Alton Towers, Sir Francis Bacon and the Rosicrucians

[gottathink]

On the topic of analysing Through the Looking Glass…mathematician Martin Gardner who wrote The Annotated Alice , also wrote a book bringing together the characters of Wonderland, Oz, Greek Gods, and the modern world. Whilst presenting a mathematical puzzle as the key for Dorothy to get back to earth.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2000

Martin Gardner has given us a delightful addition to Oziana. In this book, denizens of Oz (Dorothy, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow) come to our world via a Klein Bottle. It's unlike any previous Oz book. In it we find the Internet, the gods of Mount Olympus (Apollo "used to take the sun around the earth, but he had to stop doing this when astronomers proved that the earth went around the sun"), characters from Alice's Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land, and the bear detective Sheerluck Brown. Oz purists may disapprove of all this, but I think it's great fun. "Visitors From Oz," with its humor and originality, is one of the very best of the post-Baum/Thompson Oz books.

A curiosity that there was another mathematician pulling these threads together.

 

[moyal]

Session November 2, 1994
A: Think of The Wizard of Oz. It was inspired by us.

The very first book I read in my live was "Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt", the German translation by the book of Wolkow.

Volkov's Magic Land series, as it was called, was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the Eastern Bloc. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in Russia, China, and the former East Germany.

The Wizard of the Emerald City - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Crowley wrote also a Book of OZ
"Laylah, meaning night and death, as well as to its numerical equivalent, Oz, a goat or unrestrained sexual force of creation, this showing the identity of the basic two opposite forces in this generous universe of beauty and strength, in which the lovers may find ecstasy in Pan."

 

[MJF]

The very first book I read in my live was "Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt", the German translation by the book of Wolkow.

View attachment 81136



Crowley wrote also a Book of OZ
"Laylah, meaning night and death, as well as to its numerical equivalent, Oz, a goat or unrestrained sexual force of creation, this showing the identity of the basic two opposite forces in this generous universe of beauty and strength, in which the lovers may find ecstasy in Pan."

I assume Wolkow rewrote The Wizard of Oz to make it more palatable to Soviet audiences by removing unwelcome western references and corrupting influences? However, thank you for bringing it to our attention, as I, no doubt like many, had no knowledge of this alternative version of the Oz story.

As to the name "Oz", Wikipedia mentions a few possible sources for the name:
​

In a 1903 interview with The Publishers' Weekly, Baum said that the name "Oz" came from his filing cabinet labelled "O–Z".

Some critics have suggested that Baum's Oz may have been inspired by Australia. Australia is often colloquially spelled or referred to as "Oz". Furthermore, in Ozma of Oz (1907), Dorothy gets back to Oz as the result of a storm at sea while she and Uncle Henry are travelling by ship to Australia. Like Australia, Oz is an island continent somewhere to the west of California with inhabited regions bordering on a great desert. Baum perhaps intended Oz to be Australia or a magical land in the centre of the great Australian desert.

In 1971, historian Richard J. Jensen theorized in The Winning of the Midwest that "Oz" was derived from the common abbreviation for "ounce", used for denoting quantities of gold and silver.

It seems that Frank Baum was greatly influenced by Lewis Carroll's work as well:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

In addition to being influenced by the fairy-tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Baum was significantly influenced by English writer Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Although Baum found the plot of Carroll's novel to be incoherent, he identified the book's source of popularity as Alice herself — a child with whom younger readers could identify, and this influenced Baum's choice of Dorothy as his protagonist.

Baum also was influenced by Carroll's views that all children's books should be lavishly illustrated, be pleasurable to read, and not contain any moral lessons. During the Victorian era, Carroll had rejected the popular expectation that children's books must be saturated with moral lessons and instead he contended that children should be allowed to be children.

Although influenced by Carroll's distinctly English work, Baum nonetheless sought to create a story that had recognizable American elements, such as farming and industrialization. Consequently, Baum combined the conventional features of a fairy tale such as witches and wizards with well-known fixtures in his young readers' Midwestern lives such as scarecrows and cornfields.

I have no idea if Baum was a Rosicrucian or not but it is interesting how we can see Rosicrucians like Sir Francis Bacon (as Shakespeare), Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lewis Carroll and Jules Verne etc. using literature as a means of transmitting their hidden esoteric knowledge and teachings to mass audiences. The same is also true of Rosicrucian artists like Nicolas Poussin and Salvador Dali.​

 

[moyal]

I assume Wolkow rewrote The Wizard of Oz to make it more palatable to Soviet audiences by removing unwelcome western references and corrupting influences? However, thank you for bringing it to our attention, as I, no doubt like many, had no knowledge of this alternative version of the Oz story.​

I made a translation with online translators of this page: Was machte Wolkow anders?
I think it is the most in-depth comparison one can find.

What did Volkov do differently?
The Differences Between "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Wizard of the Emerald City"

In 1939, the Russian author Alexander Volkov translated the book “The Wizard of Oz” by Lyman Frank Baum into Russian: “Волшебник Изумрудного Города” (= “The Wizard of the Emerald City”). He told the story in a new and slightly different way, emphasizing some aspects and completely ignoring others. In 1959 he revised his version again for a new edition. The illustrator Leonid Wladimirski created his wonderful drawings for one of these new editions in the early 1960s. With these, the book became a bestseller. Wolkow later adapted the first volume somewhat to the sequels. The German edition is based on the 1959 version.

----
In looking for the differences, I came across three different versions of the text, one from 1939, one from 1959 and a later one, which is also the basis for today's Russian editions.

The German edition (from 1964) and the new German edition (from 2005) are based on the 1959 version.

Text version from 1939:
(As a whole, this is closer to Baum's texts than the later editions.)

- Elli is an orphan who lives with her uncle and aunt.
- The sorcerers and some minor characters are not named
- Tiger bears live in the forests between the ravines (this more closely matches the description of the Baum Kalidahs.)
- Handless (armless) tiny creatures with long necks live in the mountains to the north of the Pink Land.

