The number 6 can be seen as a coiled serpent rearing its head up from the earth, and the number 9 seen as an inverted mirror image of a serpent hanging down from the sky. The two numbers side by side can be seen as a union of opposites resembling a quasi-ouroboros, which has been often interpreted as a symbol of life and death as totality.
One example of an ouroboros is Jörmungandr (World Serpent) in Norse mythology, a serpent that encircles Midgard (Earth) while biting its tail. When Jörmungandr releases its tail, Ragnarök (a catastrophic battle of the gods) will begin, during which the world will be destroyed before rising anew.
Moreover, serpents symbolized birth in some cultures, and death in others – Therefore, 69 can be seen as two opposite serpents embodying the death of one direction (six ascending) becoming the birth of the antithesis (nine descending).
The year 1969 was a crescendo of cultural and social mores that had been on the rise in previous years. A gateway into that which grew out of such praxis, transforming sentiments regarding music, sex, drugs, technology, morality, and ultimately meaning; for better or worse.
Which begs the questions:
Did the world end in 1969?
Over the fifty-some years since, have we been spiralling among the ruins of decadent decline, or soaring toward the realm of flourishing progress?
In any case, the following are some chronological scenes of the paradigm shift that was and is 19(69):
‘Blue Movie’ by Andy Warhol becomes the first explicit sex film to be given extensive theatrical release in America, starring Warhol superstars Viva and Louis Waldon conversing and performing ordinary tasks, as well as unstimulated sex in an apartment.
First shown on June 12th at Elgin Theatre in New York City – prior to the first legalization of visual pornography in Denmark on July 1st, 1969 – the film began the theatrical Golden Age of Porn which continued until the early 1980s.
Musician Brian Jones dies on July 3rd in his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm, England (where A. A. Milne wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh books and also died in 1956).
Jones was an embodiment of the light and darkness of the ‘60s culture, along with contemporaries such as Syd Barrett, and his untimely death was symbolically timely.
On July 14th, the film ‘Easy Rider’ is released in America.
A representation of the counterculture of the ‘60s – In the final scene main characters Wyatt and Billy are shot; causing them to crash their motorcycles. Wyatt’s has a fuel tank painted as the American flag, which falls apart and explodes into flames. A symbolic depiction of the crash and burn death of the hippie movement in America.
The Apollo 11 mission lands humans on the Moon for the first time on July 20th, and Neil Armstrong along with Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the surface of the natural satellite as around 500 million people watch on TV.
Where once humans saw the technology of God, they now see the technology of man.
One giant leap for mankind, indeed.
On August 5th, the debut album by The Stooges is released in America.
A proto punk landmark, the first song on the, “1969”, rages about boredom and laments the lack of meaning in culture. Sentiment amplified by Iggy Pop’s retching scream at the end of the song.
The Tate–LaBianca murders are committed by Tex Watson and company on August 8th-10th, leaving a macabre allegorical scene with butchered, pregnant American star, Sharon Tate; dead underneath an inverted American flag. Accomplice, Susan Atkins writes “pig” in Tate’s blood on the front door of the house.
Earlier in ’69, Watson had picked up a hitchhiker who happened to be famed Beach Boys’ member Dennis Wilson – later going on to meet infamous Charles Manson who was living at Wilson’s house on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles at the time.
Dennis had reworked and recorded one of Manson’s songs which was released as “Never Learn Not to Love” on The Beach Boys album “20/20” (released in February, 1969).
Back at the scene of the crimes – Watson carves “WAR” into Leno LaBianca’s abdomen after stabbing him to death. Patricia Krenwinkel stabs Leno’s abdomen repeatedly with a fork which was left protruding from his stomach – christening 1969 as a ‘fork in the road’. After which she used Leno’s blood to write “Rise” and “Death to pigs” on the walls, as well as “Healter Skelter” on the refrigerator door.
The death knell for the ‘60s counterculture, the murders subsequently placed Manson, both the man and the media myth, into the public’s consciousness.
On August 8th, the same day of the Tate murders, The Beatles pose for the photograph used as the cover of their final recorded album ‘Abbey Road’ in London, England.
A photo that has been interpreted as depicting a funeral scene with John dressed as a priest, Ringo as an undertaker, Paul as a cadaver, and George as a gravedigger. The photo embodies the end of The Beatles as well as the end of the ‘60s, as the four pioneers walk from left to right crossing from the past into the future of a new era.
On August 9th, the dark ride The Haunted Mansion opens at Disneyland in Anaheim, California – only a short drive from the LaBianca’s residence.
On September 27th, the Zodiac Killer stabs a couple picnicking in Napa County, California. After which the only surviving victim gave a description of the attacker, producing the haunting sketch of a man dressed in a black executioner-looking hooded costume with sewn white crosshairs in the centre of the chest.
According to the modern astrological zodiac, the date of the attack is linked with the Libra sign, which is symbolized by the scales of balance.
The incident was one of at least five murders committed by the Zodiac, who claimed in two deciphered cryptograms that he was killing people in order for them to become his slaves in the afterlife.
As he wrote:
“I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice (sic) all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice (sic) so they are afraid of death I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice (sic) death.”
The film ‘Invocation of My Demon Brother’ by Kenneth Anger is released in America. Featuring a cast including Anton LaVey as His Satanic Majesty, Bobby Beausoleil as Lucifer, and Mick Jagger – who also performed the soundtrack on a Moog synthesizer, as himself.
According to Anger, he and Beausoleil had a falling-out and Anger put a curse on him, associating Beausoleil with a fairytale toad prince that can’t get out of a well.
Afterward, Beausoleil became associated with the so-called Manson Family and later was arrested after murdering Gary Hinman. He wrote “political piggy” along with a paw print in Hinman’s blood on the wall in an attempt to link the murder with the Black Panther Party.
Several members of the Family have said this was the impetus for their writings in victim’s blood that was part of the subsequent Tate–LaBianca murders – As they were attempting to do copycat killings so that Beausoleil would appear innocent and be released from jail.
On October 29th, the first electronic message between two computers is sent in California via ARPANET. The technological predecessor to the Internet, instituted by the U.S. Department of Defence.
‘The Satanic Bible’ by Anton Szandor LaVey is published in America. Codifying Satanism for the first time in history.
Officially ushering in the Satanic age.
‘Let It Bleed’ by The Rolling Stones is released on December 5th in the United Kingdom.
The band’s last album in the ’60s, the front cover depicts an orderly sculpture by Robert Brownjohn, with the back showing the same sculpture in a state of disorder. The two covers can be interpreted as representing the sea change in the climax of the decade.
Moreover, the day after the release, the title of the album became an omen at the band’s Altamont concert in California where a gun wielding attendee was fatally stabbed by a Hells Angel security guard. A symbolic death blow to the zeitgeist synonymous with the aforementioned Manson Family murders, and the Woodstock festival – Where Jimi Hendrix performed America’s national anthem on guitar. Distorting the poem’s melody into a chaotic cacophony which was praised by the audience of peace and mud.
Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force program that investigated almost 13,000 reports of UFOs, is dissolved on December 17th.
The project essentially proclaimed the phenomenon to be imaginary, despite classifying 701 sightings as “unidentified”.
Similar investigations have been conducted behind closed doors for decades since.
In light of these events, the questions remain: Did the world end in 1969?
Or at least, a form of it?
Perhaps some will read this musing as a call to return to traditions before our present situation. While perhaps others will interpret it as an appeal to go further beyond.
It is neither a condemnation nor a celebration, but rather a query meant to inspire, as it will.
Article art by Aither in-house artist, Dan Thrax.
