Halloween Explained: To Live and Die and Live Again

Halloween is such a controversial holiday. Like most things, it started out as something good and is now a shell of what it once was. I have found that “hating” on anything is probably the least effective way of understanding why a thing exists or is insistent upon perpetuating its existence in its present form. In understanding a thing, we are empowered to either peacefully co-exist with it or work to change the prevailing condition, even if that means removing ourselves from the perpetuators (or perpetrators, depending upon what’s going on).

As for Halloween, it began as “All Hallows Eve” or “All Hallows Evening”. It celebrated the eve of All Hallows Day, which occurs each year on November 1st and is a celebration of all the saints and martyrs who gave their lives in service of Christianity and are now in the Spirit World. Why would Christians choose November 1st as a day to honor saints and martyrs? Well, there are several reasons, the first of which dates back to the celebration of Samhain by the Celtic peoples of what are now Great Britain and Ireland. Samhain was a celebration of the fall harvest and the natural change in seasons, which brought about a time of reflection on the previous growing season.

People call this “paganism”, but many of the traditions of the classic world make perfect sense if given some thought. As the cold days of fall creep in and darkness comes earlier in the day, it is a natural time to be in-doors. When one is inside, he’s not focused on the external world. So, it is a natural time of reflection. When one is out working or playing, it is NOT the natural time for reflection. That is a better time for individual and collective expression, because you are out and about and in the company of others.

In December, many will celebrate Christmas. It has its origins in the Roman Saturnalia and the worship of the God Saturn. Again, this makes perfect sense, when you consider that very little grows in the winter. So, Saturn was worshipped as the God of Plenty and most of the activities initially associated with that day were in hopes that the Golden Age of Plenty would continue, even in the darkest days of winter.

On a deeper level, Saturn represented the level of discipline one would have to exercise in assuring that there would be enough supplies to last the whole winter long. Even slaves had full plates as part of the Roman Saturnalia. This was an indication that the master of the house exercised Saturnian discipline in ensuring preparation was made year-long, so that the needs of the house could be met in the winter. So, Saturn is considered Father Time and is a God who demands that we exercise a certain amount of discipline. Some call Saturn the great malefic, for being such a strict father. It is because the father is strict that the sons and daughters have a long, fruitful life. The gift-giving and merry-making associated with the Saturnalia became the gift-giving and merry-making associated with Christmas.

So, Halloween or All Hallows Evening was supposed to celebrate the evening before a time of reflection. Since people naturally fear the dead, it was decided that there needed to be a means of coping with this fear. Costume, pranks, and receiving candy from ghouls and ghosts was originally intended to remind that there is no reason to fear the dead – that they are simply in another place and form. Had the early Church not decided against teaching the principles associated with reincarnation, there would be no need for Halloween. We’d have a healthy respect for all the realities associated with death and the realm of the dead.

The celebration of Halloween even eclipses the day it was supposed to represent. It’s like celebrating Good Friday and forgetting Easter. Or, celebrating Black Friday and skipping Christmas. That’s essentially what’s being done when we celebrate Halloween and forget the Feast of All Hallow’s Day. Think about it. There is no day for honoring the souls of loved-ones who’ve contributed much to our lives, but have gone on. Yet, there is a day to dress-up in costume, buy and eat candy, and act a bit of a fool. Because we don’t give things of spirit much serious consideration in a scientific age, we cannot expect that this situation will change anytime soon.

November means nine. Nine is the number associated with completion, birth, and the presence of the Eternal God. November is the 11th month in our 12-month calendar system. Eleven is also a master number and represents the portal or gateway between two states of reality. So, it is the perfect month to reflect on the testimonies of all those lives which are complete, all those people who have passed through the gate, on to the next phase in their journey toward the Return to our Eternal God.

As the Earth travels through the doorway of fall, into the dark of winter, it is the perfect time to reflect on the change in seasons for all life-forms. We are born. We mature. We grow old. Then, we die, only to return in another form in the next season of life. The investment we make in this lifetime will determine what blossoms and blooms for us next lifetime. And, that’s the true meaning and spirit of the holiday and Holy Day after.

By James Will M. Power

The Metaphysics of “After Earth”

So, I’ve decided to take a break from YouTube and the MetaChannel, but that does not mean I’ve taken a break from “observational metaphysics” or viewing the world in which we live metaphysically. The movie “After Earth” almost forced me to turn the camera back-on – almost. It is certainly worthy of metaphysical review and analysis. What’s interesting is - according to RottenTomatoes.com, only 12% of critics liked the movie, whereas 82% of the audience enjoyed it. That’s a 70% difference in opinion.

