Light and Dark
+7 13 Votes
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By ProfOzone
- Light and Dark
- Created: May 15, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 13, 2008
- After episode: 3.20: The Man Behind The Curtain
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
This way of looking at the year naturally divides it into parts “dark” and “light”.
— ProfOzone
In many religions the solstices and equinoxes play a significant role. These four important solar events are often thought of as analogous to the day/night cycle, drawing a parallel between the progression of a typical day and the passing of a typical year.
The winter solstice would be the day of the year where there is the least sunlight. It’s analogous to midnight in a typical day.
The vernal equinox is equal parts day and night, and would thus be analogous to dawn.
The summer solstice would be the day with the greatest amount of sunlight, making it analogous to high noon.
And the autumnal equinox would equate with dusk.
This way of looking at the year naturally divides it into parts “dark” and “light”. Cultures differ upon where the “official” division takes place. For example, some might suggest that the “dark” of the year ought to begin at a point midway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. Others would suggest that the marks for “light” and “dark” ought to begin at equinoxes, since it’s after them that either light or dark begins to dominate.
We know that flight 815 crashed on the vernal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere of the globe. By some reckoning, this means just as the light part of the year was dawning. It appears that Naomi landed on the summer solstice, which would indicate the “high noon” of the year. Note that John in particular experienced exceptional healing on these dates (the paralysis on the equinox, his bite wound on the solstice). Rose and Ben were also exceptionally helped on or near these dates (Rose with her cancer and Ben with his ability to walk after his surgery).
Out of all the crash survivors, the person most likely to eventually notice these patterns is Claire, since she has had some training, apparently, in astrology. (I’m just waiting for her to try to do Aaron’s chart… will she find all the constellations and planets where they ought to be? Presumably, she’s not so far from Australia that she shouldn’t be able to tell.)
Recall that Jack is a self-proclaimed “Man of Science”. His half-sister Claire appears to me to be a “Woman of Faith”.
So I wonder… will Claire discover the pattern of events and begin to make some predictions as to what might happen on the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice after that? It’s taken three seasons for us to move through just two of these solar events… is moving through the other two the reason the show can stretch out for three more seasons? Will the “dark” and “light” stones that Jack found on the cave skeletons be a key to Claire’s epiphany about the “light” and “dark” of the year, fulfilling the promise on the part of the writers that the skeletons would somehow be integral to the finale of the series? Will Jack and Claire, then, represent the merging of science and faith, the defeat of the false and fatalistic dichotomy that seems to present the fundamental character conflict of the show?
I think this is plausible.
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Mm good theory. Don’t really know much about the times of the seasons though
About Claire being a “woman of faith” Can you think of any times were this has been shown..? I can’t think of any at the moment. At times she just seems to be demanding and wanting to know answers like when Desmond was stopping Charlie dying, and when her father confronted her, and Charlie wanting to baptise her Aaron. She gets angry fast without looking at the whole picture, un-like John and Ben who think in terms of we will see what happens. She thinks in terms of answers right now please.
Prof, your clearly a brilliant man but the producers need answers for the masses, I like the theory but are we all really going to have to become professors to understand the island.
Actually Prof, Summer solstice in the southern hemisphere is still the longest day. Same as on top. Although you lot are in the depths of winter at this time, summer is a concept which travels the globe. :) (Born in Oz.)
Prof, I was eagerly waiting to read a follow up to your equinox/solstice theory you briefly touched upon a while ago. This is absolutely brilliant. Do you suppose there is a connection between these events and what Ben referred to as “a place of healing” when he told Locke where they were going? And even more, there might be a relationship to these solar events and the taking of the children; I do not believe the children were only taken because of the fertility issue. Great stuff.
108: I can think of only two times where Claire was portrayed as a “woman of faith”, but they were two events that have done more to give her character some definition than any other events. You’re right in pointing out she’s mostly shown as this somewhat high-strung, jumping to conclusions, damsel in distress. But in the couple instances where she’s actually given substance it’s when she reveals she’s an astrologer (she comments how people think astrology is baloney but that’s only because they don’t understand it) and when she officiates over the memorial service early in season one.
sleepz: I apologize for creating a somewhat confusing post, but I assure you the ideas are actually not that complicated. Every year there are two days where the amount of sunlight and darkness are the same, one day where the amount of darkness is at its peak, and another where the amount of sunlight is at ITS peak. Two days such as these have been in the show, and on both there were crashes and healings. I’m just guessing this isn’t a coincidence.
