Disney and the Occult

Welcome to the Paranoid Style Podcast! It's spooooky October! Every episode this month will have a spooky theme and this week we're starting with the scariest thing we could think of… a cease and desist letter from Disney lawyers. That's right, Mouseketeers, this week is Disney and the Occult! We're delving into all the weird, creepy, possibly esoteric stuff that you can find in all Disney movies, TV shows and even in the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! From the walking, talking, singing and dancing dead to the good and bad witches, from magic wielding mice to yellow hounds from the underground. Are you a puppet longing to be a real boy or are you a 33 degree Freemason sitting on top of the world? Either way, this episode is like a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. 

Please subscribe where ever you get your podcasts. If you have any topic suggestions for the show or any tales to share, please email us at theparanoidstylepod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @theparanoidstylepod or on twitter @style_paranoid.  

The Carl Stalling arrangement from Disney's "Skeleton Dance" is still under copyright, so we have used a free version of Edvard Grieg's "March of the Trolls" from Free Piano Tutorials on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBlE6pjsULp5gA7vl8-4F4A  

Opening theme music provided by Tony Molina. You can hear more of his music at https://tonymolina650.bandcamp.com/

Transcript

CCK: Hey, Sister!

ARK: Hey, Sister.

CCK: And welcome listening audience to The Paranoid Style Podcast. My name is Christine and I….

ARK: I’m Amanda and I freakin’ love Disneyland. … which is not always something that I am proud of, since there are also a lot of things that do make me question the Disney magic, like their unwillingness to pay their employees a living wage and their reliance on goods made in China, by what we can probably safely assume is a slave-labor workforce. 

CCK: Well, we all do things in this world that we’re not proud of. But, there is definitely no shame in rating and reviewing our podcast. Also, please consider following or subscribing to it, so you don’t miss a single episode. 

ARK: “I don’t see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad”. I am often conflicted about enjoying Disney products due to their shady as hell business practices. But, I am less concerned about what other people may see as Disney’s hellish as hell substance… Which brings us to our first episode for Spooooky October… Sister, tell me what you know about Spooky Disney (the darkside of Disney/Disney and the Occult)…

CCK: I think the best thing to do would be to “Begin at the beginning, go on till you come to the end: then stop.” [mad hatter] And the beginning for this tale begins with a man named Walt Disney. Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. When Disney was four, the family moved to Marceline, Missouri, which would later serve as the inspiration for Main Street, USA, the first themed-land after entering the main gates at Disneyland theme parks.

ARK: When Walt was a young man, he joined the Order of DeMolay, a youth group off-shoot of the Free Masons. And there are some people that believe that Disney would eventually reach the highest, secret level becoming a 33rd degree Mason, although, as far as I could tell, there is no solid evidence that Disney remained a Mason beyond that youth organization. Some people also believe he may have been a member of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, AKA the Rosicrucians, a group that is dedicated to the mystery traditions, philosophy, and myths of ancient Egypt. 

CCK: Curiouser and curiouser. It was in his hometown of Marceline where young Disney first developed an interest in drawing. In 1927 Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal Pictures.

ARK: Mickey Mouse in bunny cosplay. 

CCK: Universal owned the rights to Oswald the Rabbit, but after over a dozen cartoons produced by Disney, he parted ways with Oswald, due to what he felt were unfair and underhanded practices by Universal. And in 1928, Disney created a character that would become the most successful in film history and would become the bedrock on which a global entertainment juggernaut would rest…

ARK: Oswald Rabbit in mouse cosplay. 

CCK: Michael Theodore Mouse. AKA Mickey Mouse.

ARK: And although that original mouse design was created by Walt Disney, it was Disney’s chief animator, Ub Iwerks, that would refine Mortimer’s, I mean Mickey’s look and was responsible as the sole animator on several of the first Mickey cartoons, as well as others produced under Disney Studios.

