The Melding Force: A Divine Myth and Global Goodness

Today, I am going to share with you, a myth that I created which was inspired by an essay that I wrote recently on Homer's The Odyssey when I was challenged to find the differences between the gods in this book and the divine in Genesis. I concluded that the main difference was that the gods in The Odyssey were equal to nature when compared to the singular God in Genesis who was superior to nature. Both divine powers were soulless in that they both controlled the natural world in different ways and both possessed ruthless and unpredictable tempers. Not only did these differing levels of power affect the character’s connections to nature, but it also resulted in different levels of morality in the characters who were provoked by these gods. It was these flaws which inspired me to come up with a divine force that was different from both these two examples of divinity. A force that would work to connect humans to nature and also provoke higher levels of morality in humans who contrasted themselves to this force. To present this source of divinity, I needed an allegory to explain my myth which I call “the melding force” (see fig. 1).

Figure 1. The Melding Force

When interpreted as a whole, this diagram is symbolic of Western and Eastern philosophy, politics, and divinity and also represents one whole human being that is connected in mind/body and soul

This allegory was also inspired by a piece of writing that I studied in a Liberal Studies class that I am taking this semester called “Modernity and Post-Modernity”. More specifically, it was a chapter from Aristotle’s Physics which outlines his theory of “causality” which consists of four main causes that help to explain the physical world around us, or more specifically, the changes and movement that occur in the physical world around us. While his theory did help bring both understanding and purpose to our surroundings, it still left us with one missing metaphysical component that remained to be an unexplainable yet purposeful force which must have caused the motion which caused the event which caused the existence of the entire universe. This force is significant because it helps to mark the beginning point of everything we know and experience in our physical world, which is why I decided to connect this unexplainable force to this allegory and make it the divine force that exists in the very centre of it.

I would like to make it clear however, that this divine force is not meant to be the basis of a new religion, but rather, something much simpler and within the reach and understanding of everybody. Basically, I wanted to create an option for those who were not given the opportunity to benefit from the support of a god, a faith, or a higher power growing up and the moral and spiritual advantages that come with those belief systems. For those who might benefit from a source of divinity in their life and through that divinity, a more soulful existence.

Although this divine force is a non-living entity, its emptiness/transparency symbolizes its negative/bad characteristics and traits which I have listed below. The order in which I listed them is of no significance:

• it is not a living being because it is not able to achieve a mind/body/soul connection

• it is unjust, intolerant, and disrespectful. These traits keep it trapped in an eternal and powerless existence

• it is inferior to nature

• it has bad energy that is very forceful, so humans need to counteract this badness with goodness that works to subdue this force. If the two opposing forces meet with equal pressure, it helps to moderate all of nature which benefits from the balance of this relationship

• it lacks a sense of fulfillment because it does not possess the capacity to develop reason, therefore, its bad characteristics and traits are unchangeable, they can only be subdued by the good force of humans

• its spherical design is representative of the sun, the moon and the earth and every area of knowledge falls into one of the 3 spheres (Body/Politics, Mind/Philosophy or Soul/Divinity)

The contrasting forces in this myth have been inspired by Eastern philosophy, more specifically, the "Yin-Yang" relationship which is a beautiful concept that I borrowed from Chinese culture. It is a concept that brings awareness to the two opposing yet relational energy forces or "polarities" in nature that compliment each other when met with equal strength. It has also been equally inspired by Western culture/literature, philosophy and Socrates' passion for virtue, wisdom, truth and the good. By overlapping Eastern and Western principles, it provides us with a divine global foundation intended to inspire a harmonious connection between our political, philosophical, and divine realms.

Unlike the plurality of gods in The Odyssey and the singular God in Genesis, this divine force is not meant to inspire fear in those who use it as their source of divinity. It is simply meant to provoke higher levels of morality in the beings who contrast themselves to this non-living force and who are inspired to inherit opposing characteristics and traits which accounts for their humanity. In other words, their goodness and humanness can be found in what is opposite to this force. Furthermore, because this divine force is inferior to nature, humans are thus free to consider themselves equal to nature (rather than divine forces representing nature as seen in Greek mythology) therefore, humans themselves represent nature, which makes sense because they are nature essentially. Not only does this help strengthen the individual mind/body/soul connections that keep each individual at one with nature but also prevents humans from dominating nature because nothing is superior to nature according to this analogy. Again, there is nothing higher than nature and humans are nature. And since this divine force does not control nature, all humans will be responsible for their actions and the well-being of the environment because there is no “higher” being/spirit guiding nature/humans. Simply stated, this myth provides humans with a divine source that will nourish their soul and allow them to experience a deeper, more meaningful existence that is unconnected to the word “religion” and an all-powerful God or gods.

And lastly, since this divine source is positioned below/inferior to humans, they will be more likely to understand all its bad characteristics and traits as being below them too, therefore, will be inspired to adopt higher qualities than it possesses, resulting in an unparalleled level of global goodness.

Sincerely,

Heather Sakaki

Date: September 27th, 2021

Note: This post has been inspired by the most recent seminars I participated in with my LBST332 and LBST350 classes this semester and the fascinating insights of my classmates and professors during those discussions and the ancient thinkers that we have been studying. It’s also inspired by the soulless existence I’m no longer trapped in and my 30 year struggle to understand what the good is.