The 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian is about consciousness rising. It shows Conan progress in awareness during his revenge quest. The movie demonstrates the teachings of the mystery religion schools. Conan gains his soul through the movie, which culminates in an act of violence and revelation.
One of the mystery school ideas is cited in an Alice in Chains song: "Some say we are born into the grave". That is, our body traps our soul. The soul is what we really are. There's an antagonist relationship with matter. The aesthetic, flesh mortifying cults try to live this teaching. Denying themselves pleasure brings them closer to their concept of divinity.
Obviously, there's no real basis for these philosophical and religious traditions. We really don't know why we're here, why the universe is here, or what we are. We muddle through.
I think these religious concepts carry the fingerprint of their origin, though, among an urban priestly class that glommed onto an idle ruling class by telling them what they wanted to hear--that they were secretly immortal and that death was not real, but was a gateway or whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment