“And now we’ve arrived at what the veil is. It’s the ethereal curtain between the everyday illusion of separation and the divine truth of eternity and oneness with all that is. When we meditate or perform ritual, or when we have a mystical experience of any variety, this curtain parts and we are able to gaze into the place of power, the place between the worlds.”
Tess Whitehurst, “The Veil Between the Worlds is Thin”
The disparate strands of Twin Peaks: The Return appear to be gradually coming together. And it seems they are converging to a single (or perhaps double) point of space and time. The location is identified by Major Briggs’ coordinates, a perfect McGuffin that has cost many lives and caused much intrigue. The time is also named by Briggs in his time capsule message to the Twin Peaks sheriffs – 2:53 on the first and second of October.
But why there? And why then? It feels like this time and place might represent an opening – a rare moment where parallel paths unexpectedly cross – where the veil will be thin enough that our world can meet and confront the alternate dimension of the Lodges, the Arm, the Woodsmen and all the other-worldly forces who wish to run amok in our reality.
But not all channels between worlds in the Twin Peaks universe are tied to times and places. And these gateways are not all created equal. Places, objects, events and states of being can all offer an opening, part the curtains and allow a glimpse of another world beyond. Some of these portals allow travel. Some only communication or influence. In some cases this seems a process that flows in a single direction, in others it appears two-way traffic is allowed.
Much of the second season of Twin Peaks is concerned with Windom Earle’s quest to access the Black Lodge. His gateway seems to operate in a similar way to Briggs’ time, date and place in The Return. He must be at a specific place - Glastonbury Grove - at a specific moment - as “Jupiter and Saturn meet” - in order to pass beyond the veil. Early in The Return, Deputy Hawk visits Glastonbury Grove and we see the familiar red curtains swimming between the sycamores – indicating perhaps that this door is preparing to open once more.
Another place where travel between worlds seems possible is the mysterious glass box in New York. First Cooper, then the Experiment enter the box from another dimension. Is the location of the box the key? Is this apartment, like Glastonbury Grove, at a specific point in space where the ley lines converge and conditions are right for ‘crossing over’? Or does the box rather represent some sort of technology that opens a gateway? So far, definitive answers are out of reach. As with so much of Twin Peaks, theories abound, but hard facts are scarce. We know, however, that within this box, beings can pass into and out of our world.
When Bill Hastings took the FBI agents to The Zone, it didn’t take long for another geographic portal to reveal itself, as a whirling vortex appeared in the sky and threatened to suck Gordon Cole into an alternate dimension. Before Albert pulled him free, Gordon was given a glimpse of a group of charred, blackened Woodsmen stood on a stairway. The stairway setting seems especially relevant. Recently, a discussion on the excellent “Diane” podcast hipped me to the term “liminal spaces” – the undefined places between other places. A stairway is a perfect example of a liminal space. It is neither a kitchen, nor a bathroom, nor a bedroom. And because these in-between places do not have a set purpose, they are endowed with limitless potential. Anything can happen in these places. And in Lynch’s world, it frequently does.
Think of the extended scene of Laura Palmer on the stairway in her home, released as part of the ‘Missing Pieces’ from Fire Walk With Me. An ominous sound builds as Laura stares at a ceiling fan, experiencing extreme fear before slipping into a strange transported trance state that shifts slowly to a wide-eyed, grinning mania. This interference from the supernatural seems at least in part enabled by the location. And Cole’s vision of the Woodsmen on a stairway is an echo of this powerful brush with the other-worldly.
But liminal spaces do not only exist within our homes – any patch of wasteland, undefined and purposeless, between houses or on the outskirts of town will also fit the definition. It is no coincidence therefore that The Zone exists in an apparently abandoned housing plot. In Lynch’s universe, the veil is thin in these places and they appear to be riddled with entities such as the terrifying Woodsmen.
This discussion of transitional places brings to mind a moment from the original run of Twin Peaks when then-Deputy Hawk revealed that dugpas, spirits and doppelgangers are called “dwellers on the threshold” in his Native American mythology. In the context of liminal spaces, by definition thresholds between other areas, this term takes on even greater resonance.
