This article reconstructs and expands the reading the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a layered allegory drawn from Theosophy, Kabbalah, Tarot, Hermeticism, and Freemasonry. It follows the speaker’s thesis closely, organizes the symbols into a coherent system, and adds connective tissue so the whole argument can be grasped in one sitting.
Prologue: Why a Children’s Film Bears Adult Secrets
The talk opens with a simple claim: The Wizard of Oz is an allegory—a story whose literal plot hides a second, “occult” one. “Occult” here does not mean evil. It comes from occultus, “hidden.” In this usage it points to esoteric teachings—ideas historically restricted to initiates because they concern the mechanics of consciousness and the soul’s maturation.
Allegory is the natural language of esoteric schools. When direct explanation risks misunderstanding (or persecution), storytellers encode doctrine in characters, colors, landscapes, and quests. Oz—the film and its source novel—becomes, in this view, a road map for liberating the human mind from manipulation and returning to a balanced, compassionate, courageous way of living.
L. Frank Baum and the Theosophical Lens
Before diving into symbols, the speaker situates author L. Frank Baum inside a specific current: Theosophy. Its motto—There is no religion higher than Truth—signals a perennialist stance: behind all traditions lies one reality, knowable through disciplined inner work. Baum, by his own published remarks, was intrigued by occult themes and, according to the lecturer, explicitly sympathetic to Theosophy’s emphasis on an indwelling divine spark capable of illumination (what many traditions call enlightenment).
That spark—and the obstacles that obscure it—are the true protagonists of Oz.
The Plot, Re-read: From Farm to Emerald City
At the surface level, Dorothy longs to escape a gray Kansas farm life and the bullying of Almira Gulch. She runs into a charlatan “Professor Marvel,” rushes home through a tornado, and wakes in the technicolor Land of Oz. There she meets Glinda, acquires ruby slippers, follows the Yellow Brick Road, befriends Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, defeats the Wicked Witch of the West, un-masks the Wizard, and finally returns home with a transformed understanding: the power she sought was within her all along.
At the symbolic level:
- Dorothy is the soul incarnate.
- Toto is intuition—the animal, instinctive, creative guidance that repeatedly saves her.
- Kansas is the material plane: ordinary life where spiritual work must be done.
- The tornado is a stargate (Rainbow Bridge): the transition between lower and higher states of awareness.
- Emerald City is balance—the heart center (green), where intellect and feeling are reconciled.
- The Yellow Brick Road is the path of initiation—alchemical “gold” leading to a higher light.
- Glinda is the sacred feminine (wisdom, compassion, protection).
- The Witches dramatize mind control: East as religious dogma (old world order), West as totalizing state power (new world order).
- The Wizard is the false external savior—a projection machine propped up by fear, pomp, and fraud.
- The ruby slippers are the Philosopher’s Stone—the completed inner elixir that unites human and divine.
Each friend Dorothy meets represents a faculty of the human being that must be reclaimed and harmonized: Intelligence (Scarecrow), Care (Tin Man), and Courage (Lion). The quest is to think clearly, feel deeply, act bravely—and to do all three at once.
The Cast as a Psychological Pantheon
Dorothy (and Toto): The Soul Led by Intuition
- Tarot: Pentacles (Earth) → The Fool (0) in the Major Arcana. The Fool is not foolish but faithful—stepping into the unknown with the dog of instinct at heel.
- Meaning: The work of awakening is done in matter. Earth is not a prison; it’s a workshop.
Scarecrow: The Mind That Wants Light
- Stated need: “If I only had a brain.”
- Tarot: Swords (Air) → The Hermit (lamp of inner guidance).
- Freemasonry: the middle pillar—Wisdom—leading to the “all-seeing eye” (awakened prefrontal neocortex).
- Meaning: Acknowledge darkness; seek knowledge.
Tin Man: The Heart Thawed from Apathy
- Stated need: “If I only had a heart.”
- Tarot: Cups (Water) → The Lovers (union, devotion).
- Kabbalah: Tiferet (Beauty)—the heart of the Tree of Life.
- Meaning: Without care, intellect and power turn cold and cruel.
Cowardly Lion: Will as Right Action
- Stated need: “If I only had the nerve.”
- Tarot: Wands (Fire) → Strength (courage, mastery).
- Chakras: Solar plexus (will-center).
- Meaning: Knowledge and care must enter the world as action—especially when it costs us.
Together they form a trinity of mastery:
Know (Scarecrow) → Care (Tin Man) → Do (Lion).
The soul (Dorothy), guided by intuition (Toto), integrates and directs all three.
