 Cue the cheesy 80s rock music and nostalgia train because today we're taking a look at the never-endingly requested never-ending story. First off, a huge thank you to the Spirit Mysteries community for all of their thoughts and insight that helped make this video. It's their first script of many and if you'd like to help and participate in writing the scripts for upcoming hidden spirituality episodes, come and join Movie Knot, our weekly Spirit Mysteries gathering to discuss movies that become these episodes. Now, if you were a 90s kid, you probably grew up watching all of the classic fantasy movies like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and of course the never-ending story. With its super meta narrative, cheesy yet fabulous for its time, special effects, and amazing character design. While the movie is a classic, they did change the plot quite a bit from the books, especially stretching it out over three movies, but nevertheless at its heart it portrays the essence of life, the power of imagination, and the strength of owning your true self and inner worth through all adversity. In many ways too, it mirrors the journey of the child or the fool through the major arcana, going on a journey of self-discovery only to return back to the start once again, but this time with a new evolved knowledge and consciousness. It's a tale that was made even more powerful by the fact that the original author of the book, Michael Enday, was a student of Anthroposophy, a school of philosophy that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience through sensory and internal gnosis. Further, the core part of this belief is to present ideas in a manner verifiable by rational discourse, with it here it's specifically seeking precision and clarity in studying the spiritual world, mirroring that obtained by scientists investigating the physical world. So in other words, the never-ending story was literally written by someone who seemingly shares the same values as us here at Spirit Science. Granted, Michael Enday actually hated the movie version because he felt it didn't convey the true message of the pages properly, but you know, at least the movie is great on its own. I mean, let's face it, we could have had another Aragon on our hands, and oh God, don't even get me started with the Aragon movie. Sorry. So anyways, when it comes down to it, it's your classic hero's journey, except so much more meta. When a young boy named Bastion happens upon an old book while running away from bullies and then steals it, he takes it into an attic of his school because all school attics totally look like a mad scientist's slab or a witch's lair, and discovers the tale of a young warrior named Treyu, who is given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark, consuming force from engulfing the mythical world of Fantasia. Except this ancient book is magic. And ends up making him, and us, a part of the narrative. Just as Bastion follows the story of a Treyu, we follow the story of Bastion in a seemingly never-ending story, which begs the question, who's watching our story? Are we all inside of a holographic simulation, watching ourselves on a VR screen, wondering if we can all wake up to the truth of our nature? Anyways, when we first meet Bastion, we actually start off in the clouds. While on the surface, this seems like just imagery, I think there's a sense here that we're seeing Bastion in his natural state of dreaming or daydreaming, a state of pure creativity and inspiration. His head is in the clouds, as his father mentions later. In fact, this creative essence is even mirrored in his name. The word Bastion actually comes from the 16th century French or Italian word Bastiere, which meant to build or create. Echoed in the other modern meaning of being used to describe a place that embodies certain principles or attributes. There is a pretty clear disconnection between him and his dad, though. His father seems to embody a very materialistic paradigm of thinking, telling his son to stop daydreaming and focus on the material life in a way that is reminiscent of the process that we often go through as kids, where our intuition and psychic abilities are shunned down and filtered by disbelief from the adults in our lives. It's no accident then that Bastion skips a math class to enter into Fantasia. He skips the most logical subject in the world to express his truest creative essence instead. Yep, I don't blame him there. If anything, this entire movie is a call to our inner child and the importance of innocence, dreams and childlike adventure. All things that are seemingly lacking in our world today. And straight up, this story is going to get so much more meta, just you wait. When Bastion meets the book sage, initially the old man warns him not to take the book. Forget about it. This book is not for you. But also kind of secretly wants him to experience it for himself. The sage is reminiscent of the esoteric knowledge keeper. He doesn't release his knowledge unto the world, only to those who actively search for it. Those who are pure of heart and ready to receive it. Ultimately, the sage gives Bastion a warning. While dreaming is good, the gifts of dreams will not remain with you if your dreams are too safe. Unless you are willing to face dangerous dreams and take that leap into the unknown, you aren't worthy of the teachings. Of course, Bastion naturally doesn't understand and takes the book for himself because adults suck with all their warnings, obviously. But he leaves a note though, so good on him. And so when we finally reach Fantasia, we get our first glimpse of the nothing. Especially considering the author's original intent, it's not too much of a stretch to think of Fantasia as a kind of spirit world. The immaterial world of imagination and form, to which we are always linked. Interestingly, there's this idea that it's only when we stop daydreaming, when we stop fantasizing and letting our minds be open and creative that the land of imagination becomes empty. And what happens when we stop being creative? The nothing starts to engulf us. Maybe the nothing is actually us, a symbol of our diminishing connection with the spiritual or imaginative worlds. The single Bastion of Hope, then, lies with the child Empress, however. See what I did there? No, really, though. She actually embodies the Christ Sophia, the pure-hearted divine feminine who, like Atreyu, is represented as a child to show that sense of innocence and purity. In highly symbolic fashion, the nothing makes the Empress ill. Arguably because it is by a lack of awareness that we lose our will and creative power. When we go through life in an autonomous manner without being present or mindful, just going through the motions, we're not connecting to our hearts, becoming just a side character, a pawn in someone else's story. When the Empress's aide calls Atreyu, he is given a sacred amulet known as the Oran, which is also the symbol on the front of the book itself, kind of resembling a double Auroboros. While the single snake represents the cycle of infinity, the double snake is often said to represent the infinite and perfect balance of the higher and lower natures of being. Further, as the amulet lies over Atreyu's chest, it guides and protects him from the symbolic heart center. While he uses a stone