For some reason, this one time, distinct from any earlier viewing of the film, I had a visceral reaction to Glinda’s announcement about Dorothy always having had the power to go home—all she had to do was click her heels three times, and she would be back in Kansas in an instant—and I (((snapped))) My resigned, bitter, and jaded self screamed out, “What?! Are you kidding me?!” Dorothy should have backhanded that glitter bitch and shoved that wand up her … (((breathe))).
In that moment, I shocked myself. “Wow, what was that about?” How had I arrived at this place of crapping on the altar of one of my childhood sacred icons? I turned off the television, reached over, and removed a random selection from the stack of my recently acquired inspirational and self-help books, hopeful I would find some clarity in what this was and how I could navigate some sort of comforting insight. I did find what I was looking for in the form of a confronting bitch-slap of get-real. I had yet to hold myself accountable for how I was showing up in my life and had to get real about my part in what I was working with. I had a rude awakening when I realized my rage-filled outburst stemmed from an unconscious chronic resignation cloaked in cynicism. Having fallen prey to a series of disappointing life-happenings, I was using them to stifle my potential and hide my worth. Similar to Dorothy using Miss Gulch as the reason for her unhappiness, I was using external influences as the source of mine. I had disconnected from my natural wiring to thrive and was using my disappointments to justify not stepping up effectively in my own life. In doing so, I had become deaf to any guidance pointing me in the direction homeward to my authentic self. Though my life was rich with possibility, I couldn’t see it; I couldn’t hear it. And if someone had told me, like Dorothy, I wouldn’t have believed them.
I then thought of Dorothy unleashing her rage on the Wizard when he reneges on his promise to provide support in solving all of their problems, thus preventing the four friends from access to their heart’s desires—or so they thought. Recalling the themes addressed in my library of self-help books, I began to connect some dots on how getting to the point of rage can be a profound place of release, relaunch, and healing. Anger has fire to it, where resignation has little, if any, charge. It was because of Dorothy’s unwillingness to accept disappointment and defeat that she could launch herself beyond what she had previously perceived as limitations. I could, if I chose, deny my own private Kansas, trapped in my rock-bottom-of- the-well perspective, and launch myself upward. The key to the success of my efforts, similar to Dorothy’s experience, was to rethink how I related to myself, my life, and myself in my life. To change my mind about who I thought I was and what I was capable of, to align myself with the version of me willing and able to kick serious butt along the yellow brick road of my life. To spin my life events into gold. From this perspective, how I would see and experience the world would shift dramatically, and I could gain access to answers, solutions, and possibilities I would not otherwise have known to consider.
The moment Scarecrow asks Glinda why she didn’t tell Dorothy this before, to which Glinda calmly responds, “Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to find out for herself,” made so much more sense to me. It’s not that we’re too dense or naive to understand; we’re just not yet ready to hear the answers and the guidance. We have not yet navigated our way to being in alignment with the clarity that clears the path to our poten- tial. We have work to do to liberate ourselves from our training around thriving and to realign ourselves with the vibration of our potential. Dorothy had to get over it and stop blaming Miss Gulch in order to take down the Wicked Witch of the West, both of whom were manifested metaphorical representations of Dorothy’s internal dialogue and beliefs about herself. I, too, had internal work to do—course-correcting and training and rewiring beliefs I had about myself and my potential.
It was in my outburst, sitting in front of the TV that day, that I was able to make my way to the connection and really under- stand the insight of Glinda’s invitation back in Munchkinland, to “start at the beginning.” Glinda wasn’t floating in a mindless bubble of ethereal goop. She was clear and unapologetically calm in her eternal awareness, immovable with the strength of grace in her belief in the unlimited potential of the human spirit when unharnessed from self-imposed limitation mistaken for truth. Like the masters who have walked the planet throughout human history, Glinda was tapped into a higher consciousness, the perspective from which she guided and facilitated Dorothy on her journey. And it was from here that Glinda’s insight was anchored and her guidance offered, which profoundly included the wisdom to hold on to the answers until Dorothy was ready and able to believe their clarity, trust their simplicity, claim them for herself, and act on them.