The Temple and the Coffin: A Masonic Interlude
The film’s geometry mirrors the Temple of Solomon, a staple Masonic allegory for the mind:
- Checkerboard floor = duality of the material plane.
- Three pillars (Wisdom, Beauty, Strength) align with Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion.
- The death of Hiram Abiff (chief architect) at the hands of three “ruffians” maps to our condition: humanity entombed by Ignorance (no brain), Apathy (no heart), and Cowardice (no courage). Resurrection requires reclaiming the very tools that killed us.
This is not architecture. It’s a diagnosis.
The Four Corners: Astrology’s Great Cross
The speaker sketches a classical overlay:
- Taurus/Earth → Dorothy (resources, grounding)
- Aquarius/Air → Scarecrow (mind)
- Scorpio/Water → Tin Man (depth/emotion)
- Leo/Fire → Lion (courage/sun)
These are the “angels of the corners” seen on Tarot’s Wheel of Fortune and World cards: the cosmic frame in which human lessons recur until integrated.
Witches as Mind Control: East vs. West
To understand the film’s villains, the lecture turns neurological:
- Left-brain overdrive (control, analysis without empathy) produces the dominator.
- Right-brain overdrive (uncritical belief, emotional flooding) produces the slave.
- Balance activates the corpus callosum → pineal gland → prefrontal cortex: the “higher” human.
Two macro-schemes keep humanity imbalanced:
- Religion (religare, “to bind back”) when degraded into dogma—a right-hemisphere seduction that binds the left (analysis). This is the Wicked Witch of the East—the “old world order” of priest-kings and blind obedience.
- Government (gubernare + mens—“to control the mind”) when metastasized into total administration—a left-hemisphere seduction that binds the right (creativity, compassion). This is the Wicked Witch of the West—the “new world order” of centralized surveillance and coercion.
The lesson: mind control always rides a lopsided brain. The cure is integration.
Emerald City: Why the Heart is Green
Why is the City emerald?
- Color theory: Red (solar, left) and Blue (lunar, right) blend into Green—the spectral middle.
- Chakras: The heart center (Anahata) is green; it’s the generator of behavior. What we truly care about determines what we make in the world.
- Seal of Solomon: Upward triangle (fire/male) interlaced with downward triangle (water/female) = the balanced temple (Sol-Om-On: Sun–Moon–One).
When we fixate on red vs blue (politics), we miss the green that heals. No wonder fiat currency in the U.S. is dyed green: an appropriation of the color of balance to sanctify the medium of control.
Poppies and Snow: Two Ways to Sleep, One Way to Wake
Just short of the city, Dorothy and the Lion fall asleep in poppies: a transparent nod to narcotics/addiction—but also a broader warning: you can know and care, yet still check out right when it counts. Glinda’s snow revives them (a stimulant and symbol of sacred feminine intervention), though it also rusts the Tin Man (cynicism risk). Even remedies carry shadow effects if balance is not maintained.
The “Lodges of Perfection” and the Coronation of Courage
The whimsical makeover sequence (“we can make a dimple where a dimple never was”) doubles as ritual purification—what some initiatory systems call lodges of perfection: the polishing of thought, heart, and will.
Then comes a profound beat the lecture dwells on: the Lion’s coronation. In an extended Kabbalistic/Tarot mapping, the speaker argues:
- In the “microcosmic” tree of life (applying Tarot trumps to Sephiroth), Courage is exalted to the Crown (Keter).
- Translation: there is no ascent—no true knowledge, no real love—without courage. It is the gate to every other virtue because it pays the cost they all demand.
Knowledge without courage is daydreaming. Care without courage is sentimentality. Courage makes them real.
“I Am Oz!”—Unmasking the External Savior
When the party reaches the Wizard, he appears as a terrifying disembodied head—smoke, fire, thunder. He berates and then bargains: Bring me the Witch’s broomstick.
It’s a tell. The Wizard is a fraud outsourcing the hard work to the very people who came for help. Toto pulls the curtain; a timid man is revealed at levers and microphones. What does he give them? Tokens:
- A diploma for Scarecrow (in place of thinking).
- A medal for Lion (in place of deeds).
- A ticking heart for Tin Man (in place of care).
The film is merciless here: institutions hand out paper, metal, and trinkets to stand in for the virtues they cannot confer. The external savior—whether robed or elected—is a projection we feed with our fear.
The Broom, the Torch, and the Elixir: Alchemy of the Slippers
The Witch’s symbols are consistent:
- Owls in the haunted forest = surveillance (predators who see in the dark where prey cannot).
- Flying monkeys = order followers (military/police enforcing sorcerous policy).
