THE PARABLE OF OZ

In the Parable of Oz we see the full circle path that humanity has taken to discover the inner meaning of life. A small farm family lives with the most basic of necessities of life. Their life is simple, humble, sometimes tough, but also based upon the basic pleasures of love, loyalty, trust and friendship. Youth often fails to understand these simple pleasures and seeks more that is exciting, glamorous, mysterious and exotic.

It often takes a tragedy or disaster to shake up the peaceful life. This does not always mean a physical disaster. A tornado of ideas and promises can tear away the fabric of society just as easy as a flood or earthquake. This is not necessarily good or bad, it just happens to further the cause of evolution. Stagnation occurs when there is no pressure for change. The dark side has its purpose.

So the desire for change can lead a person to strange lands. In those lands, whether they be imaginary or real, there is always choice. The road taken can be positive or negative. After leaving her old life behind, in the case of Oz, the poor girl is convinced by others that she committed a basic sin and must atone for her actions. To do this, a guide appears and promises that if a certain path is followed, all will be well. There is a promise of salvation but that in order to achieve it, sacrifice and hard work is necessary. A demon is often identified as one who will try to prevent you from reaching your goal and, if you are not faithful to the cause, you are doomed. And yet, without the demon, would the trip be taken?

So after finding some like-minded people, the journey is taken. Of note is that you always take your Self with you. We cannot escape our physical, mental and emotional self and depending on the situation, one these selves dominate our response. Of course, what most often forget is that we also have a higher self that walks in every footstep we take-the red slippers?

So the guide says that in order to be saved we must find the Great Wizard. Once in his care, all will be well. After arriving at what seems to be a perfect little world, our seeker finds that all live in fear of the Wizard-hmm, not the impression given by our fairy friend. The community seems relatively mindless and even the simplest of questions must be answered by his Greatness and his dials, knobs, smoke and gadgets. But, instead of answers, the cult leader demands a payment for dream fulfillment. Hmmm, the fairy didn’t mention that either. And, in keeping with all great religious/cult organizations, the payment must be made in blood-kill the witch. Such enlightenment!

Poor demon/witch-merely seeking her own inner guide-those slippers again-now has a contract out on her. Who is the real demon? So now the quest begins again-the land of promise has a high price to enter and the threat of death is the price of disobedience. So off we go, not sure who or what stands for good. We begin to question the new world and yearn for the simplicity of the old. We are certain the answer is outside of us, that is what we have been told-but, our mind and emotions have failed us and they offer no answer. At last we overcome diversity, our fears, come face-to-face with and slay our demon-so we think. We return to the land of promise in triumph only to be told, “Sorry, can’t really help you. It is all for show-no real power here. And, oh-what you’ve been seeking you have never lost.”

With the mantra of, “there’s no place like home,” we awaken from a dream world, reality, and discover it is indeed always greener…That even the brightest mind, the strongest emotion and all of the things of the physical world hold no real answers. And what of the poor people in Wizard world? With the myth shattered and beliefs torn asunder, they have also found that their life has been a lie and that the only real truth must be birthed from experience, trials and errors, darkness, choice, responsibility and inner truth. They, too, traveled the road of simplicity to dogma and false progress and back. A path we all must follow-for through darkness and experience-wisdom is reborn.