For Plato, the exit out of the cave was located behind the fire. For Plato, one had to see the fire, behold the fire, and then move on, out of the cave. I see it differently. I believe the exit to the outside world lies not behind the cave, but somewhere in the wall of the shadows. One of the cave dwellers, one of the archons, if you will, is perched on the walkway between the fire and the hole in the wall, thus blocking the exit with a veil of shadow. Despite this, we must not ignore the fire, and blindly search the cave wall. Instead, we must use the fire. Take a piece, a log, from the fire, and use it to illuminate the wall of the cave. Illuminate all the crevices, all the markings, and especially, the exit. The question then becomes, what will the archon(s) do? Honestly, I cannot say, for I do not know. It is possible that the archon is merely a pawn, or even an immobile statue, designed and manipulated by the fire. If that is the case, then perhaps nothing is preventing us from escaping, except ignorance. It is also possible that the archon(s) is casting a shadow over the exit because it despises humanity and wants to keep us in the dark, keep us ignorant. If this the case, then after grabbing a piece of the fire, there might be a final conflict as humanity struggles with the archon to escape the cave, a true apocalyptic battle, a battle much like the one at the end of the Return of the Jedi, except, unlike Monotheistic tradition suggests, there will be no supernatural God fighting on our behalf, just humanity against the Demi-urge and the Archons, the Rebel Alliance and the Jedi against the Emperor and his Empire.
This condition thus illuminates why we are stuck in this state of duality. We have turned our backs on the shadows, on the occult, and we have become enthralled by science (and thus reason and technology), as well as monotheism and culture. The occult has become “primitive”, “uncivilized”, and perhaps even, “evil”. This creates our state of dualistic conflict, right vs. wrong, light vs. dark. The light seems to be the right, and the dark seems to be the wrong, but they are neither. Parts of the dark are wrong, just blank pieces of the wall. Likewise, parts of the light are right, but it is merely a tool. Unfortunately, the occult is where humanity must journey if we are to make the next evolutionary step. However, we cannot do this alone; we must take the fire, take our science, take our technology, take the best of our monotheism and culture, and explore the occult, explore the hidden! We must take the light and illuminate the dark. We must face our fears of the dark, the unknown, the hidden, and we must attempt to understand that which we are afraid of. Not until we utilize our reason and intellect to understand the shadows, to understand the occult, will we have even the slimmest chance of evolution.
Going, once again, back to my number theory, this version of the cave is easily understood. I said earlier that 7 was the number of God and also perfection, perhaps it is “God-like” perfection (4, the number of the sun or the source) plus humanity (3). The mind is the first digit place-holder, and thus the weakest. The stage of the mind is represented by the stage of the fire. The body is the second digit place-holder, and is represented by the shadow wall. Finally, the soul is the last place-holder, and the strongest of all. This also gives new understanding to meditation. If one’s purpose during meditation is to quiet the mind, usually with the body (breathing), to perceive the soul, then one is merely trying to dim the fire in order to see the light that lies beyond the cave. This “light at the end of the tunnel”, however, is not the whole light, it is not the whole spectrum. It is just a fraction of the truth. In order to fully see the truth, to fully experience the outside world, and fully evolve into our potential, we must take the fire to help us through the tunnel, the journey. This journey is represented by the Hero’s Journey, for we are the heroes of our world, we are our own myths.
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