- Torch = counterfeit light (knowledge bent to domination).
Her true target is the slippers. In the original novel they were silver; in the film they are ruby. Both colors matter in alchemy.
- Silver (moon/mercury) is the prima materia—inner receptivity and intuition that begins the work (albedo, the whitening).
- Ruby/red is rubedo, the final stage: consciousness perfected, the Philosopher’s Stone—the elixir that unites human and divine.
In the castle, her flaming torch ignites the Scarecrow’s arm (an attack on mind). Dorothy douses it with a bucket of water—living water, the elixir of life—which splashes the Witch, who melts. It is not brute force but purified spirit that dissolves the architecture of control.
Three Clicks to Kansas: The Power Was Within
After the Wizard’s balloon fiasco (another fraud: he cannot even pilot his own craft), Glinda returns to deliver the liberating line: Dorothy always had the power to go home. She must learn that power cannot be outsourced. It must be owned.
Three clicks, “There’s no place like home,” and she wakes—not the same soul who left. She tries to tell the farmhands what she’s seen. They laugh. Those who haven’t made the crossing cannot be argued into it; at best, they can be invited.
Language, Law, and the Green Tongue
In the Q&A the speaker detours into linguistic magic—the “green language” or “language of the birds,” where wordplay hints at power structures:
- Govern-ment (to control the mind).
- Mon-ey (mon = one, ey = eye) → “one eye” (insignia on the dollar).
- Represent (in law) → to re-present or recreate another—thus ceding sovereignty.
Whether every etymology survives scholarly scrutiny matters less than the operational point: in a symbolic universe, names shape attention, and attention shapes reality. To wake is to choose words carefully—and often to refuse the ones offered.
Synthesis: The Seven-Step Ladder Hidden in Oz
What many viewers experience as a charming adventure conceals, in this reading, a seven-step ascent:
- Hear the Call (Dorothy’s ache; Rainbow song): a hunger for a reality beyond gray.
- Cross the Threshold (tornado): a state change—willingness to see differently.
- Find Guides (Glinda/Toto): wisdom and intuition clarify the path.
- Assemble the Soul (friends on the road): mind, heart, will re-joined.
- Face the System (witches, monkeys, owls): see how you’re managed (religion and government as practiced).
- Unmask the Idol (Wizard behind curtain): refuse external saviors and token virtues.
- Claim the Stone (slippers, water, return): recognition that the elixir was within—and now lives through right knowing, caring, and doing.
This is less escape than integration. We go “over the rainbow” so we can come back to Kansas with eyes to see. We return not to flee the world but to transform it.
Practical Takeaways (Bringing Oz Home)
- Balance your brain
- Train both hemispheres: logic (clear thinking, first principles) and imagination (art, music, meditation).
- Practices: contemplative study, journaling, drawing, instrument, breathwork.
- Tend the heart
- The generator is care. Ask daily: What do I truly love? Align time and money with the answer.
- Practices: service, forgiveness, relational repair, gratitude.
- Choose courage in the smallest daily act
- Courage is a muscle. Start with uncomfortable truths, set boundaries, keep promises.
- Practices: “one hard thing” per day, cold exposure, difficult conversation.
- Watch the language
- Name things as they are. Opt out of euphemisms that launder harm.
- Practices: define your terms; translate slogans into plain speech.
- Refuse external saviors, counterfeit tokens
- Degrees, medals, titles, likes—none substitute for embodied virtues.
- Practices: measure yourself by deeds and integrity, not symbols.
- Study the systems shaping you
- Religion and government can elevate or capture. Learn how they bind.
- Practices: read primary texts, follow the money, map incentives.
- Protect intuition
- Toto slips cages twice because intuition moves. Make room to hear it.
- Practices: daily silence, nature, tech fasts, dream work.
Coda: The Real Emerald City
The talk’s final image lingers: the four friends together—thought clarified, heart rekindled, will emboldened, soul awake. That quartet is the Emerald City. The green light was never a place but a state—of coherence, compassion, and courage.
If Oz conceals a philosophy, it is this:
Think. Care. Act.
Under the guidance of wisdom and intuition.
And stop waiting for a curtain, a medal, or a diploma to do it for you.
Point-by-point breakdown (it’s essentially a lecture reading The Wizard of Oz as an occult/Theosophical allegory).
Setup & Framing (0:00–2:30)
- Event housekeeping: fundraiser for Free Your Mind conference; tickets, donations, mailing list, free handouts.
- Weekly radio show announcement.
- Transition: today’s lecture = “Everything I Needed to Know in Life I Learned by Watching The Wizard of Oz.”
