| |
|
I was a member of a secretive international magical society for five years, and on my initiation to (what I then believed to be) the highest and scariest of its grades, it was revealed to me by my order-superiors that Dumbo – yes, that Dumbo – is in fact an esoteric text on magic, drugs, initiation, and the future of human life on the planet Earth and beyond, Tim Leary/ RAWilson stylee.
I don’t believe that it would be a significant violation of my magical oaths to drop a hint or two concerning the “initiated” reading of this movie. (I bloody well hope it’s not a violation of my oaths – they were pretty darned specific about what the painful and bizarre consequences would be.)
In the story, Dumbo’s mutation is considered to be a useless, freakish handicap. The potential power that Dumbo possesses goes unseen, by him and by everyone else, in the social reality-tunnel of the world he’s born into (the “circus"). He ends up fulfilling the lowest of the roles available to him in that reality-tunnel: the clown; the “butt”, in fact, of the other clowns’ pratfall routines, good only for being on the receiving end of a custard pie (“Shit-Dumbo! Ass-elephant!").
Dumbo then happens to accidently ingest a hallucinogenic drug. A psychedelic vision ensues…his reality-tunnel breaks down…and joining him for the ride is his “familiar”, a set of eyes that doesn’t belong to the circus, a small voice that tells Dumbo a different “story” about who he is…
A gap in memory. And the next thing Dumbo remembers is waking up at the top of a very tall tree. How did he end up here? His “familiar” guesses the truth: He flew. Dumbo has the power of flight. That’s what his big ears are for.
(Huh. That’s funny. The lights in the room just flickered for a few seconds, and the bulb’s making a weird buzzing noise now. …Okay, it’s stopped.)
At first Dumbo finds it difficult to change his perception of who he is; of the extent of his powers. His familiar introduces him to the world of “ceremonial magick”, and with the assistance of a magickal prop, Dumbo manages – without the use of drugs – to fly.
(Shit! The light’s flickering again! Must be something wrong with the fuse-box…the heating seems to be on the blink too, it’s gotten kind of cold.)
Eventually, Dumbo manages to manifest his powers even without the use of the paraphernalia of ceremonial magick.
And the heaviest of animals takes to the sky.
The nightmarish “pink elephants” are just those parts of ourselves – the scary, powerful parts – that we forgot to include when we were drawing the map of who we are.
Ganesha breaks the gravity-chains, smashes through the cages of the circus, soars above the train.
Our starry destiny.
A vision of our Mercury-nature so compassionate, so gently teasing, so *loving*, that it makes me break down crying.
(...On a more sinister note, there are hints in the movie about the involvement of the military in Dumbo's evolution.)
Okay, got to leave it there for now. Someone’s knocking on the front door fairly loud, better go answer it.
Oh, I sure hope it’s not the Secret Chiefs, come to punish me for betraying the order!
LOL! |
|
|
Just checking - resurrecting an old thread to do so. 