The Wonderful Wizard of Oz movie starring Judy Garland has become a classic.  The series of books that it is founded upon and the life of the author however point very strongly to an occult and/or Luciferian connection.  Whatever Baum's actual beliefs may have been it is obvious from a look at his work that he was full of evil ideas, and he apparently made no pretense of being a Christian.  His writings are boldly Anti-christ as we may see even from the title of the his main book, for Wonderful is one of the Lord Jesus Christ's proper names.  Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Psalm 68:1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. 2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

The following information is taken from--
Now Is the Dawning of the New Age piano casters,
By Dennis Laurence Cuddy, Ph.D.

{Editorial comments in brackets by Steve Van Nattan.}

Masons are supposed to be engaged in a search for "light" (Ahura-Mazda is the "spirit of light") with all of their "heart, mind, and strength." In L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the tin man wants a heart, the scarecrow a mind, and the lion wants strength or courage (the master Mason uses the "strong grip of the lion's paw"). In the occult, the heart represents the female (or emotion), the mind represents the male (or reason), and strength stands for action.

L. Frank Baum (possibly a Buddhist) was interested in Theosophy (which he and his wife joined in 1896), and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is on page 36 of the Theosophical University Press 1989-90 catalogue, which features "the principle source-writings of the modern Theosophical movement and seeks to provide a...comprehensive presentation of the ancient wisdom-tradition."

Concerning Theosophy, Baum pronounced, 'God is Nature, and Nature God," and in the Aberdeen, South Dakota Saturday Pioneer (January 25, 1890) he wrote of "an eager longing to penetrate the secrets of Nature -- an aspiration for knowledge we have thought is forbidden." the Theosophists are "searchers for truth" and "admit the existence of God -- not necessarily a personal God." He believed in the theory of elementals (invisible, vapory beings) popularized in Madame Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled (1877), and like the Rosicrucians' belief in the combining of God and nature, and not unlike William Butler Yeats' (Mason and Fabian) search for a new mysticism.

Baum believed in reincarnation, in karma, that there was no devil, and "that man on earth was only one step on the ladder that passed through many states of consciousness, through many universes, to a final state of Enlightenment," according to Michael Patrick Hearn in his book, The Annotated Wizard of Oz (1973). Hearn is also quoted in Children's Literature Review (CLR), vol. 15, as saying "The author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was...well read in the occult sciences...Paraclesus, the sixteenth century Swiss alchemist and physician, divided all spirits into four categories: Air, sylphs; Water, nymphs or undines; Earth, gnomes; Fire, salamanders. These could be expanded to the ancient idea of the four states of matter -- gas, liquid, solid, and energy....A quick glance at Baum's fairy tales reveals that he wrote about each Paraclesian classification of spirits. his sylphs are the 'winged fairies' (Lulea of Queen Zixie of Is; Lurline of The Tin Woodman of Oz); the undines are the mermaids (Aquareine of The Sea Fairies; the water fairies of the first chapter of The Scarecrow of Oz); the gnomes are the Nomes (the Nome king of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus and Ozma of Oz); and the salamanders are the fairies of energy (the Demon of Electricity of The Master Key; the Lovely Lady of Light of Tik-Tok of Oz). Baum seems to have created a highly sophisticated cosmology by interpreting this theory of spirits of 'elementals' in terms of traditional fairies. This is basically a religion of Nature. Modern science itself has its origin in the occult sciences, in the search for the secrets of nature.... It is not by mistake that the Shaggy Man in The Patchwork Girl of Oz refers to Oz as being a fairyland 'where magic is a science.' Both science and magic have the same ends."  {1Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:}

In many of Baum's works, there are revealing references. In The Master Key, a boy summons up the "Demon of Electricity,' and A Kidnapped Santa Claus refers to a "Demon of Repentance." The Tin Woodsman of Oz has a giantess skilled in transformations, and in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, there is a climb up "Pyramid Mountain." Baum was a pacifist, and in Ozma of Oz, Dorothy is shipwrecked, and Princess Ozma (close friend of Glinda, "the greatest of sorceresses") is threatened by the piano help from the Nome king, but he is powerless is the face of her faith and love as she states, "No one has the right to destroy any living creatures, however evil they may be, or to hurt them or make them unhappy. I will not fight -- even to save my kingdom." {Editor's note: This is not non-resistance of the Anababists. It is mind control to break down self-defense.}

