Photo: Antonio DePietro/ Doolin Caves
Myth #4: We can reach higher worlds by physically going higher. We live in a city that prides itself on building the highest skyscrapers. Masters of the universe aim to transcend by residing in glass cubes in penthouses. We've spent a century sending rockets into space, and learning to fly high in the skies. Paleolithic people spent 25 millenia forging ahead with their mysticism down in the caves. The way that they painted and worked on the walls existed for four times as long as history has been recorded. To me, (and all the experts), this suggests that whatever they were doing in the caves was working for them. Imagine this: 25,000 years doing the exact same kind of art work, probably for religious reasons. Possibly, our route to transcendence won't come from the sky, but instead right here on and inside the earth. Last night I watched the gorgeous film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), directed by Werner Herzog, who acquired access into the Chauvet caves and brings to life the paintings inside. The film examines the ancient artwork (which was originally shown in theaters in 3D), by connecting these relics with the human experience. Archeologists, scientists, and historians are transfixed with these images and the mysteries that they open up. Herzog's awe is contagious, and by the end of the film I was haunted by the beauty of our ancestors.
The hardest part of becoming obsessed with the caves is that this is a puzzle that can never be solved. The paintings themselves are symbols of us, as humans and as organisms living on earth. Who are we? How did we get here? What is our purpose? The artwork are the questions, the clues and the answers; circling around to leave us with only more questions.
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