Text version from 1959:
(The German editions are based on this.)

- Elli still has parents now.
- The sorceresses have the names we are used to.
- The tiger bears were replaced by saber-toothed tigers.
- The armless tiny creatures are replaced by the jumpers - powerful jumping people who hit the enemy with their heads and fists

today's text version:

- Before meeting the cannibals, Elli took off her shoes and in this way temporarily lost the shoes' magical protection.
- Lestar and others have their real names.
- The jumpers are now called Marranos.
- The Iron Woodcutter doesn't say he wants to take his bride to the Violet Land.
- other things, (little things)

Judging by the whole, the final changes were made to make the book consistent with the sequels already written at that time. Apart from the major changes listed, there are many smaller textual differences between the editions, such as the replacement of individual words. It can be said that the fairy tale has been completely rewritten several times.
----

In the following years, Volkov wrote five more sequels, all of which were also illustrated by Vladimirsky.

Just as the texts of Baum and Wolkow differ, the most famous illustrations are also designed very differently. The first illustrations for “The Wizard of Oz” were created by William Wallace Denslow:

...the most famous illustrations for “Волшебник Изумрудного Города” are by Leonid Wladimirski and were created almost 60 years after those by Denslow:

There are truly worlds and times between these illustrations. Unlike Denslow, Vladimirski's scarecrow, for example, is a small and round figure; he looks happy and somewhat mischievous. Wladimirski's drawings have a different artistic basis, the figures are more three-dimensional and you can tell that Wladimirski gained experience in an animation studio at the beginning of his career. With his graphic interpretation, Vladimirski shaped the visual perception of Volkov's books in the Soviet Union, the GDR and other countries.

Time and again, readers of one of the two books ask the question: What is the exact difference between them? Is it only the names that differ or are the differences more diverse? However, the answer can hardly be summed up in one sentence. The differences between Alexander Volkov's "The Wizard of the Emerald City" and L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" are more diverse than they appear at first glance. A complete list of all the differences would fill many pages, which is why we will limit ourselves here to the most striking differences and go into them in more detail:

Already the main character in Volkov's book is a somewhat different type of girl than in Baum's, whose book was published as early as 1900. Elli is somewhat more emancipated and much more inquisitive. The yellow brick road in Zauberland [the 'Land of Oz'] is the way she will grow up despite her young age. - Elli lives with her parents in Kansas in an old pack wagon that has had the wheels taken off. Baum's Dorothy is an orphan and lives with her uncle and aunt in a simple wooden house. Dorothy's relatives are described as much more serious than Elli's parents.

While in Baum's work the action begins immediately with the storm after the introduction, Wolkow's Elli first talks to her mother about the existence of sorcerers and it becomes clear that Elli wants a pair of new shoes. This is followed by a narrative interlude in which the wicked witch Gingema, in the distant land of magic, brews up a storm with which she wants to destroy all people.

Later on, it is told that the good fairy Willina took away the storm's destructive power and only allowed it to seize Ellis's parents' caravan and smite the evil witch with it, because she had read in her magic book that it would always stand empty during storms. - None of this is found in Baum, where the storm is a work of nature. Instead, there is an additional dramatic scene in the already flying house: Toto falls through an open floor flap, but is pushed back into the house by the strong pressure of the wind. The name of the wicked Eastern witch crushed by the falling house remains unmentioned.

In Wolkow's work, Ellis's dog Totoschka in Zauberland can speak, like all the other animals. In Baum's work, Toto remains mute. However, in a later volume ("Tik-Tok of Oz") it is mentioned that Toto can speak after all, but that he does not feel like it.

In Baum, the inhabitants of the Blue Land are called Munchkins. A nameless Western Witch rules the Yellow Land and is the ruler of the Winkies who live there. The fairy of the Red Land, which lies to the south and is inhabited by the Quadlings, is called Glinda. It is she who sends Dorthy home at the end. - In Wolkow's work, the inhabitants of the Blue Land are called Chewers (which could be taken as a free translation of the word "Munchkins", but there are other interpretations). The Yellow Land is not yellow at all but purple and is inhabited by the Twinks, who have to live and suffer under the rule of Bastinda. In Wolkow's work, it is Stella who rules over the pink land and the twinks, and in the end shows Elli the way home.

When we look a little more closely at the way the coloured lands are arranged in relation to each other in Baum's work, we realise that there is a system behind it that follows the principles of colour theory with primary and secondary colours. - In Wolkow's work, on the other hand, the arrangement and colouring is arbitrary. He uses special mixed colours, pink and violet, as primary colours.

Baum's unclear delimitation of who or what Oz is, a wizard or a country, is somewhat more difficult. It is not until the fourth volume of the Oz series that Baum explains whether the wizard is named after the land or the land is named after the magic. - The land was already called Oz before the wizard Oskar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaak Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs arrived there. On his balloon were the initials of his first two names: Oz. This reinforced the well-known events of Oskar being recognised as the rightful ruler of Oz. - Volkov got around this by naming the wizard Goodwin and referring to the land simply as Wizardland or Goodwin's Land.

Baum's Dorothy is sent to Oz in the Emerald City. - Elli is sent to Goodwin in the Emerald City. In addition, she is told that she must help three creatures fulfil their fondest wishes if she is to return home. Of all Wolkov's changes, this one is rather clumsy, because if you look at it closely, it means that Elli is only helping the others for the sake of self-interest. In the course of the story it becomes clear that Totoschka also has a wish, namely that of finally defeating the neighbour's dog Hektor.

In Baum's work there is an additional part of dialogue in which the farmer Boq talks to Dorothy about her blue and white patterned dress and the meaning of these two colours: blue stands for the inhabitants of the land and white is the colour of the fairies. In Volkov, Ellis's dress is red and white.

In Wolkow, the scarecrow calls herself Scheuch, because that is what the farmer and a guest present called her at her "birth". She thus has a name. The gender of the scarecrow is not specified, but the "Scheuch" is more likely a male name.
[moyal: "Scheuch" ist the German version of "Страшила" (= 'Strasheela' ("The Scary Thing")). In German scarecrow is 'Vogelscheuche', lit. 'bird-scarer']

When Elli expresses her joy that she was able to grant the Scheuch his most ardent wish when she helped him from the stake, the Scheuch apologises and admits that he was mistaken and that his really most ardent wish is a brain. Elli is unable to grant the Scheuch this wish, but believes that Goodwin is capable of doing so in the Emerald City. Because he stumbles on the way, Elli gives Goodwin a thick branch to help him walk. - In Baum, the Scarecrow only expresses her desire for a brain after learning that Dorothy wants to go to the Emerald City, where the powerful Wizard Oz lives.

One of the most famous changes is that the woodcutter in Wolkow's play is made of iron and not tin; the natural scientist Wolkow was not unaware of Baum's faux pas that tin would rust. Only iron can rust.

In Volkov's case, the woodcutter bursts into tears during his narration and the Scheuch wipes them away again, admonishing him that he could rust again. Wolkow makes a point of the repeated discussions between the two characters about whether it is only better to have a brain or a heart. The Scheuch tells the Iron Woodcutter, while the latter is telling his life story, that Ellis's house has slain the evil witch Gingema. - At Baum's, the woodcutter learns nothing of the Eastern Witch's death.

Between the encounter with the Woodcutter and the one with the Cowardly Lion, Volkov has inserted an additional chapter into the plot:

While the Scarecrow and the Iron Woodcutter are once again discussing whether a brain or a heart is better, Elli is kidnapped by a man-eater. When the Scheuch and the Woodcutter miss the girl, they begin to search and shortly afterwards find the unconscious Totoschka. A squirrel nearby tells them about the man-eater, who has been sharpening his knife to slaughter Elli. But as he is getting tired, he decides to sleep for an hour. Meanwhile, their friends manage to cross the moat around the castle after the woodcutter cuts down a tree to use as a bridge. Then Scheuch and the squirrel climb over the wall. While the squirrel starts to nibble through the ropes with which Elli is tied up, Scheuch lowers the drawbridge for the woodcutter. Then the friends manage to find Elli and escape with her. However, the woodcutter's loud groping awakens the man-eater and he immediately takes up the chase. When the scarecrow stumbles and falls down, the man-eater trips over him. Before he can get up again, the woodcutter kills him with his axe. Elli then spends the rest of the night sleeping in a tree hollow.

In Baum, the woodcutter accidentally crushes a beetle as he marches on and bursts into tears. - In Wolkow's work, this scene is completely missing; it would not quite fit after the previous adventure with the man-eater.
to be continued

 

[moyal]

In Baum's work, Kalidahs, horrible mixed creatures with bear bodies and tiger heads, live in the forest between the two trenches. - In Wolkow's case, they are sabre-toothed tigers.

After the Scheuch suggests cutting down a tree so that the second wider ditch can also be crossed and is praised by the others for his ingenuity, in Volkov's case he rejects this praise, pointing out that he merely remembered that the woodcutter had already cut down a tree trunk once to overcome an obstacle when they freed Elli from the hands of the man-eater. Through these and similar scenes, Wolkow makes it clear to the reader that the Scheuch becomes wise by learning. The others trust him because they know that; for example, they look at him expectantly when they come to the river and get stuck. The scarecrow has to think for a while before he gets an idea. - In Baum's case, the scarecrow suggests building a raft as soon as they reach the river.

After reaching the other shore, the friends at Wolkow's decide to look for the scarecrow immediately in order to save him. - At Baum's they talk about how they can get back to the yellow brick road, and only when they happen to spot the scarecrow in the water after some time do they feel wistful about his fate.

In Wolkow, the queen of the field mice introduces herself by name: Ramina. As a farewell gift, Elli receives a whistle from her with which she can call the Queen of the Mice at any time. - At Baum's, the queen only tells Dorothy that she can call her any time she is standing in a field. Later, however, Dorothy suddenly also has a whistle without it being clear where it came from.

But it is always the little things that make Wolkov's book special. In Baum's book, for example, the scarecrow and the woodcutter spend their night standing stiffly and silently in the corner, whereas in Wolkov's they at least talk to each other in whispers.

In Wolkow's Emerald City, the Wizard only orders Elli and her companions to drive the evil witch Bastinda out of the Violet Land; at Baum's, Oz orders Dorothy to kill the wicked West Witch. When Elli asks Goodwin how she should do this, since she cannot kill the witch, Goodwin says that it is Elli's business and that instead of killing the witch, one could lock her in a cage or drive her away.

The scenes in the throne room are described somewhat differently in the two books:
- In Wolkow, Goodwin has taken the form of a mermaid opposite the Scarecrow. - In Baum, the Scarecrow is received by Oz in the form of a beautiful woman.
- In Wolkow, the beast as which the wizard receives the woodcutter has a dozen eyes and just as many paws - in Baum, there are only five eyes, five arms and five legs.
- With Volkov, the woodcutter goes to the audience with his axe and when Goodwin refuses to give him a heart, he wants to attack him with his axe. Only when Goodwin threatens him that things will go badly for him and his friends does the woodcutter sadly retreat - At Wolkow's, the lion wants to grab the ball of fire that Goodwin appears to him as, but the blaze is so fierce that he refrains. - At Baum's, the ball glows even brighter when the lion doesn't know what to answer Oz in his anger.
- When the friends meet and moan about the wizard's answers, at Volkov's Totoschka is also at the party, fearing that the neighbour's dog Hektor, with whom he wants to fight, will think him a coward. - At Baum's, the green maid warns Dorothy instead to be careful when crying, as her tears would spoil the dress.

One of the striking details that distinguish the two books are the scenes in which the wicked witch fights the friends with the help of her animals. The spell used to call the flying monkeys is also different. Like all spells, it is much more melodic in Volkov's work.

