Bowie's last single said to feature tribute to Kabbalah

In his 2016 song ‘Lazarus,’ British pop star evoked his 1976 single ‘Station to Station,’ where he sang about Jewish mysticism

David Bowie’s final music video could indicate an “exploration” of the late British pop star’s apparent interest in Kabbalah from the mid-1970s.

Sources told Britain’s Daily Mirror that the 2016 music video for “Lazarus” was a tribute to Bowie’s 1976 song “Station to Station,” in which he sang, “Here are we, one magical movement from kether to malkuth,” a reference to two of the 10 kabbalistic sephirot, or divine emanations.

The “Station to Station” album cover features Bowie drawing a schematic of the sephirot in chalk in a distinctive blue and silver striped shirt.

The lyrics “refer to the divine emanations of the infinite: Kether, or ‘the crown,’ said to be the divine will or pure light, and Malkhuth, or ‘kingship,’ the nurturing receptacle of that light,” according to a 2013 The Forward article by Seth Rogovoy, “The Secret Jewish History of David Bowie.”

David Bowie: Station to Station cover art

In “Lazarus,” a video made for his final album, “Blackstar,” Bowie turns to the New Testament character by the same name. It is a moving song from the point of view of a newly deceased man who is talking about what’s going on “down below.”

Bowie is filmed in the “Lazarus” video wearing a shroud while lying on a wooden bed with — a la Greek mythology — coins on his eyes. He was, at least artistically, ready to cross over to the underworld.

In the video, Bowie can also be seen wearing a similar outfit to what he wore in the “Station to Station” album cover, in what insider sources say is a tribute to his interest in Jewish mysticism.

“David may have been looking into and exploring certain aspects of Kabbalah towards the end,” a source told the Mirror.

“The fact this is the last image of him on video – and this is the outfit he was wearing – is surely significant,” the source said.