Luke “I don’t believe it”
Yoda “That is why you fail”
This particular story has been pretty integral to my lifetime and the same for many many others. Star Wars is a living myth in our time, even though it’s displaced from us “in a galaxy far far away.” That galaxy came into being around the time Earth and Her people responded to loud cries of alarm and outrage about the Amazon forest being destroyed at an incredible rate, first time around.
Right now it seems pretty impossible to overcome challenges facing all of us. There is a good summation of this, and our collective overwhelm by Vox.
The Amazon is on fire again, much of Australia is on fire. Sometimes it feels like the first example of the Death Star’s power in “A New Hope” when Alderaan gets destroyed and Obi Wan senses “A great disturbance in the Force.” The lungs of our planet are dangerously close to collapsing, and that will impact us all. I believe it is already. Many other catastrophic events are bound to happen if serious adjustments aren’t made on a systemic, community and individual level, like now. It will take “the Force” to overcome it—though in our world I see the Force as our ability to work together, hold positive intention and act on it.
Lucas, as storyteller, has written many parallels drawn from Earth science into that galaxy. Midichlorions are not all that far off from Mitochondria. In his telling, a person with a very high number of midichlorions in their genetics—like the Skywalker family—have an increased capacity to “use the force.” Our human mitochondria are referred to as the “powerhouses” of our cells. They transform the nutrients we get through healthy food, clean air, and clean water into “energy rich molecules for our cells.” But in our world at this time we have a very high number of toxins, and ingesting these, living around them, breathing them, clog and compromise our whole cellular production. It is difficult for us to realize our full health potential at any age*. Essentially, access to clean air, clean water and healthy food means that we all have the “force” potential within us. However, this possibility is under attack all over the place.
“A New Hope” was released in 1977, five years after The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration) was adopted by the UN. During production of the film, several devastating oil spills occurred. Our common encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has a year-by-year list of significant dates having to do with our shared environment. Lucas said during a 2005 Chicago Tribune interview. “…democracies aren't overthrown; they're given away." It’s said he was actually writing a novel in response to the Viet Nam war. I “believe” he was also addressing interpersonal dynamics and group function in that generation of resistance culture.
I like this new series, like the characters and storytelling, but have one key concern. There seems to be a sub-plot encouraging brave people to be willing to sacrifice their individual lives, as martyrs for the future, setting aside the whole notion of working together for any extended period of time. In the original trilogy there was an ongoing effort to remain together, work together and conquer the evil Empire. Heroes had to venture out and find themselves, Luke/Han & Chewie, while Leia held it down with the Rebel Alliance. In this new trilogy the story embraces changing gender roles as Ray is constantly on the hero’s journey. In “Rogue One” Jyn Erso takes the place of Han in many ways, and her counterpart, Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna, a Latinex film juggernaught) is the one dedicated to his people and the ongoing community response to oppression. They both die together in the midst of a nuclear sized blast, the suggested cost of taking out the power structure.
Learning how to work with “the Force” isn’t easy, but it is inherent (in our mitochondria), therefore possible for anyone to learn and use well (or ill if we follow the fear and seek to control everything like Anakin or Kylo). Yoda and the Jedi council constantly advise caution and self discipline, resistance to emotional reaction. In our reality, it is mainly possible with access to clean air, water, and healthy food. That is the key struggle in our times, and access is currently unevenly balanced, increasingly unavailable to the majority of the planet’s peoples.
In the new trilogy the young ones are born with a natural oomph of Force. This was demonstrated clearly at the end of “The Last Jedi” as a little one reaches for a broom that flies into his hand on a whim. This happens just as his imagination is ignited while reaching (as he steps out from his job, cleaning racing stalls at the “evil casino,” that had enslaved him and many other youth) to observe magic/warfare happening in the skies above. In some ways a lot of us have an oomph of Force with globalized tech, our smart devices, in the hands and homes of so many. We’re more empowered and able to cause rifts and ripples in our immediate communities, lives and on a global level when we work together. This is more true for the younger generations now, many of whom are adapting and deciding to fight for their right to clean air, water, and basically a chance to live.
However contentious and invasive the whole social media realm can be… it has served collective efforts in good and meaningful ways over this past 10 years. That was in head-space though. Physical reality is harder reality, but between both realities, magic/miracles can happen. There are many mutually beneficial journeys that science has been choked off from pursuing for a long time.
It seems younger ones are able to adapt to and embrace possibilities, free of years of experience and heartache weighing them down. I support such efforts, and hope on the generational level we can work across age differences and find the balance we share.
*Inherent Force proven. “Grow a New Body,” a book by Alberto Villodo, does a bang up job of providing an in-depth explanation of mitochondria, healthy cellular function, healthy brain (and gut-brain) function and “new developments” in brain science. He draws upon Indigenous Wisdom, a holistic system from the Q’Uero people of Peru, and explains this from a shamanic perspective. Many Indigenous Peoples may consider this sharing of ancestral knowledge—through the sale of shamanic training to curious well-meaning white people, to be “plastic shamanism” and highly offensive, crossing cultural boundaries. I see and respect that perspective. If training a bunch of white people in ancient shamanic practice hasn’t yet resulted in saving the homes of the Wisdom Keepers who’ve shared it… they’re being co-opted and exploited on a really sacred level.
On the other hand, people trained in the methods of the shamanic school founded around this line of wisdom have helped me heal directly more than once. Using energy work and plant medicine among other aspects of the training. If that wisdom had not been shared, I would not be me here now. Every morning I express gratitude for this shared wisdom, in whatever forms it has come to the degree it can be shared, and pray for strength to be reflexive, reflective, adaptive and continue to recalibrate to this time and space, in order to walk in a good way, like Indigenous Peoples from all directions have demonstrated in ways I’ve learned from in my lifetime.