The Occult Symbolism of Movie “Metropolis” and its Importance in Pop Culture

Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie “Metropolis” is one of those timeless classics that withstand the test of time. Rather than becoming forgotten and obsolete, “Metropolis” is increasingly relevant as many of its predictions are becoming reality. We will look at the  underlying occult message of the film and the usage of its imagery in the acts of  pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, Kylie Minogue and others.

Metropolis is a silent science-fiction movie released in 1927 by Fritz Lang, a master of German Expressionism. Set in a futuristic dystopia divided into two distinct and separate classes—the thinkers and the workers—Metropolis describes the struggles between the two opposite entities. Knowing that it was produced in 1927, viewing this movie today is quite an experience as many “sci-fi” aspects of the plot are eerily close to reality. Metropolis describes a society where the “New World Order” has already taken been implemented and a select elite live in luxury while a dehumanized mass work and live in a highly monitored hell.

 Metropolis is excessively echoed in popular culture, especially in the music business. Whether it be in music videos or photo shoots, pop stars are often portrayed as the character Maria, an android programmed to corrupt the morals of the workers and to incite a revolt, giving the elite an excuse to use violence repression. Are pop stars used by the elite in the same matter, to corrode the morals of the masses?

Movie Analysis

The Workers

The workers at shift change.

The movie opens by showing the workers and their city, situated deep below the earth’s surface. They are shown dressed alike, walking in sync, holding their heads down in submission, resignation and desperation. Throughout the movie, the human cattle is depicted as being physically and mentally exhausted, highly impressionable and, let’s say it, all-around dumb. Like a flock of sheep, the workers move in crowds, are very impressionable and can easily be deceived. This description of the masses corroborates those of Walter Lippmann, an American thinker who, five years earlier in Public Opinion, compared the general public to a “bewildered herd” that is not qualified to manage its own destiny. Joseph Goebbels, the head of propaganda of the Nazi regime, was also in accord with the movie’s conception of the general public. Hitler famously said “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think”.

The workers labor in a monstrous machine, a hellish industrial complex where they must accomplish repetitive and dehumanizing tasks. At one point, the machine is compared to Moloch, the ancient Semitic deity honored by human sacrifices.

In one of his visions, Fredersen sees the Machine turning into Moloch. The workers are fed to the beast as human sacrifices.

Moloch the God Baal, the Bull of the Sun, was widely worshipped in the ancient Near East and wherever Carthaginian culture extended. Baal Moloch was conceived under the form of a calf or an ox or depicted as a man with the head of a bull. The sacrifices went through the “belly of the beast”.

The tasks assumed by the workers are purely mechanical, needing absolutely no brain power, making them nothing more than an extension of the machine.

The workers accomplish repetitive, mind-numbing tasks, stripping them of their humanity.

The Thinkers

The gleaming city of the Thinkers

If the workers live in a hellish underground dystopia, the thinkers conversely evolve in a gleaming utopia, a magnificent testimony of human achievement. This shiny city could not, however, be sustained without the existence of the Machine (Moloch) and its herds of workers. On the other hand, the Machine would not exist without the need to sustain a city. We find here a dualistic relation where two opposite entities exist in mutual dependence, a concept that has deep occult resonance.

In a thinly veiled reference to the hermetic axiom "As Above, So Below", the movie describes the mirroring yet opposite environments in which in the thinkers and the workers live in.

The hermetic Seal of Salomon visually depicts the concept of “As above, So below” while representing opposites energies mirroring each other to achieve perfect balance. Fritz Lang’s world perfectly recreates this concept.

Joh Fredersen, the Demi-God

The city was founded, built and is run by the autocratic Joh Fredersen. As the creator and only ruler of Metropolis, Fredersen is likened to the Gnostic demiurge, a demi-god who is creator and ruler of the material world.

Joh Federsen, plotting his next move. He is holding a compass, reminding viewers of his role as the “great architect” of Metropolis.

William Blake’s representation of the gnostic demiurge, creator and ruler of the imperfect lower plane, where sin and suffering prevails. The compass borrows from Masonic symbolism for God as the “Great Architect of the Universe”.

Joh’s son, named Freder, who, like all sons of managers, was enjoying a life of luxury, discovers the harsh reality of the workers of down under. Wanting to experience the worker’s reality first-hand, Freder descends to the lower level and trades places with a worker. Freder therefore becomes a Christ-like figure, a savior who descends from above. He also becomes enamoured with Maria, a saintly young women from the proletariat.

