Journey into the Basement: Loving Yourself and Your Lamp

One of the many reasons to love Supernatural is that even when we get silly fun-filled episodes we always come out of them with some pretty interesting realizations. “Hero’s Journey” wasn’t any different, but the realization wasn’t so much novel as a confirmation of what season 15 (and Dabb’s run as a whole) has been quite loud about: Dean’s increasing embrace of the self. 

I know we’re all hype about the destiel implications of some of the work done in 15x10, and I will absolutely delve into that goodness, but I wanted to talk about the larger impact on Dean’s character beyond romance first. I want to talk about the demise of performing!Dean. 

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Rowena’s Symbolic and Alchemical “Return of the Feminine” in 15x08

I’ve been talking for a while about how Chuck keeps trying to write the feminine out of his version of the grim-dark bros murder-suicide conflict narrative he’s writing:

1) Pouffing Becky somewhere unknown (an AU?) in 15x04 Atomic Monsters

2) Mary Winchester’s second (apparent) death in S14

3) Threatening more women Dean and Sam care about, Eileen, Donna and Jodie, in 15x08 Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven

By contrast, we’ve also had the return of the feminine in S15 (contra Chuck):

1) Amara’s triumphant return, clothed in an f-you glorious shade of yellow like the sun (casting off her type-casting as The DarknessTM)

2) Eileen’s return from the dead, thanks to Rowena and Sam’s magic

3) Rowena’s return, after her sacrifice to save the world from Chuck’s rift into Hell, as the new Queen of Hell

The symbolism of Rowena’s attire and throne in 15x08, the episode of her return, is interesting.

She’s dressed in red, which is, in Western culture, a symbol of harlotry (the “scarlet woman”) which feels like a kind of f-you to Chuck’s (and the earlier writers’ room’s) shitty writing of the feminine as monstrous: Ruby as an evil sexual temptress archetype; Eve as monstrous; the Whore of Babylon as monstrous; Abaddon as a bitch femme-fatale - and all “righteously” “ganked” by our male heroes (basically a bunch of Biblical fan-fiction reproducing Chuck’s patriarchal BS). 

Whilst Rowena was likewise killed by one of our heroes, she chose the manner of her death, and Sam acted (reluctantly) on her instructions. The pattern was broken. Just as it was previously and most dramatically broken in S11 when Amara turned out not to be the next evil villainess in need of ganking (hurrah) but a wronged God-entity entitled to an apology from Chuck himself. That was the origin-point for the great turn-to-the-feminine in Dabb’s Ouroboros narrative, which also brought Mary Winchester back from the dead and into the narrative again (whose fridging was the original inciting incident for the Winchesters’ bro-story).

Rowena’s red dress therefore also symbolises a stage (rubedo) in the alchemical process, for those of you who’ve been following my alchemical meta and discussions on S14 and S15, which is the stage which comes before the “great work”, symbolised by the “sacred marriage”. In Jung’s configuration/ reinterpretation of medieval alchemy, the sacred marriage symbolises the integration of the masculine and feminine (the anima and the animus, the self and the Shadow) in the psyche.

The universe needs both Amara and Chuck, for balance (beginnings and endings, dark and light) but Chuck keeps trying to write the feminine out of the story, following his original, Ur-sin, of locking away his God-sister unjustly. 

But despite him, the feminine is returning, filled with power, both on a cosmic level AND in the psyche’s of our heroes, as they encounter their Shadow-selves and achieve (or rather, are in the process of achieving) psychic growth, emotional maturity and wholeness.    

Rowena is sitting on a three-headed serpent throne. 

Firstly, the serpent is the symbol in the Bible of The Fall, which places the blame on the feminine, on Eve, as the original temptress. So we can read this as a reclamation of that symbol in the service of feminine power.

Secondly, three headed serpents or dragons appear in alchemical symbolism:

The heads are often coloured in three of the colour stages of alchemy (black,white, yellow, red).

Nazari’s “Three Dreams on the Transmutation of Metals” (1599)

https://www.alchemywebsite.com/Alchemical_Symbolism_Triple_headed_snakes.html

The three-headed dragon/ snake symbolises, in alchemical texts, the integration of the three elements (of the universe and of “man”); of soul, spirit (or mind) and body, symbolised by mercury, sulfur and salt. 

