Being Human

I once asked my tutor for a world religions class a question about being reincarnated as an animal, and her response was that the word ‘incarnate’ meant to take human form, and so one could not be ‘re-incarnated’ as an animal, and that’s as far as she went into the question. Being reborn as an animal is not necessarily ruled out, but being born human is something unique – different.

Ancient beliefs would hold that the human form was the divine form, reflecting both the form of God as well as the form of the universe. This is one of the intended meanings of the phrase “as above, so below”. Another way of putting it is “as without, so within”. The twelve signs of the zodiac, each representing a different part of the body, together form the body of a heavenly figure. Likewise the world is made out of the bodies of fallen gods or giants, depending on the myth, and our form is mirrored in its landscape. Between these cosmic bodies resides the body of man, his physical body reflected in the features of the world, his spiritual body reflected in the heavens. 

It is normal now, when noticing some similarity between an animal and human, to say “look, we are no different from the animals,” but this is not true. Our films and stories teach us to anthropomorphise animals, to imagine them with human thoughts and feelings, drives and ambitions. Instead the animal reflects an element of the human being, each representing a part of the human psyche. We say that one is acting like a dog or a pig or a worm. We say that one is strong as an ox, free as a bird or stubborn as a mule. In astrology most of the signs have a symbolic animal which communicates a sense of the sign’s characteristics.  Likewise one’s spirit animal is meant to represent one’s affinity for or resemblance of that animal. Like the rainbow depicts each colour contained within the sun’s light, each animal depicts a piece of the spectrum of human personality, traits, emotions, and so on. Aspects that are more prevalent in some than others, more repressed in some than others, and whose prevalence and repression make up the individual persona. 

What improvements could be made to the human form? What could be changed or added, or taken away? Think of the myriad of beasts in this world, so limited in their roles by their form. What animal can boast such flexibility while remaining so sturdy? The human form can mimic each of those of the animal kingdom. Those who do this in a literal sense we call performance artists, but we all take on such acts in our lives. The good student studies how the animal moves. And then there are our passive, innate resemblances. There are those who are stork-like in appearance and those who are squat like a penguin, those with faces that resemble horses or mice. Fishlips, pignose, bugeyed, and so on.

The different facets of the human would seem endless in category, let alone number. Take music for example: a mere facet of humanity. The entire world of music, with all of its instruments, all its styles, the full extent of its rules and theory, all the songs that have ever been written, all the lyrics and melodies, all of this is but a single facet of humanity. Some humans might get through life without having much of anything to do with music at all and yet live rich, full lives all the same. The facets are as many in number as they are endless in content. The human being has a million arms, each grasping a different tool.