In Wolkow, the flying monkeys do not harm Elli because she wears the silver shoes. - At Baum's they do nothing to Dorothy because she has the North Witch's mark on her forehead; the West Witch, in addition to her fear of the silver shoes, is surprised by the mark on Dorothy's forehead. - At Wolkow's, Elli has not this time and Bastinda is surprised that Elli has the silver shoes and talks to her about the same. Bastinda tells her that Gingema was her sister and she is very surprised that she is dead. Bastinda also wants to know what kind of animal Totoschka is and she threatens Elli that she should look after him if she doesn't want him to end up in the dungeon before she does. Totoschka therefore stays in the cage with the captive lion for his own safety. Elli also sleeps there at night.

In Wolkow's work, the chapter on the captivity of the wicked witch is enriched by the figure of the twinkling girl Fregosa. She is a slave of the witch, with whom Elli befriends. Among other things, Fregosa makes sure that Elli always finds enough for the lion to eat in the kitchen cupboard.

Through Fregosa, Elli tries to persuade the twinks to revolt; Fregosa is very committed to the cause after she overhears at Bastinda's door that she no longer has any magic powers and is therefore after Elli's silver shoes. Little by little, Fregosa succeeds in convincing more and more twinks to rise up against the witch.

In contrast, this character is completely absent from Baum and the witch still has little magic power. After she has captured the first of the silver shoes, she says that she now already has half their power at her disposal.

- In Wolkow, the melting witch laments that she has not washed and brushed her teeth for five hundred years because it was predicted that she would die by water. - In Baum, the melting witch remarks that she never thought she would be defeated by a snot-nosed witch like Dorothy and that now it is over with her evil deeds, Dorothy removes the remains of the witch with a broom. - In Volkov's case, it is Fregosa who takes on this task. Totoschka rushes into the kitchen immediately after Elli has let him out of the cage and regrets that Elli did not know sooner that the witch would melt on contact with water. Elli replies that she is glad she didn't know.

While in Wolkow's case the woodcutter and the scarecrow are found almost simultaneously, in Baum's case there are several days in between, during which the woodcutter found first is already being repaired. Only then do they start looking for the scarecrow again. In Wolkow's case, Elli also has to repaint the scarecrow's face.

Shortly before they say goodbye to the Winkers, Wolkow has a big party where the Winkers commit themselves to washing five times a day in honour of the "Fairy of the Saving Water" (Elli). After some discussion, they agree to wash three times.

The story that the flying monkeys tell Dorothy on the flight to the Emerald City is much more extensive in Baum's work - in Wolkow's there is only a short version of the same story, which boils down to the fact that the flying monkeys once insulted a fairy.

At Wolkow's, Goodwin demands proof that Bastinda is no longer alive, whereupon the Scarecrow points to the golden hat on Ellis's head and suggests that one could call the flying monkeys, of which the Wizard is afraid. - With Baum, Oz wants one more day to think about whether he will fulfil the wishes of the friends. - With Wolkow it is two days.

At Baum's, Toto is startled when the lion roars loudly in the throne room to intimidate Oz. The dog jumps aside, knocking over a screen behind which Oz is. - At Volkov's, Totoschka is not frightened, he sniffs out Goodwin and drives him barking from behind a screen.

The latter asks the friends to hold the dog because it wants to bite him. - At Baum's, Oz is a ventriloquist who can direct his voice so that it sounds as if it always comes from somewhere else. - In Wolkow's case, the friends ask much sooner how their wishes are to come true; Godwin already assures them that a brain, a heart and courage would be no problem for him. - In Baum's case, Oz was born in Omaha.- In Wolkow's case, he also comes from Kansas and his full name is James Goodwin. The following scenes at the fulfilment of the three wishes are also described somewhat differently.

- After the lion has gone, at Baum Oz congratulates himself for having succeeded so easily in making the scarecrow, the woodcutter and the lion happy, and that their imagination that he was able to help them stimulates their imagination and makes them believe that they really got a brain, a heart and courage from him. At the same time, he realises that fulfilling Dorothy's wish will be much harder. After he has had the right idea, a new balloon must first be sewn.
to be continued

 

[moyal]

- At Wolkow's, Goodwin has kept his old balloon, but it needs to be repaired first. Goodwin is sure that he can get hold of hydrogen to fill the balloon, so he doesn't have to fill it with hot air like Oz. Goodwin tells the people of the Emerald City that he wants to visit the Sun Ball, while Oz wants to visit a wizard friend.- At Baum's, Dorothy misses the balloon launch because she has to look for Toto in the crowd first and the tethers break in the meantime. It is also mentioned that Oz has landed happily in Omaha. - At Volkow, Elli takes too long to say goodbye to her friends. A sudden violent gust of wind drives the balloon away. The next day there is a solar eclipse, which the inhabitants of the Emerald City explain by saying that Goodwin has landed on the sun.

At Wolkow's, the Scheuch immediately has a new suit, now green, made; on his hat are the bells given by the twinks, which no other inhabitant of the green land wears. Totoschka rebukes Scheuch, who has become somewhat arrogant, and reminds him that he owes his present life only to Elli. The other friends also agree. Wolkow develops the character further here than Baum does by showing that good qualities are sometimes hidden behind worse ones.

When they have to refuse her wish to take her to Kansas, the flying monkeys explicitly point out to Elli that she has uselessly forfeited the second wish. - With Baum, Dorothy realises this on her own.

At the beginning of her journey to Stella, Elli looks back to the Emerald City after a while. Her companions reaffirm that although Goodwin was a bad wizard, he still granted her wishes. Elli remains silent.

With Baum, there now follows the crossing of a forest with fighting trees and then the crossing of the cute porcelain country. - Wolkow has deleted these adventures without replacement and replaced them with a new chapter of their own, in which they reach a river after several days of walking. The woodcutter suggests they build a raft. The scourer is not very enthusiastic about this, as he has unpleasant memories of the last time they crossed a river. He would rather have them call the flying monkeys. But Elli would rather save the last wish. So they decide to build a raft after all. When they reach the other shore and continue on their way, the friends realise after a short time that they are on an island. They want to spend the night there. During the night, however, a terrible thunderstorm rages and causes the friends great distress.

