A Symbol of Creation

[QuestforEudaimonia]

I was reviewing my old philosophy folder and came across this gem I had written 10 years & 10 days ago as of today. The title is "A Symbol of Creation." I wrote this as my term paper for the first philosophy class I was enrolled in. It's 8 pages long but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy :3

We are infinite and yet we are restricted; bounded by the limitless and freed by the void. We are the superspectrum, a question mark at the beginning and the end of creation. From the birth of our generations we sought out to live in the material realm and experience the archetype of imagination. Humans and myths intertwine together to create the suitable reality for us to dwell and prosper from within. “I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive” (Joseph Campbell). Our existence is no coincidence or accident; humanity is a symbol of creation.

In Jeffrey Kripal’s Mutants & Mystics, he explains of a participatory stage in an individual’s life as a realization. Through this epiphany we begin to perceive that paranormal events and occult practices are not only real, but are also created to serve as representations of humanity. However, this stage is in fact participatory, “in that, paranormal events often behave very much like texts: they appear for us and rely on our active engagement or ‘reading’ to appear at all and achieve meaning”. From a similar perspective, we could declare that humans too, are very much like texts; we are stories that continue on even after we finish reading the last page. On the other hand, it’s equally justifiable why so many of us don’t actively participate; the realization can be quite overwhelming and ignorance is bliss. From The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell asserts, “Go on, live your life, it’s a good life—you don’t need mythology. I don’t believe in being interested in a subject just because it’s said to be important. I believe in being caught by it somehow or other”. Mythology is everywhere; it is a depiction of spirituality and the experience of life.

Humans channel these myths and realizations through stories. We tell stories in order for us to be able to perceive our small portion of reality. Stories represent balance and chaos, mythemes and humanity; they act as symbols of a harmonized connection between the real and the imagined. From V for Vendetta, Alan Moore wrote “Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.” Take Grant Morrison’s and Mark Waid’s epic comics of the Justice League Association for example. One could claim that the heroes who are illustrated, Superman and Batman, the Flash and the Green Lantern, are merely stories written for our entertainment. Indeed, they are compelling, but they also serve as spiritual figure heads representing the aspirations of our imagination.

In JLA Volume 1, comic books 1 – 4, we are captivated by Morrison’s story of when our heroes clash with an ambiguous new group of characters called the Hyperclan and their leader Protex. They come to Earth in a seemingly peaceful manner and proceed to exhibit god-like powers in order to replenish our damaged environment. The Justice League are highly suspicious of the Hyperclan’s intentions and in result, citizens begin to lose faith in the JLA’s judgement and praise upon their new “heroes.” As the story progresses we learn that the Hyperclan are a group of ancient Martians, with the intention of dictating the human race and seizing Earth under their control. From JLA #3, Protex and Superman brawl in an epic battle, ending with Protex advocating “They fear you and they hate you and you don’t even have the guts to admit you despise them in return! You know in your heart they’re inferior!” Superman hurtles Protex through the Earth and proclaims, “They believe in me. And in my heart I believe in them”. Superman’s declaration is the pinnacle description of Kripal’s realization mytheme and exemplifies our passionate loyalty to the Justice League. Similar to Christian faith and the belief in Jesus Christ, the youth praise Superman as an imaginative messiah, a symbol of hope. Comic books, like religions, are a sense of comfort and closure; created by us to justify our own beginnings and ends. By acknowledging the truth in Superman’s quote, we realize that in order for any mythical figure or story to exist, we must believe in them just as they believe in us. A passage from Morrison’s JLA #4 inaugurates the absolutely necessary bond between mythical figures and us:

“Wonder Woman: Are we doing too much or too little? When does intervention become domination?
Superman: Humankind has to climb to its own Destiny. We can’t carry them there.
The Flash: But that’s what she’s saying. What’s the point? Why should they need us at all?
Superman: To catch them if they fall.”

In fact, we are them and they are us. We are the Justice League; we are Superman.

