Down The Rabbit Hole Series

Influences

Theme Tune: The White Rabbit track from Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow album (1967).
Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).
The Matrix: directed by Wachowski Brothers (1999).

Max Ernst and Shamanism

Max Ernst and Alchemy by M.E. Warlick (2001)
Ernst referred to the events surrounding the birth of his sister Loni as his “first contact with the occult, magic and witchcraft powers”

“One of his best friends, a most intelligent and affectionate pink cockatoo, died in the night of January 5th. It was an awful shock to Max when he found the corpse in the morning and when, at the same moment, his father announced to him the birth of his sister Loni. The perturbation of the youth was so enormous that he fainted. In his imagination he connected both events and charged the baby with extortion of the bird’s life. A series of mystical crises, fits of hysteria, exaltations and depressions followed. A dangerous confusion between birds and humans became encrusted in his mind and asserted itself in his drawings and paintings.”

“Ernst confirmed that he had been interested in the tribal traditions of the shamans as well as the Western tradition of Alchemy.”

Shamanism In Theory And In Practice

Shamanism by Mircea Eliade (1964)
“The content of these first ecstatic experiences, although comparatively rich, almost always includes one or more of the following: dismemberment of the body, followed by a renewal of the internal organs, ascent to the sky and dialogue with the gods or spirits; descent to the underworld and conversations with spirits and the souls of dead shamans.”

Animal Spirit Guides by Chris Luttichau (2009)
“All animals carry a message of guidance and hope. By inviting the spirit, or “medicine” of an animal into your life using the traditional rituals of the shaman, you deepen your affinity with the natural world and learn from the wisdom of your animal guide.”