Now they want to call the flying monkeys, but a gust of wind blows the golden hat away and it rains all night. Towards morning, a huge wave threatens to flood the island. On the lion's back, Elli and Totoschka reach the rescue bank in one piece. There they have to wait three days until the flood waters recede. The lion swims back to the island with Elli and Totoschka, where they find the completely rusty lumberjack. With a lot of oil they can repair it. Meanwhile, Totoschka also finds the golden hat. Afterwards, they fix up the remaining raft and drift downstream, where they also find the remains of the scarecrow hanging in the bushes. They let his straw dry and Elli repaints his face again, as she did after Bastinda's death. Shortly afterwards, everyone can continue the journey again.

At Baum you meet strange little people on a hill with flat heads and no arms, who are described as armless hammerheads. They can snap their heads forward at lightning speed on their long necks. – In Volkov’s case, it’s small men with big heads and strong fists who call themselves jumpers and can jump like rubber balls. (It is only in Volume Four of the Volkov books that it is mentioned that only the others call them Springers, while they call themselves Marranos.) The woodcutter wants to fight against the Springers, but is held back by Elli. The flying monkeys are finally called to help and with their help you get to Stella's castle. At Baum they can only be flown to the land of the Quadlings and then have to cover a certain distance on foot.

At Wolkow's, Stella asks Elli why she wants to go back to Kansas when everything there is gray and desolate; Elli says that this is her home. The idea that the house is the most beautiful, which is also emphasized again and again in the MGM film, is conveyed better in Wolkow than in Baum.

The ending, set in Kansas, is considerably longer in Wolkow than in Baum. – Elli tells her parents about her adventure for several days, Totoschka, who can no longer speak, confirms her words by wagging his tail and also fights with the neighbour's dog Hector.

The fight ends in a draw and both become friends.
When a circus sets up its tent in the neighboring town, Elli meets Goodwin again.

In addition to these differences described, there are a number of other, mostly small, scenes in which the books differ. Some of these are longer dialogues or additional descriptions, but sometimes also small plot descriptions, which are not always as serious as those listed here. Sometimes individual dialogue blocks are just arranged in a different order without any notable differences.

––––––––

Wolkow also used Baum's works for his sequels, but did not adapt them as clearly as he did with “The Magician”. One of the most striking differences between the Baum and Volkov sequels is that Volkov's characters age outside of the magic land and lead independent lives. For Baum, life outside of Oz remains colorless.

The end.

 

[moyal]

I recall that some while back on this thread we examined Dr Joseph Farrell's ideas on the link between the symbols of the hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades in a modern card playing pack and the four corresponding suits of the Tarot which are cups, wands, pentacles, and swords. He, of course, sees an occulted science disguised in these symbols. I will try and dig out the post.​

It's in his books "The Giza Death Star" and again in the new "Giza Death Star Revisited".

I accordingly expanded my table chart of the Minor Arcana and added some more ideas I had meanwhile:

 

[moyal]

It should be added that The Fool ('jester'/'joker') can be assigned the numbers 0 or I or XXII.
O is the best solution.
Compare also with the function that the Joker fulfils in many card games. It can 'replace' other cards.

 

[MJF]

On the topic of analysing Through the Looking Glass…mathematician Martin Gardner who wrote The Annotated Alice , also wrote a book bringing together the characters of Wonderland, Oz, Greek Gods, and the modern world. Whilst presenting a mathematical puzzle as the key for Dorothy to get back to earth.


A curiosity that there was another mathematician pulling these threads together.

But is it?

Thanks to your post, I read that Lewis Carroll admitted himself that he was inspired to write Alice in Wonderland as described below:

3. Hidden meanings
Many people believe that the books also contain hidden meanings on a much deeper level, like the promotion of drug use, or an attempt to mock the political situation. However, most of these allegations rely on speculations and interpretations. We have no definite ‘proof’ that Carroll meant anything at all with his stories, except to amuse his child friends.

Carroll himself wrote the following to a friend in America, when being asked about the meaning of his poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’:

“I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense. Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I’m glad to accept as the meaning of the book.”
(source: Collingwood, “The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll”)

This comment is also applicable to Carroll’s Alice stories. In the article ‘Alice on the Stage‘, he told us about how he expanded the original tale for publication:

[…] many more [fresh ideas] added themselves when, years afterwards, I wrote it all over again for publication: but (this may interest some readers of ‘Alice’ to know) every such idea and nearly every word of the dialogue, came of itself. Sometimes an idea comes at night, when I have had to get up and strike a light to note it down–sometimes when out on a lonely winter walk, when I have had to `top, and with half-frozen fingers jot down a few words which should keep the new-born idea from perishing–but whenever or however it comes, it comes of itself. I cannot set invention going like a clock, by any voluntary winding up: nor do I believe that any original writing (and what other writing is worth preserving?) was ever so produced. If you sit down, unimpassioned and uninspired, and tell yourself to write for so many hours, you will merely produce (at least I am sure I should merely produce) some of that article which fills, so far as I can judge, two-thirds of most magazines–most easy to write most weary to read–men call it ‘padding’, and it is to my mind one of the most detestable things in modern literature. ‘Alice’ and the ‘Looking-Glass’ are made up almost wholly of bits and scraps, single ideas which came of themselves.

Therefore, any theories that claim Carroll’s ‘Alice’ books have one integral, underlying meaning should be taken with a grain of salt.

Given what the C's have said about channelling and how they inspired Baum's The Wizard of Oz, could the C's have inspired Lewis Carroll to write the Alice stories by planting ideas in his mind? If so, there is even more reason to read the stories with an open mind to see what they may be hiding by way of allegory.​

Session 7 October 1995:

A: No, it is just merely the point at which we must review for you the modus as opposed to the locus. You have begun to lose sight of the fact that Cassiopaea is a channelling point for three level density transfer, not our "home," as such.
And
Session 6 June 1998:

A: It would lead directly to verity on a scale never before seen on earth while at 3rd density STS.