In relatable circumstances, comic book writer Mark Waid, and artist Alex Ross provide us with a super-hero epic titled Kingdom Come. Their masterpiece is the absolute depiction of a spiritual fusion between Christian faith and the paranormal. Mark Waid opens the doors to a dystopian society in which super humans dictate and continuously quarrel, while the mortals cower in fear as they attempt to live. Throughout the book we are guided by the ambiguous Angel of Death, Spectre, as he leads our protagonist, Norman McCay, through the course of events that result in Armageddon. When reading Kingdom Come, readers realize that Norman McCay, though he is not super-human, is a super hero. He is the symbol of humanity’s reasoning and faith who determines the fate of the world. Referring to the passage above, humans are as equally vital to the survival of super heroes like the Justice League. In Kingdom Come, it is Norman McCay, a mere mortal that saves Superman. He confronts Superman using his human alias, Clark, and reminds him of his mortal nature, his instinctive knowledge. Norman admonishes Superman, “It was a gift of your own humanity. But the minute you made the super more important than the man. The day you decided to turn your back on mankind…That completely cost you your instinct. That took your judgement away”. We are all born with the gift of humanity. In comparison to Morrison’s JLA, Kingdom Come’s theme reestablishes that humans create stories, such as these, in order to provide us with possible explanations of how our universe works. The creation of our cultures and diversities, ideologies and realities emanate from the birth of our story, the formation of humanity.

From The Power of Myth, Campbell suggests that one of the problems we encounter today is the lack of knowledge our generation has with the literature of the spirit. Morrison and Waid’s comics of the Justice League scratch the surface of the combination between spirit and man. It was Alan Moore, however, who not only analyzed this combination further, but also expanded upon the archetype of imagination. In Moore’s Promethea series, we follow the journey and transformation of university student, Sophie Bangs. She and her friend Stacia reside in a present day New York that is dominated by science; a similar situation to our own society. From the introduction in Promethea, Book 1, it states “But what interests Sophie isn’t science, its myth: specifically the recurring myths and stories of a mystic warrior woman named Promethea.” Moore weaves in elements of magic and mysticism along with superhero mythology and action, spirituality, and science-fiction. At the start of the first book, Sophie travels throughout the city to interview Barbara Shelley, widow of the most recent Promethea scribe. What seemed as a harmless interview for her college term paper, resulted in Sophie being chased by a smee (a demonic spirit sent by an organization called The Temple) and eventually being rescued by warrior looking woman that resembles Barbara. The two obtain shelter in a shack and as Barbara returns to her original form, she tells Sophie the story of Promethea.

“See, Promethea was a real little girl who lived in 5th century Roman Egypt. Her father was a
Hermetic scholar, sort of like a magician. A Christian mob killed him, but the Gods intervened,
taking his daughter into their world of myth and fiction, the immateria. Promethea is a living
story, growing up in the realm that all dreams and stories come from”.

From the passage, Barbara describes the immateria as if it were a physical plane of existence, another dimension of reality. Later in the book, when Sophie first travels into the immateria, it is called by a different name: Misty Magic Land. As the smee searches for them, Barbara orders Sophie to begin writing about Promethea. Referring back to Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta quote about how artists use lies to tell the truth, Sophie must now become the new vessel in order to channel Promethea’s power through her writing. Voicing the final scripture, Sophie transforms into a perfect depiction of Promethea, a solidified connection between the human body and spiritual imagination.

According to analytical psychology (psychology that originated from the ideas Carl Jung), an archetype is “a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, or image that is universally present in individual psyches”. Alan Moore’s story of Promethea serves as a representation of the collective imagination. In book 1, chapter 5 of Promethea, Sophie and Margret (another previous vessel of Promethea) discuss the connection one has with the imagination:

“Sophie: ‘The imagination?’ You make it sound like there’s only one of them.
Margret: There is. There’s a material world, and there’s an immaterial world. Both worlds exist,
but in different ways. For example, chairs exist. So does the idea of chairs”

Margret continues to justify that we all have our own private imaginations; however the archetype of imagination will forever exist. This shared imaginative realm is a key feature in being able to understand the powers of the human mind and how it positively affects the body.

Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Alan Moore, and many other authors and artists signify the vitality of exploring mythology, spiritualism, and the imagination. Jeffrey Kripal utilizes these factors in further expanding upon his realization mytheme. However, in order for humanity to be a symbol of creation there must not only be a combination of mind, body and spirit, but additionally a connection of body to body. Interpersonal relationships are by far one of the most imperative aspects of human creation and life. Margaret Edson’s play Wit and Christopher Nolan’s movie Interstellar serve as prime examples that exemplify the significance of human relationships.

Margaret Edson’s play, Wit, which won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, presents a brilliant manifestation that elaborates upon the importance of interpersonal relationships. The play focuses on the character Vivian Bearing, a university professor of 17th century poetry, dying of ovarian cancer. Through the excellent use of non-conventional theater (such as delivering lines directly towards the audience), Edson redefines death as a satirical representation of irony. Throughout her entire life as a university professor, specializing in the holy sonnets of John Donne, Vivian Bearing exhibits no sympathy or kindness towards her students and any other human for that matter. During her stay at the hospital she ironically encounters similar treatment from the staff “caring” for her. They treat her as a laboratory rat, a test subject, nothing even close to a human being. The apathetic line delivered “How are you today” is thrown around like baggage over the course of the play. During one of her monologues directed towards the audience Vivian describes her relationship with her students. “Now, I suppose, we shall see, through a series of flashbacks, how the senior scholar ruthlessly denied her simpering students of the touch of human kindness she now seeks”.

