
My passion for script writing surely is a reason for my interest in the recipe for a good story. But there is more to that and it has a lot to do with what is happening to an individual on a journey of Awakening.
Once seeing through, stories can give you great comfort during the process. They can be reassuring, they can give you an upheaval or even help you through rough times like episodes of despair when passing through the stages of a dark night of the soul. They can be crucial in helping you to go back to a place of trust... and openness... and wonder... and just letting it happen.
Let me start by naming four of the big blockbusters and when looking at their ingredients, it is not a mystery anymore why they managed to cream off the profits:
- Alice in Wonderland
- The Wizard of Oz
- Star Wars
- The Matrix
You surely agree with me that these stories skyrocketed at the box offices or already in the book stores. There are others following the same principles, therefore also succeeding big time. After reading this blog, you will be able to spot them on your own and hopefully, you'll be able to take out more of the storylines for yourself.
To be fully accurate, I would have to start with the old stories from the different sources of Mythology. I would have to name Aristoteles and his teachings and stories but let me just mention this: Most people in the storytelling business simply advice you to follow the steps of the „old“ recipes, you are being teached to follow the guidelines of the so called hero’s journey, fleshed out by studying the stories of Mythology, which looks this way, in short:
The protagonist walks through these stages:
1. Ordinary world 2. Call to adventure 3. Refusal of the call 4. Meeting the mentor 5. Crossing the threshold 6. Tests, allies, enemies 7. Approach 9. Reward, seizing the sword 10. The road back 11. Resurrection 12. Return with elixir “Revelation” “Transformation” “Atonement”
Which actually and simply means that a good story – in order to be good – should tell the story of Soul evolution or the Spiritual path. And you'll be able to do that over and over again. In different clothes, costumes, scenes, settings and shades... That simple.
But let me dive into some of the aspects of the four above. I will walk through each one of them just briefly because analyzing every step would take nearly infinite space and time. Each of these stories are stuffed with subliminal esoteric knowledge. But it will give you a feeling of the potential of the things to detect and I hope you will watch one or the other again while being attentive every step ahead. I will simply compare the four to the gross stages of the Awakening journey itself:
The names of the protagonists already have a lot of meaning:
Alice meaning Truth
Dorothy meaning Gift of God
Luke Skywalker - Luke meaning: the light giver and
Skywalker ... well, the One walking in the Sky, no?
Neo meaning the New One
(The movie of the Matrix is full with meaningful names. Morpheus was the Greek god of dreams, Trinity needs no further explanation I guess, the place of the rebels is called Zion, the ship is given the name Nebuchadnezzar...)
Stage 1: The Awakening
Alice in Wonderland
The story starts with a young girl, she’s a bit bored, feeling the dullness of the day when all of a sudden, a white rabbit catches her attention. She follows him to a hole an then she’s falling... all the way down the rabbit hole. Finding herself in situations where up is down, left is right, big should be small...
Wizard of Oz
In the beginning, Dorothy is that young girl feeling a bit lost in her hometown Kansas, dreaming and even singing about a better place „Somewhere over the rainbow...“ while a storm is coming up forming into a tornado. When entering her bedroom, Dorothy gets struck unconscious by the falling window frame and her whole house and herself are carried away by the tornado while she herself is having hallucinations and constant shifts of perceptions.
Star Wars
Luke Skywalker is just an ordinary farmboy at the beginning and when being asked to take up action, he seems not very font of the idea until he finds his old home destroyed and his uncle and aunt dead (like hitting rock bottom)... Now, he is willing to take action by joining the Jedis (Djedi meant in ancient teachings: One who is stable or one who speaks the truth).
