Man,
Myth, and MAGICA
by
Victor T. Cypert
In every culture a myth exists of a hero who, sacrificing himself for the
good of all, saves his world and is either resurrected, transcends into a state
of god-hood, or descends into Hell there to fight the minions of darkness on
their own plane. The details in the
various myths may be at odds with one another but the general premise is the
always the same. The eminent
Swedish psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung observed this fact and concluded that the
story of the sacrificed hero was a universal or archetypal set of symbols which
existed in the collective unconscious of the human race.
The latest piece of work by Ronnie James Dio, MAGICA,
contains the essential symbols and conveys Jung’s Universal Myth.
The Universal Myth has been played out in mythologies old and new. It is the Arthurian Legend, it is the Myth of Osiris who is betrayed by Set and ultimately resurrected by Isis, it is the legend of the life of Christ, it is evident in all stories dealing with the Quest for the Holy Grail or any other Grail like object.
In MAGICA, the myth takes on new characters but doesn’t loose its
integrity. The Grand Wizard, Eriel,
has labored hard to bring peace to the land.
He has retired from his labors to the wilderness where he meditates and
prays. Yet his dreams are disturbed
by visions of power and wealth. Here
we see a parallel to the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.
Also, we may compare this to Siddhartha’s temptation that he ultimately
rejects. This pattern, the
rejection of temptation, is a symbol of purification.
By refusing personal wealth, power, and glory the heroic figure is
demonstrating his personal integrity and, more significantly, his right to wield
power as power can not wield him.
Shadowcast, who is described as a “high priest and executioner,”
desires to rule the planet Blessing. It
was he who planted the dreams of temptation in Eriel’s mind.
Here we digress and look closely at the names of the two opposing
characters. Eriel can be translated
into Hebrew as layrva
(trans. AURIEL)
meaning, “The
Light of God.”* (“Thunder
comes from silence—I am Light.”—Eriel, by Dio, MAGICA) Shadowcast’s name implies, quite obviously, the casting of
shadows. Matter casts shadows and
so we see in Shadowcast a material nature. If Eriel is the light, then it must
be he who allows (unconsciously) the evil nature of Shadowcast to survive.
(“Where good thrives, evil survives.”—Magica Story, Dio, MAGICA)
This theory is supported by the image of Eriel and Shadowcast merged as a single
figure which appears in the album’s artwork.
With the celebration of thanks and prosperity, we see a festive occasion
that turns horrific. Here is the
image of the feast Set holds for Osiris in which the former imprisons and slays
the latter. Also, this image has a
parallel in the Last Supper which, as a Pass-over celebration, ideally a joyous
event, leads to the arrest of Jesus. We
can also draw a comparison to the feast at the Round Table in Boorman’s modern
classic film Excalibur. (“[Evil] always lurks where you never expect
it.”—Merlin (paraphrase), Boorman, Excalibur)
Eriel’s ability to reach the Book of Magica by using simple
spells to disguise himself is, again, reminiscent of other heroic figures in
many myths. In the Gospel of St.
John, Jesus disguises himself or turns invisible to escape an unruly mob that
would stone him for blasphemy. In Excalibur,
Merlin transforms Uther Pendragon in order for him to make love to Igraine and
thus beget Arthur. In Star
Wars (yes, it is another telling of the Universal Story,) Obi Wan Kenobi
moves about the Death Star relatively unseen except at the last moment when he
is confronted by Darth Vader. Invisibility
and disguise are the weapons used by the Mythic Hero when he faces overwhelming
odds and cannot yet afford to make a sacrifice of himself.
With the meeting of Eriel and Challis, we see the passing of the Spell of
Restoration from the wise elder to the impulsive, passionate, but good-hearted
youth. The Spell means the survival of the race and it is only
fitting then that Eriel should pass it (unbeknownst to either party) to his own
son who is, on a personal level for Eriel, the survival of his race.
The phonetic similarity between the name Challis and the word chalice
must not be overlooked. The most
significant chalice in western mythology is the Holy Grail, the cup from which
Christ drank at the Last Supper and which thus held His blood.
Thus, the chalice who is Challis holds the blood of Eriel. It is interesting to note that there are some people who hold
to the theory that Christ sired a child with Mary Magdalene and that this child
became the father of the mediaeval Merovengian dynasty.
