The Skeleton Key was a movie ahead of its time. Nope, I don’t care what anybody says, The Skeleton Key is worthy of being up there with the greats, along with Get Out, The Shining, and Scream.
I know what you’re thinking, how can this woman make such a bold statement. She must not know anything about horror. I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books, and believe that the Skeleton Key is a worthy contender Why? Well because it is a doom and gloom movie that touches on the negative side of belief. Oh, I bet you didn’t know that there was a bad side to belief. Yep, there sure is. In truth, when we sit down to meditate and manifest, we are opening hundreds if not thousands of doors. These doors lead to parallel worlds and realities that can become realized with repetition and belief. Positive beliefs open up doors and allow us to enter magical worlds where all of our dreams can come true. Negative beliefs can open doors that lead us into underworlds that are wicked and cruel, worlds where malignant forces set out to destroy you. So in this video, I am going to talk about the power of belief, and how negative thinking can not only derail your manifesting goals but rob you of your very soul. Please stay tuned.
Perhaps the best gem in the Skeleton Key is that the story line is modeled after, you’ll never guess, The Wizard of Oz. More particularly the Wiz,
In the Wiz, Dorothy is a woman who is as docile as mouse. She is twenty-four, kind, gentle, yet is having a hard time finding her wings. Caroline, also in her mid-twenties, is ride or die, live and let live kind of girl. Only her free-spirited nature caused a major riff between her and her father. While Caroline was partying like a rock star, her single dad was dying in New Jersey all alone. Dorothy from The Wiz was paralyzed by fear, seeking the comfort of her brownstone in Harlem, not wanting to take any chances with love or with her career. While Caroline was stricken with guilt. Both fear and guilt are very destructive emotions. And like much of the negativity that we encounter in our lives, it seeps into the recess of our subconscious mind. Through routine and repetition, it grows, shaping our behaviors, mindsets, and underlying decisions.
Caroline developed a savior’s mentality. She wanted to save everyone to assuage her guilt for abandoning her father in his time of need. Dorothy was so afraid that she invested all her hope and dreams into a wizard she had never even seen before.
Both characters embark on the journey, yet their journeys are vastly different. Dorothy’s world entails love and friendship. Dorothy, who appears to be awkward and a loner in the real world, is able to put together an A team of friends who aid her in her mission. While most of Caroline’s friends were enemies in disguise. Frenemies so to speak. Dorothy could always discern the good guys from the bad. But Caroline, well, she just didn’t have a clue. She was alone, and seemed to gravitate towards an elderly female figure, because maybe there was some part of her that needed motherly love. This was something that Dorothy had from her Auntie Em, and as a result was able to make it through her manifesting process, almost unscathed. Caroline on the other hand, well, you all know what happened to her.
The biggest thing about the manifesting process is that it acts as a series of chambers or swinging doors so to speak. Each door leads you into an entirely different world, where a sacrifice must be made, and a lesson must be learned.
In many cases these doors remain locked, until a certain event or circumstance throws them open. In Dorothy’s case, it was a tornado that whisked her into the land of oz. It was an inciting incident that forced her out of her comfort zone. As a result, she had to face all of her fears, or risk being stuck in the Land of Oz forever. For Caroline, it was the skeleton key. The attic, a forbidden place filled with dark and painful memories, was initially off limits to her. Yet, she kept prying, eventually unlocking the door, and all the dark memories she had been harboring throughout her life seeped in. Throughout much of Dorothy’s journey, she had hope, guiding her foolishly down the yellow brick road. Caroline, had guilt, that haunted her day and night, causing her to risk her own safety and wellbeing to save a dying elderly man. Dorothy believed in magic and put everything that she had into finding the wizard. She believed that the wizard could get her back home. He could get the Scarecrow a brain, the Tinman a heart, and the Lion some courage. While Caroline refused to believe in superstition. She believed that if she could save Ben, she could free herself from the guilt of abandoning her father. She believed that an old hoodoo witch couldn’t harm her, if she didn’t believe in magic. Only Caroline didn’t understand that the magic believed in her. Psychological manipulation is one the oldest magic tricks, mastered by witch doctors and conjuring women, many years before there was any such thing as psychology. They knew what made people tick and understood what buttons to push to gain a desired result.
The Wizard of Oz, or more particularly, The Wiz, was a kid friendly version of magic and superstitions.
There were munchkins, flying monkeys, and dancing pixies. However, the parallel worlds in The Skeleton Key were much darker. It involved a cruel overlord who abused his servants and subjects. So much so that they played a cruel trick on him, they swapped out one soul for another. The Wicked Witch Evilene wanted to destroy Dorothy and her friends. And her idea of punishment was working them to death, and making a hot dog out of Toto. While Papa Justify and Mama Justine weren’t trying to make Caroline their servant, but their eternal slave. Both characters embark on the journey, but only one lived to tell about it.
In the real world, we often go on our own journeys. We fail to understand that when we set intentions, we are much like Dorothy, being whisked away by a tornado and forced to live in a magical land, so that we can learn important lessons about ourselves.
These are the parallel worlds that we have to visit and suffer through in order for our dreams to come true. Sadly, limited beliefs and toxic emotions can lead us down a dark path. One that is as wicked as Hadis, with cruel overlords and hoodoo witches that will manipulate us and steal our souls. The one thing that many of the gurus don’t tell you about the manifesting process is that the competition is fierce. Everyone and their mama want’s that shiny new car, beautiful girlfriend, and rich husband. With that said, there are real life witches who won’t hesitate to manipulate you, use you as a pawn, so that they can move ahead.
The overall theme in The Wiz is to know yourself. Once you have an established set of core beliefs, you become less susceptible to manipulation. If you have a strong set of beliefs, you can overpower anyone who is an impeding threat.
The Skeleton Key is more of a cautionary tale. It warns us of the dangers of not believing in yourself. Caroline tried to convince herself that she didn’t believe in folktales and in hoodoo. She blindly stepped into Violet, or Mama Cecil’s world, without really knowing much about it. She read the books, listened to the records, heard the testimonials from Papa Justify’s loyal followers. Yet, instead of trying to learn hoodoo to get the upper hand on Mama Cecil, she became her victim. Was it arrogance? No, it was her guilt. She wanted to save Ben and ended up losing herself in the process. This is why we need to be careful of all toxic emotions, including guilt, shame, and even hate. These emotions are incredibly malignant and spread throughout the body and mind like cancer. These emotions open doors to underworlds that test our limits and sadly seek to destroy us. The Skeleton Key gives grave meaning to the phrase Know Thyself. Know what underlying emotions, beliefs, and principles you are fueling your dreams with. Know what kind of energy that you’re using to visualize or embark on that manifesting process. You must also understand that there is a thin line between superstition and belief. You can want only good things for yourself, but if you’re battling negative emotions and beliefs, the only thing that you’re going to manifest is the bad.
What do you think about the power of belief and superstition? What do you think about the manifesting process and the Skeleton Key? Please sound off in the comments below.
