Dutch version (Nederlandse versie)
EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END
Interpreting
the Matrix trilogy as a modern myth
www.marcmulders.com/trudy
Trudy Sas
The Matrix
is a postmodern film in the sense that it has no fixed meaning and contains an
infinite number of citations from books, comic strips, computer games and
films. References to religion, philosophy and psychology are also consistently
ambiguous. Much has already been published about the Christian motifs and the
philosophical background to the trilogy. For more information on this see http://whatistheMatrix.warnerbros.com. In addition to the sites listed there, the Dutch
philosopher Ad Verbrugge has written a provocative essay titled Wat is de Matrix?(What is the Matrix?)
in his collection titled Tijd van onbehagen (Times of uncertainty)(2005).
In it, he discusses the quest to find an inner self, a very important theme in
this trilogy.
My own view is that the Matrix
trilogy, presented in story form by the Wachowski brothers, is a modern myth,
and/or alchemistic allegory, containing archetypes to be found in any culture. Modern
metaphors of machines and new technologies are employed to peddle innermost
human insights, desires, fears and dream-visions that are primeval in their
origins.
I am going to try to interpret the film in terms of
its symbolism, and in so doing I shall touch on the myths of creation, stories
from classical Antiquity, Hinduism, Christianity, Gnosticism, the apocryphal
writings on angels Parsifal and alchemy.. It will be quite some time before I
can say ‘My work is done’, but it’s well on the way. The following discussion
of the Matrix may be used and cited as long as you mention the Internet address
as the source.
Having looked at a great many websites, I would like
to mention one in particular which greatly impressed me, and which inspired me
to start my own quest; this was an analysis by Brian Takle, one of the first
people to recognize the Matrix trilogy as a modern myth: http://wylfing.net/essays/Matrix_reloaded.html and http://wylfing.net/essays/Matrix_revolutions.html.
Contents
Creation
myths
the cycle
The
Matrix
I. The beginning of the beginning: origins
II. The end of the beginning: creation
III. The beginning of the end: knowledge and insight
IV. The end of the end: sacrifice and resurrection
VI. The Matrix as an alchemistic allegory
Before discussing
the film, I shall explain how creation is represented in myths. For thousands of years people have seen themselves not only
as consisting of their individual body masses, but as physical frames filled
with an eternal soul. Birth, Life and Death were given symbolic meanings that could
express this larger implication.
In
many cultures the gods took on human shape – often with an additional number of
heads or limbs to suggest their superior powers. The idea of an all-embracing
divine universe was so strong that the original being was envisaged as being
androgynous, not only in the mythology of Central America, Greece, Australia
and Egypt, but in the philosophy of Plato and in the mysticism of the Sufis.
The Indian god Shiva had a female counterpart, Parvati, and in the biblical book
of Genesis, Eve is created out of Adam. Male and female were considered to be
aspects of one and the same nature – divine and human – a complementary union, symbolized in the
yin-yang symbol [.
Creation
myths have an archetypal structure, thus in general they can be said to follow
a set pattern. First, an act of Creation takes place from nothing (ex nihilo), in which the highest being
creates the world through thought or through the word (according to the Gospel
of St John, ‘In the beginning was the
word’). Thus at the very beginning there is THE ONE, the ruler over everything,
the absolute sovereign. The Supreme Being. I AM.
Then
there is a division. If the Supreme Being is to create, then whatever he
creates must of necessity stem from Him. He will at the very least have to
split himself in two. He separates that which was once One. This first creation
is followed by another creation, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. You can
compare it with the splitting of an impregnated egg-cell in the uterus
(Matrix). The Creator creates forces which are opposites of one another: Light
and Darkness, Heaven and Earth, Man and Woman.
If
we take the Hindu religion as a case in point, in this religion we find the
Brahman is the Supreme being. In the beginning the Brahman existed outside time
and space, first making his presence known through a golden embryo of sound - a
vocalic sound that reverberated through empty space. The sound collided with
itself and created an echo: the sound waves intermingled, creating water and
wind. After this water and wind worked together to form the misty womb of the
world.
In
the Bible, the Book of Genesis opens with the following words: ‘In
the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth’. ‘In the beginning was the
word’: On the first day God created heaven and earth. The entire earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. God said:
‘Let there be light: and there was light. God divided the light from the
darkness. On the second day God said: ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters.’ On the third day land and sea, flowers and plants appeared. On the
fourth day sun, moon and stars became visible. On the fifth day the second
creative act produced fishes and birds. On the sixth day, man and beast. God
rested on the seventh day because he had completed his creation. And God saw
that it was good.
Recurring
cycles
Each
creation myth recounts a new situation, which is always followed by
destruction, by natural disasters, illnesses, monsters, wars and the like. This
destruction (apocalypse) has to take place if a return to the primeval state is to be realized. In the Christian creation myth it is
the Flood that destroys everything, from which only Noah and his ark full of
animals were allowed to escape. He was permitted to take with him one male and
one female of every species of animal, so that creation could begin again. In
Indian mythology Vishnu is the god of creation. He is reincarnated ten times
over and creates something new each time.
Myths about cosmic catastrophes deal with the destruction of the world, with
the exclusion of a small number of survivors. So the end of the world is not
final. It only means the end of a period in world history which is followed by
a new period. For that purpose the Indians (Hindus) have the doctrine of the
four Yugas, or ages of
mankind, which is central to their beliefs.
The essence of this theory is the cyclical nature of the creation and
destruction of the world and a belief in the ‘perfection of the beginning’.
There is no definite end, only periods of different lengths between the
destruction of the one universe and the emergence of the next. The ‘end’ has no
meaning in a cosmic sense, it only applies to the state in which human beings
find themselves. The world continues to recreate itself; it is an endlessly
recycling universe.
Apocalypse
In
Judeo-Christian doctrine there is no question of recycling, but there is an
apocalypse. The end only comes once, in the same way as creation has only
occurred once. The new cosmos, which will appear after the catastrophe, is the
same as that created by God, but purified and renewed, and restored to its
former glory. This earthly paradise is not going to be destroyed again and will
continue without end. In this view there is no cycle of eternal recurrence.
In
Christianity there is even an added element. At the end of time the
righteous and the non-righteous will be
separated; people will be judged by their deeds during life. In some variations
of Christian doctrine, the elect will be saved and go to heaven and those not
chosen, the doomed, will be sent to hell.
Another
difference between Judeo-Christian doctrine and cosmic mythologies is that the
end of the world is seen as a Messianic mystery. For the Jews the arrival of
the Messiah will herald the end of the world and the restoration of paradise;
for the Christians the end will begin with the return of Christ and the Last
Judgment. But in both religions there will be a reinstatement of paradise.
Thus
in both Judeo-Christian doctrine and cosmic mythologies there is always a break
with the past. The old world dies so that a new world can be born. When the new
cycle begins it is enhanced by new figures in new situations.
For
the interpretation of the Matrix trilogy it is important that we should know about
more than recurring cycles, or perpetual recurrence; we must also consider the
linear view, the direct historical line from the creation to the day of the
Last Judgment. In the linear time-framework events progress from the Beginning
to the End (everything that has a beginning has an end). Each event is a new
fact in itself and no one event can be precisely replicated. Human beings
advance from one era to the next and gradually evolve from simple to complex
beings, from being inexperienced to being wise. It should be noted that in this
scheme of events the mythical hero is also entirely alone, cut off from the
inherent cyclical basis for rejuvenation and rebirth. He is surrounded by a
universe in which everything is blank and unfamiliar and where he has to create
history himself.
Why
is this important? The fact is, that in
the Matrix a world is shown that is based on cyclical rebirth; we see that
there is a fourth Matrix and that Neo is the sixth reincarnation. On the other
hand, Neo cannot rely on an archetype of a cyclical heroic model, but must
learn for himself that he is responsible for his own deeds. Neo is disconnected
from the Matrix, he is unaware of the state he is in, of the cycles that have
taken place earlier. Everything is blank and unfamiliar, he has to find out what
is going on in order to make his own history. He has to discover this while
accomplishing his quest and he can only cover ground that has never been walked
on before. As Morpheus told him: ‘I can only show you the door. You’re the one
that has to walk through it’. Thus Neo is a linear hero who has to perform on a
cyclical and mythical stage.
Heaven, limbo, hell
Man’s
existence is governed by the unbreakable polarity of life and death. In the
stories, man goes from earth to heaven/hell, from earth to the underworld (Club
Hel run by the Merovingian and Persephone). He often has to surmount an
obstacle in between. In Greek mythology he is taken aboard by Charon, the ferryman,
(in the Matrix this is Trainman), who transports him over the river
Underworlds
- portrayed as temporary venues which the soul must pass through in order to be
purified - appear in Christianity in the form of Limbo (in the Matrix as
In
both cases (heaven or hell) it will involve travelling through utterly unfamiliar
surroundings, a journey during which strange and consequently horrifying
obstacles are encountered. In hell, endless agonies and torture await the dead
soul. Hell is a place of foul fiends and annihilation, whereas in heaven all
delights await. Heaven is often depicted as a series of successive layers, the
highest level representing the ultimate bliss of pure light. In Buddhist
representations of ‘western paradise’ the elect, those who have been saved,
enjoy eternal life in endless, shadowfree light.
Sacrifice and Resurrection
People
throughout the ages have always recognized that the only certainty about life
is death. Everything else in life can be changed by adding something to it, or
removing something from it, but death, like birth and creation, forms a barrier
which cannot be breached by human reasoning. Only intuition, the hope and
belief that there must be something beyond this world, can try to break through
this barrier.