CCK: One of the first and probably most iconic appearances of Disney’s and Iwerk’s new creation would be released in November 1928. Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse was one of the earliest cartoons with synchronized sound, and it was the most successful up to that point. “You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from.” (brad garrett french)

ARK: It was during these very early days when Disney was experimenting with the synchronized sound that he decided to hire professional composer and arranger Carl Stalling, and it was Stalling that encouraged Disney to create a series of animated short films in which the animation would match the musical accompaniment. And the very first Silly Symphony is also our first foray into the spooky side of Disney… “The Skeleton Dance”

**Tiny excerpt from “The Skeleton Dance” here**

CCK: The music for the short was a piece from an orchestration written in 1891 by Norwegian composer and pianist, Edvard Grieg; the piece used in the Disney cartoon was the one titled “Troldtog” or March of the Trolls. The animated short begins with an owl perched on a branch in front of a full moon. And as the church clock tolls midnight, four human skeletons emerge from their graves and begin their danse macabre. The dancing appears to go on all night because the revelry only stops at the sound of the cock’s crow, the skeletons, scared, rush back into their graves to hide. 

ARK: The danse macabre, literally dance of death, is meant to stand as an allegory about the inevitability of death, which I guess some people find disturbing when it is done in a medium which is traditionally aimed towards children. “Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory…”But it’s a theme that pops up a lot all over Disney’s films and even their theme parks. 

CCK: One of Disneyland’s most beloved attraction…

ARK: And my personal favorite, as well…

CCK: Is the Haunted Mansion. Within the first few minutes into the ride, actually, before you’re even loaded into a doom buggy, you are locked in a room with portraits on every wall depicting people in what is presumably seconds before their deaths: a tightrope walker balanced above the open mouth of an alligator, a dapper gentleman sitting on top of a keg of TNT, or picture of three men stacked on each other’s shoulders as they slip into quicksand. And then the lights go out, there’s a crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning illuminates the ceiling of the room and the man hanged from the rafters. In a ride… presumably for little children. It is dark.

ARK: In issues No. 4 and 5 of Art Issues, Donald Britton wrote a two part article entitled “The Dark Side of Disneyland” in which he points out, quote: “In counterpoint to its more obvious ‘sweetness and light’ aspects, throughout the park one finds evidence of a profoundly morbid preoccupation with death, violence and human decay.” And I think that is kinda true. It’s a little ghoulish… **Human cremains?** And it’s not just the Haunted Mansion, where at the end of the ride, they encourage you to get your death certificate, Pirates of the Caribbean at one time used all real human skeletons in their ride, since it was allegedly cheaper than making them at the time. And while since then they have replaced most of the real thing with excellent facsimiles, there is still one, real, human skull included on the ride, in the headboard of a bed. There’s the crossed-out census numbers at the entrance to the Thunder Mountain Railroad. So, if there is one thing that Disney has never done, not even once in its nearly 100 years long existence, its shy away from the concept of death.

CCK: Lock up your mothers, folks… The Disney films where a mother is killed, died or is captured include…  Dumbo, Bambi, The Jungle Book, The Fox and the Hound, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, Chicken Little, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Big Hero 6.

ARK: It’s an interesting parallel with Disney’s own mother’s untimely death, which he partly blamed himself for. Disney had purchased his parents a home and unfortunately, the house had a faulty furnace with a gas leak. The leak killed his mother and nearly his father too. However, by the time of his mother’s death, Disney had already made several films that featured a motherless child. 

CCK: The motherless child is a common theme that already existed in many of the fairy tales on which the Disney movies are based, like Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Most likely the idea behind it was to expedite the main character’s growth, as well as to give that character a sense of independence and freedom, which they would need in order to embark upon their respective adventures.

ARK: I have always said, “Moms are the ultimate cock-blocks to adventure.”

CCK: You are still bitter that Mom wouldn’t let you hitchhike across the country following Motley Crue on tour?

ARK: Can you think of how different my life would’ve been if I had been given the opportunity to experience this great country of ours?

CCK: You were eight.  

ARK: “It’s up to you how far you go. If you don’t try, you’ll never know” Unfortunately, in the magical world of Disney, sometimes there are worse things than losing a parent… there’s the parent figure you are left with. 

