Carmina Burana O Fortuna

[Fred Steeves]

I've probably watched this video at the bottom here easily a 100 times or so over the last couple of years, and seem to see something new in it quite often. This piece is only the opening of an entire symphony, taken from works apparently written by 11th and 12th century monks, and then in 1936 put to music by Carl Orff. Just the opening certainly appears to tell a story, and from what I can gather thus far it is a story talked about quite often here.

The symbolism and rituals appear to go back to Babylon, and likely much further than that IMO. Below are some notes I just finally went and took while watching this. It's kind of choppy (notes being notes), but it's what I came up with after about an hour on Google.

These are just things that I've happened to notice, and my esoteric knowledge is not deep enough to make full heads or tales of it, other than the general gist of things. I know a lot of people here know much more about this type of thing, so anyone who may have some of the missing pieces please feel free to share. I would be most interested!

So, here are my quick notes, and then the video:


Apparently the wheel of fortune belongs to the goddess Fortuna: Fortuna (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna_(mythology))



From Wickipedia:

The Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortuna, is a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy) and means the unpredictable nature of Fate (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate). The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna_(mythology)), who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel - some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.



The concept developed in antiquity (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_history); it was used by Cicero (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero). The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from Vortumna, "she who revolves the year". Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome) philosopher Boethius (http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boethius&action=edit&redlink=1) (d. 524 (http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=524&action=edit&redlink=1)) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in hisConsolatio Philosophiae (http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Consolation_of_Philosophy&action=edit&redlink=1).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/CarminaBurana_wheel.jpg/250px-CarminaBurana_wheel.jpg (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CarminaBurana_wheel.jpg) http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.22wmf8/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CarminaBurana_wheel.jpg)
The wheel of fortune from the Burana Codex; The figures are labelled "Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno, Regnabo": I reign, I reigned, My reign is finished, I shall reign


The Wheel of Fortune motif appears significantly in the Carmina Burana (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana) (or Burana Codex), over one thousand poems and songs — often profane in content — written by students and clergy in the early 13th century. Excerpts from two of the collection's better known poems, "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)" and "Fortune Plango Vulnera (I Bemoan the Wounds of Fortune),"





End Wickipedia, and back to my personal observations. From the video start to finish:

God and Devil working together? Slowly at first, even laboriously. The people, from royalty to paupers giving away their energy. Work and wheel go faster with the increasing energy and attention, and all go into a frenzy. Etheric creatures show up spitting out what looks to be money and bones?

What I found about the Latin terms on the wheel. There are better definitions that are more explanatory, but this seemed a good general and brief synopsis:

-FIDES: trust, loyalty
-BELLUM: war
-PAX: peace
-FOLLA/FOLIA (sp?): I don't know if the Latin is correct, but the figure is definitely The Fool and the etymology seems consistent with this.
-SAPIENTIA: wisdom
-TEMPUS: time
-MORS: death
-POTESTAS: power
-ABSTINENTIA: abstinence, moderation
-JUSTITIA: justice
-CHASTITAS: chastity

Scene seems to change to a new time or era? Dancers acting out the 12 Latin terms on the wheel. Rejoicing and dancing with the bones of dead people, as wheel begins to spin again.

Beginning a new cycle?

AP_CSQgBPpQ

[northstar]

Great post Fred!!

First, that music is impressive in a horror-movie-ish type of way and I have definitely heard it before. So it is cool to learn about where the music comes from. The video is cool and creepy. It is definitely loaded with medieval era symbolism - cool stuff, Fred!

A few years back I read a spiritual/ New Age book in which the author spoke about the wheel of fortune and I have done some work with the wheel in the intervening years from an archetypal perspective, but my hands-on experience with it is minimal.

I just spent about 20 minutes trying to find the book on my bookshelves but it is eluding me so I will check in later and add the name of the book when I find it.

I would like to add that when a person reaches a certain level of spiritual self mastery they are actually able to influence the wheel to some degree- they are no longer 100% at the mercy of fate.

[Violet]

I think we had this in our art class in high school. Back then we labelled it "boring old stuff".
These are some notes I took watching the video just now, Fred ;)

White angel is on the right (good side)
Black thing is on the left (bad side)

- Remember that there was a time where staunch Christians saw it as an evil thing to be left-handed -


Both are threading/pushing the wheel because probably both have a goal. I don't see it as cooperation but rather persistance. He who persists shall win. Notice also in 1:29 the look they give each other.

