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I have been studying and meditating on the symbolism in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for years and I am still learning. I am currently reading "The Wisdom of Oz" by Gita Dorothy Morena, the great grand-daughter of L. Frank Baum and a Jungian Psychotherapist. I knew that the wicked witch of the West represented Dorothy's unconscious shadow self. Ms. Morena descibes it elloquently: "Even though the Wicked Witch epitomizes negativity, selfishness, destruction, and evil, when captured by the despicable woman, Dorothy attempts to please her... When the Witch trips the innocent heroine with an invisible bar, Dorothy's composure dissolves. She defiantly hurls a pail of water at the wicked woman, tapping into an inner wellspring of anger, outrage, and ferocious self-defense. These are aspects of Dorothy's shadow, well hidden behind her outward appearance of goodness and compliance. Although it is upsetting for someone like Dorothy to uncover these seemingly undesirable traits, it is essential for her well-being to access these energies. Once they have been exposed, like the instinctual energies of the Flying Monkeys, they can be used in the service of higher consciousness.
Shedding light onto shadow material is usually disturbing and challenging. However, eliminating negative traits by repressing them into the unconscious only results in the persistent appearance in reactive behavior patterns... It is only when the shadow is encompassed by the light of consciousness that it is transformed into positive energy."
When I meditated on this, I realized that unconscious negative qualities can be transformed into conscious positive qualities. For example, arrogance can become self-confidence, manipulativeness can become leadership, aggression can become assertiveness, and so on. We make the unconscious traits conscious by dialoging with the shadow self, by shedding light on it. Then the negativity disappears. That's what happend to the body of the Wicked Witch of the East in the book. Sunlight falls on it and it dissolves. The Wicked Witch of the West is dissolved by soapy water, which is another way of dealing with the shadow self -- through purification (violet flame, meditation, ho'oponopono).
The power of the witches is symbolized by the silver slippers and gold cap representing the latent power contained in the base of the spine chakra and crown chakra. But power without knowledge is not much good. The Queen of the field mice tells Dorothy how to use the golden cap and Glinda tells her how to use the silver slippers. And when you use the power for good out of love, then you have the balanced three-fold flame.
Wayne
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