With the transmission of the Spell from Eriel to Challis we find the
symbol of the transmission of the “double portion of spirit” from Elijah to
Elisha, the Apostolic Succession given by Jesus to His Apostles, and generally
any similar symbolic transmission of power from Master to Apprentice.
The Spell is also a weapon that will destroy Otherworld and its dark
denizens. In this way, the transmission can be seen as the passing of the
vendetta from Osiris to his son Horus who ultimately defeats Set.
The symbol of thunder appears repeatedly in the songs and the story of
Magica. As Eriel was Light, Challis
is Thunder. Lightning appears first
followed by thunder, even as the father precedes his son.
The absorption of the good souls into the collective of Evilsyde can best
be explained by drawing parallels to the film Star
Trek: First Contact which is another Grail Myth. (Capt. Picard is the Heroic
Son, Zefram Cochrane is the Heroic but reluctant Father, the Grail is the first
warp-ship called The Phoenix which, at
it’s launch, happens to be shaped oddly like an enormous phallus, later to
expose its warp engines and resemble the Hebrew Tree of Life, both emblems of
life and light. But I digress.)
In the film, Picard faces the Queen of the Borg whom the collective
serves. In MAGICA
the collective serves another Queen, Astoroth.
Although in the story Astoroth is described as a Grand Duke and, thus, a
male figure, this name appears as a demon in a book of evocations called The
Goetia. The origin of the name
of the demon comes from the name of the goddess Astarte whose cult flourished at
the time of Christ. This theory is
further supported by the lyrics in the song Otherworld,
“Rainbows and blue skies are black and white, killed in their sleep by the
Queen.” The Queen, again, is
Astarte or Astoroth. (On a side note, Astarte was not an “evil goddess.”
Her name was simply corrupted by early Church fathers who vilified other
religions to maintain their followers. Yet
Astarte, like other pagan deities, did have a dark side.)
In any event, the individual is lost when absorbed into the collective
and serves to “feed [the Queen’s] head.”
Eriel has made repeated sacrifices as is evident in the lyrics of many
songs on MAGICA. His first
sacrifice was that of his first love. The
second sacrifice was one of personal wealth and power offered to him by
Shadowcast. The third sacrifice is
his own death by absorption into the Collective of Evilsyde.
The number three is significant here as it is repeated in numerous
places: three days are required to cast the Spell of Restoration, three people
are central in the survival of Blessing (these three being Eriel, Annica, and
Challis), three camps of prisoners are formed by the denizens of Otherworld—a
camp for the old, a camp for the adults, and a camp for the young.
Three is a number of stability and balance.
Three non-collinear points determine a plane. Three legs are needed to
make a table or a chair balance. The sun appears in the sky in three of the four
cardinal points. The moon was said to have a triple phase (waxing, waning, and
full, the new moon being invisible.) God appears as a trinity not only in
Christendom but also in the Hindu religion as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, in the
Thelemic religion as Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and in many other
religions. It can also be noted
that if we consider the 12th and 13th tracks of the album
as being continuations of the 2nd and 3rd tracks, there
are 12 songs on MAGICA and 12 is
divisible by 3—but that’s probably purely artificial.
The triumph of Good over Evil is straightforward and the eventual
election of Challis as the new Guardian of Magica is predictable yet pleasing.
It should be noted that according to the eminent scholar of symbol and
anthropology, Joseph Campbell, the Hero is always on a quest for his father.
It is only in the end that Challis discovers that Eriel was his father.
His quest being completed, the youthful Hero becomes the elder Hero and
the father lives on through his son.
Thus is finished this first, cursory analysis of Dio’s masterful album MAGICA.
What is written here is merely one person’s interpretation of symbol
and not necessarily what Mr. Dio had intended to convey.
However the beauty of symbol systems and their use is that each
interpretation is correct for each person who elects to make such an analysis.
So the author urges his readers to listen to this wonderful album and
make your own conclusions.
*
Otherwise as layra (trans. ARIEL) who is an angel of air.
Yet in the rendition of the Tree of Light used by the Hermetic Order of
the Golden Dawn, the sphere of the Sun (light) is also a seat of the force of
Air. (See Crowley, Aleister 777,
1973, Samuel Weiser, Column XI)