Q: And what would be the result of this verity?

A: The truth shall set you free... as you are imprisoned!
[....]

Q: Are these bloodlines carrying a specific codon that is designed to activate at a certain period of time or in response to a certain frequency?

A: Possibly, but why should not that apply to everyone?

Q: Okay, so we have got ticking time bombs in our DNA, all of us!

A: Maybe.

Q: Alright, bizarro... (A) It is not necessarily time bombs, these are bombs which could be ignited by something else, like knowledge. (L) Is that the case, that knowledge could unlock these codons?

A: Yes.

Q: Certain activities such as meditating?

A: Yes. Or... channelling.
And

Q: (A) There are several people who essentially think the same direction as we have been discussing... they are almost on the same track. Matti Pitkanen is one of them and Tony Smith is the other. How can these two guys have these similar ideas without having access to channelling?

A: Who said they they have no access to channelling? Some channel without knowing it.

Alternatively, he could have been inspired by Thor's Pantheum of psychic projectors under Project Awaken:

Session 21 September 1996:

Q: (T) Is there any significance to the ID4 movie?

A: Sure.

Q: (L) What was the primary intention of the makers of this movie? The primary message that they attempted to convey?

A: Infuse thinking patterns with [planchette swirled a few times here] concept of aliens.

Q: (L) They intended to infuse thinking patterns with concept of aliens... was there any particular slant on aliens, per se, that was seen as desirable in the making of this movie?

A: Slant?

Q: (L) Slant, in other words, did they wish to present them inaccurately to confuse people, to present them as something to be feared and fought against, or to make them appear so completely erroneous, so that when actual aliens do appear, that they will not be perceived as negative?

A: Infuse.

Q: (L) Infuse. Just the concept, the concept of aliens in general. OK...

A: Part of a larger project.

Q: (L) And what is this project?

A: Called "Project Awaken."

Q: (L) And who is behind, or in charge of, this project?

A: Many.

Q: (L) Who are the primary group, groups or individuals? I'm sure you're not going to give us individuals, but just the grouping.

A: Thor's Pantheum.

Q: (L) And what is Thor's Pantheum?

A: Subselect trainees for transfer of enlightenment frequency graduation.

Q: (L) What is enlightenment frequency graduation?

A: Think!

Q: (L) Enlightenment frequency graduation... so, subselect trainees...

A: Self explanatory.

Q: (L) Well, is this group STS or STO?

A: Both.

A: There is more to all of this than you could dream. [MJF: Perhaps "dream" may be a key word here, given how Carroll ended his book Through the Looking Glass - which ends with the line "Life, what is it but a dream?"]

Q: (T) There's more to all of this...were you referring to... Who are they? Thor's Pantheum. And they're subselect trainees...That's the group behind this movie; OK...

A: An army of Aryan psychic projectors.

Q: (T) Well, that explains a lot more than Thor's Pantheum of subselect trainees! An army of psychic projectors. (L) And what do they project?

A: Themselves... Right in to one's head.

Q: (T) Into one's head... this is better than 'Must See TV!' (L) Project right into one's head... is anybody subject to this projecting?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) And, when they project themselves right into someone's head, what does that someone perceive?

A: Inspiration.

Q: (L) Inspiration to what, or to do what?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Yes? To do what, to do something?

A: And...

Q: (L) To do something, and to understand or perceive something, is that it?

A: Yes.

Q: (J) To believe something? (L) Yes. So, how many are in this army?

A: 1.6 million.

Q: (L) When they're doing this projecting into someone's head, where are they projecting from?

A: Mostly subterranean.

Q: (L) Subterranean, so these are the people of the tunnels, the underground bases and all that sort of thing. Are they 3rd or 4th density beings?

A: Both.

Q: (T) Let me back up to a question here. If they can do all this projecting on their own, what was the point of the movie?

A: No, you misunderstand... This is an intense activity, directed towards influencing the high level creative forces.

[....]

Q: (L) What are these high level creative forces that are needing to be influenced, or desirable of being influenced?

A: Those in the creative arts.

Q: (L) So in other words, I see, this group is using their projecting ability to influence those in the creative arts to do creative things that will therefore influence the people on the planet. Is that it?

A: Yes.

[....]

Q: (T) But they were the ones who brought it up! (L) Well, yes, but maybe they want us to get on to the subject of this 'Thor's Pantheon' thing? (T) Well, I want to make sure that we're not missing something... (T) So, we're looking at some Aryan psychic projectors who are trying to stimulate people in a positive way, a la Gene Roddenberry... (L) Now, that's an assumption. Can we say that they are stimulating people in a positive way?

A: Maybe.

Q: (J) Can we say that they are stimulating people in a negative way?

A: Maybe.

And Lewis Carroll, as a novelist, certainly can be said to have been a member of the creative arts. This, of course, should be set alongside what he may have learned through his interaction with the Orphic Circle, who we know practised channelling through sacred mirrors (psychomanteums) and trance mediums.

On top of all that, we know Carroll had worked on theses stories simultaneously over a period of several years before he committed them to publication. Indeed, he may have received the original inspiration for Through the Looking Glass when, as a student, he was acting as a maths tutor to Emily Wood, the daughter of wealthy landowner Sir Charles Wood, the owner of Hickleton Hall, where he may well have met a seven year old blonde girl called Mary Ann Heath who had accompanied her father Robert Heath and mother on a visit to Hickleton Hall in August 1851. Graham Phillips argues that Carroll may have seen Mary Heath's tulpa (a supernatural projection or copy of one's self) in the mirror at Hickleton Hall, as Phillips claims to have done himself in the curiously named 'Alice Room' at the Victorian era Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire, where the mirror now resides. I have yet to write about Mary Heath, the possible founder of the Meonia or Fire Phoenix group, in any real depth but she seems to have had uncanny psychic abilities and may have been the person to have found the Green Stone after it had been hidden away by a Catholic recusant in the reign of James I.

