The clip above is a rare glimpse in how the "one eye" symbolism appears in photos. If you skip to 2:45 you can see Lady Gaga covering one eye in a photo shoot. Later on she is informed that she is covering the wrong eye. You can hear her say "This eye? Sorry". The symbolism is intentional and they are very specific with which eye they want covered. Speaking of the one Eye of Horus, you may remember my post Aaliyah, Left Eye, Horus, and the Moon where I tied TLC member Left Eye to the Eye of Hour. I recently watch her documentary The Last Days of Left Eye and found it interesting that she had the Eye of Horus above her bed.
Aaliyah and Left Eye will always be connected due their their untimely deaths just months apart. Their deaths, along with the 9/11 attacks, marked a dark period in culture where for a moment we turned off their reality shows and ignored the celebrity gossip and focused on the harsh reality of immortality. But just like the world picked up the pieces and moved on after 9/11, pop culture is still flourishing with new stars, some of which have eclipsed Aaliyah and Left Eye's level of fame.
While these two stars deaths are obviously linked within the collective consciousness of pop culture, upon closer examination there were parallels between the two contained in their work long before their demise. On the surface their fashion senses were clearly similar as well as the fact that they were popular urban acts who dominated in the 1990's. But as you explore their work deeper you begin to spot other similarities concerning their spiritual beliefs and affinity towards Egyptian symbolism that sheds new light on what their deaths meant to pop culture and the Goddess-like iconography both of their deaths created.
With contemporary acts like Beyonce and Rihanna it is hard not to spot the symbolism propagated through their highly publicized music videos and performances. But in the pre-9/11 world of the 90's the world saw Aaliyah and Left Eye as pop stars and nothing more.
I first began to take a closer look at Aaliyah after viewing this incredible video on Aaliyah and some of the themes that were presented in her videos. I was surprised to discover just how much she loved Eygptian atifacts and what she decribed as "the dark side". I was also surprised to learn that her famous hairstyle was inspired by the Eye of Ra/Horus. This fact sparked my interest as I had already discovered the Horus/Ra connection with Left Eye that I will get into later. As I began to explore Aaliyah for a second time, this time with eyes open, I began to spot other Egyptian influences in her work that I had not noticed before. One of those instances was her music video for "4 Page Letter". The music video pretty much showcases a modern version of the Horus myth.
As the video begins Aaliyah is watch a male from a distance illuminated by sunlight. Later on there's a scene of the man above with chains in his hands. This scene is meant to let the viewer know that Aaliyah's love interest in some sort of slave.
Next Aaliyah dances for the slave. Notice during this dance no one else is paying attention to her. Is it because they can't perceive her?
Afterwards there is a battle between the master and slave which of course the slave loses until Aaliyah reappears.
After that the video gets interesting. Aaliyah appears inside of a ring of fire. As I have stated on this blog before, the ring of fire symbolizes knowledge. It is also interesting that Aaliyah is wearing silver during this scene. Silver is often associated with the moon and the moon often symbolizes feminine energy.
"I am an orange moon reflecting the light of the sun..." - Erykah Badu
This information may add some insight on all of the silver dresses at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Britney Spears wore a silver dress last year.
One example of a Moon goddess was Nanna who I will be exploring further in yet another exploration on Madonna (and her heirs).
Silver Bra
Other Goddesses are Artemis and Diana. Also, Arabic alchemist invoked the feminine name Manet when working with silver as an alchemical symbol.
So what does all of this have to do with Horus and Aaliyah? Well, as I said the video for "4 Page Letter" is symbolic of Horus and Aaliyah represented as a symbol of the moon only heightens this observation.
First of all the video is shot in the day and night (sun and moon). The slave is powerful in the day night but chained at night. No one else sees Aaliyah until she appears in the ring of knowledge. This is representative of feminine energy coming into the slaves consciousness and setting him free.
This relates to the story of Horus because during the battle of Horus and Set, Horus' left eye was torn out. Thoth magically restored Horus' left eye. The myth is representative of the restoration of the moon every lunar month. So Aaliyah's video is a representation of this myth. Left Eye fits into this theme as she and her group TLC wore silver outfits in their video for "No Scrubs" which was obviously inspired by the moonwalker Michael Jackson's video for "Scream" featuring his sister Janet.
TLC were also the ladies in red at the always symbolic MTV Video Music Awards in 1999. They were introduced by Prince who was wearing blue.
Although Left Eye never spoke publicly about Egyptian artifacts as Aaliyah did, there are still signs that she appreciated the culture and after her death one symbol has been used to represent her numerous times.
As I mentioned in Magic Mirrors 4, the Falcon is used to represent Horus.
In the picture below you can see Left Eye had a tattoo of a Falcon. Most people assume this tattoo is in tribute to her boyfriend Andre Rison who was on the football team the Atlanta Falcons. But the first picture was taken in 1992 before Left Eye had even met Andre. She later had the tattoo altered to represent him but it is clear that she liked Falcons before she met Andre Rison. After Left Eye died TLC tried to regroup and release one more album with the two remaining members. They agreed to represent Left Eye by including small little references to her in every public appearance. The above picture is from the music video "Hands Up". There we see T-Boz and Chilli with an illuminated eye on their faces. This is fine, I mean her stage name was Left Eye afterall. I was, however, surprised when they took the stage to perform with Alicia Keys at the 2008 (or 2009..I don't know) BET Awards. Take a look at the earrings that the dancer behind Chilli has on. This is not surprising considering Alicia Keys' recent love of Egypt.
I will leave you with a small section of Left Eye's rap in Melanie C's "Never Be The Same Again".
"And as our energies mix and begin to multiply. Everyday situations, they start to simplify. So things will never be the same between you and I. We intertwined our life forces and now we're unified."
I recently watch her documentary The Last Days of Left Eye and found it interesting that she had the Eye of Horus above her bed.
