Just watched Black Panther on Netflix and as an extended metaphor (which movies are) you can get any meaning you want from the movie, so I’ll just point out one I saw. 

Wakanda is a culture that was hijacked by a ritually confirmed king (Trump) who out of his personal anger took the culture in a direction that was fundamentally different from its core value. The kingdom split loyalty in two, one group loyal to the Office of the King, the other loyal to core values of the kingdom. When the original king (Obama) returned a civil war erupted in which the usurper was defeated.

What is the proper use of power? This to me was the core question of the movie that had to be resolved. Should one withdraw and put up wall, an isolationist, become a hermit kingdom? Or should one use your power to address grievance by attacking those who have done you wrong? Or should you use your power to invest in the improvement of society, forgiving your enemies.

The other theme was whether one is essentially good by nature, or flawed by nature. Are you created by culture, or are you the creator of culture? Are you defined by others, or do you define yourself? And where does the power come from to move from being the created to being the creator? Black Panther is a spiritual metaphor whose power is to awaken the sleeping Creator within.

Unless you have a role model that shows you in flesh and blood what your potential is, you cannot rise to that potential. The growth of our children is an example of this when a child sees a ballerina an knows..and knows..that is what she is going to be. This Wisdom Knowing or Body Know transcends cultures and the given role models of your immediate culture, like your home town. If all you know is your home town, all your role models are given. You will become like the options offered by your culture. 

But if someone comes into your home town that offers a role model to a different potential, your body knowing kicks in and you will become that, you will transcend the homeostatic force of your culture which is to be obedient to your cultural expectations. 

Black Panther is a metaphorical role model for youth who are offered no escape from the expectations of their local culture. The metaphor is that it points at the same time to the content of the movie which is, of course, fantasy, but also at your Body Knowing that is asleep in your acculturated ego. The movie makes you feel good about yourself, and that anything is possible because the old cultural gods (powers are dead.

Movies like this are dreams to wake up by. They stir the sleeper inside the acculturated mind, that child of Body Knowing who was put to sleep by the culture in which he was born. After six years of age, the child is taken from it’s primary body knowing, or primary process of learning, from direct experience to being to adopting to a semantic culture of abstract symbols for reality. The child begins to think the menus of reality is reality, and the menu only offers a limited numbers of foods for him to eat. And he goes through life eating the menu or symbols of reality instead of directing knowing reality. Dissatisfied with the food, the culture menu just offers new choices on the menu. 

When Direct Experience or Body Knows is awakening, the adult begins to question the menu culture and he tries real food. HEY…It’s GOOD he exclaims. HEY….when reality is good… I am good…because I am now real.

Direct Experience are our peak moments when there is a sudden and surprising break through where we know the goodness of reality, which is our self, but the Culture Menu with our acculturated self comes back in and looks for the meaning of the break through on the menu. BAM..we are right back on the menu. The Culture Menu has a powerful inertia to maintain its homeostasis, a stable sameness. So the Culture Menu just keeps adding new choices to keep your eating the menu.

When Direct Experience happens to us, we usually call it a miracle and the Menu says God did it. You didn’t do it. The cook did it. The Menu’s function is to keep you in the menu. When we have moments of alignment with reality, Jung calls it synchronicity. But even that is on the menu. Instead of God’s miracle or angles watching me, it’s a psychological choice. One is still in the menu. All arguments are just about choices offered by the menu. The result is that you don’t wake up and taste the real food before you. Zen calls it One Taste.