Transformers 3 - Dark Night of the Soul

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” ~ Revelation 2:17

Transformers – Dark Side of the Moon, offers a revelatory look at both the intermediate stages of the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone and the interior conflict that ensues at this critical juncture. It provides us with an understanding of the mystical experience commonly referred to as the “dark night of the soul”, and gives us a comprehension of how to be with this trial of consciousness. Let us begin our analysis.

In the year 1961, an escaped Cybertronian vessel crash-lands on the far side of the moon. Adding the digits of this year yields the numbers 17 and 8. Illustrated by the Tarot keys The Star (meditation) and Strength (kundalini) respectively, this condensed date sets the preconditions for the greased, slow motion, showdown that follows. Meditation inevitably terminates in the awakening of the kundalini force, which, when activated, moves through the body as the “corporeal intelligence” invoking both equilibrium and the catharsis necessary to support the emerging balance. The moon is the third eye, the ajna chakra and, more subtly, the hidden sephirah, da’at (knowledge). These correspond on a physical level with the pineal gland. What is especially relevant here is that a seemingly “alien” influence (the Cybertronian space ship called the Ark and its passengers), on that portion of esoteric anatomy responsible for “orientation,” is the source of the conflict known as the “dark night of the soul”.

Jack Engler, in Practicing for Awakening, writes on this fearful event, “the night is dark because it is overwhelmingly clear that neither God nor the soul nor the self as we knew them are any longer to be found. There is instinctive recoil and withdrawal: nothing seems sufficiently worth doing or caring about without them.”

The Ark is the last ship to have escaped the war-wrecked planet Cybertron. Its pilot is the Prime, Sentinal. Its cargo is the five “Pillars”, a soteriological solution to the Cybertronian dilemma. This dilemma is between tyranny (the Decepticons) and freedom (the Autobots). It is symbolic of the conflict between demons and angels, which simultaneously precedes and directly impacts our world. Sentinal Prime is symbolic of the “witness” state, and the five “Pillars” symbolize the five major religions that have most notably influenced humanity’s concepts of “God, the soul, and the self” throughout recorded history. These are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Neither the self-conscious witness, nor religious techniques for cultivating “witness” consciousness are native to the human condition. They represent a false ceiling and the final lie before spiritual autonomy. Nevertheless they must be remediated during the “dark night of the soul”.

On Earth, the crash of the Ark is detected by NASA. The numerical value of NASA is 8, reinforcing the symbolism of the kundalini, and pointing to the truth that the stimulus to rise and discover the “moon center” is typically a reaction to the splinters of self-consciousness and cultural influence.

President John F. Kennedy authorizes the mission to put a man on the moon as a cover to investigate the crash. The numerological value of “John Fitzgerald Kennedy” is 21, which correlates with The World (the administrative intelligence) of the Tarot deck. This key is associated with the interior star Saturn (muladhara chakra) at the base of the spine, from whence the kundalini uncoils. To recap, President Kennedy (the root chakra) sends NASA (the kundalini) to the moon (brow chakra) to investigate a UFO crash observed in 1961 (meditation). This initiates the “space race”, which could be construed as a period of sadhana between the years ’61 and ’69, culminating in the 1969 landing of Apollo 11 (the balancing influence of the Heart/Sun) on the surface of the Moon.

The sum of the digits 1, 9, 6, and 9 is 7. Tarot key 7 is The Chariot, which brings us to our wheeled and wieldy protagonists, the Transformers, and the occult relevance of the taglines “more than meets the eye” and “robots in disguise”.

One can become whatever one wants to be (if one constantly contemplates on the object of desire with faith). ~ Bhagavad Gita 17.4

The year is now 2011, and the Autobots, while having forged a military alliance with the United States, largely act independently in stopping humans from destroying themselves. They exhibit all the characteristics of guardian angels. They hide, protect, teach, and reveal themselves only to the initiated.

During a mission to Chernobyl at the request of the Ukrainian government, Optimus Prime (leader of the Autobots) discovers a fuel cell from the Ark that the Soviet Union attempted to use as a power source, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster. This fuel cell has awakened Shockwave, a cycloptic Decepticon, who commands a Cybertronian drill akin to a gaggle of intertwined Dune sandworms wrapped in buzzsaws and razor wire. Here again the “third eye” and kundalini imagery exhibits, but the destructive nature of this interaction indicates that we are moving into our “dark night of the soul”, wherein the work of the kundalini is to press against our shadows and appears altogether malignant. Here the benign, soft-spoken, dulcet whispers of spiritual fruition are replaced with the stark reality of radical rebirth as the outworn is cast off. This Plutonian undertow is, from a Sentinel perspective, all part of the process, but it is experienced as the dukkha nanas (knowledges of suffering) in the Buddhist vipassana tradition, and begins with bhanga nana (knowledge of dissolution). The Moon center must be articulated on the way to the One, but it is a veritable Pandora’s box.