And, as you can see, the three-headed dragon/ snake is sometimes depicted (as in the first image) in conjunction with an Ouroboros (a snake swallowing its own tail) which is a symbol of death and rebirth as the ascendance of the soul to God in the allegorical undertanding of medieval alchemy or, in Jung’s later interpretation, of the integration of the psyche, after the underworld journey to encounter the Shadow. 

Rowena of course has, in dying, returned, transformed and more powerful than before - her own Ouroboros narrative. 

So, cosmically and internally, the SPN narrative, drawing on alchemical themes,  is progressing towards the re-integration of the feminine, both above and below, so Rowena’s powerful return tells us. And thus, towards the union of the earthly and the divine (as currently evident in the God-wound connection between Sam and Chuck), light and dark, self and Shadow, beginning and end.

Adam x Michael!Adam in 15x08 - The Integration of the Self and the Shadow

Hey again folks,

Time to write a little something about the Jungian significance of the relationship between Adam and Michael!Adam in 15x08 and what that means for our heroes internal journeys towards The EndTM  (I’m specifically focussing on Dean and Cas in this meta, but Sam is our hero too, of course).

Just a quick refresher -  Jung, who was a psychoanalyst with a bit of a mystical bent, called the unconscious, the Shadow.

That means those elements of the personality or self which the conscious self is unaware of, or rejects. For Jung, that doesn’t mean the Shadow is inherently negative; it can contain much creative potential, when it is contacted and integrated by the conscious mind (often in dreams, guided through therapeutic work). However, when the Shadow is not recognised, it can negatively control a person, because then (repressed) it often leaks through, particularly in the form of projection - whereby rejected parts of the self are projected onto others and become the target of rage or other negative behaviour.  

“The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore,. as a rule, meets with considerable resistance.”

Aion: Phenomenology of the Self published in The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell, Penguin Books, 1976, p. 145.

Integration with/ acknowledgement of the Shadow is key, for Jung, to healthy psychic growth and individuation. It’s not something you do once and then it’s done, either, although the first conscious work to encounter one’s Shadow is often particularly revelatory, but it’s a continuous process of self-reflection.

Image credit: http://www.kerosene.digital/reviving-art-shadow-puppets/

I wrote a lot of Jungian themed meta in S14, where that motif was used particularly overtly in the writers’ room, in relation to Castiel’s encounter with the Shadow entity which guards The Empty (wearing his face) and Dean’s encounter with AU!Michael possessing him (wearing his face). 

Dean and Cas’ Shadow sides are multii-faceted (as are all our Shadow sides) and include, for example, Dean’s low self-esteem and fear of abandonment (triggered by his mother’s death when he was a kid, and the subsequent pressure his father put on him to be a carer to Sammy) and Castiel’s feelings of low self-esteem and unworthiness (triggered by his journey, over and over again, into doubt against Heaven, and his development of “feelings” for humanity/ The Winchesters/ Dean). We have seen them both struggle individually with these issues, and often be negatively controlled by them, and now these issues are also coming to a head between them, as they lie at the root of their present “break-up”. 

In the show’s queer subtext, Dean and Cas’ Shadow sides can also be understood to include their (closeted) queerness, and their anxiety about how powerfully they each love the other, yet fear the other does not love them back.   

There is a link below to my S14 meta masterpost, and if you scroll right down to the bottom, all the Jungian-themed meta is collected together in a post-script, for a deeper background dive:

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/184628959784/drsilverfish-s14-meta-masterpost

So, what does this have to do with Adam and Michael in 15x08? 

We discover in 15x08 that the two of them are in a relationship - not a trapped vessel chained to a comet - but two beings who share Adam’s physical body, take turns at the wheel of conscious control, and have mutually supportive conversations with one another in their shared mind-body. They listen to each other and they trust each other. 

Dean is flabbergasted, after his own recent, tormented and coercive possession by AU!Michael (always a metaphor for his Shadow-side, including the repressive ghost of John Winchester in his head and, in subtext, his closeted queerness):

Dean: “Wait… Michael lets you talk? I mean he lets you… be?”