Matrix
Neo is sleeping. In every single opening scene. But from the beginning, he already has quite a talent in hacking codes and he has that sense of something is wrong here. He wants to know the truth. He wants to know what the Matrix is. That actually is, where his journey begins, with that pressing question of "what is the Matrix". But the beginning of his journey is being shown to us as him, sleeping, when suddendly a blinking message on his Computer appears, sent by Trinity, saying: „Wake up, Neo...“
Out of my experience, I can tell you how an Awakening feels and it had all the sceneries of the four movies included. At the beginning, it felt like Neo: Sensing deeply, that there is something wrong. I had a strong urge to find out the truth and I started digging, and digging, and digging. And I couldn't stop! Even though it felt like a senseless battle looking for answers on the outside... I just did not know about another way until then. This was all I have been tought so far: Looking for answers means researching what others already wrote. And so, I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Every question opened thousands of possibilities of answers... the rabbit hole seemed to have no bottom or end. But then, at a certain stage, I did hit rock bottom like Luke Skywalker. It was like looking back, your whole home (inner world) shattered. Nothing seemed to be at it's place anymore. The tornado had spit me out and all I could do is accepting the fact that reality is maybe not what I thought it was. It's more like an illusion maybe, a Matrix. And then it can happen that you get "the wake up call" and the journey begins.
Stage 2: Getting to know and navigating through the „new world“
In this stage of the story, a lot of the workings that actually are happening inside of our unconscious landscape are being told by letting the protagonist battle these trials in the outside world. This is being achieved by letting him/her struggle or win in different trials and by meeting lots of different characters, acting as mentors, helpers or antagonists but are actually also just representations of our own inner archetypes of good and bad personality attributes.
Alice in Wonderland
Wonderful characters, not even very sublime in their representation of the teachings:
The White Rabbit: Carrying a clock, always stressed, always late. Showing the holding back nature of time and reinforcing the concept of the necessity of the dimensions "time and space" in order to experience reality on the physical plane.
The Mad Hatter: Not giving a damn on social norms, letting things flow up when it should go down... ungrounded but having lots of knowledge about unconventional perceptions.
The Cheshire Cat: Grinning like a happy Buddha, always speaking in myths, showing the impermanence of the ego by vanishing and reappearing any given moment.
The Caterpillar: Representing the need for fearlessness of the inevitable: Transformation. For her, it is not an issue as it is in her felt nature.
The Queen of Hearts: Oh! Our ego and it’s fight to always win. Even if that means that we need to cut some heads off along the way. It sure wants the others around shorter than itself...
The story of Alice in Wonderland has so many stages and for me, the most important teachings are being shown in the conversations and experiences Alice has with these archetypes (her own unconscious character traits). All of it while struggling, questioning and battling with her new sense of „reality“. Expanding and contracting is a big theme. That feeling of the extremes once on the journey of our own selves. That new sense of how illusionary our limitations are. The unreliable feeling of time you suddendly experience against the given importance of time for experiencing the „reality“ of the physical plane.
Wizard of Oz
Isn’t it interesting that the colour changes from black and white while being in Kansas to colourful when switching to the land of Oz? It suggests that actually Kansas is more unreal than the state of being in Oz. And then we have the hint Dorothy’s been given by the good witch: Follow the yellow brick road which can actually be compared to the teaching of the golden path (common in many cultures as the teaching of THE way being the spiritual path) The archetypes here are:
The scarecrow, representing the undeveloped mental body
The tin man, representing the undeveloped emotional body
The cowardly lion, representing the undeveloped courage and trust
And then there is the bad witch (representing our egos) and the good witch (representing our higher self).
And not to forget Toto, Dorothys dog. He seems to represent the intuitive side of Dorothy. She sometimes dares to not listen to him which always turns out to be a mistake.
Last but not least: The Wizard of Oz himself. Blatantly symbolizing the man behind the curtain... The trickster, working with fear in order to make us believe that he has the power. In this story, teaching us to not be afraid of „the big bearded man“ as most of the religious institutions are trying to do. Open the curtain, look for yourself and you’ll discover the truth.
This story has some strong moments in thematizing the subject of the dark night of the soul. The opening sequence with the tornado is already very powerful. This is how an Awakening can feel... losing your ground, the feeling of being knocked out unconscious, spinning while experiencing all kinds of hallucinations and shifts of perceptions.
