The Wizard of Oz - Creative Wisdom

By Amruta

The story begins with a storm, the so called storm of life we all talk about - Her phase of tribulations kicks in without a sign. A time when she was moved away from her home, in order to pursue her path, to meet her soul tribe, accomplish tasks she was supposed to at the time, thereby gaining wisdom and realising the truth.

Being lost out of home country, Dorothy travels on an adventure in the new land with the sole intention of returning home helping new friends along the way.

The storm takes away Dorothy and her pet Dog, Toto from Kansas into the land of the Munchkins. She unintentionally kills the Wicked Witch of the East by having the storm drop her house on the witch. People celebrate their freedom from the witch and appreciate Dorothy’s entry. Dorothy receives two magical gifts-The Golden Cap and The Silver Shoes, in return, from the Good Witch of the North, besides a protective kiss on the forehead. Dorothy seems worried for being in a foreign country and being lost away from home. Hence she decides to meet Oz upon advice of the Good Witch of the North, for Oz is considered to have heavenly powers who can help Dorothy return home.

On her way to The Emerald City where Oz lives, Dorothy meets unhappy Scarecrow who lost his brain, stuck in the fields with no purpose in life and complaining about not having enough. He hears Dorothy’s story and joins on her mission with the intention of benefitting from Oz to get a brain. Alongside the journey, they meet Heartless Tinman(The Witch’s curse!) and a Coward Lion in the Forest, who also decide to join and travel together to gain their benefits. They pass through the field of the Poppies. The fragrance of the poppy flowers is intoxicating. The mice come to their rescue in crossing the field while Dorothy and the Lion fall asleep.

They manage to reach Emerald city, a city where everything looks green, fertile, blessed and joyful. Oz looks powerful and frightening. He promises all of them to give what they ask for upon a condition. All the friends, having no other choice, agree to Oz’s condition and set out to fulfil the task of killing the Evil Witch of the West.

Evil Witch of the West, being very intuitive, senses the danger from these people and sends pack of wolves, flock of wild crows and winged monkeys to attack and kill them. They use tricks and fight as a team although, all of them get injured at the end except Dorothy who reaches the witch’s castle. Knowing the magical powers of Silver Shoes that Dorothy holds, the witch plans to steal them and hence makes her a slave instead of killing her. One morning the witch uses a trick to make Dorothy stumble and instantly grabs a shoe of her. Dorothy demands her shoe back but the witch refuses to return it. Irritated by this, Dorothy pours water in her bucket on the witch. The witch then starts melting and turns into liquid. Dorothy gets out of the castle happily to find her injured friends and heal them back to normal. They all visit Oz to get their wishes fulfilled. To their disappointment, they discover Oz is fake and played tricks all along cheating people to get them to believe that he is from heaven. Oz narrates his story and reveals his true identity. Tinman takes out his axe in fury and rages over the little cheater Oz. Oz was originally afraid of the Evil Witch of the West that she might discover he’s fraud and hence got her killed with the help of these people. He now, feels ashamed and decides to help all of them as they believed in him. Oz makes a Straw Brain, a Silk Heart, Courage Liquid and fits them into all three. All three are happy and start using their new gifts. But Oz takes his time to think how he could help Dorothy. He uses his previous experience of working at circus and builds a Hot Air Balloon to cross the desert and decides to accompany Dorothy in leaving Emerald city. Destiny pitches in to show a twist in the story, Dorothy misses to aboard the balloon leaving Oz to travel alone across the desert. Before leaving, Oz declares Scarecrow to be the King of Emerald City and commands that his people should obey him going forward. Dorothy takes the advice of security guard and plans to visit Glinda, the Good Witch of the South to seek help. Her friends decide to accompany her as they know it’s risky to send Dorothy alone. They visit many different places and variety of beings on their path. After crossing all the hurdles using their newly acquired gifts, they reach the land of the Quadlings. They meet Glinda there who looks magnificent and graceful. Glinda recognises the light of the good on Dorothy’s forehead and tells Dorothy that her shoes can take her home if she taps them thrice. Glinda tells that Dorothy could have returned to Kansas with the help of her shoes on the day she landed on Munchkins. Dorothy’s friends express their worry as to how they could have got their gifts if Dorothy returned home on the very first day. Dorothy feels happy that she could be of some help to her friends during her journey. Tinman and Lion decide to rule the Land of the Winkies and the Forest respectively. Glinda uses the Golden Cap to call on Winged Monkeys as they can help Tinman and Lion to reach their desired destinations. Finally Dorothy kisses good-bye to her friends and Glinda. Dorothy taps her shoes thrice and returns home along with Toto. Happily embracing her Aunt, she says ’There is no wonderful place like Home in the entire world’.

