The JUNGle Book?

I went to the cinema a few weeks ago and saw 'The Jungle Book' with my son (he is 24:-) who suggested it.

The JUNGle Book?

I've never liked The Jungle Book that much, as the earlier animated Disney version had put me off the story, but I saw this new version was getting great reviews, so I thought it might be worth a watch ... and it certainly was.
"After a threat from the tiger Shere Khan forces him to flee the jungle, a man-cub named Mowgli embarks on a journey of self discovery with the help of panther, Bagheera, and free spirited bear, Baloo."
I was thinking during the movie screening how much the animals were very totemic and archetypal in a Jungian sense and when I was looking at my movie ticket the word JUNG hit my eyes and I had a chuckle at that.

A jungle scene (?) from the Jung 'Red Book'.

Being a big fan of Jung's works I had a copy of 'The Red Book'  at home and started flipping through the pages to compare his images to images in the movie.

Flipping through my copy of Jung's Red Book

Scarlett, the voice
of Kaa the snake

I thought it was fitting that the snake in 'The Jungle Book' is voiced by Scarlett (red?) Johansson also.

The Red Book

The panther tattoo on my right shoulder

I also found it personally relevant that I have had a black panther tattoo on my right shoulder since I was about 18 years old and that the boy's guardian animal in 'The Jungle Book' is a black panther also.

The funny thing is I only ever got the panther tattoo because my future (now ex-)brother-in-law had got the same tattoo the week before and he was going to get another one done and I said I might get that one too, as the song 'Eye of the Tiger' was a hit at the time and I liked the motivating idea behind the song, but I never liked tigers as an animal and thought the panther being as dark as 
'the void' was a much more mysterious animal and better suited me.
It wasn't lost on me either that the tiger was the "bad guy" in this movie. 

I found the animals in this movie very shamanic/totemic and Jungian all at the same time.

The bear of course reminded me of the movie 'The Revenant' and while Leo got ripped to shreds and nearly killed by the bear in that movie, the journey in both movies is similar in a way in a shamanic sense at least. 
The Secret of 'The Revenant'
Although the bear in 'The Revenant' acts more like the instigator of the dark night of the soul tearing the ego to pieces in a symbolic act of death and rebirth, whereas the bear in 'The Jungle Book' acts more like an accidental trickster guardian teaching the boy as he tries to trick him for his own (the bear's) benefit, only to learn lessons back from the man-cub. 

I was taught a synchronistic WTF lesson as well from this movie, as after the movie when I was discussing what I didn't like about the movie ... and this bugged me for some reason that I don't know why ... I said that scene where the bear cons the boy into climbing the cliff to get honey from the hive is total BS, because a hive of bees would relentlessly sting you to death, or until the pain became too much to bear (pardon the pun:-), nobody could do that in real life I confidently told him.

Then on last Sunday night I'm watching a show about three famous Australians (one who I have personally met and had a good chat to one afternoon ... Ernie Dingo ... and who I admire quite a lot) who take a DNA test to determine their ancestral line and they take them back to a place in Africa where it is believed by scientists that the first common ancestor of us humans "Eve" came from, and this tribe has honey gatherers who climb massive trees to get to hives of honey all the time being stung, but seemingly not caring about it.
On the subject of "Eve", check out Scarlett in the movie 'Lucy'.
Hmm. 

Ernie shaking hands with a
member of our long-lost tribe?

Well, throw another log on the fire ... the universe has proved me wrong once again ... and in such short time after me seeing 'The Jungle Book', as well.
This DNA Nation show has me hooked, as I want to follow Ernie's journey mainly, as spending time talking with him in real life I'm interested on a 'Six Degrees of Separation' angle for me, as well. 
The DNA subject of the show reminds me of my lizard dreaming post where I write about the DNA helix being like the serpent -
Lizard Dreaming?
I can't wait to watch the rest of the series to see what is uncovered about the DNA of these guys, but I think there is a lot more to DNA research then we really know about at the moment and I'm sure we are in for more greater surprises in the future of that research than anything we will see on this show.  

On another personal synchy note for me, DNA Nation premiered on Australian TV on my dead grandmother's birthday, from my mother's side, too:-)

Page from The Red Book ...
or Project Blue Book?

UPDATE: May 25th, 2016
 A picture from Paris Jackson's Instagram of her tattoo.
Very JUNGle Book and not to mention it is the Year of the Monkey and the monkey is wearing the crown in the tattoo.
And Paris writes this on her Instagram, as well, which resonates with my post above and the DNA Nation show I mention.
"The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life.
It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation."
“Never forget your roots, and always be proud of where you came from,” Paris wrote.

Paris Jackson Honors Father Michael Jackson With New Tattoo of ‘Dangerous’ Album Cover

2016 Year of the Fire Monkey?

Fire?
Monkey?