Whatever criteria critics are employing in determine whether a movie is worth seeing, it’s obviously not the formula the public is using. And, if the critics are supposed to be giving us the heads-up on what’s good to go see, we cannot find a more clear referendum on their job performance than this. These guys are getting to be like the weather-man who gets it wrong 70% of the time. Hate to have to say this, but critics are by no means the stand-in experts on movie-making or what makes a good movie. Thus, the best critics are people who love movies, not journalists who get paid to think a certain way or would-be film-makers whose primary focus should be on film-making.

I digressed. Let’s get back to the movie itself. First and foremost, a primary theme in the film is ‘the hero’s journey’. That automatically makes this is a man’s movie. Not that it should be, especially since one of the first stories to depict a hero’s journey is the tale of Isis who fought with skill, cunning, and valor to save her son, Horus. Thus, anyone who has fought or is fighting the good fight can connect with and be inspired by the hero’s journey.

Nevertheless, the hero’s journey is classically depicted as one where the son faces and overcomes many challenges in becoming the father, achieving manhood, or earning the respect of some group of people. We love the hero’s journey, because it is the ultimate journey for all of us. Our goal as individuals is the ultimate return to our father – GOD. This search may take the form of finding purpose or perfecting ourselves or our craft. At the core, it is the quest for that which is beyond our reach. As a collective, our goal is to achieve oneness with our fellow man and to overcome the challenges faced by humanity. Hence, most of us can resonate with this concept in one way or another.

In this film, our heroes happen to be members of a black family. There is the wife, Faia, who heroically accepts her husband’s absence and awaits his return to the family. There is the daughter, Senshi, who heroically sacrifices her life for that of her younger brother. There is the son, Kitai, who desperately wants to be a hero like his father. And, there is the father, Cypher, who acts as savior of the human race in more ways than one – it seems. As viewers, we should be able to connect with heroics, regardless of how they are packaged. It is in our DNA to connect with the courage, faith and compassion that are characteristic to these characters. I humbly submit that if you had a hard time doing so, you were likely analyzing the film a bit too much.

The film is set in a future 1,000 years from now, where human beings can be found to be desperately seeking the balance between nature and technology. So, the habitations and the ships of the future are shown to have both a natural and a technological feel. Even the weapon is made of some crystalline bone-like material and a morphing black substrate. The décor in the homes is simple and the ship’s design is simple. Thus, our connection with the characters and the story do not get lost in a whole bunch of heavy metal and technological gizmos. Now, some viewers may have experienced a level of discomfort, expecting a more technology driven future and an even greater interface with technology. However, the movie makes the clear point that it is nature that sustains us and that our relationship with nature must be first and foremost.

Kitai’s suit changes to fit the environment. What better way to make the point – “Adapt or die.” Today, militaries around the world recognize the value of blending-in with their environment. They wear camouflage that matches their environment. They even camouflage tanks and missiles. However, in contrast to the present, this movie carries us into a future time when the need for close-quarter combat renders guns and long-range weapons useless. Apparently, this movie recognizes a future where we’ve done enough damage to ourselves to grow to hate guns. Further, an alien race brings a new threat (the ursa), which preys on humans. It closes its distance before attacking.

I found it interesting that the beast was called an ursa (or bear). Animal experts state that humans have it wrong. Bears are really no major threat to us and it is seldom that bears will attack humans. They are very shy and their only interest in us is that our food often makes for an easy meal. Our fear makes us feel threatened and causes us to react, which in most cases spooks the bear. The bear simply wants us to stop freaking-out, because it doesn’t want to freak out. Being very fast and extremely powerful, the bear has a say in whether you continue to lose your cool. In the movie, this alien race of the future can be seen as spooked by the one thing that makes human’s destructive – our fear. Thus, it sentences humanity to death (or survival) by means of the very weakness that makes us destructive, our fears.

The movie attempts to make the point when Kitai encounters the baboon. He is faced with a choice. He can either create a connection in that moment or be driven by fear. Kitai does what most humans would do in a moment such as that. Out of fear, he gets the impulse to fight. He throws a rock. When he discovers he is out-numbered, he runs. This is classic fight or flight syndrome. Even the reasoning voice of his father is not enough to halt Kitai’s panic, as he imagines an enemy to be lurking behind every tree.

Eventually, Kitai discovers that much of his fear is not his own – that he was taught to be afraid by the very people who felt they were being brave for him. His sister told him that she would fight. And, his father told him that he did not have to fight. In the end, Kitai discovers that he has no innate lack of courage – that the fears of others (fears for his safety) are projected onto him. Upon making the discovery, he releases these fears by taking a leap of faith (a leap into the unknown).