The wheel probably symbolises how alternatively good dominates over bad and vice versa.

Just watch:

WHITE/GOOD: First there was faith and loyalty. The puppet is holding the cross, so equals religion.

BLACK/BAD: After loyalty comes Bellum (war), the puppet holds a sword and maybe a flag (can't see).

WHITE: After bellum comes pax. Right after bellum comes pax.

BLACK: After pax (peace) comes insanity/foolishness?

WHITE: And after insanity comes wisdom (sapientia). Notice the snake and how this is related to the pharmaceutical branche. There is great wisdom in understanding the cures to diseases.

?: Impending time, a shadow haunting humanity until

?: Death/Mors

The other stages are not displayed.

After that audience vanishes, tempus/time stands still for a while. The wheel stops too.

When the people come out again they are distributed qualities from the wheel. I think I saw one woman getting sapientia, and that is a great gift to get.

I think death is a great dancer though. Extraordinary costuming altogether.

In the end it looks like their dancing with their dead equal parts.

Does everyone get what they gave? Is that the message? So, the fool will return to the fool and the warmonger to a warmonger, etc.

[DeDukshyn]

Excellent post Fred and great observations!

The first I heard that tune was a techno version adulterated by the group "Apotheosis" - which means "When man becomes God". This music is most impressive - always sends shivers up my spine, and of course the original is way better.

Here's the techno version that first brought me to the terms o'fortuna and apotheosis - and eventually to the original music. I'm sure some will be somewhat offended by this "unpure" version .. c'est la vie!

dkl62CqWY5E

[Kryztian]

"O Fortune! Just like the moon! How you wax and wane like the moon."

When we are on top of the wheel and fortune smiles upon us, we don't need to think too deeply in our contentment, but when we plunge to the bottom and find ourselves in the gutter, in poverty or diseased or homeless, we have this overwhelming desire to ask "Why, why did this happen to me?" I think the answer to the "Why?" fundamentally come in one of three different forms:

1) The classical answer: your suffering is beyond your control and the control of the people around you. God or the Fates ordained it. Perhaps you are being punished for the sins of your ancestors, or you unwittingly triggered some ancient curse. Some form of this answer is found the plays of Euripides or the Book of Job or in the Carmina Burana, the poems of the Medieval Monks who abandoned their monastic life style and lived for the joys of the moment. Embracing this view allows one not to be troubled by other's misfortunes, knowing that fate or god might have you there the next moment so you better enjoy this moment instead of helping out the less fortunate who are receiving what God, Fate, or just the random nature of the universe ordained. The most recent expression of this ideal might be Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" where the lottery winner is stoned to death, just to insure the order upon which the community is built - the idea of random suffering can be used by the most tyrannical of societies as the justification of it's failure.

2) The Conservative answer: you are responsible for your own misfortune. If you had just worked hard in high school, gotten a scholarship to Yale, and just worked long hours for Goldman-Sachs, you would now have a roof over your head and a happy life. Now don't you go looking for any government hand outs!

3) The Liberal answer: alas, our society has failed to build the proper safety net to take care of all your needs, but we are working on it. We just need to build up a little more revenue by raising taxes, just a little bit.

Well, there are probably more noble ways of expressing #2 & #3, but both answers are used to screw the sheople by the Cabal that runs our government. When you get your tax bill and have no money to pay your flood insurance, you are told "Well, we need to build up the system to help others in need." When the hurricane washes your house away and FEMA doesn't show up to help "Well, the government can't do everything. Pull your self up by your own bootstraps."

In this day and age, the "Wheel of Fortune" is a game that is just as fixed as the three card Monte you see in the streets. We are forced into fighting wars we didn't ask for, into eating unhealthy food that causes disease, into fraudulent loans and financial dealings that are illegally manipulated to steal our homes and savings. We are all beginning to notice that the people who are spinning the wheel (and spinning a lot of lies) are making out a lot better than the rest of us, and we have to start questioning, what is really driving this? Is this really a fair game?

Once we see through the back and forth of the Liberal and Conservative answers to our question of why are we being screwed, the Powers that Be have to finally revert back to the first answer: it's just bad luck, it's the way life is. Is it any wonder that Hitler and the other Nazi's loved Orff so much - "O Fortuna" would have been their anthem - they would build a big oppressive government which would do nothing to help the less fortunate, or reward the more industrious for their efforts. They would have glorified the misery and suffering they created and blamed it on Fortune, or the Moon, or Randomness, when in fact it's all just a big dog and pony show orchestrated by the cabal.

