The Invisible Library

Spoons and Spinoza

There�s a lot of talk about the Ultimate Meaning of the Matrix movies, over at The Matrix Essays site and others. So I thought I�d add my two cents:

The basic structure of the Matrix follows Gnostic Christian Eschatology. It begins with a war in heaven between the Seraphim, the Angelic host created by God as servants (the Machines) and the Elohim (humans). The Elohim were old Pagan Gods, downgraded to the status of Demons, (referred to also as the pre-Adamic people, which is how Cain, when he was expelled form Eden found a wife. She was not made in the image of the God of Eden but in the image of another god. The First commandment says you shall have no other God before Me, not that there aren�t others. Anyway…) The result of this war was a schism in the cosmos. As punishment, the defeated Elohim (humans) are imprisoned in the Physical World (the Matrix), which is a construct created and controlled by a Blind Idiot Demiurge who, in his ignorance and greed for power and adoration, believes himself to be the creator of the whole universe (The Architect). The true Creator God Force, has a female counterpart (sometimes called his wife), Sophia. Sophia (Persephone) slips into the world (Matrix) in order to nudge the Elohim (humans) into evolving and rebellion, so that they will cause the imperfect physical world (Matrix) to collapse and thus rejoin the Seraphim (which I imagine resembles sort of like what happens to the Elders and the Skeksies at the end of The Dark Crystal). The way this happens is that enough humans are Illuminated and slip into the underworld (Zion), a part of the really real world where escaped they can gather to plot. Since they are basically out of control of the Blind Demiurge (The Architect) they have to be prevented from escaping or subdued once they return to the Matrix (as Enlightened beings, Saints, Bodhisattvas, etc.) by the Serephim (machines) lest they wake everyone up. This explains why the Architect has the elaborate plan at the end of Reloaded to try to convince Neo to reboot the Matrix and start Zion over with 23 individuals, to keep their numbers low and controllable. But Neo chooses not to. He�s more than just the One now (as the Architect tells him their were five other One�s, similar to Buddhist cosmology where each aeon is ruled by a different Buddha) but he is more Christ-like, choosing to accept the consequences of his love for humanity. And since the humans are helped by Sophia (Persephone) they are destined to succeed, as any Oracle will tell you.

So in regards to the Matrix revolutions, I predict that Neo (Christ) will return to the Matrix and wake everyone up, including Smith and the Merovingian to the fact that humans and machines are both Intelligences, both being controlled by the Architect, that they are all basically slaves. Only programs like the Merovingian and Smith are Princes of Hell while the humans are simply fuel for the flames. The Revolution will be against the controls of the Architect. And in the end, the Machines and Humans will set about to rebuild the world together, to turn it into a paradise where they cooperate, which is the point of the Matrix all along: to teach understanding of the inherent divinity of all Intelligent creatures, to encourage them to work together to muddle through the deterministic parts and respect one another during the times when they have free will.

That�s my theory anyway, extrapolating from what I know about the source material.

Now there are quite a few layers of symbolism in the movies, from the names of the characters to little details like license plates that refer to Bible passages and literary influences (most notably the reoccurring Alice in Wonderland references). At the Matrix Essays site they go into extensive detail, which means lots of fun for mythology and folklore geeks like me. I recommend it.

The Matrix movies aren�t everyone�s cup of tea, of course. My friend Jason found the movies disappointing when held in comparison to books that deal with the same ideas, Like Philip K. Dick�s Valis trilogy and Illuminatus!. But hay, it�s a mainstream big budget movie, from the Warner Bros., No less. So in this regards it�s something special that will maybe lead to a few people finding the works of Phil Dick and Robert Anton Wilson who otherwise wouldn�t have.

Finding Enlightenment though is a whole other matter.

The Center of Creativity

I haven�t written much on this Blog about comics and graphic novels, certainly not nearly as much as they deserve. I could go on and on about Frank, Krazy Kat, Sandman, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Ghost World… But they all step aside when Dave McKean�s Cages walks through the room.

For anyone who ever doubted that a comic book could have the depth of a �real� novel, Cages is the one that will change your mind.

The story centers around a cat; a guy who falls out of the sky; a controversial author who has everything in his life that he loves taken away from him, one piece at a time by some very odd men; an artist blocked by doubt; a musician who hears rocks sing and a woman who has in her possession the worlds most extensive pigeon related sayings. But it�s more than all this of course.

It�s a meditation on creativity but unlike the sort of gushing verbose decree to create one gets reading Ray Bradbury (which is a great kick in the pants for any writer), this is more sublime. It�s introspective to a degree that few writers are genuinely capable. There�s a bit of a desire when writing a story to keep your self at arms length from the subject matter, no matter hjow personal.

Reading Cages though, you get the feeling the painter is really Dave McKean. Sure, nothing new here. Isn�t the main character of every novel just a thinly veiled avatar of the author? Well, sort of but this is different.

See, the painter, the musician, the nameless fellow who fell from the sky, they�re not just aspects of Dave McKean. They�re everyone who�s ever felt the need to express something form inside but not known just how to go about doing it. So you fumble, you struggle, you find a theme, and pursue it, even if it is dangerous. You look for meaning and hope that there�s some sort of rhythm and structure. Then you fall out of the sky and make love to your neighbor and a cat talks to someone�s personal God and everything folds in on itself. But that�s OK because in the end you realize that you�ve made something, an artifact for inspiring thought and creation. And that ultimately, there�s nothing better you can do with your life than that.