“Were you listening to me Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?”
Most of my readers will likely be familiar with this scene from the Matrix. Neo is being given a lesson on the nature of reality, and is distracted by a beautiful woman in red. When he turns to look at her again, there is an Agent with a gun inches from his head.
This idea of “woman as deadly distraction” for the male spiritual seeker (or indeed, anybody who grew up near LA), has a long history. A few months ago however, I recognized that she was a symbol of some important archetypes, and began connecting and dialoging with the image of the woman from the Matrix as a handy symbol of the integration work I was doing at the time.
Archetypally speaking, this woman is simply one potential expression of the Feminine, or Anima; whether she acts as a threat or not depends on how the individual relates to what she represents. Working with “her” via internal dialogue and making use of the image, I re-aligned my relation to the archetypes so that what she represents could manifest in my life, not as an obstacle, but as an ally.
Being dressed in red she relates to the root chakra, which covers the areas of sexuality (which broadly includes all forms of creative potential) as well as sensuality, foundations, and our relationship with the material world. This specific manifestation of the Anima also has a lot to do with fun, pleasure, “the finer things in life.” While she has often been portrayed as devious and predatory, this is a projection upon an archetype that has the potential to be a lot of things – my impression from my connecting was that she’s rather tired of that role, and would prefer to embody the harmless uninhibited playfulness for the sake of itself that most of us could use more of in our lives, and mutual exploration rather than selfish gratification at another’s expense. In any case, whether those things are a distraction, or something we can reward ourselves with, keep life fun and improve our morale and motivation, is up to the individual.
In the Matrix movie, Neo’s distraction would’ve gotten him killed had it not been a simulation, and the woman also represents the same things that Cypher, playing the Judas figure, sells himself and his former allies out to gain. But does it necessarily have to play out this way? Are the things she represents inherently false?
“Not in my universe” and “only as false as your own root chakra,” respectively.
Ironically, being led to believe that this figure is an enemy seems to be one of the ways we have been sabotaged, forcing us to struggle in the material world (and thus have less energy and resources to devote to things like spiritual and creative pursuits) rather than manifesting what we need easily and having more resources to devote to raising everyone’s quality of life. Being part of the feminine aspect of the root chakra which is our energetic foundation, could she shift from representing an obstacle to our liberation, and become a teacher helping us to get there, with even those “carnal” aspects of ourselves integrated into wholeness with our “higher” functions? Well, I know I’d have an easier time paying attention to her than Lawrence Fishburne, but…
Isis Agrees
One of the notable experiences during my recent hiatus occurred after I’d just had a massive volume of unhealthy subconscious material cleared, and had a lot of fragments reintegrate in a short period. The Egyptian goddess Isis presented herself, and being mentally exhausted by this point, but having always had an affinity for all things Egyptian, I communicated something about as eloquent as “…err, hey, good to see ya; what can I do for you?” What I got back from her was a very adamant “I love you… but don’t ever do that again,” followed by a strong wave of emotion, from which of us I’m not sure, to emphasize the point.
The stream of intuitive impressions that followed indicated that the dismembering of Osiris, and subsequent scattering of his parts by Chaos (in the form of Set) is tied into many of the same themes I covered in my soul fragmentation series. Namely, we have all been convinced, deceived and coerced into engaging in excessive self-betrayal, abuse and punishment, which causes fragmentation (and then our fragmented aspects often take up the task of unconsciously punishing us further and on into future lives in the form of our Shadow Self). The way the Divine Masculine within ourselves (biological men and women alike) has often been convinced to hand over our sovereignty and capacity for self-direction, and “just be” or “go with the flow” of someone else’s direction, against our own nature, also mirrors the dethroning, murder and dismemberment of Osiris.
This is a major source of unnecessary suffering, and apparently the Divine Feminine is particularly unhappy about, and affected by it. The various forms of suffering, sacrifice, self-denial and relinquishing of personal power that we inflict on ourselves is not only unnecessary, but does real damage to the ideal order of things. Who or what started this cycle is debatable per my current understanding, but the part that is clear is that we’re the only ones individually and collectively, who can finish it.
I was shown that while I have largely overcome the hurdle of seeing various forms of overly excessive “self-discipline” and self-sacrifice as somehow virtuous, I still had to overcome the other side of it, which was many deep rooted patterns of denying myself pleasure, neglecting to deliberately devote some resources to treating myself well as often as I should, and often not even recognizing discomfort until it was relatively blatant or extreme. This came as a bit of a surprise, as at this point my personality is generally laid back and doesn’t take much too seriously, and I’ve come to value the very things being emphasized – but I was shown how this was a layer of “strata” covering lifetimes worth of ultra self-regimented, self-denying hard-assery that was still having an influence in many areas, both subtle, and not so much, once it was pointed out. At that point there wasn’t much to say other than “I’m on it, and any available help in untangling and cleaning up my part in this whole mess is much appreciated as always.”
Life was never meant to be about suffering and struggle. Valuing things like wealth, beauty and pleasure in all their forms is not synonymous with irresponsibility or immorality, and not mutually exclusive with a healthy balance of spirituality, conscious moderation, social conscience and personal responsibility. These are all tools for having experiences which, like any other, can be properly used or abused.
The character in the Matrix who created the woman in red is quoted as saying “ To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.” Based on what I have seen I would have to say the guy’s got a point. Life was meant to be enjoyed, and not just by cutting ourselves off from the part of ourselves that gives a shit, and calling the result “enlightenment.” While we should not be ruled by our impulses and unable to say “no,” being ruled by the inability to say “yes” is not much better. Wholeness is not achieved by abdicating one’s own nature or individual sovereignty in hope of escaping it. Our desires and potential are not to be repressed or released, but explored and experienced. This is not only our birthright, but our responsibility.
Soon after posting yesterday on my theory and experimentation with the principle of “gravity,” I went to bed and had a dream that poignantly tied together the theme of this one with a blatant demonstration of the other. I’ll pick it up there in my next post.
–Palehorse
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…Okay, strapping toast to a cat might be one way, but pending a breakthrough in cat / toast-based propulsion, I’ve come up with another method. Stay with me here.
A friend I’ve known since childhood asked me to write on the subject of “Disappointment”, and how other people offer platitudes that, while well-intended, often make us feel worse.