One
of the first and most widely-used ways devised by man to cross the barrier of
death is through sacrifice, in the sense of offering up one’s life to save
others. This is often a voluntary sacrifice, one made to appease the gods, or
alternately the price that has to be
paid for a favour one hopes to be granted by the gods. Another form of
sacrifice is that of the Messiah, the man who sacrifices his own life for the
deliverance of his people.
Birth,
death and rebirth (resurrection) form the cycles of existence, both on earth
and in the future world. The notion of rebirth and return of the unrivalled
hero or the long awaited Redeemer is one of the most impressive themes in the
world of mythology and religion, in that it encapsulated people’s hope for a
life after thisone. The Redeemer, or Saviour, is not of this world, is
therefore not designed to die only once on earth, but instead ascends to heaven
to show man the way. In the
Sources:
Alexander Eliot, Mythen van de mensheid, 1977
Segius Golowin, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Cambell, De grote mythen van de wereld, 1999
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING: origin
(after Harry Mulisch, De Ontdekking van de hemel (The discovery of
heaven))
Matrix III was given the title Revolutions for a good reason. It doesn’t only mean the
revolutionary struggle between man and machine, but also refers to the
‘circle’ , the line which joins the beginning of a
cycle to the end, the circumvolution, the cycle.
If there
is a cycle then this means that there isn’t only a ‘present reality’ but that
different eras have preceded it. That also holds for the Matrix myth. In the
first film its previous history is related, as it is in the Ani-Matrix. Which origin is it founded
on, which cycle preceded the Matrix?
1. Man and machine
We are at the
end of the 20th century (1999) and people have created hyper-intelligent
machines using artificial intelligence which in appearance greatly resemble human
beings. They are subservient, subordinate and carry out the boring monotonous
tasks people no longer want to do themselves. Man and machine live side by
side.
2. Machine against man
From the
urge, the will (and the pride) to make a machine that has as many human skills as possible, man develops an AI
(artificial intelligence)-character with more or less a free will. This ‘oppressed’ machine, the inferior slave of
man, stands up for his ‘rights’ and rebels against his ‘procreator’ which leads
to a war between man and machine.
This war
is fought tooth and nail: two hyper-intelligent beings in combat with one
another. It is an equal fight. In the hope of settling matters for good, man
thinks up the idea of darkening the atmosphere; this is clever because sunlight
is the source of energy for the machines. In this apocalyptic cloak of
darkness, which is also hell for life on earth, the machine god (the Source)
conquers man.
Despite
the disappearance of direct sunlight, the machine god finds a new source of
power, a new source of energy – the
natural heat produced by the human bodies of those taken prisoner. These bodies
are stored in enormous power stations (each one rather like a Fallopian tube),
in an artificial womb (the Matrix’s second meaning).
The Source
(AI), is depicted as a creative god.
3. Man
against machine
Thus in
turn the machine world has created its own enemy; and like the time when man
had supremacy over machines, the reverse is now the case, man rebels against
the purely technically driven AI machines which have no feelings, are unable to
assess situations and cannot experience love and freedom of choice.
4. Machine
and man
Thus man has
an enemy: the machine. The machines form a threat to life, and humans will have
to rise up against them. A war will have to be fought, an apocalypse, and they
will have to fight tooth and nail to win. To do this they need the help of a
Saviour (whose arrival has been announced by a prophet) and above all else they
need faith and hope. In other words, it is time for a new cycle of creation.
This is what the film trilogy is all about.
The cycle
of creation from the Matrix trilogy goes through the following three stages:
1.
Creation. To be found in the first film titled The Matrix –but not until the end of the film;
2.
Resolution and insight. To be found in the second film, Reloaded, and the third, Revolutions.
3.
Sacrifice and Resurrection. To be found in the third film Revolutions.
II.
THE END OF THE BEGINNING: creation
I would first like to discuss
the mirror motif. Why is everyone wearing sunglasses in the Matrix? More
specifically, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity wear sunglasses made of the type of
glass which reflects the outside world. Do the glasses perhaps serve as a form
of protection? In the olden days a mirror was used as a talisman to ward off
the ‘Evil Eye’, the greatest symbol of destructive power. Why is Smith wearing
a non-reflecting pair of sunglasses in the first film, and yet from the moment
he is absorbed by Neo, a reflecting pair? Does he have the evil eye? I think he
takes off his sunglasses for a short while each time he is ready to confront or
fight with Neo, and he also does so when he absorbs the Oracle. Is he hoping to
achieve a so-called Medusa-effect: activating the evil eye that paralyses all
those that look at it?
A mirror
is also a sign of virtue, Prudentia
(caution, foresight), and symbolizes self-knowledge and wisdom. The surface of
a mirror gives shape to the image of the soul, a person’s inner, hidden
‘I-form’. The Oracle, whose eyes the Merovingian desires, is constantly
referring to the text above her door: Temet
Nosce, ‘Know Thyself’. And, in part one, Neo is literally sucked into the
mirror after he has just swallowed the red pill. It then becomes clear to him
that he isn’t the person he first thought he was; he has taken the first steps
along the path to self-knowledge.
However,
the other secret agents have sunglasses too, as do the Merovingian’s
bodyguards. The Oracle’s sunglasses have light-coloured lenses. Seraph, her
guardian angel, wears a small pair of sunglasses. But the Keymaker wears
ordinary spectacles, not sunglasses at all, the sort of glasses worn by
scientists in the 1950s.
It is also striking that
when Neo visits the Matrix for the first time, after Morpheus has unplugged
him, he isn’t wearing sunglasses. He is sitting in the car with Morpheus, Trinity
and Apoc without sunglasses on. They, on the other hand, are wearing theirs. Nor,
at this point, does he have his own slick outfit either; the long,
close-fitting, high-necked black coat doesn’t appear until part two. Morpheus
and Trinity do wear a real Matrix outfit while Neo is simply wearing a black
shirt and a jacket. Not until the last scene of the first film does Neo appear in
dark-black trendy clothing and sunglasses. In the meantime he has shown that he
is starting to believe in himself more and more. In rescuing Morpheus, and his
return from death, which involved eliminating Smith, he has shown his greatest
strengths. So has he changed status from apprentice to expert? Is it to do with
wearing sunglasses? Whatever the case may be, it is clear that his ‘residual
self-image’ has changed. Neo has changed from a somewhat immature boy to a
fighter, more of a commando by the time he rescues Morpheus. He has become an
impressive figure who in the sequels to the film reveals great inner strength.
His development has been prolific, ‘The mental projection of his digital self’,
or to use Morpheus’s words, ‘Your appearance now is what we call “residual
self-image”.’ All these reflections in the Matrix (sunglasses, mirrors and car
mirrors) point to the theme that everything is reflected in everything else. A
mirror-image is the same and yet different.
Neither the Architect, the
Merovingian, Persephone, Rama-Kandra, Kamala, Sati and the Trainman wear glasses. The Oracle can also be
considered as part of this group because she only wears glasses for a short
while, with lightly-tinted lenses, but she doesn’t usually wear them. Neo
doesn’t wear sunglasses when he is in Limbo (
My assumption is that the
Oracle, the Architect and the Merovingian form the ‘Machine-World Trinity’ that
springs directly from the Source. They can be interpreted as figures from
ancient mythology in the way the character Persephone suggests. Rama-Kandra,
Kamala and Sati are corresponding Hindu gods (I will return to this discussion
later).
If the Architect is Zeus,
ruler of heaven and earth, then the Merovingian is his brother Hades, ruler of
the underworld. The Oracle is Demeter, the black goddess of the earth, who was
worshipped as the goddess of fertility, and who was also Persephone’s mother. Demeter is linked to the
god of the earth and the sea, Poseidon, who is both creator and destroyer. The
Trainman is a lesser god, falling directly under the authority of the
Merovingian.
The
Source
We shall begin at the
beginning of creation with the AI-creator god, The Source, the god of the
machines. He is an absolute sovereign and overrules all other powers, because
they are all united in him. We don’t get to see The Source until part three,
when Neo goes to visit him to negotiate peace between man and machine.
The Source
is named quite a few times, in particular by the Oracle. She points out to Neo
that his path leads back to The
Source. Neo cannot of course go to The Source straight away because like a true
mythological hero he must first travel the Road, tread the Path of
Self-knowledge. In order to do this he must wait in Limbo (
The Architect
The
Architect is Zeus, the ruler of the gods, the god of light, father of gods and
people, a man of reason and logic. It is he
who determines what happens to both the Matrix and
In the
second film Neo is informed by the Architect that he too is part of the Matrix,
but at a different level: he is a computer program, who is permitted to rebel,
who is allowed to seek and find a saviour. Having met the Architect, everything
is deleted, which means that the Matrix game can be restarted from the
beginning. That has already happened five times before; Neo is the sixth
saviour (and Morpheus the umpteenth ‘believer’). What appeared to be real,
proves to be virtual reality.
In the
lead-in to the first film we are given a flash forward to this transition from
the fifth to the sixth reincarnation. From the ciphers and symbols that form
the Matrix code, they zoom in on : 5 6,
after which the following appears:
5 0 6.
The powers of The Source (0) have been activated to start creating the next
stage in the creation cycle. The players in the game are put into their
positions, each with a special role to play. Each program has its own goal.