Mark… I confess that I easily get totally mixed up in flipping between southern and northern hemispheres… and in my post I was trying to utilize one point of reference (the northern one) to explain my thoughts… but help me understand what you’re really saying…
You’re saying that Dec. 21/22 is called the summer solstice down there while it’s called the winter solstice up here… right? I suppose it would have been better if I’d just put my entire post in the context of the Southern Hemisphere… by trying not to be confusing I was actually more confusing still!
kat: Ah, there it is. Thanks for straightening that out. The problem I was having was sticking with the “northern” labels when talking about the southern hemisphere… mostly because doing so helped me avoid confusion in my own head. But I just made more confusion for everyone else! sigh
And thanks for all of the additional points… I think they’re important.
And… before I consider your marriage proposal we should really confirm that we don’t share a parent. That kind of thing happens, you know. ;-)
Nova: Thanks for the kind words. I do think the solar events are connected to the “place of healing”, but not sure about the taking of the children. I imagine there might be many connections we don’t know about yet. For example, are these days significant to Jacob somehow? Difficult to say.
I mean… it could still be completely coincidental that these days are showing up in the story. That’s the maddening part, really. :-)
OK, y’all… I corrected the “label confusion” and just avoided noting actual dates all-together because that would just muddy the waters. If it’s still off somehow, let me know. Thankfully, my main points were the same either way.
re: mistakes… Oh, kat… I wish so much that it were true!
Black vs. White… here’s another interesting thing that you might not know… the yin/yang symbol is actually derived from the pattern shadow makes as a year progresses. Check out the below site:
http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/yinyang.htm
And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how significant the yin/yang symbol is in the context of the show… it’s often found in the center of I-Ching symbolism… the symbolism incorporated by the Dharma Initiative.
See you in Vegas! :-)
ProfO +Kat - you two should get a room! jk Phenomenal, bright, insightful, and really a breath of fresh air lately. Your posts are a pleasure to read. Keep up the good work. With the events tying in to the Suns various stages, I was thinking about the departure of Michael and Walt and the aborted departure of Jack and Juliet. Are you suggesting that travel to and fro the island can only occur at these times? If so Michaels not gone is he? Do you believe that the others can only leave as the seasons change? Or do they have to capability of controlling it?(departures) If they dont have control of the departures than what was to become of the Sub with Jack and Juliet? Or did Ben never intend to let the sub leave in the first place? What happened to Michael and Walt because they didnt leave on one of the aforementioned dates?
Well, I really don’t know about departure times, tharde. It just looks to me as though people crash on the island when there’s an equinox or solstice. :-D That said, I don’t think Ben really intended for anyone to leave on the sub, but whether or not they could have if they wanted to, I haven’t a clue.
I have no speculations at all regarding Michael and Walt, I’m afraid.
Wow, after your kind words I’d sure liked to have provided some actual insight! :-D
Hah, Prof, I just looked at that website you linked in your comment, apparently Yin/Yang means, moon/sun. I just found it kind of funny that Sun, character on our show, is the same word for Yang, and her husbands name is Jin, pretty close to the word Yin; this really has no importance I just thought it was kind of funny. And yes I know that Yin/Yang is a chinese symbol and Sun and Jin are Korean. Anyway, thanks for the link and keep up the good work. Also, if we can find out exatly when Henry Gale and The Black Rock crashed on the island, we might be able to help support your equinox/solstice theory. Although I do not believe we have any information regarding the dates ot these crashes.
Hmm… well, Lostpedia claims that it was Nov. 18 when Ben was taken to the Swan Station as Henry Gale. I believe Ben claimed that Henry crashed four months previous (and this might have been confirmed by the note that Henry left to his wife) but that would put Henry crashing in July. If he’d crashed five months previous, though, that would put Henry’s crash VERY near the winter solstice for the southern hemisphere. Of course, there’s a lot of if’s here… first, I don’t recall if Henry’s note to his wife was dated. Second, I could be remembering wrong, perhaps it was five months that was claimed and not four. Third, Ben might have lied about how long it had been since the crash… and on and on… but someone smarter than me out there might be able to nail it down, toward confirmation or refutation of my idea. As for the Black Rock… no clue.
Wait… just figured out that I could just keep looking at the Lostpedia timeline… it puts the landing of Gale as July, but admits this isn’t solid.
Hey… there’s also an note here that suggests the plane was heading west rather than east when it crashed. They say this can explain the timestamp on the Pearl log printout. What they don’t point out, but what is nevertheless true, is it would explain why the crash took place in the daylight. Hmm… interesting…
It would have been even cooler if Ben had claimed that Henry Gale crashed five months previous to his arrival at the Swan. But again… whatever Ben claims can’t be trusted. We’ll have to see how it works out.