Beyond the boundary of fear, Kitai discovers love. A mother bird grabs Kitai, who is a baby to the concept of flight and keeps her as his own. Having ascended ‘on the wings of love’ so-to-speak, Kitai, with his newfound courage risks his own life to save the mother bird’s babies. On a planet where everything has evolved to kill humans, Kitai can be seen as a redeemer and a restorer of humanity to Earth. The mother bird is representative of God’s providence and mercy. Kitai takes a step toward GOD (in this case a leap of faith) and GOD takes a step toward him (and human-kind). He wins the trust of one of GOD’s creatures and reclaims the possibility that humans can re-inhabit the planet. A final event with the bird informs Kitai further – that not only is he able to make choices, but that it is his responsibility to make the best choices. He recognizes that the pig leads her babies into the cave for protection from the weather at night. So, Kitai follows.

The film also acknowledges a very well known practice among indigenous people – communication with ancestors in dreams. Thus, Kitai’s sister Senshi comes to him in a dream. She helps him to discover something about her – the thing that made her strong, even though she was killed. She was full of love and compassion and could not ghost (or mask her feelings) because it was not who she was. She only fought as a means of saving him. In the dream, she even distorts her face (shows that she can access an ugly side) as she attempts to awaken Kittai as a means of saving his life.

“After Earth” also recognizes that near-death experiences are a primary means of removing all traces of fear. Faced with imminent death, we come to various realizations. In the movie, Cypher Raige, when faced with death realizes how much control he has over his own reality and how much he has been allowing fear to control him. In that moment, he becomes totally conscious of his ability and responsibility to make choices in every moment. Further, he begins to recognize fear as something that lives in the heart of thoughts about the future. Totally grounded in the present, he experiences no fear. This point is especially made toward the close of the film when Cypher decides to retire (and to study war no more). Where most movies would have the son become the soldier of tomorrow, this movie gets it right. The son courageously seeks a new way – love.

For some viewers, this might have seemed weird or unnatural, but it was an absolutely courageous stand for a movie to make. In most Western films, the son continues to ‘fight the good fight’. The question could be asked, “What good has fighting done for humanity?” And, some would argue, “…but fighting is necessary!” Is it? Or, are we simply driven by more and more fears of what might be lurking around the corner, in the dark, at some time in the future waiting to get us? We equate courage with ‘keeping up the good fight’. It allows us to put our fears to rest, if just for a moment. The movie makes the point that it is more courageous to love and to live in love and live for love. For a world like ours, one that lives in constant fear of not knowing – love is an even more desperate leap into the great unknown.

This movie, like most of this summer’s films, is in-part about the demons we create for ourselves. The consciousness of humanity is awakening and attempting new heights. However, if we are to eventually soar, we must recognize that which drags us into the underworld from whence demons arise. Fear is a weight that drags us down. It is paralyzing. It is connected to other emotions that cling to us pulling us further down into the pit of despair. But, if anything, humanity is resilient and capable of not only weathering but conquering all the storms of life. “After Earth” hopefully there is more Earth. Unlike the movie, we don’t have anywhere to go and any way to get there if we did. So, perhaps we can slay the biggest monster - fear. Like the bear, fear hibernates within us. Then, it comes forth with a hunger and a thirst that desperately needs to be satisfied. “Now” is the moment wherein fear finds no safe harbor. Where “now” once were the domain of the new-ager and the student of consciousness and spirituality, today it has become the domain of millions of movie-goers worldwide. Let’s just wait and see what happens ‘now’. By James M. Power

Hidden Meaning: The Weeknd - the Knowing (Dir.: Mikael Colombu)

On the surface, this sounds like a song about a man who cheats on the woman who cheated on him. Whether the Weeknd intended a deeper meaning for the song from its inception, you can decide. However, the video adds another dimension to the song. It is the Voice of God Almighty playing in the Mind of the Christ-figure in the video. God is the He Who Knows Everything and while these painful events play out in the lives of the characters in the music video, the viewer is to hearken to the oft-repeated reminder from the Holy Qur’an, “I Know” (or I, Allah, am the Best Knower!)

Let’s examine the video as a means of extracting much of the hidden meaning to be found in “the Knowing.”

King Haile Selassie

In the beginning sequence, Emperor Haile Selassie I is overthrown by the Dergue. The Dergue was a council that was originally set-up to look into military grievances, but gained very quickly gained power in Ethiopia. They ousted Selassie (a monarch in the line of monarchs), killed 60 high-ranking officials in his cabinet, and set-up Marxist-Leninism (a European paradigm) as the ideology of the Ethiopian State. With the ousting of King Selassie, the rule of the Solomonoid Emperors was broken.

Dick Gregory remembered watching TV and seeing King Selassie stand at the front the procession of all the European royals. King Selassie was in the same family as King David, King Solomon, and yes - Jesus. The video makes a connection between King Selassie (who cared for his country and people and was a man of peace) and the protagonist. Some of the reasons will become evident later. The primary reason is that the director wants to establish a family line that goes back to God Almighty.

