My Impressions of the Movie “Wicked”‘s Storyline
Last Tuesday, I went to see the movie Wicked. I had a very different reaction after seeing the film than I had after seeing the musical. Before I discuss my reactions, I want to go back and share with you the timeline of how the movie came to be.
My Reactions to Wicked
In 2007, I attended mediumship classes at the Arthur Finlay College in Essex, England. After the courses finished, I returned to London, and I was able to get a ticket to see Wicked.
I found the musical very moving and uplifting, mainly because of its message. Through my eyes, with my deep knowledge of psychic science, I saw a gifted medium learning to believe in herself, and having 100% knowingness that she could manifest her desire to fly. It was a compelling message.
And now, in 2024, the musical has been turned into a movie, and with a deeper understanding of psychic science, I discovered other, more compelling messages contained in the film, Wicked.
Since the two-and-a-half-hour movie is only the first half of the musical, there is more time to expand the plot, allowing for more details. This may be the reason specific topics were more apparent to me after watching the movie than after watching the play. However, I cannot be certain whether there are actual differences in the scripts of the film and musical, or if my consciousness and knowledge base had expanded over the 17 years, allowing me to recognize other concepts that I missed when I saw the play. But I had a more intense experience watching the film because the movie’s message had a deeper meaning for me.
Furthermore, I don’t know how much of a difference perspective makes, but when you’re sitting in a movie theater, you’re watching the actors up close. In contrast, in musical theater, the actors are far away, perhaps only an inch high. The film allows you to receive all the nuances of facial expressions that you cannot see in musical theater, unless you have front-row seats.
Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is the protagonist. She is depicted in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz with green skin.
“The association of witches with green skin is largely a modern concept, heavily influenced by the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where the Wicked Witch of the West was depicted with green skin. Prior to this, witches were not consistently portrayed with green skin, and in some cases, were even depicted as beautiful sorceresses. The [Wizard of Oz] film’s producers chose to make the Wicked Witch of the West green to take advantage of the early Technicolor process and to create a visually striking and sinister appearance for the character. Prior to The Wizard of Oz, witches were depicted with various skin tones, including pale, red, or orange, often based on Halloween imagery.
[Green as a Symbol] While green is associated with nature, magic, and the supernatural in folklore, the specific link between green skin and witches is more recent, stemming from the movie’s iconic imagery.”[1]
I began to question, after watching the movie, whether there was any symbolism to Elphaba’s green skin. My first thought was the chakra system, so I researched chakras to refresh my memory. It turns out the heart chakra is green. The heart chakra is for love, compassion, and joy. It also means love, empathy, and emotional equilibrium.
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba
Another compelling layer of detail emerged through the casting of Cynthia Erivo, an African American woman, to play Elphaba. Her emotional journey experiencing rejection for being different because she was green mirrors what African Americans experienced historically. Her experience as a Black woman adds a fantastic and authentic nuance.
Elphaba is androgynous
I have never read Maguire’s book Wicked, but while I was researching online, I discovered that in his book, when Elphaba was born, her parents were confused not only about the reason for her green skin, but they weren’t sure if she was a boy or a girl. So, since birth, Elphaba has had an androgynous quality, just as she always had magical/mediumistic abilities.
There are other hints of androgyny symbolized in the film. Several of the male munchkins wear a type of miniskirt, a nod to androgyny without highlighting or discussing it.
I have a strong feeling that Maguire, the book’s author, and Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, who wrote the screenplay, did not realize that having Elphaba androgynous, with both male and female traits, would enhance her abilities for mediumship/magic. Ramtha used to talk about how people who have both male and female energies are closer to God than other people, because God is both male and female energy. Awan taught that many male mediums are gay, but not all. But having the qualities of both male and female energy enhances their mediumistic gifts. So, it is interesting that Elphaba is androgynous and had magic/mediumistic abilities at birth.
Gay Culture
Gay culture has always had an affinity towards the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Carl used to mention that the phrase “friends of Dorothy” was a euphemism for a gay person. The actress who played Glinda the Good Witch in the 1939 film, Billie Burke, was in a gay relationship in her life, as is Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba in Wicked. Both Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero, and Bowen Yang, who plays Pfannee, are gay in real life.
Androgyny and gayness are themes embedded in the background of the movie, although they are not topics in the film.
The Grimmerie
It’s noteworthy that the movie’s storyline highlights the fact that the wizard accidentally came across a spellbook, entitled The Grimmerie. Ironically, the wizard didn’t have the power to cast the spells or even the ability to read them, since they were written in a language that he or anyone else could understand.
