The Theosophical Allegory

by Aisha Gilani

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At a faculty colloquium presented by David B. Parker, Assistant Professor of History, at Kennesaw State University, he suggested a relationship between certain themes, episodes, and characters in the Oz stories and L.Frank Baum's theosophical beliefs. Theosophy was a sort of New Age cult religion that was popular among certain groups of people a hundred years ago; Baum was a theosophist. Parker explains that the basic tenets of theosophical thought are relatively simple and included such notions as cosmic unity, planetary chains, human evolution within seven planes of existence, reincarnation, etc. It was upon re-reading Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that led Parker to discover the relationship between Baum's Oz writings and his theosophical beliefs. Parker states that given its closeness to Asian religion, theosophy might help explain Baum's "dainty China country", the title of one of the chapters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Through more research, David Parker came across John Algeo's work on Baum and theosophy. Finally, Parker gives some specific examples to illustrate how Baum's belief in theosophy could have several other implications for his writings.

These include:

1) Many early theosophists were feminists and theosophy stressed a basic equality of the sexes. And, most of the major characters in the Oz series were female

2) One can see a similar possible theosophical reflection in Baum's anti-intellectualism. For example, as Parker explains, the Scarecrow, who mistakenly thinks he needs brains ("head-learning"), actually gets by very well without brains, and is in fact the "smartest" of the travellers on the Yellow Brick Road

3) The theosophical belief in reincarnation can be seen in how Baum's characters sometimes change identities, which is the case of Tip, the young boy who is the main character in The Marvelous Land of Oz. At the end of the book, Tip is transformed into Ozma. And, furthermore, as Parker points out, "Ozma" is similar to "Atma", the theosophists' name for the Spirit, the highest level of man's evolution

4) Colours were also important to early theosophists, says Parker. Charles M. Leadbetter, an important shaper of early theosophical thought, came up with a list of colours and their correspondences with the astral body. Yellow meant "intellect" while emerald green stood for "versatility, ingenuity and resourcefulness". So, as Parker explains, Dorothy on her quest, follows the Yellow Brick Road (intellect) and discovers, at the end, only a humbug (the Wizard)--"head-learning" alone is useless. Only after Dorothy applies the lessons of the Emerald City--"versatility, ingenuity and resourcefulness, applied unselfishly"--does Glinda tell Dorothy that she always had the power to return home.

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