RINKITINK IN OZ

   As well as being a master storyteller, L. Frank Baum was
clearly a master of the arcane arts. It would be hard to accept
that the divine secrets hidden in this story of Inga, Rinkitink
and Bilbo could be purely accidental. This tome of occult gnosis
deserves study by all interested in the Great Work.
   Like many of his stories, this one is an allegory of the
journey into and out of the Abyss. These stories of the Dark
Night has often been hidden in childrens literature by the
Illuminated. Wonderland, Oz, and Never-Never land are only three
examples of the many in print. The idea is to get the secrets
into the unconscious of young people before social imprinting.
Once we have been "programmed" by society it becomes very
difficult to re-train ourselves. The descriptions of the nature
of subjective reality in many childrens stories serve as portals
in the stone walls  of emotional armoring we project around
ourselves. These portals give the few with the Will to grow the
needed opening for the light of Gnosis to shine in. 
   The story begins in the kingdom of Pingaree, a peaceful island
of Emerald green grasses and arched trees. The canopy of the
branches protects the  people from the elements and provides a
serene atmosphere when they come back from a hard day of pearl
fishing. By Gematria however we find another story altogether. By
dropping the vowels we are left with Pe, Nun, Gimel, and Resh.
These add up to three hundred and thirty three. The number of the
Abyss. By Tarot we have the Tower, Death, the Sun and the High
Priestess (moon) This is the land of transformation. We enter
through the gates of the Shadow, between the Sun and Moon, the
time sacred to the Surrealists, Dusk. We are carried on the White
Stallion of the higher consciousness, after the death of the
lower self. The Guardian is Heru in his dark aspect, Set. He is
the eye of Shiva that destroys all ignorance, through the
dissolution of the old we transcend to the new. The king of this
land, King Kitticut, is the ruler of the old Aeon. We find this
in his name as K equals Kaph, the letter of Amoun-Ra and Zeus. In
the story he passes on the secrets to the continued peace of the
island, three magickal pearls, to his son Inga. Clearly a
reference to the pearl of divine light in the Hermetic
literature. The first pearl is white and offers wise advice. This
is the Air, spirit element in manifestation, which occurs easily
in the subjective realm. The second pearl is rose colored and
confers protection. It is the shield, or Earth element and gives
the magician protection to get through the Abyss. The third pearl
is blue and gives great strength. It is the Wand, Fire element
and is the Will fully expressed. Inga, the Prince, has been
entrusted with the Sword of wisdom, Shield of protection and the
Wand of Will, but not the Cup of Compassion.All four are
necessary for survival in the Abyss and as one might expect,
trouble comes. 
   Inga is the representative of the new being, of the aspirant
who would pass between the gates of the Shadow and become the
Magus. By Gematria we have Nun, Gimel. The Death of the little
self through the ordeal of the Desert. It also stands for fifty
three, the number of the rock that slew Goliath, the
paleo-primate mind. Like David, Inga must journey through the
lands of Darkness and slay his lower self.
   From the islands of Regos and Coregos soldiers attack.  Regos
is the power between the Sun and Moon flowing through the power
of Air, the arrow of the Centuar. It is the kingdom of Daath on
the move. Coregos is the force of transmigration, Karma, united
with the energies of the dark gate inherent in Regos. They both
represent unsettled states, the lust for material gain that
plagues the tyrant.  These are the Black Brothers who feed on the
uninitiated who enter the shadow realm without the proper
magickal tools.
   Normally the King could drive them away with the magick
pearls, but like most of the fallen kings he mistrusts his power
and keeps it hidden away. There is not enough time to reach the
pearls and save his kingdom. The only people left free are prince
Inga, King Rinkitink and his goat Bilbo. Rinkitink is the ruler
of a nearby country on the mainland that often trades with the
island of Pingaree. Through hermetic investigation we find in his
name the  secret of the first death, the gaining of the kingdom
of Tiphereth. His name contains both Death and the Wheel trice.
For the uninitiated the Rota is the wheel of transmigration or
Karma. It is the power of Zeus. For the initiate, however, it is
the secret of the Hand energized. The Hand is one of hunamkinds
oldest magickal symbols along with the cupule and the Yoni (the
eye in the triangle).It was the source of great power to early
humans, but much of the energy is unused in modern peoples. Kaph,
the hand, is the eleventh letter of most alphabets, it unites the
five of Babalon with the six of the Beast. Also we find in his
name the Sun and Tau, the signs of the elite few who have died on
the cross of the pleroma and been blessed with the true light. We
find this in both his nature, which is the continuously joyful
state of bliss consciousness, and in the secret text which he
carries, a scroll called "How to be Good". This is a shallow ruse
on the authors part to hide the true meaning of the book, "How to
be GOD", and L. Frank Baum may have broken vows to print such
secrets as "A good man is one who is never bad, therefore, in
order to be good, you must avoid those things which are evil".