Creative Wisdom from the Story:

Dorothy being taken away from home into her new journey - Spiritually termed as

“Dark night of the soul” which befalls as a storm. This might result in soul fragmentation, it moves one away from self. This journey helps in gaining wisdom, learning lessons, love for self and appreciation of what is.

Dorothy’s gifts - When dark night of the soul kicks in, the gifts to exit the phase are presented right in the beginning by keeping one unaware of the power and usage of gifts. The usage of the gifts to exit the phase are made known to the person once the mission or the soul purpose is achieved.

Dorothy meeting her soul tribe - The soul meets its tribe along its journey. Although the tribe looks imperfect or like broken pieces individually, together they make a whole puzzle with all pieces included(Lion with no courage, Tinman with no heart and Scarecrow with no brain). This indicates the importance of team work rather than complaining about other’s imperfection or cribbing about personal drawbacks. The soul tribe plays vital role in supporting and achieving tasks throughout the mission.

Dorothy’s drive and motivation to return home - Performing activities with the intention to exit the phase actually kickstarts the events of The Soul Mission.

The team entering the Emerald city - Indicates moving from one’s mind into one’s heart chakra (Anahata Chakra indicated by green colour). Heart is where courage pops from. Elements like joy, courage, wisdom, love, compassion, ethereal connection emerge from heart. Living from the heart and accomplishing heart’s mission should be the way of life rather than living the materialistic and rat race of the mind which is karmic.

Oz giving the mission to the team - Doing activities by blindly following the heart is also a part of the mission.

Oz solving the issues inspite of ignorance - Trusting the heart creates a solution, fake people also turn out to be useful.

Brainless Scarecrow gets joy of heart [Happiness and sorrow are mutual balancers co-existing in brain]

Fearful Lion gets courage from heart [Fear is an illusion of the mind and is a result(Effect) of karmic(Cause) mental pattern]

Heartless Tinman gets love and compassion from heart [Love and forgiveness of the heart waive off karma of the mind]

Obstacles and attacks of the witch - The tough times that appear in life are something one is always capable of handling and which one can overcome and emerge as winner. Facing fears[internal demons and insecurities] is being taught and is a necessary step in the journey.

Dorothy pouring water on the witch while being unaware that it can destroy the witch - Self love, being yourself can result in a solution though one is not aware of the key to the problem.

Oz being taken away by hot air balloon - People who serve their purpose are removed from life. It’s also called liberation for such people. Such soul contracts are a two way learning street.

Dorothy meeting Glinda - Once the mission is accomplished, the light of soul is recognised and it results in fame.

Winged monkey helpers to return home - Grace is available by heaven and angelic beings to exit the dark night of the soul and return home to self.

Pet dog Toto throughout the journey - During the phase of separation from self, one has loyal companion from home throughout the dark night of the soul, these are accompanying soul contracts.

Journey of Dorothy’s team and their rule of new kingdoms - The soul tribe who join the journey also go through personal transformation and discover their true destination and purpose at the end of the journey.

Dorothy returning home - Once the lessons are learnt, all the departed soul fragments return back making the soul whole again and it results in a new version of self created with the golden wisdom [Kintsugi is a process of mending broken objects with love]. This is called returning to Home within.

Dorothy’s appreciation of home to her aunt - The importance of light can only be understood by experiencing darkness. Darkness is absence of light, just turn the light on. Every darkness comes with a hidden advantage, take life as it comes and create something better.

By Amruta