My Exegesis
* Video Major Tom is David Bowie looking back over his life and loves as he lies dying.
* In the villa of Ormen
1.Ormen sounds like Amen so Home of the Amen,
2.an anagram for Vermillion; the colour of blood presaging war spillings
3.Vermillion is Cinnabar in Spiritual Ascension Alchemy. It is the Red Works; Opus Rubedo known as the Red Lion end of the Great Work/ Magnum Opus to form the Philosopher’s Stone. Alchemy is the manifestation of the spiritual treasure which ascends the consciousness from the base leaden nature of humanity to the sublimal golden lit Unio Mystica.In the Hermetic Sphinx the path is shown from Red Bull to Blue Eagle to Golden Lion to Emerald Angel.
4. Ormen in Norway is a vast naturally occurring oil field; Petrol rules this world.
5. an anagram for Moron Ville; the insanity of it all.
6. Ormen is the Serpent in Old Norse; Kundalini is the golden serpent of enlightenment which ascends the spinal column Tree of Life
7. Ormen Lange is a Viking Longship,the Long Serpent
8. a symbol of finding the way home from Death , like the burning ship pyre.

• A solitary candle, in the centre of it all; your eyes
  1.The golden solitary flame uniting all as one

• Shen; the fire of the soul, treasure of the Third Eye, between Your Eyes
  3.the lamp of the mind and soul ;a legacy to all.

• On the Day of Execution only women kneel and smile

• At Golgotha, all the male apostles save John had fled, only women
• when the stone was rolled from the Tomb of Arimathea, only women were present; only women smile.
• When the oppressor of women is ended, parents may smile for their daughters but weep for their sons. Today soldiers are not only women, though.

*The three scarecrows in the video.
1. a metaphor of Thieves on either side of Christ and a false Christ in the centre. The fat one in the middle of it all in the inmate stripes is an effigy of an American cartoon burglar representing some Christian Americans in power who will steal peace and feast while children starve. The one on the viewer’s left is a Hasidic Jew pious ones who persecute Palestinians like Nazis persecuted Jewish peoples. The one on the viewer’s right is a neo Nazi an Islamic Terrorist. Each of these thieves steal from the Truth of Abrahamic Religions; to love one another , to forgive one another. Each spouts hateful dogma. All three Abrahamic Religions are guilty. None is like the Lamb of Peace.

*Something happened on the day he died, Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
1. Spirit rose a metre; Resurrection of Christ, Ascension Human Consciousness
2. Some argue a Messiah stepped out for a millennium or two

*Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
1. As the Sacrifice of Christ and another taking his place; martyrs sacrificed for promoting freedom and peace.

• How many times does an angel fall?
• In the Jewish perspective, God made no evil, humans wrought it and angels do not Fall , humans do.

• How many angels have to fall from heaven to save us silly humans? How many chances do we get to love each other?

• How many people lie instead of Talking Tall

• Dogma and Rhetoric; twisting Sacred Texts to fit agendas of oppression and torture.

*Trod on Sacred Ground , he cried loud into the crowd
1. voice calling in the wilderness ; John the Baptist
2. The Sermon on the Mount of Christ to the assembled crowd.

• I can’t answer why , just go with me, I’m a take you home, Take your passport and shoes and your sedatives, boo.
• Christ denying celebrity , pomp and circumstance
• Christ as the Psychopomp the guide to the peaceful afterlife
• “Come follow me”, “I am the Truth”, “I am the Way.”

• You can’t take it with you, nope not even the shoes.

• You’re a Flash in the Pan, I’m the Great I Am

• Humbling isn’t it ? We all go home naked. We can not take our wealth.
• Even Christ is a Flash in the Pan not the eternal one; not the “I am” Yahweh

• Bowie will step aside too and another will take his place , like a flash, a brilliant long flash, in the pan of humanity. He states this humbly.

• I’m a blackstar way up on money, I’ve got game

• David Bowie was a super star but he is modest here , death is a whore who comes to us all.

