The Black Lodge

The inhabitants of the Black Lodge, being the wardens of electricity, are a necessary condition of humanity; since if there were no Black Lodge, there would be no electricity, hence no “animal life,”1 no brains,2 and no humans.

Why does the White Lodge tend to be associated with black and white? From A Breath of Life:

The pre-thought is in black and white. The thought with words has other colors. … Really pre-thought is what guides us, since it is intimately linked to my mute unconsciousness. The pre-thought is not rational. It’s almost virginal. … I want the truth which is only given to me through its opposite, though its untruth. … My life is one single day. And that’s how the past for me is present and future. All in a single dizziness.

Really, the two lodges are not opposites, as one might infer from their names; rather, the White Lodge sits atop a hierarchy, and the Black Lodge mediates between the White Lodge and the world of humans. Note also the black-and-white floor, to which is added the first visible color: red; later come increasingly violet wavelengths.

  1. Missing Pieces, above the gas station. ↩
  2. The Arm, in its form in The Return, resembles a neuron. There may be some more on this theme in Inland Empire. There are also many interesting comparisons between trees and brains elsewhere. Of course, neurons literally contain so-called “dendrites.” Wikipedia. See also: Calling a tree a “tree.” ↩