The Source of Everything, Part 2 by Cynthia B.

A few days ago, I posted a set of hypotheses that stemmed from one underlying assumption: LOST is seeking to explain every civilization's creation mythology (which would make it Atlantis, the Garden of Eden, and every other mythological place that is central to a religion or cultural identity.) I think the source of everything will turn out to have a (pseudo) scientific explanation, and one big moral of the show will be how ironic it is that humans spend so much time categorizing and competing with one another, because we are all - literally- family. I think the key themes are FAMILY and BALANCE. Although we are seeing the juxtaposition of many concepts (good/evil, black/white, fate/free will, science/faith), the ultimate answer is that in order for life to be maintained, it must stay in balance. It is not about who wins or loses, but *why* that balance must be maintained.

Here is my theory and the hypotheses again:

http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2010/05/source-of-everything-by-cynthia-b.html

To them, I want to add the following hypotheses, which should hopefully tie things together even further:

- To return to the Yin/Yang (animus/anima e.g. masculine/feminine) balance theme, I think that I have an answer for why Kate appears to not be a "candidate": she actually IS a candidate, but only in tandem with Jack. I think that Jack AND Kate together are going to replace Jacob. With only a woman (Mother) or only a man (Jacob) as protector of the source, the island's energies (it's yin/yang) fell out of balance (which is probably what drove Mother insane.) In order to maintain a stable balance of anima/animus on the island, the protector(s) must be both man and woman. If someone emerges as a replacement for Jacob, it will be Jack and Kate together. This also corresponds to the metaphor of Adam and Eve (and Iris and Osiris and various other creation mythologies), that in order for something to be the source of life, it must have a balance of masculine and feminine. Did you notice how Mother reacted when Jacob was born: "It's a BOY!" It wasn't just joy at the birth of a child or having someone to hang out with, it was the sex of the child that was significant. However...when the second boy emerged, Mother seems both excited and troubled. This is likely due to the fact that the competition between these two boys (which is the ultimate in karmic warfare) would upset the balance of energies on the island. But what else could Mother do at this point but let it play out and try to help them on their correct paths?

- Corollary to the above: Jacob recognized this imbalance in animus/anima on the island, and HE built the statue of Tawaret to try and compensate for that imbalance. Tawaret (as everyone knows by now) is the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. This also corresponds to the idea that the island is the ultimate source of everything: the "womb" of all civilizations.

- The island must be protected simultaneously by a human being (who is capable of interaction with other people) and a karmic "enforcer", whose methods of keeping people from "the source" are much more brutal and last-resort. These two entities have together kept the source safe for millennia. When Jacob pushed Brother into the spring, his soul replaced whosever had been there before (but "Smokey" has always been around). Now they find themselves both essential to the protection of the source and deeply bound together. As long as Jacob was alive, Brother was bound to his job as enforcer.

-Corollary to the above: in order for Smokey/enforcer to leave the island, all hopes for good eventually prevailing must be gone. Meaning, all the candidates whom Jacob brings to the island to try and prove that people can be good must be eliminated. At that point, the balance shifts completely to the one side (the dark side.) This is why Smokey/Flocke needs the candidates dead. As long as they're alive, goodness still has a hope of prevailing. (And BTW, it's not that Brother or even Smokey are inherently evil in and of themselves, but that they were tasked to maintain the balance on that side of the equation - the yang.)

- This is not a hypothesis but a cool observation: Brother is now "trapped" in Locke's body. He is "locked in." Which suggests to me that the writers had some sense all along of what they were doing and what Locke's role would be. I think the reason this has happened is because the brothers' souls are bound together as protectors of the source. With Jacob dead, Brother can't manifest in a new form/life.

- The spring (e.g. "the source") is the mythological fountain of youth. It is what kept Mother, Jacob, and Richard from aging and being vulnerable to a natural death. But taking advantage of its powers of eternal life comes at a cost the soul and binds the person to the island permanently. I believe there is a caveat, which is that in order to be effective, the water must be given by one person to another as a gift that is accepted willingly.

- Widmore and Zoe know what is going on with the island, and are trying to help. I do not believe Flocke's assertion that it is about power for Widmore. I think it's about restoring things to their proper balance (hence the numerous references by Eloise Hawking to "course correction", which is a quantum physics lens on the mystical phenomenon of Karma.) As with the other themes of yin/yang, science and faith are not in competition, but offer mutually reinforcing ways of interpreting the same phenomena.

- As for how it will all end...the two "timelines" must converge at some point, which means whatever is keeping them apart (doubt, fear, competition) must be completely eroded. I am still working on my theory of how things will ultimately come together (or fall apart). That will be Part 3.

Thanks for reading!