With this knowledge, Optimus launches his own mission to retrieve the Pillars and revive Sentinel Prime. Optimus, like Sentinel, is a Prime. In mathematics a prime is a natural number that has exactly two distinct natural number divisors: 1 and itself. Examples of prime numbers are 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. The word optimus is Latin for “noble”, and is the etymological root of such words as optimal and optimistic. He is the archetype for the highest and best in us. He is also a symbol of faith, specifically the faith required to endure the dark night of the soul and complete the Philosopher’s Stone.

Only five Pillars remain on-board the vessel. The Pillars are the means for establishing a mobile space bridge between two points and transporting matter through. The matter that Sentinel Prime and the Decepticons hope to draw through the space bridge is the planet Cybertron itself.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…

~ Revelation 21:2

Exoteric religion seeks external redemption. In this it enslaves its believers to an outer addiction, while turning them away from their inner power. This inner power is demonstrated most effectively by Optimus Prime, who utilizes the Matrix of power to jumpstart the dormant Sentinel Prime into function.

Meanwhile the everyman, Sam Witwicky is frustrated with his life. Having helped to save the world twice, he has graduated from college and yet cannot obtain gainful employment. Accredited education, just like religious merit, is ultimately empty if it has not served to bolster inner character and wisdom. He takes his frustrations out on his girlfriend, Carly Spencer, who handles him by handing him a stuffed white rabbit. Sam is our Alice and the rabbit-hole is the undulating path that he must follow to truly know Carly.

The numerical value of the name Sam Witwicky is 12. The numerical value of the name Carly Spencer is 13. Sam Witwicky, as 12, signifies both the karmic ramifications of the zodiac and the suspension of mental activity (Samadhi) necessary to transcend them. Carly Spencer, as 13, signifies grace, and this is why she bestows upon Sam the white rabbit, which he must follow beyond the stars into the white light of Primal Will beyond. Carly is the Philosopher’s Stone. She is the pineal gland reconstituted. She is the ehben (אבן) of the Rosicrucians. (Refer to my esoteric analysis of The Road.)

Carly gives Sam the white rabbit for luck, and it is by this luck that he may transcend the limitations of cosmic law and implode into limitless grace, where the miraculous is ordinary. Indeed their very relationship appears to be miraculous grace. Carly is sleek, long, and elegant, and she dismisses her rich and powerful doting playboy boss, Dylan Gould, for the spastic, jobless Sam.

Sam is finally hired by a coyote John Malkovich for the mailroom of a massive company. One of his co-workers, a conspiracy theorist named Jerry Wang, begins harassing Sam. Referring to himself as “a tiger”, he passes information on to Sam about "the dark side of the moon" before he is assassinated by the Decepticon, Laserbeak.

Rocked by the unfolding events, Sam contacts his old friend Seymour Simmons (“see more” and “hear more”). He realizes that the Decepticons are killing everyone connected to the American and Russian space missions. This is our initiation into the Vipassana stage known as bhaya nana (knowledge of fearfulness). Jumping at shadows, they locate two Russian cosmonauts who fled to America after the Soviet space program was shut down. The cosmonauts have photos taken by Soviet satellites that clearly show hundreds of Pillars being stockpiled on the Moon. The endless lies one can follow at this point along the path are now acknowledged, and Sam is wise to keep his intention on the white rabbit. We now enter into the “knowledge of misery” (adinava nana) or the “knowledge of the contemplation of disadvantages”, wherein the meditator becomes aware of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and nonself.

Sam learns that the Decepticons raided the Ark decades prior and are luring the Autobots into a trap. Unable to revive Sentinel Prime, they had left him and five Pillars (including the Master Pillar) for the Autobots to find. The Master Pillar represents the essential motivation of all exoteric religion, namely Fear of the Unknown. Dogma is the attempt to see in black and white the gray of life. It is this absolutism that breeds the tyranny the deceitful Decepticons thrive upon. The spiritually autonomous Autobots understand that all answers and the power to meet life’s challenges come from within. Their devotion to the Matrix shows this. It is easy to surrender our power to what is outside of us. It is an act of supreme faith to take full responsibility for our circumstances by surrendering to what is within us.

