From Cosmogony & Cosmology:
"That Shiva the destroyer god is now active signals the fact that the cycle of creation has returned to its source, or rather, that the life forms of it are ready to return to their source."
In destroying the world, Shiva must destroy the worldly God -- the Archons and the Lord of the Archons, the Demiurge. We can see shades of this process -- the obliteration of the false god -- everywhere in the world around us. It elucidates and it occludes simultaneously, as any dramatic and chaotic transition must. It is manifest in the new voice of Gnosticism and in the widening gap between conservative orthodoxy and progressive counter-culture.
In my previous post I mentioned Atreyu and the soul-mirror threshold to the Southern Oracle. Before the mirror gate, Atreyu has to pass between two Sphinx(es?) -- smaller golden versions of the Oracle her/itself, threshold guardians. The eyes of the Sphinx will remain closed as long as the person passing through is pure of heart. If the warrior allows himself to be filled with fear and doubt, the eyes open and shoot out lethal beams of white light, instantly vaporizing the would-be hero. Atreyu makes it through, but just barely. When he finally does reach the actual Oracle, it speaks to him with closed eyes -- perfectly analogous to Shiva:
"Shiva possesses a third or Ajna eye, which, when turned inwardly, gives him understanding to an absolute degree; when turned outward, it destroys. [...] Through the total insight given him by his Ajna eye, Shiva the destroyer perceives that which he must destroy in the service of justice. Through that total insight he also perceives those whom he must protect."
Shiva or Christ acts as a mirror, mirroring ourselves back to us. The destructive aspect of Shiva is not arbitrary, nor is it a good vs. bad phenomenon, rather it is a statement of what IS. A true mirror will tell ultimate truth in its ultimate form. Therefore, if a lie looks into a true mirror, it must be destroyed, not because the lie is "bad," but because it is FALSE, and the only means to comprehension of the falsehood is through the destruction of the lie.
The lie can only know itself by ceasing to exist.
How strange that you would mention Atreyu today...I've just been reading someone else's take of the meaning of the 'auryn' With Tim talking about my hometown, the synchronicities are really piling up.
Posted by: Haeresis | July 09, 2005 at 11:54 PM
that IS weird. .. is the auryn stuff posted online? if so i would love to check it out.. the neverending story seems to have kind of weird magical charge or something. maybe it's the whole sentient information thing again...
Posted by: laura jane | July 10, 2005 at 06:39 AM
Neverending Story is the DVD I put on when I get sick, which is rarely, maybe once a year if that.
Laura: there's a rhythm to the Kosmos, and especially to the noosphere. We're all close to each other in the Noosphere; otherwise, we wouldn't be blogging together. So don't be surprised if the other surfers near you in the ocean bob together on the same waves...
My buddy Jesse over at Homoplasmate says that Shiva is supposedly a cross between the Christ and Devil archetypes. Freaky! Honestly though, Shiva is one of the few spiritual archetypes I've felt attunement to.
Concept: if Shiva's Ajna-eye, turned inward, can see with perfect clarity what needs to be protected and what needs to be destroyed, perhaps there IS a limit to Shiva's vision: the point at which Shiva intuits Its own self-destruction as necessary for the continuity of the All.
Perhaps this isn't death per se; perhaps this represents a mirroring of Shiva into the souls of humanity, where each of us can open our own Ajna-eye and seek truth with the sharpness of intuition, and possess the faculty to destroy temporal falsehood with truth.
Posted by: P-Tar | July 10, 2005 at 08:45 AM
it doesn't surprise me -- i have been a dedicated student of synchronicity since i was 15! .. it DOES, however, still amaze me.
i personally have a hard time equating shiva with the devil archetype.. if only because i see the destructive aspect as diametrically opposed to the archonic sort of "prince of lies" quality that i associate with the devil. shiva definitely has a dark/terrible aspect, but i see it as true darkness, rather than the occluding darkness associated with the devil. i guess what i'm saying is that to me shiva is "bigger" than the devil.. "more" cosmic, so to speak, and thus more parallel with christ... i think people often overlook the destructive and forceful aspect of the christ archetype. i think that christ and shiva can both be viewed as microcosmic representations of the urgrund/real god.
if shiva destroyed itself, that would be the destruction of destruction... to me the obliteration of destructive force suggests ensuing stasis, a static nothingness. shiva is sometimes seen as the lord of death, but ultimately it is shiva who sustains life by permitting the ebb and flow, the cosmic breath.
Posted by: laura jane | July 10, 2005 at 10:03 AM
I think that he said that Jung made that comparison, but I could be wrong... and so could Jung.
I'd agree with you as far as the whole Devil archetype goes: maybe Jung took the whole "destroyer" nature too viciously. I've always seen "Satan" as being a Deceiver or Trickster (thus has more in common with Coyote than Shiva), as opposed to God the Teacher. Progress versus Regress? Some destruction has always been woven into Nature's program of progress, like a chisel carving a statue.
I've always thought of Shiva as being a sort of integrated philosopher-warrior. I mean, It spends most of the time with Its Ajna-eye turned inward, contemplating the Whole... and then It opens its Ajna eye and annihilates the false and unnecessary. Maybe the Ajna-eye's gaze is something like custom-made spiritual antimatter: tailored to be the precise opposite to the target's nature, annihilating it into pure energy.
Kind of a funny correlation: I've always visualized my Soulscape as a "city of self", with districts and inhabitants representing my faculties, desires and other aspects of ego. When I meditate on inner troubles and imbalance, I identify with my High Self, who lives in a lighthouse in the center of the city, and carries a lantern that makes everything the light touches insubstantial and mutable. Thus I recognize that the ego isn't "real", only "quasi real", and that it is a tool or vehicle for the High Self to dwell in for now.
"Darkness within darkness, the gateway of all understanding" - Tao Te Ching
I have a real problem with English when it comes to disambiguation of terms, especially from philosophical texts. "Darkness" has always seemed to be a loaded word in English; we associate it with Evil and occlusion. I like the term "Emptiness" to describe infinity: you have no idea how much it pleases me that the total energy of the Universe is Zero, and that the Universe is the ultimate free lunch.
Posted by: P-Tar | July 11, 2005 at 06:30 AM
Yeah, I'll go figure out where that is and drop a link for you.
Posted by: Haeresis | July 12, 2005 at 05:06 AM
I'm desperately trying to find some pictures of the auryn and the Southern Oracles winged Sphinx Gates from The Never Ending Story movie, but having a real tough time. If anyone may has a link can you please email it to me??? Thanks so much
Posted by: Elizabeth Young | October 29, 2005 at 03:38 PM