With the Eternals, we have a story that was inspired by the 'ancient aliens' trend that can be traced back to books such as 'The Morning of the Magicians' and 'Chariot of the Gods', which are ultimately derived from the original theosophical concepts of spiritual evolution as interpreted through the comparative study of ancient mythologies. This influence was often a slow, indirect, gradual (and very complicated) process where often the creators are not aware of the original theosophical sources, but were rather picked up from second or third hand sources.
Basically what occurred was a materialization of the spiritual ideas presented, instead of divine beings and spiritual forces, you have aliens and spaceships. From a purist's standpoint, one could deplore the distortion of the spiritual message in favor of a materialistic interpretation of the mystical worldview it was presenting (which was presented as being in the spirit of traditional cosmologies found in works such as the Vishnu Purana, Plato's Timaeus, the Zohar, etc. boldly integrating Darwinian concepts of evolution, twenty years after his 'Origin of the Species' appeared). It is sort of returning an exoteric covering to the esoteric views that were trying to be introduced, but even then, at least the ancient anthropological accounts are given some sort of serious consideration, and are not simply dismissed as irrational superstitions.
It's seems to be a coherent adaptation of the Kirby story. In Kirby's version, a crude, primal, bluntess co-exists with remarkably sophisticated, grandiose concepts, with a kind of Biblical/mythical cataclysmic eschatology, (which can be considered as a kind of distorted form of the more esoteric, cyclical world view). Moreover, like most of his 1970s creations, there is a tension between personal artistic vision and commercial considerations, hence he was likely discouraged from developing it the the way he wanted, and it remained unfinished (insofar as the nature of the monthly pamphlet story is to remain perpetually unresolved, as Umberto Eco would say). Although I think that the story-line was eventually grafted onto
another of Kirby's grandiose science-fiction mythological
interpretations, 'The Mighty Thor' (concluding in #300).
I
would need to see more of it, but it seems that, despite the fact that
the influence passed through an indirect, watered-down chain, a lot, if
not most of the story structure could still be qualified as kind of
theosophical (but not literally, more allegorically reflecting some concepts), or noticeably theosophically influenced (just to give one
example, the notion of the fourth host idea is similar to the five
evolutionary phases that humanity has been through, according to
Blavatsky). Less directly, but quite striking is the demiurge-like figure of Arishem, which gives the story quite an interesting Gnostic colouring. Blavatsky, in her commentary on the Pistis Sophia, gives a brief description of the Gnostic philosophy: ''Seeing
again that this “Fall of the Soul” from its original purity involved it
in suffering and misery, the object that the Gnostic teachers had ever
before them, was identical with the problem of “Sorrow,” which Gautama
Sâkyamuni set himself to resolve.'' (Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol.
13, pp. 40)
note A: Bhavani Shankar, a respected early theosophist, made the following pithy observation about the post-Blavatskian developments: ''Hence we
have the sad spectacle of modern theosophical literature revelling in trivial
and weird stories purporting to be past lives of Mahatmas, which read like
third rate novels.'' (The Doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 8)
Jeet Heer &
Robin Ganey Podcast Eternals, John Milton, William Blake, Erich
Anton Paul von Däniken, theological science fiction, Charles Darwin,
evolutionary theory as theodicy
Chris Knowles doesn't like 'woke' superheroes, but he has a good take on Kirby, he could write a good book about him.
Video of Archaeologist David S. Anderson on Eternals and “Ancient Aliens”
Director Chloe Zhao discusses Kirby influence
Bryan Lowry (Kirby's legacy)
GreyDog Tales (good overview of the neo-theosophical influence in pop culture - although Sanat Kumara is mentioned in Blavatsky's writings, not at all in the anthropomorphic way explained in the quotation here, which seems more like distorted Roman Catholic theology)
‘Eternals’ Director Chloe Zhao Explains the Eastern Philosophy Behind Her Marvel Movie
No comments:
Post a Comment