[meta] Supernatural: Paving the Way for The New World/Testament
I seriously don’t know how to even begin this but I’ll try. This is prompted by 22by7’s post where she mentioned the possibility of Dean and Michael being one in that sense similar to Anna being ‘fallen’ and Gabriel being a ‘runaway angel’. Base concept of this idea is that Dean is Michael, not just Michael’s vessel. Short discussion happened and then there was the lack of Jesus and the Symbolic Jesus-ing came about. And as luminare_ardua succinctly puts it, Dean + Castiel = Lucifer Kryptonite.
The idea of Dean and Michael being one and the same is interesting, I will admit, and it has its perks. I especially like the reversal of Castiel saving Dean from hell and then Dean saving Castiel from the personal hell of his celestial family falling apart. This is, of course, assuming Michael!Dean isn’t a douche of the nth degree for being the FIRST to run away from heaven. Lucifer was ‘cast out’ and it’s a different story. I insist on differentiating forced exile from self-exile. This in itself is a gold mine of angst between Michael and Lucifer, Michael and Castiel, God and Michael, God and Lucifer… notice the lack of mention of Dean and Sam?
That’s my problem. If Michael is Dean reincarnated (for lack of a better term), the story shifts from human frailties and strength in family to the celestial level which I honestly believe is not what Supernatural is going for. Besides, it’s a cop out in storytelling. SPN is mainly Dean and Sam’s story, Castiel on the side which I will get into later. Michael and Lucifer just happened to be part of that plot but it’s not the heavenly dysfunctional family at the core; it’s the Winchester dysfunction at the core. And as far as I know, Heaven is not Winchester House. Not literally.
In Earth as it is in Heaven: The Story of SamnDean
Earth parallels heaven. This is pretty much the anvil in canon.
We have the absent God (John), we have the ambitious brother, Lucifer (Sam), and then we have the loyal one, Michael (Dean). They’re similar but they are not the same. Lucifer is not Sam, fact. Dean is Michael and John is God can still happen out of the blue, and contestable as far as the last episode (10) goes, however. But 1/3 of that “Winchester House is Heaven” idea is already out. And it’s because of that 1/3 of the equation that I’m banking on Michael being an angel of his own person, who is possibly very similar to how Dean thinks.
Besides, if Dean is Michael and Sam is not Lucifer then I think Sam got the short end of the stick yet again. Sam is tainted by demon blood, and he was ‘groomed' to house Lucifer and meanwhile, Dean’s already Michael. No prep necessary, just an alarm clock. There won’t even be a reverse parallel (and bitter irony) between Dean and Sam if this were the case because Sam lacks that extra boost from being born a powered-down angel like Dean apparently is.
I don’t know where Michael is. He could be sitting on a flatbread drinking coconut juice with Jesus for all we know, and ranting about how he’s missing so much of the action because his chosen vessel is stubborn. Meanwhile Michael is equally stubborn that he won’t be putting on a secondary meat suit just to throw the old vegetable as soon as Dean is available because this is exactly what Lucifer has done: wear a second suit only to throw it away as soon as Sam says yes.
The brothers, regardless of who was born first, have been building up to stand on equal grounds since season 1. That’s how they’ll win, right on the same page down to the very letter. This is not going to happen if Dean has some hidden angel mojo resting in some tree in some faraway place. It’s just going to turn into Dean the Mighty and Sam the Damsel.
On to a storyteller’s perspective, hidden Grace has been done (Anna’s story). They can’t possibly use that plot device twice, which just reeks of lazy writing and I expect more from them considering what they’ve already done so far. They can be really creative when they want to.
And after everything the brothers have gone through, they deserve to win this on their own. It’s the path they’ve chosen, to be human.
Which brings things to a full circle, ‘in earth as it is in heaven’; These monkeys (coining the term from Uriel) will bring about the change in heaven.
Which leads to Castiel’s side of the story.
Auguries of Innocence: The Paradox of Castiel
I just like Auguries of Innocence (William Blake) so there we go.
Going beyond the fact that Auguries of Innocence is my favorite poem, it fits Castiel’s situation and his storyline that runs parallel to SamnDean.
