Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1 - Summer Album Post

Kanye West's JESUS IS KING

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This is the last post of what may become the second book, and I’ll be doing a deep dive, similar to what I did with Vampire Weekend’s “Father of the Bride”.

“JESUS IS KING” by Kanye West

I was talking to a friend, whose knowledge of music and Kanye I greatly respect, about this 2019 album, Kanye’s most recent. And he remarked that, to him, Kanye’s music has never been fully secular, or rather, it has always had the religious and the spiritual in it.

Going as far back to his first album College Dropout and the single “Jesus Walks”.

As Genius.com notes, ~“It was a bombshell within the musical community—a rap song endorsing Christianity. Yet it became Kanye’s third Top 20 single in a row, was certified Gold, and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song.”

With lyrics like:

We rappers is role models: we rap, we don't think
I ain't here to argue about His facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just tryna say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis, that's the way I need Jesus
So here go my single, dawg, radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God my record won't get played, huh?

I think the important line here though is that Kanye says he’s not ‘here to convert atheists into believers.’

And also that he’s ‘just tryna say the way school need teachers…that’s the way I need Jesus’.

Kanye is speaking for himself mostly, what he needs for himself, not what others need in an evangelical way.

This brings me to one of the main themes of this post, which is Kanye’s Numerology and how it affects his religiosity versus his spirituality as well as his bipolar disorder diagnosis.

Kanye was born on June 8th, 1977. Most Numerology systems would designate him an 11.

I’m an 11 as well.

Numerologist Ann Perry lists some positive characteristics of 11s:

ELEVEN - POSITIVE TRAITS

Intuition, Revelation, Invention, Poetry, Art, Spirituality, Fire, Zeal.

And these qualities became some of the reasons Kanye served as inspiration not just unconsciously in my New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs but later more consciously in my long sentence book about my dad’s death.

More specifically, according to Dan Millman’s system, Kanye is a 38/11.

While I’m a 29/11.

The difference is that Kanye works through 3 and 8 along with 11, while I work with 2 and 9 to 11.

3 is an expression/creativity number and 8 is a power/money number, while 2 is a cooperative/harmony number and 9 is a humanitarian/universal love number.

More specifically, according to Ann Perry:

3’s traits include:

THREE - POSITIVE TRAITS

Artistic, The Joy of Living, Free from Worry, Optimism, Inspiration, Talent, Imagination, Good Taste, Sociability, Friendliness, Kindness

THREE - NEGATIVE TRAITS

Worry, Whining, Criticism, Gossip, Extravagance, Vanity, Triviality, Superficiality, Exaggeration, Silly Pride, Self-critical.

And 8’s traits include:

EIGHT - POSITIVE TRAITS

Power, Authority, Success, Material freedom, Judgment, Discrimination, Executive ability, Organization, Leadership, Management, Practicality, Thoroughness, Dependability, Self-reliance.

EIGHT - NEGATIVE TRAITS

Hardness, Materiality, Ambition for self and money, Demand for recognition, Intolerance, Worry, Scheming, Love of power, Carelessness, Impatience, Poor Judgment, Misspent energy, Control strain.

I have two friends who were writing partners with me at separate times who are 38/11s.

They’ve both gone on to direct/write multiple movies after not working with me anymore.

Which is totally fine ;)

I just note it to say that 11s with 8 in their number tend to be more successful commercially/materially/etc.

Kanye also was born on the 8th of June, so he has an extra 8 in his Numerological make-up which suggests extremes of that quality, i.e. more ‘success’ and…

“POWER”

as well as ‘ambition for self and money’ and ‘hardness’ and ‘demandingness.’

Or as Kanye raps in the second song on the album and first one with his vocals:

When I scream at the chauffeur
I ain't mean, I’m just focused

Perhaps, the most significant part of Kanye’s Numerology though in terms of JESUS IS KING and Kanye’s religiosity, not to mention, Kanye’s bipolar diagnosis, which I share with him, is the negative traits of the 11.

Which according to Ann Perry include:

ELEVEN - NEGATIVE TRAITS

Idealism, Priestliness, Evangelism, Martyrdom, Aimlessness, Shiftlessness, Lack of understanding, Fanaticism, Self-superiority, Imposition of the personal will or standards.

Which I would argue are traits that seem to define parts of JESUS IS KING.

To continue from “Selah”:

God is King, we the soldiers
Ultrabeam out the solar

and

Before the flood, people judge
They did the same thing to Noah

There’s that sense of ‘Martyrdom,’ which is always present with Kanye but even more so perhaps on this album.

As Genius.com notes:

The opening lines to “Selah” contain a callback to the first track on Kanye West’s February 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, titled “Ultralight Beam”

We on an ultralight beam
We on an ultralight beam
This is a God dream

But the difference between “Ultralight Beam” and some of JESUS IS KING is that it seems to be about the spirituality of the universal love of a Higher Power, while the latter is more specific to the religiosity of the dogma of Christianity.

When JESUS IS KING came out in the fall of 2019, I was telling my ‘atheistic’ wife that the Higher Power was in contact with me during the manic episode/spiritual awakenings via the shuffle synchronicities I was getting while writing the book about my dad and many other synchronicities in the interplay of life.

