Introduction and Instructions to Swap Members

The Wizard of Oz . . .

...the American fairy tale, written by L. Frank Baum, (as an antidote to the violent world of the Brothers Grimm), in fourteen books between 1900 and 1914.

Jean Houston, mythologist, calls the annual showing of the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz no less than a religious experience, with its own liturgy and hymns that nearly all of us can sing from memory. Houston's recently published book, The Wizard of Us, opens with Houston and her fellow travelers on a cultural exchange trapped in a leaky hut in rural Taiwan in the middle of a raging typhoon.  The village elder urges her to tell a myth from her culture, one “in which there is a great storm that opens a door to other worlds.”

I saw Jean Houston speak once in person, in 1983. I can still relate the stories she told from memory, thirty years later, she is that brilliant a raconteur. So I can imagine Jean, daughter of a Hollywood screenwriter, protege of Margaret Mead, retelling the story of The Wizard of Oz to people half a world away, most of whom had never seen a television. Fully embodying this great myth (if you know anything about Houston's work, she encourages "embodiment" as a way of knowing), she is skipping down the Yellow Brick Road, encouraging her travelling companions to burst into the songs, imitating the looseness of the Scarecrow, the stiffness of the Tin Man, puffing herself up as the Cowardly Lion, cackling as the Wicked Witch of the West.

To Jean Houston, the lots of MGM in the late 30s were not factories of escapism. They were the threshold to the imaginal world, and The Wizard of Oz and the books that inspired it were visions of a world where we could be greater, as an individual, as a society, as a species--the Possible Human.

Science fiction writer and writing coach Steve Barnes says to write the Hero's Journey, you have to know it. To live it. Through Oz, there is not one of us who does not understand and hasn’t lived this monomyth. The Ordinary World in this case is so ordinary, it's in black and white! Dorothy, feeling out of place, tries to run away (the Call to Adventure) but is sent home by Mentor Professor Marvel (the Refusal of the Call) only for the cosmic two-by-four, the tornado, to intervene and whisk her Over the Rainbow Threshold into color. We understand the Road of Trials (the Yellow Brick Road) the Gathering of Allies (the meeting of the three companions) and Enemies (The Wicked Witches of the East and West), approaching the Innermost Cave (the Emerald City). The Supreme Ordeal is being captured by the flying monkeys and taken to the Wicked Witch. Dorothy "seizes the sword" by defending the Scarecrow, throwing water on the Wicked Witch, killing her and being given her broom. The Road Back is meeting with the Wizard and nearly escaping on the hot air balloon. Resurrection is realizing she had the power herself to return to Kansas, with the help of Glinda as a mentor. The Return is with the Elixir, knowing now who she is, that her heart’s desire is in her own backyard, and that “there's no place like home.”

Jean Houston also says that the strength of a myth is that it is different for every one of us. You cannot interpret the myth without a society. And so I invite you to interpret the journey of The Wizard of Oz here...

Make a charm that represents the symbol or the character or the scene or the quote that is most important to you. Tell us how you remember this myth from your childhood.

Our finding color is gold and antique gold, for the Yellow Brick Road. Materials can be anything sturdy.

...You may use the movie as your inspiration, or dip into the rich turn-of-the-century imagery of the books. Perhaps Tik Tok will inspire your steampunk sensibilities. You might wish to tap into the parallel worlds of Gregory Maguire's Wicked saga and the musical that it inspired, or the dark vision of the miniseries Tin Man. Anything is possible, because after all, Oz is your myth too!

And we are sharing the journey, here...

Contact me at vafk@yahoo.com with photos and descriptions of your creations, so I can post them over the year.

Have fun!