The photo above is of Lady Gaga during The Fame Monster photo sessions. One of the main things you notice from this photo is the fake bird on her head. I'm not sure if this bird is suppose to be a crow or a raven but either way it's inclusion is significant.
In Occult circles the crow represents the positive aspects of death and the transition into the afterlife. On the contrary, ravens represent the negative/physical aspects of death. I guess the identity of the bird on Lady Gaga's head is up to your own perception.
This bird was represented in the first of the many costumes worn by Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards. Death, of course, was a huge theme of hers that night as she staged her own death during her performance.
Since then I have been thinking about death and how it is perceived in various scenarios. In 2009 MTV Video Music Awards I compared the deaths of celebrities to religious iconography. This theme was heightened by the Catholic setting of her performance combined with lyrics that deal with themes of fame. It is interesting that after she dies in the performance she rises and we see a halo behind her. The next night she appears as a blood soaked version of Mary at Marc Jacobs party.In the original Gaga for Death post I went as far as to find connections between the themes of death and resurrection found in religion and in the "Monster" themes found in Gaga's work and suggested that maybe we've been Gaga all along and the presence of Lady Gaga is simply a mirror to what is already present in our culture.
In Going Green I examined Lady Gaga and Madonna as pop culture representations of various Gods of death and Mother Goddesses which would also mean they represent life and death. What was interesting about this post was that Isis gave birth to Anubis which means that while Isis represents life she also represents death. Life and death are apart of the same continuous cycle as Madonna and Gaga are apart of the same music continuum.
A good example of this is Madonna representing the embodiment of death and life in her music video "Frozen".
In this scene we see Madonna dematerialize into a flock of crows representing the death of an aspect of herself.
At various points throughout the video Madonna does the Hindu Mudra invoking infinity/perfection.
As her power gets stronger she is able to alter the weather/nature.
She is then shown taking in energy.
The Hindu Om symbol is on her hand representing the absolute, omnipresence, or as Madonna would say "the sound of the universe".
She is then reborn as the Triple Goddess.To be continued?
