’s $8 trillion estimate accounts for all direct costs of the country’s post-9/11 wars, including Department of Defense Overseas Contingency Operations funding; State Department war expenditures and counterterror war-related costs, including war-related increases to the Pentagon’s base budget; care for veterans to date and in the future; Department of Homeland Security spending; and interest payments on borrowing for these wars," Brown University said in a statement.
Future medical care and disability payments for veterans would likely exceed $2.2 trillion, according to The Costs of War project, making for a figure of about $8 trillion in current dollars. The Costs of War project noted the figure of $8 trillion does not include the money spent on humanitarian assistance and development in Afghanistan and Iraq or expenditure by US allies.
Death toll
The Costs of War project notes the death toll in the wars after 9/11 is between 897,000 to 929,000 people. This includes "US military members, allied fighters, opposition fighters, civilians, journalists and humanitarian aid workers who were killed as a direct result of war, whether by bombs, bullets or fire".
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A total of 7,052 US military personnel have died in the post-9/11 conflicts, with Iraq (4,598 deaths) and Afghanistan (2,324) accounting for the most fatalities. Highlighting the role played by private 'contractors' in the conflicts, a total of 8,189 contractors have lost their lives in these conflicts. Again, Afghanistan (3,917 deaths) and Iraq (3,650) account for the most fatalities.
Civilians account for the largest category of deaths. Civilian fatalities are estimated to be between 363,939 to 387,072, with Iraq accounting for approximately 208,964 deaths, the highest figure for a single country.
Refugees
The post-9/11 conflicts have led to around 38 million people being displaced. Since 2001, 5.9 million people have been displaced in Afghanistan and 3.7 million in Pakistan. Over 9 million people have been displaced in Iraq since 2003, while over 7.1 million have been displaced in Syria since 2014.
The Costs of War project states this figure exceeds people displaced in all conflicts since 1900, with the exception of the Second World War. The researchers caution the figure of 38 million is a "conservative" estimate, noting the the actual number could be closer to 49 million-60 million, rivalling the refugee numbers seen in the Second World War.
On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten.
When an account discrepancy occurs that cannot be traced, it’s customary to make what is called an “un-documentable adjustment.” This is similar to when your checkbook balance is off by, say, ten dollars; you add or subtract that amount to make everything balance with the bank. In 1999, the amount that the Pentagon adjusted was eight times the Defense Department budget for that year; it was one-third greater than the entire federal budget.
By 2015, the amount reported missing by the Office of the Inspector General had increased to $6.5 trillion—and that was just for the army. Using public data from federal databases, Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, found that $21 trillion in unsupported adjustments had been reported by the Defense and Housing and Urban Development departments between 1998 and 2015. That’s about $65,000 for every American.
There is no sign that the government’s internal auditors have made much headway in finding the missing money. Jim Minnery of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service traveled the country in 2002 looking for documents on just $300 million worth of unrecorded spending. “We know it’s gone. But we don’t know what they spent it on,” he said. He was reassigned after suggesting that higher-ups covered up the problem by writing it off. He’s not the only who thinks so. “The books are cooked routinely year after year,” says former defense analyst Franklin C. Spinney.
According to a 2013 Reuters report, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a 1996 law that requires annual audits of all government departments. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade to more efficient technology in order to become audit-ready. But many of these new systems have failed and been scrapped.
Predictably, the government did not race to correct the problem even after investigators sounded the alarm. Skidmore contacted the Office of the Inspector General but was not permitted to speak to anyone who had worked on the corruption report. Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office assured him that congressional hearings would have been held if there was a significant problem. When Rumsfeld eventually did appear before Congress in March 2005, his testimony offered no substantive answers.
In short: the military doesn’t know how its budget is being spent. The “total military expenditures” that analysts so confidently cite are whatever the Treasury Department says they are, and the individual line items, at least for the army, are for the most part unknown. If money is being diverted from the armed forces, the losses are degrading our defense capability in ways difficult to observe. The same is true on a smaller scale for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where billions in missing expenditures could have gone to support the perennially cash-strapped federal mortgage-loan program, and possibly other unrelated programs, without congressional knowledge or approval.
Though each passing year diminishes the likelihood that already-disbursed funds will be tracked down, Americans should insist on a renewed effort to rein in future discrepancies. The Trump presidency presents a fresh chance to prioritize accountability, and the president campaigned on robust military spending and reducing government waste. With congressional cooperation, the president should ask the secretaries of the Departments of Defense and of Housing and Urban Development to testify about any misplaced spending, and commission new independent audits of their expenses. This ongoing mismanagement of the public trust—and public dollars—is possibly the greatest silent scandal in America today.
If it were measured as a country, then cybercrime — which is predicted to inflict damages totaling $6 trillion USD globally in 2021 — would be the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China.
Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, is exponentially larger than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.
The damage cost estimation is based on historical cybercrime figures including recent year-over-year growth, a dramatic increase in hostile nation-state sponsored and organized crime gang hacking activities, and a cyberattack surface which will be an order of magnitude greater in 2025 than it is today.
Cybercrime costs include damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.
The United States, the world’s largest economy with a nominal GDP of nearly $21.5 trillion, constitutes one-fourth of the world economy, according to data from Nasdaq.
Cybercrime has hit the U.S. so hard that in 2018 a supervisory special agent with the FBI who investigates cyber intrusions told The Wall Street Journal that every American citizen should expect that all of their data (personally identifiable information) has been stolen and is on the dark web — a part of the deep web — which is intentionally hidden and used to conceal and promote heinous activities. Some estimates put the size of the deep web (which is not indexed or accessible by search engines) at as much as 5,000 times larger than the surface web, and growing at a rate that defies quantification.
The dark web is also where cybercriminals buy and sell malware, exploit kits, and cyberattack services, which they use to strike victims — including businesses, governments, utilities, and essential service providers on U.S. soil.
A cyberattack could potentially disable the economy of a city, state or our entire country.
In his 2016 New York Times bestseller — Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath — Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the U.S. is shockingly unprepared.
Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffet calls cybercrime the number one problem with mankind, and cyberattacks a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear weapons.
A bullseye is squarely on our nation’s businesses.
Organized cybercrime entities are joining forces, and their likelihood of detection and prosecution is estimated to be as low as 0.05 percent in the U.S., according to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risk Report.
RANSOMWARE
Ransomware — a malware that infects computers (and mobile devices) and restricts their access to files, often threatening permanent data destruction unless a ransom is paid — has reached epidemic proportions globally and is the “go-to method of attack” for cybercriminals.
A 2017 report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicted ransomware damages would cost the world $5 billion in 2017, up from $325 million in 2015 — a 15X increase in just two years. The damages for 2018 were estimated at $8 billion, and for 2019 the figure rose to $11.5 billion.
The latest forecast is for global ransomware damage costs to reach $20 billion by 2021 — which is 57X more than it was in 2015.
We predict there will be a ransomware attack on businesses every 11 seconds by 2021, up from every 40 seconds in 2016.
The FBI is particularly concerned with ransomware hitting healthcare providers, hospitals, 911 and first responders. These types of cyberattacks can impact the physical safety of American citizens, and this is the forefront of what Herb Stapleton, FBI cyber division section chief, and his team are focused on.
Last month, ransomware claimed its first life. German authorities reported a ransomware attack caused the failure of IT systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment.
Ransomware, now the fastest growing and one of the most damaging types of cybercrime, will ultimately convince senior executives to take the cyber threat more seriously, according to Mark Montgomery, executive director at the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) — but he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
CYBER ATTACK SURFACE
The modern definition of the word “hack” was coined at MIT in April 1955. The first known mention of computer (phone) hacking occurred in a 1963 issue of The Tech. Over the past fifty-plus years, the world’s attack surface has evolved from phone systems to a vast datasphere outpacing humanity’s ability to secure it.
In 2013, IBM proclaimed data promises to be for the 21st century what steam power was for the 18th, electricity for the 19th and hydrocarbons for the 20th.
“We believe that data is the phenomenon of our time,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Corp.’s executive chairman, in 2015, addressing CEOs, CIOs and CISOs from 123 companies in 24 industries at a conference in New York City. “It is the world’s new natural resource. It is the new basis of competitive advantage, and it is transforming every profession and industry. If all of this is true — even inevitable — then cyber crime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world.”
The world will store 200 zettabytes of data by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices — PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and on IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half the U.S. labor force is working from home, according to Stanford University. As employees generate, access, and share more data remotely through cloud apps, the number of security blind spots balloons.
It’s predicted that the total amount of data stored in the cloud — which includes public clouds operated by vendors and social media companies (think Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc.), government-owned clouds that are accessible to citizens and businesses, private clouds owned by mid-to-large-sized corporations, and cloud storage providers — will reach 100 zettabytes by 2025, or 50 percent of the world’s data at that time, up from approximately 25 percent stored in the cloud in 2015.
Roughly one million more people join the internet every day. We expect there will be 6 billion people connected to the internet interacting with data in 2022, up from 5 billion in 2020 — and more than 7.5 billion internet users in 2030.
Cyber threats have expanded from targeting and harming computers, networks, and smartphones — to people, cars, railways, planes, power grids and anything with a heartbeat or an electronic pulse. Many of these Things are connected to corporate networks in some fashion, further complicating cybersecurity.
By 2023, there will be 3X more networked devices on Earth than humans, according to a report from Cisco. And by 2022, 1 trillion networked sensors will be embedded in the world around us, with up to 45 trillion in 20 years.
IP traffic has reached an annual run rate of 2.3 zettabytes in 2020, up from an annual run rate of 870.3 exabytes in 2015.
Data is the building block of the digitized economy, and the opportunities for innovation and malice around it are incalculable.
CYBERSECURITY SPENDING
In 2004, the global cybersecurity market was worth $3.5 billion — and in 2017 it was worth more than $120 billion. The cybersecurity market grew by roughly 35X during that 13-year period — prior to the latest market sizing by Cybersecurity Ventures.
Global spending on cybersecurity products and services for defending against cybercrime is projected to exceed $1 trillion cumulatively over the five-year period from 2017 to 2021.
“Most cybersecurity budgets at U.S. organizations are increasing linearly or flat, but the cyberattacks are growing exponentially,” says CSC’s Montgomery. This simple observation should be a wake-up call for C-suite executives.
Healthcare has lagged behind other industries and the tantalizing target on its back is attributable to outdated IT systems, fewer cybersecurity protocols and IT staff, extremely valuable data, and the pressing need for medical practices and hospitals to pay ransoms quickly to regain data. The healthcare industry will respond by spending $125 billion cumulatively from 2020 to 2025 to beef up its cyber defenses.
The FY 2020 U.S. President’s Budget includes $17.4 billion of budget authority for cybersecurity-related activities, a $790 million (5 percent) increase above the FY 2019 estimate, according to The White House. Due to the sensitive nature of some activities, this amount does not represent the entire cyber budget.
Cybersecurity Ventures anticipates 12-15 percent year-over-year cybersecurity market growth through 2025. While that may be a respectable increase, it pales in comparison to the cybercrime costs incurred.
SMALL BUSINESS
“There are 30 million small businesses in the U.S. that need to stay safe from phishing attacks, malware spying, ransomware, identity theft, major breaches and hackers who would compromise their security,” says Scott Schober, author of the popular books “Hacked Again” and “Cybersecurity Is Everybody’s Business.”
More than half of all cyberattacks are committed against small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), and 60 percent of them go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or hack.
66 percent of SMBs had at least one cyber incident in the past two years, according to Mastercard.
“Small and medium sized businesses lack the financial resources and skill set to combat the emerging cyber threat,” says Scott E. Augenbaum, former supervisory special agent at the FBI’s Cyber Division, Cyber Crime Fraud Unit, where he was responsible for managing the FBI’s Cyber Task Force Program and Intellectual Property Rights Program.
