| L. Baum, author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was a Theosophist. He described an afterlife journey in his story about Dorothy, symbolism that referenced ancient temples and rituals.
The book shows a gray Dorothy asleep on her bed. She rises as if lying dead on a willowy cloud, merging into a dark sphere. A window in this sphere hints at a bright world beyond. Similarly, Egyptians portrayed the entrance to death as a cavern. |
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Dorothy’s Kansas cottage acted as a tomb structure, with a dark, tiny room inside. Egyptians viewed death as in a cavern, and at the same time a climb upward into the sky. The dead body passed into the caverous pits of the pyramid, and yet descended up its slope into the heavens. An image of Dorothy peacefully flying up into the bright heavens while asleep on a bed is perfectly describes this perfectly.
“…you shall become clean with her in the sky [and in] the Duat with Horus of the Duat. The Looking (Waters’) cavern has been opened to you, your striding the sunlight has been broadened for you.” (p.190)1
For many ancient religions, the funeral chamber was at the same time deep in the earth and high in the sky. It was called a house: “….‘house’ in Classic times would usually mean the chamber located on the top of the stairs of a pyramidal temple.” 2 From ancient Mesopotamia to the Americas, funeral chambers were placed at the top of pyramids or deep within the earth.
Primitive Hut
Dorothy’s cottage was a point of transition. The simple cottage represents Dorothy’s primitive beginnings, simple and un-evolved. The whirlwind represented evolution, as L. Frank Baum’s Theosophist colleagues often described. Roman writer Vitruvius also spoke of the primitive hut from which all architecture originates. Early human construction of houses were the original temples, said Vitruvius. Midieval scholars such as Walther Rivius and eighteenth century architect Marc-Antoine Laugier grasped on this explanation for man’s origins and described how the simple hut represents primeval man.
Dorothy’s cottage was a typical American cottage:
“Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room.” (11)
This is a simple description of a primitive temple. Dorothy further stayed at simple dwelling-places throughout her journey. On her first night in Oz, Dorothy “reached the cottage, and Dorothy entered and found a bed of dried leaves in one corner.” (49)
| The walls of the primitive hut imitated trees, which held up the natural canopy, Vitruvius said. This looks much like the log cabins in the book’s illustrations.
The fireplaces in both cottages represent man’s earliest technology. Early man’s discovery of fire was his most basic technology for social gathering, said Vitrivius. This was why architect Frank L. Wright placed special importance on the fireplace, making it the most inner sanctum of a house. 3 Dorothy continued to find cottages or natural conapies in which to sleep overnight throughout most of her journey: |
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“They were obliged to camp out that night under a large tree in the forest, for there were no houses near. The tree made a good, thick covering to protect them from the dew, and the Tin Woodman chopped a great pile of wood with his axe and Dorothy built a splendid fire that warmed her and made her feel less lonely.” (75)
Dorothy awoke up from the rays of the sun each morning. Each cottage or sleeping place was therefore illustrated inside a sphere, so we know it was a holy place. Her sleeping arrangments evolved into a larger and brighter place:
She evolved toward rebirth.
Light In The Darkness
Dorothy’s peaceful sleep in her cottage amidst the tumultuous cyclone represented her death.
“Dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving; nor was it dark, for the bright sunshine came in at the window, flooding the little room. She sprang from her bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door.” (19)
Her little cottage was flooded with a new light in the same way the Egyptian pyramid received resurrecting light for the deceased. This was so much an arrival for new light, as a discovery of the light. The sun had always been there, but it had burned the land gray with consuming fire. Everything had turned into gray dust:
“When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side… The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it…” (12)
Even Aunt Em had lost her healthy red. The intense light of the sun had burned her gray. Uncle Henry was worn out by all the work from the farm. But Dorothy’s youthful exuberance gave her a chance to be transformed before it was too late, to where the light invigorated her instead of consuming her.
“When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears…
Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know was joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn and rarely spoke.” (12-13)
Over the Rainbow – The red sun needed to be viewed in a new way so it could illuminate all the seven colors, a metaphor for Dorothy’s self-actualization. In the song “Over the Rainbow,” Dorothy wished for a physical transportation to get illuminated. Dorothy needed to be physically moved into the sky where light and color originate.
The film’s switch from black and white to technicolor shocked audiences of the day, as it was one of the first films ever presented in color. It illustrated the concept of transportation to another world where one could see things in a whole new way, bringing renewed life and vitality. To Theosophists like L Frank Baum, the variation of colors and brightness of the sun brought spiritual revelation. It was an exestential journey filled with fragrances and music:
“This is a vision that came to one, watching… He knelt in the Holy of Holies of a Temple, where there were flowers and perfumes and beautiful objects, strains of distant music, harmonious divine and tinted lights from jeweled windows…
A long, long while he knelt there, in an ecstasy of adoration, his soul filled with wonder and joy of it. But lo! He looked up and all this had vanished. It was cold and empty and full of grey light, and the pain of revelation was overwhelming.”4
Perhaps Baum got his idea for a colorful transformation from this story. The very pages of Buam’s book changed color from gray to different colors of the sun in the sky.
The transformation of the sun in the book symbolized Dorothy’s higher self becoming physical. Drawing on mystic Jewish sources, Theosophists saw two parts in the beginning of the universe: The Deep and God. The God moved upon the Deep and everything resulted. The God (Ain-Soph) merged with the deep’s Source of Light, unmanifested Logos, and gained physical form. Logos manifested as a chariot descending from the sky. This manifested Logos was the physical form of the body.
“But after He created the form of the Heavenly Man, He used him as a chariot wherein to descend, and He wishes to be called after His form.”5
God discovered the unmanifested logos and thus formed the physical objective universe, according to Theosophist colleagues.