The
Architect determines the Matrix Cycle. In
his control room he gives Neo a choice: if he chooses the door on the left, he
will have to take on all the powers of the Matrix, running the risk of being
destroyed; if he chooses the door on the right then he will arrive at a new
level. It is then up to him to select 23 human candidates and the whole game of
Why play
this cyclical game?
The
Architect tells Neo that he has already created a Matrix, but it was too
Utopian, too perfect (Agent Smith had already told Neo this in part one,
however its significance hadn’t really registered either with him or us at that
point). This Matrix was a virtual paradise, a human Utopia. Unfortunately
people aren’t used to living in paradise, the experimental subjects didn’t
react very well to that sort of world. Hence the first Matrix was dismantled
and replaced by the second - which was closer to the real world.
But this
second Matrix had its faults and was unsatisfactory, so they developed a help
program to study various facets of the human psyche and came up with the
following result: the problem was that there was no facility for choice. People
(the human brain) needed to be able to choose. And how was this predilection
for choice revealed? It appeared that even in an unconscious state (in an
artificial womb) the brain wanted to choose. And what’s more, it appeared that
99% opted for the Matrix and accepted it. They had chosen to live in a virtual
world, not realizing that it was being ‘fed’ by machines. The remaining 1% opted to become so-called ‘free spirits’,
allied to the rebels of
Thus, in
creating
For this
reason, the program is equipped to track down The One, a person who is to be
trained and sent on the right route to find The Source, and to do this with the Oracle’s assistance. The One is
allowed to choose 23 people from the Matrix to rebuild
When Neo
is talking to the Architect he realizes that he might not be the saviour of the
human race, but may in fact be hampering their struggle for freedom. The
Architect has mobilized him as a saviour of the machines.
In the
dialogue between Neo and the Architect various clues are given that help us to
understand the film.
In the
first place, the question arises as to whether or not Neo is a human being. Of
course, the Architect says quite emphatically that Neo is ‘irrevocably human’.
In the
second place, the Architect remarks on the fact that Neo is clearly different
from his five predecessors. Neo is the sixth version of the saviour, or more
precisely, he is the sixth incarnation. The significance of this is that he is
a part of a larger entity, more than just his own self.
In the
third place the Architect reminds him that ‘The problem is choice’. At that
moment Neo is faced with a very clear choice: he has to choose either to walk
through the door on the left or the one on the right.
In the fourth place, the
Architect introduces the concept of Hope. In the Architect’s view, Hope lies at the heart of
human erroneous thinking; at the same time it is the source of the greatest
human power and the greatest human weakness. It seems as if he is indicating
that if Neo opts for the door on the left (to battle against the Matrix which
will lead to his destruction), he will be choosing on the basis of hope, based
on weakness. Psychologically speaking, ‘right’ (the right-hand side) often
signifies awareness, whereas ‘left’ indicates the whole gamut of nonconformist
reactions. Neo decides not to opt for the door leading to a world where machines
are in control; he opts for the uncertain, but
extremely human path.
In doing
so Neo breaks the cycle.
Or does
he?
The Oracle
The Oracle
is Demeter, the black corn-goddess, Poseidon’s wife, Zeus’ sister and
Persephone’s mother. Demeter is linked to the god of the earth and sea,
Poseidon, who is both a creator and a destroyer. In Antiquity, Demeter, the
mother of Persephone, was worshipped as a mother goddess. In the Eleusinian mysteries,
celebrating Demeter, Persephone and Dionysius, nature’s regular death and
rebirth was a symbol for the more elevated concept of the immortality of the
soul.
The Architect takes care of
the programming language required to ensure that certain events can take place,
the Oracle is the source of the duality: good versus evil, light versus dark.
The Oracle ‘knows ’ that both dualities must amalgamate to allow a New
Beginning. The Oracle acts as destroyer and creator in the same way that Demeter
regulates the dying and rejuvenation of nature in the form of seasons. She has
been created as part of the Architect’s game (but a deadly serious game) and is
thus a very ancient and important program. She is responsible for leading the
supposed ‘Ones’ to the Source, so that the Matrix can be updated, ensuring the
continued existence of the Machine World. That is her purpose. That is why she
needs the polarity of Neo, the light, and Smith, the darkness. The creation at
the end of the first film is to serve these ends.
Neo’s
first meeting with the Oracle gives him certain insights about the future but
these are more in the way of potential outcomes rather than actual certainties.
The Oracle is a guide, not a predictor of the future. If Neo doesn’t yet
believe that he is a Saviour then the Oracle is not about to say that he is the
One. What’s more, she’s not so sure herself that he’s the One. This is why,
contrary to her usual practice, she makes a prediction: she predicts that he
will have to choose between Morpheus’s life or his own. In foreseeing this
development she is putting Neo to the test: if he chooses to save himself then
she will know that he certainly doesn’t have the qualities required of a
potential One, that is, the ability to
suspend disbelief and the ability to make a choice; if he chooses Morpheus he
will be a ‘potential’. We now know that Neo did choose Morpheus.
However,
this doesn’t mean he’s the One. As Morpheus pointed out to him in the training
program: ‘You have to let it all go, Neo, fear, doubt and disbelief. Free Your
Mind’. This was how the Oracle coached him towards the path of Self-knowledge.
She pointed to the Latin text over the doorway, Temet Nosce, Know Thyself. Through Self-knowledge Neo must arrive
at Self-insight, and only when he knows he is the genuine article can he be the
One. To reach this state he will have to make choices, and the Oracle will act
as his guide. To help him she loads him up with cakes and sweets which in
actual fact are bits of a program. Having received this boost, she gives him a
head start on the right path for believing in himself, and as time goes on she
too comes to believe that Neo is the One; in the second film she says: ‘You’ve
made a believer out of me.’
Where does
Smith fit into all this? He too is part of a program created by the Architect.
He is the prototype of a human being who can act on the basis of cause and
effect. At the beginning of the first film Smith still fulfils his original
role. The Architect has sent him off to round up the insurrectionists rebelling
against the Matrix, in order to intimidate and eliminate them. Smith is the
dreaded secret agent. In this role he can be compared to a figure from Greek Antiquity,
Hephaestus, the lame god of fire and metal-working, who helps Zeus (the
Architect) in his fight against the Titans. He is able to forge unique weapons
and military equipment, which ensure that their superhuman owners are in
command of the earth.
The film shows agent Smith
and Neo as opposing figures. As the action progresses Neo grows to believe in
himself more and more and discovers the enormous power he can unleash from
within. He can literally ‘see’ the computer language from which Smith has been
constructed. In the ensuing fight they both die, but – and here the miraculous creation process takes place – they are
both reborn. Neo is given the kiss of life through the Oracle (in the form of
Trinity); Smith does a reboot.
In the second film we
discover that the Smith program has been repaired but that part of Neo’s
‘being’ has been left behind in Smith. Neo’s program has hacked Smith’s
(‘programs hacking programs’). From then on, Neo’s characteristics prevent
Smith from doing what he was originally programmed to do. He is therefore, from
that point, out of the system; he is no longer an agent. And the Oracle told
Neo that those who no longer have a function in the Matrix are deleted. Smith knows
that he is superfluous and is in danger of being erased. He has two choices:
either he can go into hiding in the Matrix or he can go back to the Source to
be deleted. Smith decides to go into hiding and thus becomes Neo’s opposite
number; the two are diametrically opposed.
Doomed to
solidarity with Neo, who is nourished by love, the Matrix feeds Smith on bits
of a different human emotion: hate. He hates Neo because he has robbed him of
his ‘purpose’ in life. ‘It’s the purpose that created us. Purpose that connects
us. Purpose that pulls us. That guides us. That drives us. It is purpose that
defines. Purpose that binds us. We’re here because of you, Mister Anderson,
we’re here to take you from what you tried to take from us. Purpose.’
Smith is
tied to Neo, he is his adversary, his enemy. As Neo’s strength increases
Smith’s codes will change. They are total opposites and keep one another in
balance. Pole and antipole must eventually cancel one another out, that is the
intention behind the Architect’s Zion/Matrix game. Neo is unaware of this and
therefore, unintentionally, Neo creates his own enemy, the program that will
continue to pursue him until he is eliminated. This almost happens, in a
head-on confrontation in the second film. At that point Smith absorbs Neo, but the
latter is able to rebuff the absorption (imprint) by deploying ‘superhuman’ powers. When he talks about this
experience later on he says that he felt as if he were going to die, a
precursor of what he was to undergo in the third film –although there he lets
it happen to him without putting up a fight.
Smith
acquires his powers by replicating himself like a virus within the Matrix
program: he is absorbed into everyone he sees, from his fellow agents to lorry
drivers, right down to crew-hands of the spaceships that belong to the rebels
of
Persephone
In Greek mythology
Zeus complied with the abduction of Persephone by Hades, god of the underworld.
In desperation, Demeter her mother (hidden under a dark veil) looked everywhere
for her daughter. When she found her, Persephone was allowed to leave, because
without her daughter Demeter refused to regulate the seasons and the
accompanying cycles of growth and fertility. Undeterred, Hades tempts
Persephone with pomegranate seeds (comparable to Eve being tempted by an apple)
which she accepts. So Persephone is forced to remain in the underworld – those
who ate any food in the underworld could not be set free from its control.
However, the gods reached a compromise: once a year Persephone was allowed to
go back to earth so that the seasons could revive: her presence meant that her
mother was prepared to change unending autumn and winter into spring and
summer. Thus Persephone ensured the continuation of the cycle of nature in the form of the four seasons.
