Hmmm. This review of The Bond Code by Philip Gardiner points out the numerous examples of esoteric codes and references to occult, gnostic and alchemical topics in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, such as the odd character names:
Auric Goldfinger (alchemy)
Le Chiffre ("the cipher, or code")
Sir Hugo Drax ("the Dragon")
etc., etc.
"...touchstones to the esoteric appear in many places in Fleming's writings. There is a Bill Templar in Diamonds Are Forever, alluding to the Knights Templar. The Ourobourous (the alchemical symbol of a serpent eating its own tail) is part of the name of the Ourobouros Worm and Bait Company in Live and Let Die....Gardiner points out the resemblance in the novel Casino Royale of the first Bond villain, Le Chiffre, to the occultist Aleister Crowley."
And Fleming apparently corresponded with Crowley, had an intense interest in Jung, knew of an esoteric meaning behind the number 007, and so on.
Interesting. Still, I don't think the character "Pussy Galore" was intended as a reference to the ancient Egyptians' worship of felines.
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This is an old post but hopefully what's here will be seen. Such an interesting subject if you have looked into the idea of 'magick' and pictures of our human consciousness and can identify it in Fleming. I do feel it is there almost as a Mithraic Initiation into the world that people who keep our most awesome secrets live in. You can go in a lot of directions with this, and I feel the book only begins to open your eye to the millions of dollar worth of Jungian or magick symbolism you're exposed to in the prose written and recorded. As for names, I think this serves as a good introduction to the theme and to chaos magick in general. Whether clever or not, every character in the series adheres to their nature and their potential expressed in their name sigil. Moneypenny for example: If Fleming himself is in the narrative role of the omniscient 'society' both entering the neutral telling of the story with shades of characterization, and taking it in and being moved along in his consciousness by it simultaneously. This is an analogue of the dualistic holographic universe (not in every 3rd person narrative surely, but specifically in Fleming's initiated view). The term 'moneypenny' I think refers to a penny, a common coin, the kind you wouldn't hold on to for sentimental value, even. Meant to be spent (remember, this is Fleming's view present in the era of consciousness he lived in). In the technofeudal world they live in, the mmuch hinted Bond-MP romance can never happen. To be practical to Bond, it seems to me, is more than an ingrained part of who he is on this plane of existence (I'd have to devote a whole post to the hyperdimensional Tarot aspect of 007, suffice it to suggest here)-to be otherwise would be a disservice to Moneypenny, who loves him precisely for this aspect of surely spiritual honor in his character. However, when Bond is in need, figuratively down to his last penny, she freqently shows up on her own initiative to rescue him. I do think this functions in a parallel story Fleming was telling to posterity about his own views about unrequited passion as well, and the most important point is that these are both true at once in his work, and both are just aspects of a bigger dialectic he sets up about the nature not just of the universe, but of all existence and modern man's connection to God. Like I said, a study could go in so many directions, but hopefully I did an ok job of illustrating the ocean depth of philosophy and mysticism in 007.
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