Liminal Deities

"One of the operating principles of the authorities is that the possibility of error is simply not taken into account." —Franz Kafka

The Castle Comic Adaptation by David Zane Mairowitz and Jaromír 99

Although the Law stands open to all who may pass its gates, a ferocious gatekeeper guards the threshold. He warns you not to test him, for beyond him lies an entire Byzantine hierarchy of even more terrifying foes. These creatures are so fearsome that even the gatekeeper trembles at the thought of them.

You may try to bribe him, but he accepts your gifts only out of politeness. Compliments are a no-go as well, they fall on deaf ears. You sit on a stool, scheming ways to get past, but all that happens is your allotted time ticks away. Finally, when you are too old to act, the gatekeeper reveals the truth: the gate was meant for you. With a final gesture of authority, he slams it shut.

In Hinduism, Maya—the goddess of illusion—exists to obscure Atman’s realization that it has always been Brahman. She achieves this by spinning a web of charged emotions and deceptions. Designed to lead individuals astray. Instead of discovering your essential nature, you yearn for transient goals: love, power, artistry. Even the Guru, the guide to transcending, becomes part of the illusion. For what is there to sanctify?

Neuroscience offers its own version of Maya through the default mode network. The brain embodies societal programming—emphasizing the three pillars of logic, rationality, and efficiency. It prizes the most direct route from Point A to Point B, discarding the inconvenient and the unconventional.

This mechanism is evident in the Baader-Meinhof phenomena, or the Frequency Illusion. Once you notice or learn something, it seems to appear everywhere. Why? Because your brain has been conditioned to ignore it until now. Awareness is filtered and limited by your mind.

In Kafka’s world, guilt is existential. Josef K. is guilty of being alive. K. is an error generated anomaly in a system that claims perfection. Karl Rossman is a stranger in a strange land where justice wields only the blade. They could resolve their struggles if they could appeal to the right people. But “right people” are always inaccessible by design. Locked behind bureaucratic mazes and endless gates.

Those who are available to help—the sycophants and the middlemen—are powerless. The whims of an “upper human” could change everything but no one knows how to reach them. Conjecture rules instead. Shaped by personal biases and circumstances. The good people are left in limbo, their prayers for rain met with silence.

The author, Jed McKenna, likens the forces of Maya to the paralyzing venom of a spider. This Other—this insurmountable barrier—exists to bewilder and entangle. It saps vitality, keeping individuals in a holding pattern until the ultimate unavoidable object arrives. Death.