The Force is Oneness and Intuition
Something about the latest (and final) trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens (December 18 in theaters everywhere!) haunted me from the first time I watched it.
Here's the trailer:
On the third (or maybe fourth) viewing, I finally understood what captivated me:
The Force represents the innate intuitive abilities we all possess, which are expressions of oneness.
The Force and Oneness
I've understood the Force as an example of oneness, ever since oneness became "a thing."
The understanding that we're all connected - that all living things are connected; are one - was first brought to me through George Lucas' storytelling via Star Wars episodes IV (A New Hope), V (The Empire Strikes Back), and VI (Return of the Jedi), and then reinforced by the concept of oneness.
(Full disclosure: I haven't seen - haven't wanted to see - episodes I, II, and III.)
And I love admitting that it's thanks to Star Wars that I first understood the concept and, more than that, accepted it as fact.
It resonated, even when I was a fairly egocentric teenager. It resonates even more 32 years after Return of the Jedi.
Oneness is the Force. I love that.
The Force and Intuition
This... This is what really struck me, at last. For that, I give thanks in part to Han Solo...
"It's true; all of it."
(The context of Han's statement is the apparent void of the Force for the better part of 30 years while the Empire took over. After making the statement, he offers up a short list of topics to his audience: "The Dark Side... the Jedi..." and then concludes with, "They're real.")
...and in greater part to an unidentified female voice (either Maz Kanata or Princess Leia; Disney says the latter, fans say otherwise)...
"The Force... it's calling to you. Just let it in."
To better explain, let's unpack these quotes in reverse.
The Force... it's calling to you. Just let it in.
In the spiritual community associated with the New Age, the context of being "called" is specific to an awakening of one's spirituality (which includes the acceptance of oneness), and also to an awakening of one's intuitive abilities.
When you're called, you either listen, or you don't. And if you don't, the call will come again, and again. You're given ample opportunity to answer it.
And if you still don't listen, or if you listen and yet you still don't answer, you'll be nudged to accept the call to action-adventure.
Or, if your calling is that vital to oneness, aka the Force, you'll be pushed. That's what happened to Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. That's what happened to me in 2013.
Even understanding that cumulative context, I didn't connect oneness and intuition beyond their interrelation - until I saw that trailer.
Here's my New-Agey rewrite of that quote: Intuition... it's calling to you. Just let it in.
That's what we're called to do as spiritual beings having a human experience.
And it's through answering that call that all our innate intuitive abilities are awakened, and remembered, and grown.
And it's in that way that we embrace, and then present, our inner Jedi - er, intuitive.
We're all intuitive. (We're all Jedi.) "Just let it in."
It's true; all of it.
There's the rub and the clincher.
Easy for Han - and me - to say, and yet for those who have been born without hands-on knowledge of the Dark Side - the dark and the unawakened - and the Force - oneness and intuitives - it may be hard to fathom, and harder to believe.
And yet, as the Force and the Jedi - the light/oneness and the consciously awakened - rises against the Dark Side and the Sith - the dark and the consciously unawakened - the truth of it becomes more apparent.
- Intuitive abilities become the norm again rather than the exception.
- Oneness becomes fact rather than fairytale.
- "Use the Force, Luke" becomes "Use your intuition, [your name]."
The light enters in. The balance of power shifts into equal alignment. And then... A new hope returns.