A sudden flash jarred the dead awake. The Egyptian concept of reawakening from light was later seen in Christianity: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:5) |
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Theosophists quoted this scripture, and explained that “the Light awakened the astringent Spirit, and gave all into the Hands thereof to hold or preserve it.” 7
This reawakening was represented by statues in the Egyptian vaults. Statues representing the desceased’s body or spirit had sunlight poured upon them; “penetrating mystically by the apertures of the temple to the statue hidden in the darkness of the sanctuary at the heart of the sealed naos.” (396)8
The Egyptian Book of Breathings described the living light shining in the darkness:
“The sky is opened, the earth is opened, the apertures of the celestial windows are opened, the movement of the Abyss are revealed, the movements of the sunlight are released.” 9
“Thou awakenest every day and seest the ray of the sun…. thou breathest by it every day when thine eye beholds the rays of Aton…. Re shines upon thy cavern (house or hill), O Osiris, that thou mayest breathe and live by his rays.” 10
The first rays of the sun shone on the deceased Egyptian king on New Year’s morning. This was the first creation, the first resurrection, which leads to subsequent rebirths. Up until this event there was deepening darkness and death. The new light created an upward spiral of progression, as Pharoah passed on his divinity to illuminate others.
Dorothy later became this role of light giver, “she who shines into her temple on New Year’s Day.” 11
The sun shone on the tomb in the the Duat, underworld, in orderto grant resurrection. The suns “rays are upon him mysteriously. Khepri comes forth early from the Duat at dawn; his full glory bursts upon the world at the House of the Apparition…” (398) 8
This first creation was also represented by the Pharoah’s ritual battle with the evil serpent, 12 as seen in the bible’s Book of Revelation dragon.The victory over the evil serpent Apap heralded a bright New Year with the rise of a bright new sun:
“It was represented in the mythology that when Horus had conquered Apap in one of his great battles the reptile sank, pierced with wounds, into the depth of the waters, and this event was said to have occurred at the very moment of the new year.” 13
Divine Protection
Dorothy was safe in her cottage. She had her friends to help her, but but she also had one other protection, often overlooked, and that was the kiss that the Good Witch gave her in both the movie and the book.
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She came closely to Dorothy and kissed her gently on the forehead. Where her lips touched the girl they left a round, shining mark, as Dorothy found out soon after.”(27)
“…while you bear upon your forehead the mark of the good Witch’s kiss, and that will protect you from harm.” (66)
In Hinduism, the Bindi is worn on the forehead as a symbol of protection by following by a god. It is often placed above the doors of houses. The horseshoe illustrated above the door of Dorothy’s cottage was also tear-shaped and had reflective metal that made it the symbol of divine protection in many cultures.
“Upon ancient Celtic sculptures the horse-shoe represents the arch of heaven, and was regarded as having divine powers.” 14
This symbol is derived from the ancient Egyptian use of a half-moon shape for protection againt the evil eye:
“…the half moon was often placed on the heads of certain of the most powerful Egyptian deities, and therefore when worn became a symbol of their worship… this theory of the origin of the superstititous use of the horseshoe.” 15
The nineteenth century custom of hanging horseshoes above the doorway had Egyptian roots: “…the horse-shoe form is believed to be a survival of an ancient religious symbol often seen in Assyrian and Egyptian sculptures, siginifying the mystical door of life.” 16
People in Baum’s time hung it above doorways for divine protection: “Another extremely comon protective device is attained by nailing a dung-coated horseshoe above the door…” 17
Sources:
^James P Allen, The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Lit, 2005)
^Jessica Zaccagnini, Maya Ritual and Myth: Human Sacrifice in … , Southern Illinois University Carbondale , 190
^Richard A. Etlin, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier: the romantic legacy, (UK: Redwood Books, 1994), 205
^Cavé, “In a Temple,” Theosophy, Volume 12, Issues 1-7 (NY: Theosophical Pub. Co., 1898), 24
^Zohar, ii., 42b in Judge, The Path, Volume 1
^Helena Blatavsky, The Secret Doctrine: Cosmogenesis, (London: Theosophical Pub. Co., 1888), 214
^Jakob Bohme, The Works of Jacob Behmen, the Teutonic Theosopher…, (Montana: Kessinger Pub., reprint 1764), 193
^F. Daumas, Sur trios represenetations de Nout a Dendara, , (ASAE 51, 1954)
^Pyramid Text 503: 1078, in Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 179
^Book of Breathing, 39,57, in Nibley, The message of the Joseph Smith papyri…, 60
^Normandi Ellis, Feasts of Light, Celebrations of the Seasons of Life Based on the Egyptian…, (IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1999) xxv
^see Jon. D. Mikalson, Herodotus and religion in the Persian Wars, (USA: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 187
^Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt, the light of the world:…, Vol.1, 292
^ed. Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, Charles McClellan Stevens Encyclopaedia of superstitions, folklore…, Vol. 2, (Chicago: J.H. Yewdal & sons, 1903), 1291
^Robert M. Lawrence, “The folk-lore of the horse-shoe,” Journal of American folklore, 9-10, (1896): 288-289
^Robert Means Lawrence, The magic of the horseshoe, (Boston: Houghlon, Mifflin, and Co., 1898) , 67
^Middleton A. Harris, Morris Levitt, Ernest Smith, Toni Morrison, The Black Book: 35th Anniversary Edition, (reprint USA: Random House, 2009), 137
All references to and images from the book: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum, William Morrow and Company, 1900
All references to and quotes from the film: The Wizard of Oz dir. Victor Fleming, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939
