Proteus

Chaetoboda (Annelida or worms) by Ernst Haeckel

 

This weekend I watched an interesting film about scientist/philosopher/artist Ernst Haeckel called “Proteus”.

Haeckel was born in 1834.  He discovered and documented over 4000 of the 5000 species of radiolarian, single celled organisms from the bottom of the sea.  Radiolaria have lived on this planet for over 500 million years! 

But there is more to Haeckel than scientific discovery.  He was also an artist.  In love with all of nature, he painted landscapes.  Early in his life he found himself torn between the world of art (playful, heartfelt, creative) and science (serious, cold, rational).  In the film he is quoted as saying that he feels like Faust, torn between two worlds.  He strives to bring together mind/heart, precision/passion, and spirit/matter.  In discovering radiolaria he fused these opposites by drawing and painting his discoveries and exalting in their beauty and mystery.  Through the radiolaria he realizes that all of nature is a single, unfolding work of art.

Cylon Jungle River by Ernst Haeckel

The film also weaves “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge into the narrative.  Using the poem’s inward journey of the mariner and outward voyage of the ship, we see an example of overlapping quests, much like Haeckel's. 

I think I was taken by this film because of my own search to marry the inner and outer.  At this time I’m striving to make my outward life reflect my artistic and spiritual inner life.  I also love this film because of the absolutely jaw dropping, gorgeous drawings and paintings of microscopic creatures by Haeckel.

Trachomedusae by Ernst Haeckel

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the movie:

You must, when contemplating Nature,

Attend to this in each and every feature:

There’s nought outside and nought within,

For she is inside out, and outside in.

Thus will you grasp, with no delay,

The holy secret, clear as day.

Goethe – from his late poem “Epirrhema”

“There is one spirit in all things, and no body is so small that it does not contain a part of the Divine substance whereby it is animated.” – Girodano Bruno

Side notes: 

*Proteus is an ancient Greek God of the sea. 

*Some selections from the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl_onFMjJWA 

*This film is available on Netflix.

Array of Radiolaria by Ernst Haeckel