Maria

Maria, preaching to the workers.

Maria is a charismatic woman that is highly admired by her fellow workers. Understanding their suffering and despair, and knowing that a revolt is brewing, Maria preaches peace and patience, prophesying the coming of a “mediator”, who would become the “heart between the head (the thinkers) and the hand (the workers)

At one point, Maria tells the story of the tower of Babel, upon which would be written:

“Great is the world and its Creator! And great is Man!”

This statement has a deep resonance in Mystery Schools as it is taught that men have the potential to become gods through enlightenment. Throughout the ages, monuments and architecture were used to communicate the principles of the Mysteries and to celebrate the greatness of the human mind. Partially for those reasons, there are numerous links between Freemasonry and the Tower of Babel.

“As regards to Masonry, Babel of course represented a Masonic enterprise and early expositors reaped full benefit from the facts. They remembered that the people, who were of ‘one language and one speech’ journeyed from the East to the West, like those who have been tried and proved as Master Masons. When they reached an abiding place in the land Shinar, it is affirmed that they dwelt therein as Noachide, being the first characteristic name of Masons. It was here that they built their high tower of confusion. Out of evil comes good, however, and the confusion of tongues gave rise to ‘the ancient practice of Masons conversing without the use of speech.’” 
-Arthur Edward Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and of Cognate Instituted Mysteries: Their Rites, Literature and History, Volume I

“In several early Masonic manuscripts – for example, the Harleian, Sloane, Lansdowne, and Edinburgh-Kilwinning – it is stated that the craft of initiated builders existed before the Deluge, and that its members were employed in the building of the Tower of Babel.”
- Manly P. Hall

“… at the making of the Tower of Babel there was Masonry first much esteemed of, and Nimrod was a Mason himself and loved well Masons.”
- John T Lawrence, The Perfect Ashlar

However, says Maria, “one man’s hymns of praise became the other man’s curse”. In other words, the monument praising the greatness of the human spirit was built with the blood and sweat of workers who knew nothing of the Thinker’s grand vision. And, in the film, the same thing is happening all over again. The name of the demi-god Joh Fredersen’s headquarters? Of course … The New Tower of Babel.

Joh Ferdersen’s headquarters named the New Tower of Babel.

Rotwang

Rotwang with his trademark mechanical right hand, which replaces the one he lost during one of his experiments. Is this a symbol signifying that the inventor embraces the “left-handed path”?

Upon learning that the workers are planning an uprising, Joh Federsen seeks the advice of Rotwang, an inventor and mad scientist. Although his work utilizes the latest of technologies, many clues within the movie indicate that he also taps into ancient occult knowledge to create his inventions. He is said to live in “a small house overlooked by the centuries,” symbolically meaning that the scientist’s arcana descended from ancient occult traditions; the basement of his house has a secret trap door leading to 2,000 year-old catacombs, further alluding to the ancient and mysterious sources of Rotwang. Furthermore, the front door of his house bears a pentagram, which refers to the Pythagoreans, occultism and Freemasonry.

A pentagram on Rotwang’s door. Disciples of Pythagoras affixed a pentagram on their door as a secret sign of mutual recognition. The sign and its meaning could remain secret despite that public display because only those initiated into the mysteries of Pythagoras’ geometry were able to draw it correctly and to appreciate its deep significance as a symbol for and gateway to those mysteries.

If we were to do real-life comparisons, Rotwang is to Joh Fredersen what John Dee was to Queen Elizabeth I: an esteemed advisor immersed in the worlds of science, magic, astrology and Hermetic philosophy. If Fredersen represents our world’s rulers, Rotwang is the occult pendant of decision-making, the mystical entity that is hidden from the public but always historically present.

The inventor proudly presents to Fredersen his latest invention, the Machine-Man, which he considers to be the “Man of the Future”. The android has the faculty of taking the form of any person and, says Rotwang, “no one will be able to tell a Machine Man from a mortal!”. The transhumanist dream was already present back in the early 1920s.

Fredersen then tells Rotwang to give the Machine-Man the likeness of Maria in order to use her credibility and charisma to spread corruption among the workers.