Through
her marriage to Hades (Merovingian) Persephone is the queen of the Underworld
(Club Hel). The Merovingian’s two personal assistants (Cain and Abel) call her
‘mistress’, a title of respect in the Roman myths. Persephone’s father is Zeus (the Architect). To look
at, she is the ‘daughter’ of both: her dark-black hair and somewhat exotic
appearance reminds you of the Oracle , whereas her white clothing is like
the Architect’s usual outfit. He and
Persephone are the only ones dressed entirely in white in the second film.
As the daughter of Demeter
(the Oracle) Persephone is both creator and
destroyer; she is frightening, but she is also a light in the darkness.
In the second film she desires a genuine heartfelt kiss from Neo, and she wants
it for good reason. She rejects his first kiss as insincere, a very uninspired
kiss given after having pushed his glasses casually up onto his head. On his
second attempt he takes his sunglasses off and kisses her passionately. This
time she judges it to be the real thing and it is with this second kiss that
she reloads his program. Thus new bits are sent to him by the Oracle through
her ‘daughter’ Persephone’s kiss.
Note that the water flowing
through the men’s toilets could be a sign that the Matrix-code has been changed
by this kiss, as you see a shot of the water between their two mouths during
the kissing scene. Codes have been changed, new bits have been added. It is
worth remembering that the general meaning of a kiss on the mouth is that it is
a means of passing on divine knowledge. It refers to the mythical belief in the
‘magic’ qualities of breath. This is how God breathed life into Adam and how
Christ healed the blind (with spittle).
Another
indication is that in the first film the Oracle inspects Neo’s mouth and is
constantly offering him cakes and sweets; Demeter is the goddess of farming and
corn, and with flour made from ground corn we can make ‘cookies’ like the ones
the Oracle made.
Through
Persephone the Oracle can guide Neo to the Keymaker and through him Neo can get
to the Architect, who will fill him in on the truth about the Matrix and
The Merovingian
The
Merovingian can be seen as Hades, son of Kronos and Rhea, the divine ruler of
the underworld. The name Hades means ‘invisible’, which tallies with the
function of the god. Anything to do with him is mysterious, just like the
unfathomable depths of the earth from which everything springs and to which
everything returns.
Very different images have
become attached to the nature of this god. In the writings of classical Greek
and Latin poets he is the implacable enemy of all life, someone who can’t be
thought of without fear and loathing, a true god of the dead who won’t hear of
any form of peace offering, who will show no mercy, and who is only worshipped
by human beings on certain occasions. But he was more gently portrayed in
popular religion, as was Persephone. There the god was viewed from another angle:
Hades is the source of all plant life that grows from the earth. Furthermore, an inexhaustible
abundance comes from the depths of the earth, the source of all precious
metals. This is why his other (Latin) name is ‘Pluto’, meaning wealthy. In him
death and life converge.
The Merovingian
is a powerful program that stirs the imagination. He is an intangible, vain
god. His tone is cynical, particularly when he is talking about the Oracle – whom
he disdainfully dismisses as ‘the fortune teller’. She is equally dismissive
about him and refers to him as an ‘old program’ that is ‘extremely dangerous’.
They know one another and are connected to one another through the cyclical
game being played in the Matrix. The Key Maker, who is supposed to be leading
Neo to the Source, is being held prisoner by the Merovingian. He is a
‘trafficker of information’ (‘I know everything I can’). He knows Neo is coming
(‘Aha, here he is at last, Neo, the One himself right’); he has undoubtedly
played a role in the earlier Neo reincarnations.
The reason
why the Merovingian is so dangerous is because he won’t negotiate. He is the
one who makes the programs, he determines the actions and emotions. He is only
interested in causality: action, reaction; cause and effect. From his point of
view, making a choice is reserved exclusively for those with power, for a
programmer like himself. He is the one manipulating the results. All that is left
for those who have to endure his meddling is a ‘feeling’, but the truth is that
nobody has any control over what he is doing (the Merovingian has already
decided their fate). The only hope that the players can cherish is to
understand their position.
The
Merovingian yearns for more power; he wants the Oracle’s eyes, but knows that
these can only be ‘given as a present’
and never ‘captured’. The Merovingian has the power of the evil eye at his
command in contrast to the Oracle who possesses an inner eye. But they need one
another too: without opposition there is no progress. The Merovingian furnishes
this opposition, even though he used to be a different type of man, milder,
more like Neo (that is, if we are to believe what Persephone says about him).
In fact he is to pay a high price for his vanity
and arrogance. Persephone, as might be expected, becomes his opponent; she’s
had enough of him (‘I’m so sick of his bullshit. On and on, pompous prick’)
that she rebels and leads Neo to the Keymaker.
Trainman
The
Trainman is a programmer and consequently doesn’t wear glasses. He is the one
that rules over Limbo, the intermediate station
Virgil the
Roman poet described Charon as an ugly, frightening character. He stood with
his boat on the banks of the river (that hemmed the realm of the spirits in on
all sides) just waiting to take aboard the souls of the dead (that were
supplied by Hermes) and row them to the other side – across the river Styx, the
Kokytos and the Acheron, so that they could reach the doors of the underworld
in the true realm of the dead. This surly ferryman wasn’t allowed to take the
living across unless the gods authorized him to do so. He was depicted as a grumpy
old man with a scruffy beard wearing shabby clothing.
Enough of the
ruler of the gods. I would now like to discuss further references to figures
from classical antiquity.
Much has already been
written about Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep and dreams who arouses Neo from his dream and shows him the
‘desert of the real’. He unmasks the sham of reality. At least, that’s what he
does in the first film. From the story told by the Architect in the second film
it would appear that Morpheus is also a program whose function it is to optimize
the Matrix.
Morpheus
has a tremendous amount of charisma. For many in
Let us
start at the beginning.
When we
are first introduced to Neo he is sleeping, head cradled in his arms, in front
of his computer. On the screen we see three news flashes run past. The first is
the news about the rebel leader Morpheus: ‘Morpheus eludes Police at
These are
scraps of information that Neo has found about Morpheus during his search on
the Internet, a subject that fascinates him.
They are
looking for Morpheus because he is able to disconnect brains that are sceptical
about the Matrix. His power to do this means he is a danger to the system
because he is stimulating resistance to the Matrix. When Neo is being
interrogated by Smith in the first film he snarls at Morpheus in reproach that
he is considered by many authorities to be the ‘most dangerous man alive’.
The
heading ‘The manhunt underway’ is incidentally not only applicable to the
pursuit of Morpheus, but also to the hunt for Neo, as agents and rebels are
following him close at heel.
Neo’s first
telephone conversation with Morpheus is interesting. A package containing a
mobile phone is delivered to his office. It starts to ring the moment that Neo
picks it up. Neo knows immediately that it is Morpheus on the other end of the
line. Shortly afterwards we discover that Morpheus has been looking for Neo all
his life. Morpheus, who has access to the networks (the highways) knows that
Neo is looking for him too. He tracks down rebels in order to liberate them.
Trinity takes Neo to
Morpheus. When Neo meets Morpheus he pays his respects to the man who has found
him.
N.: ‘It’s
an honour to meet you.’
M.: ‘No
the honour is mine.’
This is
exactly the same dialogue as in the leave-taking scene in the third film. The
only difference is in the verb form; in the first film it is in the present
tense, in the third film, when they both know the parting will be for good, it
is in the past tense.
N.: ‘It
was an honour, sir.’
M.: ‘No,
the honour’s still mine.’
We don’t
know how or when Morpheus became disconnected. If we are to believe the
Architect’s story, that the One has opted to destroy
Morpheus
recounts the history of
M.: ‘She’s
very old. She’s been with us since the beginning.’
N.: ‘The
beginning?’
M.: ‘Of
the resistance.’
Morpheus
doesn’t date back to the first Matrix, but he has experienced several searches
to find the One, but now – in his sixth reincarnation – he has been granted a
leading role. The Oracle has predicted that he will recognize and find the One.
Morpheus’s only aim is the freedom of
Orpheus
Neo becomes
hopelessly confused in the first film due to everything he has experienced,
like being unplugged from the Matrix, being one of the elect and being
introduced to the Oracle. This is why Neo needs more information, he must know
what lies behind it all.
Morpheus
enlightens him, bit by bit.
M.: ‘It is
the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.’
N.: ‘What
truth?’
M.: ‘That
you are a slave. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison
that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately
no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.’
These
words, describing the experience of being locked up in prison, being submissive,
being a slave to the system, and having no freedom of choice, fit in with the
Dionysian-Orphic mysteries dating back to around 400 BCE. The Orphic teachings stem
from the poet-prophet, and priest of Apollo, Orpheus. Legend has it that he was
the creator of a new doctrine of salvation that was later to greatly influence
the early period of Christianity. In Orphic teachings we recognize the most
important themes to be found in the Matrix trilogy: creation, cycling and rebirth, the dualistic nature of humankind,
self-knowledge and redemption. In these teachings the problem of the tragic
link between body and soul, between good and evil, between sin and heavenliness,
is put forward for the first time.
In the
Orphic mysteries the principle deity was Dionysus-Zagreus. This deity, either
called the son of Zeus and Demeter (Architect and Oracle), or the child of the
union between Zeus and his own daughter Persephone, is according to the followers
of Orphism, his father’s favourite, and elected by him to govern the universe.
This is why Zeus made him king and, from a very early age, bestowed more
accolades upon him than he did upon other gods.