Perhaps somebody could ask the C's who was the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll's two tales.​

 

[MJF]

It's in his books "The Giza Death Star" and again in the new "Giza Death Star Revisited".

I accordingly expanded my table chart of the Minor Arcana and added some more ideas I had meanwhile:
View attachment 81311

As to mentioning Joseph Farrell, you beat me to it since I have recently been looking at his work again. I have yet to read his new book The Giza Death Star Revisited". He only made a cursory reference to the Minor Arcana of the Tarot Deck in The Giza Death Star. However, he did go into far more detail in his book The Giza Death Star Deployed. It was actually the esoteric researcher William Henry (who has an interesting take on the Grail and someone I hope to quote more from in future) who drew Farrell's attention to the parallels between standard occult [symbols] (or ceremonial magick talismans of power), the Tarot Deck and a standard modern pack of playing cards. Quoting Farrell:​

Occult Symbol: Cauldron Sword Spear Stone/Crystal
Tarot: Cups Swords Wands Pentacles
Modern Cards: Hearts Spades Clubs Diamonds

A further parallel exists in the accoutrements of the practitioner of ceremonial magick:

Occult Symbol: Cauldron Sword Spear Stone/Crystal
Tarot: Cups Swords Wands Pentacles
Modern Cards: Hearts Spades Clubs Diamonds
Magick: Chalice Dagger Wand Crystal

Ralph Ellis in his Thoth: Architect of the Universe, points out a possible "paleophysical meaning" behind the minor trumps of the Tarot and the modern pack of playing cards, stripping away one layer of a possible physics origin for something a simple as a deck of playing cards:​

Item: Number: Physics Analogy:

Number of cards 52 Number of weeks in the Terrestrial solar year

Number of cards per suit 13 Number of Lunar Months

Number of picture cards 12 Number of Terrestrial Months

Number of suits 4 Number of Seasons

Number of spots (pips) 364 Approximate number of days in the Earth's solar orbit

Interestingly enough, the only survivor of the Major Trumps from the Tarot deck in the modern playing cards deck is the Fool, or as is more commonly known, the "Joker". Giving it an arbitrary value of 1,234 would increase the number of "pips" or spots in the playing card deck to 365,234, a number reflecting the current calendrical system of counting the number of days in a year.

But one may go further, much further, in uncovering possibly encoded deep layers of physical meanings latent in the now garbled traditions of esoteric practice. For example, in the typical "Tarot reading" the reader is supposed to clear his mind, concentrate on the question of being asked of the cards, and then begin the "shuffle". What basis in physics might these seemingly simple acts have? Since quantum mechanics and more recent scientific investigations into the relationship of consciousness and physical reality have posited some sort of connection between Observer and observed effect, the following relationships suggest themselves:

Tarot Reading: Possible Underlying Physics:

Clearing the mind and focus on the Question Posited links between the mind the structured potential of the
Zero Point Energy

The Deck itself "Infinite" information potential of the field

The Shuffle Analog random number generator

The Spread Union of the previous steps, i.e., of form and matter: the structured potential of information in the field

Extending this analogical analysis even further, recontextualising the four standard talismans of power reveals more tantalising possibilities when viewed in the contexts of electromagnetics and topology:
​

Occult Symbol: Cauldron Sword Spear Stone/Crystal
Tarot: Cups Swords Wands Pentacles
Modern Cards: Hearts Spades Clubs Diamonds
Magick: Chalice Dagger Wand Crystal

Electromagnetism: Capacitor Waveguide Antenna Crystal/Lattice
Topology: Basins of Bifurcation Maps Matrix/metric
Attraction

As you can see from the above, Farrell believes there is an occulted, hidden science disguised behind the Minor Arcana of the Tarot Deck, which has been carried over into the modern pack of playing cards. It is interesting therefore that playing cards, especially the Queen of Hearts, should play a prominent part in Lewis Carroll's tale Alice in Wonderland.

Under the above analytical table, you will note that the Cauldron (as in the Dagda's or Cerridwen's cauldron) is linked with Cups, Hearts, a Chalice, a Capacitor and Basins of Attraction. In my view, the Cauldron is the Ark of the Covenant, in which was stored the Grail but also a lethal power cell (according to the C's) used as a weapon by the Israelites, that may have operated by storing and then discharging energy as a powerful electrical capacitor. Moreover, in my view, the Grail is symbolised as a stone or crystal, which can be linked to Pentacles, Diamonds, a crystal lattice and a matrix, as found within the pure crystal skull artefact held by the Knight Templar, which they called Baphomet. In Moyal's revised table, the Swiss-German Tarot deck substitutes Roses in place of Hearts and Cups or a Chalice (the Christian symbol for the Grail). This is intriguing since the rose may well be a hidden symbol for the Grail, as in the rosy cross (croix rouge) of the Rosicrucians and the Rose of Sharon of Jewish scripture.​

 

[moyal]

In Moyal's revised table, the Swiss-German Tarot deck substitutes Roses in place of Hearts and Cups or a Chalice (the Christian symbol for the Grail). This is intriguing since the rose may well be a hidden symbol for the Grail, as in the rosy cross (croix rouge) of the Rosicrucians and the Rose of Sharon of Jewish scripture.​

And the 'clovers' (!) look like a cross. The 'sacrificed boys' are from Crowleys notorious remark in the footnote of Magick in Theorie and Practice, where he boasts about how "The magical records of Frater Perdurabo [he himself] show that he offered this special sacrifice on average about 150 times a year in the years from 1912 to 1928 e.v. ..." This is his way of expressing that he has jerked off so many times.
Sperm not used for procreation is a 'sacrificed child'. The rose stands for the vagina and the cross for the penis in O.T.O. That was his way to reveal 'secrets' without doing it 'technically'. Then we have 'Jesus on the Cross' etc. The acorn ('a...corn') is a seed 'like sperm' and looks like a penis. 'Eichel' in German designates the seed of the oak tree and also the top of the penis.
Water and Fire, Heh and Jod, Rose and Cross.