Maria laying down while Rotwang gives her likeness to the android. Notice the inverted pentagram right above the Machine-Man’s head. If the upright pentagram represents healing, mathematical perfection and the five elements, the inverted pentagram stands for the corruption of those principles and black magic.

So what do today’s pop stars have in common with this android, programmed by the rulers, with a mix of science and occultism? Well … everything.

Beyonce

Kylie Minogue

Lady Gaga in Paparazzi video

Lady Gaga in Dave Lachapelle photo shoot that is heavily inspired by Metropolis.

Freddie Mercury from Queen with his face instead of Maria’s in Radio Gaga. Lady Gaga’s name was inspired by this song and video, which contains a lot of footage fromMetropolis.

Janelle Monae

Metropolis themes are also very prevalent in fashion

Back to the movie. The android completed, Rotwang tells it:

“I want you to visit those in the depths, in order to destroy the work of the woman in whose image you were created!”

Robot-maria responds:

One eye closed with devilish grin. You probably know the importance of the single eye from previous articles and the ridiculous amount of pop artists who flash it.

The Maria android is then sent to Yoshiwara, a man’s club, where she performs erotic dances. In one of her acts, she is portrayed as Babylon, the Great Harlot from the Apocalypse.

Playing the role of the Great Harlot Babylon of the Book of Revelation. “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, having a golden cup in her hand”. She is held up by the seven deadly sins.

Do this scene remind you of a classic music video?

Madonna – Material Girl. How many realized that she was playing the role of Babylon here?

The programmed Maria performs mesmerizing dances in front of an avid public, causing men to fight, to lust, to be jealous and to commit the rest of the deadly sins. When she’s with her fellow workers,  Maria acts as an “agent-provocateur”, inciting the working men to riot and giving Joh Fredersen reason to use force against them. She is basically acting against the best interest of the public and for the interest of the elite.

With the help of their foreman (because they can’t really think for themselves), the workers ultimately realize that they have been mislead by the android. Believing that she’s a witch, they find robot-Maria and burn her at the stake.

A bunch of things happen after that, but I won’t spoil the ending for you (though can you really be mad at someone for spoiling the ending of a 83-year old movie?). The movie finishes with this caption:

This “moral of the story” is basically a message to the elite, a tip to keep the masses in check: in order to keep the oppressed content, you must capture their heart. That is what the media accomplish.

Which is kind of reminiscent of this music video ending:

Madonna’s Express Yourself video heavily borrowed its imagery fromMetropolis. In turn, Christina Aguilera’s Not Myself Tonight, heavily borrowed from Express Yourself.

The Moral of the Story

The moral of the story of Metropolis is not “let’s abolish all inequities and rebuild a world where everyone is equal” and it is certainly not “let’s be democratic and vote for who we want as a ruler.” It is more “let’s send the workers back to the depths where they belong, but with the addition of a mediator, who will be the link between the workers and the thinkers”. So, when all is said and done, the movie is intrinsically “elitist,” as it still calls for the existence of an elite group of people holding most of the resources and managing a working class. In the end, the workers – and Freder – were duped, believing that their conditions would change. In fact, the status-quo remained and Joh even got his naive son to give the elite a friendly image while reporting everything happening in the depths, resulting in tighter surveillance and control.

Who is the Freder of today’s working class? The media. Media is the mediator. That is its function.

Fredersen, the link between “the hand and the head”, the Workers and the Thinkers. This role is played today by the media.

Mass media manipulate the masses’ thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, tricking them into loving their oppression. Popular culture is the entertainment branch of mass media and pop music is the fun way to communicate the elite’s message to the youth. References to Metropolis in pop music are almost winks to those in the know, the initiates, as if to say “this star is working for us”. So go ahead and be an ignorant, degenerate and materialistic person, like in the videos … that’s what they want you to be.

Analogies Between Metropolis and Today’s Pop Culture

But why Metropolis? Why has it become the code for “Illuminati star”? If you’ve read other articles on this site, you’ve probably realized that the movie touches upon all of the themes of today’s “Illuminati agenda”: transhumanism, mind control, dark occultism, degradation of morals, police state, all-seeing government. Metropolis is basically a blueprint for population control. Like Maria, today’s pop stars are recruited from the working class and literally programmed and reinvented to become the hidden ruler’s spokespersons. Notice how many pop stars have wild alter-egos, with a different name and personality. Part of the stars’ role is to promote the elite’s agenda through music and videos, making it sexy and attractive.