Though I would now say more clearly that we are all in contact with the Higher Power, it still seemed to her that I had become a self-proclaimed Prophet full of ‘self-superiority,’ another negative trait of 11s.

Of course, Kanye’s own marriage seems to have fallen apart not unsoon after his own awakening/episodes.

And I recently read that 90% of all marriages with bipolar people end in divorce.

And I do think there is a connection between master numbers like 11 and 22 with mental illnesses especially Bipolar Disorder though I’m not quite ready to get into that in this post.

Though here is a mainstream interpretation from The Atlantic of what bipolar disorder and creativity is like to scientists based on Kanye’s declaration before making this album that “I cannot be on meds and make watch the throne level or dark fantasy level music” and that “he was ‘learning how to not be on meds’”.

It’s still striking to me how my and Kanye’s timelines seemed to match up with his manic episodes/spiritual awakenings followed by marital conflict and then divorce and preceded by guilt over a parent’s death.

I’m very curious like I’m sure many of you are to see what Kanye does with that material in his next album.

But back to JESUS IS KING, Kanye scrapped a bunch of songs that were going to be an album called Yandhi, and started a Sunday Service Choir in Calabasas.

Everybody wanted Yandhi
Then Jesus Christ did the laundry

Which reached the greater public consciousness in April of 2019 when Kanye performed at Coachella with it for Easter.

West has claimed that he was "radically saved" at that time, which seems to line up with my own experiences of manic episodes happening around Easter both when I was 21 and later when I was 35 and 36.

While the holiday itself is charged (and Passover too), there may also be something biochemical with the changing of the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere that activates it.

According to Wikipedia, Kanye enlisted Adam Tyson as a personal pastor for weekly Bible studies (much like Bob Dylan did during his Chrisitan period when he hired a pastor to join him on tour).

Also, in May 2019, West invited Pusha T and his brother, fellow American rapper No Malice to reunite as their duo Clipse for a collab on the album.

No Malice had stated that the duo would never perform together again after his own spiritual awakening and conversion to Christianity in the early 2010s, when he changed his stage name from Malice to No Malice because he felt his previous name had a negative meaning and now wanted to spread positive messages.

Kanye reportedly no longer wanted to rap until he was persuaded by No Malice. 

West also spoke to the pastor Tyson about quitting rapping because he viewed it as "the devil's music," to which Tyson suggested that West rap for God.

This ‘Priestliness’ perhaps then became a bit of an ‘Imposition of the personal will or standards.’

When West asked collaborators on the album not to engage in premarital sex and I believe also not to swear.

Argentinian jazz pianist Federico Vindver who recorded the live instrumentation for much of the album noted that West's "faith went past a point of no return."

He’s also reported to have clashed over his wife Kim Kardashian West’s formfitting outfit for the Met Ball.

He said the outfit was too sexy and it affected his soul and spirit when she dressed provocatively.

Kardashian West told her husband he encouraged her to dress that way in the past and, “Just because you’re on a journey and you’re in a transformation doesn’t mean I’m in the same spot with you.”

Which is almost exactly what my (ex?)-wife would tell me.

I remember reading a report about 11s that said:

“A word of caution: Be mindful not to allow your search for spiritual enlightenment overcome your life and close relationships. There have been many who feel they must go on an arduous journey of self-discovery only to realize that they didn’t need the journey’s harsh lessons in order to find what they were looking for. This self-imposed scenario could inadvertently lead to broken or damaged relationships with the friends and family members who could have been helpful or rewarding in the Life Path 11’s pursuit of enlightenment.” 

And there are many moments on JESUS IS KING that are about the struggle to be spiritual or religious such as “Follow God”.

With lyrics like:

Lifelike, this is what your life like, try to live your life right

and

I was screamin' at my dad, he told me, "It ain't Christ-like"

and

Wrestlin' with God, I don't really want to wrestle

Which suggests that familial tension I was feeling when I wasn’t aware of the shadow to my pursuit of enlightenment.

Then there are songs like “Closed on Sunday”

In which the chorus:

Closed on Sunday, you're my Chick-fil-A

Suggests Kanye’s ‘lack of understanding,’ another negative 11 trait, as Chick-fil-A not only closes on Sunday for the Christian sabbath but also was against LGBTQ+ rights for many years.

Kanye, as he’s wont to do, and probably me too, put his foot in his mouth a bit and, according to Genius.com, ~“responded to LGBT groups' frustrations during his Big Boy interview by saying:

Hip-hop was dropping f-bombs and I said, ‘Stop.’ You can play the footage: I said, ‘Stop it.’ As soon as I said ‘Closed on Sunday just like Chick-fil-A,’ there was LGBTQ articles saying they need to boycott my company.”

Unless I am failing to understand myself, Kanye seems to be saying his song created the Chick-fil-A controversy when in actuality it had existed for years. Not to mention the fact that he seems to be claiming that he can end swearing in hip-hop.