Adam: “Uh… yeah…. In the cage we came to an agreement. We only had each other.”

Of course, this is not the first time we, or Dean, have come across an angel-vessel relationship like this. In 12x10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets we were introduced to the relationship between the angel Benjamin and his human vessel Madrid:

CAS: “Benjamin is always very careful. Long ago, he found a powerfully devout vessel in Madrid, and her faith, it… she gave him everything – her trust and her body.” DEAN: “Wait. So Benjamin’s a woman?” CAS: “Benjamin is an angel. His vessel is a woman. But it – it’s – it’s more than that. She’s not just his vessel.” SAM: “She’s… She’s his friend.” CAS: “Yeah. Benjamin would never put her in unnecessary danger.”

Thanks to SuperWiki for the transcript:

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/12.10_Lily_Sunder_Has_Some_Regrets_(transcript) 

I’ve always loved this exchange, because it emphasises the way in which human gender doesn’t apply to angels. We could say that angels are genderqueer and that Benjamin and Madrid’s relationship was a queer one, in the sense that it transgresses human and angelic “norms” (although, that also imposes a somewhat human frame of reference).    

It’s noticeable that both Adam AND Michael are better beings than they were before they got locked together in the Cage in Hell in 5x22 Swan Song. Adam seems less bratty, more reasoned, and Michael seems less arrogant, more willing to listen (to Adam, and hence to others). That is because their mutually supportive relationship is a metaphor for the integration of the self and the Shadow.

In a mirror for Dean and Cas, Adam and Michael!Adam have a conversation in 15x08 where they can clearly understand their respective Daddy issues:

Adam: “Maybe you don’t know your Dad as well as you think you do… Parents keep secrets, right? Does it hurt to ask the question?” 

Michael: “Yes, it would! It would mean that I doubt him, the good son, the favourite doubts his father!”

Adam: “Do you still care about that? After he left you in the Cage?”

Adam, of course, was himself kept as a secret by John Winchester from his other sons. And Michael (in a long-running parallel to Dean) here mirrors an earlier version of Dean, when he was “Daddy’s good little soldier”, as well as mirroring an earlier version of Cas, when he was Heaven’s obedient servant (in between his many rebellions and brain-washings).

Adam and Michael!Adam’s good communication and mutually supportive relationship, which, again, like Benjamin and Madrid, we can read as a “queer” relationship, by angel and human normative standards, is a positive sign-post for our heroes - both in terms of Dean and Cas separately being able to turn, and face, and thus integrate with their respective Shadows (they’ve already done significant work on this, but there is more to come) and in terms of Dean and Cas’ relationship (which Adam and Michael!Adam’s “queer” angel/ human relationship is also a mirror for). Dean and Cas will, this mirror tells us, eventually, be able to talk honestly, and supportively, with one another. 

But first, they must go on a symbolic underworld journey, back to Purgatory, which is again, a Jungian metaphor for the encounter between the conscious self and the Shadow.  

Michael!Adam says, “There’s the door!” as he opens up a rift to Purgatory and holds up the angel-binding handcuffs, requesting to be freed, in exchange. Which, provides us with a symbolic image suggesting that Dean and Cas’ return to Purgatory together will, despite its painful difficulties (which, as I’ve said in my 15x08 spell meta here:

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/189656694954/the-purgatory-spell-in-15x08-love-death-and-an

may involve a literal, or perhaps figurative, enounter with death) be a journey that will set them free (in terms of their encounters with their own Shadows and thus their ability to communicate better with one another):

Jung even described the encounter with The Shadow as a narrow doorway:

“The shadow is a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well. But one must learn to know oneself in order to know who one is.”  

Carl G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, vol. 9, pt. 1 p. 21.

And we could thus understand the Leviathan blossom, in this reading, as symbolising the flower of self-knowlege that grows in the deep recesses of monster-land, aka the land of the unconscious. 

N.B - My usual disclaimer applies - reading the queer subtext in SPN does not promise an overt, unequivocal, “confetti, it’s a parade” queer romantic denouement, But, subtext IS part of narrative.

