Hello All,

For this blog, explain how the film The Fountain uses one of the concepts from Eliade's Myth of the Eternal Return.


Celestial Archetypes: Shibalba, the tree of life, the ring, the dagger (with its holes/map), the blood

Symbolism of the Center: the tree, Shibalba, the queen, Spain, the lab, the temple, the book

Road to the Center: the lab (with Donovan and the tests and finding the cure), the funeral (the road to death), the voyage in the bubble to Shibalba, the book (finish it!) 

Profane/Sacred Time and Space: Sacred: the tree, the temple, outer space; Profane: the daily routine (the lab?, the scenes in the home?), walking on the street, the field/gravesite

Abolition of Past Time: the book (makes him experience its actions when he's asleep); the scenes at the temple; the scenes with the queen, the scenes in outer space

Restoration of Primordial Chaos: Drinking the tree's sap, he became a plant; the tree was his wife; the flying/floating in outer space; the plots (and times) of the film collapse and blend (and confuse);

Repetition of the Cosmogonic Act: Donovan's cure, the final scenes with Shibalba, the tree coming back to life, the seed being planted, the conquistador's death/life: Death becomes life.