Then there are lines in this song like:

I pray to God that He'll strengthen my hand
They will think twice steppin' onto my land
I draw the line, it's written in the sand
Try me and you will see that I ain't playin'
Now, back up off my family, move your hands
I got my weapons in the spirit's land

Which veers more toward the ‘Fanatacism’ of religions that is tribal than the Spirituality of religions that is universal, and is another negative quality of 11s.

I saw something on Twitter today from a Jewish poster who was saying their ‘heart glowed’ to hear stories of Jews and Muslim pirates uniting in the past to attack Spanish Christians as revenge for the Inquisition.

Which made me think, is that what should make our heart glow? Violence in return for violence?

I think this is the main thing with Kanye right now is that he is both very spiritual but also very religious or perhaps wildly vacillating between the two.

People want to write him and all religion off but if they do so they miss the spirituality beneath it, which is perhaps the true core of it.

Haha even saying ‘the true core of it’ I see I am also veering on the edge of a negative quality of the 11.

There’s a line in the next song “On God”

Thou shalt love thy neighbor, not divide

Which I think speaks to Kanye’s acceptance of Trump. Which was controversial. But is something I can also relate to. I hated that man before my spiritual awakening. Hated him in an unhealthy way. Like many of us.

But when I had the spiritual awakening, I saw Trump’s humanity and that he must have some purpose. Jungians according to Chris Cole have said that he’s the shadow of the collective come to the surface to show all of us what needed to be seen and worked through.

So I think when Kanye ‘supports’ Trump, he’s really supporting everyone, and would support anyone. Loving both sides, not ing.

The next song has some beautiful messaging.

Switch your⁠, switch your attitude
Go 'head, level up yourself
This that different latitude

This is exactly what many have said is one of Cianity’s greatest contributions to humanity, including the Jewish Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, that is attitudinal values.

“Attitudinal values speak of the potential to make meaningful choices in situations of suffering and adversity. Frankl contends that everything can be taken away from a person but the freedom to choose one's attitude.”

And that realizing that actually allows you to live in Heaven on Earth no matter the circumstances of your life, even being a victim of the Holocaust.

Or as Ty Dolla $ign sings:

We have everything we need

But it’s the 8th track, of all numbers, of the 11 song album, haha, that I think is the standout of the album, “God Is”.

Regardless of judging Kanye as having positive or negative qualities of an 11, this song is simply Kanye’s testament of what his numinous experience has done for him.

I know I won't forget all He's done
He's the strength in this race that I run
Every time I look up, I see God's faithfulness
And it shows just how much He is miraculous
I can't keep it to myself, I can't sit here and be still
Everybody, I will tell 'til the whole world is healed
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, all the things He has in store
From the rich to the poor, all are welcome through the door
You won't ever be the same when you call on Jesus' name
Listen to the words I'm sayin', Jesus saved me, now I'm sane
And I know, I know God is the force that picked me up
I know Christ is the fountain that filled my cup
I know God is alive, yeah
He has opened up my vision
Giving me a revelation
This ain't 'bout a dead religion

Whether Kanye was manic or going through a ‘revelation’ or both when he made this album…

As psychologist Lionel Corbett writes in Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion:

“Whereas psychosis causes disruption or distortions of the personality, numinous experience is actually beneficial. Not only does it soothe anxieties, it enhances spiritual growth and makes the person aware that there is an unseen world of which he or she is a part, even though some numinous experiences are difficult to integrate into one’s ordinary life, and it may be difficult to live up to what one has experienced.”

So when Kanye raps “Jesus saved me, now I’m sane,” I choose to believe him because that’s how I felt after my experience of the numinous.

It might not seem like it from the outside but that psycho-spiritual vomiting is necessary for healing, even if it can take months and involve a presidential run that is full of quixotic ‘Idealism’. LOL.

Corbett continues:

“Our felt sense today is that there is a dialogue emerging between human consciousness and a larger Consciousness...in which case the psyche is simply the agent of transmission...which manifests itself to us in the form of numinosum...the way we experience the numinosum, and the content of the experience, is closely related to our personality and our emotional difficulties.”

Which means, to me at least, that a numinosum (aka a spiritual experience) is affected by who we are and our background.

So Kanye’s life experience growing up influenced by Christian churches and with a career as a rapper likely makes true numinosum experiences come to him in that hybrid language and tradition.

Whereas for other people that numinosum might not come from religious forms at all.

Corbett even notes that:

“For most people the numinosum is encountered in relationships. The mystery of connecting to others is vital and compelling, sometimes to the extent that it feels as if peace of mind can be attained only by means of relationships.”

This was perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from this whole experience.

That my (ex?)-wife might not experience the numinosum like I did. But that’s OK. And that perhaps no one experiences it in exactly the same way. That even though she might not believe in “God”, she still has spiritual experiences in her relationships or in other ways.

That realization seemed to have come too late.

But maybe it’s for the best and what whatever you want to call the mystery wants instead.

In the second to last song “Hands On”

Kanye sings about what he thinks people think of him:

Change, he ain’t really different

And I can relate to that. And I’m sure people who know me personally can too.

Though some might see some major differences.

Point is:

I do think people can use my Gospel, or whatever it is I write about now, even if it isn’t exactly Christian, and even if it’s definitely not pt, just like they can use Kanye’s.