Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Cave, Revisited

Imagine human beings, like us, imprisoned in an underground cave-like dwelling. There they have been imprisoned from birth. They are chained, facing the wall of the cave. Behind them there is a great fire that shines upon the wall. The jailers have set up a great platform behind the prisoners. From this platform, the jailers cast shadows upon the wall. These shadows are all the prisoners have ever experienced. The prisoners play a game, recognizing the images on the wall and naming them. By success in this are all honors, titles, and status in their society determined. They have no knowledge that they are imprisoned, for it is all they have ever known. They take the shadows before them as being the whole of the world, for indeed, it is their world. This is a tale of something that happened once in this world.

They pondered the nature and character of their world.

One went about saying that the world consisted only of tiny bits of shadow and wall, randomly assembling themselves.

Another said that everything could be divided into "what might be" and "what is". By quick observation one could tell that the shadows were "what is", and the wall was "what might be". Fundamental reality was found in shadow, and movement was the "shadowization of wall insofar as it is still wall". Shadows, he thought, emerged by nature from other shadows of the same sort, and so it had been from all eternity. A follower of his argued, therefore, for a God that was Pure Shadow, Umbra Pura, a great shadow by which all shadows came to be, simple in his great Shadowhood.

Another, of poor eyesight, said that no one could tell him plainly why we should interpret a given shadow as one sort of thing rather than another. He then screamed and yelled that the shadow-interpretation game was rigged, thinking that it was set up to benefit those who were of high status.  He wanted to be free, he said, and this consisted in being able to determine what the shadows were for himself, despite the rigged game. This caused great disorder, with even a few being tortured and killed over whether such-and-such a shadow was really such-and-such or something else, or even whether it was anything at all.

Great mystics arose, and said that the true nature of the world lay beyond what could be seen. They cried that the wall and its shadows were worthless. There were myriad ways in which this problem was resolved. Some said that they must be equal nothings with the shadows, and that thus the path to follow was to reconcile oneself to worthlessness, and never to struggle to succeed in the shadow game. Others said that there was some higher world that one would reach at death, and that this was the only release. Yet others said that the wall and shadow-shapes were produced by the mind as a means of interpreting shadows, but that people must trust in some higher world for all practical purposes, for else why should they not cheat at the shadow game.

One day, a jailer came up to one of the prisoners, and unlocked his bonds. The prisoner stood up, and looked around. Seeing the fire, he was dazzled by its brightness, and could hardly see anything on account of it. He heard the jailer next to him, and could only barely make out his outline. He was startled, for the outline did not seem to him human, but vaguely animal.

The jailer drove him forward, up a spiraling path that lead to the mouth of the cave. At the mouth of the cave, he was dazzled by the light that shone in. He yet again couldn't see. He turned to his jailer, still unable to see his face. The outline looked different up here, more birdlike.

He looked about him upon the ground, and saw all the wonders of the earth. Here were the great waterfalls, the high mountains, the sturdy trees that reached up to the sky. The deer danced upon the grass. Birds swirled in the air. Great elephants thundered across the ground. Men went about their politics, ordering all things as was fitting, bringing people to virtue and freedom. They gave him citizenship in this city, though by rights he was still a prisoner of the cave, and more than this: they gave him a princedom, that he might sit in judgment over them. He accepted. He thought to himself that he had given up the life of the cave and its meaningless games utterly. He knew nothing there, and was only beginning to know things now. He looked up, and saw the Sun, and knew it to be the source of all the life that dwelt upon the earth. At this, Apollo himself sent a messenger in the form of a beam of light to greet the man.

"Welcome, little one, to this over-world. Let my light give you knowledge, and know this also, my light descends even to those who dwell in deepest darkness. Now descend from my realm, back into the cave from which you came." Having said this, the beam of light ascended back into the Sun.

A merchant of the city, standing nearby, asked him what he thought of Apollo's message. The man replied that he was unsure, for he did not know how was it possible that the light of the Sun should reach down so far into the darkness of the cave to which he was now banished.

"Heed my advice," said the merchant, "Go back down into the cave, for that is the god's command. But trust that his light will be even there, though there are miles of earth that block his light".

With heavy heart, the man realized he must do as the god had demanded. He returned to the mouth of the cave. There, at last, with all clearness, he saw his jailer.

From the chest down he was a man, but above he had the head of an ibis. His curved beak shone menacingly in the light of the Sun. In his right hand he carried a reed pen. Silently, the ibis-headed man gestured for the prisoner to follow him down the winding path. They began their descent.

In the darkness, the prisoner could barely see anything, for his eyes had adjusted to the light of the upper world. As they descended, he looked at his jailer and saw that his appearance had changed. Now he was terrible to behold. Jackal headed, and carrying a flail. He trembled at the sight of this dog-man, who now seemed like a ravenous beast that was eager to attack.

They descended further, until they reached where the prisoners were held.

As they approached where he was to be imprisoned again, he begged his jailer thus:

"I know that I must be imprisoned, but might but a little light of the Sun be granted. My eyes are weary from the lack of light. You are a powerful god, it seems. Perhaps you may transform the light of this little fire into Sunlight?"

At this, the dog-man halted. Yet a third time he was transformed. Now he stood, a beautiful youth, holding a winged staff with serpents entwined around it, circling the staff as the paths to the upper-world had circled from the cave. Here stood Hermes.

"You have done well. You have followed the light even though it told you to go into darkness, and therefore here will you find light." At this, Hermes raised his staff towards the wall, and it transformed. The shadows of animals turned into animals. The shadows of plants turned into plants. All the shadows transformed into what they were mere shadows of, and the wall turned to a sunlit plain, rich with vegetation. The prisoners were now seen to be the men of the over-world city, having been under an enchantment that had hid the world from their eyes. The cave was no more, for it had been transformed into the over-world. The man, astonished at this, asked Hermes who he was.

"Who am I? I was the enchanter who hid the things of the over-world with this shadow-kingdom. I was the jailer who brought you all here in your very infancy, so that you might learn to trust the light despite the greatest darkness. I was the jailer who set you free, and led you, bewildered, up the spiral path. I was the beam of light that gave our command. It was a command given so that you might be tested, abandoning even the light of heaven at heaven's command. It was a command given so that you might receive back what you had renounced, the more to joy in it. I was the merchant who helped you follow the command. I was the lord of Language and Writing at the gate, for it is by dark hieroglyphics that one learns, once the wand of Meaning has brought light to previously meaningless letters. Through the dark, light arises. I was the judge of men's souls and guide of the dead, for my power is that of the god who rose from death. I was the Messenger and lord of Meaning, and with my magic I have united the worlds. These are my many masks: even this mask of Hermes is not my true face. I am the Word of he who gives light to the World, and we are one. Born in a cave, yet the one that unites the heavens and the earth. For thus it has been said: 'That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, for the accomplishment of the miracles of the one thing.'".

And thus I finished my tale, after which I said: "You all followed me in saying 'I know nothing', for who indeed knows anything in the darkness of the cave. And yet, none of you ever asked me why I swear by the Dog, the god of the Egyptians."