Homily from May
16, 2010
by Amanda Tarling
"Is Avatar
the perfect Unitarian film?"
Avatar
has been described as “a
visually overwhelming 3-D action-adventure sermon,” an anti war
missive, which is based on a colossal battle between the conquerors
and the aboriginals on a distant planet. The Vatican went so far as
to describe Avatar as having “a great deal of stupefying,
enchanting, technology but few
genuine emotions”. I would disagree. The director – James
Cameron’s two central theological themes are “God is feminine”
and “her divine spirit is infused in all of nature, and thus, in
all of us”. I think this is pretty emotional! Is it any wonder the
Vatican chose to dismiss this movie with a trite review. If they
took it seriously it could be a threat to Christianity. – but
before we get into the divine nature of a blockbuster film – let
me ask you…
Who
has seen the movie? I wanted to write a homily about Avatar as the
same criticisms that were launched at it have also been directed at
Unitarianism. Namely that the “religion” of the Natives in Avatar
was plundered from many different world religions and cobbled
together into something spiritually meaningful. And I wondered…Can
the highest grossing movie and a religion… well ok…. a “spiritual
outlook borrowed from many faith traditions” - have an impact on a
secular society?
Let
me take a few moment to tell you about the movie…The
year is 2154 and the Hero, Jake Sully – a Marine - who is
wheelchair bound - is heading to Pandora, a moon in another solar
system, for a high-paying job in a mercenary-mining colony. His
mission is to infiltrate the local population, called the Na’vi,
whom his profit-hungry employers insist must be displaced, so they
can mine a precious ore. To this end Jake is transformed into a Na’vi
(a blue skinned super strong humanoid creature with a tail) and the
transformation takes place while he is sleeping.
Over
three months Jake, in his Avatar form of a Na’vi, is accepted by
the tribe. He is taught the Na’vi ways by none other than the
beautiful daughter of the chief of the tribe and his wife who is the
shaman. But things are heating up. Jake’s employers, the nasty
profit hungry miners, want Jake to make the Na’vi move out of their
“home tree” – where they all live - as it is sitting on a rich
deposit of ore. Jake, now free of his disability as a Na’vi, and
smitten by his beautiful Na’vi teacher Neytiri - becomes swayed by
the Na’vi struggle.
And
who wouldn’t - Pandora has been described as the Garden of Eden
with teeth. Pandora is akin to a primal rainforest – full of
magical flora and fauna. But it is not without its hazards. Wild
ferocious dogs and savage, half-crazed dinosaurs prowl the forest.
Pandora is a world full of floral eye candy – but it is a
fantastically dangerous place to live.
While
in the Na’vi’s world Jake goes through a series of tests – the
hero’s journey in outer space – he must learn to ride one of
their wild horses. The Na’vi have long ponytails that also act as
receptors – to ride a horse a Na’vi must “bond” with the
horse by plugging their ponytail – with its open nerve endings -
into the horses’ similar outlet. Jake is instructed to send his
thoughts to the horse and listen to the horse, to feel its heart, its
strong legs, its breath, and merge mentally with the animal. This is
such a beautiful idea – Our 7th
principle of the interconnectedness of all life - come to life.
As
Jake is immersed in the Na’vi’s world he is taught honour and
respect for everything in the natural world. And we watch as Jake is
transformed on all levels – physically, emotionally, mentally and
spiritually as he becomes a true Na’vi. Jake morphs from a
hard-wired Marine to a whole being who is having a spiritual
awakening.
The
Na'vi worship a sacred transcendent entity, called Eywa,
who is both Creator of the universe and Mother Goddess. The Na’vi
commune with Eywa through the tribe’s female shaman and approach
Eywa for guidance in every area of life. Some of the most beautiful
scenes in the movie show the entire tribe “linked” though their
ponytails to Eywa. I would like to take a minute to take us there…
Meditation
-
deep
breath
–
close eyes –. I invite you to suspend reality as
I conjure up a distant planet called Pandora…. [Cue
Music]
[To
listen to the meditation from the service, click here.]
