I watched the movie (http://www.avatarmovie.com/) a few weeks ago and the cinematography was so good I have watched it four times.
I should admit I had to over look the political side, something I have decided I must do if I want to watch any movie. There's nothing I hate worse than some director trying to make a political point, when all I want is to be entertained. I don't care if their right middle or left, just entertain me.
Now that I've got that off my chest, let’s discuss Avatars. In Hinduism "Avatar" is Sanskrit for "Decent" from Heaven. In English it's loosely translated as "incarnation" but a closer description would be "appearance" or "manifestation" of a deity. So says Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_ (2009_film) in the west it would be called invoking or evoking an entity. So says Thomas. Funny how all religions and Art's fit together, given the right perspective.
I must admit I hadn't heard of Avatars before the movie came out. Now it is being used in commercials on TV and I've heard it associated with everything from being an ally to a dream body and astral projection. Obviously they have never used astral projection much less produced a dream body. For neither are like the movie, the dream body is closest. I have made a dream body, it took months. The path is very perilous and the months of no real rest begins to take a toll on you and I never could manifest a body on this plane.
In the movie it was a man made vessel, made from the DNA of two species. It had the appearance of one species but had no personality. It was an empty vessel that had to be filled by the other species. When this was done it became whole, the two became one and started to evolve into a new and altogether different being. It had the appearance and physical abilities of one, with the memories and values of the other. The vessel was given a spirit.
A dream body is totally different. It is solely dependent on the dreamer and cannot exist in any form without you.
It made quite a spectacular and moving movie to see someone from a far more advanced culture, appreciate and help save a more primitive one. It is a great story line and one I always fall for but it has little to do with reality. In the end it really didn't matter how good, caring or in tune with nature they were. It was a matter of power. Power won the day. Good seldom has the power to win except in the "Movies".
It was a good movie but that's all it was, a movie, just a few minutes of fantasy. To romanticize about the old days where life was simpler and your contact with your God was a daily occurrence is so appealing. I do find the idea romantic and appealing as I watch it on my 65 inch big screen TV, in HD with HDMI on Blue Ray in my air conditioned home.
As much as we should revere the past we should not be held back by it. Change is a natural accuracy. I believe Darwin proved that to stand still is to die, to change is to live. I believe all change is good although some take more time than others to be reviled but we will either prosper or learn from any change.
All the above is well and good but what I would like to bring to your attention is something that I believe is the most important point of the movie. It was the interconnection of all living things along with the elements. They all worked as one to prevail over the threat to their way of life.
The degree that it was portrayed in the movie was again fantasy but its existence is very real. The power of Air, Fire, Water and Earth has been a staple of the Arts since man crawled from the chaos that was creation. The affection one feels for all living things and the power it brings is in us all, not just the gifted, because life loves life in any form. We mourn the loss of a life and celebrate the birth of a new life. It's why we love spring, the giver of life and a time of renewal of all things. What better reminder of creation than spring when life once again comes to the earth.
The powers that arose out of chaos fill the air around us with an energy waiting to be tapped, if you believe.
The Earth, Moon and the Stars also have a power and a purpose and they are all different in some respect.
When dealing with any of these don't expect to get exactly the same results as someone else, you might but you probably won’t. What you receive is for you, what they received was for them.
Have you ever been to the Redwood forest in California? Read about it in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_National_and_State_Parks
I have as a boy of ten "fifty six years ago" and the memory is still as strong as it was on that day. I wondered a few yards off the road and the power of the chaos overwhelmed me. I could have stayed there forever. I felt at peace and more important, I felt at home. I felt the elements of the Earth and the life of the forest. Together they sang a song I have never forgotten and set me on the path I follow today.
At the end of the movie when the indigenous people brought the "Dream Walker" to real life. Was a perfect example of collective healing. They were in the same place I was when I healed my daughter. They had to: he saved them, he was their leader. Without him all they had built would fall apart. He was the thread that held the clans together.
With his knowledge of what lay in their future he would have prepared them as best he could. Knowing all the time that as they progressed they would lose what had saved them.
Does this sound familiar?
Thomas