There are great forces of randomness beyond human control, but if we can remove the people who are spinning the wheel and let things run their natural course, I think we will all make out a lot better on this wheel, whether we are on the up or down side.

(Not sure if I hijacked your thread Fred, but O Fortuna is such a great metaphor that you can take it so many place.)

[naste.de.lumina]

The first time I heard this song was a shock to me.
I had the feeling that I had seen or heard the music environment created.
Every time I hear I still have the same thing. There is a feel good and not bad, just strange.


Content

In these poems there is a celebration of the joy of living and interest in earthly pleasures of carnal love, enjoyment of nature, and his satirical criticism to social classes and church, gives us an opposite view to the one developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on the second the Middle Ages as a "dark age."

In Carmina Burana are satirized and criticized all classes of society in general, especially those who held the power of the crown, and especially the clergy. The compositions are features that mimic the rhythm Kontrafakturen with the Litany of the Gospel ancient to satirize the decadence of the Roman Curia, or to build the praise of love, play, or, above all, the wine in the tradition of potoria Carmina. Furthermore, narrate events of the Crusades, and abductions of young men by. It also focuses constantly extol the fate and luck, along with natural elements and daily, including a long poem with a description of various animals. The importance of this series of medieval texts is that simply is the oldest and largest collection of secular poems of the Middle Ages.

The collection is divided into 6 parts:


Carmina Ecclesiastica (songs on religious themes)
Carmina Moralia et (moral and satirical songs)
Carmina lovemaking (love songs)
Carmina potoria (contains works about the drink and parodies)
Ludi (religious symbolism)
Supplemantum (all previous versions, with some variations)

By: Anoka Rosa Jackson

[Fred Steeves]

First, that music is impressive in a horror-movie-ish type of way and I have definitely heard it before. So it is cool to learn about where the music comes from. The video is cool and creepy. It is definitely loaded with medieval era symbolism - cool stuff, Fred!

Cool and creepy sounds about right northstar. My wife doesn't like it at all when I occasionally crank it up, says "it sounds like devil music", and "what are the neighbors gonna think?" I think she's just missing the cool part. (LOL)


I would like to add that when a person reaches a certain level of spiritual self mastery they are actually able to influence the wheel to some degree- they are no longer 100% at the mercy of fate.

Yes, I absolutely agree with that. How far below 100% would be an interesting discussion just in itself.


In the end it looks like their dancing with their dead equal parts.

Does everyone get what they gave? Is that the message? So, the fool will return to the fool and the warmonger to a warmonger, etc.

I just noticed that in the scene preceding that one Violet, it appears the fool is passing out their costumes, (3:15 mark) which each gleefully accepts. Being that the wheel is random, looks like they were just waiting to see what role they were going to be handed. They seem to be feeling out their given roles until the cart of costumed bones is rolled out. That's where the party begins. Maybe they're celebrating the continuation of the cycle, with their ancestors who did the same thing?

Because they are unconscious of what they're doing?


The first I heard that tune was a techno version adulterated by the group "Apotheosis" - which means "When man becomes God". This music is most impressive - always sends shivers up my spine, and of course the original is way better.

Here's the techno version that first brought me to the terms o'fortuna and apotheosis - and eventually to the original music. I'm sure some will be somewhat offended by this "unpure" version .. c'est la vie!

dkl62CqWY5E

I like the name of the group and the meaning DeDukshyn, "when man becomes God" is likely even the eventual outcome of all the foolery in this story.


"O Fortune! Just like the moon! How you wax and wane like the moon."

When we are on top of the wheel and fortune smiles upon us, we don't need to think too deeply in our contentment, but when we plunge to the bottom and find ourselves in the gutter, in poverty or diseased or homeless, we have this overwhelming desire to ask "Why, why did this happen to me?"


Right there at the beginning of your post is a biggie Kryztian, perhaps we should ask "why" no matter our position on the wheel. That would eventually lead to the way out huh?


The first time I heard this song was a shock to me.
I had the feeling that I had seen or heard the music environment created.
Every time I hear I still have the same thing. There is a feel good and not bad, just strange.


I still have that feeling Naste, like standing right in between good and evil. Feeling the pull and influence of both (genetic memory?), but now there is an actual conscious choice, not just blowing with the winds of the wheel.

