Are The Fires Of Hell A-Glowing?

[S.D.]

I've been thinking about Into The Fire and the concept of burning, flames, and fires since the song regained some interest in The High End Of Low topic on alternate versions. Some people have discussed the lyrics, specifically 'Rapist Werewolves' and 'god pissing', both of which I enjoy.
Whilst touring the record, Manson said this:-

"Everything is a mess, I'm not the janitor.
You can just watch it. I'm just spitting, I'm just pissing on the fire of garbage."
MM . 2009, FuseTV

The quote would imply Manson was taking a god-like stance for The High End Of Low, a god that no longer cares about what it created, happy to watch everything burn, like Nero. Then consider the trajectory from this, to Born Villain, when Manson was photographed as Mercury once again, and Overneath The Path Of Misery; "Stare into my Kodak Rome Jack-hammer ice eyes", you can observe a slow course plotted by which he ascends to 'Emperor' status. His recent focus on familial roles is interesting as well, because Nero was rumoured to have murdered several of his family members or associates, and allegedly burned Christians just to keep his property 'mood-lit' - this also reminds me somewhat of the Red Queen having the headless hanging in her garden, and by association, The Gardener.
The stark image of Manson setting himself on fire for Born Villain relates well, especially in tandem with his Shakespeare recitation; "All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle".

Twiggy, his 'twin' playing 'fiddle' as the world burns behind him:-

Into The Fire isn't the only song to feature prominent fire iconography on The High End Of Low, I think Running To The Edge Of The World is significant also; "If god crossed us we'd take all his drugs, burn his money and his house down, and wait for the fire to spread. But sometimes hate is not enough to turn this all to ashes."
That configures pretty well with the Nero comparison, I feel. Follow that through again to Born Villain, and Manson says "So I burn, gotta burn it", during Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms, and "burn me into splinters" in the title track. I'm not merely trying to connect words, I think Manson has used the emblem of fire to describe destroying the way you once thought or felt, to emerge like the Phoenix myth.

Prior to Born Villain, I also noted that in the PEROU shoots, Manson looked similar to Heath Ledger's Joker, who during The Dark Knight of course, burns the giant stockpile of money; "Some men just want to watch the world burn". Manson has compared himself with The Joker recently, and I always felt that nihilism was relative, both visually and with Manson's discussion of money over The High End Of Low and Born Villain.

A brief summary, is that fire, for Manson, is transitory. He sees flame as something that enables creation, after destruction.

I hope some more thoughts are added to the table.

[Mercurius]

Fantastic and not all too rectilinear Interpretation of very criptic material. Thank you!

[Mercurius]

The thought of transcending from a divine form of being to a (pseudo) physical manifestation of divinity- namely god to Nero to Elagabalus, or spiritual to decadence, depravity and discrepancy and conflict between conservative Rome and religious Syrian traditions once again marks Adam Kadmons "fall from grace" - albeit with a considerable amount of irony and reflection.

[S.D.]

I think even if 'Fire' wasn't mentioned, different manifestations of space are perhaps worth observing in this reading. I Have To Look Up Just To See Hell is positioned just before Into The Fire on The High End Of Low, and so one could surmise that Manson's ascension sees him travelling upwards through the fires of 'Hell'.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but it may also be significant that the album's final track concerns his 'Birthday', which if we were to lead it straight into the next album - Born Villain - sees him questioning the space around him in Hey, Cruel World..., with its admission of "I am among no one".

[Neves]

Interesting topic; I'd also like to add that a scene from the movie The Nines, where one of the characters refers to crossing 'the edge of the world', and when that happens at the end of one of the movie's chapters, everything is burned down. That movie is a known influence for THEOL, still a far underrated Manson album.

[Nemoris Inferioris]

Burn all the good things in the Eden Eye.

[Two Faced Egg (23)]

Synchronicities Of Birds & Of Fire & Birds With Their Wings On Fire

[M Tragedy666]

Eat Me Drink Me has "love is a fire, burns down all that it see's, burns down everything....everything you think, burns down everything you say..." Sorry for nothing else to add, but just want to throw out the obvious since EMDM and THEOL are clearly closely related/companion pieces. I think if fire is used in that song, it might relate in Into The Fire or Running to the Edge on THEOL.

[Nemoris Inferioris]

The Death Of Art = Rebirth.