Varg and me

Every once in a while some peculiarity appears in the Top 100, some odd new feature that then is kept in the project for years to follow. A new tradition seems to take root that started two years ago when I painted several chickens in the background of certain musicians. 2008 became the year of the chicken. A rather intuitive choice but I’m a firm believer in intuition as the means to learning archaic truths and mythology. 2009 I designated the year of the wolf as there were bands in it like Wolf Eyes and Aids Wolf. What I didn’t mention in my explanatory text for the wolves that year was that Burzum’s Varg Vikernes first name means wolf in Norwegian. This year I already designated as the year of the pig as I took a big intuitive leap in linguistics and associated the Norwegian word ‘varg’ with the Dutch for pig ‘varken’, or the Afrikaans ‘vark’ as in aardvark ‘earth-pig’. It is interesting to me that two such opposing animals have names so similar. When associating words, opposites often come across, think of black and blank, or word and sword, womb and tomb. But more often than at opposites, intuitive word associations hint at a more esotheric equivalent, such as haven and heaven. This holds especially true for the English language. The 19th Century Russian occultist Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophy movement, was instructed by her Indian guru to learn English, as this language was to become the universal language of the future. My move to America was of very little significance but yet the same. Back to Varg Vikernes: I didn’t mention the wolf in my paragraph on Burzum but what I did mention was his release from jail. “I have not heard of new projects, but I doubt if they have the well being of humankind on their agenda”. Well now, just a few months later, I did. A new CD is released called Belus. A friend supplied me with a copy of it, I listened to it and read Vikernes’ statements concerning the album and the lyrics. To my surprise his intentions with the album are non political. I could not even find the slightest trace of his infamous racism. What he wants is basically the same thing as what I want, and many others too; to come in touch with the mystery of human existence, one’s culture, and one’s spirit. In my label for Burzum in 2008 I confessed that, if circumstances had been different, I could have been a Varg Vikernes myself. Varg’s adopted middle name is Quisling, after the Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis in Norway’s darkest days, and with whom I share the same birthday –July 18. As I adopt this year’s animal again as my alter ego, like a carnival’s mask that you work on all year, just to put it on for one day to become that what is signified, I am becoming a little mini-vark (that would be a 'big' in Dutch).