There’s a new Ghostbusters movie out, and does it have any underlying themes to it? Yes it does. Warning, spoilers ahead!
So the movie is a sentimental coming of age story with a background of slowly emerging great evil. What is interesting to me is the interplay of the antagonist who set up the arrival of evil and the reality of that evil itself.
The earlier definitions from my artical about the first movie in the series still are valid and hold for this story:
- Ghostbusters – Atheists
- Gozer – Evil incarnate/King Solomon
- Terror Dogs – The Jinn
- The mine – Solomon’s Temple
- Ivo Shandor – Grand Master Freemason
- The townsfolk – Shandor worshipers, or descendants of those
The back story to the movie is that there is an old mining town from where the cold riveted Selenium I beams were mined and refined and were later used in the construction of New York’s Spook Central.
The town is adorned with Gozer hieroglyphs on the buildings attesting to the construction of the town by Gozer worshipers. You may notice the G for Gozer looking a lot like the G from Freemasonry, suggesting this was a secret society, or a society with secrets (which ever you prefer).
One of the Ghostbusters has determined that this town and it’s now abandoned mine are an ongoing threat to humanity, but the other Ghostbusters do not believe him so he goes alone to the small mining town to try to stop things himself before evil emerges once again.
The mine itself has the same iconography as Spook Central in the first movie and again features Egyptian pyramids.
This remains an odd detail as Gozer is said to be Sumerian, the town is called Summerville, and Sumerians never built pyramids in real life, preferring Ziggurats instead. Perhaps it is the case that the Sumerian god chose the form of Isis, and all the Egyptian and masonic stuff came along with her!
Egon Spengler is at the core of this movie and is in it throughout. At the opening we see him trying to trap the spirits of both terror dogs sentinel forms. Presumably these spirits have been guarding the mine, and while he successfully captures one in a ghost trap the other escapes when his plan fails, and Egon is sadly killed.
Before his death Egon set up a containment field in the mine to prevent Gozer from returning. Using four proton packs as protection, they automatically cross their streams into a literal pit of hell. These are nicely triggered by a modified PKE meter that activates the neutrona wands when spiritual energy reaches a peak.
This containment fails and Gozer emerges once more, as predicted by an oddly spaced timeline prophecy consisting of the following years (which I cannot figure out the pattern for)
2021, 1984, 1945, 1908, 1883, 1823, 1782, 1607, 1596, 1501, 1432, 1381
The gaps being – 37, 39, 37, 25, 60, 41, 175, 11, 95, 69, 51
Now this is the really good bit. The movie shows a perfect metaphor of evil consuming the very people who facilitated it’s arrival. This is a well known human archetype of collaborators to the evil, and treasonous humans to their own race, being killed by the very evil they sought to bring into existence. The thinking behind this archetype is that any leader cannot trust someone who turned against their own kind, as they did it once they will do it again when things get tough, betraying the leader and leading them into ruin.
The very masonic grand master like Ivo Shandor, has been lying in state since his death, awaiting the prophecy to be fulfilled.
He awakes to greet Gozer when he/she arrives but, despite all of the resurrection effort being his and his followers, and despite the time he has waited for the arrival, Gozer doesn’t even exchange pleasantries with him and kills him as soon as look at him.
Now this seems to be a complete waste and a ungrateful act, but as described above this is a well known phenomenon that I was very pleased to see in this movie. It is a warning to all who seek evil, who desire power, and perform rites to bring it about.
Evil does not share and this is a powerful moment in the movie as Ivo Shandor is torn in two and the evil Gozer carries on without care. It is a great lesson for all of us to learn and it serves as an education (predominantly to children who are watching this movie) not to mess with the dark forces lest they consume you! I love this movie for this plot point alone 🙂
Just to close down the story, the kids attempt to trap Gozer using the same technique Egon had built previously, but are only able to do so with the return of the original Ghostbusters, who awesomely show evil zero fear, laugh at it, and finally get to correct an elderly mistake when Gozer once again asks Ray if he is a God.
Ultimately the great evil that could bring about the apocalypse turns out to be a dud, and again I like this point. As with any great evil, it largely promotes its own power as greater than that possibly achievable, puts on a large show of strength, and primarily uses fear as a weapon to avoid facing its enemies directly, but it’s failure is encoded in its actions.
In conclusion, don’t try and raise a great evil, under any pretence, as it will consume you!
Have a link to my original artical:
http://www.closertogod.net/thoughts/worlddetail/masonbusters.htm