THE MESSAGE OF BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Bohemian Rhapsody hit the top of the charts for 9 weeks in the winter of 1975.  It was impressive.   I still know the lyrics by heart and have often wondered what they really meant. So I am going to outline what I believe Freddie meant by those lyrics.

Freddie, whose real name was Farrokh Bulsara, was of Parsi heritage.  So originally his family would have Persian roots.  They lived in Gujarat, western India.  Later they moved to Zanzibar. Farrokh’s religion was Zoroastrian.   He was a Virgo,  which may have something to do with why the band was called ‘Queen’.  His chosen name of Mercury is almost certainly due to it being the planet which rules Virgo. The Zoroastrian religion is steeped in astrology and Freddie took his faith’s heritage seriously.  It was foremost in his mind when he wrote Bohemian Rhapsody.

Bohemian Rhapsody means an unconventional ecstatic state or epic poem/song.  The word ‘rhapsody’ is derived originally from a Greek word meaning to stitch or sew (rhapsoidia). This could have come from the Proto Indo European word ‘werb’ which means to bend or turn and Oide (ode or song).   This is related to the concept of weave/web. The web of existence. In Norse mythology there is the ‘web of wyrd’ denoting the interconnectedness of past, present and future . Time itself.

Freddie starts Bohemian Rhapsody by questioning reality. In 4/4 time signature.

‘Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?’ 

In the next line he refers to time and the inevitable change that comes with it

‘caught in a landslide, no escape from reality’ …

Then he is stating ‘wake up’.  Remember, As Above So Below.

Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see 

Next he identifies as a poor boy due to having no passions, being indifferent , bending with the wind, any direction. He is malleable.

I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy

Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low

Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me

The above lines could be a metaphor for the average human. There also could be alluding to an ancient Persian wind God called Vayu. Sufi mystics such as Rumi placed great importance on the concept of wind, perhaps being ‘breath’. Some Yashts ( hymns) of the Avestas place Vay above Ahura Mazda (pure light).

Freddie goes on to speak to ‘mama’ to confess some kind of spiritual death.

Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead

Mama, life had just begun

But now I've gone and thrown it all away

He makes it known to mama that she is human and that she should just carry on in ignorance

Mama, ooh ooh ooh, didn't mean to make you cry

If I'm not back again this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

He says goodbye.  He refers to spinal fluid or ‘kundalini’ energy

Too late, my time has come

Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

He mourns his old self, and voices regret:

Mama, ooh ooh (any way the wind blows)

I don't wanna die

But its a double edged sword. Maybe he doesn’t want his earthly life either

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

Now the track changes, speeding up, I think in 12/8

He now faces his own inadequacies. 

I see a little silhouetto of a man

then he calls out to ‘scaramouche'  asking him if he is up for this

Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

Scaramouche was a character from the Italian 16/17th century Commedia dell’arte tradition of theatre. This was exaggerated theatre with masked players.  Scaramouch represented originally the archetype braggart solider and later an unreliable but comic servant. A modern equivalent might be the spanish waiter Manuel from Faulty Towers.  The Napolese actor most associated with the scaramouch role went unmasked.

This could be The Fool in the Tarot, about to step out on the journey of faith. To face the hurricane. 

Fandango is a dance of Moorish origins,  accompanied by castanets and tambourines, which tends to get faster as it progresses and switch between major and minor keys. One form of the Fandango involves two men gearing up to challenge each other.  This is the fool’s journey. The struggle.

Then he reaches a crescendo, implying that fear of oneself is the greatest fear.  The only way the following line makes sense is if the object referred to as ‘me’ is actually Freddie.

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me

‘Then there is a reference to Leo. The Golden Age. Leo is the actual age where true Adepts believe the sun is really entering at present, transitioning from Virgo ( in contrast with where the Sun appears to be from Earth’s perspective which is transitioning from Pisces to Aquarius).  This may also have a reference to Freddie’s bandmates John Deacon and Roger Taylor who were both Leo.……….

Gali -Leo .  Gali comes from Hebrew ‘galal’ or ‘gil’ which means a whirling/rolling or circular movement of a kind.  We now get echoes in the track.

(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro, magnifico o  …

Figaro (from the Marriage of Figaro) symbolises a barber. And a poor servant. And is also a Scaramouche type character. A clever but annoying servant. The cutting of hair is highly symbolic in esoteric tradition and masonry.  As in the story of Samson and Delilah it symbolises the crashing down of the temple pillars. This again is regeneration, renewal. 

But I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

He's just a poor boy from a poor family

Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Freddie then asks if   ‘easy come , easy go’ can let him go. i e.  can the demons/djinn/daevas let him go.  Bismillah means ‘In the name of Allah.

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ   Bismillah

No, we will not let you go (let him go)

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ   Bismillah

We will not let you go (let him go)

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ   Bismillah

We will not let you go (let me go)

Will not let you go (let me go)

Never, never, never, never let me go

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

Then he is pleading with his mother (super ego) to let him go. 

Oh, mama mia, mama mia

mama mia, let me go

He then refers to the Lord  of flies, God of Ekron, Beelzebub .  This  might have been a reference to Jesus, as in the book of Mark ch.3: 22 ‘he is possessed by Beezlebul - by the Prince of demons he casts out demons’

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.

The devil or evil spirit representation in Zoroastrian faith is Ahriman.

Then the lyrics suggest perhaps anger

with Jesus, perhaps he is Judas. ‘Stone me’ could mean ‘getting me stoned’ (ie on plants).   Jesus spitting in eye means healing, restoring sight.

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?

So you think you can love me and leave me to die?

Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby

Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

In Gurdjieff’s classic tale ‘Beezlebub’s Tales to his Grandson’, Judas is not the evil traitor, but rather a saviour character. Freddie Mercury may have seen the light in Judas too. Brian May’s star sign happens to be cancer and Judas is also linked with the cancer constellation.

The end seems to be a reference to either a state of calm , the storm over,  nothing matters, a kind of buddhist acceptance.  Or alternatively has he given up and gone back to being a normal human? Is he going to carry on just like ‘mama’.  I guess we may never know

Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah

Nothing really matters, anyone can see

Nothing really matters

Nothing really matters to me

My feeling is that Freddie was describing one big breath, in and out. ‘The Word’.