In the Saturday Pioneer (October 18, 1890), Baum wrote that "the absurd and legendary devil is the enigma of the Church," and in the Oz books, he said there were both "good" and "bad" demons and witches. (Baum also wrote a play, The Uplift of Lucifer, or Raising Hell in 1915.) Remember when you read Revelation 4:3 ("...there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald"), that in life Satan tries to imitate God. Could this be why Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," while the rainbow looks green in some Oz books because green glasses are worn in the emerald City where the Wizard is upon his throne? {Editor's note: 1John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.}

Women were extremely influential upon Baum. Osmond Beckwith points out in CLR, vol. 15, that "in Oz, the principle boy always wears skirts," and "true love is love between girls." [Editor's note: Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. This kind of gross portrayal can't but make us wonder at what Baum really is conveying. It certainly plays into the Sodomizing of our culture.] According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 22, "Baum complained of being grabbed by spirits when in bed asleep," and his wife, Maud, and his mother-in-law, the radical feminist Matilda Gage, had clairvoyants and seances in their home. Mrs. Gage was also interested in astronomy and palmistry. In 1890, because she felt the mainstream suffragists were too conservative, she founded the Woman's National Liberal Union dedicated to the seperation of church and state.

Baum emphasized the need for "harmony of heart and mind," which sounds like today's New Agers' promotion of harmony through "right human relations" and Ted Turner's "Better World Society" (which also advocates population control). Dorothy in Oz is like the "Earth Mother" of mythology (CLR, vol.15). There are "transformations" of character, and Ozma's magical belt transports people to Oz, where the Wizard has revealed that the"power" to accomplish important things individuals want already resides within themselves. {Editor's note: This is self-acutalization.  Proverbs 18:2 A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.}

A similar message ("The Power Is Yours") is delivered today by Ted Turner's (1990 Humanist of the Year) "Captain Planet" cartoon program on television, where Gaia (the spirit of "Mother Earth") gives five "planeteers," separately the powers of fire, wind, earth, water, and heart (communicated telepathically). Captain Planet himself is actually a crystal in human form, and the five planeteers use the power of their occult magic rings, (with crystals) working together (in harmony) to save "Mother Earth." An episode of ABC television's MacGyver"...had a similar segment where the four elements were used together to find "the eye of Osiris." Another two-part episode of "MacGyver" involved using the Mummer's rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" in a search for the Holy Grail.

It is also possible that Baum chose the name "Oz" from the "O" in Oscar Wilde (famous author {, Sodomite,}and Mason, born just two years before Baum and died in the year 1900, when the Oz books began) and from the "Z" in Zoroaster (founder of the an ancient religion in Persia, now Iran). This is because in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard said that his father named him Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, which he shortened to O.Z. (the remaining initials spell "pinhead"). The Wizard was bald, and James Hastings has noted that Egyptian priests shaved their heads to retain their "super-natural power." The Wizard in called "Oz the Terrible" by those around him, and when one of them asks Dorothy, "Are you really going to look upon the face of Oz the Terrible?" the biblical symbolism seems clearly an attempt to portray Oz as Adonay (a judgmental God), whom Masons also find "terrible" in contrast to their view of Lucifer as the "Light of Illumination."  {Editor's note: Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.}

A third possibility for Baum's selection of the word "Oz" is that according to writer Jack Snow, Baum once wrote that he always enjoyed stories that caused the reader to exclaim with "Ohs" and "Ahs" of "wonder," thus the title The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Another example of Baum's word-play and letter-play are that according to Michael Patrick Hearn, Ozma may be Oz and Maud's (Baum's wife) name abbreviated, and the Rose Princess "Ozga" maybe Oz and Maud's maiden name (Gage) abbreviated.

