Apocalypse,
or New Age?
The Emerging Perinatal Unconscious
Book
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by Michael Derzak Adzema, M.A.
PART THREE: APOCALYPSE?
OR NEW AGE?
Chapter Twelve:
Dreaming Out Loud:
Peaceful Warriors and Silly Heroes
Joe Vs. the Volcano
Responses to the Perinatal
Dancing Above the Dissonance
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Chapter Twelve: Dreaming
Out Loud:
Peaceful Warriors and Silly Heroes
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JOE VS. THE VOLCANO
Volcano-Jumping: A Different Heroic Response
The different kind of heroic response, which characterizes the perinatal
arena, is exemplified in another contemporary movie. In "Joe
vs. the Volcano," the main character, played by Tom Hanks, is given
a heroic task. But unlike a typical hero's cycle task which
stereotypically involves the slaying of a fire-spewing dragon, Joe is asked
to give up his life by jumping into a fire-spewing volcano.
The connection between volcano and dragon is that at the second-line
or psychodynamic level the fire-spewing aspects of the perinatal,
which might be compared to a volcano, can be seen as "embodied"
or reduced in the form of a dragon. In the same way, the volcanic
energy of perinatal feelings is initially embodied in easier-to-face
and "dragonized" psychodynamic, second-line, or childhood traumas and
feelings.
You Just Can't Slay a Volcano
But what may seem to work at the second-line or psychodynamic level
-- the conquering or slaying of negative feelings (and notice
that I said "seem") -- has no place at all at the perinatal.
For here the pain energy is overwhelming and pervasive. Thus
the difference is analogous to that between facing the energy of a dragon
and facing that of a volcano.
First Anima, Then Community
Keep in mind that this movie shows Joe, earlier on, going through all
the major stages of the hero's cycle -- the retreat from
mundane reality, the sailing off into a new and exotic realm of
existence and adventure. It even depicts a typical hero's conquering
of inner fears and risking of one's life for another that results in the
uniting with anima energy, i.e., the saving of the damsel.
So earlier on there is a dealing with psychodynamic energy, just
as in "Nothing but Trouble" Chevy Chase deals with psychodynamic
material by risking his life to rescue Demi Moore from a giant chopping
machine. But, also similarly, this results in the opening up of
another level. Thus, in "Joe Vs. the Volcano," Joe is asked
to give up his life to save an entire community, not merely to risk
his life to rescue his anima, his feeling self.
Risking It All
The ensuing plot has interesting elements as it shows Joe having to
decide whether to sacrifice his newly won relationship with his
anima ally for the benefit of an entire (but anonymous) community.
This demonstrates that at a progressed level of the spiritual process
-- that having to do with one's inter-connection with the larger
community of living things, not just one's personal unconscious --
one must risk even one's newly regained creativity, inner child
playfulness, and personal feelings. But in
telling fashion, in order to make the higher "community"
sacrifice the elements that have been let go of, symbolized by Meg Ryan
as the anima damsel, end up going with Joe to his chosen fate and
are borne up, renewed, along with him.
Borne Up by a Beneficent Universe
On Joe's part, the climax shows the same quality of a beneficent Universe
aiding a true and dharmic heart. Joe (with his anima) face
what they think is death. Instead they find themselves "borne
up" by the volcano, not consumed; and they are deposited (reborn)
in a typical perinatal watery surround -- the ocean, symbolizing
therefore a spiritual birth.
"Away From the Things of Man"
In the end, the main characters are floating in the middle of a wide
open sea (signifying the immensity of potentiality that is now open),
facing a gigantic moon on the horizon (symbolizing the beneficent
nature of the Universe to which they are opening, i.e., it is beautiful
and lit with possibilities), sitting on only their luggage (symbolizing
the "stripped down" nature of the self, i.e., stripped of ego trappings
of status, vainglory, defenses, and so on) and commenting that they
do not know where they'll end up but only that it will be "away
from the things of man" (indicating their desire to never go back
to the drama of ego and its puerile catacomb pathways of darkened experience).
The Universe Is You
We see then that in this movie, like "Nothing but Trouble," the heroic
response required is surrender, not resistance or control, and that
the response from the Universe is cooperative and helpful, and hardly
antagonistic as was feared, especially at earlier levels.
This is in keeping with the discovery at the perinatal, which borders it
on the transpersonal, that in fact the Universe, not only is not antagonistic,
not only is beneficent and helpful, but in fact is no different
from oneself, indeed is oneself. (And one begins to
wonder why one would ever expect not to be borne up by a Universe that
is now seen as inextricably united with one's Self.)
RESPONSES
TO THE PERINATAL
Returning now to "Nothing But Trouble," an aspect of it that has significance
for dealing with perinatal issues is the way different characters
are shown responding to the embodiment of arbitrary justice, the
judge. In the wonderfully Kafkaesque courtroom scenes, we see
several different types of people -- representing different responses
to unconscious material -- hauled before the judge.
The musicians (artists, creative people), the hedonistic criminals,
and the main characters (representing average people) each present
distinct attitudes, which are responded to differently by the representative
of the unconscious, the judge.
Jiving With Your Monsters
The musicians are able to create rhythm and flow. Therefore they
are able to get through the experience unharmed. Indeed, they
are even able to elicit a response from the judge -- getting
him to join in. In this way we see how creative people can actually
use perinatal material and get it to cooperate for desired ends.
