Locke & Desmond--Opposing Elements

I was thinking about Locke as the hanged man after kat reminded us of that connection and I looked up the tarot card which I'll briefly quote from here:

"With Neptune (or Water) as its planet, the Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

Neptune is spirituality, dreams, psychic abilities, and the Hanged Man is afloat in these. He is also 12, the opposite of the World card, 21. With the World card you go infinitely out. With the Hanged Man, you go infinitely in." (from Meaning of the Hanged Man)

A couple connections to that description:

Water: Locke seems to have had that mystical connection to the rain on the island from the beginning.  Water was referenced centrally in "The Beginning of the End"--that was the one with all the HO symbols and the two Hurelys....etc.  The Group 1 I did on that one focussed on water.  And here's a further connection--Jughead--the hydrogen bomb.

Odin--sacrifices one of his eyes to gain knowledge.  As I'm looking at Locke and Des as opposing figures--Des often likened to Odyyseus--Odyyseus battles the one-eyed Cyclops.

Desmond, on the other hand I think represents "The World" tarot card.  For one thing both his first and last name point to that.  Desmond=man of the world (Axis Mundi is a related term) and Hume is close in sound to "humus" the part of the soil compoed of rotting vegetative/animal matter which helps it yield new life (circle of life, y'all :-).

I found this fascinating essay linking "humility," "humor" and "human."

And then he's also been connected with the idea of "grounding" as in connecting the lightening rod--which I think I was talking about in "Every Man for Himself."

Locke/Desmond opposition: Locke opens the door to what needs to change by bringing the O6 back.  He represents the change in consciousness that's needed--inner change.  Desmond will be the change to the externals that will need to happen.  Des will finish what Locke has begun.  I think the "fate" he's going to save them from must somehow connect to Locke's element--so the hydrogen bomb?  (I think Agent has a theory about that that she can add in here?)  Here's some info from the tarot reading that supports that:

"The World card pictures a dancer in a Yoni (sometimes made of laurel leaves). The Yoni symbolizes the great Mother, the cervix through which everything is born, and also the doorway to the next life after death. It is indicative of a complete circle. The Dancer has one leg crossed over the other, just like the Hanged man. She is, in a sense, his opposite, the hanged man right-side-up. As the Hanged Man saw infinitely inward, the Dancer sees infinitely outward.

Thus, the World card, very aptly, represents a successful conclusion, all aspects accounted for and taken in....And, finally, on a more mundane level, the World card indicates travel, not short business trips, but long, fantastic trips."

Another way I've thought of them in the past as opposing figures would be as Locke=Winter King and Desmond=The Green Man.  Locke is the death that needs to happen for the circle to begin.  Des is the fate changer who will forestall the apocalypse--the spring, new life.

And here's one other cool thought about their elements: Water & Earth

Water--on the show the rain signals redemption, baptism--but also death--drownings--but possibly rebirth as well.

Earth--if we associate with humus and with humor--has the same circularity.  So they would wind up not as opposing elements at all, but both pointing to the possibility of the circular comic ending rather than the linear tragic one.