But Hera, who
maliciously persecuted all Zeus’s sons who weren’t her own offspring, sent the
Titans off to find the child, after having ordered them to smear chalk on their
faces to make themselves unrecognisable. Having found him, the Titans tore his
body to shreds and devoured it. Only his heart was saved, thanks to the
intervention of Athena, who then gave it back to Zeus.
Two differing legends
narrate that Zeus himself devoured the heart, or alternately that he gave it to
Semele, Dionysus’s mother. The young Dionysus was either the son of Zeus, or
Zeus orchestrated the birth of this king, this liberator, who was to bring
salvation to the world. The exact details may be contested but in any case
Dionysius-Zagreus was reborn to a new Olympian life.
The Titans
who had torn Zagreus to shreds were struck by Zeus’s lightning, a direct hit
that reduced them to ashes. This ash mixed with Zagreus’s blood formed the
basis from which mankind was modelled. These early beginnings explain the human
character. The desire for evil which every person carries within them
originates from the ash of the Titans; the inclination to do good springs from
Zagreus’s blood beneath the ashes.
To put it
briefly, the duel between good and evil prevalent in every human can be
symbolized as the blending of elements of the Titanic, i.e. savage and crude,
with elements of the Dionysian, i.e. pure and immaculate. This makes it clear
that the Orphc doctrine was closely connected to the Dionysian rites.
In Orphic doctrine the
emphasis lies on the duality of the human being, the irreconcilable antithesis
between good and evil and between body and spirit. The Titanic reveals itself
in the corporeal, and the Dionysian in the spiritual. The Titanic nature
inherent in mankind is the reason why the individual will never reach paradise.
Death won’t release man from this punishment; nevertheless, he is not doomed to be restrained by this
antithesis, nor to be confined in his body as if he were in a prison. There is
a road to spiritual redemption: man can free himself from the corporeal by
purifying body and soul.
If the
pure state of ‘being’ is to be reached then the Orphic man must lead a very
ascetic life (this brings to mind the scenes on board the Nebuchadnezzar, the frugal interior decoration and clothes, the
blurb they ate, which although it contained the protein and nutrients they
needed was anything but appetizing). And all this had to be endured for not
just one life, but three. After death a person had to adopt a different outer
shell, a different body, for three times in succession, and was also expected
to lead a clean and virtuous life, after which he could await redemption. In
this doctrine man is himself lord and master of his own fate. Depending on the
choices he makes, he may or may not reach a state of Enlightenment.
Despite
demanding a very ascetic lifestyle, this doctrine is closely linked to the
Dionysian ideal. On the one hand, there is the Orphic rejection of the
corporeal, on the other the Dionysian-style ecstatic worship. Ecstasy should be
interpreted here mainly in the sense of ‘departure’. Not until the soul has
departed from the body would it reach its true nature. This is the Dionysian
nature which is good, pure and clean. This is why people didn’t refuse to drink
wine at mythical feasts; the wine symbolized the spilt blood of
Dionysius-Zagreus. By drinking the wine one was immediately linked to the
deity, whose compassion and help was greatly needed if one were to be redeemed
from a state of impurity.
The Orphic
heritage states that the key of life is Eros, the irresistible influence, who
is responsible for creating harmony and order from the conflicting elements of
the chaos – a necessary task if the world is to be made more perfect. Eros is
the purifying love of the soul. The soul is immortal, but due to Titan’s sin it
is shackled to the body. It lives in exile and is full of guilt, but longs for
deliverance, its highest aspiration. Having been redeemed, the deceased may
expect to take up residence in Elysian fields --Elysium being
Morpheus believes
the shackled human being will be rescued from the Matrix. The Orphic being
(Neo) will thus be able to free himself of his Titanic body (Smith) inside
which he is locked. Before a dead person can actually be reincarnated in
another body (Neo Õ Sati) he has to undergo a sacramental purification
ritual in the underworld (the Merovingian’s domain). So now we are back again
with Morpheus, Neo, Smith, the Merovingian and Persephone.
Morpheus
discovers that Neo is the One. Neo is in the third Matrix, in his sixth
reincarnation. He descends to the underworld of the Merovingian with Morpheus
where Persephone leads him to the Keymaker. Neo is driven by Eros. It is love
that purifies Neo. After the ultimate sacrifice, stepping outside his own body
and entirely relinquishing his own Being, Neo finds Elysium (
Closely connected
to Orphic doctrine are ecstatic Dionysian rites; it is through ecstasy that one
breaks free from the shackles of the body. Through ecstasy one abandons earthly
consciousness, one catches a glimpse of total liberation. During the ‘rave’ in
the second film, when the inhabitants of
However,
Orpheus is known to us as the singer who descends to the underworld to liberate
his beloved Eurydice. After having lost her once, he loses her for a second
time, because he ignores Hades’ order and looks back at her.
Morpheus
makes his descent to the underworld twice, just as in the myth, and returns
from it again twice; but it was far from plain sailing on either occasion. On
the first occasion he visited the Merovingian with Neo and Trinity and was
looking for the Keymaker. His fight on Highway 101 must be stamped on every
viewer’s memory; Neo had to save him from this ‘suicide road’. The second time,
in the third film, he goes down with Seraph and Trinity acting on the Oracle’s
orders, to free Neo from
In the
film Morpheus loses his beloved Niobe only once. After he had been to see the
Oracle everything changed between the two of them, at least that was what Trinity whispered to Neo. He doesn’t actually
lose her a second time but wins her back instead. In the third film Niobe
chooses to believe in Neo. She hasn’t become any less sceptical about the
Oracle, she doesn’t believe in the Oracle at all, but she does believe in Neo.
She puts her ship, the Logos, at the
disposal of Neo and Trinity. She herself steers with the skill of a true Argonaut
(one of the heroes who sailed with Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece) and,
with Morpheus’s help, guides the ship through a mechanical tunnel. She arrives
just in time to discharge an EMP which blocks the first annihilating attack by
the sentinels. This mission brings her closer to Morpheus again. Neo’s offer to
stop the attacks on
Niobe is also connected to
the Oracle and the Architect. She is the first mortal woman to have intercourse
with Zeus. One of Demeter’s nicknames is Chloris, green-fingered, the bringer
of fruit, who fills the barn and brings the changes in season. Chloris is the
daughter of Niobe.
Seraph
Seraph,
the defender of the Oracle, is greeted by the Merovingian as a prodigal child,
this time without wings. In terms of Greek mythology, Seraph is the equivalent
of Hermes, the competent and – thanks to the wings on his helmet and footgear –
speedy messenger of the gods. He is the bearer of the will of the gods and, in
his role as intermediary between the gods and mankind, he is of all gods
closest to humans. He is the herald of the gods, a guide to mankind (in the
Apocrypha on the nature of angels, Seraph is a seraph, I’ll return to this
presently). Seraph protects the Oracle and takes care of Sati. He searches to
find Neo and takes him to the Oracle. He also acts as guide for Morpheus and
Trinity by going down with them to the Merovingian’s underworld. This last
function corresponds to that of Hermes, who acts as a guider of souls and transports
the dead to Hades.
The doors
of the underworld are guarded by Cerberus, the hell hound. All the ghosts that
entered the realm of Hades were admitted by this hound, with a wag of the tail,
but he wouldn’t allow anyone to leave. This was why for those who went down to
the underworld alive the most difficult task was to subdue Cerberus. Those in
possession of Hermes’s staff (Latin: caduceus)
were in fact able to defeat the hell hound. The Club Hel bouncers recognize Seraph
from a long way off: ‘Holy shit, it’s Wingless’. ‘I get it. You must be ready
to die.’ When the cloakroom girl spies Seraph she runs into the lift shouting
‘Oh, my God’. This incident is followed by a violent shoot-out between the
security guards on the one side and Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity on the other.
They have managed to enter the Merovingian’s club for a second time and have
also managed to fight their way out.
Seraph,
acting as Hermes, has a very important symbolic function in that he symbolizes
transcendence. Neo is the sixth reincarnation of the One and as such symbolizes
the transitional period in the life of man. Seraph, as Hermes, reflects this,
mirroring Neo’s transcendence.
The
renowned psychologist C.G. Jung has pointed out that man has a need to liberate
himself from every type of living situation that doesn’t fit the stage of his
development, or that is too imperfect, or too rigid. Man wants to rise above
the lifestyle that is getting in the way of his ascent to a higher or more
suitable stage in his development. In order to do this, conscious and
unconscious forces must close ranks. From this union there arises what Jung
refers to as ‘the transcendental function of the psyche’. This enables people to
achieve their highest ideals, namely the complete realization of the potential
of the individual self.
‘Your
appearance now is what we call ”residual self-image”. It is the mental
projection of your digital self’, is the way Morpheus introduces Neo’s appearance in
the Matrix. We now know how that Neo’s self-image develops in the film from a boy who sighs,
‘I’m nobody’, to a severe man who snarls ‘My name is Neo’ and finally emerges
into a self-confident being who agrees to make the sacrifice ‘because I choose
to’. Neo transcends, he achieves his highest ideal, the complete realization of
the potential of the individual self. He makes room for a new stage in the
configuration of man/machine: that of Sati, of love.
‘Transcendence
symbols’ are symbols that represent man’s pursuit of this ideal. They provide
the access that allow the unconscious to reach the realms of the conscious. The
most universal symbol of transcendence is probably the snake – and that brings
us back to Seraph. The intertwined snakes on the knob of Hermes’s staff
(caduceus), and the actual staff itself, stand for liberation and healing;
liberation from the known world and a step into the unknown.