Dean’s Jungian Shadow Arc in S14 - Confronting the Internal Father (2x22 to 14x20)

“This meeting with oneself is, at first, the meeting with one’s own shadow. The shadow is a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well. But one must learn to know oneself in order to know who one is” 

(Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious 1991: p21) 

Jung believed that the psyche was composed, in part, of a relation to “archetypes” (shared human psychic formations). One of these is the archetype of the father.

He distinguishes between the actual father (i.e. your Dad) and the “imago” of the father (a term he borrowed from Freud). That means, the psychological internalised construct of the father, which partly resides in the unconscious, and which is not identical to your real Dad, because it’s about your childish and foundational perception of them, but, also, for Jung (not Freud) it is linked to the archetypal (or mythic) father. The father archetype (for Jung, who has a gendered perception of the world rooted in his time-period) is about power and control. And when someone subconsciously over-identifies with the father-archetype, this results in out-of-control power fantasies:

“The danger is just this unconscious identity with the archetype, the more a father identifies with the archetype, the more unconscious and irresponsible, indeed psychotic … he … will be”

 (Jung, 1906-1916 writings collected as Freud and Psychoanalysis: 1961:p316).

So, subconsciously over-identifying with the father-imago has negative consequences for a person, and those around them. 

Let’s talk Dean, The Shadow and Dean’s Daddy Issues.

Remember this? (Gods but the colour palette was gorgeous back then).

This is Dean shooting Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon who killed his mother, Mary Winchester, with the Colt in 2x22 All Hell Breaks Loose Part II.

He does it with his father, John Winchester’s spirit’s help (released from Hell):

But, when I say help, remember that, symbolically, John has also been mirrored to Azazel, by means of Azazel’s possession of John (1x22 Devil’s Trap):

Hooboy -  Daddy issues right out of the gate. That’s not news to any of us. The whole show is about “wayward sons”, after all.  

Fast foward twelve years, and this is Dean (in the role of The FatherTM) almost shooting Jack, his own adopted Nephilim son (who also represents his child-self) with the Hammurabi, the mystical gun Mark II, which Chuck forged and named after an ancient Babylonian law which codifies “an eye for an eye” (i.e. a “Revenge Gun”TM):

Jack the Nephilim, whose eyes glow yellow when he is in his power, and who has (apparently) killed Mary Winchester (again):

(Jack in 13x14 Good Intentions)

Notice that both scenarios - Dean, mystical gun, yellow-eyed supernatural being who killed his mother - take place in a graveyard. 

Mary is dead twice (at least as far as Dean is concerned) and her death haunts the scenes.

Chuck has deliberately set up the second scenario to mirror the first (he is, in my view, testing Dean, the way he tested Abraham).

At this moment, in Moriah, we could say Dean is possessed by his Shadow, in the form of the father archetype, the Ghost of John Winchester, in his subconsious. He is ready to act out John Winchester’s revenge quest redux, and in doing so, to do violence all over again to his child-self, in the form of Jack, who symbolises child-Dean in this moment. 

A repetition of the damage done to Dean himself as a child; who was forced, by the tragedy of Mary’s death, and his own father’s traumatic revenge-quest, to grow up too fast, is playing out before our eyes.

Jack-the-mirror, who lost his own mother at birth, and looks twenty-something but is only two, kneels, a willing sacrifice, in the role of child-Dean, before his father, adult-Dean, who is shadow-possessed by John’s Ghost, ready to be murdered, just as John “murdered” Dean’s childhood. 

“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.” 

(Carl Jung, Collected Works “Christ: A Symbol of the Self”).

Jung suggests we are subject to “fate” (i.e. our own unconscious forces taking control of our actions) when we do not confront our Shadow. 

Ties in beautifully to Supernatural’s larger theme of fate vs free will, right?

Now, back then, when Dean shot yellow-eyed demon No 1, Azazel, Dean was (as his subconscious taunted him at the time) “Daddy’s blunt little instrument” (3x10 Dream a Little Dream of Me)….

