Thor and Decolonization
On Thor and Decolonization [~8 minute read]
I don’t know about you, but if you’re here, and you drink mead, I am guessing you might like Thor, hopefully you like the Thor in his modern, pop-culture version.
I mean, Chris Hemsworth who plays him in the Marvel movies seems like a pretty cool guy at least.
And Taika Waititi, the comedian turned movie director, famous for his writing, directing and acting in 6X Academy Award winning Jojo Rabbit (where he played Adolf Hitler in order to show how stupid white supremacy is through the story of a ten year old Hitler youth whose father has disappeared because of world war II and whose mother is secretly harboring an older, teen-aged Jewish girl who quotes Rilke) is brilliant at transforming the kind of formulaic, flat comic-book hero of Thor from the first two Marvel Thor movies into an extremely likable, funny, and relatable version of the God of Thunder turned Super Hero in the two most recent Thor movies he’s directed called Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder.
In these two most recent Thor movies, Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, despite his apparent self centeredness, Thor is incredibly dedicated to his mission of doing the right thing and serving others, even when life and the world are morally complicated, violent, dark, full of chaos, cancer and death, and lonely, even for a god of incredible power. His journeys in these films are relevant to our times today and we can learn important lessons from them.
Thor’s trajectory, from self centered, do it on your own superhero, to compassionate, self and story sacrificing servant of his people, is a mythic and archetypal framework that we can really benefit from taking on right now.
And, also, there’s mead.
(At least, it gets mentioned once after we visit the New Asgard that gets placed here on earth after the realm of Asgard has been… wait! No spoilers!)
One of my favorite aspects of these story arcs is how the villains; Hella, The Goddess of Death, and Gorr, the God Butcher, come from a background of isolation, cruelty and suffering.
Hella has been locked away by Odin since before Thor was born, after Odin uses Hella’s power to conquer the nine realms. Gorr has been abandoned by his selfish and cruel nameless sun god whom he put all his trust in as a priest, ultimately losing his home to desertification, his people to famine and even his young, adorable daughter to the collapse. (Don’t worry, this is not a spoiler, it happens in the first 5 minutes of Thor: Love and Thunder.)
Knowing that these villains are motivated to inflict violence and harm on the world/universe/realms of the gods because they have suffered deeply makes the story much more than a “bad guys want to take over the world” trope necessitating a bunch of explosions, violence, magic/technology to resolve.
These backstories create grounds for compassion and understanding that turn the story mythic, psychological and spiritually relevant.
When we take on the lens of an audience learning about the internal struggles we face (we are all Thor, Valkyrie, Lady Thor and Korg in one aspect or another) we can begin to figure out what calls to answer and where to put our energy and effort in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world we live in.
These films can guide us towards courses of action and evolution that will lead us to harmony and right relationship.
In these films, Thor gets beaten up.
Over and over.
At the hands of the Hulk. At the sadistic finger tips of Jeff Goldbloom. His one time allies, his future allies, they beat him up. Dark shadow monsters, his sister, his brother, a man turned evil god, bent on destroying all the gods, beat him up. Even Doctor Strange gives him a pretty hard time.
As Thor deals with these beatings, he doesn’t shut down and get resentful. He focuses over and over on what he loves. Sometimes it's himself, his reputation, his abilities, appearance and charm that he obviously and vainly loves that pulls him through it. But sometimes, and these are my favorite parts, it’s his love for others, and their love for him, that pulls him through it.
And that, I think, is where decolonization comes in.
I am learning more about decolonization (and as a white man who keeps bees and makes his livelihood from the fruit of the colony's labors, just hearing the word decolonization makes my head buzz uncomfortably with the cognitive dissonance/potential loss of status/feeling of impending ego death).
I am digging into what all of this life journey means, the light and the shadows. I am feeling hopeful and inspired that on the other side of this learning is a reality outside of the paradigm of extraction and destruction, a reality of harmony and balance, which is what Dra. Rocio, who is teaching me about this decolonization work, who has a PhD in psychology and has spent decades learning about and practicing with her indigenous elders and lineage, is in service of.
Dra. Rocio is in service of and calls for a life of harmony and balance. A world of harmony and balance… may we all get there. (Dra. Rocio, if you are interested, has a lot of rich materials to offer. If you’re interested, you could get started here, and follow her work for future offerings that might meet you where you’re at and help you get where you want to go. <Link to Decolonizing with Truth> )
I am happy to say that ego death and loving, joyful, service is what the Thor movies are all about.
Over and over again, when things are intractable, Thor lets go of everything else, comes to his center, and the light that others have put in him with their love, and the light of love that he has for others coursing through him, transforms the suffering all around and in him into evolution, transmutes the rage and violence into understanding, acceptance and compassion - and often we see it on the screen as lightning.
If you are only going to watch one of them, I recommend Love and Thunder.
The end is absolutely Epic.
Watching it or both it and Ragnarok with a friend or loved one, and discussing the layers that come alive for you, and how you might apply the stories’ lessons to your lives could be wonderfully enriching, connecting and enjoyable.
If you want to discuss it with me before or after you watch it, I’ll be at the mead shop most Friday afternoons. Just shoot me an email the day before to make sure I’m there. I’d be happy to discuss your findings with you and your friends over some mead.
Shamaste (the shaman in me recognizes and honors the shaman in you),
Frank