Auguries of Innocence is about innocence and sin, side by side. I’m not going with the Good and Evil/Black and White scenario when I say innocence and sin. The poem is not about dividing the two extremes, but bringing them together as a whole, a mesh of life in all its contrast in pain and in happiness etc etc. Discussing the poem is an entire discourse on its own so I won’t dare get into that. I’m simply sticking to the simplest translation/interpretation I’m capable of in relation to Castiel and Supernatural.
But let me show a few interesting verses:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
That’s Castiel; beyond time, beyond space, beyond the concept of human limitations and understanding. He is Innocence living in Sin. I doubt anyone can refute Castiel’s innocence even after what he’s done so far. Just think of the verse literal for a minute, when Dean sees a grain of sand, Castiel sees a world. To take it to a dramatic imagery, let’s hit the second verse… where Dean sees nothing but a wild flower, Castiel can very well see heaven (God’s Creation).
In the story of Supernatural, where SamnDean represents Man (humanity, earth, name it), Castiel is the representation of Heaven (holy). Heaven is his story to tell and to show. Heaven is where his family’s at - where his dysfunctional family is at.
Just like SamnDean, he’s heaven’s Lost Son. Not Lucifer. Not Michael. Not Gabriel or Raphael or any of the angels we’ve seen. They’re all lost, technically. All of them are wandering about doing their own version of Armaggedon but it’s Castiel we see, it’s him we experience things with.
Lucifer and Michael are part of SamnDean’s story. They are also part of Castiel’s story (brothers and all). But they are not The Story.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
These verses highlight humanity at its best and brightest. Castiel was Innocence staring Sin in the face (SPN S4E22, Lucifer Rising) and Dean showed/told him, that under all that sorrow and pain is the divinity that God/Father gave humanity. Not so much in these words and I doubt Dean was thinking “my soul is divine, humanity is divine, save them!” but at its core, Dean was insisting that Earth is not Evil and is not beyond hope and saving. There’s more to Man than Sin.
Old Testament God is a tyrant king. Humans become corrupted, he punishes with plague and death and misfortune. Humans become unbearably sinful? He floods the earth and saves a handful of chosen ones - those who obeyed (Noah's ark). God is scary. You do not want to piss off Old Testament God.
This is the God that’s implied in SPN, at the beginning - before we found out that God is missing and it’s just the angels going about business as usual, basing their actions from the last known directive. Last known directive being the Old Testament (I’m assuming): Man Sins, Cleanse Earth. If we look back at the origin of sin, God cast man out of Eden as punishment and introduced pain and death in life. So the ‘Man Sins, Cleanse Earth’ instruction has been there since the beginning of time.
And when there is no God to make a new decree available? Angels do as they’re told. They cleanse the earth.
This is possibly Castiel’s “sin” in the eyes of his kin. He refuses to be part of the cleansing, disobeying a direct order from Father. And for this, he is punished with Death.
Yet, upon his death, he is given new life; less than what he was but more than he could possibly be. He is the one thing of Heaven who’s seeing Man for once and not Sin. No, Anna is not the same. Anna became human and while she was human, she doesn’t have the understanding and knowledge of heaven until she remembered. And when she became an angel again, she already has the knowledge of humanity with her so she isn’t as innocent as she once was. Castiel, on the other hand, is still pure angel experiencing humanity’s frailties; every inch the Innocence walking side by side with Sin(ful humans).
This is the story we’re being told right now.
Symbolic Jesus-ing: The New Testament
The Old Testament was the reign of the Tyrant King. The New Testament (Catholic perspective) brings the merciful God in the form of Jesus.
I have to…illustrate this. It’s actually something I learned from Mystical Philosophy (AKA Theology but Theologians will smite me for even saying so), the Jesuit version. In brief, Mystical Philosophy is about spirituality and faith. It makes sense to me so I’m using it here.
At the beginning, God and Man existed together in complete communion with each other. God loved Man, Man loved God and everyone’s happy in Eden/Paradise. And then Sin happened (in the form of Lucifer/Satan).
Sin is the line that separated Man from God (hence horizontal split between God above and Man below). God stopped talking, pretty much. Or Man stopped hearing God. Either way, there’s a lack of communication between God and Man. They’ve become estranged from each other and Man went about his own business living life; so estranged in fact that they’ve stopped bothering to understand each other.
So what does it take for understanding to happen?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16)
I can quote that because it’s from a song I kept hearing while I grew up.