A Better Business Bureau survey found that for small businesses — which make up more than 97 percent of total businesses in North America — the primary challenges for more than 55 percent of them in order to develop a cybersecurity plan are a lack of resources or knowledge.
Ransomware attacks are of particular concern. “The cost of ransomware has skyrocketed and that’s a huge concern for small businesses — and it doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight,” adds Schober.
AI AUGMENTS CYBER DEFENDERS
You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.
The U.S. has a total employed cybersecurity workforce consisting of nearly 925,000 people, and there are currently almost 510,000 unfilled positions, according to Cyber Seek, a project supported by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Faced with a domestic worker shortage, the heads of U.S. cyber defense forces — CIOs and CISOs at America’s mid-sized to largest businesses — are beginning to augment their staff with next-generation AI and ML (machine learning) software and appliances aimed at detecting cyber intruders. These AI systems are trained on big data sets collected over decades — and they can analyze terabytes of data per day, a scale unimaginable for humans.
The panacea for a CISO is an AI system resembling a human expert’s investigative and reporting techniques so that cyber threats are remediated BEFORE the damage is done.
If enemies are using AI to launch cyberattacks, then our country’s businesses need to use AI to defend themselves.
FOR THE BOARDROOM
Cybersecurity begins at the top.
CSC has an urgent message for boardroom and C-suite executives: The status quo in cyberspace is unacceptable, which is spelled out in its groundbreaking 2020 Report which proposes a strategy of layered cyber deterrence — to protect all U.S. businesses and governments from cybercrime and cyberwarfare. But, this is hardly the first warning. “Some of the same things we’re recommending today, we were pushing 23 years ago,” says Montgomery.
Someone should be in the boardroom who will wave the red flag and get everyone else paying attention to the severity of cyber risks. Montgomery says attention is the number one priority, not bringing in a new CISO — instead empower the CISO that you have.
The value of a business depends largely on how well it guards its data, the strength of its cybersecurity, and its level of cyber resilience.
If there’s one takeaway from this report, then let it be this: Don’t let your boardroom be the weakest cybersecurity link.
U.S. BUDGETARY COSTS The vast economic impact of the U.S. post-9/11 wars goes beyond the Pentagon's "Overseas Contigency Operations" (War) budget. This chart and the attached paper estimate the more comprehensive budgetary costs of the wars.
Posted on September 1, 2021
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/BudgetaryCosts
Madonna accused of satanic provocation
Madonna has come into religious controversy again,with a former president comparing her to the Satan
London | August 7, 2009
Pop diva Madonna has come into the ambit of religious controversy again,with a former president comparing her to the Satan.
Madonna accused of satanic provocation - Hindustan Times
Aug 7, 2009 ... Pop diva Madonna has come into the ambit of religious controversy again, with a former president comparing her to the Satan.
Nobel Prize-winning former Polish president Lech Walesa has expressed his displeasure with the fact that Madonna’s upcoming show ‘Sticky & Sweet’ is happening on the same day as the Feast Of The Assumption,the day Mother Mary ascended to Heaven, Female first reported.
“It is a Satanic provocation. I am a man of faith and ask for such events not to happen on such an important feast in my religion,” said the devout Roman Catholic.
Madonna’s scheduled concert was described as “an attack by the devil on our immaculate Catholic nation” by Father Stanislaw Malkowski who is leading the protest against the controversial pop star.
Madonna had earlier run into a controversy with the Catholic church for the controversial video of her song ‘Like a Prayer’ in 1989 and more recently with an on-stage dedication of ‘Like A Virgin’ to the Pope last year.
The impending concert has created a wave of protest in the Catholic nation with Parliamentarian Marian Brudzynski saying,”The concert of a highly perverse singer who calls herself ‘Madonna’ is deeply humiliating to Warsaw residents and Poles in general.”
Madonna Wants To Be High Priestess in 'Madame X' Tour
"Are you all starting to get it?" Madonna asked from the stage, at least several times, to a fawning, screaming audience whom she treated at times more like a kindergarten classroom than who they were — a crowd of well-heeled, mostly middle-aged fans who could afford orchestra seats for her pricey Madame X tour.
"Madame X is a teacher. She's a rebel. She's a head of state. She's a mother. She's a child. She's a whore. And she is a saint." (I'm paraphrasing only slightly — no cellphones were allowed.)
Madonna, at 61, sees herself as all of the above, except (maybe) head of state. And in her new tour, which just finished the last of a three-night engagement at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco, she is not so much playing a character as just another in a long series of chameleon-like variations on her public self.
She sounds every bit the confident, caustic "bad girl" she wanted us to see on the Truth or Dare tour nearly 30 years ago, only she's no girl anymore and likely more invested in her legacy as a performer than in selling albums or concert seats. (Or in making things pleasant for an aging fanbase, many of whom were weary and overheated in a stuffy theater by the time she went on, some 40 minutes later than announced and hours after the theater opened, around 11:10 p.m.)
She admits a little bit of weakness — twice she mentioned tendonitis in a hip flexor, an injury she apparently had when the tour began in September according to this Rolling Stone review, though perhaps this is a second injury.
But that's only so that you're more impressed with all the dancing she does.
If I walked away with anything from Tuesday night's show — apart from memories of a truly stunning visual spectacle, enhanced by recent advances in projection mapping — it's that Madonna, more than ever, still craves respect and adoration as an artist and activist more than as a pop icon, but she'll accept a role as quasi-religious icon if she must.
She isn't afraid to patronize the kids with auto-tuned, one-off singles like "Crave" (feat. Swae Lee) and "Future" (feat. Quavo) — or "Bitch I'm Madonna" from 2015's Rebel Heart. But her heart is mostly in awing everyone with bold visuals of gun violence, gun protests, and the borrowed soulfulness of her video for "Batuka," which is sung (along with the projected video) with the help of the Orquestra Batukadeiras — a group of African Portuguese Creole women from Cape Verde, whom she has brought on the tour with her.