In
Source:
Man and his symbols, C.G. Jung et al. (1964)
Twins
The twins that are so prominently
visible in the second film as direct helpers of the Merovingian represent the
Greek twins Hypnos and Thanatos. Hypnos is the god of sleep, and son of Nyx
(Night) and twin brother of Thanatos (Death). His home is in the underworld. He
is one of the most powerful gods because it is not only mere mortals that yield
to his power, but gods too. He had four children Morpheus(!), Ikelos, Phobetor
and Phantasos.
Thanatos (thanatus) is a personification of Death, the only god who hates everyone and
everything, even the gods. He is also the only god who does not accept gifts
and who has no altar. As a priest of the underworld he visits the dying and
cuts off a lock of their hair. Thanatos is actually a part of Hades’s nature, and
was only later granted a separate personality.
III.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END: Knowledge and insight
I shall
only deal briefly with this topic; I will look at it in greater detail in the
chapters on the Parsifal motif and the alchemistic principle.
In the
biblical book of Genesis we read that on the seventh day God looked at what he
had created and was pleased with what he saw. Even Adam and Eve were content
until the snake tempted them to eat the apple of the tree of knowledge, the
only piece of fruit God had forbidden them to eat. By eating the apple Adam and
Eve had shown their disobedience; apparently their desire for knowledge was so
pressing that they thought it was worth risking eating the forbidden fruit.
Adam and Eve were expelled from
Knowledge and understanding
are two key concepts that mark Neo’s Road. The road begins in the first film
when Neo decides to step into the car with Trinity near Adam[!]
Choosing the red pill leads
to Neo’s realizing that he has been living in a make-believe world. Once you
have swallowed the red pill you are no longer a part of it because you then
become aware of the illusion. This knowledge, however, doesn’t mean that the
chaos and bewilderment disappear, in fact the opposite is the case; from that
moment onwards the chaos increases. In the first film Neo is confused; he has
been told that he has been chosen to be the One, but he can’t really imagine
what this entails. As the first film progresses, Neo starts increasingly to
‘believe’ in his unique position, but he is not sure whether he will be the
redeemer. He can’t know for sure at this point, and he has a long way to go
before he does. Neo will have to understand and learn a lot before he is
capable of rectifying the balance between the Machine World, the Matrix and
When Neo first visits the
Oracle he is admitted into an anteroom where young children, other
‘potentials’, are just sitting around waiting. The television is on and is
showing pictures of rabbits hopping. Just before this we have had the famous
scene with ‘Follow the white rabbit’. The rabbit isn’t just a reference to ‘
The hare symbol has existed
for more than thirty centuries in the most distant corners of the world (in mythologies
the difference between the rabbit and the hare is irrelevant). The hare bears
the stamp of eternal fertility, both for the female who receives and the male
creative force. It stands for the Spirit, for inner growth and development of
self-awareness. The hare is also a symbol of Eros, they are often depicted
together. Eros splits himself up into sensual and spiritual love, the latter
being represented by the hare. ‘Follow the white rabbit’ is a pointer to the
well-known motif of duality and to another important theme in the film, that of
Eros, god of love, which I shall discuss in the next chapter.
The motif
of sacrifice and resurrection is also symbolized in the hare. In Christianity
the Easter rabbit is associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In
spring, after the apparent death of winter, nature is regenerated: fertility, eternal
life and resurrection are intrinsically linked. In the imagery of the Rosicrucians the white hare, expressing the
power of Christ’s personality, a power that lies dormant in the child, will
become the bearer of compassion and love for the whole human race, and will
bring liberation from the menaces of hostile forces. The last-mentioned
function immediately makes me think of Neo and Sati. Neo is to sacrifice
himself, and if he is to do this he will have to develop an enormously powerful
individual consciousness, or ego. In Hinduism, Sati is the goddess of love and
sacrifice. In the film the power of the ego is present in Sati, the young girl.
She is the symbol of the new age, Love has brought her and she will propagate
Love, thus ending the enmity between man and machine.
Temet Nosce
‘Know
thyself’, is the maxim of the Matrix trilogy which is a direct reference to the
pattern of psychological growth. The psychologist C.J. Jung introduced the
concept of ‘Self’ as the inner centre of the human being, the totality of the
entire psyche (to distinguish from the I-force, or ego, that is only a part of the total
psyche). Intuitively, people have been conscious of this inner centre since
time immemorial. The Self is thus an inner, guiding factor that brings about a
continuous growth and maturing of the personality.
How far it
develops depends on whether or not the ego is prepared to listen to the
messages passed on by the Self. The role of the I-force is to help the entire
psyche, in its totality, to succeed. Unless it is raised to a level of
consciousness, nothing will happen. As
long as Neo (I-force, ego) isn’t conscious of his entire psyche – the powers of
the One – nothing will happen to these powers and he won’t be able to use them
to the full.
Jung
maintains that this psychological growth cannot be brought about by a conscious
effort of will power, but that it happens inadvertently and naturally. The ego
has to free itself of all premeditated and desired aims, it is only then that
man is capable of allowing his perfect Self a free reign and the personality is
capable of achieving inner growth (‘There is no spoon.’ Free your mind.)
Many myths and fairy tales
describe the early stage of the individuation process symbolically, by beginning
their story with a sick king, a monster or the rule of darkness threatening a
country. In the Matrix the latter is the case. The early stage is marked out by
war and chaos, man and machine are one another’s enemies, the earth is in
darkness. The first meeting with the Self is surrounded by a dark shadow.
In myths there is always a
special force that is designed to dispel evil, and it is always unique and
difficult to find; Morpheus has been looking for Neo all his life. It is
exactly the same in the early crisis of the individual; a person is looking for
something but doesn’t know what it is they are looking for, nor where to find
it. At that moment there is only one thing to do: go back to the darkness and
try to find out what the secret goal is. This is what Neo does when he swallows
the red pill.
In
the second stage a person becomes capable of what Jung calls understanding the shadow-side, capable
of becoming aware of the unknown, or
little known, characteristic traits and qualities of the Self. In the films,
the Merovingian, and his crony the Trainman, could be seen as symbols of the
shadow-side of life. The Merovingian in particular symbolizes the urge for
‘power’ which he already enjoys and which Neo must take from him by force. In
this sense the Club Hel stands for the underworld as a descent into the
unconscious. Neo is still at an early stage, he’s in a far less powerful
program than the Merovingian. If he is to triumph, his power will have to be
augmented, his latent qualities will have to be tapped, initiated by his
subconscious. The shadow called the Merovingian must no longer be an enemy but
must become the shadow of a defeated opponent. This is what leads to the growth
of Neo’s Self which we see in the second film during the struggle scene in the
hall of the Merovingian’s mansion. Neo defeats his bodyguards, thus conquering
the Merovingian who shouts, ‘Damn it, you will be the end of me. Mark my words,
boy, and mark them well. I have survived your predecessors and I will survive
you!’ It’s all a lot of hot air: Neo is the moral victor. There is little else
the Merovingian can do than place a ransom price on
Neo’s head, but even in doing this he tastes defeat. In the third film Trinity
nudges her pistol against his temple and asks: ‘Time’s up. What’s it gonna be,
Merv?’
In
addition to the ‘shadow’ another inner figure emerges into the footlights. It
is the anima, the feminine principle present in the male unconscious. The anima
includes such phenomena as prophetic intuitions, susceptibility to the
irrational and a capacity for personal love. The anima, the feminine in the
male psyche, is often personified by the
archetype of a visionary, or seer. The link is soon made: the Oracle
personifies Neo’s anima, together with her realization as Persephone, but above
all in Trinity. She is a positive anima figure who guides Neo to the inner
world and to the Self. Trinity is on Neo’s track, she’s the one who persuades
him to go to Morpheus. She puts his unconscious thoughts into words: ‘It’s the
question that drives us, Neo. It’s the question that brought you here. You know
the question just as I did.’ Trinity takes the Oracle’s predictions as gospel.
The man she would fall in love with would be the One, so of course Trinity
gives Neo the kiss of life in the first film; it is the anima at work. Trinity
loves Neo with all her heart and soul and she brings his dormant love to life.
She opens his deeper inner layer, putting him on a road that will lead to
sacrifice, to the salvation of man and machine.
Of course
Neo lives in fear of losing her and he brings her back to life: Trinity is his
female alter-ego. Their passionate love scene in the second film denotes their
melting into one, becoming a unity. Just take a close look at their appearance through
the films: they become increasingly alike, particularly in the third film in
the Matrix when they are almost identical. Both have pale skin, scraped-back
hair, severe style of dress accompanied by a determined, supremely concentrated
expression.
Why does
she die? She dies because she has become one with Neo. In Jung’s terms: Neo’s
individuation process has been completed. The urge for individuation has led to
its conscious realization to the desired level. It has arrived at the point
when it can be understood by the Self, the ego, as the essential aim in life.
This is when the hero’s subconscious changes its dominating character and
appears in the last stage in a new form, as the Self, the innermost core of the
psyche. This is why Neo also has to die, or to put it more accurately, has to
transcend.
What is
Smith’s role in all this? After all, he too has a connection with Neo. Smith is
the dark aspect of the personification of the subconscious. There are two sides
to the shadow, the anima and the Self, good and evil. They can be life-giving
but they can also be deadly, they can be creative but become ossified, they can
offer love but induce hatred, they can be prepared to sacrifice but want possession
too.
