The Temple and the Heart in LOST
Nov. 19th, 2011 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stefanie_beanIn LOST, the real and living source of life on the Island is called "The Heart," or "The Heart of the Island." It is a pool in a cave, a sacred well which is normally invisible to mundane eyes. It can be found only by the Island's protector, the person who has been given charge to protect and keep the Island, especially its Heart. Others can find it and go there, but only when the Protector leads them. Otherwise, it's like Avalon, unreachable.
If you go into the cave of the pool, the water leads you to a long drop, over a waterfall. At the base of the waterfall is another pool. Unlike the naturally-appearing cave, this pool is a man-made structure, in the center of which a large stone cylinder covered with cuneiform inscriptions is inserted into a round hole. With water flowing over and around it, the great cuneiform-scribed column is like the lingam, perpetually inserted into the yoni of the pool.
Elsewhere on the Island is the Temple, a large structure in the middle of the jungle, covered with sacred banyan trees and surrounded by a high wall. In what might be thought of as "the outer court," there's a pool. Inside the Temple, in the "inner court," if you will, there is a spring bubbling up in a stone man-made pool. As I see it, the Temple itself is an analogue for the Heart, especially in its dual bodies of water.
When the recently-dead Sayid is brought to the Temple, Hurley tells the Temple guardian and Others that Jacob has said that Sayid can be submerged in the Temple pool to be revived / resurrected. However, the pool is cloudy, which is an ominous sign, but some of the Others immerse Sayid anyway. It's as if the Temple's integrity has been breached (i.e. the Temple has become unsanctified), and both the Temple's guardians, and the people who have taken refuge there, are all in deep trouble. (The actual breach of the Temple doesn't occur until the Temple Guardian, Dogen, is dead - killed ironically by the very person whom the Temple Pool revived - i.e. Sayid.)
This cloudiness of the water is referred to again in the scene where a dying Jack (now Island Protector) passes the mantle on to Hurley.
Previously, on the beach, Ben was shown putting an Oceanic water bottle into his kit bag.
Later, when Jack is going to anoint Hurley, he asks for a cup, and Ben gives him the bottle.
The water surrounding the Heart is filthy and muddy (the cuneiform "cork" has been pulled; the energy keeping the Island together is dissipating.) Jack dips the bottle into the muddy water, but when he pulls it out to give to Hurley, the water which Hurley drinks is *clear.*
Thus, the Oceanic bottle is a GRAIL.
It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
And just as the baptismal font in a church, or the mikvah, the pool in the Temple hearkens to those living waters, which are always pure.
If you go into the cave of the pool, the water leads you to a long drop, over a waterfall. At the base of the waterfall is another pool. Unlike the naturally-appearing cave, this pool is a man-made structure, in the center of which a large stone cylinder covered with cuneiform inscriptions is inserted into a round hole. With water flowing over and around it, the great cuneiform-scribed column is like the lingam, perpetually inserted into the yoni of the pool.
Elsewhere on the Island is the Temple, a large structure in the middle of the jungle, covered with sacred banyan trees and surrounded by a high wall. In what might be thought of as "the outer court," there's a pool. Inside the Temple, in the "inner court," if you will, there is a spring bubbling up in a stone man-made pool. As I see it, the Temple itself is an analogue for the Heart, especially in its dual bodies of water.
When the recently-dead Sayid is brought to the Temple, Hurley tells the Temple guardian and Others that Jacob has said that Sayid can be submerged in the Temple pool to be revived / resurrected. However, the pool is cloudy, which is an ominous sign, but some of the Others immerse Sayid anyway. It's as if the Temple's integrity has been breached (i.e. the Temple has become unsanctified), and both the Temple's guardians, and the people who have taken refuge there, are all in deep trouble. (The actual breach of the Temple doesn't occur until the Temple Guardian, Dogen, is dead - killed ironically by the very person whom the Temple Pool revived - i.e. Sayid.)
This cloudiness of the water is referred to again in the scene where a dying Jack (now Island Protector) passes the mantle on to Hurley.
Previously, on the beach, Ben was shown putting an Oceanic water bottle into his kit bag.
Later, when Jack is going to anoint Hurley, he asks for a cup, and Ben gives him the bottle.
The water surrounding the Heart is filthy and muddy (the cuneiform "cork" has been pulled; the energy keeping the Island together is dissipating.) Jack dips the bottle into the muddy water, but when he pulls it out to give to Hurley, the water which Hurley drinks is *clear.*
Thus, the Oceanic bottle is a GRAIL.
It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
And just as the baptismal font in a church, or the mikvah, the pool in the Temple hearkens to those living waters, which are always pure.