sup my name is Mark and this is my longread on explaining the nature of the cage from a scientific point of view (kind of). I advise you to familiarize yourself with each topic separately and in more detail through articles/videos, cuz it'll help you to understand what I'm trying to mention here. I won't be able to describe ALL of this in one post at once. this is too much material, and we only need a part of it. I'm not a certified scientist, but I'm still an enthusiast!
I'll also combine some of my knowledges for convenience so that at the end of my post we can answer several questions about the plot/plot holes related to the cage together.
and yeah, PLEASE keep in mind that all the data I'll be using relates only to THEORIES, HYPOTHESES and MATHEMATICAL MODELS that help science nowadays, but have NOT yet been confirmed by facts.
however if you're interested in how you can most accurately describe the cage in a fanfiction or in other media — that's why we're here. let's go.
a bit of canon
first, let's agree on exactly how we view the cage. as you probably know, on wiki fandom, the cage is listed in both the "places" and "objects" sections, but I want a more comprehensive approach.
so, I suggest referring to the fact that the cage, in a global sense, is a phenomenon that arises as a result of eternal imprisonment with the help of Chuck's magic (Enochian symbols). in other words, the cage is a state of confinement alone with constant torment, and because of it a place is formed. A prison. That's what we saw a few seasons later:
but is that all? how can the cage be interpreted if it's both a state, a place, and a space too? let's figure it out.
let's start with why time goes differently in the cage. as is the case with the usual levels of Hell, this was mentioned repeatedly in the series itself: time stretches, and one earthly year turns into several hellish/even a century.
we see a similar effect when we talk about black holes: gravity in them is so strong that time actually stops. of course, gravity itself is more a convention than a real force, but according to the theory of the singularity, gravity tends to infinity exactly in the center of a black hole.
however, in the case of black holes, we can detect them, even if they are very, very far from our solar system (look at sum random simulation or a digitized image of a black hole through a telescope, and you will see an accretion disk that gives it a "glow"). this doesn't resonate too well with the idea of the cage, that is almost impossible to find:
but who told us that the cage is a three—dimensional space and object?
may sound corny, but believe me, it changes a lot.
imagine that angels, such as in SPN, actually exist. if they are complex, multidimensional beings with their own structure and energy, not similar in properties to ours, then how will we see them?
in fact, there is no way. if we talk about them, without resorting to the whole story of the vessels, we, three-dimensional creatures, do not realize even a part of what angels really are.
therefore, to keep such a creature locked up, without the ability to move freely in space, we need something more complex than, ahem, an ordinary cube. what about the tesseract? or even a penteract?
just look at this... ugh
many people have probably already explored this, or heard about this, but didn't quite understand. that's why I recorded my screen with several objects from "4D toys", so it would be more interesting and easier for ya'll to perceive. :)
since a tesseract, or hypercube, consists of layers of many 3D cubes, this is exactly how it will be perceived by our eyes:
(I'm also pretty sure that the cage, being smth "material", most likely rotates around it's axis, and if we saw it from the outside, it would be smth similar ig.)
this happens because our 3D world, like our 3D perception, cannot capture the fourth plane, and being in it, the 4D object seems to "disappear". the next example is more illustrative:
this is what happens to a dodecahedron from the perspective of a 2D person when it's in his dimension, while you and I know that the object has not disappeared.
the same with this 600-faceted thing. beauty ^_^
well we've more or less figured out the behavior of multidimensional objects that we can't fully comprehend. to summarize, the cage might look like a 5D cube in the picture below:
but what about time and condition of the person trapped in it?
as I already said at the beginning of the post, the cage is not just an object and/or a place. this is also a state of eternal imprisonment.
this vision explains the canonical moment when Crowley used Enochian cage spells on Nick to imprison Lucifer in this body forever.
but there's other existing theory that can explain such oddities.
do y'all remember Schrodinger's cat, and how it's in superposition? (which, in turn, is based on the wave function, quantum entanglement and decoherence.) well actually, the cat isn't alive and dead at the same time. the observer's paradox is that we, as an observer, find ourselves in only one of many possible outcomes. in our outcome, the cat may be alive, while in the other it's dying. that's what multi-layered reality theory says. observation doesn't change the position of particles, because particles don't care we are looking at them. we just catch only one result out of all possible ones (a multi-world interpretation).
and here's the point: if there's no such thing as time in the cage at all, which makes it seem to people it's going too slowly, then all possible outcomes of events will never happen. perhaps not for us, lol. but, for example, for more complex creatures. for example, for Lucifer. no, I don't want to say that it makes the reality of the cage simply. I want to say that, in that case it's hell. really.
experiencing nothing in one permanent "now", like a constantly frozen frame, he will probably just stop feeling anything at all (no time = no sounds, light and etc). it will merge into one big "nothing", even if a vacuum isn't really empty. "virtual particles" are constantly being born and disappearing in it. but still.