In Fire Walk With Me, missing agent Phillip Jeffries returns to the FBI with a tale of a meeting of Lodge denizens he witnessed in a room “above a convenience store”. This calls back to a line spoken by Mike when he recalls “We lived among the people. I think you say, convenience store. We lived above it.” This choice of location evokes the feeling we get when we look up at first floor rooms above shops and stores. Unlike the bright and open shop window displays at street level, these are rooms filled with mystery, glimpsed through dirty panes and half-drawn curtains. Are they lived in? Or are they store rooms for the shops below? Is that a forgotten mannequin or a person staring back down at us? Again, it is an undefined space, a mysterious place full of possibility that allows the supernatural to cross over into our world.
After his visit to The Zone, Gordon Cole is startled by a vision of Laura Palmer, crying and distressed. This apparition is seen in a doorway. We are shown two angles of the manifestation, which seems invisible to all but Cole, and both show her tearful face superimposed over the door to the FBI man’s hotel room. Once again, it is a transitional space that allows the supernatural through. [As an aside, in case you need proof that liminal spaces really do hold unusual powers – do some reading about the “doorway effect” and its impact on our memories.]
On the topic of doorways, we should recognise that other portals in Twin Peaks seem to be tied to objects, rather than places. Consider the painting of the floral room and doorway, given to Laura Palmer by Mrs Tremond in Fire Walk With Me. The picture seems to be key to Laura accessing the Red Room – propelling her into the world of the Lodges. So it seems that specific objects can become portals – imbued with the power to bridge worlds. We don’t know the origin of the painting, how it was created, or by whom, but we do know that it becomes exactly what is portrays – a doorway.
Electrical sockets in The Return are also shown to be conduits for travel between dimensions. Dougie and Cooper switch places via an outlet in the wall of an empty house in Nevada. During the same sequence, the camera focuses extensively on the cigarette lighter in Mr C’s car, as though this electrical socket were trying to pull him in. It seems doubtful that all electricity at all times can act as a portal. Significantly these events all take place at exactly 2:53 (that time again), so perhaps specific circumstances, times and events are required to open the electrical channels – allowing energy and matter to arc across the divide.
Probably the most famous object capable of thinning the veil in Twin Peaks is the Owl Cave ring. It is not entirely clear what rules govern its operation, but it seems to allow influence, control or ownership to pass from one world to the other. Does it mark the wearer for death? Or perhaps protect a soul from possession? Or perhaps even the reverse – does it open a bridge, preparing the wearer for an inhabiting spirit? There are even hints that the ring could enable travel between our world and the Lodge spaces or even erase a person from existence entirely – just look at the mysterious disappearance of Agent Desmond. We may never know exactly what role the ring serves, but it is clear that this object, like the painting, is imbued with the power to connect two worlds.
Not an object so much as a substance - oil, specifically scorched engine oil, also seems to be key to opening doors in the universe of Twin Peaks. A pool of oil sits at the centre of Glastonbury Grove, marking the way into the Black Lodge. Various characters, including Ronette Pulaski and Dr Jacoby, report a powerful smell of engine oil after encounters with BOB and other Lodge inhabitants. In the finale of the second season, Margaret Lanterman, the ‘Log Lady’ describes a jar of engine oil as “an opening to a gateway”. Once again, the rules are not clear but it seems the presence of oil might be a factor in thinning the veil. Or perhaps it is a thinning of the veil that creates a smell like scorched oil. Or maybe both are true.