The dark
side of the Self is the most dangerous of all things, because the Self is the
greatest power of the psyche. It can lead to delusions, as when Smith wants to
own the world: ‘This is my world, My world!’
The Self
is often seen as a superior human figure. In the case of women it is a powerful
goddess, like the mother goddess Demeter, the Oracle and thus Sati. Of course at the end
of the film the Oracle, Seraph and Sati appear as a trinity. The Oracle and
Sati are the way in which the Self manifests itself, symbols of totality.
Seraph is
the messenger, symbolizing the transcendence of Neo in the Oracle/Sati. The old
woman and the young girl represent the line which joins the end of a cycle to
the beginning, the circumvolution (Revolutions).
They show that the Self accompanies us throughout our entire life and that it
is omnipresent. Jung uses the Sanskrit word mandala
(magic circle) as a symbol of the Self. The circle symbolizes inner balance and
unity, a feeling that life has once again found its true purpose and order. The
mandala, however, also expresses a new creation; in the new order the old
pattern returns at a higher level.
Source:
C.A. Wertheim Aymès and P. van
Schilfgaarde, De symboliek van haas en anjer,
1972.
Man and
his symbols, C.J. Jung et al., first published in English 1964.
IV THE END OF THE END: sacrifice and resurrection
By
choosing the left door Neo initiates the fall of
While
the people of
At
the end of the second film he was able to stop four sentinels completely on his
own just by thinking. The reason he was able to do this was because he had
developed a very powerful form of inner strength which the Oracle tells him
later on has come straight from the Source. Neo wasn’t ready for death when the
sentinels arrived. He should have been killed by them but apparently he wasn’t yet
ready for such a major step. This is why he is staying in Limbo. At this point
in the film Neo has left his body, that is, his mind is free of his body (‘Tell
me how I separated my mind from my body without jacking in’).
On
the platform at
The
parents, who are Matrix programs, are trying to smuggle their daughter into the
Matrix. The fact is that Sati is a program that has been developed but has no
function (‘the last exile’). And, as anything that is of no use must be
deleted, this is the fate that awaits her. Her parents, who love her, are acting
out of Love when they do a deal with the Merovingian to save their daughter
from the delete program.
In
the same way as Persephone leads us to the classics, it is through Sati,
Rama-Kandra and Kamala that we are introduced to the Indian myths. In Hinduism they recognize the trinity (Trimurt, the
triad of the three chief gods of later Hinduism) that came into being through
Brahman, consisting of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.
The Hindu myths
relate a creation process in which the powers of destruction, the asuras,
were to be fought and destroyed by any means possible. The asuras want to change the structure of the universe into
a meaningless chaos. However, the immortal gods, the devas, and their worldly
helpers, are successful in thwarting each of these numerous attacks, thus
guaranteeing the safety of the cosmos. Each destruction is followed by a new
beginning.
The
knowledge required to fight these negative powers is to be found in the ancient
sacred writings of Hinduism, the Vedas. Apparently this knowledge can be lost,
but seers can then recover the sacred contents and give this back to the
people. Countless Indian myths deal with this subject. Vishnu is an important
symbol in them. He is the god who resides on the primeval sea and who is considered to be the first
conscious mortal in the cosmos. In him the male and female elements are in
perfect balance. At Vishnu’s feet sits his immortal wife, the goddess of love and
happiness, Lakshmi. Vishnu and Lakshmi show how an equitable world order can be
brought into being.
However,
from time to time, the destructive element gets the upper hand and this leads
to miserable periods that test all living creatures and in which all hope of a
happy existence disappears into thin air. But all is not lost because Vishnu
has the skill to create a new harmonious structure. In order to do this he is
incarnated ten times over. The seventh reincarnation (avtar) as Rama
(Rama-Kandra) is one of the most well-known. His beloved Lakshmi always accompanies
Vishnu on his earthly incarnations and she offers him her crucial help. If he
is to be seen as the hero Rama then she is the beautiful Sita (Sati).
Brahma
is the creator of the universe. He is depicted with four heads looking in the
four directions of the wind. The Architect is
Brahma, the creator, ‘the father of the Matrix’.
Shiva is ambiguous;
one moment destructive, the next a merciful shepherd of souls. His ability to
adopt so many different guises, along with his capricious character, means that
he personifies in particular the astonishing diversity of human life. On his
forehead he wears the third eye of knowledge, which symbolizes spiritual
awareness. It is an inner eye (at the end of the third film Neo’s eyes have
been damaged in an operation. He is blind but still has an inner eye. He can
see the light and shows Trinity the way; he can see the light from the Source.
Neo has the third eye).
Shiva’s
wife is Kali, who complements him and is his mirror image. Kali means Black. She is sometimes called Kali Ma
('Black mother'). Kali is a destroyer but also has creative power; she is womb
and gravecombined. Like her husband Shiva, Kali is never entirely destructive.
Her function is to repel demonic forces which could endanger the cosmic order.
Power, wisdom and sexual sovereignty converge in her. Shiva
and Kali are not malevolent powers; they only destroy what should eliminated
anyway. The Oracle is Kali, she too has the third eye – so coveted by
the Merovingian.
Rama-Kandra
The
story of Rama and Sita tells how the king’s son Rama is robbed by the demon
Ravana of his wondrously beautiful wife Sita (actually the goddess of fortune,
Lakshmi, in her earthly guise). Rama goes to look for his wife and finds her
after he has been helped by the king of the anthropoids Hanuman (Councillor
Hamman (?), who also, by the way, gives Neo the idea that man needs the machine
as much as the machine man). Together they defeat the king of the demons, a
ruler who thought he was invincible. For the Indians, the
Kamala
Kamala,
Sati’s mother, Rama-Kandra’s wife, reminds me of Kama, the god of love in her
guise of eternal victor. At the end of the
‘third age’ (at the end of the third Matrix) such chaos and darkness
prevails that even Shiva, who can obliterate all evil, retires to his icy
mountaintop. The earthly gods try everything they can think of to persuade
Shiva to concern himself with worldly order. For this purpose they engage the
aid of the goddess of love
Sati
Sati symbolizes
justice, love and sacrifice. On the one hand she is Sita, Rama’s faithful wife,
with whom she founds a realm of justice. Lakshmi, the goddess of love, is
incarnated in Sita. On the other hand Sati (meaning in Sanskrit the virtuous,
good woman) is Shiva’s first consort (compare Kali; thus linking Sati to the
Oracle). She (Sati) was the one who first allowed the stubborn Shiva to
experience love. Sad about the quarrel between her father and her husband she
voluntarily opts for death by fire to save her man’s honour. This is the way she makes her sacrifice.Since Shiva’s
grief at her death forms a threat to the divine order, she is reborn as
Parvati.
Sati
greets Neo with the words ‘Good morning’ and thus the two meet. She is a
foreboder of what Neo will have to do in the future: make a sacrifice. Neo then
says to Rama-Kandra, ‘I know you’. Neo not only recognizes Rama-Kandra as
someone from the Merovingian’s restaurant, he also sees himself in Rama-Kandra;
it is like looking into the mirror again. Neo encounters himself; Rama-Kandra
is Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, the defender of the world.
At
the exact moment when Neo thinks, ‘Ok. You
got yourself into this. You can get yourself out’,
the train stops, and Trinity fetches him back from Limbo. He then visits
the Oracle for the third time. The Oracle has always talked to Neo about the
subject of Choice. In Reloaded she tells Neo that he has already made his choice, only he
still has to understand why he has made it. In Revolutions she says that the only way you will know whether you
have made the right choice is if you are faced with making the same choice
again. In other words: you have to take risks when you make a choice.
Meanwhile,
the Oracle has made a choice: she is going to install an imbalance into the
program. From the Architect’s story it would
appear that every program is designed to optimize the working of the Matrix:
each stored brain must eventually choose to become part of the Matrix. This is
to exclude any further rebellion. Compared to the intuitive character of the
Oracle, the Architect is a control freak: ‘To him [choices] are variables in an
equation. One at a time, each variable must be solved and countered. That’s his
purpose: to balance an equation.’ The Oracle chooses to introduce an imbalance
into all this. By doing this the Oracle, who is a destroyer and a creator at
the same time, can kill two birds with one stone: save the Matrix and
As it happens, the danger
lurks not so much in the fact that the machines will destroy
Thus the Oracle reveals her
own interests. Her credo is ‘The only way to get there [the future] is
together.’ Which specific hazardous game is she playing? There are three
players, each motivated to serve their own best interests: Neo, the Oracle and
the Source. It’s to Neo’s advantage to stop the sentinels who are on their way
to destroy
The Oracle’s plan is to
influence Neo to such an extent that he will do a straightforward deal with the
Source, thus stopping his being destroyed the moment he arrives. Neo wants to
be given the chance to eliminate Smith by convincing the Source of the
seriousness of the impending danger for the Matrix – and the entire Machine
World. In return for eliminating Smith, Neo will ask for the sentinels to be
closed down, which would lead to peace. The Oracle, however, knows that in
pointing out the danger posed by Smith she may be overplaying her hand: The
Source is powerful enough to eliminate Smith himself (‘We don’t need you. We
need nothing’). Therefore she has to come up with an offer the Source can’t
resist: Neo?
Just like the Ones before
him, Neo has codes that could perfect the system. These codes have exceptional
plus points in that they will turn the machines into apparatus with human feelings
(‘vis à vis love’). It is doubtful whether the Source sets much store by these benefits.
