Originally Posted by
Squall of SeeD's FF7 FAQ
13) -The Promised Land Revealed-
"What is the Promised Land?" The great question of Final Fantasy VII's mythos.
The question that players, in-game characters, and game developers have sought
an answer for. Is the Promised Land the Northern Crater, a land filled with
rising Spirit Energy, as Shin-Ra believed the Promised Land to be? Or is it
Midgar, the technological behemoth of metal and highways where Shin-Ra held
its seat of power for decades, as the game's Character Designer, Tetsuya
Nomura, once said he believed it to be? Is it the Lifestream itself, the great
river of Spirit Energy from which all life on the Planet Gaia springs? Or is
it something which we find within ourselves? Here, I will seek to answer the
great question.
The answer to all of the questions above is this: Yes. Yes, the Northern
Crater IS the Promised Land. Yes, Midgar IS the Promised Land. Yes, the
Lifestream IS the Promised Land. Yes, the Promised Land IS a peace which one
finds within theirself. But the answer to the above questions is not "Yes" for
everyone. For many, the answer to all these questions may be "No." The
Promised Land is something personal for every individual. Someone can't tell
another individual what the Promised Land is. The Promised Land isn't the same
for every person. It is whatever grants a person a sense of completion, a
sense of supreme joy and happiness. For one person, this may be their romantic
partner; for another, it may be their children; for another, it may be money;
for yet another, it may be achieving, acquiring, or learning any number of
different things.
We find two indications in-game of the Promised Land being something personal.
The first comes from Aerith when AVALANCHE has been jailed in the Shin-Ra
headquarters, and the second comes from Elder Hargo of Cosmo Canyon. Aerith
says that her mother's spirit has told her that one day she would leave Midgar
and find HER Promised Land:
Aerith
"Someday I'll get out of Midgar... Speak with the Planet and find my
Promised Land."
"...That's what mom said."
"I thought I would stop hearing her voice as I grew up, but...."
As for Elder Hargo, he first states that he believes there is no one thing
called the Promised Land. He then goes on to describe what he believes to have
been the Promised Land for the Cetra, citing them rejoining with the Planet
(the Lifestream) at the time of their deaths as being the fulfillment of their
journeys and the acquisition of their supreme happiness:
"There is no one place called the Promised Land. That is what I believe. No
no, it does exist. Hmmm... You can say that too. In other words, it doesn't
exist for us, but it did for the Ancients. The Promised Land is the resting
place of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A
journey to grow trees and plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy.
Their harsh journeys continued throughout their lives... The place they return
to after their long journey... Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh?
Supreme happiness? I believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment that
they were able to return to their planet. At that moment they were released
from their fate, and gained their supreme happiness..."
The Promised Land for the Ancients was the Lifestream. This does not
necessarily hold true for everyone, however.
To summarize things thus far, the Promised Land is not the same for everyone.
It may be anything for anyone, but it is whatever gives that person supreme
joy, whatever grants them fulfillment. Considering that people are quite
possibly as varied in desires as there are things to be desired, there may be
a limitless number of Promised Lands, a different one for every person that
one sees.
Having now established what the Promised Land is, or -- more accurately --
what the Promised LANDS are, let us now examine how one finds this place of
ultimate joy. According to Aerith, the location of the Promised Land is not
something one will know until they've found it:
Aerith
"...You don't 'know' where the Promised Land of the Ancients is."
"You search and travel, until you feel it. Like you just know,
'...this is the Promised Land.'"
What's interesting to note about this is that Aerith only says that one
doesn't know WHERE their Promised Land is. To put it another way, they don't
know HOW TO FIND it, though they may know full well WHAT it is for them. To
give an example, one whose Promised Land is fulfilling their desire to have a
romantic partner that they will love wholeheartedly and who will love them
back wholeheartedly may know that this is their ultimate desire, yet they may
not know at all how to achieve it. This is true of many people who will find
fulfillment in all-consuming romantic love, and also true of many others who
know what their ultimate desire is. According to Aerith, they all would
"search and search" until they just felt it and KNEW that they had found their
Promised Land, their ultimate fulfillment.
Another side to the difficulty in knowing where/how to find one's Promised
Land is the hardships that they most likely will face in searching for it.
Using again the example of one who seeks all-consuming romantic love, they may
find that the path to this is not an easy one. They will likely face a great
deal of emotional sorrow and hardship before they find this ultimate
happiness. Quite often, those who seek this particular brand of fulfillment
will find themselves becoming "desperate for love" as such folks are often
described, possibly resorting to any number of means by which to find this
love, whether it is singles clubs, love match websites, or ads in the
Personals section of their local newspaper. To clarify this particular point,'
a Promised Land will not be achieved save by overcoming hardship. This is
directly connected to the game's theme of building off of the concept of the
Sephiroth of Jewish mysticism.