In short? Jesus was born and did his sacrifice to save humans. It’s a sacrifice. Everybody knows the story. He is that telephone line between God and Man (*points at yellow vertical line*). And that is why Catholics have the cross as a symbol of faith. It’s not because Jesus was crucified on a cross (actually there are variations on HOW he was crucified, whether it was a cross or just hanged and nailed on a vertical pole).
SPN has YET to mention Jesus and until they do, Jesus doesn’t exist. There was a concept of “Christ” the messiah from the Old Testament but not a “Jesus” so in this case, I’ll go with there is no Jesus in SPN (just yet).
What we DO have is Dean and Castiel’s friendship. They’re interacting, they communicate (phone!), they search for each other when the other one is ‘missing’ for far too long. Castiel may be cut off from heaven in terms of power but he is STILL a heavenly body walking this side of the planet. He has his faith that God exists, that God is out there and that faith brings him one step closer to God, closer than any of his brothers who believes God is dead.
“Credo ut intelligam” is Latin for “I believe in order that I may understand”. This came from St. Augustine’s book, the Confessions.
Castiel is searching God, right? And God is Truth. He’s the beginning and the end, etc. etc. Find God and you’ll find your answers. On a side note, isn’t it interesting that of EVERYONE in the entire celestial family, only Castiel and Lucifer believe that God is out there. Lucifer loved too much. I actually don’t think he lied. Who or what he loved more is the question: whether it’s God or himself or his brothers/sisters/family. One thing he didn’t particularly like is how God loved Man.
Going back… so Castiel’s mission is to find God, maybe ask questions (definitely). Then I quote Jesus, “Why have you forsaken me?” during his crucifixion. Why is he asking questions? Because of Dean.
Dean doesn’t believe in God. Still doesn’t, I reckon.
Between the two of them, Castiel has to be the one to do the communicating.
See where I’m getting at?
I’m not saying that Castiel is Jesus Christ although this is certainly an interesting vein of thought worth exploring. But what I am saying is that Dean and Castiel do the perfect Symbolic Jesus-ing in terms of love and sacrifice. Dean made Castiel see and experience Life as Man. Castiel understanding humanity is what will change Heaven because Castiel will be the one to bring this ‘issue’ to God when they see each other.
Where does Sam come in? Dean said that they make each other human. Without Sam, Dean loses his humanity and vice versa. They’re inseparable like that.
This is the closest we’ll ever get to a happy ending, I’m thinking. When the Merciful King(in contrast to that Tyrant King I mentioned earlier) comes, be it ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ in form or just the unmentioned Bright Light, there’d be forgiveness and love.
But there will be sacrifice.
And there will be goodbyes.
I’m worried about Castiel but I’ll set that aside. I’ll cross my fingers for Cas when it happens.
So I bring this very long thing to an end with this phrase I picked up from my stint in the school of philosophy:
“Tristitia amoris”
Tristitia amoris is Latin for ‘the sadness of love’ literally, and some will translate that as ‘tragic love’. I’m not talking about Shakespearean tragedy. Love is tragic because it’s an endless form of goodbye. When you love, and I do mean wholeheartedly love something/someone, you also let go. There is no love without letting go.
From person to person, when you love someone, you let go of yourself (to a point of self-sacrifice). We’ve SEEN that in Supernatural. The show’s practically all about sacrifice since day one. And it’s never just about the self being sacrificed either. Sometimes, you let go of something else, like when you move on from a past love to a new one, you’re letting go of that part that clung to the old love.
New life means letting go of the old one.
While Dean is growing up, becoming the strong leader that he’s turning into right now, he’s also letting go of his past; the past where he’s content enough in just protecting Sam and to hell with everyone else. There are choices that he makes that pains him, but he does it out of love - forcing detox on Sam the first time was painful. Watching Sam lose his lungs because of Zachariah is definitely painful but he didn’t give in.
Castiel had let go of Heaven when he chose to help Dean. Does he love Dean? Yes. No denying that. It doesn’t have to be romantic love or how we slashers (OTP!) see it happening. But Castiel likely loves Dean in the purest sense of the word. Castiel loves Dean because he’s Dean, no other reason beyond that. The same way Cas loves God because he’s God.
Does Dean love Cas? Not the same way he’d love a lover (that’s why there’s fanfic) but he loves Cas enough that he’s let go of Sam a little. Sam is no longer the universe that Dean lives and breathes for. Cas showed him a bigger picture and it hurts to see a world existing outside of the tiny little nook that Dean shares in comfort with his brother.
