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what Jaimes Guerrero refers to as The Sacred Feminine Principle” (xii). These
women “lead the way, through traditional women’s leadership and authority, to
reclaiming the earth, humanity, and all our relations via an ecoethics of
reciprocity” (xii). While the film does not focus on eco-criticism per se, the
image of the sacred tree/Izzi as dying under Tommy’s constant taking of her
bark underscores the idea of reciprocity. Ultimately, it is Izzi who guides
Tommy, and thus the viewer, away from the physical and into the realm of the
spiritual. The idea of women’s authority also proves interesting with regards to
the film. The Grand Inquisitor, in Izzi’s novel, is incensed at Queen Isabella.
While outwardly, he remarks that she is a blasphemer by looking for the Tree of
Life, the implication is that he also resents a woman both governing alone—
Izzi’s novel does not have Queen Isabella married to Ferdinand—and also
interpreting scripture. This coincides with medieval prohibitions against women
preaching or interpreting the Bible. Queen Isabella not only seeks immortality,
but she utilizes the Book of Genesis as confirmation that the expedition into
South America is not in vain.
In a later scene, where the Grand Inquisitor prepares to execute many of
Queen Isabella’s followers after first torturing them, he tells them, “Our bodies
are prisons for our souls. Our skin and blood are the iron bars of confinement.
But fear not, all flesh decays. Death turns all to ash. And thus, death frees every
soul.” He later continues, “The Day of Judgment is irrefutable. All life must be
judged. All life is accountable.” Clearly, he speaks of judgment here in Christian
terms, in that of heaven and hell. The film does not place its values in such
constructions, acknowledging only that life and death are intertwined and both
must be embraced fully. Silecio instead implies that, by murdering the Queen’s
supporters, he in fact does them some great favor by “freeing” them from their
bodies . He places no value on life, and indeed, places himself in a position of
being able to dole out life and death, godlike, and thus he fails, the movie
implies, to be human. Queen Isabella rationalizes her command that Tomas seek
out the Tree of Life because it will “free all mankind from tyranny.” As Tomas
prepares to set out on her quest, she gives him a ring and promises that on the
successful completion of his mission, “And when you return, I shall be your
Eve.” Queen Isabella’s misstep is to focus too heavily on earthly immortality, a
step pointedly shared by Tommy.
Balance comes through experience life and death as they happen: to fight
death means to live forever in frustration and in opposition to the human
experience, to hasten death cheapens the joy and fragility of life. This overriding
philosophy again sets the story as being especially Buddhist, where life and
death exist as one process of being. One of the foundational tenets of Buddhism
focuses on the idea of impermanence, and thus life as we conceive of it should
not be clung to. Izzi embodies this view of thinking. In one scene, she describes
to Tommy the Mayan creation story of First Father and his bodily sacrifice to
create the world, which is subsequently formed from the parts of his body. She
describes this sort of death as “an act of creation,” an idea that Tommy cannot