And then you are being spit out into another kind of reality. Now, you’re forced to go all the way (the yellow brick road) while finding your mental strength (scarecrow), your open heart (tin man) and your courage (cowardly lion) while going along.
There are some scary episodes still vivid in my memory from childhood. It tackles „those“ fears of the soul so very well. And a dark night of the soul can very much feel like being attacked by winged monkeys and isn’t it horrible to see the scarecrow (your mental sanity) being literally torn apart by those forces?
And then the scene follows where Dorothy is being held captive in the castle of the bad witch. She is in total despair, feeling like everyone, even her reliable companion Toto, has left her alone. But rescue is coming in the form of her dear friends (her own heart, courage and mental ability).
Star Wars
Seeing no other way, Luke joins the order of the Jedis, finding his mentor in Yoda (the sanskrit word yoddha meaning "warrior" or the hebrew word yodea meaning "one who knows"). Yoda is teaching him how to use his force (His inner guide and the force of Kundalini), how to trust this force even blindfolded. And his quotes already tell us the essence of this story, don’t they?:
“We must wake.”
“You must unlearn what you have learned.”
“You fail because you don’t believe.”
“Named must be your fear before banish it can.”
„Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.“
„Clear your mind must be, if you are to find the villains behind this plot.“
„Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.“
“You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be. And confront him you will.”
“When you look at the dark side, careful you must be, for the dark side looks back.”
The Matrix
Neo oscillates between the two „worlds“ all during the movie. Leaving the unreal world of the Matrix (representing our world), finding new hints outside of the illusion and then coming back with the gained knowledge. In order to do so, he literally has to unplug from the Matrix and to plug in again when needing to come back with findings. And, of course, the question all through the movie of „is Neo really the chosen one" hints to ancient teachings and Spirituality very obviously. Neo is actually a modern representation of the Christ figure without the backholding attributes of Christianity.
His mentor Morpheus is telling us, the audience, constantly about the nature (or unnature) of reality. He actually has the same function as Yoda in Star Wars. He knows and he wants Neo and us to know. Therefore, his quotes are also the telling ones:
“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.Neo: What truth? Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”
“What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
“There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
“I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.”
“You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.”
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
“The body cannot live without the mind.”
Neos helper and love interest is named Trinity... and she sacrifices herself in order to make sure that Neo reaches „the Source“. Self sacrifice is a big theme throughout the whole Trilogy. And even Neo himself ends up sacrificing himself.
Stage 3: The return with the „elixir“
Alice in Wonderland
The actual ending of Alice’s journey in the book „Through the Looking-Glass“ leaves Alice wondering whether the Looking-Glass World was her own dream or the red king's. And this red king is an important figure in that part of the book. Since the whole story revolves around a game of chess, he is characteristic of the king in such a game in that he has all of the pieces on his side available to perform the work for him; unlike his white counterpart, though, he does not move at all throughout the story.
Therefore, the real ending of Alice in Wonderland revolves – for me – around the question of who is dreaming the dream. The red king therefore might represent pure Awareness which is being said to not act at all. It just is. And that we are only a dream being dreamed by this higher Awareness.
And therefore, the story leaves Alice and us in the dilemma of the question of who is actually sleeping and who or what is appearing or disappearing from the story depending on who is dreaming.
The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy has to fight the bad witch (her ego) a last time when the witch is setting her good friend, the Scarecrow (her mind) on fire. Dorothy’s reaction is fast. She grabs a basket with water and throws it over the Scarecrow to put out the fire. The water hits also the bad witch, causing her to melt (purifying of the mind is leading to the melting down of the ego).
After having defeated the witch on her own, Dorothy returns to Oz in order to proof that she succeeded and claiming the fullfillment of the Wizards promise to take her home. It is when Toto reveals the illusion of the Wizard by opening the curtain that Dorothy takes the first step in claiming her own power but she still thinks something outside of her is what will take her home. Therefore, she forgives the Wizard and wants to return to Kansas with his help. But the very moment Dorothy wants to enter the hot air balloon, Toto (her intuition) runs away and she has to chase after him.