The King is accompanied by his talking goat, Bilbo. We see in the
name both the messenger and balance, and indeed Bilbo serves both
these functions. Rinkitink is less than fully cognizant of the
situations he is in, being in a continual state of bliss, so the
goat, who is often rude but practical, keeps the king firmly in
the material. 
   When the enemy attacks Inga hides in a tree,  the power of
nature. Rinkintink hides in a well, the cup of compassion which
seems to be his true Will. Bilbo mearly acts the part of the
goat, and the soldiers ignore him. Using the power of the white
pearl, Logos, Inga finds a boat and they go to the islands of
Regos, and Coregos to rescue his parents and the other people of
the kingdom. This is an Abyss myth within the greater context of
the Abyss and is part of the convoluted nature of logic in the
subjective realm. This is the holographic nature of Gnosis, "As
above, so below".
   With the magick of the three pearls Inga drives away the
soldiers, but lacking the forth pearl of compassion, he fails to
rescue his father from the mines (Hades) where he and his people
are enslaved. The deposed king of Regos (Gos) then uses Ingas'
father as a hostage.  In the meantime, Inga looses two of the
pearls, and is captured by the evil queen of Coregos, Cor. The
pearls make their way into the hands of a girl, Zella, who
inadvertently brings them back to Inga. Once the powers of the
initiate have been earned, they can't be lost for long. The girl 
is the Anima of  the aspirant, Zayin, being the lovers who are
the conscious and unconscious united. The double Lamed in her
name is the exalted power of the female, perfect balance of the
Yin which will unite with the Yang. She bravely travels on the
island of Coregos through the woods filled with wild beasts
(negative archetypes) to the evil queens' palace. Zella is so
brave because this is her realm, the unconscious mind, though she
isn't aware of this yet.
   With his pearls safely back in his hands, Inga easily defeats
the evil Queen and King, but they take his parents hostage and
bribe the Nome king, Kaliko, to keep them prisoner. This is a
reflection of the Osiris/Heru and the Persephone/Hades myths.
Once again L. Frank Baum has very thinly hidden the arcane
knowledge as Kaliko is clearly a reference to the spouse of Kali;
Shiva, who is also Set. The job of Shiva is to destroy ignorance.
As the Nome king, Kaliko, he dissolves impairments in the
subjective mind, his underground kingdom. 
   Kaliko willingly takes the rulers of the old Aeons; King
Kittucut (Osiris) and Queen Garee (Isis). He plays the part of
Set-Heru perfectly. Inga, Rinkitink and Bilbo enter the realm of
Nome king, Inga giving the rose pearl to Rinkitink to protect
him. They are given a cordial welcome by Kaliko, allowed to stay
as long as they wish and offered sleeping quarters. Kaliko claims
to have no quarrel with the intrepid travellers. When Inga and
Rinkitink awake they find they have been tricked as they must now
face ordeals in order to get out. With his intellect and strength
to protect him, Inga sets out. His first ordeal is capture by
handcuffs and chains. This is the first of the tricks of the
material world, Karma. Being enough of an initiate to escape
Karmic slavery, Inga easily frees himself. His next ordeal is the
giant, the paleo-primate, Goliath, the lower mind which must be
conquered. With his staff of strength, an iron bar Inga took from
the previous cavern, the giant is also easily dispatched. Inga is
then enclosed in great darkness, and when he moves forward the
floor gives way and falls into the Abyss below, despair. Inga
jumps across the cavern and faces the last of his ordeals. The
baptism by flame, Baphe- Metis. This is a cavern whose floor is
molten rock. Inga throws larger rocks (earth,shield) into it and
crosses, with only superficial burns.
   Being an initiate Rinkitink passes through the ordeals easily
and with good cheer. He is subjected to falling rocks
(oppression), a magic net (Maya, the illusion of duality), a
yawning pit (despair), and flying knives (over rationalization),
all of which fail to harm him due to the  rose pearl he carries,
the shield of Earth. 
   Kaliko still refuses to release the king and queen, and since
the underground kingdom is very large, Inga and Rinkitink are
helpless. At this point another denizen of Oz, Dorothy,
intervenes. She has been reading of the exploits of the Prince in
the "Book of Records" that is in the possession of Glinda the
Good . She set off for the Nome kingdom with the only thing that
Kaliko fears, eggs.
   The universe was formed from the creative Chaos in the form of
the primal Egg. This is the power of illusion that took the pure
Satchidananda and divided it into the primal female-Shakti and
the primal male-Shiva. Set, being the force that destroys the
illusion of the primal creation, naturally battles the forces of
duality. Kaliko, or Set, looses his eternal power (immortality)
to the finite power of the weaver of illusion, represented by the
Egg. Faced with the inevitable forces of Malkuth, Kaliko gives up
his hostages.
   The story ends with the kingdom of Pingaree being restored,
and Regos and Coregos being under the power of just rulers.
Rinkitink eventually goes back to his own kingdom and Bilbo, who
was actually a Prince under an enchantment, goes back to his. All
is better than it was before the Black Brothers marched.

Persona Navitae 353.