all this may well be the reason why the cage is so unbearable. yes, Lucifer is used to enduring this, somehow, but remember about Sam's mental state and imagine the scale of his horror.
overall, this is more my own artistic interpretation of the cage based on what I've already told you above. but there remains one last, important point.
the infinity of the cage
remark: infinity is not a number. it's a word that means endless growth. for this reason, infinity cannot be achieved, one can only strive for it.
what does it mean?
well, if we talk about infinity as a property of our universe, then the universe isn't necessarily infinite in the usual sense. infinity can mean a cycle, and here's why:
this is an approximate model of what our universe might look like (yes, a donut). going up we'll return from below, going to the right we'll come to the left, so we'll never return to the same point. in fact, this is a limited version of infinity, which, in my opinion, perfectly match with the concept of the cage.
what do we have in general?
as I promised, now we'll answer (or try to) some questions and inconsistencies from the spn canon. so:
why does the cage have multiple entrances/exits if, according to the prophecy, it only opens at St. Mary's Convent?
answer: as we found out together, the cage is a complex multidimensional space/object created as a result of magic that shackles the freedom of a being under it's influence. we cannot fix the accurate coordinates of the cage, because without magic it wouldn't exist at all as a "cage" or a box with chains (XD). that's why it can have more than one entrance and exit. this may also be the fault of the alchemical mistakes btw.
how was Azazel able to "talk" to Lucifer while he was still in the cage?
answer: referring to the same difficulties of 4 or more dimensions, in the 3D world we will not be able to recognize such an object/phenomenon completely, we'll only see it's constantly changing parts as it moves through space-time. so I suppose that Azazel, being a 3D demon like humans, just managed to catch the right moment and choose the right place where he "came into contact" with the cage and Lucifer in it.
how can the cage contain an entity "inside it" in practice?
answer: this is where magic works (with the help of science, hehe). quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which two or more particles become so connected that the state of one instantly affects the state of the other, even if they are light years apart.
the creature that finds itself "inside" the cage becomes so connected to the Enochian symbols that it can no longer separate itself from them. nope, this doesn't necessarily mean staying in the "same" place all the time. this means that no matter where the prisoner goes, he will remain in the cage dimension. he will remain connected, both literally and metaphorically. subsequently, this generates real torment and, possibly, even hallucinations due to psychological pressure.
what does it take to escape from the cage?
answer: it's impossible to break the quantum entanglement.
however, it's known that any interaction with the environment destroys quantum states, and entanglement disappears. do you remember how Amara, having broken free, damaged the cage by her mere presence on earth? I believe that this is a prime example of such an interaction. of course, focusing only on the canon of spn magic, it's hard to say why Lucifer couldn't get out right away, but these're more scenario errors lol.
CONCLUSION
thanks for reading. hope you were interested in studying this topic with me! if you find any inaccuracies in my wording, please lemme know, because english is my second language and I'll be very grateful to you. also don't forget to like reblog and comment if u love this format. in the future I want to consider other spn dimensions (heaven, hell, the empty, purgatory), so lemme know if you want this!! bye <3
Monsters end up in Purgatory independently of their good/bad actions because, since they aren't humans anymore, their souls don't hold the same power and have less use for Heaven/Hell.
It’s a Supernatural post and my Google-Fu is failing me, and this
Hellsite
does not have any actually-useful search functions.
It’s a text post, sort of a meta or AU ficlet. I don’t remember if it’s one single post or a lovely thread that a few people built onto. It’s about Castiel and his overwhelming, huge, powerful, obsessive, *hungry* love…for Creation.
In this post, the AU conceit is that the plane of Hell is actually *built* on Castiel as it’s very foundation. I’m pretty sure Meg featured in this thing, as a demon who had gone down Too Deep. It went something like this, I think I can hum a few bars:
You go down deep enough and you’ll feel it, pulling you in, pulling you *closer*. There’s *something* - unfathomably huge, ancient, powerful, down in the furthest depths. It will consume you, if you get too close - it will gobble you right up. Because it *loves* you, whatever it is…it loves you *so much*.
Now. Did I HALLUCINATE this? Can ANYONE help me find this thing?? I’m tagging a couple of the SPN folks for help…
Time in Hell is faster than on Earth to turn quickly humans into demons and send them back to Earth to collect other humans. If it was similar to time on Earth, then there would be a handful of demons and other supernatural entities or hunters would have got rid off them all (except the Princes of Hell, of course). There is no point making the time goes faster in the Cage since it's used to hold an archangel until the Apocalypse.
The Cage is linked to Hell… but Purgatory is too. And time in Purgatory is the same than on Earth.
(Also, let's be honest, if time was as fast in the Cage than in Hell, Lucifer would've spent his time complaining about it.)
#project hail mary
