The now classic trope of choosing between the red pill and the blue pill gives us so many clues as to how we are to free ourselves from the Ma-trix’s mind-forged manacles. Here are some thinks I have been thinking.
It was said in a podcast I appeared on last year (The Matrix Resurrections decode) that the reason Neo chose red rather than blue, was due to him being in an inverted world/ state.
“He’s in an inverted world so red really = blue and vice versa”
The idea being that one should focus on the blue frequency/ the higher chakras/ the blue bull in order to reach the liberated state. I.e. in choosing Red in an upside down reality he's really choosing Blue...
However, I’m not so sure this choice is the reason for the Wachowskis having Neo choose red.
Passivity Blues
Blue, in it’s negative light - i.e. when we are too far to the right hemisphere of the brain & therefore out of balance - represents passivity. Blue light induces an alpha-brainwave pattern, under whose spell we are very susceptible to suggestion: hence why your tell-a-vision emits a blue light.*
“You want a KFC… you need a new car”… “you beLIEve what we the medea (the enchanter) spells out for you”... “you you trust the government/ the science/ the priests”… “go back to sleep”...
If Neo had chosen blue he would have been pulled back to his “safe”, unresisting slumber, never truly waking up, never answering his call to adventure and forgetting all about his toe being dipped into Wonderland.
You Can’t Skip Al-chemical Steps
To focus too much on becoming crowned through raising our energy upwards towards the blue bull, misses out vital steps in our purification process.
Whilst yes, most of us are in many ways left-brain, lower-bull/chakras - both symbolised by the colour red - dominant, to evolve our consciousness into a more wholistic state requires action (red). You can’t just be passive, meditate the days away, trying to escape that showdown with your Balrog, if you want to be-co-me Neo. Doing so simply guarantees that you become a New Age jellyfish with no autonomy & no ability to act, to fight, to resist when it is appropriate.
Yes, NEO is at ONE with Source, but he must take purposeful steps in order to re-turn Home and re-member his true nature.
It is the left-hemisphere of the brain (red) which is able to analyse data & first begins to realeyes that not all is as The Matrix would have you beLIEve.
The right-hemisphere is then able to see the patterns and weave the seemingly separate data points together into a more truthful, wholistic innerstanding of what is.
It is red that represents the masculine side of life; the honing of our will so that we can make the necessary changes in our lifestyle, our beliefs, our environment to create the right conditions for our ongoing alchemical transformation. Rising from Mr Anderson’s coma is going to require the purification of the red/ the root first, before we can align the red bull (lower chakras) with the blue bull (upper chakras).
In missing this step we guarantee that the red remains toxic. Our will remains aligned with satisfying base desire, hedonic pleasure-seeking behaviour, or even using our action to dominate others, rather than having will harmonise with Will: where the "lower" self can be placed into the service of the Divine.
Choosing the red pill means that we are entering into the first stage of the alchemical process: calcinatio. This is where we use the masculine fire of our determination and courage to ACTIVELY seek Truth, burning up (red) all that no longer serves us. We face our Balrog head on and are willing to face death and for our old paradigm to die. Only then can we court the subsequent, feminine stage of dissolutio, which absorbs and dissolves the the dross, the remnants of the calcination experience.
It is Neo’s maturing relationship with Trinity (his anima/ inner feminine) which gives him the courage to fulfil his destiny as a fully realeyesd avatar (a Christ/ Buddha/ Krishna). But he never would have become the redeeming saviour that he re-presents without first accepting all that is “red”/ “lower” within him and as a crucial stage in his hero’s journey. NEO does not become ONE (whole) without owning all aspects of himself, light & shadow.
The goal of our quest is to balance the mind, body & soul between the red & the blue/ masculine & feminine/ action & receptivity. To be radically blue is to be eternally blissing out, falling asleep & disconnected to our earthy roots... to be caught in red is to be mired in busyness, survival mode, finding no stillness to realeyes Source.
Too much in either direction and we become either the dominator (red), or the dominated (blue). To balance the two creates purple: the colour of royalty & the Crown - the enlightened version of which neither dominates, nor is dominated. We are Sover-reign (above rule).
But first we master red, heal our muludhara, firm up our foundation so that we may have roots deep enough to support our reaching for heaven.
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A.J. Dunbar
Art
'red shift, blue shift (blackhole)' ~ Creation_Destruction
'Root Chakra' ~ Catherine G McElroy
'Balrog' ~ Unknown artist
Unknown ~ Unknown (help!)