Status Updates From The Jungle Book (Dover Chil...

The language about fire is neat. It’s like a plant. They put the coals (seeds) in a pot. He blows on the fire to make it bloom and feeds it sticks to make it grow. If you pick up a branch and put it in the fire, it blossoms on the branch. After Mowgli snatched the pot from the boy, he spent the day in the cave practicing how to tend it based on his habit of attention! The jackal came to the cave. Mowgli laughed.

I wonder if swinging a jackal by his tail and letting him go is a bit like running out the moneychangers. Mowgli checks in with Mother Wolf who is in the cave and she can tell he is worried. Akela missed the buck and now Mowgli knows that Bagheera was right. Mowgli ran to the man village and presses his face against the window. He watches the woman with the coals to learn what to do. She sent the boy out with a pot.

The reason why other animals hate him is none can look him in the eye, not even Bagheera who was born among men. He comes up with an idea for Mowgli to get the Red Flower (fire) tha man grows. Animals are afraid of it. Man grows it in the twilight and carries it around in pots (like the pioneers). Mowgli agrees to do so but, for the first time in his life, he is troubled.

Mowgli obeyed the Law of the Jungle (also Christ). Then Bagheera reveals to Mowgli that he was born in captivity. He and his mother wore a collar and lived in a cage with iron bars. Men fed him in pans. One day he was large enough to break his collar and break out of the cage. He learned the Law of the Jungle. That combined with his knowledge of man made him feared and powerful.

Mowgli trusted in three things: Bagheera, Baloo, and the Pack. I was fearless. Bagheera warns that Akela is aging and once he fails to kill a buck the Pack will go after him and then turn on Mowgli. Mowgli points out that he has pulled thorns out of every paw. Wait! The thorn is the curse (the sting of death). This is the image of Mowgli healing. Look at how the people turned against Jesus! Whoa!!!!

Raksha has warned Mowgli to steer clear of Shere Khan because some day he will kill the tiger. Because Akela was growing older and lacked the energy to do something about it, Shere Khan began to flatter the young wolves and turn them against Akela and Mowgli. It’s very much like the serpent in the garden. “I can’t believe you can’t look him in the eye.” Bagheera warns him that Shere Kahn will kill him some day.

“Thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the sake of the bull that bought thee thou must neverkill or eat any cattle young or old.” Mowgli is set apart like Samson and John the Baptist. “And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons.” Luke 4:20 “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.”

Bagheera showed him things about the man village so that he would not get hurt. Mowgli also watched him hunt when he felt hungry. He warned him never to kill a bull because he was bought with the price of a bull. (Like Adam and Eve not eating animals and God did not permit eating animals until after the Flood). It’s a bit like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in phrasing.

Mowgli seems to be living in paradise, but remembering the cave it is a false paradise. He cares for his fellow cubs by pulling out thorns. His days are divided between being educated by his father and living the good life with Baloo and Bagheera. He swims in pools (baptism). eats nuts and honey (John the Baptist), and swings through the air like an ape (mastery of nature in a way that wolves cannot).

“Only guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books.”

John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

WE ARE THE WOLVES.

Father Wolf teaches Mowgli to read nature (general revelation).

Shere Khan whines. All leave to feast but Baghera, Baloo, and Akela’s family. They wonder if Mowgli will help them out someday. Akela thinks of the day he can’t hunt and thinks Mowgli might be handy to have around. He is brough in through a sacrifice (Old Testament?) and words (New Testament?). Tenish years later (in the fullness of time), the story will pick up. There is a neat Biblical reference.

Bagheera shows deference in saying he has no right to speak but the promise of a bull causes the wolves to accept his words. He points out that it’s a shame to kill a naked cub and he will make more sport to kill if they chose to after he grows up. The wolves accept him mainly because they think he won’t survive the winter rains or the scorching sun. They are not afraid of a naked frog. Akela tells them to look well.

He seems to be the mirror of Shere Khan. He’s inky black but the marks are spots, not stripes, and are only appear in sunlight. He is a combination of cunning, bold, and reckless and he knows the Law very well. A cub can be affirmed with the price of a bull and it does not matter who pays it. He bows out of the conversation but a fat, newly killed bull must have made the mouths of young wolves water.

Akela follows the Law. Two of the Free People must vouch for a cub who is questioned and it cannot be the parents. The first to speak for Mowgli is Baloo who is not considered a threat because he is not a flesh-eater. He teaches the Law of the Jungle to the cubs and he is well-versed in the protocol. Akela calls for another voice. Bagheera speaks even though he is not one of the Free People.

With each one, he announces, “You know the Law. Look well. Look well.” All are accepted. Now he puts forward Mowgli the Frog who sits laughing playing with pebbles glistening in the moonlight. It is a full moon in the Spring and I just can’t help but wonder if it’s the Passover. LOL Shere Khan whines in the background, claiming ownership of Mowgli in classic evil fairy manner. A young wolf questions his acceptance.

Putting on my fairy tale hat, Mowgli fell in status and he is facing death threats from Shere Khan, who has already tried to kill him once. Wow, that sounds like Harry Potter. Akela had nearly died three times: twice he fell into a wolf trap and another time he had been beaten and left for dead, but it’s not clear who beat him. He had been leading the pack for a year. All mother’s are pushing their cubs forward.

Raksha, at one point, led the pack and Akela fought five other wolves to marry her. She is fierce. She made a prophecy that Mowgli will protect the pack some day. Akela worries what the pack will think but Raksha knows the Law of the Jungle, too. If the pack accepts Mowgli, anyone in the pack who kills him will die as a punishment. The pack meets at Council Rock every full moon to accept new cubs and it’s time.