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Julio Cantillo

Professor Shaw

LIT2480

October 4, 2010

The Wizard of Oz and the Road to Enlightenment

The Wizard of Oz is a magical story about a girl named Dorothy who travels to a

supernatural world after being hit with a window panel due to a cyclone in Kansas. Dorothy is

unconscious and imagines herself in a new and fascinating world. Her thoughts and feeling are

expressed through her own portrayal in supernatural forms and colors. When her house lands on

this mystical land, she kills the Wicked Witch of the East unintentionally. The munchkins and

the Good Witch of the North greet her with happiness. She is given a pair of red slippers after

she is threatened by the Wicked Witch of the West who promises to seek revenge for her sister’s

death. Her desire to go back home takes her into a journey of soul realization and fullfilment

where she encounters a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion. These characters are unsatisfied with

their lives and they are striving to seek their missing piece in order to achieve optimal happiness.

The Wizard of Oz elaborates on the chakra system by showing different characteristics

throughout Dorothy’s journey.

The Charka system is a very complex and detailed system within our bodies which links

our emotional, mental and spiritual senses. There are seven major chakras within our bodies.

These chakras work like receivers of energies that surround us in our daily lives. Chakras are

energy centers shaped like wheels and connected by channels. These chakras convert these

energies into frequencies for each of the individual chakras to promote wellness and harmony

within ourselves. If there is an imbalance on this system, the human soul is not connected to the
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physical body. The seven primary chakras are located along our vertical spine starting from

lowest to the highest. The seven primary chakras in the human body are the root, sacral, solar

plexus, heart, throat, third eye and the crown chakra.

Starting with the lowest chakra, the root chakra, it represents the beginning of Dorothy’s

journey to find her way home. The root chakra is depicted by the color red signifying survival. In

The Wizard of Oz, this chakra is incorporated with the red slippers. She is given a pair of slippers

by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North to protect herself from the witch’s threats. She is told

not to ever remove the slippers for her own safety. Dorothy is sent to find The Wizard of Oz to

find her way back home. She embarks this journey successfully and by believing in her survival

opportunities.

Furthermore, the next following chakras which are naval and the solar plexus chakras

emphasize on the manifestation, self-control, and awakening. The naval chakra is portrayed by

the color orange which means manifestation of one’s physical or spiritual body. Subsequently,

the Wicked Witch of the West always commences her entrance with orange dust which explains

her evil manifestation by bringing fear into Dorothy. The solar plexus is shown by the Yellow

Brick Road which Dorothy undertakes her journey. This color symbolizes her personal power for

making decisions and her arousal as a superior person. Through her journey she is faced with

very different challenges and appearances from the Wicked Witch but she always discovers an

answer within herself.

In addition to that, the most important and unifying chakra in the whole system is the

heart chakra. This chakra is the center of all the other six chakras and it symbolizes compassion

and unconditional love. It unites all the chakras to convey a balanced system. The green Emerald

City is the best example to illustrate the bridge between Dorothy and her family back in Kansas.
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She realizes that she misses her family more than ever which implies the unconditional love that

she feels for them. For instance, when she talks to the guard in Emerald City, compassion

flourishes by giving her a chance to meet the Wizard of Oz.

As a matter of fact, she achieves to find compassion from the guard by her great

communication skills which ties to the throat chakra. This chakra is considered a key component

in her successful journey because she talks herself out of challenges and situations. This chakra

is illustrated through her light blue dress that she wears through her journey to symbolize they

key of communication is always with her. The third eye chakra is considered to be the insight of

the person and their specific perception. Even though, the color indigo is not represented through

her journey, she finds herself towards the end of her journey. She recognizes that her family is

the most important thing in her life. The last chakra is the crown chakra which is shown by the

color purple. This color is shown every time Glinda appears which shows her importance in the

cycle of the chakras by directing Dorothy to the Emerald City and giving her the necessary tools

to make it home like her friends.

The chakra system is incorporated into The Wizard of Oz because it can be said that

Dorothy has to feed each of her chakras with positive energies to neutralize her whole system, in

order to find the answer of how to get home. The color of each individual chakra is present in

The Wizard of Oz to symbolize the harmony and wellness that it is achieved at the end of the

movie. At the beginning of the story the chakra system is unbalanced, but throughout the

journey, different elements of each of the characters are united to commit one goal, which bring

Dorothy back home.