*I see right, so wide so open-hearted pain
1.Bowie had visions from a perspective of wealth and celebrity. He maintained a heart of compassion, unable to fix it all. His last album is a legacy to the world of hopes , fears and aspirations to be kinder and pull up our socks. Stop pointing fingers and help each other.

*I want eagles in my daydreams
1. The eagle is the USA ,Where is a John Wayne ; a white hatted hero on a horse?
2. The Eagle is John the Apostle. His is the only synoptic Gospel actually penned by the namesake. John is the only apostle who stayed during the Passion of Christ.
3. The Hermetic Sphinx Eagle is blue ; the symbol of the emergent Guardian Genus within. The one who crosses the waters from death to afterlife.

*But I can tell you how we were born upside down the wrong way round.
1. Back to the Norse; Odin hung himself upside down and speared himself, and sacrificed one eye to obtain sacred esoteric wisdom and gave Runes to his people.
2. In the Tarot The Hanged Man is Odin and also represents the Hermetic 4 the path from the Fool to the Wise Magician which is infinite and eternal.

• The Book held up high and shaken
• These Sacred Truths which we hold divide us from each other and become twisted remnants of wisdom , Bowie seems to want to immolate the book but refrains

*diamonds in my eyes
1. Mystic eyes; the clairvoyant Diamond Third Eye of Indra.

• I’m the Blackstar
  1.the star that is dying and yet still has light to shine. Like a star ready to go out, not feeling remorse.

The mythology/sci-fi backstory Bowie created that begat Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars featured aliens known as the Infinites who were really black holes. And the moment Ziggy died they came in to the bodies of the band.

So the “Something Happened on the day he died” verse seems to be a pretty literal callback to that.

Here’s the 1974 interview with William Burroughs in which he describes the story:

In both the Blackstar and Lazarus videos (which can be read of a piece), Bowie’s character is seen blindfolded with buttons for eyes. These can be taken on many levels; There is an ongoing reference to Newton, The Man Who Fell to Earth (the subject of Bowie’s new stage play Lazarus); Newton is blinded by the experiments conducted by the government, a powerful metaphor in the Walter Tevis novel. The buttons for eyes and the diamond encrusted skull are poignant oppositions. Although he was the bearer of information and technology that could have greatly benefited and maybe even saved the earth, Newton would never be understood, trusted or appreciated in life. Newton (Bowie seems to suggest) is likely to be valued more in death than in life. Like all ‘saviours’, his power can then be turned to the will of the followers. Even with his earthly body lost in space, Lazarus may rise again, but no one can predict the form he will assume (or the text of the ‘Blackstar Bible’ which crystallises his supoosed doctrine). In the meantime, someone else will take his place, but again, no one will listen to the saviour/blackstar until it is too late

Bowie refers to himself as a blackstar, meaning that he is a star that once shined and provided light to the world below, but he is aware that he is in the process of dying, and much like a dying star, his light will cease but his presence will still be felt. The media is sort of like the sky in this sense, a bright star (much like a great artist who’s popular in the media) provides light to the world that everyone can see. I think Bowie is saying that in modern media, stars like himself are no longer shining in the sky, and many people are worshipping these “blackstars” (old or dead artists). This can be seen represented in the video, which Bowie contributed to by providing sketches of the concepts to the director. We used to live in a world where people could all mutually gaze upon these bright stars, artists in the media that had something worthwhile to offer, that weren’t “flashes in the pan,” or “marvel stars”, “pornstars”, “gangstars,” or “wandering stars” who are famous for 15 minutes. We used to have more stars in popular media that had a lasting, significant affect on culture, and these stars were also accepted and followed by a much wider audience than stars are today. I think the solitary candle in the villa of Ormen refers to artists that are shining but only visible to a small audience. They are unable to “cry loud into the crowd” due to the nature of media today. He’s wondering how many of these “angels fall.” But he also has hope that through death (perhaps by making a significant statement that a large audience is guaranteed to see), people will stop lying and start talking tall, someone will take his place, and he can take all these fake stars with him.