(I’ll note that it does look like Lostpedia can be a bit dodgy on its timeline, but I doubt it’s an entire month late in when “Henry” is brought to the Swan.)
I should note also that we don’t know when Desmond first landed on the island, but we do know that the second time he landed on it, it wasn’t an equinox or solstice, so… not sure how the whole thing might need to be tweaked or refined.
Oh… and it also should be noted that it must not be that something always happens on an equinox or solstice. The Others didn’t seem to be waiting for the plane to crash or for Naomi to crash, even though it seems obvious that the gathering they had around John was on the summer solstice for a reason.
I had been hoping that you would make a post on this subject and you did! And, by the way, it”s brilliant! Nothing to add, because you all said it so well!
Thank ye, kindly, dab! :-)
:-D
all these theories are getting WAY to technical
im quite sure that when the writers and producers sat down and started to create this show they didn’t plan on revolving it around hemispheres and the summer solstice
why don’t we focus on what we KNOW, that seems like the easiest thing to do, then we can make more connections
Well, coolhand… we do know that flight 815 crashed on the vernal equinox (Southern Hemisphere). And we do know that Claire is into astrology. And we also know that her character has been terribly underutilized.
I guess I’m not sure how this theory comes off as “technical”. In fact, I’m not much for technical or complex theories myself. Most people are familiar with when the “first day of spring” and “the first day of summer” are, and that’s all I’m talking about here. For Claire, these times of year would have added significance, but again… not complicated… I’m not suggesting anyone would have to know anything about astrology or astronomy to understand that when Claire actually starts looking in the sky, based on her astrological training, she may begin to put things together.
I’ve always thought that it was strange that no one has bothered to look up into the sky (especially our native Aussie/Astro buff Claire) I mean, aside from the fact that they know (or assume) they’re in the South pacific somewhere it strikes me as odd that no one has looked up. I would, if just for the enjoyment of looking at the stars…but they could just to see whether they’re closer to the equator/N or S hemisphere/etc…
Also, everything I’ve posted today…anywhere needs to be reflected on with something very specific in mind: Due to mother*&@#$ing American Idol (and a slight oversight on my part) the Canadian Broadcast of the Lost finale on CTV lost it’s first entire hour. But at least I know what I’m doing after work…
ProfOzone- you mention how the skeletons will play in at the end of the series. Have you wondered if, including many of the time travel theories, that perhaps the survivors are caught in some sort of circle of time (similar to a movie I dont want to spoil). If those two skeletons are people from the plane then perhaps this has all happened before, and there is some glitch in time now, whether it be dharma’s fault or just a matter of how time works, that they will forvever be going through this events that eventually lead to the placment of Adam and Eve in their spots.
Well, no, justtoocrazy, I haven’t entertained that notion, although I know it’s a popular notion around here. I guess I’ve never been presented with a compelling reason to take the story that direction.
Do we (the viewers) know whom Aaron’s father is? Has it ever at all been eluded to in any of Claire’s flashbacks?
We (the viewers) keep asking and theorizing on the same questions - but really, a true plot-twist, cinematic mystery reveals that the answer could have been found in the subtle questions that are never asked. That’s why when you do a re-watch you say “Why didn’t i realize that before?”
Some of the not-so-frequently-asked-questions (nsfaq) are:
-1- Who is Aaron’s father? -2- Who was Kate in love with? -3- What is Jack’s mother’s story? -4- Why doesn’t Richard age? -5- Why was Libby shown in an insane asylum in a flashback? -6- Who said “We’re from flight 815” when Boone was on the radio? I don’t think it was ever proven that it was the Tailies. -7- Where the hell are Walt and Michael? -8- How did a hot-air-ballon get on the island? -9- Who is Alex’s REAL father? -10- How did the Nigerian plane (from Echo’s flashback) get on the island? -11- Why didn’t Uncle Rico bounce a steak off of Ben’s face when he was whinning all the time about his birthday? (obviously a joke)
answers????
Well, the question about Richard’s age actually has been asked about over and over again, but I still get your point and you’re absolutely right. The problem is, with the really simple questions, there are a TON of them and none of them have answers. In fact, most of them could go many ways. So… yes, you’re right, but the truth is this show gives one a lot to wrestle with.
The devil will, indeed, be in the details.
And early, too. Like it had to be that date or something.
Interesting.
Lately, a lot of people have been noticing the tattoo below Jack’s left arm. It looks like a design including a few stars in colours red and blue (a possible constellation?). Considering how creators decided to make Jack’s first tattoo an important detail, I’m wondering if the new one also would. Thought it could relate to Claire’s training in astrology. Strangely, I wasn’t able to spot any images on the web so far. Links I’ve found seem to have been removed for some reason.