We might consider how this relates to the writing of "Nothing but
Trouble" itself.
Peter and Dan Aykroyd, in creating this movie, are, like the musicians
in the movie, getting the unconscious to "play along," to create
something beyond what either the writer or the unconscious could
accomplish separately. Much of what is interesting in art
is done this way: The deeper fear-evoking material is allowed to
come in and enrich, enliven, freshen with new ideas and perspectives,
stimulate, and invigorate the creative production.
Beware the Tar Baby
On the other hand, the arrogant banker contends with evil, and, like
Brer Rabbit with tar baby, gets stuck. Notice also that the
really contentious ones -- the alcoholic drug-using criminal
hedonists -- are completely lost. Thus the two extremes, as
well as the average person are depicted.
Lighten Up!
But the truly striking element that indicates an advanced way of dealing
with the perinatal material is shown in the genre of the movie itself.
As a comedy, it shows a non-attached and transcendent approach.
Chevy Chase and Demi Moore, especially Chevy Chase, show an aloofness
and silly playfulness in the face of horror and death that has spiritual
implications. Like a Tibetan mystic, Chase refuses to get sucked
in to the involved drama confronting him. Like a Christian
saint about to be martyred, he jokes, teases, and gets silly with
the instruments of horror and evil. Similarly, Demi Moore humors
and plays cards with her would-be monsters.
Silly Heroes
Standing within the Witness higher self, they are able to take the entire
situation lightly -- acting and reacting in the moment to
each unique situation as it presents itself. One moment Chevy
Chase is confronting his own demise, the next moment he is in a love
scene; he alternates a frightful encounter with relaxing and smoking a
cigar. If we want to know what real and transcended behavior
is, we might do well to get our hints in the depictions of unattached
playfulness -- as presented by modern Western actors like
Bill Murray, Demi Moore, Tom Hanks, Chevy Chase, Robin Williams, Bruce
Willis, and Jim Carey -- rather than in the repressively
calmed not-with-it-ness (not-witness) that is sometimes mistaken for
spiritual attainment.
Darkening Down
Incidentally, this element of humor shows an entirely different way
of dealing with the perinatal than most other movies that deal with
this kind of material. The movie, "Brazil," is a good example
of this difference. Not only is "Brazil" cast in an eerie,
somber, and tragically hopeless and futile air -- indicating that
one's response here is to "believe in" the reality of such material
-- but the only escape in this movie is in a purely conceptual,
fantasy way. The main character cannot face the horror ultimately.
He flips out into a reassuring dream sequence brimming with BPM I and
BPM IV imagery. Interestingly, reflecting the pattern of progression
of our expressions in feeling therapies, the dream includes a BPM
III scenario to get him to those later bucolic realms.
But in "Brazil" these are only day dreams. This fact shows
a refusal to face this perinatal material or to surrender to it
-- rather, in fantasy, one overcomes the horror. It is
as if one continues using familiar ego techniques -- hero's journey
methods, dragon-slaying methods -- for dealing with material
on a deeper level where they no longer work -- where they
are in fact counterproductive. Thus, these techniques can only
succeed in dreaming. Terry Gilliam, the creator of "Brazil," shows
us that the hero, in reality, is doomed.1
Evolution In Attitudes to the Perinatal?
However, in "Nothing but Trouble," the main characters do face
and deal with all the material. Sometimes they fight it; sometimes
run from it; sometimes play with it; sometimes joke, tease, spar,
or get silly with it; sometimes are swallowed by it and carried along .
. . but always they are creatively facing and dealing with it.
This different air about and attitude towards the perinatal material
can be said to be an advance from the earlier movie, "Brazil," representing
perhaps a progression of our collective consciousness in our attitudes
and manner of dealing with the perinatal.
DANCING ABOVE THE DISSONANCE
Such a prospect is, indeed, the auspicious legacy of such a creative
project. The Aykroyd brothers and the producers of "Nothing
But Trouble" deserve our gratitude for their efforts in lighting
forward our collective reality endeavor.
Beyond that, we can take hope in the possibility that Western culture
may be rising itself, however minimally at first, above the dramas
of light and darkness that have plagued it for so long. The
Manichaean tendency can lead only to ever-spiralling cycles of resistance
and assault. Yet we are seeing currently, not only an erosion of
defiantly unidimensional ego perspectives, not only a movement toward
facing and dealing with our inner darkness, but an integration of
opposing forces, a dancing above the leela -- the play --
of light and dark.
The Universality of Divinity Remembered
The perennial understanding of the universality of divinity, both within
and without us, in the lowest as well as the highest of places,
is the bright at the center of the perinatal bedlam about us.
We are guided as well by this gleaming, a rising moon of promise
and possibilities.
CHAPTER TWELVE NOTE
1. However, one might interpret the main
character's escape into fantasy as a victory over evil
forces. That the ending lends itself so readily to such an
interpretation is a telling indictment of the
state of progress of some of us in dealing with perinatal material.
Apparently, there are those so
lost that the only success possible seems to be in insanity or death.
[return to text]
Copyright © 1999 by Michael Derzak Adzema
Comments? E-mail me by clicking on: mickel@primalspirit.com
Mickel Adzema
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