I Know What You Did…

As the words to the song start to play, we find an angel staring down at a woman. The darkly angelic being puts light into the woman. “The Sons of God saw the daughters of men – that they were fair.” The Sons of God (Angels) had sex with daughters of men.

This causes the “Sons of God” to taste her – death, as their sons become part Earth-born men and part star-born. So, the protagonist is shown with his eyes clouded. Yet, he is also standing on a cloud. He is a being of Heaven, but partly a being of Earth. The earthly aspect, he is confused about. The red represents desire and it is these low desires that are causing the being confusion.

He becomes a vampire. He and his brothers are using these women for his sexual purpose like his Fathers (the Angels did). They are just meat to him. He slays them (sexually) and discards them, because this is his addition. He is one of the sons of those first Sons of God, who saw that the daughters were fair. He has inherited the ways of his Fathers. The lion represents the animal nature that is alive in the man, that because he is of God – what comes out of him is a natural things still.

Fall from Grace…

The daughters of men finally realize that they are no prizes and become disillusioned. They separate from the world (or Mars separates from Venus). Mars is anger. And, Venus is love. It’s not masculine or feminine. What God created will always be LOVE and what is man-made will always be imperfect.

So, the woman in her anger and mental anguish represents Mars here. It’s a bit of a change-up from what people would expect, but that’s how one can figure out good from evil. What God creates can create and is creative, whether male or female. It is God’s and will always be God’s. What man makes, by accident or otherwise, will always be the imperfect design of man.

The Tower represents the height of that civilization. So, the separation brought about a fall, because of this darkness that has descended upon Ethios X. The woman, still having some of the Light of the Sons of God, begins to make men of her own. “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” The men are given the Light of Religion (false light) as a yardstick, but God’s Children already have his heart. So, they don’t need religion. Hence, “Jesus said, “You are of your father the Devil. And, his works you will do.” In the video, they shut the mouth of the devil that comes to spread religion. Then, they are killed by Crusaders sent by the woman who represents Satan.

It is not until the woman attempts to destroy what GOD created that she incurs the wrath of the Eternal Fathers. This dooms her. She throws away her inheritance (LOVE), which is the only true inheritance GOD can offer. The Son reintegrates with the Father and realizes that He must let her go to break the cycle of history that has played out for 20,000 years – that this child of the Sons is not a Child of the Fathers. Thus, Satan is sent into the pit.

God Knows all. So, when the Weeknd says, “You thought you would break my heart.” It’s God saying, “You thought you would break my heart.”He’s saying, “I knew what all of you were capable of before you were made. I know why I told you not to do what I told you not to do. You’re not hurting me. You’re hurting yourselves.”

Notice also that the inheritance is passed to a donkey-like creature – that has shown itself to be upright (or advanced in its conscious enough to get the necklace). So, the woman gets passed over – having never gotten over her hurt, the emotional and mental anguish.

Notice that the words “I Know Everything” are also in an Arabic-like script. This is another indication that GOD is the Knower that the song is referring to. The video kinda’ does a 180, as normally all these figures are played by men. The Angels in Heaven are always depicted as beings of light, while the minions of hell are always depicted as dark and ugly. Here, we have a more flattering depiction of darkness. The woman becomes the darkness that attracts the beings of light.

This is a story that has been told hundreds of times over in hundreds of ways. It is the story of how life was seeded on our planet and many other places in the cosmos. This, by far, is one of the best depictions I have seen.

Extra Credit: What is meant by "Now, these tongues don't twist like they used to?"

The Value of Integrity

Becoming people of integrity is not as easy as it sounds. Integrity comes from a Latin word meaning "whole" or "complete" or "lacking nothing". So, for example, if you've ever felt something is missing in your life, it is a sure sign that you have been out of integrity. If you've ever felt someone completes you, it's a sure sign you are not in integrity. The person of integrity is looking for the whole that makes them not need another half, while the person without it is looking for the other half that makes them whole.

In a 2005 article about integrity for New Man Magazine, Orlando Magic's Pat Williams wrote:

Your integrity is the most profound expression of who you are. Integrity is the ultimate expression of your relationship with yourself, of a vow that you make to yourself as to the kind of person you choose to be. If you compromise your integrity, you may get away with it for awhile, but no one gets away with it forever. People who lack integrity eventually get exposed.

To be exposed is not to say that you'll get in trouble or have to answer to some authority. Often-times, you expose you for who you truly are to yourself. Oh! And, I am no different because I am writing this. I have to work on this integrity thing too. I wrote a book about integrity for just that reason, because it truly is The One Secret to All Success. Again, it's easier to think about and talk about, which the book is designed to do - pique the reader's consciousness about the subject. The more challenging thing is to make certain our lives are reflective of a resolve to remain in personal integrity, another goal I hope to achieve with readers of my book. Whatever the case, just be sure you make certain integrity is a watchword in your life.

James Power