This is from a photo shoot for Mojo Magazine. The focus of this picture is Julian pointing his index finger. There are 2 possible interpretations of this gesture.
The first is that he is doing a Masonic sign of recognition. In Freemasonry, pointing the index finger means “yes” and pointing 2 fingers means “no”. This is talked about in the book Freimaurersignale in der Presse (Freemasonic Signals in the Press) by Johannes Rothkranz, a theologist from Germany.
The second possible interpretation is that he is doing Baphomet’s “as above, so below” hand gesture. Baphomet is a deity of Satanism. He represents duality. We’ll see Baphomet again when I talk about Julian’s solo career.
Baphomet is usually depicted with one arm raised and one arm down. This refers to the Hermetic belief “as above, so below”. Hermetism is a philosophy and set of religious beliefs. One of the 3 parts of Hermeticism is Alchemy, which I talked about in the Room on Fire album cover post.
This quote from Wikipedia gives a good explanation of the meaning of “as above, so below”:
These words circulate throughout occult and magical circles, and they come from Hermetic texts. The concept was first laid out in The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, in the words “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing”.
In accordance with the various levels of reality: physical, emotional, and mental, this relates that what happens on any level happens on every other. This is however more often used in the sense of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm, and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one (usually the microcosm) you can understand the other.
Baphomet, Masonic signal, or just a simple hand gesture that I’m reading too much into?
I don’t know, but the guys are sitting in a way that forms a pentagram (upside-down star, symbol of Satanism).
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