In the third film we see Neo negotiating with him but we don’t know what he has
to offer. Whatever was decided, it results in his returning to the Matrix for
the Super Burly Brawl, the momentous fight with Smith. Possibly it has occurred
to the Source that the whole Matrix could be blown up as a result of Smith’s
antics, which would mean that the continued existence of his machines would be
endangered. After all, should the human brains be blown up, he would lose his
source of energy. As god of creation he would have to start all over again,
going right back to the beginning. Perhaps he just thought, ‘Let the lad have a
try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained’. The AI god is a calculating god.
In fact, the Oracle is
playing a dangerous game.
Let’s go back and look at
that dangerous game.
Her first challenge is to
get Neo to think about being the saviour, which she succeeds in doing (‘I need
time’). It has to happen quickly because the sentinels are already on their way
to
O: ‘I made a choice, and
that choice cost me more than I wanted it to.’
M: ‘What choice?’
O: ‘To help you to guide
Neo. Now, since the real test for any choice is having to make the same choice
again, knowing full well what it might cost – I guess I feel pretty good about
that choice, ‘cause here I am, at it again.’
The Oracle is referring to
an earlier choice she had to make. This may have been in favour of the first
One, and against the first Smith. When Smith is just about to absorb Seraph he
says, ‘Well, well, it’s been a long time. I remember chasing you was like chasing
a ghost.’
Seraph: ‘I have beaten you
before.’
Smith: ‘That’s true, but as
you can see, things are a little different now.’
Her second
challenge is to lead Smith to the Source through Neo, so that he can be
eliminated. These two antipoles, dark and light, should cancel one another out. Neo has powers that come directly from the Source. Smith
develops steadily as an unscrupulous power and the only way to stop him is to
upgrade him. This would damage the equilibrium between Neo and Smith, create an
imbalance. Smith would become superfluous and be deleted as a matter of course.
This is why the Oracle decides that Smith may be
allowed to penetrate her. The resulting imprint will throw him off balance. It won’t
be enough though, and she will still need Neo’s powers, but there is no looking
back. She looks resigned to going ahead with it as she waits for him. When he
comes in he calls her ‘Mum’ as if it were some kind of joke. She then willingly
allows herself to be absorbed by Smith.
The
Oracle takes another risk by believing in Neo’s powers, in believing he will
actually be stronger than Smith. Neo can free his mind from his body and fend
off four sentinels by thought alone. Furthermore she knows that Neo’s greatest
strength lies in the fact that he can make choices. Neo is the one who can blow
up Smith but he has to choose to do so. He will have to free himself from his
ego, his conscious mind, and become submissive; he will have to put the
interest of the greater cause first. In the period leading up to this decision
he has not done this; instead, time and time again he has resisted Smith (and
the Architect too).
But
if forced to, Neo can withdraw from his own consciousness, he can let go of his
ego. Like a true epic hero, he can choose the difficult path. His brief stay in
Limbo was a forerunner of this ability. There is a chance that Neo will become
aware of this power in time, thus enabling him to be released from his specific
code and to take action. It is up to the Oracle to show him the right moment in
a direct confrontation between Smith/Oracle and Neo.
Smith
isn’t able to make a choice. He follows his shady codes, follows his incomplete
ego. He focuses on one goal and that is to gain more power so that he can
destroy the Matrix which he so loathes (as we can see in the first film). He is
driven towards Neo as a result of the Architect’s programming: everything must
be in balance, one code conjures up its opposite. Smith is shackled to Neo and
wants to break loose. The imprint of each code from each program he can lay his
hands on makes him believe he can become stronger and more powerful than Neo.
This is his weakness, and the Oracle uses it as a lure; Smith takes the bait.
Neo
finally makes up his mind that he will have to fight Smith. His aim is to end
the war between man and machine and he is convinced it can only be brought about
by a joint decision to make peace, because in a fight mortals would be no match
for the sentinels. Neo is convinced that this peace can only come about by
eliminating the joint enemy (Smith). He thinks he has amassed enough power to
take on Smith. What he doesn’t know is that in the meantime Smith has augmented
his strength by absorbing the Oracle. He still doesn’ t have any idea of the
dangerous game the Oracle is playing, nor that he is her trump card.
He
leaves with Trinity on a journey to
So
far so good, and then the fight between Neo and Smith takes place. Neo chooses
to fight Smith in the hope of defeating him. We, who know that the two
antipoles are doomed to remain part of each other, also know that Neo won’t win
the fight, at least not in a physical sense, although he will win in a moral
sense. Morally speaking good defeats evil, love defeats hatred.
What
follows is a terrifyingly awesome battle. In the film we are first shown the
annihilating, fanatical power of the machines attacking
And
Neo answers, ‘I choose to.’
Neo
chooses.
When
Neo says this Smith becomes confused and what remains is no more than a shadow
of himself. You might be forgiven for thinking that the moment has now arrived
for Neo to hit home mercilessly and settle the dispute to his advantage. But
no, at the end of the fight, just after Neo has given Smith such a tremendous
blow to his face that you think his head will come off at the shoulders, when
his strength seems to be invincible, Neo chooses to stop. What makes him decide
to stop?
Smith
tells him, ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo.’ These are the
Oracle’s words. Smith has never called Neo by his given name before. He does it
here for the first time. It isn’t Smith but the Oracle speaking through Smith.
Neo can’t win the battle, Smith is stronger. The battle will have to be settled
in a different way and Neo can find out how if he recalls the Oracle’s words
that ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end.’ The two antipoles will have
to melt into one in order to generate a new beginning. Darkness and Light are
present in every deed, every action has good and evil effects. If there is any doubt,
then it is best to choose the ‘in between’ option, beyond the two antipoles.
Neo suddenly realizes this and makes a final choice.
Neo’s
inner consciousness (Temet Nosce) has
developed to such an extent that he has travelled the road of spiritual
enlightenment and has been liberated from all physical ties. Neo’s strength
lies in his ability to step outside himself when really necessary. He
voluntarily allows Smith to enter his body so that the Smith program can be
installed inside him. Thus Neo incorporates his powers.
With
the Oracle acting as his guide (anima), Neo listens to his inner feelings and
knows he should cease to resist. He makes a sideways move and leaves his role as
the Light to adopt a more neutral position; he then finds himself in between
two opposing forces. Neo has chosen to take the road between Light and Darkness, between
Longing and Dread. It is the hero’s fate or destiny to abandon his former way
of life so that the empty space left behind by his old ego can be replaced by a
new one, leading to a more elevated or more mature style of life. The most
important key to any heroic deed is that the hero releases the ego, leaving
space to accommodate a higher ideal. Neo dies as a true hero and mystic whose
ego must die, obliterating the old image so that he can be reborn to become
something different on a more elevated plane (in the film as Sati). The release
does not take place directly; resurrection implies a new beginning that must
come about by sacrificing the Self (Neo Õ Sati).
We
have already been prepared for this image of his taking the central path
between two extremes earlier on in the film. When Trinity and Neo are in their
spaceship Logos on their way to
Smith is not capable of abandoning his shady power. He penetrates Neo’s
body so that Light and Darkness merge into one inside him. This means he
cancels himself out; Smith is erased when Light and Darkness converge. When he
merges into Neo he is in direct contact with the Source and for him that means
he’s reached the end of the road. The Oracle has already explained this once
before: a program can opt for the Matrix if it’s threatened with destruction or
it can return to the Source to be deleted. Smith has disappeared for good but
we don’t know for sure what has happened to Neo. In any case, at the end of the
film, when Sati asks the Oracle whether she will ever see Neo again, she
receives the reply: ‘I suspect so. Someday.’
After
Neo’s death, the machines pick up his body with tenderness and reverence (his
arms stretched out in the form of a cross) and carry him to the temple of
light. The energy-flows leave his body. When he ascends into heaven, he returns
to the Source, where the One’s journey ends.
In
the final scene it’s a new day and the Oracle is sitting on a park bench. When
the Architect approaches her the Oracle greets him with the words: ‘Well, now,
ain’t this a surprise’.
Architect:
‘You’ve played a very dangerous game.’
Oracle:
‘Change always is.’
Apparently
the Architect knows about her game. Has he joined in too? Has he promised her
certain things if it were to succeed? Or on this occasion has the Oracle
checkmated the Architect?
Then
Sati and Seraph appear. They too have returned to their original appearance.
Sati greets the Oracle with a ‘Good morning’. She conjures up a sunrise,
specially for Neo, whose sacrifice has led to a new beginning. Sati is no
longer an ‘exile’, no longer a program without an aim, in danger of being
deleted. She is Neo’s successor. One side of her represents the male principle
of rationality and the other the female belief in Faith, Hope and Love.
Love
is what motivates her, an emotion the Architect can’t handle, and it was love
that motivated Neo to act like the Saviour he was destined to become. It is this
binding strength that neutralizes contrasts and produces harmony. In the words
of Rama-Kandra, Love ‘is a word. What matters is the connection the word
implies.’ Neo’s inheritance lies in the fact that the meaning of the word Love
has been incorporated into the programs running the machines. Love supplies
friendship, compassion and forgiveness, essential concepts for any community
wishing to progress in harmony.
In
the Matrix trilogy, a modern myth, love is depicted as the peace and harmony
existing between man and machine. As the Oracle has already proclaimed, ‘The
only way to get there is together.’ The dangerous game has thus ended in
harmony. When asked by Seraph if she had known the outcome all the time, the
Oracle utters the final words of the film: ‘Oh no. No, I didn’t. But I
believed. I believed.’
(translated from the Dutch by Kate
Williams)