Despite the claims of many, including Dick Staub (“Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters”), the Jedi are not a symbol of Christian saints, they can’t be because Lucas created the idea of the Force (and subsequently the Jedi) from Eastern philosophies and beliefs. On the back of “Christian Wisdom…”, Rand Miller, the CEO of Cyan Worlds and co-creator of Myst, Riven, and URU, says “Star Wars seems to have stolen our message, wrapped it in science fiction, and changed entertainment. Dick Staub challenges us to take it back, wrap it around everyday reality, and change people’s lives.” This selfish understanding of everything that the soul deems to be true is one of the most perverse qualities of Christianity; the Force is not Allah, YHWH, or the nameless “God” of Christianity, it is the SELF. It creates all living things, and as Yoda says, “It is an energy field created by all living things”. This may seem just as paradoxical as the eternal question, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”, but in the end, Eastern philosophy makes this quite simple with the concept of the splitting Self. In this light, the egg was probably created from a part of something, the egg of another related animal if you are an evolutionist, or the egg of a metaphysical kind if you are a creationist. Ignoring the difference of opinion on physical creation or procreation, the Force splits itself off to create “living things”, and because all living things possess that spark of the Force, any new creation of a “living thing”, creates again in the Force. Think about the hologram and how splitting it apart, and then recombining it, it is still the same image, the same random lines. Thus Jedi are not Christian saints, but perhaps, Samurai, Ninjas, or warrior Shamans (or magicians – think Merlin with a sword); they are the warrior-philosophers of the occult. The Jedi are the antithesis of Christian saints; they are the embodiment of the “diabolic occult” that Campbell describes as being the polar opposite of Christianity.
Following this line, the saints of Christianity, and all of the religion (as well as all of Monotheism) itself, would be in line with the Sith, the enemies of the Jedi, the followers of the “dark side of the Force”. How can this be? How can those who claim to be in the light, actually be the embodiment of mythical evil? Well, a common cliché offers one answer, “Everyman believes himself to be right, and thus justified in his actions”. Gnosticism offers another explanation, ignorance. This ignorance can be taken many ways. The ignorance is just a failure by those in power to recognize their ignorance, for admitting such would result in a loss in power to some degree. This ignorance could be seen, from a Gnostic viewpoint, as humanity’s ignorance being perpetuated by an evil, or, at the very least, soulless being, a Demi-urge, an anti-god(s), the Archons, or what have you. This soulless being sets itself up as a god, and rules humanity, spreading lies and half-truths to keep humanity ignorant, for it realizes that humanity has the potential to be more powerful than it because humanity has a soul, a spark of God, a part of the Self.
Thus, the monotheistic, tribal god of the Levantine belief systems is not the Force, not the “Light Side”, but actually, the “Dark Side” of the Force, represented in Star Wars as the ultimate villain, not Darth Vader, but Emperor Palpantine. This man begins the story as a kind, caring politician, a people’s politician, an embodiment of all that is good, but in actuality, he is in fact the evil Sith Lord, Darth Sidious (ironically synonymous with hideous) who has been casting “a shadow of darkness” over the Republic and the Jedi themselves. Palpantine utilizes conflict and fear to spread his shadow and hide his true intentions, to eliminate the Jedi (the only ones remotely powerful enough to stop him) and rule the galaxy. In The Phantom Menace, he utilizes the Trade Federation to create conflict with a single, helpless planet, Naboo, ironically, his homeworld. He also utilizes his apprentice, Darth Maul, to assist with the conflict, and draw out the Jedi. Darth Maul is just a pawn, but his unused words (found only on the soundtrack), give us insight into the Sith (and monotheism), “Fear attracts the fearful, the strong, the weak, the innocent. Fear is my ally”. (Lucas) Maul’s words echo Palpantine, for Sidious uses fear to create conflicts, conflicts within the Senate, conflicts on Naboo, conflicts among the Jedi, and lastly, conflicts between the entire galaxy. Likewise, Christianity and monotheism utilize fear to keep to control and gain power. The witch trials and heresy purges (similar to “The Great Purge” in Jedi lore) that plagued Europe and the Americas during the Church’s rise to power is evidence enough. Palpantine soon rises up through the political ranks and becomes the Chancellor of the Republic, the leader and the face of democracy. With his new power, Palpantine sets out to gain the loving trust and respect of everyone within the Republic, and once he has done that, he sets his final conflict into motion. This final conflict results in the Clone Wars, a war that is outwardly initiated by Count Dooku, Darth Tyrannus, who is Palpantine’s next apprentice (Darth Maul was killed by Obi-Wan at the end of The Phantom Menace), but is actually coordinated from both sides by Sidious. Tyrannus fulfills the dualistic Satan role. Someone who outwardly opposes the Republic and its face, Palpantine, but internally, he is in line with Palpantine, and the entire conflict is in fact just a lethal drama, a proxy war, a mask, with only one purpose: power. The senate, in love with the face of their own democracy (Narcissism at its tragic and ironic worst), gives Palpantine more and more executive powers until he is an emperor in every way except by name.
