Down the Rabbit HoleLists that explore the cyperpunk sci-fi action media series that inspired us all to buy black trenchcoats and question ~everything~. The Matrix Resurrections is due in theaters December 22, 2021.
The Wachowski's sci-fi masterpiece, The Matrix, was a groundbreaking film for its time. It introduced the general audience to the cyberpunk subgenre while also producing innovative new methods of shooting movies (i.e. bullet time). But did you know that The Matrix is also a commentary on many different religious and philosophical movements, from Christianity to Buddhism and especially Gnosticism?
There is even evidence The Matrix is Satanic. That's right, if you break down elements of the story and the world, you can find Satanic themes in The Matrix, whether it be through the trilogy's connection to Gnosticism or its commentary on free will, which is one of the main tenets that The Satanic Temple sect of Satanism upholds.
If you dig deep, you might even find that Neo is closer to Anti-Christ than a holy messiah. After all, his rejection of God is displayed throughout the saga. We've broken down The Matrix and found several connections between the trilogy and Satanic teachings; read on to see just how subversive The Matrix really was.
At its very core, The Matrix is about rejecting God. The act of unplugging from the Matrix is ultimately about freeing yourself from a tyrannical force blinding you from the truth. Neo choosing to unplug is an act of personal liberation, which is akin to the tenets of the Satanic Temple.
"One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone," says the Satanic Temple. The Matrix, which shows manufactured human bodies literally plugged into a machine and used as batteries, is about people taking back their own bodies and will.
Since the release of The Matrix, the Wachowskis have said in interviews through the years that they were inspired by Gnosticism while crafting the story. In the early days of Christianity, Gnosticism was seen as a heretical movement, as it differed from many of the teachings of the Church.
One of the main aspects of Gnosticism can be described as knowledge over blind faith and obedience - which again puts an emphasis on one's own free will over a supreme being's rule. In this way, Gnosticism and Satanism are similar.
For example, some Gnostics worshipped the serpent who "liberated" Adam and Eve and gave them free will. Many Satanists also worship the serpent.
Neo is presented as a messiah in the films, but if The Matrix's connection to Gnosticism and Satanism is to be believed, he is more like the Anti-Christ who has arrived to bring about the end of the world. To the billions of people still plugged into the digital world and unaware that there is a real world beyond what they know, Neo would be literally destroying their reality.
Trying to destroy the Matrix can be seen as a rejection of God, which is what caused Lucifer to be banished from Heaven. Ultimately, Neo's actions come from a more Luciferian nature.
As we already said, some Satanists worship the serpent for freeing Adam and Eve from God by offering them the forbidden fruit (usually represented as an apple). The serpent introduces them to choice. Adam and Eve could ignore the serpent and continue to live in the Garden of Eden, but the temptation is too great.
Morpheus offers Neo a similar choice in the first act of The Matrix: the blue pill will allow him to stay in Wonderland, plugged into the machine for the rest of his life, and the red pill will free his mind and allow him to wake up in the real world.
When Neo takes the red pill, he is knowingly rejecting the paradise God has created for him and eating from the Tree of Knowledge.
Rejecting The Architect's Instructions Is Rejecting God's
The Matrix can be summed up as a story about characters enacting their free will on an oppressive system that wishes to control them. When Neo discovers that his holy quest to unplug everyone from the Matrix is just part of another program created to assure the Machines' control over humanity, he has a very clear choice.
The Architect, who acts as the Gnostic demiurge in this instance, instructs Neo on his true purpose: to reboot the Matrix and repopulate Zion after it is destroyed by the Machine invasion force. Neo ends up rejecting that truth and decides to continue to fight against the oppressive system, first saving Trinity and then going on a mission to the Machine City.
Zion is the last human city, an underground haven far away from the Machine world. While it's treated like a holy place throughout the movie and might even be considered the closest thing newly unplugged humans will ever get to Heaven, it does bear similarities to the underworld.
For all intents and purposes, Zion is full of those who rejected the Matrix (i.e. God) and chose to live a much more dire existence underground. Some Christian sects believe that sinners can be rejected from Heaven and sent to Hell. By denouncing the Matrix, the unplugged humans are forced to live out the rest of their existence in this analog to the underworld.
Satan is of course at the center of Satanist beliefs. His home, according to Christian beliefs? Hell. It is important to note that not all sects of Satanism believe in an afterlife (e.g. Heaven or Hell).