The Wizard is flying off without Dorothy, leaving her in dispair one more time as she still holds the belief that only he can lead her back home (Religious institutions and their claims). The good witch (her higher self) appears, telling Dorothy: „You always had the power, my dear. You just had to learn it for yourself.“ And Dorothy answers to the question of what she’d learned: “If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.” And so Dorothy trusts, claps her shoes three times while thinking strongly about „there is no place like home“ and therefore finds her way back to Kansas all by herself.
Star Wars
Luke manages to train his mind and his forces to a point where even his own father, Darth Vader, can't pull him over to the dark side. Luke even loses an arm by fighting off and resisting "the other side". Finally, it is his father who slowely wakes back up from the dark side, rescuing the life of his son by sacrificing himself. At the end of ‘Return of the Jedi,’ the Galactic Empire is defeated and the Emperor is dead. Luke and his Jedi friends succeed in destroying the second Death Star and therefore, the whole galaxy is liberated. Luke can return to his sister Leia and his friend Han Solo, celebrating their victory over the dark side.
The Matrix
Towards the end of the whole Trilogy, Neo is connected by the machines into the Matrix to fight Agent Smith. The agent seems to win and to have killed Neo but then the machines are pumping a charge into Neo to revive him. Following this, Agent Smith and all his duplicates burst into light and die but so does Neo. He literally bursts into light, leaving a cross sign along his whole body. We then see his physical form being set down by the machines. So, Neo seems to have escaped from the illusionary world of the Matrix into the actual real world, leaving his body behind.
Numerous other subliminal messages, symbolism and characters are being used in such stories and there are much more circulating with the same attempt. In the Matrix, like in lots of other movies, we also have the character of the great Architect. This figure, not necessarly under the name "Architect" but with the same function also appears in movies like the Truman Show, Westworld or Snowpiercer. Guess who is representing this character?
I saved up one of the most touching stories for the end. That one shook up the literature world in particular: The little prince.
That little boys journey to different planets, meeting all these characters with different attributes of his inner archetypes... Wow. A masterpiece.
And if you have no knowledge about the Spiritual path, the end is kind of depressing, at least puzzling. What a strange ending for a children's book to let the protagonist be bitten by a snake.
Let us look at this paragraph:
The little prince feels homesick, feeling despair as he has no idea how to return home. The snake offers help by saying: “I can take you farther than any ship could take you” And the little prince asks the snake: “But why do you always speak in riddles?” To which the snake responds with another indirect answer: “I solve them all.” So, if the little prince wants to go home, he can hitch a ride on the snakes bite.
When the little prince decides to return home, he agrees to the snakes offer to help him that way. But when the time comes for the snake to bite him, the little prince is afraid and nervous. He agrees anyway and the reader might think that the little prince died afterwards but this sentence tells us otherwise: “But I know that he did go back to his planet, because I did not find his body at daybreak.”
The snake in this story is of course representing our Kundalini. Therefore, reading the story with the necessary knowledge means reading about a happy ending.
To come to an end, it is just an attempt to point you to the vast world of subliminal messages in stories and movies, being felt somewhere deeply but can only unfold their full beauty and depths with some knowledge about the Spiritual path.
Rewatch those movies that touched you deeply, try to find out why! Most likely, it is because of the hidden message being transported directly to your soul.
And of course, one might argue that all of these stories are just being written by people with a certain belief system themselves. They definitely derive from thoughts about Gnostic teachings and Theosophy. For me, that can explain why the authors sat down and wrote the story. It is no explanation for the love and affection the audience develops for these kind of stories on such a big scale.
For me, that fact is only proof that our souls are the ones that know. And they are watching... and they are listening...
... eager to shake the ego side of us up any given chance they get. So, it is our turn to use our given brain, train it carefully by watching our thoughts, we need to dare to open our hearts and make use of all our courage by fighting the fears which are holding us back.