Ratatouille and the Inner Guide

On Sunday August 12, 2007, we watched Ratatouille at the Loews Alderwood Mall theatre. Brad Bird directed this multi-layered Pixar Animation Studio movie.

On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.

On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”

In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"

In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”

In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.

Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.

Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.

The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.

Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.

Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend