Saints of the Sacred Tree

The scene where the Saints of the Sacred Tree all congregate and land on Jake Sully on his first night in the forest is a key scene. It shows a huge cultural difference between the humans and the Na’vi tribe. Neytiri is in the midst of dismissing Jake and running away from him entirely, claiming he is “Like a baby!” until the Saints of the Sacred Tree start to swarm and land on Jake. Initially the culture gap is shown by Jake swatting the spirits away like they are flies or mosquitos, while Neytiri knows they are very important spiritualistic figures. Suddenly Neytiri’s mind changes and she realizes the ‘mother earth’ of Pandora is trying to show her that Jake Sully is important to this tribe, and she instructs him to follow her back to the tribe. Another, deeper, difference is shown here. On Earth there is no religious or natural sign that can demonstrate when a future hero is present, but on Pandora Neytiri receives this clear spiritual sign and Jake becomes validated in her eyes because the “pure spirits” decree it so. As opposed to on Earth (in the marine or scientist world) where humans use their logic and experience to make decisions, the Na’vi tribe listens to their planet and spirits to make these decisions. This can make Neytiri seem more primitive than Jake because she is so naïve to listen to some bugs in the forest rather than her initial instincts. The Na’vi are so reliant on their gods and spirits to tell the future, judge people, save people, and more. This is not something humans are too familiar with anymore these days, it is something we might study from the past such as in Ancient Greek mythology, Native American rituals, and traditional African voodoo religions, drawing a definitive line between the “progress” of Avatars vs humans.