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Jung and Dean’s Journey towards Self-Integration in 14x11 Damaged Goods

I’ve posted here already about all the heavy Dean-and-the-closet metaphors in Damaged Goods:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182296360214/a-fridge-locker-an-enochian-puzzle-box-a-malak 

So, in this post, I want to talk about the continuing use the writers’ room is making this season of Jungian themes (in a micro-cosmic reflection of the larger cosmic scale on which those same themes played out in S11, in the God/ The Darkness storyline).

This extends my now developing series of Jungian-themed S14 meta:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/180906003584/the-shadow-14x08

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/181122764984/14x09-the-spear-jungian-decoder-ring-edition

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182257314199/what-the-light-and-shadow-tells-us

The two books which Dean takes from the bunker, to help him in his construction of the Ma’lak (angel) box (i.e. a huge Dean’s repression/ closet metaphor) are: 

and..

The second, Maria Prophetissima Historia Achengeli, is really interesting, because Maria Prophetissima is known as one of the first alchemists….

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the genuine dean.

thoughts on season nine, Dean Winchester, and the process of individuation.

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This is the post is where the idea of Performing Dean started.

Better Together (SPN Speculation)

This took longer than I anticipated. I’m still not sure if I’ve covered everything I wanted to cover and I had to add some stuff since 12.21, but I’m posting it so it gets posted before the finale. It is a massive info dump, and I’m sorry for all the technical stuff, I promise it gets explained in there. I couldn’t figure out how to truncate it without outlining it like a novel. I wish I had time for that, but I barely have time to outline my specs atm. I lso don’t want to say that everything I say here is absolutely definitive, it’s just based on what I’ve observed and the patterns I’ve noticed. There are a lot of other factors that feed into this one that are also worth exploring but I don’t really know how to include them without over complicating everything, so this is the main set that I’m personally focusing on.

I dunno if anyone remembers this, but back when I metad about 12.12, I said I wished I could have done it in video form because the information better lent itself to a visual medium. Yeah, this is another one of those times. Someday I may modify this into a script and do that, but the season finale is basically today, so here goes.

Some of you may have seen a post go around where @k-vichan, @drsilverfish and @angelswatchingover​ discuss what Alicia is and the questions surrounding her current state. (I can’t get it to route to one of their blogs, but check them out)

@k-vichan​ mentioned something that this series has reminded me of since S5, and had themes which have prevailed through the show for a long time.(S7 on, especially.) I went back to watch it after I saw the post, to confirm with myself what I remembered. It had been a long time since I saw the movie, and I wanted to be sure before I wrote about it.

Of all the other works that exist, no other that I know of more closely seems to resemble the themes and message of Supernatural more than the 1995 film Ghost in the Shell.

I have no idea if this is on purpose or if they just both came across the same progression on their own (inspired by the Hegel dialectic) but they both share some common philosophies that have shaped my view of SPN since I’ve watched it, and especially this season. Even without having seen the movie in a long time, these thought processes and progressions seemed to prevail. If there is some real influence between them, what would it mean?

The below place contains spoilers for the ending of Ghost in the Shell, They’re further down though. I’ll mark them. Sadly, they’re kind of important for my speculation, but you can skip them if you want.

But first, let’s talk about (a vastly simplified version of) Hegel (in relation to narrative mostly), theming and message.

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spn and the heroine’s journey

(Take two)

I thought it was about time I did an updated/cleaner/clearer version of my “Heroine’s Journey” meta from last season, so here it is. In which I look at the story structure the show seems to have been using for Dean, Sam, and Cas’ character arcs for the past few seasons, and make a few guesses about what we might see in the future. The other post only included the Carver era. This version includes the Carver era and the events of season twelve as well, which is actually fitting right into that same pattern. I wasn’t sure how it would survive the showrunner change, but it looks like Dabb is keeping it going–with a couple of tweaks–so that’s pretty cool. I thought I’d include what we’ve seen of Mary’s character arc so far, too.