CCK: Like Lady Tremaine from Cinderella? She’s more commonly known as the “wicked stepmother” and she psychologically abuses and punishes her step-daughter, Cinderella, basically using her as a maid and hand-maiden for Lady Tremaine’s biological children, Cinderella’s evil step sisters, Anastasia and Drizella. Not to mention Lady Tremaine’s cat, Lucifer, a name that is often correlated with the devil in Christianity.  

ARK: Or how about Mother Gothel from Tangled, a wicked crone who kidnapped Rapunzel and held her captive in a tower, in order to harness the healing magic from the girl’s hair.

CCK: And let’s not forget Queen Grimhilde, the evil queen, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, she is so jealous of the beauty of her young step-daughter, Snow White, that she attempts multiple times to have the young girl killed, eventually succeeding with a poisoned apple. 

ARK: It’s those last two ladies, oh, sorry, I mean wicked crones, that start to bring us deeper into the eerie goodness of Disney because they are both examples of witchcraft being used in the world of Disney. 

CCK: And Disney is lousy with witchcraft. Films that have examples of witches and/or witchcraft include: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Escape to Witch Mountain, Fantasia, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown…

ARK: Mary Poppins!

CCK: Mary Poppins?

ARK: She may not have been using her powers to get revenge on her younger, prettier step-daughter, but Mary Poppins was indeed a witch. She flies with an umbrella, instead of a broom, she has a magical bag of holding, she talks to animals, and let’s not forget her magic word of invocation…

CCK: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

ARK: “But better use it carefully, Or it could change your life”. Another Disney incantation, besides the demon-summoning “it’s a small world after all” is the spell spoken by the Fairy Godmother in “Cinderella” - Salago-doola, Menchicka boola, Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.

CCK: Put ‘em together and what have you got? Animals transformed into humans, a ballgown manifested out of thin air, and slippers made of glass that do not shatter when Cinderella walks, dances, and even runs in them. The slippers are also the only part of the spell that does not dissipate or transform back at the witching hour.

ARK: Of course, Mary Poppins and the Fairy Godmother are both examples of witches using their powers for mostly good… I’m still a little on the fence about some of Mary Poppins’ moves, but what about the black magic in Disney? Maleficent, from Sleeping Beauty, actually describes herself as “The mistress of all evil”; her name literally means evil and the only thing she does seem to like is her pet raven, named Diablo, the Spanish word for devil. In the 1959 animated film of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, has taken offense at not being invited to the christening of the new princess, Aurora, which by the by is the personified dawn and mother to Lucifer in Roman mythology. Anyway, Maleficent is pissed at the king and queen, and exacts her revenge by cursing the princess to die before the sun sets on her 16th birthday by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle. Luckily for Princess Aurora, more magic practitioners, the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, step in to lessen the effects of Maleficent’s curse, from death to coma that can be broken by true love’s kiss. Which, spoilers, does eventually happen, awakening Aurora from her slumber, but not before Maleficent summons up “all the powers of hell” and turns into a giant, green-fire breathing dragon. 

CCK: It is very interesting that Disney took one of their most evil, hell summoning characters and decided to do a live-action, re-telling of her story to show that Maleficent was not only misunderstood, but actually a sympathetic character, horns and attempted murder aside. But it is a redemption story and I believe at the end of the film, it is Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent that ultimately breaks the curse on Aurora.

ARK: Not all the magic practitioners in the Disney universe are evil, not all of them are redeemable either. The 1993 live action film, Hocus Pocus, tells the story of the three Sanderson sisters, witches living in Salem in the 1600’s. The sisters drain little kids of their life force in order to keep themselves young and vital. They are caught by the townspeople and hanged, but before their death, the head witch, Winifred, casts one last spell that on Halloween night when the moon is full, a virgin will summon them back from the dead so that they can claim the lives of all the children in Salem. Three hundred years later, that’s exactly what happens… and the rest is history, and a sequel to be released in Fall 2022. 

CCK: Hocus Pocus was initially meant to be a made for TV movie, but the Disney head honchos thought it was big enough, and with a big enough cast, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, that it could support a theatrical release… they were wrong. It was a flop at the box office and received many negative reviews, but it has since become a cult phenomenon with a rabid following and has spawned every type of merchandising imaginable, and now, even the child-murdering Sanderson Sisters themselves are included as costumed walk-around characters and in parades during Disneyland Resort’s month-long Halloween celebration. 

ARK:  Now, for the “think of the children” set, there is probably no Disney film more controversial than Fantasia.

CCK: Which is odd, cause as far as I can remember there are hardly any spoken words, at least by cartoons, in that film.

ARK: Fantasia, meaning a musical composition without any distinct form, was intended to be an extension of the Silly Symphonies, animation drawn specifically for a piece music, but this time with less of the funny, slapstick elements.

CCK: Symphonies sans silly. The 1940 animated film consists of eight segments set to classical music.

ARK: Fantasia includes the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which was adapted from Goethe’s poem, “Der Zauberlerling” and tells the story of a lazy apprentice that uses magic to accomplish his tasks and chores for the day. Unfortunately, the apprentice does not yet have the necessary skills to handle such magic and he finds himself inundated with sassy brooms that cannot be controlled and proceed to flood the magician’s home. The apprentice is none other than Mickey Mouse himself, and the skilled sorcerer for which he works, Yen Sid, or Disney spelled backwards. 

CCK: Another of the animated shorts in Fantasia is The Pastoral Symphony, accompanied by Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F, depicts a mythical ancient Greece filled with Pegasus, centaurs, unicorns and other beings and beasts of legend. This cartoon received some flack initially for what some saw as blatant nudity on the centaurs, creatures that are half-human, half-horse. The upset was regarding the nudity on the human of the centaur. But something way more disturbing and way more blatant, unfortunately, is the racist images of centaurs that appear to be of African or African-American descent in the roles of servants to the white centaurs. These scenes have since been cut from circulation of the film since about 1969. 

ARK: And finally, if you thought sweet, misunderstood Maleficent was scary, then you were not prepared for the nightmare that is Night on Bald Mountain. This cartoon features a character known as the Chernabog, which in Slavic mythology, is known as the black god or the god of misfortune, sometimes also referred to as Diabolous. Chernabog, a dark, shadowing figure with glowing yellow eyes, horns, and bat-like wings looms than the mountain and spreads a dark shadow over the tiny town below him. He summons restless souls from their graves. There are demons, ghosts, skeletons, and witches. At one point there are three female figures made of hell fire and as they dance they are transformed into a pig, a wolf, and a goat.

CCK: And while Disneyland resorts may not have the Chernabog walking around taking pictures with tourists and signing autograph books, he has been featured in parades and appears nightly as part of the fireworks and water show, Fantasmic!, where he does battle with none other than apprentice Mickey. Walt Disney had said of the Chernabog in Fantasia that he considered him the devil himself, and spoilers, at the end of Night on Bald Mountain, Chernabog is defeated by the sound of church bells, a procession of robed holy men, and the dawn of a new day accompanied by Schubert’s Ave Maria. 

ARK: According to illuminatimovies.net, Fantasia is rated number one in the top five illuminati mind-control programming films, beating out such other contenders as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Stanley Kubric’s Eyes Wide Shut. Although, after a few minutes on that site, I have come to the conclusion that all Hollywood movies ever made are apparently chock full of illuminati symbolism. 

CCK: I never thought I’d say this, but perhaps illuminatimovies.net is not so far off the mark when it comes to Disney’s hidden messages. In 1989, the animated tv show Duck Tales, which follows the adventures of Scrooge McDuck, and his grandnephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie, featured a highly questionable background in one of their episodes. In the thirteenth episode of the third season, which happened to be the 88th episode, entitled “Yuppy Ducks”, Scrooge McDuck visits his doctor, Dr. Von Swine. In the background of a scene in the doctor’s office is an eye chart whose letters spell out “ASK ABOUT ILLUMINATI! THUG BOYS” 

ARK: And illuminati has actually popped up before in Disney products, specifically in the live-action show called The Suite Life of Zak and Cody, a show that starred the young Sprouse brothers, Dylan and Cole (Jughead on Riverdale). In one episode, the brothers are in their classroom discussing a school assignment and they are standing in front of a blackboard. Written on the blackboard, right over the character’s shoulder are the words “The Illuminati Revealed”. And don’t even get me started on the animated show called “Gravity Falls”, the show’s introduction alone is rife with alchemical symbols, strange cyphers, and pyramid cap-stones with the all seeing eye motif. As a matter of fact there is a recurring character on that show called Bill Cipher who himself is just a pyramid cap stone with one eye and a top-hat. That character is described as a quote “dream demon with infinite powers”.

CCK: Each episode of Gravity Falls has a non-repeating “secret message” cryptogram in the end credits that can be solved with a hint that is given during the show’s opening theme. But in order to find that hint, one must first listen to the theme song backwards. The decoder hint is a whisper right at the end of the opening credits song. That whisper, when reversed, gives a Caesar cipher, like “three letters back”, indicating that the cipher is using a letter three places back from the letter it represents, so A=X, Z=W and so on. That Caesar cipher was used from episodes 1 through 6. Beginning with episode 7, the cypher switched to an Atbash substitution cypher, which reverses the alphabet, A=Z, B=Y, etc. This was pointed out to the viewing audience with a message at the end of the previous episode, which simply stated: "MR. CAESARIAN WILL BE OUT NEXT WEEK. MR. ATBASH WILL SUBSTITUTE”. 

ARK: As someone that was shocked each week when Scooby-Doo revealed that the monster was just an embittered janitor in a mask, I’m not sure how I’m expected to figure stuff like that out from my cartoons. Also, are we sure Walt Disney’s secret society dabbling ended with the Order of De Molay?

CCK: Well, keep in mind all of the last shows we mentioned are several decades after Walt Disney’s death, although, there are some people that would point out that Walt was still alive at the time that he had the idea for an exclusive club inside Disneyland. Club 33, which some point out is a reference to Walt’s 33 degree Free Mason status, is located in New Orleans Square. It was originally designed for the use of Disneyland corporate sponsors and other industry VIP’s, but shortly after Disney’s death, it was decided that Club 33 should be opened to individual members. 

ARK: But, not all individual members are created equally, apparently, since the cost to become a member of Club 33 is $25,000 - $100,000 just in initiation fees, plus an additional $12,500 to $30,000 annual fee, depending on your membership level. Plus, you’ve got that pesky 14-year waiting list to get through, which you’ll only be a part of if you have been invited to join. It’s harder to get into Club 33 than it is to score an invite to Bohemian Grove.

CCK: Speaking of Bohemian Grove (which you can hear us speak about in length on Episode # 3), Walt may have been inspired by his time at the grove.

ARK: Nooo! You mean Walt was a Brother Bohemian?! You mean you can get super shit-faced inside Club 33?

CCK: Well, actually, no and yes. Walt Disney was a guest of the Bohemian Club, and attended Bohemian Grove in 1936, but there are no records that he was a full-fledged member. And yes, now that you mention it, Club 33 is the only place within Disneyland where alcohol is served. But in addition to possibly being inspired by the Bohemian Club to have an exclusive members-only area in the theme park, his inspiration extended into the very first, full-length animated Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

ARK: I don’t really recall any scenes where the dwarves stand around in a circle chanting while burning an effigy in a mock sacrifice to a giant owl deity, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen the film.

CCK: That particular cell may have ended on the cutting room floor, but what did make it into the movie is the iconic, and light-hearted scene where all the dwarves are asleep and snoring up a storm, moving cabinet doors, almost sucking up flies, and just generally making a racket as they sleep. Walt Disney himself stated that this scene was inspired by his camping experience sharing a cabin at Bohemian Grove. 

ARK: I can see it… Dopey’s puppy dog running dream reminds me of George W. Bush, and you know Grumpy is Richard Nixon. “Angel, ha! She’s a female! And all females is poison! They’re full of wicked wiles!”Egads, that is dark… 

CCK: Apparently, there were some other elements from Bohemian Grove that inspired Walt. Like good, old-fashioned women hating. Walt never hired women to work in any sort of creative role, they were strictly secretaries and inkers, mostly. He wouldn’t even let women joint his animator training program because he wouldn’t hire female animators. And his attitude about gender roles is pretty obvious in his earlier films, women are always submissive damsels in distress who need to be saved by a man. 