Does Sam love Dean? Of course. He let go of his humanity for Dean and that hurt like a bitch.
Gabriel loves his family so much it hurt to see the in-fighting so he left in order to not see the train-wreck. When he carved a world of his own and chose to love this flimsy funny place, he let go of his family.
Do you see how love and letting go are chained to each other? They're always letting go of something.
And when the ‘end’ or goal is reached, there’s always that pang and realization that something else is missing. What’s missing then? Nobody knows. Maybe it’s the thing that was let go or maybe the thing ahead that isn’t here yet.
When is Man ever content?
Going back to the Beginning of Time/Genesis… Man lost his Father/God.
In the context of Supernatural, John Winchester is gone. Dean and Sam had let go. And the space where John used to be, will always be that ‘something else’ that’s missing for the rest of Dean and Sam’s lives wherever they go.
Grass is greener elsewhere and all that.
If and when Castiel returns to heaven, that something he’ll let go is Dean. Even if Castiel stays on Earth, it’s Heaven he’s letting go of.
When the world is saved in the end, do people actually think Sam and Dean can go back to the status quo of hopping from one town to another and be content? Nothing’s ever the same again. There’s a new life that they’ll have to learn how to love/embrace.
They’d both have a Castiel-shaped hole in their lives if Cas is gone, if Bobby’s gone… actually there are several holes in their lives already as it is.
This whole thing is why I do not want Dean to BE Michael incognito. Vessel is fine. Continuously in denial vessel, yes. Even if Dean says yes later, go right ahead and cue in the angstdom, but SPN isn’t telling the story of the Heavenly Family mucking around on Earth. It’s People on Earth that got heaven scampering about.
It's highly possible that Dean will say yes (it's been implied enough). I'm still hoping for a secondary Michael vessel but anyway... when the Yes happens, this brings me to the other facet of tristitia amoris. Dean will do it out of love for Sam, for Cas, for humanity and the world in general. And he will let go of himself to make this happen.
They will win the hard fought war. Maybe there's paradise... but what was the price for paradise? What has this battle won? I'm very sure that after everything's done and the battle is won, people concerned are going to be far from happy or content. There's going to be a massive 'else' that's missing in the picture.
----
I feel like lightning's going to strike any moment now. That took almost 5 hours to write D: I don't plan to do that again. No new drawings for this week ;_;
The idea of Dean and Michael being one and the same is interesting, I will admit, and it has its perks. I especially like the reversal of Castiel saving Dean from hell and then Dean saving Castiel from the personal hell of his celestial family falling apart. This is, of course, assuming Michael!Dean isn’t a douche of the nth degree for being the FIRST to run away from heaven. Lucifer was ‘cast out’ and it’s a different story. I insist on differentiating forced exile from self-exile. This in itself is a gold mine of angst between Michael and Lucifer, Michael and Castiel, God and Michael, God and Lucifer… notice the lack of mention of Dean and Sam?
That’s my problem. If Michael is Dean reincarnated (for lack of a better term), the story shifts from human frailties and strength in family to the celestial level which I honestly believe is not what Supernatural is going for. Besides, it’s a cop out in storytelling. SPN is mainly Dean and Sam’s story, Castiel on the side which I will get into later. Michael and Lucifer just happened to be part of that plot but it’s not the heavenly dysfunctional family at the core; it’s the Winchester dysfunction at the core. And as far as I know, Heaven is not Winchester House. Not literally.
In Earth as it is in Heaven: The Story of SamnDean
Earth parallels heaven. This is pretty much the anvil in canon.
We have the absent God (John), we have the ambitious brother, Lucifer (Sam), and then we have the loyal one, Michael (Dean). They’re similar but they are not the same. Lucifer is not Sam, fact. Dean is Michael and John is God can still happen out of the blue, and contestable as far as the last episode (10) goes, however. But 1/3 of that “Winchester House is Heaven” idea is already out. And it’s because of that 1/3 of the equation that I’m banking on Michael being an angel of his own person, who is possibly very similar to how Dean thinks.
Besides, if Dean is Michael and Sam is not Lucifer then I think Sam got the short end of the stick yet again. Sam is tainted by demon blood, and he was ‘groomed' to house Lucifer and meanwhile, Dean’s already Michael. No prep necessary, just an alarm clock. There won’t even be a reverse parallel (and bitter irony) between Dean and Sam if this were the case because Sam lacks that extra boost from being born a powered-down angel like Dean apparently is.
I don’t know where Michael is. He could be sitting on a flatbread drinking coconut juice with Jesus for all we know, and ranting about how he’s missing so much of the action because his chosen vessel is stubborn. Meanwhile Michael is equally stubborn that he won’t be putting on a secondary meat suit just to throw the old vegetable as soon as Dean is available because this is exactly what Lucifer has done: wear a second suit only to throw it away as soon as Sam says yes.
The brothers, regardless of who was born first, have been building up to stand on equal grounds since season 1. That’s how they’ll win, right on the same page down to the very letter. This is not going to happen if Dean has some hidden angel mojo resting in some tree in some faraway place. It’s just going to turn into Dean the Mighty and Sam the Damsel.
On to a storyteller’s perspective, hidden Grace has been done (Anna’s story). They can’t possibly use that plot device twice, which just reeks of lazy writing and I expect more from them considering what they’ve already done so far. They can be really creative when they want to.
And after everything the brothers have gone through, they deserve to win this on their own. It’s the path they’ve chosen, to be human.
Which brings things to a full circle, ‘in earth as it is in heaven’; These monkeys (coining the term from Uriel) will bring about the change in heaven.
Which leads to Castiel’s side of the story.
Auguries of Innocence: The Paradox of Castiel
I just like Auguries of Innocence (William Blake) so there we go.
Going beyond the fact that Auguries of Innocence is my favorite poem, it fits Castiel’s situation and his storyline that runs parallel to SamnDean.
Auguries of Innocence is about innocence and sin, side by side. I’m not going with the Good and Evil/Black and White scenario when I say innocence and sin. The poem is not about dividing the two extremes, but bringing them together as a whole, a mesh of life in all its contrast in pain and in happiness etc etc. Discussing the poem is an entire discourse on its own so I won’t dare get into that. I’m simply sticking to the simplest translation/interpretation I’m capable of in relation to Castiel and Supernatural.
But let me show a few interesting verses:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
That’s Castiel; beyond time, beyond space, beyond the concept of human limitations and understanding. He is Innocence living in Sin. I doubt anyone can refute Castiel’s innocence even after what he’s done so far. Just think of the verse literal for a minute, when Dean sees a grain of sand, Castiel sees a world. To take it to a dramatic imagery, let’s hit the second verse… where Dean sees nothing but a wild flower, Castiel can very well see heaven (God’s Creation).
In the story of Supernatural, where SamnDean represents Man (humanity, earth, name it), Castiel is the representation of Heaven (holy). Heaven is his story to tell and to show. Heaven is where his family’s at - where his dysfunctional family is at.
Just like SamnDean, he’s heaven’s Lost Son. Not Lucifer. Not Michael. Not Gabriel or Raphael or any of the angels we’ve seen. They’re all lost, technically. All of them are wandering about doing their own version of Armaggedon but it’s Castiel we see, it’s him we experience things with.
Lucifer and Michael are part of SamnDean’s story. They are also part of Castiel’s story (brothers and all). But they are not The Story.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
These verses highlight humanity at its best and brightest. Castiel was Innocence staring Sin in the face (SPN S4E22, Lucifer Rising) and Dean showed/told him, that under all that sorrow and pain is the divinity that God/Father gave humanity. Not so much in these words and I doubt Dean was thinking “my soul is divine, humanity is divine, save them!” but at its core, Dean was insisting that Earth is not Evil and is not beyond hope and saving. There’s more to Man than Sin.
Old Testament God is a tyrant king. Humans become corrupted, he punishes with plague and death and misfortune. Humans become unbearably sinful? He floods the earth and saves a handful of chosen ones - those who obeyed (Noah's ark). God is scary. You do not want to piss off Old Testament God.
This is the God that’s implied in SPN, at the beginning - before we found out that God is missing and it’s just the angels going about business as usual, basing their actions from the last known directive. Last known directive being the Old Testament (I’m assuming): Man Sins, Cleanse Earth. If we look back at the origin of sin, God cast man out of Eden as punishment and introduced pain and death in life. So the ‘Man Sins, Cleanse Earth’ instruction has been there since the beginning of time.
And when there is no God to make a new decree available? Angels do as they’re told. They cleanse the earth.
This is possibly Castiel’s “sin” in the eyes of his kin. He refuses to be part of the cleansing, disobeying a direct order from Father. And for this, he is punished with Death.
Yet, upon his death, he is given new life; less than what he was but more than he could possibly be. He is the one thing of Heaven who’s seeing Man for once and not Sin. No, Anna is not the same. Anna became human and while she was human, she doesn’t have the understanding and knowledge of heaven until she remembered. And when she became an angel again, she already has the knowledge of humanity with her so she isn’t as innocent as she once was. Castiel, on the other hand, is still pure angel experiencing humanity’s frailties; every inch the Innocence walking side by side with Sin(ful humans).
This is the story we’re being told right now.
Symbolic Jesus-ing: The New Testament
The Old Testament was the reign of the Tyrant King. The New Testament (Catholic perspective) brings the merciful God in the form of Jesus.
I have to…illustrate this. It’s actually something I learned from Mystical Philosophy (AKA Theology but Theologians will smite me for even saying so), the Jesuit version. In brief, Mystical Philosophy is about spirituality and faith. It makes sense to me so I’m using it here.
At the beginning, God and Man existed together in complete communion with each other. God loved Man, Man loved God and everyone’s happy in Eden/Paradise. And then Sin happened (in the form of Lucifer/Satan).
Sin is the line that separated Man from God (hence horizontal split between God above and Man below). God stopped talking, pretty much. Or Man stopped hearing God. Either way, there’s a lack of communication between God and Man. They’ve become estranged from each other and Man went about his own business living life; so estranged in fact that they’ve stopped bothering to understand each other.
So what does it take for understanding to happen?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16)
I can quote that because it’s from a song I kept hearing while I grew up.
In short? Jesus was born and did his sacrifice to save humans. It’s a sacrifice. Everybody knows the story. He is that telephone line between God and Man (*points at yellow vertical line*). And that is why Catholics have the cross as a symbol of faith. It’s not because Jesus was crucified on a cross (actually there are variations on HOW he was crucified, whether it was a cross or just hanged and nailed on a vertical pole).
SPN has YET to mention Jesus and until they do, Jesus doesn’t exist. There was a concept of “Christ” the messiah from the Old Testament but not a “Jesus” so in this case, I’ll go with there is no Jesus in SPN (just yet).
What we DO have is Dean and Castiel’s friendship. They’re interacting, they communicate (phone!), they search for each other when the other one is ‘missing’ for far too long. Castiel may be cut off from heaven in terms of power but he is STILL a heavenly body walking this side of the planet. He has his faith that God exists, that God is out there and that faith brings him one step closer to God, closer than any of his brothers who believes God is dead.
“Credo ut intelligam” is Latin for “I believe in order that I may understand”. This came from St. Augustine’s book, the Confessions.
Castiel is searching God, right? And God is Truth. He’s the beginning and the end, etc. etc. Find God and you’ll find your answers. On a side note, isn’t it interesting that of EVERYONE in the entire celestial family, only Castiel and Lucifer believe that God is out there. Lucifer loved too much. I actually don’t think he lied. Who or what he loved more is the question: whether it’s God or himself or his brothers/sisters/family. One thing he didn’t particularly like is how God loved Man.
Going back… so Castiel’s mission is to find God, maybe ask questions (definitely). Then I quote Jesus, “Why have you forsaken me?” during his crucifixion. Why is he asking questions? Because of Dean.
Dean doesn’t believe in God. Still doesn’t, I reckon.
Between the two of them, Castiel has to be the one to do the communicating.
See where I’m getting at?
I’m not saying that Castiel is Jesus Christ although this is certainly an interesting vein of thought worth exploring. But what I am saying is that Dean and Castiel do the perfect Symbolic Jesus-ing in terms of love and sacrifice. Dean made Castiel see and experience Life as Man. Castiel understanding humanity is what will change Heaven because Castiel will be the one to bring this ‘issue’ to God when they see each other.
Where does Sam come in? Dean said that they make each other human. Without Sam, Dean loses his humanity and vice versa. They’re inseparable like that.
This is the closest we’ll ever get to a happy ending, I’m thinking. When the Merciful King(in contrast to that Tyrant King I mentioned earlier) comes, be it ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ in form or just the unmentioned Bright Light, there’d be forgiveness and love.