David Bowie was known for using symbols and playing with words. However, the song may be less mysterious once all the pieces fall into place. It’s a fantastic piece of work. This is my personal interpretation. It’s simple (surely some will find it too simple), but I’d like to share it.

First, who is singing the song? “I’m a blackstar”. “I’m the Great I am”… “I see right”… The all seeing eye, up on money. Blackstar is God and is telling a story. But nobody really knows God. Not a white star, not a star star, not a gangstar, etc…

Secondly, what is blackstar doing ? He’s taking David Bowie to heaven (it’s his day of execution). So this is the setting: In the villa, at home, David Bowie is dying. They have lit a candle, like often is done when somebody is dying. All is centered around David Bowie on his death bed. He is surrounded by women (Iman, Alexi) who bring support and comfort. That’s why they kniel and smile. A dying man is too weak to talk. So they look at his eyes constantly. “At the center of it all, your eyes”, observes God.

Thirdly, something happened when the day he died. His spirit left his body. And stepped aside, making place for new life. The circle of life, a baby cries.

Now Bowie has to face God. How many time have you sinned? Have you been honest? You trod on sacred ground (referring to his younger wild years), he cried loud in the crowd (referring to his work as an artist).

God tells him that he can not explain why his time has come, but that he will bring him home. Get ready to take your flight to heaven. And yes, take your sedatives too. Mocking a lack of character by Bowie. Alluding to his past with drugs, or perhaps his latest use of painkillers. “You’re weak” says God… “Just a flash in the pan”.

God can not answer why someones time has come. But the scripts (bible, whatever), are our guides on how to get to heaven: “I can tell you how”. Because man is born in sin and imperfect.

The videoclip gives a lot of clues (skeleton floating to the blackstar, religious rituals, bible, crucifixion and death), but is generally more occult and sinister. Perhaps this is done on purpose to deceive us. After all Bowie once said: “The eye is hungrier than the ear”.

Well, I’m not as well read as some of you other geniousses, so when I saw the eclipsed sun – or the “Blackstar” – in the video, my first thought was: The Twilight Saga; Eclipse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I imagined him and Lexi watching it together and having fierce discusions about whether vampires are more sexy than werewolfs etc,
The woman with a cat tail is: A catwoman ( Cat People, u know?)
The skull: In the Isis cult skull ( and bones) represent “the little death”- an exercise meant to help you get out of your body and realize that you ARE a soul that happens to HAVE a body. It can be achieved through meditation, drugs or trance ( so called “mystics” prefer the trance method ) and when you enter a trance you start to shake uncontrolllably ( the “shaker” women?). The soul will then exit ( and hopefully enter ) through the top of your skull – the point known as “ The Crown Chakra ” – which is why the skull in the video is crowned with jewels ( unlike the skull on the table in the “Lazarus” video which is a banale “Memento Mori” -skull ). The woman placing the crowned skull on anothe womans back symbolizes The Veiled Isis and if this was a real rite, then she would be the only person who would be dressed ( in veils, of course ). All the other women would have been naked.
Bowie himself said, that the video was about Isis, and I’m pretty sure that he didn’t mean the terrorist group. Terrorist groups come and go – the veiled Isis is ETERNAL. She stands at the threshold between life and death and it is HER eyes that David will see when he dies!!

To me this whole Album is a death bed confession of his past crimes, about to be known by all?

Another potential interpretation is that the Villa of Ormen, by way of the serpent imagery, represents the mystical idea of the Abyss that separates the source of all things (i.e. God) from the rest of Creation. The work of numerous mystical traditions is to develop the soul to be able to bridge this gap and cross the Abyss to reunite with the source of all things. Perception also plays a large part in these magical traditions, being the defining trait of Consciousness. You True Perception is God, since we are, in the end, all God having a human experience.