I hope I'm not giving too much of the story away to those who haven't watched it yet, but the movie is told from the perspective of Megamind, an alien refugee turned into a super villain. He has an archrival in the form of Metroman, also an alien refugee from a planet near Megamind's homeworld. They constantly battle for control of Metro City, with Megamind always getting the short end of the stick until one day, he unexpectedly wins and suddenly finds himself grappling with his purpose in life now that his opposite is gone. In several scenes in the movie, it was mentioned that for every yin, there needs to be a yang, otherwise life would have no meaning.
I don't know if the writers knew it, but they were touching upon a subtle esoteric truth. What gives this plane meaning as a place for learning lessons is the concept of duality, the so-called Hermetic Principle of Polarity which states that everything has opposites, or two poles. Yes, here I go again, launching into a discussion of metaphysics, using a comedic movie as basis, no less! But one does what one does.
It is a paradox, because it is hard to imagine how pain, loss, hardship or any of the other negative manifestations can give meaning to life. And yet they are a necessary part of this existence. Hermetic scholars call this the Divine Paradox, which is an aspect of the Principle of Polarity. The concepts of Good and Evil are examples of this polarity.
There are many facets by which we could look at polarity. Just so we can get a glimpse of its meaning, I will discuss three facets. Polarity as it appears in interactions with other people, polarity in nature, and polarity within the context of the Greater Reality.
As anyone who has ever been married would (or should!) know, one can never always get one's way. And even if there are instances where one somehow managed to get one's way, it would not be in the way that one exactly wanted it to be. Everytime you want to do something or buy something, you will more often than not hear an opposing view, and if you want the marriage to last, you compromise.
We often see opposition or opposing views as a bad thing. However, since we are not perfect, then our own views may not always be the best or most appropriate, and this is where an opposing force plays a role. The opposition can come in the form of someone arguing against your views, or in the form of a setback. If you learn from the setback or from the argument, you come out the better for it. You also become more flexible and adaptive. But if there was no opposition, then there would be no way for you to know what may be lacking with your own point of view. You would also tend to be too rigid or hidebound.
Before I go on, I'm not saying that you should go about arguing with everyone or pursuing negative situations in some sort of sado-masochistic spiral. All I'm saying is that polarity (positive and negative) has its place, and the purpose is for one to grow and learn. So there should always be balance within the opposites (another paradox!).
Polarity, or opposition, can even be seen in how Nature works. For example, if there was no traction between your shoes and the ground, you would slip. If an astronaut was on a space walk without a lifeline, if he drifted even one inch away from the satellite or spacecraft he might as well be a million miles away. He won't be able to propel himself towards the object simply because he would have nothing to push against, nothing to oppose his force and put Newton's Third Law into effect (i.e. for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). Interestingly, cause and effect is basically what karma is. Without duality, there is no way for karma to take effect.
In the Testament of Solomon, different forms of illness and disease have guiding intelligences, often called "devils" with their particular names, and to cure illness one simply had to call on the angel that is the opposite of the particular devil. Seeing how Nature works, with the interaction of both building up (positive) and breaking down (negative), a particular passage in The Magus of Strovolos makes more sense, where it says that in Nature, angels and devils actually work in harmony together.
Controversial as it may be for some (or maybe a lot), Franz Bardon says that good and evil are constructs that man has made in order to rationalize one's existence, but in reality, everything is interconnected and has its place in Creation.
Imagine if there was no decay on Earth (decay often being categorized as a negative force). The Earth would absolutely be filled over with everything from leaves, fruits, feces, and all manner of things that would normally have decayed! Imagine also if food never got digested. Remember, breaking down or "destroying" is a negative activity, therefore if your food could not be broken down, then you would starve to death. And so, positive and negative have their places and their roles.
All of the above explains somewhat the operations of duality, but does not really try to explain why bother with it all. Why do we have to incarnate into duality, anyway? And so we touch upon another facet of polarity.
An inkling may be found in various esoteric texts that state that one can only ascend to planes of existence that one is in similar vibration to. This is simply the Law of Attraction at work, which says that "like attracts like, opposites repel." So if in this life you were always tormented with jeers and insults, you would not encounter these people in the higher astral realms. You are in oneness with those you are in vibration with.
Spiritual evolution involves learning lessons, and working towards a greater understanding of Creation. But apparently, not all lessons can be learned by remaining in the higher planes. Let's say for example that one used to be a slave with a cruel slave master. You are basically a good person except that you really hated your slave master before you died. In the higher realms, you wouldn't encounter the person who used to be the slave master, because you are in different vibration from each other. Yet you need to learn the lesson of forgiveness.
How then may these two dissimilar vibrations be brought together to interact? That's when the souls of both the slave and slave master reincarnate on this physical plane. Perhaps this time the slave master incarnates as the child of the former slave. As a parent, the former slave now has power over the former slave master, and has the choice either to forgive or to mete out centuries-old payback (in which case the two will remain in close proximity for several more incarnations until the lesson is learned). You cannot say you are a forgiving person if you haven't found yourself in a situation that tests your ability to forgive.
I hope I'm not presenting things too simplistically, but I hope I was able to show, even a little bit, how polarity fits in with our physical reality. Hopefully, now you are able to maintain a more positive outlook every time you encounter situations that may seem negative to you at first, because there are always two sides to a coin, and if one side seems dark, all you need to do is to look at the other side
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