It’s
a mystical place, picture a rain forest resplendent with first growth
trees, a sun dappled woodland floor, rich with flora and fauna in
every hue and shape imaginable. Then picture yourself, you are nine
foot tall, you have a muscular, lean frame, with blue skin, glow in
the dark tattoos, you live by hunting, by night you sleep in a
hammock suspended high above the forest floor and you revere nature,
your tribe, and your goddess Eywa. There is a crisis in our
tribe
–
one
of
our
members is ill, she has been placed at the foot of a
magnificent fluorescent willow tree - our
tree of souls - that is the embodiment of our goddess Eywa - also at
the center of our circle is our female shaman, who is calling to Eywa
to help heal the body of our sister. We are surrounded by every
member of our tribe, we sit in concentric rings around Ewya. Our arms
are around the shoulders of our neighbours as we all sway and chant
to our Goddess. Most amazingly we all have wondrous ponytails, which
end in receptors, each of us has plugged in our receptor
to
the
sacred
tree’s
roots - to be in direct communication with
everyone else and to all members of the tribe who have gone before
us, to our ill sister and to Eywa. Physically bonded to each other we
can hear the voices of our ancestors and have an awareness of our
tribe as one entity working to heal. We sway and chant and sway and
chant – building energy like our ancient pagan ancestors did
millennia ago. Channeling this energy towards our ill comrade… Darkness
descends, the music fades, but we are left with a poignant
picture of community that resonates within my wiccan Unitarian soul…
Please
take a moment to take a breath, leave Pandora and return to planet
earth…
Thinking
about that meditation on community…Wouldn’t Jung have loved this
immediate access to the collective consciousness? A beautiful,
visual portrait of the ability to connect.
----
The
religion that James Cameron has created for the Na'vi is a heady mix
of First Nations’ spirituality, Pantheism, Paganism, Wicca, and
Hinduism. In the movie the spirit of the divine emanates from Eywa,
the Na’vi’s transcendent monotheistic Goddess but she is also
embodied in absolutely everything that is and more.
Lets
take a moment to define the word Avatar - from Hindu Mythology
and means the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form;
like the Christian Jesus. Perhaps the Na’vis’ blue epidermis is
meant to be a parallel to Krishna – Hinduism’s Christ-like figure
– who is always depicted as having blue skin. Krishna is an avatar
–an earthly incarnation of god. Another way think about the word
“Avatar” is
the
embodiment
of
divine
wisdom in the human soul.
---
…But,
back to the movie… the battle for the land looms as no matter what
Jake says to the Na’vi, they refuse to leave their sacred home
tree. Suddenly the Garden of Eden is dealing with interstellar
warfare on a titanic scale.
The
indigenous people live on Pandora – we all know the myth of
Pandora – the beautiful first Greek woman who the gods made out of
earth – each god giving her a special gift, some good, some evil –
and all placed in a box entrusted to her sacred keeping. Pandora
becomes curious to know the contents of the box and opens it, thereby
releasing its contents into the world – shutting the box just in
time to keep hope in. What hope is there on Avatar’s mythical
planet of Pandora – hope that nations of people will be inspired to
return our earth to what it could be, and once was?
Yet
this seems to have boomeranged, psychologists are following a trend
they are calling “Avatar depression” – people leave the movie
and think there is no hope for our world. They have what is being
called “the Avatar blues”. Yet I walked out of the movie on a
spring day in Victoria surrounded by trees buoyant with blossoms and
bird song in the air. No dinosaurs or crazed dogs to rip me to
shreds here. And I am inspired to take better care of our planet
because of Avatar or in the face of an unimaginable oil spill – or
perhaps a combination.
But
back to the plot – our hero Jake is transmuting back and forth –
a human by night and a Na’vi by day. What does this transformation
have to say about our unconscious – where do we “go” at night
when we dream, or when we day dream – where do we put our conscious
and unconscious energy?
With
each passing day Jake’s affiliation to the Na’vi is becoming
stronger but his employers become suspicious. Jake ends up giving
the miners the plea that many aboriginals have spoken to their
conquerors “we don’t need your schools, your language, or your
goods, in fact nothing you have would entice us to leave our land.” The
invading miners interpret this as “the savage natives will not
reason with us therefore the only choice is full out warfare”. And
in one line the company boss says “dead natives don’t look good,
but what shareholders hate even more is not making money”. So it
isn’t big business that is the bad guy in this movie – it is the
shareholders – the consumers – us! Then the head of the mining
company’s army says “We must fight terror with terror” Hmmm,
where have I heard that before????
Cameron
is holding up a mirror up for us all to see what our greed and
disregard for human life has accomplished. We know this as
Unitarians, but Avatar has inspired First Nations groups from the
Alberta Oil Sands to paint themselves blue and claim the Avatar story
is their story. Calling the area “Ava-Tar sands”. Similar
stories have emerged from indigenous groups in many countries.