 

[moyal]

Regarding the symbolic of the Tarot, one should also take note of the Vaticinia Nostradami.
Here we have mystical-theological propaganda imagery that seems to be related to that of the Tarot.

-> The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus

It's not just these. It's a whole genre: Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus

 

[MJF]

And the 'clovers' (!) look like a cross. The 'sacrificed boys' are from Crowleys notorious remark in the footnote of Magick in Theorie and Practice, where he boasts about how "The magical records of Frater Perdurabo [he himself] show that he offered this special sacrifice on average about 150 times a year in the years from 1912 to 1928 e.v. ..." This is his way of expressing that he has jerked off so many times.
Sperm not used for procreation is a 'sacrificed child'. The rose stands for the vagina and the cross for the penis in O.T.O. That was his way to reveal 'secrets' without doing it 'technically'. Then we have 'Jesus on the Cross' etc. The acorn ('a...corn') is a seed 'like sperm' and looks like a penis. 'Eichel' in German designates the seed of the oak tree and also the top of the penis.
Water and Fire, Heh and Jod, Rose and Cross.

Well that is interesting. if you were not aware, there are a small number of references to Crowley in the transcripts:

Session 25 October 1994:

Q: (L) What was the energy fuelling the crazy sick life of Aliester Crowley?

A: Lizards.

Session 9 June 1996:

Q: (L) Next, Aliester Crowley, who claimed to be the most evil man on the planet: was he capable of doing the things he claimed in his magical operations?

A: No.

Q: (L) Was he used by other people?

A: Yes.

Session 31 July 1999:

Q: Was Aliester Crowley connected with any of these people involved in the Montauk project?

A: No.

Q: Was Aliester Crowley just a looney tune on the outside...

A: No.

Q: What was Aliester Crowley's role in all of this?

A: Role?

Q: Did Aliester Crowley have a role in ANY of this Montauk/Philadelphia business?

A: No.

Q: So what Aliester Crowley was doing was altogether separate, though it may have been of interest to some groups?

A: Separate, though it may have occasionally intersected.

As to Crowley's interest in Montauk, I attach comments by Prof. Richard Spence that discuss Crowley’s activities in America: based on an extract from a Page of the US Army Military Intelligence Division file on Crowley that Spence was able to obtain, which mentions Crowley visiting Montauk Point:​

Crowley was a controversial figure, he was a lousy businessman, he always seemed to be short of money, yet one of the things to notice is that he’s never without some money to live, and he’s never without food, and he’s never without associates. He’s not just lucky. There are people looking out for him, and some of those are his followers, and some of them I think were mysterious forces at work in that case. But he tends to get in trouble if he starts talking about these things because another rule in intelligence is that you keep your mouth shut. Basically works this way: You never say what you did for us, and we’ll never talk about what you did for us, and that’s the way the situation ought to be. The British consulate in New York is saying this guy is doing official business. What official business? If you look at Crowley’s visible activities, he’s going camping on Esopus Island, he’s up at Montauk Point, or he’s consorting with his ‘Scarlet Woman’, and seems to be doing a lot of nothing, other than travelling around, consorting with some other occultists. And yet he’s on official business from the British government. So, the mere fact that you cannot visibly see that business gives you an idea.

Presumably, he was doing some intelligence gathering on behalf of British Intelligence.

If you are interested, I will try and make time to publish the whole article, which delves deeply into Crowley's alleged intelligence operations. ​

 

[moyal]

According to Grosche (Fraternitas Saturni) Crowley was also consulted by the Ahnenerbe before the departure of the expedition to Tibet.
Maybe he was a hexatrouble agent on one's own command.

18.10 Questioner: I see. The entity Aleister Crowley wrote “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.” He was obviously in understanding, to some extent, of the Law of One. Where is this entity now?

Ra: I am Ra. This entity is within your inner planes. This entity is in an healing process.

18.11 Questioner: Did this entity, then, even though he intellectually understood the Law of One, misuse it and therefore have to go through this healing process?

Ra: I am Ra. This entity became, may we use the vibration sound complex, overstimulated with the true nature of things. This over-stimulation resulted in behavior that was beyond the conscious control of the entity. The entity thus, in many attempts to go through the process of balancing, as we have described the various energy centers beginning with the red ray and moving upwards, became somewhat overly impressed or caught up in this process and became alienated from other-selves. This entity was positive. However, its journey was difficult due to the inability to use, synthesize, and harmonize the understandings of the desires of self so that it might have shared, in full compassion, with other-selves. This entity thus became very unhealthy, as you may call it, in a spiritual complex manner, and it is necessary for those with this type of distortion towards inner pain to be nurtured in the inner planes until such an entity is capable of viewing the experiences again with the lack of distortion towards pain.

 

[moyal]

...Moreover, in my view, the Grail is symbolised as a stone or crystal, which can be linked to Pentacles, Diamonds, a crystal lattice and a matrix, as found within the pure crystal skull artefact held by the Knight Templar, which they called Baphomet. In Moyal's revised table, the Swiss-German Tarot deck substitutes Roses in place of Hearts and Cups or a Chalice (the Christian symbol for the Grail). This is intriguing since the rose may well be a hidden symbol for the Grail, as in the rosy cross (croix rouge) of the Rosicrucians and the Rose of Sharon of Jewish scripture.​

Let a menstruating women sit on a white sheet of paper for a while...
How does one reincarnate from 5D to 3D? With a TransDimensional Atomic Remolecularizer. Naturally.
Hopefully they didn't just bury a dead cat on Oak Island. (just kidding)

also:

(L) Okay. Are women's menstrual cycles putting them in a near constant state of emotional vulnerability?

A: Nonsense. It makes them receptive to cosmic energies for the purposes of creation of life.