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Black Lodge

The Black Lodge is a fictional place from the television series Twin Peaks. It is an extradimensional place which seems to include the "Red Room" as seen by Agent Cooper in a dream early in the series, where he sees himself 25 years older sitting in a chair. In the series, the Native American policeman Deputy Hawk says that the Black Lodge is from the mythology of his people.

One entrance to the Black Lodge seems to be located in Ghostwood Forest surrounding the town of Twin Peaks. A pool of a substance akin to scorched engine oil, is surrounded by 12 young sycamore trees. This area is known as Glastonbury Grove. It is said that the key to gain entrance to the Black Lodge is fear. This is in contrast to the key to the White Lodge, which is love. Another requirement to enter the Black Lodge through the entrance in Glastonbury Grove is that it may only be entered "....when Jupiter and Saturn meet..." When the above requirements are met and one approaches the pool in Glastonbury Grove, red curtains seem to materialize out of nowhere which lead into the Lodge.

It is probable, according to a scene which was not included in the film but which was in the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me script, that there are portals in other locations around the world. This scene precedes Phillip Jeffries's surprise appearance in the Philadelphia FBI offices; The scene is in the lobby of a hotel in Buenos Aires where Jeffries is staying. He boards the elevator and instead of getting off on the floor where his room is, he ends up in Philadelphia. Jeffries has been missing, according to FBI records, for two years. The experiences he relates to Albert, Cooper, and Gordon Cole can be said to have taken place in Buenos Aires, because the hotel was the last place he was seen. Major Briggs and the Log Lady's experiences also show that one can be "abducted" without being at the Lodge entrance, but just being near it. The Log Lady was in the woods when she disappeared and the Major and Cooper were camping in the woods at the time of his disappearance. These events tie all three disappearances to the Lodge.

It remains unclear whether the White and Black Lodges are disparate realms. One could interpret the White Lodge and Black Lodge as one and the same place—a possibility hinted at by the mirrored black and white tiling throughout the lodge. The notion that the two Lodges are "one and the same" is consistent with the themes of duality which characterise the Lodge, reflecting the concept of Yin and yang.

A common conception of the Black Lodge is that it is a realm of total evil which has usurped, absorbed or occupied its White counterpart with the possibility that the White Lodge has become the red waiting room of the Black Lodge (still enabling benevolent spirits and angels to manifest themselves there), or that the waiting room is a neutral location, and the action of the inhabitants therein determine procession to either the Black or White lodge. During the second season, Windom Earle relates a past-tense story about the White Lodge which is replete with Edenic imagery, suggesting that the White Lodge belonged to a time now lost or forgotten.

"Once upon a time, there was a place of great goodness, called the White Lodge. Gentle fawns gamboled there amidst happy, laughing spirits. The sounds of innocence and joy filled the air. And when it rained, it rained sweet nectar that infused one's heart with a desire to live life in truth and beauty. Generally speaking, a ghastly place, reeking of virtue's sour smell. Engorged with the whispered prayers of kneeling mothers, mewling newborns, and fools, young and old, compelled to do good without reason ... But, I am happy to point out that our story does not end in this wretched place of saccharine excess. For there's another place, its opposite:"

Earle then describes the Black Lodge in the present tense, perhaps indicating that it has replaced the White Lodge:

A place of almost unimaginable power, chock full of dark forces and vicious secrets. No prayers dare enter this frightful maw. The spirits there care not for good deeds or priestly invocations, they're as like to rip the flesh from your bone as greet you with a happy "good day." And if harnessed, these spirits in this hidden land of unmuffled screams and broken hearts would offer up a power so vast that its bearer might reorder the Earth itself to his liking.

Deputy Hawk describes the Black Lodge as

"the shadow-self of the White Lodge. The legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it 'The Dweller on the Threshold' ... But it is said, if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul."

Life in the Lodge is difficult to describe. Time seems to have no meaning in this dimension (runs normal, slower or stands still as a coffee cup held by Agent Cooper demonstrates), and space is fractured between rooms linked by narrow corridors of red drapes. Inhabitants of the Lodge speak in a warped dialect of English and often speak in riddles and non sequiturs. This may be seen as parallel to some versions of shamanism, where the inhabitants of the otherworld may sometimes speak backwards. The presence of doppelgangers, or "evil" aspects of a person's personality, is possibly the most unsettling feature of the lodge. Doppelgangers are identical to their real world counterparts, with the exception of glassy-colored eyes. Apparently, one doppelganger exists for every person, either living or dead (this includes Agent Cooper).

An oft-recited poem from the series reads:

Through the darkness of future past

The magician longs to see.

One chants out between two worlds

Fire walk with me.

In the final episode of Twin Peaks, Cooper meets the Man from Another Place, who refers to the Red room as the "waiting room", possibly a link between the two lodges. Only when the Man says "Fire walk with me" does the realm erupt into flames, and then descend into flickering blackness. This is arguably the moment at which Cooper has finally entered the Black Lodge.

Song

Twin Peaks's score conductor Angelo Badalamenti later helped write a song of the same name on the 1993 Sound of White Noise album by Anthrax.

Cultural References

In The Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" There is a scene where Chief Wiggum has a dream in which Lisa speaks backwards. This is an obvious homage to Twin Peaks and Special Agent Dale Cooper's interaction with the Man from Another Place in the Black Lodge. Also, after Homer escapes from the paddy wagon, the Squeaky-Voiced Teen speaks to his manager Diane, which is the same name as the unseen character that Agent Cooper dictates messages to.