The red-blue pill dynamic in The Matrix (the right-hand and left-hand path)
About 30 minutes into The Matrix, Morpheus gives Neo a choice: The red pill or the blue pill. The red pill represents embracing an uncomfortable truth and awakening to the reality of the world, while the blue pill symbolizes choosing comforting illusion and remaining in ignorance. Neo chooses the red pill, which starts him on his jounery of enlightenment and awakening.
This red-pill-blue-pill dynamic in The Matrix is intriguing because the hands of Morpheus that the red pill and blue pill are in mirror the red and blue pillars in Masonic tradition (as shown below). The red pill is in Morpheus’ RIGHT hand which naturally corresponds to the RIGHT hand path, understood as the path of Christ.
The 19th-century British author George Robert Stowe Mead was a Theosophist known for his significant contributions to the study of Gnosticism. He tells us:
“In Gnostic tradition we find the Sophia in her various aspects possessed many names; among them: Mother of the Living, or Shining Mother; the Power Above; the Holy Spirit; again She of the LEFT-hand, as opposed to Christos, Him of the RIGHT-hand”. (Source: 'The Temple Mystery Unveiled' by Tracy Twyman).
We see this dynamic expressed in the 15th-century figure of the Rebis, which represents the Mangum Opus, in which the RIGHT-side of Rebis is male and red (like the red pill, corresponding to the RIGHT hand of Morpheus) and the LEFT-side is female and of course blue (like the blue pill, corresponding to the LEFT hand of Morpheus).
The red male side of Rebis holds the Compass which represents spirit and Heaven, while the female holds the Square, representing materialism and Earth.
