Bagdad Cafe – Just Who Is Elsa Anyway?

bagdad cafeI wrote this post in 2007 when Saturn was opposing Neptune. I was trying illustrate this phenomenal mash-up of energies, which is shown strongly in my natal chart.  It’s just shocking.

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On the idea of being a Saturn Neptune type, I have a story that illustrates the confusion, perfectly. Not just other people’s but my own.

Some years ago my friend and astrologer, cf, who thinks I am the quintessential Mars type woman suggested I see the movie, “Bagdad Cafe”, which is a great movie by the way.

“It’s a movie chock full of Mars symbols,” she said. ‘Wait’ll you get a load of the woman in there… Brenda. She’s just like you.”

Well I didn’t believe her at the time. No one is just like me. But I got the movie and sure enough…

In the movie, Brenda is black woman and she’s pissed off! She’s very cute and inexplicably likable but she is pretty much mad as hell at everybody all the time. The first thing she does in the movie, is toss her man for no reason… no reason at all.

And she doesn’t mess around either. She picks up these tin cans lying around and she throws them at him and his TRUCK. You know. Get the hell out of here!!! GET OUT!

Well everyone knows I love trucks. And though I have never broken a dish in the house, I have kicked a few cars in my day, always in an effort to get rid of the man driving them, just a little bit faster. Like kick the bumper of the car, as it’s driving away, for good measure! So you know I was chagrined, watching this movie and several years passed.

I’d seen this movie a few times by then because it’s that good. The song in this movie, alone moves me to tears. And I love Brenda. I think she’s amusing to no end and one day Scott and I were talking about movies. I recommended, Baghdad Cafe and he eventually watched it.

“That movie was great, Elsie. Thank you very much. And she’s right. You’re exactly like that woman. You and Jasmine, there is no difference at all,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. Watching that movie was like watching you in her body,” he said.

“What?”

In the movie, Jasmine is a big German woman. And she’s not mean at all. Or mad.

“Jasmine? Really?” I couldn’t function on what he meant. Seriously. It spun my head around. “Er… I’m supposed to be like Brenda…”

“Brenda? Brenda? No! You’re nothing like Brenda. You’re the Jasmine character. She’s exactly like you.”

For a split second I thought he must be jerking my chain but knew he wasn’t. “Really? What do I have in common with Jasmine?” I waited for him to tell me because I had no clue.

“Everything! There is no difference between you and her at all, Elsie. Didn’t you see that? Brenda? You’re not like Brenda!”

“Really? Explain? Can you explain this to me?” I was completely confused. It literally hurt my head. Like putting glasses on the blind… or taking them off.

“Well for starters she gets left on the side of the road!” Scott left me on the side of the road when I was a kid… “And she has nothing. She’s got nothing at all and that’s how you were when you left home. You left home with absolutely nothing.”

I laughed. “Oh yeah. I remember that now,” I said with a snort. “But she’s magic.”

“She’s magic? You’re the one who’s magic.”

“I am?”

“Yes Elsie,” he said as if he was sick of telling me this. “And she’s in the desert, too. I am telling you the movie is a map of your whole life. I mean, right there, in the first five minutes she’s in your exact circumstance.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of this.”

“You’re kidding. How could you miss this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well the rest of that character is just like you too. Everything she does is exactly what you do. What you did, I mean.”

“It is?”

“Well yeah. You started off on the side of the road just like her. And what did you do?”

“I went to town.”

“Yes! And when you got there…. well, it’s just like in the movie. She touches people. Here’s she’s got nothing and she comes in there and saves them all.”

“I do that?”

“Hell yes, you do that? Are you kidding me? That’s exactly what you do.”

“Okay, well I would have to think about it. I’m not sure I understand this but I’m listening. Tell me.”

“Well, she gets to the cafe..”

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Sorry. It looks like this got cut off somehow.  But you have to admit it’s amazing. It’s also the story of my life.  Interacting with people who think God knows what of me!

10 thoughts on “Bagdad Cafe – Just Who Is Elsa Anyway?”