Much of the new album grew out of Madonna's recent experience living in Portugal while her now 14-year-old son David Banda was at a soccer school. As the story goes, she got bored being alone there while he played soccer, so she started going out to clubs and cafes and fell in love with fado, the guitar-based music genre native to Lisbon.
According to this June profile in New York Times, "One night, she visited a Frenchman’s crumbling home on the sea for an improv session, mostly of fado musicians. 'There was a vibration there that was magical and palpable, and suddenly musicians started playing,' she said."
And if you haven't gathered by now, the show Madonna is now performing in small-ish theaters in major cities is a mashup of many things with only the vaguest threads to link them.
A quieter central portion of the show, all set in a projected space meant to look like a fado cafe, includes several of her new songs featuring Portuguese guitar — along with the strumming talents of 16-year-old Gaspar Varela, great-grandson of late, famed singer Celeste Rodrigues, whom Madonna also recruited in Lisbon. ("There's not enough dressing rooms for everyone. My manager's not talking to me right now," Madonna said at one point, emphasizing that she still had to have her way and we should all be grateful.)
The show begins and ends with a James Baldwin quote that gets typed on a projection screen multiple times just to make sure we read and absorb it:
"Art is here to prove that all safety is an illusion… Artists are here to disturb the peace."
======================
Satanic Hollywood & the Cult of Satan
August 12, 2020
The BEAST System and the Antichrist Spirit
As described on my previous blog; 13 Bloodlines of the Illuminati, Luciferianism is the "Old Religion" and it is also the bloodline of Cain who is the seed of Lucifer, while those who come from outside the Luciferian Bloodlines are the Satanists who practice Satanic rituals like harvesting Andrenochrome through child sacrifice by joining the cult of Satan. These Celebrities/Satanists all have signed a deal with the devil in exchange for Talents and Fame. Unbeknownst to them, the reality of their deal is that they give up their spirit and allow for a demonic entity known in Hebrew as HaSatan or the Satan, to enter and possess their mortal body. These demonic entities known as Satan are the Fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven with Lucifer. As seen above, each one of these possessed celebrities are all posing in the same manner showing you the "Eye of Horus". This is the same spirit revealing itself to other occultists who communicate through symbolism as seen in the picture above.
Since the inception of Hollywood, the Luciferian elite have always been in control of those spirits who are used for many purposes like idol worship and predictive programming. They control in great detail who will be the next Elvis Presley, the next Madonna, the next Lady Gaga, and all of the most famous names Hollywood has ever created. These demonic spirits became icons and idols whose fame captured the hearts and minds of their fans. This is how the spirit of the antichrist has entered our homes and our lives. Each generation has grown more obsessed with celebrity gossip though the constant coverage of their lives of the rich and famous. Through "reality" TV shows we are given a glimpse into their personal lives. Many people identify through these celebrities while many others become obsessed with these icons turning them into their own personal IDOLS (idol worship). The greatest example of idol worship and the spirit of Satan can be seen through the career of Madonna who has since become a high-priestess for these occult rituals.
Madonna’s Egyptian mystery religion performance at the 2012 Super Bowl was a salute to Baphomet, “The Sabbatic Goat”. This demonic entity is also known as Satan. The Baphomet is a pansexual humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a phallus representing the half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil duality of the Spirit of the Antichrist. Her Super Bowl Halftime Show was a Satanic ritual that paid tribute to their master. As a Kabbalah initiate, Madonna referred to the Super Bowl as the “Holy of Holies” as it was the name of the most sacred place in Solomon’s Temple. This halftime show was watched by over 111 Million Viewers. Madonna’s head, arms, and legs form the shape of a downward pointed pentagram symbolizing the goat. This symbol was adopted by the Church of Satan. The humanoid goat Baphomet figure was first drawn and popularized in 1854 by occultist Eliphas Lévi.
Madonna’s Egyptian mystery religion performance at the 2012 Super Bowl was a salute to Baphomet, “The Sabbatic Goat”. This demonic entity is also known as Satan. The Baphomet is a pansexual humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a phallus representing the half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil duality of the Spirit of the Antichrist. Her Super Bowl Halftime Show was a Satanic ritual that paid tribute to their master. As a Kabbalah initiate, Madonna referred to the Super Bowl as the “Holy of Holies” as it was the name of the most sacred place in Solomon’s Temple. This halftime show was watched by over 111 Million Viewers. Madonna’s head, arms, and legs form the shape of a downward pointed pentagram symbolizing the goat. This symbol was adopted by the Church of Satan. The humanoid goat Baphomet figure was first drawn and popularized in 1854 by occultist Eliphas Lévi.
Baphomet and the Sabbatic Goat
The Sabbatic Goat and Baphomet have numerous and a rather deep symbolism concerning occult and left-hand path meaning. The Baphomet of Luciferianism extends into the origins of the idol and representation of Baphomet as the "model" of the Black Adept or High Priest who seeks power via the Left-Hand Path. The following are a few paragraphs from Michael W. Ford's "The Bible of the Adversary" and "Dragon of the Two Flames" (Succubus Productions).
