As some of you may know, May 4, is known as Star Wars Day. People all over the world spent the day dressing up and going to events, many have been doing this for years. After all these years people still love Star Wars. Which left me wondering, what about this movie and others like it, makes people fall in love with them?
Star Wars Is one of those movies that inspire our inner creativity. What makes these movies special, is they awaken a part of ourselves we don't often express, spirituality. Not religion but spirituality, religion is other peoples perspective, spirituality is your perspective. Many over the years have claimed Star Wars has hidden spiritual meanings that match up with certain aspects in their religion. Which is true only because the 'force' represents that on thing that all religious groups have in common. Belief in something beyond yourself. In may ways the force can be easily compared with source energy. Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force as “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” This is analogous to the concept of Ch’i, the Chinese word used to describe the spiritual energy of the universe. It may be likened to the Buddhist view of the vast Godlike reservoir of energy that connects all living things. This is very similar to what most religions believe.
Star Wars Is one of those movies that inspire our inner creativity. What makes these movies special, is they awaken a part of ourselves we don't often express, spirituality. Not religion but spirituality, religion is other peoples perspective, spirituality is your perspective. Many over the years have claimed Star Wars has hidden spiritual meanings that match up with certain aspects in their religion. Which is true only because the 'force' represents that on thing that all religious groups have in common. Belief in something beyond yourself. In may ways the force can be easily compared with source energy. Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force as “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” This is analogous to the concept of Ch’i, the Chinese word used to describe the spiritual energy of the universe. It may be likened to the Buddhist view of the vast Godlike reservoir of energy that connects all living things. This is very similar to what most religions believe.
Star Wars is not the only movie series that draws us in by using spirituality. The aim of Harry Potter is to show how death can be vanquished; how an ordinary mortal human being can enter a process of transmutation and transfiguration that will alchemically transform him or her into an eternal, perfect representation of source (god), filled with overwhelming compassion for suffering humanity. All the characters are symbols or personifications of aspects of the process, symbolically called, "making the Philosopher's Stone". With this stone the alchemist can make gold, i.e. the Gold of the Spirit, and the Elixir of Life, i.e. eternal life. All the elements of his journey are there: his confrontation with the fears within himself, his love of those closest to him, his quest for the good, his deep identification with his deceased mother, his unselfishness and willingness to sacrifice himself for others, his patience and persistence in the face of one mystery after another, his purity of heart, and his penultimate choice of weakness over power. These two are very spiritual concepts.
The Lord of the Rings is another example .The ring is an ancient symbol of links and bonding; it simultaneously binds and isolates. It is also a circle which delineates an outside from an inside. This is a perfect symbol for the ego, an island of consciousness, a ring of self-awareness. It binds us inside as a separate individual, and also isolates us from something greater outside, the universe. When we are born, we have no sense of separateness from our mother. We are simply a natural extension of her. Not until months later does our individual awareness slowly begin to emerge. This process of ego creation is akin to forging a ring. Not until the ring closes in on itself like the ouroboros have we created a separate space; a separate awareness; a separate individual. It is at this moment in each of our lives that we first suffer a death. Our connection to the outside world is severed. We are isolated, disconnected. For the first time in our lives, we suffer deep insecurity and fear. What we now desperately desire is the security of the former state of oneness . It is from this single base desire that all desire flows. To satisfy and regain security we need to control and influence events in the world outside of us. And to control we require power. The ego therefore can be seen as a self-aware, power-seeking psychological complex. The ego is a ring of power. It is this separateness, this ring of false consciousness that must be destroyed.
My favorite example though is the most recent one, Avatar. After Neytiri rescues Jake from possible death due to his encounter with the animals, Neytiri raises her voice and says that he is “Like a baby”. Being a baby would roughly be synonymous with being “ignorant”. Ignorant in the sense that Jake does not know any better. Jake is also ignorant of the idea of living in harmony with nature. Jake represent our entire spices, young, ignorant, and not in harmony with nature. Spirituality then became even more obvious when Jake was brought to Neytiri’s tribe and was face to face with Mo’at, Neytiri’s mother. Mo’at was to decide the fate of Jake. Jake expressed willingness to learn the ways of the Navi, but Mo’at raised her voice and said, “It is hard to fill a cup that is already full”. Jake replied quite quickly, “My cup is empty”. Jake is also taught to bind with the animal so that the animal and him are one This binding and oneness is later explained by the film as the “flow of energy, spirit of animals, network of energy that flows through all living things”
All of these movies tap into that spiritual sense of oneness that is described by numerous religions and teaching through our history. We love these movies simply because we love this concept. We love it because we see it everywhere almost everyday and struggle to put it into words. These movies do and this is why they will always live on.
All of these movies tap into that spiritual sense of oneness that is described by numerous religions and teaching through our history. We love these movies simply because we love this concept. We love it because we see it everywhere almost everyday and struggle to put it into words. These movies do and this is why they will always live on.