Yet, Elphaba casually walks up to The Grimmerie, opens the book, and instantly begins to chant a spell. Even Madame Marble, the head teacher of sorcery at the University of Shiz, was amazed at Elphaba’s abilities. Elphaba was a very talented individual. They call her a witch in the movie, but she was a very gifted sorceress, another term for her.
After Elphaba reads from The Grimmerie, she realizes that the wizard had had this book for a long time, but he couldn’t even read it. He was not a gifted medium, like she was. This begins her self-realization and belief in her powers. And with her 100% knowledge of believing in herself, she’s able to defy gravity and start to fly. And that’s how the first part of this movie ends. That’s how the first act in the play ends with her flying away.
Doctor Dillamond
Doctor Dillamond, a talking goat, is the history professor at the University of Shiz. Many of the animals in Oz have “the powers of speech and are permitted to teach.” However, “Under the surface, and behind the scenes,” there was a sudden shift in their culture (led by the wizard) to prohibit the animals from speaking. Elphaba was very upset about this. And this is part of the reason she wanted to see the wizard, because she wanted him to stop it.
We are approaching the Age of Knowledge, where humanity will reclaim its godhood, meaning that everyone will recognize their divine nature and live accordingly. One of the benefits humanity will gain is the loss of languages. People will no longer use languages, but will communicate through telepathy. Languages do not confine thoughts; therefore, people from around the world will be able to communicate with each other without the use of a language interpreter. Furthermore, the use of telepathy will also allow humans to communicate with animals. This is precisely what the movie Wicked depicts.
Elphaba becomes furious when she recognizes that the wizard’s goal of silencing the animals is a step backward. When she realizes she has more power than the wizard does, she instantly decides to go out on her own and not work with the wizard. She is going to launch a movement to help protect the animals’ rights, enabling them to keep their ability to speak. Again, we see an essential layer of meaning embedded into the plot of Wicked.
Madame Marble and Fake News
Madame Marble is the sorcery professor at the University of Shiz. She recognizes Elphaba’s talent and encourages her to go to visit the wizard. She is with the wizard and witnesses Elphaba cast her first spell from The Grimmerie spell book, and is utterly amazed.
Now, Madame Marble becomes a very key character in the plot of the movie. Up to this point, Elphaba is not doing anything wicked at all. She’s as good as Glinda. However, Glinda is not the epitome of goodness; she is very self-centered and even plays a highly mean trick on Elphaba.
Madame Marble and the wizard become the chief architects of twisting the truth, what we would call fake news. They announced to the citizens of Oz that Elphaba is a wicked witch and needed to be destroyed, burned, or melted by throwing water on her. They start a whole negative campaign, making everyone believe that Elphaba is wicked when she isn’t. Then they begin to promote Glinda as a good witch, when in fact, Glinda can barely do any magic at all. It is a government plot or conspiracy to present this belief or propaganda to people and have them believe it, even though it’s not at all true.
And this is a compelling part of the story that, to me, eluded me when I saw the play, because in 2007, fake news didn’t mean that much to me. However, in recent years, it has become part of our consciousness to the point that we don’t know what’s true or false anymore. So Wicked is powerfully mirroring what is occurring today, although it was written in 1995, when fake news wasn’t a prominent concern. This story has multiple, multiple, multiple layers of meaning.
Polarity
The storyline of both The Wizard of Oz and Wicked highlights the concept of polarity, since there is a heavy focus on Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.
If we go back to the idea of polarity, going back to 1900, of Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, in The Wizard of Oz, although Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz never uses the name Elphaba.
The higher realms teach us that in the ONENESS, there is no polarity. Therefore, as human beings, we need to look beyond it. This message of ignoring polarity is prominently present, but never stated in the film.
It is remarkable that in both films, Wizard of Oz and Wicked, Glinda arrives to speak to the Munchkins in a bubble. This bubble represents the sphere of Divine Crystaline Energy of the ONE I AM Presence, the true energy of Mother Source and Father Creator (God). In The Wizard of Oz, Glinda is wearing a blue dress, while she wears a pink dress in Wicked. Glinda wears pink outfits throughout the film.
Many of you know, the color pink is the color of love. Elphaba is known for her verdigris (greenness). And we just discovered that green is also the color of love. So, we have the good witch and bad witch, both ends of the polarity, both being equal in love, even though they’re two different colors.
Both ends of the polarity spectrum mean love, which eliminates the polarity. This provides the viewer, although perhaps subconsciously, a compelling and truthful message to look beyond the polarity of good and bad, and every other polarity.
