Roy's Keen Symbolism Thread

CrystalGeezer

My secret's my enzyme.
“There are a few songs that absolutely confuse me, I have no idea what I was thinking of – “Roy’s Keen” for example.” -Morrissey

In order to understand what I BELIEVE Roy’s Keen to be about, one has to embrace a very strange concept, that of reincarnation. There is an astonishing amount of occultist lingo and imagery found in Morrissey’s work, but I’m not entirely convinced that Morrissey himself has placed it there. And this isn’t a case of a CG’s-reading-occult-books-so-finds-occult-imagery-in-everything phenomenon like buying a Volvo then suddenly spotting Volvo’s all over the highway, it’s more distinct and accurate, though difficult to describe. He alludes to letting his mind wander as he writes and the songs writing themselves in a way. I feel as though this experience of being a modern voice for a very old mystery is the source of much of his pain. The man in him writes these deeply intense symbolic songs, yet the boy in him doesn’t have the education to distinguish their origin, and I believe the boy in him reigns over the man leaving him in a state of being a tad hesitant of the world that haunts him through people long dead. I liken myself to the Stanislaus de Guaita to his Oswald Wirth, a seeker of truth much younger than him but exposed to certain teachings that he himself has not had the fortune to be taught. Oswald Wirth, in a nutshell, was a magician. S de G was his mentor in a way, but younger than him. The story can be read in the Preface to Wirth’s Tarot of the Magicians. Wirth transposed what he learned into designing a deck of cards. But this modern day dispensing of truth is I believe not a visual endeavor, so much as a musical one, so dispensed through song. Rightly so, Morrissey deals not with magicians as a medium for his message, but musicians. The music or muse part is interesting on many levels, particularly that of embracing the idea of a sacred feminine whose voice sings through song, but I digress. So does a person reincarnate as a single person? I don’t believe so. I’m sure there are many schools of thought on this, but I believe Morrissey represents many reincarnations which could explain his hesitancy of most things, he’s going in a lot of directions, but he’s doing it with a lot of style and command which most take for granted considering the delicate psychic (for lack of a less stigmatized word) state in which I believe he lives. So about the song…

He's romancing you
and chancing his arm
he'll be here
smiling on time
he's romancing you
and chancing his arm
he'll be here
smiling on time
Roy's keen oh Roy's keen
Roy's keen oh Roy's keen
we've never seen a
keener window-cleaner
back up the ladder
into each corner
dunking the chamois
just think of the goodwill
the ladder's a planet
Roy is a star, and
I am a satellite
(but that's alright)
He can hold a smile for as long
as you require (even longer)
he can hold a smile for as long
as you require (even longer)
Roy's keen oh Roy's keen
Roy's keen oh Roy's keen
we've never seen a
keener window-cleaner
back up the ladder
into each corner
dunking the chamois
just think of the goodwill
the ladder's a planet
Roy is a star, and
I am a satellite
I will be set alight
don't say you'll hold it steady *
then you let it go *
don't say you'll hold it steady *
then you let it go *
You're up the ladder *
into each corner *
foot in a bucket *
we trust you to wreck it *
Even when it's under your nose
well, you just can't
see it, can you?
well it's here
right under your nose
and you just can't
see it, can you?
Roy's keen
Roy's keen
Roy's keen
Roy's keen
we've never seen a
keener window-cleaner

I’m not going to go into a ton of detail because by now most readers have declared TLDR status on this post (or Too Crazy, Don’t Care :p) but ladders and windows are very important symbols in both hermetic and Masonic teachings. It’s the ladder that an initiate climbs to reach the sun when the window of oppotunity presents itself. In the case of this song, the sun smiles back . ROYS KEEN is an anagram of ROSY KNEE. It’s the Goddess Isis who traditionally takes a knee when she is met by her equal, Osiris. Massively heavy in Hermes Thoth imagery. (Google it if you want but the Thoth part is bit freaky in some respects regarding this very message board.) So these Gods speak though us as people, through Morrissey as our messenger. But these dead people like to sign their work like any good artist should. So morrissey’s got the God thing AND the dead people thing going all at once. In this case, the author of this song is who I believe to be Jean-Baptiste Alliette, who was an 18th century French occultist who studied the four humors and Thoth exstensively. He wrote a book using the name Etteilla about tarot cards called Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes. In this song Morrissey writes very plainly “I am a Satellite.” Omitting the word “sat,” the line is a 99% anagram of “I am Etteilla.” The “sat” is important in Egyptian symbolism that I won’t bother with, but know it isn’t to be dismissed in the equation. Anyway. The eerie part is the proclaimation that something is hidden in the very song with the lyrics:

Even when it's under your nose
well, you just can't
see it, can you?