The “Heroine’s Journey” story structure, in a nutshell, is about finding balance. It’s the story of a character who rejects half of themselves and then, as they go through each step of the journey—going on a quest for a treasure, finding the treasure, being unsatisfied with the treasure, experiencing a metaphorical death and a descent to the underworld, meeting with a dark god/dess, resurfacing and reuniting with a mother figure, and so on—gradually learns how to accept both sides of themselves and to embrace themselves as a whole person. The “archetypal” version of the heroine’s journey (according to Maureen Murdock, who wrote the book on it [link]) is specifically about a heroine who rejects her own archetypal feminine side and embraces her archetypal masculine side instead, and then learns to accept both. But the heroine’s journey story structure doesn’t have to be about femininity versus masculinity. It can be about anything, just as long as it’s about a union of opposites and the discovery of balance (link). It also doesn’t have to be limited to female characters! Any character can go on a heroine’s journey.

Dean’s heroine’s journey is the closest to the “classic” heroine’s journey, as it is about learning to embrace his inner archetypal “feminine” side; Cas’ journey is about learning how to embrace his inner humanity; and Sam’s and Mary’s journeys are about learning to embrace the presence of the supernatural in their lives. Having found balance and wholeness, they’ll be able to use that to heal the world around them.

Mary is right at the very beginning of her journey but Sam, Dean and Cas have all progressed through almost every single one of the ten stages.

The first half of the heroine’s journey plays out in pretty much the same way a typical Hero’s Journey does, with a “call to adventure” and a quest for a treasure (a la Joseph Campbell). It’s after the heroine finds the goal of her quest that things start to diverge. So here’s a rundown of the ten steps, plus some guesses about where Sam, Dean, Cas and Mary might go from here: 

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Is witch!Sam growing more and more on anyone else? Like studying books and doing spells for even just things around the bunker, like mundane things, like helping with laundry… or making sure the stray puppy he brought home out of the rain doesn’t bother Dean’s allergies or shed.

I just want Sam surrounded by books and ingredients, idly making things float around him so he can multi-reference easier as he works, maybe with light twining between his fingers like tread.

And Rowena is amazed, because Sam is unlike any witch she’s ever seen, his power is different, both natural, but changed by the demon blood and grace that infiltrated his body, making him able to do what shouldn’t even be possible and she’s never heard of. But he’s getting more powerful the more he uses it, so that she kindly and gently sets out to be his teacher and help him learn to control she views as a beautiful thing to be marveled.

As much as I love this idea, I wonder how comfortable Sam would be with it. Like, I’m sure he’s curious (academically, if nothing else), but does he really want to put himself in a position of superhuman power again? I’m not sure. I feel like Sam would be very ambivalent about that after the whole demon blood and demon king mess: learning magic and using magic would mean restart all of that again - Sam making decisions over Dean’s head, Sam trusting his own instincts, Sam straddling the line between wishing to do the right thing and deciding what price he’s willing to pay to make that right thing a reality.

(What I can see, though, is alchemist!Sam in a future without hunting - just him huddling his massive moose body over a tiny blue flame, waiting with bated breath because this time, this time it’s bound to happen - and then -)

DID SOMEONE SAY ALCHEMIST

I have a mighty need for the show to do exactly that storyline thanks

Anyway I think that Sam’s endgame regarding his position in the world needs to be some kind of embrace of a supernatural-related role. For the very reason that the power has been forced on him against his will and he’s been manipulated and lied to over that, narratively it would make sense to have him choose a form of power of his own volition, on his own terms.

The kind of magic the Men of Letters have been seen using (mostly Magnus, Mr Ketch) has been framed as some kind of alchemy (culturally, the male, academically-accepted equivalent of witchcraft, historically, the middle ground between magic and science - see Mr Ketch’s comment about their weapons having been created via a mix of technology and magic).

The ideal would be Sam embracing some kind of middle ground between witchcraft (feminine, dark, violent) and MoL techno-magic (masculine, enlightened, rational). It would work as a counterpart of Dean’s own femininity-masculinity balancing character development endgame.

Anyway I think that Sam’s endgame regarding his position in the world needs to be some kind of embrace of a supernatural-related role. 

Me too me too! I’m not confident they’ll give us this, because sometimes I think the showrunners have a pretty good handle on mental health and sometimes I think they’re completely clueless. But I think there’s honestly no way for SPN to have a wholeheartedly happy ending without this happening. Supernatural ability isn’t just something that was done to Sam; it’s an inherent part of who he is. Like Lady Gaga says, he was born that way.

