How to Decipher Twin Peaks Part 1: Saturn Represents Evil

Twin Peaks is a pretty interesting and fun show. Like most of Lynch's work, the general populace often thinks the show is just weird and uses surreal visuals and creepy undertones for the sake of being surreal and creepy. But if you understand the influences of David Lynch and Mark Frost, you can see how the seemingly random and weird nature of the show is purposeful.

Twin Peaks is a show steeped in a dualistic esoteric symbolism that draws influence from various mythologies from different cultures as well as various occult philosophies such as Kabbalah and Thelema. At this point, I should probably give a spoiler warning for the show and the film, "Twin Peasks: Fire Walk With Me". There will be massive spoilers for all three seasons as well as the prequel film. If you have never seen the show and are interested in watching it, I suggest watching the original 2 seasons first then watching the prequel movie followed by the recent third season. I'm really writing these articles for people that have already seen all 3 seasons and the prequel film.

I should also give a warning that I am not an expert on esoteric or occult philosophy nor do I believe it or personally practice it (my personal beliefs are that of Christian Theology). That said, I could totally not really be understanding these ideas fully, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (and any corrections would be greatly appreciated as I know for sure I am missing something or misunderstanding something). So this post is really, for me, only useful in deciphering the what's really happening within this very esoteric and heady show.

Saturn

The "Tree of Life" within Kabbalah is important to understanding the forces at work within the world of Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is a reality that functions as a dualistic one where good and evil are constantly pushing back and forth. And in reality, the show is apocalyptic in nature borrowing from these occult and Kabbalistic images and symbols along with more traditional Biblical ones as well.

The tree is important for the following reasons:

To the astrologer with a “traditional” outlook, however, the Kabbalistic placing is more logical, for the right hand side of the Tree emphasises growth and therefore contains the benefic planets, Venus and Jupiter while the left-hand side, symbolising destruction and decay contains the malefic planets, Mars and Saturn. (Source)

Saturn is definitely represented as an evil and malicious force within the show and is done so in a number of ways. Conversely, it seems Jupiter and the right hand side is often portrayed "positive". In what ways is Saturn depicted as "destructive and evil"? Check out these screen shots of the waiting room (or possibly the black lodge itself) from the film "Fire Walk With Me" as well as the show itself:

If you notice, I have circled the interesting item in each scene that appears in numerous other shots within the lodge. It is a statue of Saturn that always seems to find it's way into a shot. It's interesting that the little person, known as "The Man from Another World" feeds on the garmonbozia (human pain and suffering) and is often in scene with "Saturn" (particularly in the scene where BOB gives the garmonbozia from Leland Palmer to the little man in red).

As a side not, I think the name "Twin Peaks" is hinting at this "left and right" dualistic nature between the left hand path and the right hand path. I will speak more on "paths to the left and right" in a later post. For now, I'd like to remain on "Saturn". Within the newest edition to the Twin Peaks universe, we see Saturn again, but in a different way (though still evil). We see Saturn as a black cube. You probably watched the very first episode of Season 3 with the weird glass cube and wondered what that was all about. Well, it is explained later in the series. It's an occult item used to summon "Saturn".

Do a google search for "Saturn Black Cube" and you will see a host of conspiracy theory sites that claim that the worship of Saturn as a black cube is done by political elites and the wealthy (this cube is owned by a billionaire within the show too, though we are not told "who" that is). Some claim that sexual rituals are involved with this concept of the black cube, and what happens when the young couple in the room with cube start to get frisky with each other? Saturn appears and the cube turns to black and a malicious androgynous/female figure appears in the cube which ends up murdering the couple.

A final observation is that the rings of Saturn make the following sound apparently (picked up via radio):

Creepy sounding huh? Well, the room with the black cube in Twin Peaks sounds like this:

Sounds eerily similar to, you guessed it, Saturn. There seems to be just a constant low hum of a similar ominous nature that Saturn produces. I think other plot points that support this idea or theory is that Major Briggs mentions how the government has been listening to deep space. I personally think it is all connected.

In the bizarre episode 8 of season 3, we see a nuclear explosion in New Mexico. Within some occulted circles, the splitting of the atom is considered "blasphemous". Obviously, take this worth a grain of salt (as a Christian I of course disagree with this theory), but in the book "Light from Darkness: The Practical Science of Spiritual Awakening", author Samael Aun Weor states the following:

It is no accident that the birth of demonic spirit BOB, which is "the evil that men do" (to quote the first two seasons) is born from a nuclear blast. I think this is the message Lynch is trying to convey. That BOB escaped the black lodge because humanity essentially made a portal to it through the splitting of the atom. As a reaction, the more positive, right hand path (representative of the woman and the giant) create Lara Palmer as something to bring about the downfall of BOB and the malicious forces of the black lodge.

Well, that's all I feel like talking about regarding Twin Peaks and my breakdown of the series. As you can see, Lynch isn't just making stuff up for the sake of being edgy, there is real purpose in a lot of these seemingly bizarre scenes. In future posts on Twin Peaks, I plan to cover more symbolism that can perhaps help make the series have more sense for people. It's really an interesting show and a challenging one as well. Thanks for reading!