"The Black Head of Wisdom or Baphomet. This Luciferian Baphomet is presented differently from the traditional Levi Baphomet. The figure is Black, the symbolism behind this is the Arabic root word fhm, meaning Black or “wise”. The horns represent power, the beast head is the carnal body, and the torch represents the Black Flame and Wisdom. The inverted pentagram represents the power of the Adversary and the Divinity fallen into humanity; thus the possibility for ascension and the knowledge of both darkness and light. The wings are symbols of angelic spirit, the higher intellect. The moon above and below in which Baphomet points to indicates balance; that there is no complete “good” or “evil” and their points of view. Baphomet also is presented as Cain the First Sorcerer and Luciferian. The twin serpents are Do-mar and Dehak, the snakes of Azhi-Dahak. Cain is thus the power of the infernal and angelic, the son of The Serpent and the Whore, thus a symbol of the Luciferian as an individual" -Paraphrased from "The Bible of the Adversary" by Michael W. Ford
"Baphomet, the symbol of the Black Adept, the Luciferian who has illuminated the divine and daemonic Black Flame through the union of Leviathan (Satan), Samael and Lilith have transformed anew. The Sabbatic Goat is the symbol of the wisdom, power, and strength of the cup of venom and the life-blood of the Rephaim and Nephilim of old. As partly, Baphomet is considered "Chioa", "The Beast" who is the offspring of the union of Samael and Lilith encircled by Leviathan. Cain is described in many Jewish Qabalah texts as having a ‘Shining Countenance’ which can be perceived as a force of Will or character. In this sense, Cain is considered Saturn the "star" of evil which causes chaos of Israel. The name of Cain is thought to translate as "The Wrathful One" in the Luciferian tradition. Cain is confirmed by Cabalistic texts as "the Son of Satan". The "Mark of Cain" is the Horn, thus representing Power and Wisdom in the Ancient Near East"- Paraphrased from "Dragon of the Two Flames" by Michael W. Ford
Super Bowl 2012. Egyptian Symbolism and ritual. Madonna -Kabbalah High Priest. Idol Worship. 111 Million Viewers. Occult Magick.
Super Bowl 2012. Egyptian Symbolism and ritual. Madonna -Kabbalah High Priest. Idol Worship. 111 Million Viewers. Occult Magick.
I can write a whole blog just on the Super Bowl half time shows and even the Olympic ceremonies that have consistent occult symbolism in all of their pop "star" celebrity performances and satanic rituals. Although they are very entertaining, they have nothing to do with entertainment. It has to do with occult ceremonies and captivating collective energy. Hence my emphasis on how many people watched Madonnas 2012 performance with 111.3 Million viewers. Hence why Madonna is so famous and why she's not only an icon but also an idol. From the very beginning of her "fame", her occult pact with the cult of Satan was shown through her music, lyrics, and videos. In her song "Like a Prayer" she sings:
"I hear your voice
It's like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes
Oh God, I think I'm falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes
Heaven help me"
This is Lucifer falling from heaven as "the fallen angels" as written in the Book of Enoch. Every occult practitioner is bound to identify itself in order for the spiritual law and the power of free will to partake in ritual magick. According to the Mystery Religions, the Devil has to always identify himself which is why Hollywood is drenched in occult symbolism. Since the very beginning of Madonna's career, she has shown her alliance with the Luciferian elite.
Madonna's performance of the song "Future" at the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Israel, and the back cover of her latest album "Madame X" released June 2019. (corona -predictive programming)
Madonna's performance of the song "Future" at the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Israel, and the back cover of her latest album "Madame X" released June 2019. (corona -predictive programming)
Aleister Crowley: The Father of the New Age
Madonna is a perfect example of a Satanic Hollywood Elite puppet but she is not the only example. We can find better examples through the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zepplin, all of which have openly spoken about the man who ushered in the New Age of Satanism, Aleister Crowley. You have to understand that Luciferianism is an Old Religion and a bloodline. Many bloodline Luciferians have branched out into many cults though many different people who always come from old money and Royal Blood. The Father of Occultism and Master Magician, Aleister Crowley is the founder of the religion of Thelema.
Wikipedia describes Crowley as -"identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents' fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life.
In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett.
Moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India.
He married Rose Edith Kelly and in 1904 they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should "Do what thou wilt" and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of magick."
Aleister Crowley is the Father of the New Age Movement and the New Age of Horus, the Egyptian God.
The most influential man in the 20th century through Hollywood is an occultist and Luciferian who called himself "the Beast" and identified himself as the number "666".
There isn't a famous celebrity/satanist who doesn't know who Aleister Crowley is. No other single human being has been more instrumental in the popularization of the New Age Movement than this man who the pressed dubbed him "The Wickedest Man in History".
Gary Lachman's work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century.
But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere.
The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page owned Crowleys home from 1970 until 1992.
The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, occult bookstores, and much of pop culture. His methods of ceremonial magick have influenced the 20th century since the late '60s.
Gary Lachman's work on the occult’s “great beast” traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page owned Crowleys home from 1970 until 1992. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, occult bookstores, and much of pop culture. His methods of ceremonial magick have influenced the 20th century since the late '60s.
Page bought the Boleskine House on the southern bank of Loch Ness in 1970.
Driven by his long interest in Black Magick and the work of Crowley who lived there in the early 1900s
Crowley was an initiate and Grand Master of the Ordo Templi Orienti (O.T.O.) which Jimmy Page was a disciple of.
The video below gives you a look into just how influential Crowley has been to the Hollywood elite and the cult of Satan.
Black Magick & "The Book of the Law"
In 1904, Crowley took part in a magical ritual inside the Great Pyramid in Cairo Egypt with his occultist wife during which he alleges to have received a message from an entity named Aiwass. As a result of this communication, Crowley wrote the first three chapters of "the Book of the Law" – a mystical text which he believed would revolutionize the future of mankind and religion.
It announced the advent of a new eon (meaning age), in which Crowley has become the priest-prince of a new religion, the Age of Horus. He was to formulate a link between humanity and the solar-spiritual force during which the god Horus would preside for the next two thousand years over the evolution of consciousness on this planet. This is why Hollywood has captured the collective-hive-mind through pop culture and occult mysticism as seen by Madonna's halftime show depicting the Baphomet. All of Hollywood is littered with references to Horus, the Baphomet, and even Crowley himself.
According to Crowley's religion of Thelema, the Aeon of Horus or Age of Horus will be the dualistic approach to religion which will transcend through the abolition of the present notion of a God external to oneself. The two will be united. “Man will no longer worship God as an external factor, as in Paganism, or as an internal state of consciousness, as in Christianity, but will realize his identity with God.” -Book of the Law.
The New Age Movement claims that you are the creator. You are a God or like a God, The new Aeon of Horus, based on the union of the male and female polarities like the Baphomet, will involve the magical use of psychedelics and sexual energy, and blood sacrifice of children culminating in an apotheosis of matter as symbolized by the androgynous Baphomet of the Templars and the Illuminati.