Baum dedicated The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) to his wife, whom he called "my good friend and comrade." When Baum and his wife traveled in Europe in 1906, they also went on to Egypt, where Maud went up the Great Pyramid. In Baum's books, the land of Oz contains four triangular-shaped countries pointing inpiano coversd (like a Masonic rose croix, or Rosicrucian cross), and the name "Emerald" was possibly selected because that was Baum's birthstone. However, the emerald is also supposedly the stone of prophecy, and that leads to another interpretation of the journey to the Emerald City as a journey to the center of ourselves (to the center of "us," because the Emerald City was the center of "Oz," which Baum pronounced as "was"), to "the god within" where the Wizard said we would find the answer to what we are looking for. This is like the New Agers' search for "the god within."

The land of Oz, with its four countries, is rectangular in shape like the state of Kansas. In the city of Wichita in south central Kansas, about ten years ago a pyramid was built at 3100 North Hillside Street. It was sponsored by the philanthropist Olive Gravey, and designed by Phillip Callahan, author of Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions. New Ager Buckminster Fuller (1969 Humanist of the Year) designed the domes near the pyramid, where today children are sold the comic book, Knight of the White Light. The first issue of the comic was called "The Tale of the Kingdom of Light," as the author (Pamela Wunder Myers) says: "A paradigm [refering to a cultural change] shift occurs when a 'better way' becomes known and understood by the majority of people....Such a shift is now occurring in our culture. John Sir Cosmic on his adventures as he travels to other worlds to discover the New Order and a better way."

In the first comic issue, Sir Cosmic searches for the Land of "Awes" where he finds the Wonderful Wizard who describes the "Divine Science of Nature" and gives a riddle to Merlin that says, "...there is a bit of moon in the rose...." Merlin says, "that which was thought to be sin is but error," so there should be no guilt or blame. The king renames the Kingdom of White to the "Kingdom of Light" and says: "The New Order is born...the Enlightenment of all and in the twinkling of an eye the world became unexpectedly divine!" It should be remembered here that the "New Order" is what Hitler called his blip regime.

To reach the Emerald City in Baum's land of Oz, one has to fallow the yellow brick road which snakes its way through a blue countryside. (the Masonic colors are blue gold and yellow. Golden snakes and Osiris [sun god] are at the entrance of the "Temple of Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third and Last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite" in blip, D.C. where there are many serpents upon the walls beneath a dark blue, starry domed ceiling.) On the road through the land of Oz, Dorothy and her acquaintances come upon a meadow of red poppies which cause them to sleep (Hearn says this is an allusion to opium.)

Love and cooperation rule in Oz, and Masons seek light and harmony. Before meeting the Wizard in Oz, the copiano coversdly lion says he will do what's necessary until the Wizard "promises to give us what we desire"; in Masonic initiation, the individual is asked, "What do you most desire?"

There is also a certain existentialist and gnostic (transcendental "self") aspect to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Wizard in Oz tells Dorothy's companions that what they most desire is already within themselves, which is similar to M.L. Franz's analysis in Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols (1964) that "the problem of an individual's imperfection can only be solved within himself." Hearn says: "Baum's concern is with the presentation of reality and worth and of the power of Self....In terms of the Rogerian [Carl Roger, 1946 Humanist of the Year] method of treatment...a faith in the eventual cure of the individual must be established within himself before any treatment may begin."  {Galatians 2:20, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.}

Just as in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz individuals are told they'll find the power to solve problems within themselves, the same is true in the more recent book and movie Star piano coverss. Similarly, just as the small, shaggy Toto helps Dorothy in Oz (where there are "Winkies"), Chewbacca (a large, shaggy "Wookie") helps the good side in Star piano coverss. "The Force" in Star piano coverss has a good and bad side, and in the motion picture The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the struggle between the "good" white magic of the witches of the north and south and the "bad" black magic of the wicked witches of the east and west occurs in Dorothy's imagination.

What Masons say they desire most is "light," which is also very important in the Oz books. In Tik-Tok of Oz, there is the palace of the Queen of Light, and when Dorothy enters the Wizard's throne room in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, "in the center of the roof was a great light, as bright as the sun." Another wizard in A New Wonderland has a similar light, and these could be called "points of light." Regarding the Oz books and the more recent Star piano coverss and other similar books, remember that 2 Timothy 4:4 says, "And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."  {2Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.}

pp. 61-68, Now Is the Dawning of the New Age piano casters, by Dennis Laurence Cuddy, Ph.D.; published by Hearthstone Publishing Ltd.

graphics by mary vannattan