Especially for people who want endgame destiel, I feel like witch!Sam is almost a necessary precursor. I feel like the piece of narrative arc in which Sam’s powers really did corrupt him and make him bad was one of SPN’s most fundamental errors- especially, somewhat weirdly, in relation to Dean’s character- because it was a subtextual affirmation that John was right, that you can be born wrong through no fault of your own and the only way to avoid corruption/sin is to suppress your inherent nature.

(…) would mean restart all of that again - Sam making decisions over Dean’s head, Sam trusting his own instincts (…)

I’d like to think that in the spirit of doing some of the things early SPN sucked at over again, the writers would be able to recognize that this’d be healthy for both of them. It would be an opportunity for their relationship growth to move forward from where it somehow got derailed at the end of S5. But I agree it could be pretty uncomfortable for both of them while it was happening (I would so much rather see them struggling with this character growth than with Devil Baby Mamma Drama or another round of will torturing people end well for us).

The ideal would be Sam embracing some kind of middle ground between witchcraft (feminine, dark, violent) and MoL techno-magic (masculine, enlightened, rational) 

I think I forgot to reblog last time to tell you how much I love this idea about fusing the two/a middle way. So, the amount I love this idea is: a very very large amount.

I think this is where the show is going because of how it frames its message. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we got witch or alchemist or some mixture of both for Sam’s endgame. It’s an extremely interesting arc for the character and passing it up seems like a very missed opportunity since it ties so well with the themes surrounding him and the show itself. Not exploring Dean being bi would also be a missed opportunity and the two themes are highly paralleled and related in the show’s framing. I expect that if we get either of them textually, we’ll get the beginning of textual exploration for Sam’s end first. I wouldn’t mind either way though. 

but those witch twins were so cool last night

raised by a witch to hunt bad witches

what if they were sometimes mistaken for bad witches by other hunters?

if they are good witches does that mean they aren’t tied to demons? 

do they have a plethora of knowledge on dealing with things with magic that the MoL don’t understand?

how would the BMoL work with them? would they be hunted or would they be tapped to help. 

i just have so many questions!!!!

Canon has said there are 3 types of witches: naturals like Rowena who were born with the gift, ones like Ruby who sold their soul for power, and students who have no natural ability but can develop some skill by being taught by a witch. They could be naturals but I kind of got the impression they were students. 

Really hope we see them again, they were fantastic

Maybe they are students because they said their mother taught them a lot! But I feel like even students can become like the bad witches, using what they’ve been taught for bad so it’s really neat seeing what they know to battle the bad witches! 

I loved them so much! 

Their mother was a witch, too, though, so they could have some natural inborn talent of their own that they’ve simply honed through practice and study. I love the idea that they are in every way a symbol of balance:

They seem so freaking well-adjusted, too. Despite the ~weirdness~ of growing up in the life, on top of being POC, and queer POC, they just have an awareness of social boundaries and sensitivity, talking with Sam without judgment, treating him like a person first (in contrast with Elvis’ insensitivity and boorishness), yet all the while they’d been hiding their “real identities” as Asa’s children, as if that was the one thing they felt they’d need to keep secret when so much of the rest of their lives was simply a fact that they were not ashamed of in the least, even in this room full of hunters, as well as Asa’s mother (their own grandmother!).

I find them entirely fascinating, and I really hope we get to see them again.

So, Mr Ketch and Dean.

Mr Ketch as the expression of toxic masculinity, summing the negative traits of John Winchester, Gordon Walker and all the other male characters in the show that were expressions of that kind of mentality*

Dean Winchester as the expression of a balanced ratio of masculinity and femininity (see the Prince male+female symbols in the motel), in fact literally the force who reconciled the male and female primordial principles in 11x23!