[william r sanford72]

[but now there is an actual conscious choice..not just blowing with the winds of the wheel].and angles and devils working together..the harvest..the building of the energy through cycles.maybe its the farmer in me.but this seems to ring true .cause of how i tend to view life as a whole down on this ol earth..as coming around and around again..the music..that some are blessed to hear..or chose to hear..and how and who and what we chose as our dance partners..just glimpse of the wheel changes everything in my OP..make sense??..this post has me thinking some.nice job and work fred..thank you.

[lakewatcher]

Just addressing the archetype of the Wheel of Fortune itself, leaving aside the other imagery of the video:

As I understand it, the Wheel, when portrayed as arbitrary and random fate, as the ancient Fortuna myth does, is actually a debased and distorted reflection of something on a higher plane. That something is the cycle of creation that we are currently experiencing. The cycle is circular, hence the basic image of a wheel.

The cycle only appears arbitrary, random and fateful to those who are still spiritually asleep, hence the Wheel of Fortune image.

As people begin to wake up spiritually, they gradually (sometimes quickly) become aware that the cycle is, in fact, not really a cycle of random fortune at all, but rather is a great cycle governed by the cosmic laws directing this present cycle of creation.

You cannot direct the movement of the Wheel. That would be like the tail trying to wag the dog. But, as you awaken, you can determine how you respond to the movement of the Wheel. You begin to be able to "ride" the Wheel, rather than always having it roll over the top of you. You even may begin to perceive how the Wheel is moving at a given time. This is similar to the Taoist concept of learning to perceive and intelligently deal with the "flow".

As you grow spiritually in harmony with the cosmic laws governing the cycle, your position on the Wheel changes. You progress inward toward its center. You get more and more mastery of your personal destiny as you do so, but only in harmony with the laws governing the cycle. Those, on the left handed path, who intentionally try to violate those laws for their own benefit, end up generating negative consequences for their actions.

When you finally reach the center of the Wheel, the relative motion of Wheel stops, at least with respect to you. You have made it back home and are released from the limitations of the Wheel.

I think it is a metaphor for trying to conceptualize some aspects of our experience within creation.

[naste.de.lumina]

My view of the journey presented in the theater.
Analyzing the composition of figures involving the plot:

The wheel of fortune as well as the two figures representing good and evil are at a level above the ground, ie, situations and demands are departing from another level that are not of the incarnate on Earth.

The 1:23 minutes, we see that the figures representing good and evil, jointly rotate the tool that provides the wheel of fortune spin. This tells us that it is only possible to turn the wheel with the two forces acting, and balance leads to the center.

The figure rotates in the center of the wheel alternates between expressions of joy and sadness as each of the facets of the larger wheel passes over it. Also she is blindfolded, so unable to see approaching these changes.

1:40 The various characters are shown in all kinds of positions and possible situations. Kings, princes, dwarves, plebe, man, woman, pretty, ugly, fat, skinny, rich, poor, etc.. All arms raised in supplication in front of the wheel of fortune turning, which may mean our various incarnations and in all, they are subject to the same process of the wheel, but in different situations.

End of Part One.

[Fred Steeves]

Well I'm certainly glad that I finally got around to doing a little bare bones (pardon the pun) research on this, and then tossing it out to Avalon. What better place to round out some of the rough spots in our knowledge and perception of things? Before this thread, the most I knew about the "Wheel Of Fortune" was the game show my wife loves to watch every evening. (LOL)

Of course there is no actual "wheel", but it IS a most excellent metaphor. And, when combined with the actors and a symphony orchestra, is quite a compelling "story" to behold. Invoking "as above so below, as below so above" as I so often like to do in attempting to see the big picture, here's a thought: You know how we often refer to Earth being a show with standing room only for the universe at large?

Well, here on Earth we love to see a good show as well. We allow ourselves to become absorbed into the drama as if we were a part of it, from the gut wrenching lows to flying sky high. And what part of a spell binding drama do we sit on the edge of our seats for? A dramatic ending of course, the final performance. Not to say that this is the final act of "Earth Show", but perhaps the final version of THIS " Earth Show". Were I viewing things from "above", or a higher plane, I wouldn't miss this part for anything!

"Who's staying on the wheel to play some more, who's edging their way inward towards the center, who is making their grand exit, and just exactly how do they come about doing it?"