I think that society has a real sick fascination with zombies. There is something about rotten, smelly, walking corpse that keeps our eyes glued to the screen. George A. Romero, director of the 1968 blockbuster hit, Night of the Living Dead, was the first person to used zombies in a major motion picture film. Since then, the movie has become an all time zombie classic, with an African American man in the lead role. This movie was huge back in the late sixties. Night of the Living Dead was released during The Civil Rights Movement and symbolized a complete breakdown of social structures. The movie tapped into our inner psyche, and helped us understand the internal struggle between survival (safety, maintaining the status quo) and evolution, (striving to build an utopian society). This is a pervading concept that is timeless, and is now played out on the hit television series, The Walking Dead(TWD), where every choice determines if the characters will live or die. So I decided to write this article to decode some of the spiritual and religious symbols displayed on the show.
Zombies are everywhere!
George A. Romero didn’t want to make a movie about zombies. He wanted to make them about ghouls. Ghouls––different from zombies, come from the Middle East. Ghoul is a name that was mostly reserved for prostitutes, or women with loose morals. Many of these women were condemned and turned into ghouls as punishment. The Haitian’s idea of the zombie is totally different than what you see on television. The zombification process involves a priest (a Vodou Hougan) creating potions that paralyzed their victims. They then bury their motionless victims in the ground, only to have them remerge as zombies. These zombies are controlled by Hougans and are viewed more as a slave than a deteriorating corpse.
What do zombies represent?
The Scandinavian created a new an improved zombie. Draugr is a Norse mythical creature described as an animated corpse with super human strength. He was a hideous beast that killed people by devouring their flesh. It was Draugr who led an army of monsters from the underworld. These monsters, known as the Revenant came back to the physical world to not only terrorize the living, but also to spread disease and misfortune. This is perhaps why many zombie outbreaks are associated with plagues and diseases. Historically, epidemics like the Spanish Flu and the Black Plague devastated entire populations, while small box and other diseases have wiped out entire races of people. Perhaps this was the reason why Hershel believed that the zombies were diseased. He believed that the zombie apocalypse was merely nature’s way of balancing itself out. Was he right? Well, lets take a look at the second symbol used in season six of The Walking Dead, The Cross.
Why TWD filmed the town meeting in a church, with Rick in front of a cross?
The Cross, is a very old symbol that predates Christianity. The Egyptian deities called The Cross, the Ankh, and believed that it was a symbol of eternal life. The Ankh, when brushed over the lips of the recently deceased, would allow them to breathe again, resurrecting them from the dead. The Cross, in its most basic state, symbolizes the crossroads. Eshu Elegba, an Orisha in the Yoruba pantheon is known as the ultimate trickster. He presides over the crossroads, where one has to make the decision to go left, or right, backwards or forwards. However, The Cross doesn’t only represent resurrection. It represents the precarious battle between good and evil, making the wrong choices, and having to live with the consequences of those choices. I believe that Rick standing in front of The Cross, represents his internal battle between his primal self (and the degradation of a once thriving and powerful society) and his higher self (enlightened beings who understand the true force of God, which is love). It is this love that will propel him forward, and help him build a new structured society.
What’s up with the character named Jesus?
I have to admit; I was a little confused by this character. However, it didn’t take me long to understand his role in the story line. The Dark Ages was riddled with plagues, invaders, warring tribes, poverty and destitution (an apocalypse). However, it was Christianity that brought people out of the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages was a time where Christianity grew at enormous rate. Some may contribute this growth to Europe’s new belief system in one god. While others may say that European leaders used Christianity as a mechanism to consolidate power. One thing is for sure, Christianity broke down a great deal of barriers. And guess what? People started working together. They begin to harvest, and trade with other groups. This was how they were able to rebuild their society.
“Your world is about to get a whole lot bigger.”
Jesus
What’s up with the spider web?
You probably didn’t catch the quick frame in season six, episode ten of the spider web. The camera flashed over it briefly, when Rick and Daryl were placing an unconscious Jesus in their car. So now, you’re probably asking, a spider is a religious symbol. The answer to that question is yes. To the shamans, a spider is a symbol of mystery, power, and growth. Just think about it, a web is a spider’s fully functional home. It uses it to trap and store food and lays eggs. The spider even uses the web as an incubator. The spider web represents a level of stability. While other animals go out and hunt for their prey. The Spider just waits patiently for its food to arrive. I believe that this spider symbolizes Alexandria and the Hilltop people. It represents their ability to harvest and grow, without having to scavenge or hunt for food.
What’s the real deal behind Richonne?
I had a feeling that Rick and Michonne were going to hook up, simply because there were a great deal of contrasts between night and day. For example, when Alexandria became overrun with Walkers, the camera shots went from the lighter parts of day, to the deepest parts of night. In fact, much of the footage was actually filmed in black and white. There also seemed to be a huge emphasis on twilight, dusk and dawn, when the sun rises and falls. So what does this new romance represent? It represents the dualities of yin/yang in Chinese Taoism. In chemistry, it represents positive and negative charges or sparks. Lastly, in religion, it represents the masculine and feminine energies. The Richonne hookup is a symbolization of those two opposing energies working together. When these energies are working together, there is a deeper depth of emotions, in particularly love.
Love is a powerful thing.
When we look at religious liturgy, whether it be from a prophet, or god, what ever you want to call it, they preached about love. Somehow they knew, that enlightenment only happened when people were able to embrace this omniscient power of love. It is love that separates us from the lower instinctual self. Once we’ve found this love, we change the way that we think. We become more mindful of our choices and the consequences of our actions. It is love that balances us and protects us from our animal nature. In past seasons, we have seen Rick swinging back and forth between his primal and more evolved self. However, I am hoping that the love he gets from Michonne will help him tame the beast that is brewing inside of him.