Sam contacts the Autobots and reveals that Sentinel Prime is being targeted by the Decepticons. However, Sentinel has made a deal with the Decepticons and betrays both the Autobots and the humans, destroying their base and fleeing with the Pillars. Here is the inevitable fall of the witness into subjectivity and manipulation. It is the corruption of consciousness and represents the next stage of Vipassana meditation called nibbida nana (knowledge of disgust, or knowledge of dispassion), wherein “some lose their attachment to formerly desired fame and fortune. They become bored realizing that all things are subject to decay. All races and beings, even the angels and gods, are likewise subject to decay. They see that, where there is birth, old age, sickness and death prevail. So there is no feeling of attachment. Boredom therefore sets in, together with a strong inclination to search for nibbana.” It is in search of nibbana that the Prime, Sentinel, uses the Pillars to establish a space bridge with the Moon, where hundreds of Decepticons have lain in wait for many years. Boredom breeds spiritual ambition, and spiritual ambition makes of heaven, hell.

Dylan Gould (Carly’s boss) is the Decepticons' agent on Earth. He forces Sam into finding out Optimus Prime's plans for retaliation against Sentinel Prime and the Decepticons. The Autobots are exiled from Earth via a decommissioned Cybertronian spacecraft. The Decepticons destroy the Autobot rocket upon launch, and take control of Earth. Here we enter into muncitukamayata nana (knowledge of desire for deliverance). With Gould's help, they establish themselves in Chicago and fortify the city. Gould kidnaps Carly and explains to her that the Decepticons intend to rebuild Cybertron, strip-mining the Earth for resources and using humans as slave labor. In order to do this, the Decepticons have placed Pillars (religions) around the world to call Cybertron (the New Jerusalem) itself through the space bridge.

Angered at the betrayal, Sam finds USAF Chief Robert Epps, whose name’s value is 8, symbolic of the recalibration of the kundalini toward the originally intended end of liberation. The two re-form Epps' disbanded NEST team to go into Chicago and rescue Carly. They are nearly killed before they are rescued by Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the Autobots. In surprise twist, we learn that the Autobots escaped the explosion of their shuttle by hiding in one of the booster rockets, disengaged before the Decepticon attack. With this renewed vision we enter into the knowledge of re-observation (patisankha nana).

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

~ Robert Frost

Sam, the Autobots and NEST advance on Gould's penthouse to rescue Carly and disable the Master Pillar before Cybertron appears in the sky. After battling through the city, NEST destroys the Decepticon leaders (including Shockwave – the demented perception of kundalini as demonic) while Carly convinces Megatron that he will answer to Sentinel Prime once Cybertron is restored, instead of leading the Cybertronians himself. Here the Carly (the Stone) appeals to the base instincts of Megatron by saying, “You’ll always be Sentinel’s bitch”, and this is accurate in that no demon or angel has any ultimate power over the witness state. While the witness is a strange permutation of human dialectic, it is ultimately master over all astral entities, in that it is beyond good and evil.

Sam reaches the Master Pillar and battles Gould, who is electrocuted by the Pillar, which Bumblebee destroys. Being trumps fear all day. This disrupts the connection with Cybertron and the appearing planet collapses. Our external salvation is dissolved, and we are left now with the final battle between Faith (Optimus Prime) and the Witness (Sentinal Prime). Here faith must win for the witness is the glass ceiling of the mind, and faith engages with perseverance to shatter that ceiling so that Consciousness may go beyond into the No Thing that is our true nature.

During the fight Optimus loses an arm and nearly his life to Sentinel; however, Megatron, swayed by Carly, attacks Sentinel. Optimus musters his strength and rips Megatron's head and spine from his body, enunciating the complete sublimation of the ego to Consciousness. He then executes Sentinel, for in this state of transcendence the witness is no longer necessary and only the flow of grace remains.

Sam (Samadhi) and Carly (Stone) are now united. With Cybertron gone, the Autobots are free from the tyranny of exoteric religious beliefs and cultural conditioning. Earth is now their only home. The kingdom of spirit is embodied in my flesh.

“Who's gonna tell you when, it's too late
Who's gonna tell you things, aren't so great
You can't go on, thinking nothing's wrong
Who's gonna drive you home tonight”

~ The Cars