Mr Ketch’s bike as a symbol of phallic power and masculine individuality (Dean appreciates the bike aesthetically *cough*lol he likes dick*cough* but he still prefers family cars–his car, the carriage of the Peterson family he helped the dad and son repair just like he’s always done with the Impala)

Dean’s Baby as a symbol of parenthood and care (even visually a “womb” for Dean and Sam, the place that has been their home after their home with their mother was gone, and so on) - in fact, the Impala is also a symbol for a balance of masculinity and femininity, is a “muscle car” but also “baby”, so we can say it’s a symbol for “male motherhood/female fatherhood”, which describe Dean, the boy who acted as a mother and also a female-coded character (“Dean becomes a woman”) who has experienced fatherhood**

Mr Ketch as a figure reminiscent of all the figures that Dean was terrified to be like - John, Alastair - thus an expression of what Dean doesn’t want to be, the darkness he fears he has inside of him, what he rejects when he sees as glimpse of them inside of him - the “drill sergeant” father***, the torturer, etc.

Mr Ketch as a dark mirror for Dean

*I know it’s kind of a “we don’t talk about this” thing in the fandom, but Magda’s death in a bathroom by a Nazi-like douchebag was a parallel to Charlie’s death, in fact Magda was suggested to be queer (her connection to Olivia was even underlined by a literal rainbow) or at least heavily coded as queer, as her story was easily readable as a metaphor for being a queer kid in a Christian fundamentalist family. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Ketch had other traits in common with Eldon Styne, who was an allegory for rape culture. In fact, the British Men of Letters so far might be read as an allegory for rape culture.****

**I’ll say it again, there is an “opposite-retelling” of season 6 and part of season 7 here, if you read everything as a mirror for something in these seasons, chance is you are right

***Again his experience with fatherhood with Ben

****In fact, the British Men of Letters so far have been coded as violently homophobic, so here you have another contrast between the British Men of Letters and Dean.

Toxic masculinity and homophobia vs Dean’s lovingness and queerness.

And next episode is about the literal Nazis - also present in an episode where Dean had a “gay thing” and in an episode where Dean was in a submarine with sailors et cetera, plus associated to the Stynes who murdered a gay woman, and now paralleled to the British MoL who have just murdered a possibly gay or otherwise queer girl.

Nazi-fascist ideologies, with a strong focus on homophobia, vs Dean.

Which is the show in a nutshell, if you think about it, but now - in a very delicate moment in US history - the show has decided to drop any subtlety it might have left.

All of this. The season that finally focuses on human monstrosity? Yes please, yes please.

Also worth saying that “American Nightmare” had very serious Season 2 vibes. Made me revisit all the feels of the mirrors between Sam’s psychic powers and Dean’s sexuality developed in those early seasons.

Yes! The supernatural forces were always allegories for human issues (especially connected to sexuality: possession and rape, Amara and compulsory heterosexuality…) but now it seems that they’re going to be less “allegorical” and more “direct”, so to speak.

(I’m not sure I’m using the word allegory correctly, I don’t thing I ever really got the differences between metaphor, allegory, symbol etc etc sorry I’m not friends with semiotics&co).

Actually, there is a project in my to-do list to argue that Sam’s relationship with the supernatural is paralleled to Dean’s relationship with sexuality throughout the entire show :D but yes, season 2 went big on that.

After John died, Sam started freaking out about his demon powers; Dean reacted to John’s death by saying ‘fuck it tho’ and flirting with all the hot guys

I am always perplexed when folks don’t seem to get the sexual undertones of the show. I mean, a pretty central part of the show’s mythology concerns vessels: literally having another being in one’s body.

But yes, I think in each season, one could read Sam and Dean’s struggles running parallel. The demon blood running through Sam’s veins as something he comes to terms with seems to me to be a pretty clear parallel to Dean confronting his identity, sexual and otherwise, in the wake of his father’s death in season 2. But there are other big ones too. Sam having to deal with the trauma of remembering hell vs. Dean failing to cope with the trauma of losing Cas in season 7, for one.

My to-do list project has to do with mirrors and sinks as recurring imagery throughout the show. Because I think that imagery links up again with Sam facing the supernatural and Dean facing … himself.

This show will be the end of me and I’m perfectly okay with that.

If you focus on sinks, do look into the way they use water as a baptism.

11.23 | Alpha and Omega