While in his lust for power, Palpantine comes across the Jedi prophecy of “the chosen one” (even the Sith were able access to Jedi records, secretly, thus the reason for the mysterious disappearance of the planet Kamino from the Jedi Archives during Attack of the Clones). When it is revealed, or guessed, that little Anakin Skywalker is “the chosen one”, he immediately becomes the focus of Palpantine. Palpantine, a man without a soul, a man of deception who uses his mind to control his body (thus the deceptive face that is eventually lost and permanently revealed during Revenge of the Sith), targets the chosen one, and his Force-powered emotions, his soul. This is why we see Anakin as a teen with raging, illogical, emotions, full of emotional outbursts, in Attack of the Clones. Anakin can feel, he can truly feel, with his soul, and Palpantine uses deception, duality, and “logic” to cloud his mind and fuel his emotions. Anakin, against the laws of the Jedi Order, is in love, in love with Padme, former Queen of Naboo and now a respected senator. He loves her with all his heart, and will do anything to save her, even if it means leaving the Jedi, and “turning to the dark side”. During Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is haunted by nightmares, nightmares of Padme’s death during childbirth. These nightmares are reminiscent of the ones that foretold his mother’s death, and he feels guilty for not acting on them sooner, for not being able to save his mother. These nightmares are his shadow, and Palpantine is his supposed light to supply Padme’s redemption. Palpantine weaves a web of lies and half-truths that turns Anakin against the Jedi, against his friends; he offers a chance to save Padme, a power of immortality that only the ways of the Sith can bring. Anakin, absorbed by his FEAR, turns against the Jedi, becomes a Sith, and becomes an apprentice of the “fire”, a worshipper of Sidious, his “true master”. In the end, as Anakin turns to the fire for help, he stands between the fire and his “shadow wall”, his dreams. Thus, when it is he who kills Padme, out of a blind-rage, fueled by deception, his prophesizing dreams are completed, completed by the one tormented by them. This is the self-fulfilling lesson of fear, if fear is your only reality, your only focus, then your fears will become reality.
This fear is eventually ended when Darth Vader is finally redeemed by his son, Luke Skywalker, in the final scenes of Return of the Jedi. Vader, convinced by the suffering of his son, the suffering of his lifeblood, the suffering of part of his SELF (not himself, but his part in the Force, his creation, his son; the son that was born out of the suffering of Padme, a suffering created by Anakin), turns back to the “good”, back to the “light”, and fulfills his destiny, fulfills his purpose, and destroys the Emperor. Thus, it is the hero quest that saves Anakin Skywalker, the fallen hero; it is the return of the occult, the Return of the Jedi that saves the galaxy.
This is the story of Christ. Not the person, not the kind being that so many of us adore and “worship”, but the embodiment of Christ. Monotheism took the prophecies of this “savior”, and twisted it for its own purpose. Anakin was supposed to be the “chosen one”, much like Christ was the supposed savior. Anakin was supposed to “bring balance to the Force” (much like the triangular balance), and Christ, from the Gnostic point of view, came down to save us from ignorance, to save us from the Demi-urge, and to save us from our duality.
Anakin, from the beginning, was different. He was emotional, he was powerful, he was CONNECTED to the Force. The Jedi were so afraid of the “Dark Side” that they refrained from emotion, for fear that it would consume a person into the “Dark”. The Jedi instead focused on controlling the mind and the body, balance. Their balance, however, was not a balance held by three points, but a balance, a compromise, between two points, between duality; trying to balance between two points, much like trying to balance on a tightrope, is very difficult for some, impossible for most. Anakin and his emotions were the key to restoring “balance to the Force”, adding the necessary third point. The Jedi, blinded by Duality, refused to see this, creating further conflict, conflict within Anakin and within the Jedi Order. Palpantine, seizes the opportunity afforded him by the Jedi’s fears, and utilizes Anakin for his own plans. Palpantine twists the essence of Anakin, the emotions of Anakin, into a monster, a monster with no compassion, no fear. Anakin becomes Darth Vader, and purges the Jedi Temple, leading an attack that kills everyone within the Temple, even the children. Following his epic fight with Obi-Wan, Darth Vader is left for dead, but with the help of the newly crowned Emperor Palpantine, he survives through technology, but is forever trapped within it.
Christ, likewise, came to save us from duality, to save us from the Demi-urge. The key to this is the soul, and emotions are the basic essence of the soul. To feel emotion is an attempt to understand the connections we share. Christ’s teachings of the Holy Spirit and the many parables, are an attempt to free us from our bind and allow us to see the light of the truth, and to feel the true nature of the source, the Sun, the Self. Monotheism (whether it is controlled by an evil Demi-urge, like Palpantine, or perhaps by man’s own ignorance) took the story of Christ and twisted it; it twisted the essence of it into a religion predicated upon fear. Much like Anakin feared the death of Padme, Christianity fears falling prey to “the Devil”. They fear death and eternal damnation. Those with a feeling for the SELF, a semblance of a soul, feel for the “doom” of humanity, the apocalypse, and try to “save” the rest of the world. In the end, though, these fears create themselves. Blinded by “moral justice”, monotheism, especially Christianity (and later Islam) force themselves onto the world. Many innocent people have died in the name of “purification”, in the attempts to “free” the world from “the Devil”. Like Anakin eventually killed Padme, the one he was trying to save all along, Christianity, under the control of Monotheism, is killing the world while supposedly trying to save it.
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