Aleister Crowley claimed to have sacrificed 150 children a year. Satanic rituals have developed into the use of the drug Adrenochrome which is harvested from the adrenal gland of a living child.
Children are tortured in order to have adrenaline pumped out by the gland.
When consuming adrenalized blood, they get a purely euphoric high which culminates into a blood orgy.
These rituals are vile and disgusting.
One major effect of Adronochrome besides the euphoric ecstasy of sexual indulgence, it also has a tremendous anti-aging effect which is why celebrities or "STARS" like Jeniffer Lopes, Ellen Degeneres, and Cher (to name a few), never age.
Celebrities are the STARS of Hollywood
Ever wonder why we call celebrities STARS and why some fans worship them like gods or goddesses?
Wikipedia says -"The Thelemic pantheon—a collection of gods and goddesses who either literally exist or serve as symbolic archetypes or metaphors—includes a number of deities, primarily a trio adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three speakers of The Book of the Law:
Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
In at least one instance, Crowley described these deities as a "literary convenience".[4]
Three statements, in particular, distill the practice and ethics of Thelema:
"Do what thou wilt" shall be the whole of the Law, meaning that adherents of Thelema should seek out and follow their true path, i.e. find or determine their True Will.[5]
Love is the law, love under will, i.e. the nature of the Law of Thelema is love, but love itself is subsidiary to finding and manifesting one's authentic purpose or "mission".
Every man and every woman is a STAR, which is to say that in the 20th century era vulgaris cosmology, it is implied by metaphor that persons doing their Wills are like STARS in the universe: occupying a time and position in space, yet distinctly individual and having an independent nature largely without undue conflict with other STARS."
The influence of Crowley has gone from the "Rock Stars" of the '70s to the new "Stars" of today. Crowley's Motto "Do what thou wilt", and the Baphomet is all over Hollywood.
Jay Z wearing a "Do what thou wilt" hoodie, and Beyonce showing the Sabbatic Goat, the Baphomet.
The Don Killuminati:
The 7 Day Theory (commonly shortened to The 7 Day Theory or Makaveli) is the fifth studio album by American rapper Tupac Shakur. Tupac spoke out against the Illuminati.
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (commonly shortened to The 7 Day
Theory or Makaveli) is the fifth studio album by American rapper Tupac Shakur. Tupac spoke out against the Illuminati.
"Stars" who wanted out of the Illuminati were either killed or had their deaths faked.
Once you learn to see the occult symbolism all over movies and music videos, you can identify the same spirit manifesting its energy through each of these members of the cult of Satan which we know as "Hollywood Stars".
Child Sacrifice plays a major role in their rituals. Blood oaths are very real and have dire consequences to those who break the oath.
Crowley was not only a Satanist and a significant influence of Rock Stars, but he has also introduced many new age movement practices of today into mainstream society through pop-culture by the means of these celebrities who practice these rituals in secret, yet they have to show you their allegiance to their occult origins in their art. Many, if not all celebrities are initiates of the Cult of Satan. They are the New Age Movement.
“In the scores of books lining the shelves of New Age bookstores, there are instructions for guided meditation, creative visualizations, out of body experiences, getting in touch with your spirit guides, fortune-telling by cards, crystal balls or the stars. What if Satanists reclaimed these for their own dark purposes and integrated them into rituals dedicated to the Devil, where they rightfully belong? New Agers have freely drawn upon all manner of Satanic material, adapting it to their own hypocritical purposes… But in truth, all ‘New Age’ labeling is, again, trying to play the Devil’s game without using His Infernal name” —Anton LaVey, quoted in Church of Satan, B. Barton, p.107
Given all the connections to Crowley as mentioned in this article, we have to understand that he's only popularized because of his ritual magick and glorification of him by the "Stars". There are many other occult Luciferians that make up the Hollywood elite that we might never know of. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Saville, are all just a few names that only skims the surface of a long occult history that involves human trafficking and child sacrifice.
There is a major reason why child trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry.
The only ones who can afford it are the rich. And the ones who have publicly shown their ties to the cult of Satan who practice human sacrifices are the famous.
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But while Madame X, the show is compellingly odd at times, and no doubt unique as a theatrical concert among her generation of icons, I still can't say that Madonna has transcended beyond "great performer" to disturber of the peace.
The only moment of real theater I witnessed was when she sat on the edge of the stage and invited a stranger to give her a sip of their drink and chat. (The handsome military man who complied was clearly a prepped plant who handed her a glass beer bottle full of water, much like one a dancer had handed her earlier — and the Golden Gate Theater doesn't sell beer in bottles to take to your seat.
She then semi-convincingly played a beer drinker for 90 seconds while catching her breath.) Apart from nods to the Parkland and Pulse nightclub shootings, Madonna's co-opting of yet another culture not her own and lazy off-the-cuff banter felt out of touch — even with evolving ideas about mental health when she griped about people getting up to use the bathroom or go to the bar as having "ADDDD or ADHD," or when she asked an increasingly listless crowd if their Adderall was kicking in.
I thought about Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music. I sat through that in six-hour stretches and rarely felt very bored or restless.
And no matter what I was feeling I knew that Taylor was going to come out with an articulate and thoughtful thing to tie together whatever I just saw. Madonna tended more toward the persona and mode she's most comfortable in — like that too-knowing friend of your older sister who likes to ask you sarcastic questions and never lets her guard down. "You get it yet!?"
For all the ways I love her "Bitch I'm Madonna" swagger and the unique position she is in as an artist and icon, there's a point at which her bravado and aggressive diva-ness are lost on all but her super-fans, and the rest of us are left sighing to ourselves and saying "Bitch, just do 'Ray of Light' already." I don't want her retiring into a Las Vegas residency and turning into a caricature of herself, trotting out her hits and ceasing to look for inspiration. But I can't say that the new material is inspiring enough to carry as much of this intimate show as she wants it to. And I felt like I was expected to worship each costume change and come-to-church moment, spanning the cultures that have influenced her various albums, from Hindu-Buddhist to British trance to gospel to, now, batuque and fado.