knife in the movie, in the original book, Atreyu has to go on the ultimate journey with no weapons other than his consciousness and heart to guide him. Now, of all the creatures that he meets, Gamork is one of the most interesting. He's kind of like a dark reflection of Atreyu, who begins his quest at the same time and goes through his own journey trying to hunt him down. The lesson here is evidently that there's always a balance in reality. For every great light force, one in equal magnitude is created as its opposite as well. Even the creatures at the beginning have a sense of elemental symbolism coming from each of the cardinal directions associated with the classical elements. Further, they all claim to be traveling east to the Empress's Tower. This journey to the east in search of an answer or enlightenment is also entrenched in many occult philosophies that form to the basis of many modern esoteric orders. Now, even the discount lion turtle, sorry, the ancient one, Morla, has a bit of symbolism to her. Lying deep within the swamps of sadness to find the wisdom one has to be willing to dive deep into the waters of Mem. For those who are familiar with the Tree of Life pathways, or perhaps we can think of it as passing through the Seven of Cups in the Tarot. The lesson here is that you have to care enough to get out of the swamp of sadness, otherwise it will swallow you down in depression and apathy. Atreyu's horse succumbs to the swamps like this because he doesn't care enough to see it through in a scene that always gave me nightmares as a kid. It's interesting, though, that as wise as the turtle is supposed to be, she's dwelt in the swamp so long that even she doesn't care anymore. The only moment she shows interest is when death is mentioned. Die? Hmm, now that at least would be something. Perhaps we can even see Morla as symbolic of the old system or paradigm of being. Not really okay with everything going into nothing, but also not caring enough to do something about it. It's a nice little work in that the luck dragon eventually saves Atreyu when he's about to be consumed. Sometimes we really do just need a little good fortune on our journey, and there's nothing wrong with that, too, right? Good ol' Lucky gives Atreyu hope, perhaps in a parallel to the way that the book sage gave Bastion hope earlier. To quote Avatar Aang, When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change. So when Falcor takes Atreyu to the Southern Oracle, he doesn't go the whole way. In fact, he brings him a very specific number of miles. Nine thousand eight hundred and ninety-one. That leaves nine miles to go, considering he probably already traveled the extra hundred on our tags. Nine is an incredibly significant number in numerology. It represents completion and corresponds to the Saphira Yesode on the Tree of Life. The reason Falcor doesn't bring him the whole way is that Atreyu has to complete the journey himself, going through the Sphinx's gate to embody his true self. When we eventually meet the scientist and the witch gnomes, not only are some of their machines powered by crystals, but they both embody the divine genders in a similar manner to the Empress. It's here that we see another callback to the real world. Remember Bastion is reading the adventures in the attic that bears a striking resemblance to an alchemist's slab or a witch's lair? Nevertheless, it's an awesome point that magic and science both wish to help here, but they have a contentious relationship and struggle to work together, despite having the same goals. Hmm, where have we heard that before? Now, there's also this whole thing with the Sphinx's. There's a huge wealth of symbolism here that's rooted in Egyptian, Hermetic, and Western esotericism, but the bottom line is that they see straight into one's heart, only letting who feel their own worth pass by. In order to pass the gate and acquire knowledge, you need confidence and self-worth. Otherwise, they shoot freaking lasers out of their eyeballs and roast you. Classic. The Sphinx's see into your heart, and even a strong knight in the best armor ever is blown to bits. In a way, a Treyu only passes the first gate because he doesn't wear armor. He isn't burdened by the external manifestations or notions of his self-worth. The Sphinxes always seem to shoot, perhaps just because humans are fickle and our self-worth falters naturally day by day. But a Treyu was unencumbered by the attachment of the world, and so he managed to dodge the judgment. There seems to be a clear lesson here that we need to be ready to go through the path within. It can only be done with a true heart. It's fairly reminiscent of the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology, however, where at the end of your life, your heart would be weighed against the feather of truth. And if your soul was heavier or more burdened than truth, you couldn't make it into the spirit world. Maybe there's even a part of this that relates to the moon card in Pachtero, especially in the second gate. For the next task, you have to face your own true self, where you discover you are the opposite of what you think you are. Or in a Treyu's case, he discovers that he is Bastion, or rather Bastion discovers that he is a Treyu, a brave warrior and not a helpless bullied little boy. Ultimately, the Oracle gives the answer to the cure. The solution of the name cannot come from the world of dreams, but must come from the true self, Bastion. Like the principles of the Caballion, action must be taken on all planes to truly come into form. It's at this point that Gamork really serves his role, as he explains that Fantasia has no boundaries. It is the world of human fantasy. Every part and creature of it is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind, but it is dying because people are losing their hopes and forgetting their dreams, so the nothing is the emptiness that's left, like despair destroying the world. Certainly sounds like Bastion's dad needs to read this book, Disney. So in the end, the Empress knew that the only way to bring an earthling child was to go through all that process. That way, the human child could connect and go through all the troubles of a Treyu. This is very powerful wisdom. The journey of the hero itself in storytelling is super important to drive the cycle of evolution forward. It's the journey that matters just as much as the destination, but even then, Bastion still doesn't realize his importance as a creator, just like we don't see how we can be protagonists in our own story. But as the story comes to the end, as Bastion gives the name Moon Child, the world is saved, even if it does end as a simple grain of sand. The central premise here then is that Fantasia can arise within you. In other words, we give meaning to what we focus on. We hold the powers to manifest what we desire, as long as it comes from a pure heart. And so the movie ends with Bastion manifesting Falkor into the real world to chase down his bullies, which is super awesome. The whole story then really seems to be a lesson in reconnecting with our feminine creative force, embodying the truest self and staying true to our own quest, no matter what happens. So until next time, though life may not always go the way you please, remember to always see the forest through the trees. Toodles!