In
the end Jake has to decide where his loyalties lie – with the Na’vi
or with the humans. But with the humans Jake has paralyzed legs and
only a costly operation can fix them, with the Na’vi he is reborn
in a perfect body and has the love of a beautiful woman. Perhaps not
such a hard choice.
So
the big battle scene is upon us – the mining company’s hired guns
verses the peace loving tribes of Pandora with their neurotoxic
arrows on horseback and flying pterodactyls are not much of a match
for gunships and helicopters.
Eywa
doesn’t take sides, say the Na’vi – but in the climax of the
movie where the mining company strip bombs the Pandora rainforest
destroying the sacred spaces (this reminded me of Bear Mountain
filling sacred caves with cement) and killing Na’vi – Eywa does
intervene – the Na’vi are saved and many humans are killed. As
the audience we are on the side of the Na’vi and are not mourning
the death of the humans. What kind of a god takes sides? Why are
the lives of earthlings less precious than the Na’vi? Or even the
trees. Eywa is like Shiva – an angry destroyer – protecting what
is hers. Laying waste to the humans. Cameron portrays Eywa as a god
who is all about the interconnectedness of life -why does it stop at
the “bad” humans – perhaps because in reality we have forgotten
this connection? At the climax of the movie our hero Jake says of
Earth… “they killed their “mother” a long time ago” – how
true this is – there are so few vestiges of Goddess worship left,
and respect for Mother Nature barely exists.
Cameron’s
message portrays a beautiful Eden – unsoiled by selfish humans.
What we yearn for after turning our planet into toxic waste. Do we
give up hope
on earth? Pandora is a fantasy – a wake up call to remember what
earth was, and could still be. Can one movie influence people to
infuse our earth with a sense of the sacred and bring the global
population’s awareness to that fact that we are all linked? I hope
this movie at the very least helps us as a species to deepen our
connection to nature and each other. The exquisitely beautiful
spirituality this movie has brought to millions has left people
adrift. No wonder people leave this movie depressed – they don’t
see a way to access an alternative meaningful, earth based,
female-centred spirituality.
In
the end Avatar is meant to be a feel good movie – a happy ending –
but lets step back a moment – the white disabled human “saves”
the Na’vi by winning the battle, and humiliating the “Bad”
humans who have all been sent back to earth. This isn’t a victory
– the greedy colonialists versus the “white alien” – who does
the Na’vi’s work for them. This just doesn’t sit right with
me. It is akin to the predominantly
white male youth who protested the Vancouver Olympics on behalf of
the First Nations. If I were a First Nations person who disagreed
with the Olympics being on my land I would (a) express my opinions
myself and (b) be furious if some other group did it for me. The
ethnic Na'vi, the film suggests, need the white man to save them
because, it insinuates that the Na’vi are a less developed race,
implying that they lack the intelligence and fortitude to overcome
their adversaries by themselves. The poor helpless natives must rely
on the white man to lead them out of danger. How many times has this
excuse been used by the invaders around the globe?
I
loved many aspects of the movie, especially the spirituality BUT this
is a dysfunctional white story. There are hours and hours of
violence in this movie – a friend said “yeah but if it was a
movie without violence nobody would have gone to see it.” But I
wonder … what if the Na’vi had found a different way to solve the
problem – dialogue, treaty negotiations, a peaceful way to mine the
ore so that everyone could “win”. Who would have extolled its
box office virtues then?
I
am thrilled that Avatar is awakening in many the desperate need to
“save” our planet and it also has some beautiful things to say
about the interconnectedness of life and re-awakens the divine
feminine in a world where there is little divine perceived in the
feminine. Let me finish with my favorite words from the Movie…
The
Na’vi say “I see you” as a greeting – similar to namaste
–meaning I really see
you, on every level – I see INTO you. I see what you stand for, I
see who and what you are…..The song we are going to sing for the
collection is called “I See You” and could easily be mistaken for
a saccharine sweet love song – but in the context of the movie it
is not – the song beings “walking in a dream I see you” - Jake
is only in his avatar form when he is sleeping – so he is in a
dream – and his dreams all come true – he meets the girl of his
dreams, his paralyzed legs are healed – he is a warrior again –
what from our dreams do we need to bring to reality?.……… I
see
you!
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