It is equally possible that the engine oil in Glastonbury Grove is less important than the ritual of which it forms a part. We see rituals and actions as the key to opening channels several times in Twin Peaks. Mike, the one-armed man, sits before a ring of candles as he chants “Fire walk with me” – in what appears to be some sort of magickal rite. The Twin Peaks sheriffs are advised by Briggs’ time capsule message to carry some dirt from Jack Rabbit’s Palace – perhaps for a ritualistic purpose. Throughout pagan and Wiccan literature, rituals are used to open gateways and part curtains between the worlds, so it seems likely they perform a similar role in Twin Peaks. We see both Mike and Agent Gordon Cole raise their arms in ritualistic motions as they open bridges between worlds in The Return – Cole beneath the vortex at the entrance to The Zone and Mike as he causes his Red Room reality to enter into Dougie-Cooper’s field of vision on several occasions.
Besides overtly magickal rituals, other types of action are also shown to be capable of opening a portal between worlds. In the surreal glory of Part 8 we were shown the Trinity atom bomb test. It appears that splitting the atom also caused a split in reality. The dreamlike imagery that followed implied that this act of explosive violence momentarily opened a door, allowing a great force for evil to enter our world, as the Experiment spewed her black, BOB-bearing bile through space and time.
Minor traumas also seem capable of creating rifts or openings in Twin Peaks. Small acts of violence and abuse appear to create chinks in the curtain between worlds. In Fire Walk With Me, Lynch plays with the chicken/egg dynamic of pain and evil. Does the pattern of abuse allow BOB to gain a foothold in the Palmer family? Or is it BOB who got in and caused the abuse in the first place? It isn’t clear – in fact the series and the movie often seem at odds about where the blame lies - but it is apparent that the two are related, that evil acts can form crossing points between worlds.
It is worth considering that states, as well as places, objects and events, can also represent an intersection of realities in the Lynch-iverse. Our first introduction to the Red Room, which comes to represent the world of the Lodges, is through Cooper’s dream. Similarly, Mike is able to invade the dreams of Vegas casino owner Bradley Mitchum to convey a message that ultimately saves Cooper’s life. And although the Tremond’s painting opens a door, it is a dream that enables Laura to step through it. So sleeping and dreaming become channels for communication and perhaps even travel between worlds.
Other altered states may also leave the door ajar for influence from “the other side”. The Return seems to be full of hints that drugs may open individuals to the Lodges. Immediately after Richard Horne takes a bump of ‘Sparkle’, we see Red performing a strange and unsettling sequence of coin magic, which seems reminiscent of the Arm’s coffee conjuring in the Red Room. Druggie mom, popping pills and drinking liquor in early episodes of The Return, shouts “One, one, nine” repeatedly, leading many to believe she has been affected by time-reversed lodge entities. And watching two strung-out ‘Sparkle’-heads in the Roadhouse discussing black and white animals (“zebra” and “penguin”) also brings to mind the Red Room’s chevron floor.
So, if being ‘chemically inconvenienced’ can erode the walls between realities – we must also consider Jerry Horne’s misadventures in The Return. The marijuana farmer is lost in the woods – frightened, high and speaking to unseen presences among the pines. His foot has taken on a life of its own – pointing to Lodge activity, where a body-part such as the Arm can become a character in its own right. Did his drug taking alter something in his mind, opening a door and inviting dark forces to rush in?
On the flip side of this, Twin Peaks lore also shows us that narcotics can block the channels between two worlds, closing doors rather than creating openings. In Season One, shoe salesman Phillip Gerrard injects drugs to keep his inhabiting spirit Mike at bay. But “without chemicals, he points” and once Cooper denies him his medication, Mike appears and tells his enlightening tale about BOB and the Black Lodge.
There are never any hard and fast rules in Frost and Lynch’s mythology – the stories they present us are best understood through the fuzzy intuition of dreams rather than the cold hard logic of consciousness. But while the specifics will likely never be pinned down, we do know that in the universe of Twin Peaks, other worlds exist alongside our own – just out of reach, held back by an invisible curtain. We also know that the veil is thinning as The Return progresses. Many doors and channels allow travel, communication and sparks of influence to ark across the space between dimensions. And it feels like something big is coming. Soon the red curtains may be fully flung wide and who knows what we will find.
This article was originally published on the Lynchian Times blog on 4th August , 2017. See it in its natural habitat here.