There were a lot of slow moments, and the only times she truly energized the crowd were with excellent revisions of 90s hits like "Vogue" and "Human Nature," very early in the two-hour-and-20-minute set. By the time she's taken off her embroidered sari and put on her priest's vestments for "Like a Prayer," which transitions into her finale with the new song, "I Rise," it felt like she'd lost the crowd (except for the super-fans who'd already paid to see this once and were back again). I was ready to rise mostly because I was tired, it was 1:30 a.m., and I've outgrown the person who saw her as a flawless gay icon and god. I see we're all flawed, and Madonna's spent the better part of two decades trying to stay relevant if not quite edgy, and if nothing else I'm happy she found a new music genre to play with in Portugal.
I wasn't the only one grumbling about the decided lack of crowd-pleasers in the set as we all filed to the doors to get our cellphone satchels unlocked so we could return to our realities.
And she still never did "Ray of Light."
https://www.religionnewsblog.com/10376/madonna-the-high-priestess-of-kaballah
nged everyone talks about herself: from provocations to the biggest medal
di Simone Marchetti
18 gennaio 2023
Madonna's voice is gentle, but her words are heavy as boulders. The words of Madonna possess the gravity of a planet that has attracted love and hate, passion and criticism, obsession, and applause to orbit around her. «It was my destiny», she recounts, enunciating every single letter, «And I accepted it. I accepted it because it was what I had to do. I accepted it because this is the journey I had to take on this earth».
Pioneer and trailblazer, diva and pop star. After a 40-year career, today she’s preparing a new tour and a movie about her life. We meet her one winter’s afternoon at an anonymous spot in Bushwick, in the north of Brooklyn, New York. The sky is gray, the street quiet. A black van pulls up, a door opens and a petite figure steps out, sporting a black hoodie with a pair of copper-colored braids sprouting from it. Seconds later, this strange, dark version of Alice in Wonderland disappears through a door that leads to a warehouse.
There are no pallets of goods inside, however; instead there are clowns, artists, dancers, supermodels, make-up artists, hairdressers, stylists, and stage technicians. For two days, these people will spend every minute with her until 4 a.m. They have all come together to bring to life an exclusive art project for Vanity Fair, created by photographers Luigi&Iango (you can see it on the pages that follow) which reflects on the career, values, creativity and provocations of an artist who has not only changed the history of entertainment, but contributed to the cultural evolution of the whole world. She has changed its direction and trajectory, like an extra moon causing the tides to shift.
Forty years of songs, provocations, shows, hits, criticism, and acclaim. How much has it all cost you?
«I could answer several billion, but then in what currency? That’s hard to quantify because taking risks and the artistic process is hard to measure. When you devote your time and energy working towards and fighting for things that other people don’t believe in, it can cost you time that you would otherwise spend relaxing or feeling comfort, or having an easy life. The thing it’s cost me the most is loss of sleep and maybe less time spent with people I love - also peace of mind. But I feel that it is a necessary part of the journey I am on and it’s a price I have accepted».
What has been the greatest victory and the worst loss of your career?
«Guiding my children to where they are in life, and feeling like “so far, so good.” That’s been the hardest battle».
What about in your career?
«I can’t really say, but the fact that I still have a career is my most beautiful victory».
Your worst loss?
«I don’t want to focus on defeat because I feel like everything is a victory - even things we perceive as loss».
I’d like to talk through this art project by Luigi&Iango for Vanity Fair with you. Let's start with the image of the Virgin Mary—the Madonna—portrayed on the cover. You have always been attacked by the Catholic Church…
«Let’s start with the photos, just wearing a crown on my head and holding all the robes and balancing on this platform I felt like I was being attacked, just in this photoshoot. That was the metaphor for the question you are asking me. It’s literally hard to wear a heavy crown on your head. So how did it feel? The first time I felt really attacked was when I did the press conference in Rome while filming “Truth or Dare.” I was raised a Catholic and at the end of the day. I thought if the Catholic Church did not perceive my work as an artist as doing something good, then that was their problem and an extension of their narrow mindedness and inability to see that anything that brings people together, that preaches freedom of expression and unity - is a good thing. It mirrors the teachings of Jesus and Christianity at its core, so I felt like it was a hypocrisy for them to attack me».
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You were one of the first artists to celebrate diversity. The icon of the Holy Mary on the cover seems to depict a reflection, a symbol of pain, of inclusion. A sense of motherliness and an acceptance of diversity…
«I am not really sure what it means to say I was one of the first. I felt that it was part of my journey as an artist to give a voice to others. When I started out in New York I was surrounded by a diverse group of people. The people who supported me were largely members of the LGBTQ+ community and of different ethnicities. That was my support system, so why wouldn’t I in turn support and champion them?».
There’s another very provocative religious image in the shoot: a Last Supper with all women instead of men...what was your intention in that tableau?
«Let’s start with the fact that it was Luigi&Iango’s intention to begin with; it was their idea and I thought it was an interesting take. As you know in the Last Supper Jesus is a man and he’s surrounded by male disciples. So I thought it interesting that we would flip the tables around (so to speak) and Jesus would be feminine energy and I would be surrounded by female disciples. I liked the idea we were playing with that contradiction, which isn’t really a contradiction».
What is your relationship with religion today?
«I think it’s important to have ritualistic behavior and a spiritual life. Religion without understanding, knowledge, curiosity, and inclusivity – I don’t consider that to be religion. I’m not subscribing to religious groups that are exclusive of others or extremist in any shape. However, I do respect all religions and encourage people to look into whatever religious belief system they follow. To understand and study their holy books and to understand their ritualistic systems, because otherwise without understanding it’s just dogma and rules, and an empty exercise. My relationship with religion is that I remain very involved in my own spiritual practice and I think it’s imperative for everyone to have a spiritual practice – but I am not defining that for other people. I do think it’s vital to pray and to have connection with some spiritual lifestyle / life force or whatever you want to call it. There is just no way you can survive and get through life without connecting to the idea that there is a higher power and energy force - many energy forces. That there is a metaphysical, mystical world that we are all a part of and need to stay connected to».