What “allegory” & “occult” mean (3:12–4:52)
- Allegory = a story/picture with hidden moral/political meaning.
- Occult (from occultus, “hidden”) = hidden/esoteric knowledge; not “evil.”
- Claims film encodes ideas from: Alchemy, Astrology, Kabbalah, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Tarot, Theosophy.
L. Frank Baum & Theosophy (4:52–10:10)
- Bio highlights (1856–1919); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).
- Speaker: Baum was an occultist, specifically influenced by Theosophy (motto: “There is no religion higher than Truth”).
- Quotes/articles (c. 1890) where Baum introduces Theosophy; equates God with Nature.
- Baum on occultism & inspiration: popular appetite for the mysterious; Oz came as “pure inspiration.”
What this talk isn’t (10:10–11:58)
- Not the Bill Still “monetary/Fed” reading (The Secret of Oz).
- Focus here: deeper philosophical & occult layers. Introduces synchromysticism (real-world truths surfacing through creative fiction).
The Film’s Launching Symbols (11:58–14:44)
- Dedication frames it as a story about the heart.
- Dorothy = the soul on a journey; Toto = intuition/creative imagination.
- Aunt/Uncle dismiss her concerns (everyday material preoccupations).
- Farmhands foreshadow: Hunk/Hickory/Zeke → Scarecrow/Tin Man/Lion with mind/heart/courage themes.
- “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” = Rainbow Bridge/Stargate → paradigm shift in consciousness.
Catalyst & Crossing (15:52–20:21)
- Almira Gulch wants Toto (speaker: system seeks to destroy intuition/imagination).
- Toto escapes → “spirit won’t be held down.”
- Professor Marvel (charlatan, “crowned heads of Europe,” third-eye jewel) = faux seer; plants “Aunt is ill” to send Dorothy home.
- Tornado = bridge between worlds (lower→higher consciousness). Gulch morphs into Wicked Witch.
Arrival in Oz (20:21–22:14)
- Glinda = sacred feminine/goddess (Isis/Ma’at/Mary analog).
- House lands on Wicked Witch of the East; ruby slippers are transferred to Dorothy.
- Yellow Brick Road = path to enlightenment (alchemical gold).
- Spiral path = ascent in stages (Masonic spiral staircase/Jacob’s Ladder).
Character = System Mappings (Tarot / Elements / Kabbalah / Chakras)
Dorothy
- Tarot: Pentacles (Earth); Major: The Fool (0) → leap of faith led by intuition (dog).
- Meaning: incarnate soul; the work is done in the material.
Scarecrow
- Wants: a brain; admits darkness → seeks light.
- Tarot: Swords/Air; Major: The Hermit (lamp = knowledge quest).
- Kabbalah/Freemasonry: pillar of Wisdom/Middle; mind/intellect.
Tin Man
- Wants: a heart; rust = apathy (frozen feeling).
- Tarot: Cups/Water; Major: The Lovers; Kabbalah: Tiferet (Beauty/heart).
- Meaning: care/conscience.
Cowardly Lion
- Wants: courage (will/action).
- Tarot: Wands/Fire; Major: Strength; Chakra: Solar Plexus.
- Meaning: will → right action.
Freemasonic & Hiram Abiff Allegory (32:02–37:27)
- Temple of Solomon = the mind; checkerboard = material plane (Dorothy).
- Three pillars mapped to the trio (Wisdom/Beauty/Strength → Scarecrow/Tin Man/Lion).
- Hiram Abiff slain by three ruffians → humanity “in coffin”: ignorance (no brain), apathy (no heart), cowardice (no courage). Skull-and-bones = intellect & will without heart.
Astrology “Great Cross” Mapping (37:27–41:07)
- Taurus/Earth (Dorothy), Leo/Fire (Lion), Scorpio/Water (Tin Man), Aquarius/Air (Scarecrow).
- “Angels of the corners” shown on Wheel of Fortune & World cards.
The Witches & Mind Control (41:14–52:13)
- Wicked Witch of the West = modern mind-control/sorcery.
- Brain model:
- Left-brain excess → dominance/violence (R-complex).
- Right-brain excess → passivity/slavery (limbic overwhelm).
- Balance (corpus callosum → pineal → prefrontal) = higher thought.
- Two master bindings:
- Religion (religare = bind back) → right-brain dogma that binds left-brain analysis (Witch of the East, “old world order”).
- Government (gubernare + mens = “mind control”) → left-brain control that binds right-brain creativity (Witch of the West, “new world order”).
- Goal of controllers: keep humanity in hemispheric imbalance.
Emerald City = Green Balance (52:13–1:00:03)
- Sun (red) + Moon (blue) → Green (heart frequency): Seal of Solomon (Sun+Moon united).
