The Lady in Black, pt. 3

Following on the ideas of the previous post...

The four figures mentioned before can be organised a square, or rather a cross inside a square. One line of the cross would represent the male/female dichotomy, the other the sun/moon dichotomy. The four archetypes are then the four corners of the square: the female moon is the Lady in Black, the female sun the Lady in Red (the colours are no accident), the male sun the White Wizard and the male moon the Black Warlock, or Dark Magician.

Remember the previous picture of Arwen, the Lady in Black in the Lord of the Rings series? She appears at a river, which is interesting given that water represents emotions and the subconscious, as does the Moon. I think it might also be appropriate to consider One Ring as the representation of the Lady in Red. It is temptation, selfish desire and greed embodied in Bilbo then in Frodo. It's hard to resist the seductress. A separate post would be required for a more detailed reading of the series, though.

From fire it was created, in fire it is destroyed...

The Lady in Red also famously appears in the Matrix. The Lady in Red, or the Lady in the Red Dress in this case, is the temptation to remain in the Matrix, to give in to lust and greed, and all the cardinal sins, really. It is the desire to remain materialistic, to give in to your emotions rather than understand them. Agent Smith is the Dark Magician, using essentially what is magic to replicate himself. It is the desire for ultimate power and control, regardless of the consequences. The other duo is easily Neo (WW) and Trinity (LB), although they also present, along with Morpheus, an interesting Father-Mother-Son triad (like Mars-Venus-Mercury, God-Holy Spirit-Jesus, Osiris-Isis-Horus, and so on), but that's also for another post.

This archetypal analysis is very simple, of course. The point is mostly to show the power of symbols, and how they show that many things are actually reduced to a few basic components. This is the same with astrology, tarot, and so on (the credible ones, of course). There's a level deep down, though, where all those become one and the same. Is it possible to even to glimpse that far down (or up, depending on your point of view)? Well, not by purely rational means, certainly.

Coming back to the relation between water and emotions/the subconscious. We call on our good friends Uriah Heep again to enlighten us:

It's interesting that I (and most of you as well) have been remembering my dreams more often lately, and often water is an important leitmotif. Friends have been telling me this as well. This should not be surprising, however, because Neptune is now back home in Pisces...prepare for more water during your slumber. But I digress.

If we think of the figures' connections to animals, it follows naturally the White Wizard is connected to the eagle, as show Gandalf and Jake Sully in Avatar. Conversely, the Dark Magician is associated to the snake, such as Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. Reminds me of the Medusa/Pegasus story...the Dark Magician also has Raven connections, and White Wizard to the Lion (cf. Aslan, astrology), while I'm inclined to think of the cat for the Lady in Black (Hermione and McGonagall in Harry Potter).

Well, I feel like if I keep going so succinctly this is going to get confusing. Then again, more figures are coming soon...