But there will be sacrifice.
And there will be goodbyes.
I’m worried about Castiel but I’ll set that aside. I’ll cross my fingers for Cas when it happens.
So I bring this very long thing to an end with this phrase I picked up from my stint in the school of philosophy:
“Tristitia amoris”
Tristitia amoris is Latin for ‘the sadness of love’ literally, and some will translate that as ‘tragic love’. I’m not talking about Shakespearean tragedy. Love is tragic because it’s an endless form of goodbye. When you love, and I do mean wholeheartedly love something/someone, you also let go. There is no love without letting go.
From person to person, when you love someone, you let go of yourself (to a point of self-sacrifice). We’ve SEEN that in Supernatural. The show’s practically all about sacrifice since day one. And it’s never just about the self being sacrificed either. Sometimes, you let go of something else, like when you move on from a past love to a new one, you’re letting go of that part that clung to the old love.
New life means letting go of the old one.
While Dean is growing up, becoming the strong leader that he’s turning into right now, he’s also letting go of his past; the past where he’s content enough in just protecting Sam and to hell with everyone else. There are choices that he makes that pains him, but he does it out of love - forcing detox on Sam the first time was painful. Watching Sam lose his lungs because of Zachariah is definitely painful but he didn’t give in.
Castiel had let go of Heaven when he chose to help Dean. Does he love Dean? Yes. No denying that. It doesn’t have to be romantic love or how we slashers (OTP!) see it happening. But Castiel likely loves Dean in the purest sense of the word. Castiel loves Dean because he’s Dean, no other reason beyond that. The same way Cas loves God because he’s God.
Does Dean love Cas? Not the same way he’d love a lover (that’s why there’s fanfic) but he loves Cas enough that he’s let go of Sam a little. Sam is no longer the universe that Dean lives and breathes for. Cas showed him a bigger picture and it hurts to see a world existing outside of the tiny little nook that Dean shares in comfort with his brother.
Does Sam love Dean? Of course. He let go of his humanity for Dean and that hurt like a bitch.
Gabriel loves his family so much it hurt to see the in-fighting so he left in order to not see the train-wreck. When he carved a world of his own and chose to love this flimsy funny place, he let go of his family.
Do you see how love and letting go are chained to each other? They're always letting go of something.
And when the ‘end’ or goal is reached, there’s always that pang and realization that something else is missing. What’s missing then? Nobody knows. Maybe it’s the thing that was let go or maybe the thing ahead that isn’t here yet.
When is Man ever content?
Going back to the Beginning of Time/Genesis… Man lost his Father/God.
In the context of Supernatural, John Winchester is gone. Dean and Sam had let go. And the space where John used to be, will always be that ‘something else’ that’s missing for the rest of Dean and Sam’s lives wherever they go.
Grass is greener elsewhere and all that.
If and when Castiel returns to heaven, that something he’ll let go is Dean. Even if Castiel stays on Earth, it’s Heaven he’s letting go of.
When the world is saved in the end, do people actually think Sam and Dean can go back to the status quo of hopping from one town to another and be content? Nothing’s ever the same again. There’s a new life that they’ll have to learn how to love/embrace.
They’d both have a Castiel-shaped hole in their lives if Cas is gone, if Bobby’s gone… actually there are several holes in their lives already as it is.
This whole thing is why I do not want Dean to BE Michael incognito. Vessel is fine. Continuously in denial vessel, yes. Even if Dean says yes later, go right ahead and cue in the angstdom, but SPN isn’t telling the story of the Heavenly Family mucking around on Earth. It’s People on Earth that got heaven scampering about.
It's highly possible that Dean will say yes (it's been implied enough). I'm still hoping for a secondary Michael vessel but anyway... when the Yes happens, this brings me to the other facet of tristitia amoris. Dean will do it out of love for Sam, for Cas, for humanity and the world in general. And he will let go of himself to make this happen.
They will win the hard fought war. Maybe there's paradise... but what was the price for paradise? What has this battle won? I'm very sure that after everything's done and the battle is won, people concerned are going to be far from happy or content. There's going to be a massive 'else' that's missing in the picture.
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I feel like lightning's going to strike any moment now. That took almost 5 hours to write D: I don't plan to do that again. No new drawings for this week ;_;