Star Trek 11 - Director's Cut

Finally caught J.J. Abrams' take on the venerable Star Trek franchise this week, and I haven't yet read a symbolic interpretation online, so thought I'd jump in.

To me, Star Trek has always been more about exploring "inner space" - the mythic archetypes inside our own heads, than the actual cosmos. The Star Trek Universe and its four quadrants all represent different rooms, or spheres, of human consciousness, and when James T. Kirk says "to boldly go where no man has gone before", he’s talking about something far more intriguing (and dangerous) than merely exploring the physical universe.

All the Star Trek characters represent mythic archetypes, for example Lt. Uhura, Communications Officer, can be seen as Mercury, a messenger of the Gods. Spock is obviously the Roman Vulcan, or Hephaestus in Greek. Star Trek 11 is all about Spock.

Spock is a Vulcan/Human crossbreed. He has a dual nature, and it is this duality that Spock confronts in the movie. Spock is half logic and half emotion. Or in other words, half left brain and half right brain. He is Ego and Id, conscious and subconscious, which makes Spock the only true "human being" in the movie, and it is the conflict between these two "sides" that the movie is all about. Everyone Spock meets in this dream-like storyline is an archetype of his own subconscious.

In Star Trek mythology, Vulcan is the planet of science, reason, and all the left brain virtues. Vulcans are also intellectually arrogant, and this is the side where Spock was raised - a man of ”dual citizenship“, but confined to one side. We are introduced to Spock as a child being raised in an individual "bowl" of scientific learning (one of thousands), nicely representing the individual ego's experience of reality.

Vulcans, like Spock, have a history of duality. Long ago, their race split in two, with what eventually became the Vulcans embracing logic as their savior, and the Romulans embracing the other side. Rome was founded by Romulus, and since Rome is synonymous with the Catholic church, I’ll hazard a guess that Romulus represents the right brain, subconscious, intuitive, religious side. It’s a side that Spock (mankind) holds within himself, but is suppressed because of his rigid, Vulcan, ego-centric upbringing.

To make sense of the movie, we have to skip ahead - far in the future of this Star Trek episode.

129 years from now, a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy.

The elder Spock promised the Romulans that he would save their planet, and outfitted their fastest ship - (a stargate/contact device-like contraption) with “red matter” - a sort of doomsday device that would destroy the exploding star from within by creating an internal black hole. Unfortunately, “the unthinkable” happened, and Romulus was destroyed by the star.

I’ll hazard another guess that this star represents the "star" of scientific enlightenment (circa Renaissance) which took out the "planet/temple" of religion when it went supernova. Science 1, Religion 0.

Romulus/the Church was nearly destroyed, but some renegade survivors (the Jesuits?) took Spock's secret, black-hole weapon of ultimate destruction (resonating Shiva) and time-traveled back in time in order to destroy the planet Vulcan, so that Spock might know what it was like to lose HIS home world.

Which gives us the Black Church of Id/Right brain consciousness on a secret mission in time - bent on the destruction of Ego/Left brain consciousness! man, talk about an eye for an eye!

In Star Trek 11, this "Romulan/Catholic black church" erupts into collective consciousness via a time warp, and it takes the form of J. J. Abram's favorite monster from the Id - a menacing giant squid. Sexy, leather clad, tattooed Eric Bana is at the helm of this monster, and he is named Nero. Note his trident-like forehead tattoos, which also resemble the dive-bombing dove.

"I do not speak for Romulus"

Nero was the Roman Caesar who presided over the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and whom the New Romans (Catholics) call the Antichrist. If Romulus = The Roman Church = Id, then Nero represents the Dark Side of this complex creature - the Beast.

Every Antichrist/Villain needs his Christ/Hero, and appropriately, the moment Nero is "born" into consciousness, so is James T. Kirk.

J. J. cast Chris Pine as the new Kirk, and given that every Hephaestus has his Dionysus, I was intrigued by the famous Dionysus fertility symbol synching into the actor's name. Our first shot of the adult Kirk includes a glass of beer, a bar in the 'heartland" granary of Iowa, while making sexual advances on everything on two legs. Pretty much nails Dionysus, I'd say.

Well, now that we know who is playing what archetype, the actual plot is pretty cut and dried. Agent of Ego (Spock) "kills" Id (Romulus). The dark side of Id lashes back, and "kills" Ego (Vulcan).

Meanwhile, the heroic aspect of Id creates a savior archetype, in this case, Captain Kirk. Agent Ego eventually realizes that it is unfit to rule (emotionally impaired), and steps down from the Captain’s chair, allowing the heroic side of his true Self to take the helm.

Antichrist is quickly destroyed/re-integrated into All, and the Enterprise (the evolution of consciousness) takes flight once again.

Speck of consciousness, takes aim at his own dark side - powered by holy cross and blood sacrifice.

Or in other words, Dionysus returns Hephaestus to Olympus, and for this heroic feat, he is welcomed into the pantheon.

Update 1/30/10: Red Matter

Spock's antichrist destroying spaceship is literally loaded for bear. It includes a solar cross "rose window", and in the shot below we see the holy hexagon and the completed pyramid, with Spock's head standing in for the capstone. The spaceship itself takes the form of a whirling "Contact Device".

The ship's ultimate weapon is called "red matter", which is a spherical red blob that somehow reminds me of blood. Blood sacrifice.

According to Christian dogma, the blood sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is the act that saves us from our sins. The modern, mushroom-inspired interpretation of this pivotal event is called "ego-death". Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes the place of our ego, and is ritually "slaughtered". Perhaps the red amanita is the "vehicle" of this profound, alchemical process.

All the symbols encoded into Spock's spaceship are representing the same thing - the connection of ego to Id, which causes the death of the false self (ego) and the birth of a new creation. Spock is the new Adam:

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. -- 1 Corinthians 5:22

So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. --1 Corinthians 15:45