STORIES: Alejandro Jodorowsky

There is a moment for Jodorowsky, and I believe it is not always the right day to watch one of his films or start one of his books; there has to be some kind of predisposition. With the book La via dei tarocchi resting beside me, picked up again after years lying apparently lifeless between a Guida sulla Croazia and Palahniuk's Soffocare, I write these lines, in one of those moments that feel right to me.
Jodorowsky needs no introduction. A visionary director, author of incredible films such as Santa Sangre, El Topo, La Montagna Sacra, but also a prolific writer, scholar of tarot, comic book author, actor, "psychomagician", a person of immense culture and wisdom, whom one often cannot fully understand (or at least that is my impression).

My first encounter with Alejandro was, to say the least, bewildering. I was a teenager, or not much more. It was one of those moments when you perceive everything, or believe you do, when your senses are at their most sensitive, intuition guides you for most of the time, and you feel things on your skin, you feel places on your skin, you feel the people you meet on your skin. On a summer afternoon I saw Santa Sangre for the first time. If you have never seen it, I recommend that you do. For me it is an essential film. An allegorical, symbolic, magical, touching, extreme, disturbing, unwholesome, cathartic, evocative story. Set in a circus, with a rarefied atmosphere, it tells the sad and violent story of Felix, up to a dramatic ending in which he literally becomes the arms of his mother, lost after an abominable amputation by her husband. A film in which horror blends with psychedelia and surrealism. Written by Riccardo Leoni, not by Jodorowsky, and inspired by a true story, it is really the incredible images and visions of this film that drag you into another world. I adored this film, which stuck to me for days, weeks, years.
So I did everything I could to track down two other essential films as well: The Holy Mountain and El Topo . Here too my expectations were certainly not disappointed. Two immensely powerful films in which alchemy, symbolism and psychedelic visions merge, leading you into an enigmatic, surreal and magical reality. The images are extremely strong from a symbolic point of view. It is no coincidence that he has inspired so many artists, musicians and directors who drew inspiration from his films, from Marilyn Manson to Franco Battiato, from John Lennon (who called El Topo his favourite film) to David Lynch.
As well as a director, Alejandro Jodorowsky is famous for his books, in which his interest in and study of esotericism clearly emerge. I find his choice to treat some of these subjects in a poetic key particularly interesting, for example in the book "La scala degli angeli", where he talks about the Jewish Kabbalah in verse.

In 2019 the documentary Psychomagic, a Healing Art was released, in which he illustrates his therapeutic work, using art as a sort of saving medicine. Struck and inspired by the techniques of a Mexican healer which, although absolutely lacking any scientific basis, were able to awaken, through suggestion and the power of ritual, mental and psychological forces capable of making a person react and set them back on the path to healing, Jodorowsky begins to treat people with psychological problems in a totally innovative way. It is not science that leads, but art. Not words, but gesture, touch, action. Interestingly, Alejandro also treated an important Italian actor in this way, whose name he does not reveal, but who was probably Vittorio Gassman.
I will limit myself to these few thoughts on this multifaceted figure, about whom there would be much more to say. Perhaps these few lines might make this the right moment to discover him, or to pick up some dusty book again, or simply to think: "Wow, what a coincidence, I saw Psychomagic only a few days ago." Wherever you are in your relationship with Jodorowsky, enjoy it, because it will certainly be intense. In the meantime, I am going back to reading The Way of Tarot.

Alice K.

STORIES is a column dedicated to great stories from the past that can inspire your present.