ARK: “I’m a damsel, I’m in distress, I can handle this. Have a nice day”. Uncle Walt’s discrimination did not stop with women, there were rumors that he was anti-Semitic, the film “Song of the South” alone is enough proof of Walt’s racism, but in case you need more, it’s sprinkled throughout earlier Disney films and cartoons, including Fantasia and Jungle Book. He was also a staunch anti-communist. Walt Disney was one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, whose sole purpose was to investigate how the entertainment industry was manipulated by communism. And in 1947, he testified before the House Committee on Un-American activities and stated that he believed that a Disney workers strike at his studio was the result of quote “a Communist group trying to take over my artists”. 

CCK: Walt’s anti-communist beliefs took him even further when he became involved with the FBI. An FBI file dump in 1993 revealed that Disney turned over to the FBI the names of several people in Hollywood that he believed to be Communists. Disney was also known to allow FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, to review his scripts and make small changes as he saw fit. These files also disclose that Disney was made a “full special Agent in Charge Contact” in 1954.

ARK: And this wasn’t even Walt’s first time colluding with the American government. During World War II, Disney Studios was involved in the production of propaganda films for the US military, in an effort to increase support for the war. From 1942 through 1945, Disney produced over 400,000 feet of educational war films, which is about 68 hours of continuous film. He made films for every branch of the military, as well as the Department of Agriculture and the Treasury Department. He also animated a series of films produced by Colonel Frank Capra of the US Army, that included the films, “Prelude to War” and “America Goes to War”. These films were originally just intended for servicemen but were eventually released to the public in theaters due to their popularity. 

CCK: In addition to the educational films that Walt Disney was commissioned to make, he also made a string of anti-German and anti-Japanese films, for both US military and public consumption. In 1943’s animated film called “Education for Death - The Making of a Nazi”, a young German boy named Hans is exposed to Hitler youth and the Nazi culture, and as the film progresses his value of human life decreases. “Commando Duck” was a short made in 1944 that features Donald Duck infiltrating an enemy base and single-wingedly destroying a Japanese airbase. And once again Donald Duck appears in a short called “Der Fuehrer’s Face,”, made in 1942, this cartoon features Donald Duck experiencing a nightmare in which he is a Nazi working in an artillery factory and surviving on Nazi food rations (smell of bacon and eggs, coffee made with one bean, and a slice of stale bread). 

ARK: Yeah, which means unfortunately, it’s possible to isolate screen caps of one of Disney’s most beloved characters dressed in full Nazi regalia, which is just upsetting. And while these disturbing, and in the case of “Commando Duck” racist, cartoons may have drummed up American enthusiasm for the war effort, they did not seem to diminish the Nazi’s enjoyment of Disney. In a December 22, 1937 entry in his diary, Dr. Joseph Goebbels wrote that for Christmas he gave the Führer quote: 

Goebbels: "...18 Mickey Mouse films. He is very excited about this. He is completely happy about this treasure."

ARK: Speaking of taking Disney out of context, there are some things that people point to as Disney encouraging devil worship, like cartoon characters seemingly throwing up devil horns in cartoons. There are several examples from Snow White to Cinderella to Alice in Wonderland, but I don’t think this is demonic or even symbolic at all. I think this is a way to try and make a two-dimensional image more interesting and dynamic. 

CCK: Or the irrational fear that Pluto the dog was named after the Roman god of the underworld, when it’s a lot more likely that Disney was capitalizing on the newly discovered and named 9th planet in our solar system in the 1930’s. 

ARK: Or once again with Donald Duck being freeze framed and taken out of context with a pentagram drawn on his hand, when that was actually from a short that introduces the basics of sacred geometry.

CCK: “You find mathematics in the darnedest places!” (donald duck) And what’s the harm in wishing upon a star that happens to be Sirius aka the dog star, like many people assert is what is being hinted at in the film, Pinnochio. A star with deep esoteric meaning in the ancient world. 

ARK: Exacty! Well, actually, no… Pinnochio is super disturbing and freaks me out, so maybe, don’t listen to that one. 

