Moods #31

Frozen | Madonna

And you should know I suffer the same
If I lose you
My heart will be broken

Love is a bird, she needs to fly
Let all the hurt inside of you die
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

***

The video is so mesmerizing, couldn't stop watching it, to think it was shot before 2000, it still feels so relevant and novel!

The video tells of a very interesting tale of a mystic woman, isolated in the desert

She reminds me of a yogist, a very wise woman in dark veil and wide black dress who can transfigure. 

Her movements are flowing with the wind, it feels like she is calling some higher power towards her

She is an oracle.

If you pay attention to her hand and finger movements, and the henna tattoos, and the form of tattoo when she absorbed the dark fluid on the sandy ground, these elements all pertain to some Eastern mysticism and Eastern spirituality. 

The video was striking because the elements and movements were Eastern consciousness being played by a very Western woman with strikingly western features and skin color.

The inconsistency couldn't be overlooked but this doesn't make the video less evoking. It is full of close ups, not just of her face but the hands, the fingers, the upper bust, very intimate parts of a woman. But the video veers away from the usual cheap erotic display of woman's flesh, it sends a message of transcendence, close to being divine. The big dark dressy skirt part of her clothes which covered almost her whole body reminds us of coveralls of ladies who go to spiritual houses like convents and temples to pay their respect to the gods/goddesses. 

The color of her cloth actually evokes a strong opposition to the norm, which dictates white as symbol of purity and cleanliness that equates to divine. She is wearing stark black over-sized dress accentuated by a jewel necklace. Perhaps a magical stone which can help her call higher powers from all corners of the world? But going back, she is not the usual pure virginal icon of whiteness and purity, she is the dark feminine oracle who is confident in her own power, with very strong association to darkness, take note of her animals: dark wolf and crow.

The beginning of the video is a shot of her floating in mid-air and then many other instances in the video showed her floating even higher and transfiguring while suspended up there. There were also shots of her on the ground, using arm-spread techniques, not unlike some yoga poses. It calls our attention to the flexibility of this oracle and her incredible talent of keeping her balance in mid-air. 

To me the video is a visual story of an oracle calling invisible powers and at the same time showing us her very intimate, mystical hidden world which is inaccessible to many, even to us who have the rare chance to witness her. She is showing a lot by hiding well in her protective dark coveralls - very subtle power. She is a very complex oracle. She has many secrets. She invites us to look more, know more by showing less and less.