Religion
An interesting layer of meaning emerges when we analyze the dynamic between the Wizard of Oz and Elphaba. The wizard could not read or cast a spell from The Grimmerie, while Elphaba had the innate ability to do both. Now, if we substitute the Pope for the wizard of Oz, we suddenly have replicated the conflict between the priests and the mediums, as I wrote about in My First Encounter with an Angel. The Pope doesn’t have any real psychic power, or even any kind of spiritual power, while a medium can have both. The priests (and the Pope) pretended to be the intermediary between God and the people, while the medium could actually serve that function. The priests promoted a false ideology based on man-made dogmas, claiming they came from God, as opposed to a medium who can bring spiritual truth to this dimension. This exact tug of war is played out in the movie through Elphaba and the Wizard. So, this is another layer of meaning that’s within the storyline.
Conclusion
What’s remarkable to me is that this movie’s layers of meaning, with their powerful messages, mirror what is currently happening in our culture in 2024. Yet, the seeds of this movie were planted in the mind of Gregory Maguire decades ago. This is what makes me wonder how much of the author’s writing was inspired by Spirit.
I know there are times when Spirit puts thoughts in my mind. It’s not important to me to determine whether the idea originated from Spirit or my own mind. Many people are not aware of Spirit, and just think that they are somehow being inspired, without realizing that their inspiration is coming from a divine source instead of their imagination. I’m sure Spirit is not seeking credit; they just want the message out there for people to ponder.
Wicked has allowed me to evaluate the growth in my understanding and consciousness from 2007 to 2024. So many of this movie’s messages were in the musical that I saw in 2007, but I didn’t recognize them. My consciousness was not even aware of these topics, rendering them invisible to me, although they were presented on stage.
I’ve been studying psychic phenomena and mediumship for almost 50 years. I have a strong foundation that supports my many shifts in consciousness. Several times over those years, I experienced a powerful emotional response when I realized that the truth was so different from what society believed and taught.
We are told that we are living in a time of transition, where the vibration of the earth is rising, and people are going to have a mass awakening. And imagine what people are going to experience, who are going to wake up and realize that religions, governments, and so many other institutions throughout our societies have not been telling them the truth.
And they’re going to start to recognize the truth, because the awakening is happening. And they’re going to have the exact reactions that I was having a few days ago when I was watching Wicked, realizing the contrast between myself in 2007 and today. They’re going to wake up and say, “Oh my goodness, all these years, I’ve not been seeing what’s in front of my eyes.”
And how will they react to this powerful realization? I’m sure many of them are going to be outraged that they’ve been lied to. They will be confused as to how to go forward and to lead a more correct spiritual life, that does not resemble anything they learned from their various religions and institutions.
It will be up to people like us who have this spiritual knowledge to help nurture them and give them the foundations that they require to support them in their new understandings. We will be the way showers for so many people in the future.
So, if you have a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend it because you will be seeing it with the spiritual understanding to recognize hidden messages that many other people would not see. Wicked is very much worth seeing.
[1] “Why are Witches Green?” Google AI., Web. 8 August 2025. <https://www.google.com/search?q=why+are+witches+green&sca_esv=0e0f0e34ec054157&sxsrf=AE3TifOKOtXAMXls9_FYD3D47Ht6V9EeQw%3A1754681480530&source=hp&ei=iFCWaKnSHvL8ptQP-pS5oAM&iflsig=AOw8s4IAAAAAaJZemGWARZdR1xZnaMmIZzN9PoULx2Gr&oq=why+are+witc&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6Igx3aHkgYXJlIHdpdGMqAggBMgoQABiABBgUGIcCMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAESPE3UABY9hZwAHgAkAEAmAFToAGNBaoBAjEyuAEByAEA-AEBmAIMoALBBcICEBAjGPAFGIAEGCcYyQIYigXCAgoQLhiABBgnGIoFwgIKECMYgAQYJxiKBcICCxAuGIAEGJECGIoFwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwHCAg4QLhiABBixAxiDARiKBcICERAuGIAEGLEDGNEDGIMBGMcBwgIEECMYJ8ICCxAAGIAEGJECGIoFwgIOEC4YgAQYsQMY0QMYxwHCAgQQABgDwgIOEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYigXCAggQABiABBixA8ICBRAuGIAEwgIIEC4YgAQYsQOYAwCSBwIxMqAH3WGyBwIxMrgHwQXCBwUwLjMuOcgHKA&sclient=gws-wiz>