CCK: Disney’s Pinocchio is based upon the serialized story that was originally published in an Italian children’s magazine. It was written by a Freemason, Carlo Collodi, and some people believe that a literary analysis of the text reveals a symbolic spiritual allegory and a basic “how-to” of initiation into Masonic life.

ARK: Creepy puppet, gross bug, and frightening whale.

CCK: Gepetto, the puppet master that created Pinocchio, is seen as the demiurge. He’s able to create the physical body, but it’s imperfect and contains no real life. So, Gepetto prays to the brightest star in the sky to have a “real boy”. The demiurge appeals to the greater god to imbue his lifeless puppet with a divine spark that may help him become a real boy aka an enlightened man. The Blue Fairy, blue as another reference to the star Sirius’ light-blue glow, descends from the heavens and gives life to the little puppet, Pinocchio. But, he’s not a real boy yet, since life can only begin after illumination; Pinocchio now must strive for enlightenment. 

ARK: Or in the words of the Blue Fairy: “Prove yourself brave, truthful and unselfish and someday you will be a real boy“.

CCK: Pinocchio’s first step is acquiring knowledge, by going to school, but he is sidelined almost immediately by the promise of fame and fortune. Pinocchio ignores the warnings of his conscience, embodied by Jiminy the Cricket, and instead follows Foulfellow Fox and Gideon the Cat into show business. 

ARK: NOOOOOOooo! Show biz is no place for a young, soft puppet like yourself, Pinocchio!

CCK: He discovers that almost immediately. And despite his best efforts and the efforts of Jiminy, nothing can free Pinocchio from this prison, except divine intervention. Which arrives in the form of the Blue Fairy once again. But, she can only free him if he is truthful to the divine messenger and, more importantly, to himself. So, the Blue Fairy saves him and he’s once again on a righteous path

ARK: Until dot dot dot

CCK: Until he is once again met on the road by Foulfellow.

ARK: The appropriately named Foulfellow!

CCK: This time the fox lures Pinocchio to Pleasure Island a place devoid of knowledge and morals AKA school and laws. Kids can do whatever they want, including drinking, smoking, and fighting all under the watchful eye of the Coachman.

ARK: Oooh, sounds fun. 

CCK: No! Amanda! Pleasure Island is a metaphor for a profane life. It’s the pursuit of instant gratification and satisfaction of our lowest impulses. And the more you engage in this type of lifestyle the quicker you turn into the exact kind of slave that the Coachman needs to work in his mine, in this case depicted as a donkey.

ARK: Like Apuleius’ (App-U-Lay-Us) The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass. A tale about a man so eager to see magic work, without any of the pesky studying, that he accidentally turns himself into an ass. Esoterically speaking, he is focused more on his material self, personified by the ass, a traditionally stubborn animal and beast of burden, than on his spiritual self. 

CCK: Luckily, Pinocchio realizes that he is turning into a donkey and he escapes Pleasure Island and finally returns home, but finds Gepetto, his creator, is gone, swallowed by a giant whale.

ARK: Evil, devil, hell-fish of the sea!

CCK: Pinocchio to save Gepetto, jumps in the water and also gets swallowed by the whale. Pinocchio must escape from the whale’s belly. It is his final initiation, represented as escaping the darkness of ignorance and emerging out into the spiritual light. 

ARK: A common allegory for spiritual enlightenment, as in the Book of Jonah, found in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. 

CCK: So, now Pinocchio is a “real boy”. He was able to cut his puppet strings that held him captive to a material life and now he is an illuminated man in touch with his higher self. Jiminy Cricket gets a gold medal from the Fairy. It is a symbol of the alchemical process that was transforming Pinocchio’s conscience from crude metal to gold. The “Great Work” is complete. 

ARK: “When you wish upon a star. Makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you.”While I do recognize the possible dangers of allowing a huge, multi-billion-dollar conglomerate to commodify one’s imagination, I don’t have a problem with trying to encourage magic in the world. And it’s hard not to think of Disney as just that, magical. 

CCK: Even if that magic is just strategically placed vents blowing out the smell of candy and cakes. Like the smellitizers in all Disney parks?

ARK: There is nothing profane about my love of churros…

CCK: Profane...No, Obscene, Maybe.