{"id":447,"date":"2009-12-24T13:10:04","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T13:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/avatar-as-a-rorschach-of-the-soul.html"},"modified":"2009-12-24T13:10:04","modified_gmt":"2009-12-24T13:10:04","slug":"avatar-as-a-rorschach-of-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/avatar-as-a-rorschach-of-the-soul.html","title":{"rendered":"Avatar as a Rorschach of the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Last night I saw Avatar.  <\/span>Go see it! It is a wonderful and very Pagan
\nmovie. As I understand it the movie’s basic messages are that completeness is
\nachieved in connection with others, that harmony is the basic value and its
\nloss the basic failing of the modern mentality, that individuality exists in
\nthe context of connection, and that Spirit exists as immanent in the world. It
\nis a beautiful picture of breathtaking dimensions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

In my opinion how people react to
\nit enables the movie to serve often as a Rorschach of their soul.<\/p>\n

Avatar is also a testimony to the
\ncreativity and beauty that can come into existence through the wonders of
\ntechnology.  <\/span>A number of its
\ncritics argue this is one of its (many) internal contradictions.  <\/span>In saying so they evidence far more the
\npoverty of their own understanding that the contradictions in the movie.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The message of the movie is not
\nanti-technology, it is anti-worship of power and wealth.  <\/span>Technology is involved only because the
\nmodern power obsessed mind and withered heart worships technology because it
\npromises ever more power.  <\/span>And
\nbecause power is ultimately empty, those who worship it are never satisfied
\nuntil they have more. <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s reminds me of my first
\nexperience with the Goddess in its basic message: with love and beauty like
\nthis, who needs power as a substitute? 
\n<\/span>Before my experience I was fascinated by Power – which of course I would
\nuse only for good.  <\/span>Afterwards
\nPower ceased to interest me as something worth acquiring, and that was about 25
\nyears ago.<\/p>\n

Nor is Avatar’s message
\nanti-human.  <\/span>At the most
\nsuperficial level, a number of good humans are absolutely crucial to the
\nstory.  <\/span>That they are a minority is
\nnot a comment on human beings, it is a comment on what happens to human beings
\nin a depraved context dominated by corporate power.  <\/span>Anyone who denies that most people tend to act badly in that
\ncontext is ignorant or a liar.  <\/span>In
\nthe case of the movie’s conservative critics, liar is probably a more accurate
\nterm.<\/p>\n

To pick our own country to make a
\npoint, America has a long history of treating its original inhabitants
\nsimilarly to the way the corporation treats the Na’vi.  <\/span>I live in California, a state that once
\nhad the densest population of Native Americans in all western North America and
\nwhich today has very few and some very small reservations.  <\/span>The reason is that those who did not
\nsuccumb to disease were hunted and slaughtered almost to a man, woman, and
\nchild.  <\/span>Because they, like the
\nNa’vi, stood in the way of progress. (I pick on Americans because I am one and
\nas a culture we are currently drunk on power and self-righteousness.  <\/span>But given the right context no people,
\nincluding Native Americans, is exempt from this weakness.)<\/p>\n

But let me get still more
\nspecific.  <\/span>John Podhoretz over at
\nthe Weekly Standard<\/i>,  <\/font><\/font>writes<\/font><\/font><\/a> “one
\nwould be giving James Cameron too much credit to take <\/font><\/font>Avatar<\/font><\/font><\/i>-with its mindless worship of a nature-loving tribe
\nand the tribe’s adorable pagan rituals, its hatred of the military and American
\ninstitutions, and the notion that to be human is just way uncool-at all
\nseriously as a political document.”<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

This
\nis a revealing comment because there are <\/font><\/font>no American institutions at all<\/i> in<\/font><\/font> this movie, unless it be the worst aspect of a
\ncorporation.  There is no American
\nmilitary here, though there is something like Blackwater.  There are a few characters who have
\ntraditional military virtues – I am thinking of one heroic female gunship pilot
\nin particular – but<\/font><\/font> because<\/i><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/b> of
\nthose virtues their loyalties ultimately turn against their corporate
\nemployer.  That Podhoretz is so
\npersonally affronted suggests how far he and his ilk are in fact removed from
\nany understanding or appreciation of what is decent about this country. But then, no
\none who ever studied the moral cesspool of contemporary NeoConservatism, and
\nits cult of nepotistic narcissistic armchair warriors eager to see others fight
\nin endless wars, would call it a reflection of anything worthwhile in this
\nsociety. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That some people are upset by
\nHollywood’s supposed pantheism again says more about them than the movie.  <\/span>Is it pantheistic?  <\/span>Yes.  <\/span>Wonderfully so.  <\/span>Is there anything evil or objectionable in what happens due
\nto the Goddess?  <\/span>Not at all.  <\/span>I think the anger against it comes from
\ntheir own feeling of separation from the sacred, for their God does remarkably
\nlittle that is evidence of either care or goodness.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The basic value behind most of what
\nI call monopolistic transcendental monotheism today is Power.  <\/span>It is their god’s defining
\ncharacter.  <\/span>What makes him ‘god’ is
\nthat he can beat anybody else up: the Ultimate Alpha Male in the worst sense.  <\/span>The people who claim to be his servants
\nclaim a similar right towards anyone who disagrees.  <\/span>They do not have to reason, they do not have to give fair
\nevidence, all they need to do, like a three year old, is state that they want
\nsomething and it is rightfully theirs. 
\n<\/span>Small wonder that a movie describing and depicting a far better deity is
\nobjectionable to them.  <\/span>It reminds
\nthem that of fact that in reality they worship something that more resembles the
\ndeity of a baboon troop than a deity for human beings.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I saw Avatar.  Go see it! It is a wonderful and very Pagan movie. As I understand it the movie’s basic messages are that completeness is achieved in connection with others, that harmony is the basic value and its loss the basic failing of the modern mentality, that individuality exists in the context…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nAvatar as a Rorschach of the Soul - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/avatar-as-a-rorschach-of-the-soul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avatar as a Rorschach of the Soul - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night I saw Avatar.  Go see it! 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