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In another image, you’re portrayed as a fragile doll—a toy that can be broken.
«Once again, I followed the photographers’ idea. And I saw in it the idea of fragility of being a woman—fragility that comes from not connecting with your inner strength. It’s that lack of connection that makes us feel like broken dolls».
Have you ever felt that way?
«Many times. I don't think it's possible to be a female artist or a human being without feeling broken or hurt. You’re a human being and that's how life goes. There’s no life without that feeling».
In another image you appear hanging from a rope, surrounded by bullfighters, abused by men. Is this a reflection on the patriarchal culture and misogyny that continues to characterize society?
«It’s a continuing battle, we do indeed live in a patriarchal world. I’m always fighting against it, pushing against it, or feeling the resistance from it. That tableau was a metaphor for it – I was hanging from a rope, my feet barely touching the ground and I had matadors around me with very long nails as sharp as knives and masks hiding their faces so I couldn’t see their eyes. Everything had an air of danger to it. The idea was I am fighting against the patriarchal world that we live in, which has always been the case for me. I was spinning from one side to the next, one side not aware, sometimes I’m cut, or bumping into things. There’s an element of mystery, of not knowing how things are going to turn out. Traditionally the matador is attacking the bull».
As society, are we moving on from that world?
«We definitely are not moving on, we are moving backwards. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having discussions on whether or not women are allowed to make choices over their bodies in America».
Are you a pessimist?
«I have to be optimistic otherwise I don’t know how I could go on».
In another image you’re playing with a cellist. You have discovered so many authors, so many talents, so many artists. Who do you like today? Who inspires you?
«That’s a difficult question. I like all artists who have the courage to tell true stories, stories of vulnerability. I’m a big fan of Kendrick Lamar. He’s an incredible artist, his music is incredible. The words he uses are powerful. He’s been able to tell the story of generations that have been the victim of abuse, of drugs, of absent fathers. Its groundbreaking and takes music to a whole new level. Rapping, healing and talking about it at the same time and being very truthful. Clearly he’s done a lot of soul searching, reading and self-examination. I really admire artists who do that and turn it into something that connects with pop culture».
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Let’s get to the image in which you’re portrayed as Frida Kahlo, next to a man. This Mexican artist has been a kind of guide on your career.
«When I was a teenager I discovered Frida Kahlo at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I was fascinated by how she became a painter—how it stemmed from a bus accident where she was lying a hospital on her back in a bodycast, in pain for a year, and how her father brought her brushes and paint. While she was working through her pain and her inability to move, she used her arms to paint and turned her suffering into something beautiful. She always felt like an outsider as a child growing up and I could connect to that. If Frida Kahlo could endure all the pain and suffering and still create beautiful art and not feel sorry for herself and continue to go on, then I could do the same. She’s always been a source of strength and a muse for me».
There are several clowns in this photo shoot. How come?
«I like the paradox of the clown. A clown dresses up, paints her face, comes on stage, and makes people laugh. But there is some kind of strange darkness that goes with it. Somehow deep down inside you feel the sadness of that clown. That clown is trying so hard to make other people laugh so that he or she can keep from crying. I like that juxtaposition as in the song “Send in the Clowns”. The lyrics are so beautiful - here I am, I’m going to make you laugh, but inside I am crying. I like that diametrically opposed dynamic. I feel that’s true of many entertainers and comedians and I am fascinated by that».
Let's talk about you. About your life. You have lots of children. What has it been like being a mother and an artist?
«It’s been the hardest thing, the toughest battle. Perhaps motherhood is the clown performance that’s been hardest to maintain. Even today, I struggle to understand how to be a mother as well as do my job. Because no matter where you are, whoever you are, having children and raising kids is a work of art. And nobody gives you a manual—you have to learn from your mistakes. It's a job that needs an incredible amount of time. And it’s exhausting because there’s no time for a break».
Several of your children today are artists, painters, DJs, activists. What’s it like being surrounded by such a creative group?
«It makes me very happy they have found their own creativity, and I know it comes from an authentic place. I never encouraged my daughter Lola to make music or my son Rocco to paint, but I did put them in front of art and music their entire lives so I am glad they found a way to express themselves. I respect and admire both of them and their work».
Do you think it was easy for them growing up with a mother like you?
«Not at all. Really, not at all. Growing up with a mother like me is a challenge».
How do you feel today?
«I am very excited about work that is coming up in the future. I’m about to create another show, and I've been working for several years on the screenplay about my life. This is a good time for me—I’m gathering ideas, getting inspired, hanging out with creative people, watching films, seeing art, listening to music - I’m being a social anthropologist. I look for inspiration any place I can possibly find it».
What are you afraid of?
«The idea of living in a society where you can’t be free to express your individuality or your thoughts frightens me. It seems to me that people are increasingly afraid of expressing their opinions, of being authentic. It's like living in one of those futuristic dystopian movies. The problem is that these scenarios have started to come true and that’s scary».
What makes you happy?
«Spending time with my children. And seeing them happy, witnessing their growth, watching them evolve and find the things they love. A big part of my happiness comes from my children. I also get a lot of happiness from the inspiration I find from several artists».
What makes you fall in love?
«What makes me fall in love is having a sense of affinity with someone. When you talk to someone and it feels like you speak the same language. When you see the world in the same way, you are aligned. I always fall in love with creative people who are creative in some way shape or form».
Let's go back 40 years. What advice would you give to that girl in New York,
the young Madonna?
«That girl was broke, and hungry. I’d tell her to go downstairs and make herself some food».
What would you do if you were 20 years old today?
«I don’t even know, I guess I would do the same thing – I would still want to go out in the world, I’d still be curious and hungry for knowledge and want to do as much as possible. I would still want to make my mark on the world, express myself, disturb the peace, be adventurous - be
rebellious. All those things. I wouldn’t be any different, I would just have more food and more shoes».