There’s more going on, but that’s the jist of this song. So Morrissey if you’re reading, I hope this answers your question. Every single song is a gem to be dissected and inspected. I was going to take an additional angle regarding the sacred feminine and your work with the SMITHS which is code for Miss HT, or Lady Hermes Trismegistus who is basically God as a chick, and liken this song to Eliot Smith’s song Satellite, but I gotta go eat dinner. :p And I think you need actual comfort and love more than knowing all this stuff since it ain’t easy being modern medium for an ancient message. :o
 
Thanks to Stephane for providing the lyrics to paste.
 
This song is a joke with the Roy Jeane's name - a soccer player.

As uninquisitive as your comment is, it does bring up an interesting point.

3d_soccer_ball.jpg


Soccer balls are comprised of two shapes, a black five-sided pentagon and a white six-sided hexagon. The black and white in interesting in a pillar/joachim&boaz way, but transposed into gematria 5 and 6 is E and F. FE is iron on the peroidic table of elements and iron is an anagram of noir, or black. This song sucks because it's origins delve in black magic and Morrissey spirit is more white. So there.
 
As uninquisitive as your comment is, it does bring up an interesting point.

3d_soccer_ball.jpg


Soccer balls are comprised of two shapes, a black five-sided pentagon and a white six-sided hexagon. The black and white in interesting in a pillar/joachim&boaz way, but transposed into gematria 5 and 6 is E and F. FE is iron on the peroidic table of elements and iron is an anagram of noir, or black. This song sucks because it's origins delve in black magic and Morrissey spirit is more white. So there.

Retardado
 
I have no idea who he is. Is he really? The way I do this is to detach my brain from loaded imagery. Like, I have to look at "Fatty" in YTOFMF not as referring to body fat, but the word itself alluding to Fatima, the Arabic symbol of warding off evil, but I'm not opposed to incorporating his intended content in my symbolic lyrical analysis. :p

I was going to add to make it more, I don't know, understandable, that PERHAPS Morrissey is more Gryffindor but channels Slitherin something fierce, which isn't a bad thing, it makes him balanced in a way. :thumb:
 
It's also discussed in depth, for 2+ pages, in an intelligent, educated manner which actually does credit to the song and Morrissey's subtle sense of humor - rather than pathetically hijacking Morrissey's lyrics to prove the existence of imaginary things in the mind of a person suffering from the grandiose type of delusional disorder* - in The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart by Gavin Hopps, if anyone is interested in reading a real analysis of the song.

*The grandiose subtype of delusional disorder involves the conviction of one's importance and uniqueness, and takes a variety of forms: believing that one has a distinguished role, has some remarkable connections with important persons, or enjoys some extraordinary powers or abilities.

from: http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-Del/Delusional-disorder.html
 
Well, la tee da.
 
I have no idea who he is. Is he really? The way I do this is to detach my brain from loaded imagery. Like, I have to look at "Fatty" in YTOFMF not as referring to body fat, but the word itself alluding to Fatima, the Arabic symbol of warding off evil, but I'm not opposed to incorporating his intended content in my symbolic lyrical analysis. :p

I was going to add to make it more, I don't know, understandable, that PERHAPS Morrissey is more Gryffindor but channels Slitherin something fierce, which isn't a bad thing, it makes him balanced in a way. :thumb:

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He wrote a book using the name Etteilla about tarot cards called Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes. In this song Morrissey writes very plainly “I am a Satellite.” Omitting the word “sat,” the line is a 99% anagram of “I am Etteilla.”

That's weak even by the abysmal standards of mysticism. Almost an anagram? :lbf: You know, omitting "am" and "ta", it's almost an anagram of "I tell a lie".

Good fun though.:thumb:

cheers
 
That's weak even by the abysmal standards of mysticism. Almost an anagram? :lbf: You know, omitting "am" and "ta", it's almost an anagram of "I tell a lie".

Good fun though.:thumb:

cheers

In the same vein, if you omit the word 'satellite' from 'I am a satellite' you are left with 'I am a' which is almost the same as 'I am a cider drinker' which means Morrissey really meant the song to be about the Roy Keen collaborating with The Wurzels.
 
..and moving further down that winding path, ROYS KEEN is also an anagram of SO YE KEN, if you remove the "r", which surely is as much as any reasonable person could possibly require to be convinced that he must be channeling a scottish magi. Or is it Magus? Who cares.

cheers
 
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