In the Kabbalah, it's stated that man is separated from God by the sin of the
world, and the only way he can return to God is by navigating the paths of the
Sephiroth. The Sephiroth, also known as the "Tree of Life," is a spiritual
grid that represents the 10 divine emanations of God as projected into the
mortal world. These 10 aspects of God are comprised of 22 paths based in seven
realms of mortal existance. Along each path, a soul must overcome obstacles to
reach the next node, gaining a further understanding of itself and more of its
potential -- yet still limited -- understanding of God. If it is triumphant
throughout the life of its time as a mortal, it will gain a full understanding
of itself and as great an understanding of God as is possible for a mortal
being. The soul attains this great understanding when it reaches the central
node on the grid, the Tifaret (also spelled as "Tipharet," "Tiferet," and
"Tipheret"). From here, the soul will ascend to the seventh and highest realm
of conscious mortal existance, where it gains full understanding of itself and
may rejoin with God.
Just as an individual following the paths of the Sephiroth and seeking their
way back to God must overcome obstacles along the paths in order to achieve
this, so too must one do so in seeking their Promised Land. This is
demonstrated in-game by the Cetra's journey. It is described as a "harsh, hard
journey" at the end of which they would find their Promised Land:
Sephiroth
"This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a
itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on..."
"At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the
Promised Land and supreme happiness."
Referring back to Elder Hargo's comments on the Cetra, again, he states that
the "harsh, hard journey" of the Cetra ended when they were allowed to rejoin
with the Lifestream:
"The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow trees
and plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy. Their harsh journeys
continued throughout their lives... The place they return to after their long
journey... Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh? Supreme happiness? I
believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment that they were able to
return to their planet. At that moment they were released from their fate, and
gained their supreme happiness..."
We can connect the matter of rejoining with the Lifestream to the matter of
rejoining with the Promised Land in the case of the Cetra based on what Aerith
says concerning the Cetra's origins, and what Bugenhagen says concerning
Spirit Energy and the cycle of rebirth in Final Fantasy VII:
(Aerith in the Shin-Ra headquarters)
Aerith
"All I know is..."
"The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet, and
unlock the Planet."
"And....... then......"
"The Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises
supreme happiness."
(Bugenhagen in Cosmo Canyon)
Bugenhagen
"Well, let's get to the subject."
"Eventually... all humans die. What happens to them after they die?"
"The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone
knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts and their
souls?"
"The soul too returns to the Planet."
"And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In
fact, all living things in the universe, are the same."
Bugenhagen
"The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and
roam the Planet."
"They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the
'Lifestream'."
"Lifestream.... In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming
the Planet."
Bugenhagen
"'Spirit Energy' is a word that you should never forget."
"A new life... children are blessed with Spirit energy and are
brought into the world."
"Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the
Planet..."
While this brings up the question of why the journey to DIE is made so
difficult for the Cetra, there may have been any number of cultural
assumptions amongst the Cetra that led them to feel that they must do their
best to help cultivate life on the Planet in order to rejoin with the
Lifestream, or perhaps it was a sense of duty that drove them in such a
regard. The game is, sadly, unclear on this matter, nor are hints provided.
For all we're made aware, there may have been a cultural assumption amongst
the Cetra that they felt they would only be worthy of the return to the
Lifestream by helping to cultivate life on the Planet's surface. Whatever the
reason, this journey of the Cetra along the paths of the Sephiroth to reach
their own personal Promised Land was a journey to the Lifestream, made more
difficult for them than it was for other forms of life due to it being the
fulfillment of self for these Ancients.
What we can conclude from all this is that the Promised Land is not the same
thing for everyone, nor is there any means by which an individual can
determine HOW to find their personal Promised Land. They simply must seek it
out, and when they find it, they will just KNOW they have found it. We can
also conclude that -- whatever an individual's journey may be for -- the path
to one's Promised Land will be made harsh for the sake of them overcoming
obstacles in order to reach it. While one individual may be able to easily
attain something that is not very special to them, for another, that is their
Promised Land and it will be a harsh path, indeed, before they can acquire it.
As for why this may be, it is likely to provide the Spirit Energy of the
individual with the necessity to undergo experiences, forming memories and
maturing as a result. All this is done so that when the Spirit Energy's host
body dies and the Spirit Energy returns to the Lifestream, it will be able to
provide memories/experiences for the Lifestream as a whole to learn from and
grow. We know that it is these memories and experiences that provide the
Lifestream with the ability to live and grow based on a statement made in the
first Final Fantasy film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within:
(Aki Ross, quoting Dr. Sid's journal)
"All life is born of Gaia and each life has a spirit. Each new spirit is
housed in a physical body. ...Through their experiences on Earth each spirit
matures and grows. When the physical body dies the mature spirit enriched by
its life on Earth returns to Gaia bringing with it the experiences, enabling
Gaia to live and grow."
The implications of the matter would suggest that limits are placed on an
individual's abilities, the situations they're placed in, or both, so as to
provide them with the NECESSITY to struggle for their ultimate achievement of
self.
In conclusion, the Promised Land is a reality, and it is a different reality
for different people. It is also the culmination of their effort and the
hardships that they must face and overcome. These are hardships that they will
absolutely be required to deal with in order to mature as an individual and
reach their Promised Land, in so doing, ensuring that they will provide the
lifecycle as a whole with the means by which to grow.
Promised Land
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