  1. Oh, Elsa! This post brings tears to my eyes, you little bugger, you!

    Sniff..

    As for the astrology, I have Neptune (12th) trined Saturn (7th)…and I can make a crap-shoot guess that this couldn’t happen to me.
    But I am not the best judge of this!

    As I get older I am not so afraid of letting others kow how vulnerable I feel in this big bad world; I used to be terrified of admitting my weaknesses because I come from volatile family and have a “highly stressed 4th house Mercury in Taurus” as you succintly put it to me, Elsa.

    I took great pleasure in telling a work acquaintance recently that I second guess what I say in public often, because I have a never-ending worry that what I am communicating is not harmonious to what I actually feel. Or, that I may feel that way tody and change my mind tomorrow!

    In other words, I worry too much about flakiness and it’s effect of my *image!* I partly blame the Sag rising and Cap Moon…it’s all about truth and how it reflects on my *image*

    ::tee hee: This guy couldn’t believe it, he thinks (his words, not mine) that I speak with authority and sureness, and to tell him the last thing I feel is ‘sure’ atually shocked him.

    Who knows what all the other people I deal with on a daily basis think, some think I am hiding terrible secrets (I’m not, except other people’s); some think I am uptight; my boss STILL freaks every time he sees me with a smoke even though he sees me every goddamn day.

  2. I just picked up the link (through the Related Posts) to this. The Baghdad Cafe, one of my all-time favorites. Jasmine, and Elsa okay yeah the archetypal magician, mythic time. I love that Jasmine character. And here I am at the ElsaElsa Cafe!

    An old favorite movie, and a solitary comment from kashmiri whom I miss!

  3. Great film. Great post! Loved the read. It is a historical record. You mentioned a few posts back Elsa, about you stories and people trying to copy. They cant copy your ‘voice’ it is unique to you…loved
    Kashmiri reply too. Another unique voice. Very special.

  4. I’m definitely going to watch Bagdad Cafe! My grandson is 8 and an avid reader into magick. (I like spelling it that way! Seems like it better fits the concept I have of the word in real life.). He’s reading The Hobbit right now and has the trilogy too waiting in the wings. Is the movie too much for an erudite young man?

  5. Here again you touched my soul Elsa. Not only was I reminded on my first trip (I’m German by the way) to the US (driving distances and backroads), but also on watching the movie in Cinema in Frankfurt a few years later and loving it…and remembering all this today is a mighty heap of hope. I identify with Jasmine but I think that her real name Marianne Sägebrecht is much more fitting. I just need to polish my magic and all will be well…

    Compared to how totally gutted I was all week I feel resurrected. Thank you

  6. Hi Su! You felt gutted this week. I can relate! Son and wife in Portland, OR had a pipe burst in their house while they were staying in a hotel because ice and wind storms took out their power and it was only 7 degrees which is way cold for Portland! Then last night one of their trees fell over(uprooted)! Luckily only their fence was damaged! Poor dude! He’s just finished insulating for the cold and it was heavily damaged! He’s a Capricorn and is wife is Pisces. Shit is hitting the fan. Many reports of additional airline near misses too! Hoping you watch the movie again if you need a pick-me-up!

  7. Try ‘Paris Texas’ next. I think you will like it. That is bad news about
    the people in Portland…puts things into perspective. It has been a rainy mostly mild summer here where l am. Very serious floods in other parts. Very humid too.
    Moulds. Rashes ( l have a weird something on my foot- no pain. Perhaps l shouldn’t have gone barefoot in the park…) I have been hearing about broken elbows. Limbs…just replaced a hot water system ( beautiful young plumber: lied through his teeth-l did not use his recommendations…
    something felt off.Show pony type).My plumbers were excellent. On time. Straight talking. Good men.
    New fridge next…
    So here we are. Transiting Saturn on the ASC. atm. I dont feel l have much in common with my old friends…l am not even sure if l like them, l am just not interested…l think l have been too accomodating. Too nice.
    I need new clothes. New…??? Whatever the ‘new’ is it will have to fit in with me–not the other way around. This time.

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