Influence and balance play a complicated dance within the realms of Heaven and Hell, with us, the human realm, being in the middle. We have whispers in our ears, seeds of thoughts placed in our heads, love or hate bubbling in our bellies, placed there by others. But surely its our choice to act on them?
Is there a true form of free will, or are we all simply waiting to be tipped on whether to act on these evil or good deeds?
Within the world of angels and demons, Constantine is constantly finding his own demons following him figuratively and literally through his works of being an exorcist. But with every action, the reaction, the effect can have consequences. And sometimes, whether they have good or bad intentions doesn’t necessarily mean that is what you are going to get.
This is Two Takes and this is One Shot. An analysis of the Constantine.
Spoilers are ahead.
The Difference of Believing and Knowing
John Constantine has this cynical view of knowing that there is a Heaven and a Hell. He doesn’t believe, he knows. And this knowledge ends up not helping his quest of prolonging his life or being granted access to Heaven due to his exorcist activities. Even in this cruel aspect, when Constantine killed himself at a young age but came back after being dead for two minutes, this has scarred his life to be damned to go to Hell for all eternity, even if he viewed it as a mistake, or rather, denies he was even trying.
He was granted visions of half-breeds, not understanding what they were and believing he was cursed, that made him want to end his life. Coming back, his belief of his ‘curse’ became an all knowing understanding of what those visions meant. From blind faith to cynically knowing, even Constantine understands the need for balance. The balance of influence to do good or bad, the theory of the pretence of free will.
And here, he is not accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven because of his mortal sin. This in itself is an influential doctrine to encourage those under the faith of God to not commit suicide because they would fall from His Grace.
The Balance of Influence
And this can be go further; Constantine understands the ‘rules’ per-say, of what God deems worthy to be accepted into his Kingdom. If Constantine already knew what to do, then his last wager with Lucifer to let Angela’s sister go home, back to Heaven, because he helped Lucifer locate his son, Mammon, and bring him back to Hell, was not a self-sacrifice, but an understanding of the rules of Heaven.
Going through the motions, Constantine was accepted, in so many words, by playing the game. But was his self-sacrifice done through free-will or by playing a part in the games of angels and demons?
Chosen to have visions, chosen to stop Mammon…was his choice of killing himself have a bigger part to play too? If you saw Hell and then came back to life, would you try everything to not go there ever again? I would. So we can understand Constantine’s insatiable need to do something about this. But if he didn’t kill himself, he would be struggling to understand the visions, being terrified for life…and let’s face it, sooner or later, his actions or inactions would lead to a definite say in whether he went to heaven or hell. In this story, his act of killing himself has a bigger part to play because it encouraged, it influenced Constantine’s need to find ways to get into heaven; and thus, Constantine it seems, was chosen for this foreshadowing encounter with the Spear of Destiny and Mammon’s want of reigning in the human realm. This could be said for Angela, also, wanting to understand and feel closer to her dead twin sister. Asking help from Constantine to learn and see what Isabel saw without turning back. All it needed were the pawns all put in place.
I say pawns because Constantine actually explains to Angela about the proxy war that Heaven and Hell are currently undertaking in the human realm, based on who could win mortal souls strictly through influence alone, no direct contact, hence the birth of ‘half-breeds’. Influence that can nudge someone in the right or wrong direction…But doesn’t mean we should listen right? People are capable of anything, and their decisions alone are now questioned because of this wager, this war between God and Lucifer.
Is it free will or is it fated for us to do bad or good deeds based on being influenced?
And the whole meaning of the proxy war or wager…That is is never revealed.
Like a kid with an ant farm and a magnifying glass, humans are just someone else’s play things. The meaning of each action and whether or not it is deemed as a kindness or a hindrance to someone else can be blurred sometimes.
Take the story of the Spear of Destiny.
The Spear of Destiny
The Spear of Destiny, is revealed to also be known as the Spear of Longinus, the name of a Centurion who used to the Spear to pierce Christ’s side during the Crucifixion.