It is after this flashback that we see how Vivian deliberately fakes an emergency only to have Susie, a nurse in the hospital who Vivian has grown fond of, arrive and converse with her; human to human. As the scene unfolds, we observe the resolute and formal scholar interact with the nurse as she slowly deteriorates into a sympathetic human being who is terrified of the inevitable death from cancer. After Susie leaves, Vivian delivers another monologue to the audience: “Now is a time for simplicity. Now is a time for; dare I say it, kindness. I thought being extremely smart would take care of it. But I see that I have been found out”. Margaret Edson’s Wit, channels humans’ experiences with one another, in this beautifully displayed manifestation of interpersonal relationships. We rely on one another in order to create a balanced civilization where culture grows abundantly and ideas form. The combination of mythology, spiritualism, and imagination are all shared aspects of human interaction. We are infinitely expanding to the depths of space and the universe by channeling these aspects through stories.

Love is the ultimate element of spiritualism, magic, myth, and human interaction. Humans are given the privilege of being able to convey such intimacy through sexual intercourse. According to Jeffrey Kripal, when explaining his radiation mytheme, he amplifies the significance of sexual intercourse; “a pushing down of libidinal or sexual energies into the unconscious (here a kind of cultural unconscious) until they transform themselves and manifest again on a higher ‘sublime’ plane as something else, something more culturally acceptable, more symbolic and safer”. At this point, humans and myths intertwine to create symbols, the birth of a new story. In Promethea, book 2, Sophie Bangs must learn magic and in doing so she agrees to have flower with Jack Faust, a magician, not as herself however; as Promethea. The flower that is described here however is unlike that of the material world; it is as Jack Faust explains “Endless…Like tide. Like breath. Like the blood rhythm, like x-rays pulsed from dying stars. On and off. Back and forth. In and out”. As Kripal had previously elaborated on in Mutants & Mystics, it is a cosmological orgasm; a universal creation and flower is the symbol that represents the ultimate combination. However, the act of flower is not the only pivotal factor of love that combines two individuals or entities.

In Christopher Nolan’s epic movie Interstellar, love can be defined as that spiritual or in this case cosmological connection between humans in which will forever exist. It is a bond between communities and individuals that cannot ever be broken, only expanded. In Earth's future, a global crop blight is slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. Professor Brand a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth's population to a new home via a wormhole. The story focuses on main character, Cooper who is a retired NASA pilot and engineer, and his ties with his family. Professor Brand plans on sending him and a team of explorers through the worm whole in order to find another inhabitable planet. This, of course, would result in Cooper having to leave his two children for who knows how long. The element of love may at first not seem relevant in this science-fiction movie, but actually poses as the determining factor of human life. During the middle of the movie, a discussion between Cooper and Professor Amelia Brand, daughter of Doctor Brand illustrates the significance of the symbol of love:

“Cooper: You're a scientist, Brand.
Brand: So listen to me when I say love isn't something that we invented. It's observable.
Powerful. It has to mean something.
Cooper: Love has meaning, yes. Social utility, social bonding, child rearing...
Brand: We love people who have died. Where's the social utility in that?
Cooper: None.
Brand: Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand. Maybe it's some
evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive. I'm drawn
across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade who I know is probably dead. Love is
the one thing that we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.
Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it”

The fact that we disregard certain aspects of our universe because we don’t yet understand them is a flaw amongst humans. We disregard the paranormal and occult practices because we are insecure of the limitless explanations and possibilities or impossibilities they propose. For this reason, it is why so many of us don’t actively engage our souls and minds in the pure form of love or realization. At some point, it becomes too much to even fathom that such power exists. However, this power exists only because we humans created it; and in return humans only exist because it created us. We are a never-ending story that revolves around the mythemes of realization and the authorization of love. It is the immeasurable component that connects us to the immateria and the material, where stories and humans form together to create a communion of eternity. Love is the absolute determining factor that combines us individually and interpersonally through the mind, body, and soul. I first began this journey by claiming we are infinite, not out of arrogance but rather a truthful statement that our legacy will continue even after our extinction. The vessels die but the story will forever exist. Humanity is a symbol of creation, an emblem of life and death. After we die, however, we are ultimately free and our story shall eternally live.

-An ending quote from Interstellar-
Cooper: We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.