Do you ever pay attention to how much spiritual symbolism there is in movies? I love when I leave a movie theater feeling like I gained some sort of great wisdom about myself or life in general.
I definitely felt this way about the movie Avatar. Have you seen it yet? If not, I won’t spoil the details {too much}, but I will encourage you to pay attention to the deeper meaning if when you do see it. There are many obvious, and some not-so-obvious, references to our human connectedness to each other and to our planet.
{Tiny spoiler alert} One of my favorite scenes from the movie is when the male character, Jake Sully, is alone in the forest for the first time at night. He tries to light a torch so he can see in the dark, and he just can’t seem to get it lit. He starts to get scared and he hears noises of some sort of animals around him.
Finally, he gets the torch lit and he sees that he is surrounded by a pack of wild dogs. Neytiri, the main female character in the movie, comes to his rescue and saves him… There is way more to the scene than this, but I am focusing in on one point…
After the excitement of the scene dies down, Neytiri throws Jake’s torch into a stream, in order to put it out and also because she is disgusted with his general lack of understanding of… pretty much everything. It is then that he stops for a moment and looks around. All of the plant life around him begins to come alive and glow with bioluminescence. He realizes how beautiful, and almost magical, the forest is.
When I saw this scene, I couldn’t help but see the parallel.
How often do we get so caught up in the scary details, that we are totally unable to see the beauty that surrounds us? Even in times of great fear.
There has been more than one time in my own life where I was so focused on my fear, so worried, so action-oriented, so desperate to get away from what I didn’t want, that I was totally blind to the opportunity, joy, and beauty staring me right in the face.
It makes me wonder how different life might be if instead of reacting out of fear like Jake, we stop and take a deep breathe, regroup, and see our experiences from a more objective and open viewpoint.
We can experience amazing, sometimes previously inconceivable things, when we release our fear and open ourselves up to the beauty that surrounds us in each and every moment.
What other deeper meanings did you notice in the movie Avatar (or any other movie)?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! This is a great post! I loved the movie and felt it really got me back on track! I really love how I felt great when I left that theater
XXOO
deeper meaning? are you kidding me?
this movie was so offensive. was the deeper meaning that Africans are completely different living organisms but we can learn to live with them? ugh. they weren't even aliens. they were just black.
i'm sorry if i seem harsh, but this post really irritates me.
Sheila, I love your perspective. We are all connected and it was beautiful to see the contrast of western civ with a more in touch culture, being so patient as to teach the Truth and Connection to Source. I loved it and truly felt amazing after seeing this.
Loved this movie- as a rhetoric student, I was analyzing the hell out of it when I watched it. There's so many different ways to read Avatar! Your thoughts on this are really great.
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