- Chakras: Anahata (heart) is green, center/generator → Care is the generative principle of behavior.
- Nature/health = green; politics traps in red vs blue polarity; money colored green as talismanic misdirection.
Poppies & Snow (1:00:03–1:02:53)
- Poppy field = sleep via drugs/addictions; Dorothy (resources) & Lion (courage) fall asleep.
- Snow (from Glinda) wakes them (stimulant / sacred feminine intervention) but rusts Tin Man (cynicism risk).
“Lodges of Perfection” & Lion’s Coronation (1:03:28–1:16:00)
- Beauty shop/makeover sequence = initiatory purification (“lodges of perfection”).
- Coronation of the Lion: speaker argues courage is the highest crowning force.
- Deep dive: Kabbalah Tree of Life ↔ Chakras ↔ Tarot Majors; infamous Strength/Justice (8/11) reversal; “microcosmic tree” arrangement → courage exalted to Keter (crown) as prerequisite to ascent.
Audience with the Wizard (1:16:00–1:20:56)
- Wizard = pompous, berating, demands broomstick first → false savior outsourcing the hard work.
- Haunted forest: owls (surveillance) & flying monkeys (police/military “order followers”).
- Dorothy captured; Witch wants ruby slippers (power).
Ruby Slippers = Alchemy (1:20:56–1:29:27)
- Book had silver shoes (moon/mercury—feminine/intuition); film uses ruby.
- Slippers = Philosopher’s Stone / Elixir of Life.
- Three stages: Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening—feminine purification), Rubedo (reddening—gold consciousness).
- Witch’s torch (illuminated torch: dark/false light) burns Scarecrow’s arm (attack on mind).
- Bucket of water (elixir/living water) melts Witch → mind-control defeated by awakened spirit.
Pulling the Curtain (1:29:27–1:37:01)
- Toto pulls curtain: Wizard = ordinary man; projection machine.
- Wizard symbolizes false gods/external saviors (especially in religion).
- He hands out tokens instead of realities: diploma (brain), medal (courage), ticking heart (love) → counterfeits.
- Balloon confession: he arrived by craft, was worshiped, kept up the act; can’t even fly it now → more fraud.
- Toto again saves Dorothy (jumps out; she follows intuition instead of the fraud).
- Occult aside: Crowley, “Holy Guardian Angel,” Aiwass/LAM (speaker draws a visual parallel to Wizard’s projected head; stresses distinction between magic vs sorcery).
Homeward Truth (1:37:01–end)
- Glinda: power was within all along; stop looking outside for a savior.
- Three clicks: “No place like home.” Back in Kansas, awake, clutching intuition; others laugh (unawakened don’t understand mystical experience).
- Closing moral: build intelligence (Scarecrow), care/conscience (Tin Man), courage/will (Lion)—act rightly in the world; maybe reach “Emerald City” (balanced heart-centered consciousness).
Audience Q&A Highlights
- Munchkins = elemental forces of nature; also an allegory for entheogens/psychedelics: can glimpse higher states, but the work is in normal life.
- Pointed hats/triangles (Scarecrow hat, Witch hat, Tin Man funnel, Glinda’s crown): triangle = awareness/enlightenment (eye-in-triangle motif).
- Checkerboard on Dorothy’s dress echoes Temple floor (duality).
- Word-magic & “green language” (language of the birds): English contains punning/etymic signals (mon-ey = one-eye; govern-ment = mind-control); words shape reality (Terence McKenna).
- Legal “represent” = to re-present/re-create another—speaker argues sovereignty means presenting oneself, not appointing representatives.
- Glinda’s quadrant: “of the North” (light half of year); Old World Order (East, priest-kings/religion) vs New World Order (West, government/finance).
- Caveat: all listed traditions (Freemasonry/Kabbalah/etc.) have light & dark expressions; speaker claims personal exposure to dark occult circles.
One-glance symbol map
| Character | Core Quality | Tarot (Minor → Major) | Element | Pillar/Sephirah (gist) | Chakra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorothy | Soul in matter | Pentacles → Fool (0) | Earth | Malkuth / path upward | Root→All |
| Toto | Intuition | — | — | “Guide” to higher self | — |
| Scarecrow | Mind/Intellect | Swords → Hermit | Air | Middle/Wisdom | Brow (mind) |
| Tin Man | Care/Heart | Cups → Lovers | Water | Tiferet (Beauty/Heart) | Heart |
| Lion | Will/Courage | Wands → Strength | Fire | Jachin/Netzach–Geburah | Solar Plexus |
