The Dark Side

There is a theme common in both Star Wars and The Matrix. That theme is the dark side. In "The Empire Strikes back" Yoda tells Luke Skywalker there is an evil in the cave. Luke grabs his weapons. Yoda says, "Your weapons, you will not need them." Luke takes them anyway. In the cave he meets a Darth Vader look alike. Luke pulls his weapons first. Then the Darth Vader look alike does the same. Luke is victorious, or so it seems. When he kills the Darth Vader look alike, the look alike turns into Luke Skywalker. Luke was still not able to accept his own dark side. In fact, he did not even know his own dark side. Since he didn't realize what was happening, he theoretically kills himself. Instead of integrating yin and yang, we combat each other.

The same thing happens in "The Matrix." Towards the end of the show the Oracle reveals to Neal that Mr. Smith, his arch nemesis, is really himself. He is at war with himself. We are not willing to accept the dark side of ourselves. In the same way, we so often are not willing to accept the feminine side of ourselves. Instead we keep it down, below the level of consciousness, subjugating it, and never coming to terms with it or at peace with it. Man is at war with himself. And peace will never appear on the planet until we learn to fully integrate ourselves into the "superior man" revealed in the images of each hexagram. And that will bring us temporarily back to hexagram thirty eight.