DREXCIYAN METAPHORS

The three key metaphors used by Drexciya were that of water, wave jumping and storms. I’ve written a few general words on my interpretations of each and their possible meanings. As usual this is just to be taken as a jumping off point for further investigations of your own or not as the case may be, just a few musings I pleasantly passed on a stormy day with.

WATER: To place the world of Drexciya in water seems to me the essential step of removing us from our usual physical and mental limitations on dry land, introducing us to this fantasy world which is limited only by their imagination. Through fantasy or science fiction we often find it easier to imagine ways to go beyond our normal limits and through immersing ourselves in these worlds we emerge into a land where we can escape. That word escape is key I believe as this is not just a temporary feeling as long as we play a record or read a book. The potential to escape forever mentally is also there and in Drexciya’s case they brought us further out when they started to explore other dimensions and then even space itself. I’m just saying that like any great art they provided a whole world where the normal rules don’t apply, a Wonderland for Alice to investigate, to learn in, question and grow. It is essentially somewhere to view our own World more objectively which will lead us to improve where we actually find ourselves.
Perhaps Drexciya were also thinking of the ancient Chinese belief of Taoism, the way of Man’s cooperation with the course of the natural world, when they picked water as their main metaphor. Tao itself means the flow of nature and is also known as The Watercourse Way. Even if this was not the case I feel it is a system which may have appealed to Drexciya and it shows that their intuition of linking the metaphor of water with change was not without precedent. I will go no further on this subject than this abbreviated quote from the Taoist Kuan Chung who died in 645 BC. The last paragraph is worth keeping Drexciya, those sages of change, in mind!

“Water is the blood of the Earth, and flows through its muscles and veins. Therefore it is said that water is something that has complete faculties. It is accumulated in Heaven and Earth, and stored up in the various things of the World. It comes forth in metal and stone, and is concentrated in living creatures. Therefore it is said that water is something spiritual.
Man is water, and when the producing elements of male and female unite, liquid flows into forms. It congeals to form Man, this is its refined essence. What is it then that has complete faculties? It is water. There is not one of the various things which is not produced through it. It is only he who knows how to rely on its principles who can act correctly.
Hence the solution for the Sage who would transform the World lies in water. Therefore when water is uncontaminated men’s hearts are upright. When water is pure, the people’s hearts are at ease. Men’s hearts being upright, their desires do not become dissolute. The people’s hearts being upright, their conduct is without evil. Hence the Sage, when he rules the world, does not teach men one by one, or house to house, but takes water as his key.”

WAVE JUMPING: Riding waves of water and latterly dimensional waves sounds like being in control of your life, staying upright without falling or crashing into the surf. When Drexciya became interested in going beyond their watery home and exploring other dimensions and on into space itself they of course continued to use this metaphor. Certainly they weren’t into floundering, they may have been asking us to follow their lead up to a point but there came a point when we had to ride that wave ourselves towards our own home, our own future. The activity of jumping from wave to wave itself could be read as successfully changing course at the right moment as we continue to grow and change, always moving forward, like a shark, which dies if it stops moving. Learning the knack to stay upright as the storms of change blow around you, which leads us neatly to.

STORM: The storm metaphor they used during the Storm series could stand for the transformation of the landscape it careens over and also, as explained previously, as the obscuring puzzle which keeps it’s real meaning hidden from us until we figure it out. To work out the puzzle would also bring the storm as a whole to an end for yourself, then becoming transformed with this knowledge. But while unsolved these storms continue to rage for many and unpredictably thunder in minds around the world and will excitingly continue to do so.