Looking into this further, the suffering that one can have being placed upon a Cross is actually just a waiting game; death by starvation or asphyxiation, since the position in which the person was suspended would stretch the muscles in the lungs and make it increasingly difficult to breathe. And so, many were crucified and suffered longer than they would have thought. And through this suffering there were two different ways of being merciful, which either prolonged the suffering or increased their chances of an early death.
When a Roman soldier was being merciful by attaching wet sponges on sticks so the person on the Cross can drink, or by placing a foothold underneath their feet to gain some ground, this unfortunately just prolonged their suffering. Others chose to break the person’s legs to hasten their death.
And hence, according to Scripture, Longinus, the Roman Soldier, pierced Jesus’ side to see if he was still alive, he was not, which saved others breaking Jesus’ legs to speed up his death. So in a way, it may have been a mercy kill.
Things like this have two sides to a story and even then, when Jesus was being crucified, he was shown mercy, a kindness if you will, whether or not that prolonged his suffering unknowingly or hastened his death.
So, influence can be deemed questionable on whether it was out of free will that Longinus speared Christ’s side, or through influence, which led to Christ’s blood being on the Spear, then to be used for Mammon’s dark entry into the human realm.
Mercy killing from a Centurion, entry for a demon through divine assistance. The lines are blurred, and even through time, they can be construed or made into something else. Much like depictions of things, like the Spear of Destiny being a key, and Mammon evolving throughout time to become more than we could ever think.
Mammon, the Demon of Greed
Take Mammon’s name and meaning. At the beginning, through the New Testament, was thought to mean money and material wealth, then merged into an entity that would promise wealth, associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. In the Middle Ages, Mammon was included as one of the seven princes of Hell. The demonology of his ascension is questionable, whereas in some texts he is higher up in the ranks, and in others, he is not mentioned at all.
However in Constantine, Mammon, Lucifer’s son, is mostly depicted as the demon of greed, a Prince of Hell, and his name is used in conjunction with wealth and material possessions. His name is used as pejorative term to describe gluttony in mass and excessive materialism, greed and unjust worldly gain. In so many words, he is a demon of greed, presenting that deadly sin in physical form. So, Mammon’s want of the human realm, of his own kingdom, is based upon his insatiable greed for something more…And not really about overthrowing his so-called ‘father’.
His influence can reign through the ages of what he represents, and from what we can tell in Constantine, his power is unimaginable. Unlike any other demon, he needs a powerful psychic to cross over, hence Angela and her sister, Isabel’s, involvement in this.
Like Beeman has states, he is the last demon he would want to cross over.
From an interpretative word, into a deity to a high demon that can only be stopped by Lucifer, Mammon has evolved much like the Spear of Destiny. He is not perceived as something that if it can cross the realms into the human world, then there would be hell on earth.
Between Angels and Demons
Within the world of being a mortal human, it can be said that we are blissfully ignorant of many things. And sometimes that is the best way to be.
Like Constantine said to Angela, once you can see them, they can see you. And the worlds mingle and merge, blurring lines between good and evil, influence and balance.
In all of this, the balance could be personified as a reason for a proxy war, so that no-one is harmed or killed. People and places are put up to keep up that order, like Papa Midnite and his exclusive club for both parties.
The teachings of God, like self-sacrifice, like a rule, can somewhat be like a loophole, based on knowing they exist and abiding by them to grant access to Heaven. This could be said for doing mortal sins like taking one’s life will lead your soul to eternal damnation.
But there is a difference when it comes to believing this and knowing this. And the rules, the demons, the angels, the half-breeds…all of it, gets into a twisted mess, a game, that was an initial wager based on influence. If you don’t know the consequences of knowing this wager, if you were given the choice to see what Constantine sees…would you take it?
We are between angels and demons it seems, and most of us don’t even know it.
Please note: this episode was contemplating religion through the story and plot of the film, and this does not reflect on myself and it is not my personal view.
This is the written script for the podcast Two Takes. The decision to put the script online is for those hard of hearing. And for those who like to read.
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