I was finally able to acquire this from a fellow collector in California (along with another item). Behold the 1939 hardback first edition of The Wizard of Oz tied to the film’s release on August 25, 1939. The dust jacket is in near-mint condition, and the book, binding, and pages are also in mint condition; it is a choice example, the best I have ever seen. Not pictured is that the edition is inscribed and signed by Margaret Hamilton (1902-1985) on a blank page, the actress who portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West. One will notice that the price of the book in 1939 was $1.19 (as indicated on the interior of the dust jacket), which is 9/11 backward, as demons often communicate in reverse, anticipating and announcing the Crowleyan OZ-Rainbow death curse.
As Cinema Symbolism 4 nears completion, I will share a teaser from Chapter V called “Alchemical Hollywood.” I believe I may have posted some of this before, but here it is regardless. I should be done writing it the first week of September 2025, but then have to start the editing and formatting process. In the meantime, enjoy!
Hermes is the spirit of alchemy because he is a deity of complete being, revealing what many forget in their inhabitation of a half-world: chaos and the ocean are the secret grounds of the cosmos and the city. Actress Audrey Hepburn was paired with a paragon of the citrinitas, Fred Astaire (1899-1987), who was always searching for the goddess Terpsichore, in the musical romantic comedy Funny Face (1957). Hepburn, who plays Jo Stockton, an albedo exemplar, is both sprite and diva, embodying the nigredo and rubedo, i.e., she is a bashful melancholic bookseller and vivacious supermodel; in 36 seconds of film (Master Therion’s qabalistic number for Mercurius), she successfully performs alchemy, forever turning from mere mortal into everyone’s ideal goddess when she descends the marble staircase in the Louvre, swathed in a red Givenchy gown, signifying the spagyric art’s rubedo, with her crimson scarf flying around the pagan statue The Winged Victory of Samothrace, transmogrifying her into Nike if only temporarily.
The spagyric art pervades pop culture, but before delving into cinema, let us revisit CS2 and explore the most excellent alchemical-Masonic music video ever made: Gloria Estefan’s “♫ Live for Loving You ♫,” which was the fourth and last single from her third solo album, the Luciferian titled Into the Light (1991). The video opens with an Enochic sun rising over a black and white checkered floor, evoking Solomon’s Temple and the Threshing Floor of Ornan the Jebusite, recalling not only the First Temple, but also the construction of the Second Temple, i.e., the Temple of Zerubbabel, the purview of Masonry’s high degrees. The video’s director then appears before the rising sun, incarnating as a cigarette-smoking flamingo between two palm trees, representing the Pillars of Enoch, thereby transmogrifying into a living Royal Arch Word, the Tetragrammaton, which implies that the music video is a Masonic production. Owls and serpents, i.e., wisdom totems, appear throughout the music video, signifying esoteric Masonic knowledge that is veiled in both the Blue Lodge and high-degree rituals. In a rainforest, Gloria starts as an unassuming earth goddess but, as the video progresses, she exhibits all the colors of alchemical transition, specifically black, white, and red dresses; at one point, she drives a red car with a black and white dog sporting a red scarf tied around its neck. Gloria Estefan dons a white bathrobe alluding to the albedo, a sexy black ensemble representing the nigredo, and a sleek yellow bodysuit, embracing the citrinitas and betokening her animus, while relaxing in a rickshaw pulled by an Apollonian male, the sun. Gloria must conclude the alchemical process she began by becoming the rubedo, shrouded in the nigredo, as they often taint each other. Thus, Gloria wears a sleek and sultry red dress and high heels, indicating completion of the magnum opus, while sitting on a nocturnal crescent moon, the supreme symbol of the sacred feminine, i.e., the albedo. The great work finished, Gloria has transitioned from a telluric numen to a majestic lunar goddess like Isis, Diana, Hecate, and Artemis, transcending the Earth and its inhabitants by becoming Mozart’s apotheosized Queen of the Night, ruling in the starry canopy above.[1]
[1] See this author’s Cinema Symbolism 2 and The Royal Arch of Enoch.
(Left) Gloria Estefan achieves the rubedo, enveloped in the nigredo, at the conclusion of the music video for her song, “♫ Live for Loving You ♫.” (Right) The cover of Gloria Estefan’s Greatest Hits depicts the Cuban-American singer in a white blouse, representing the albedo, i.e., her femininity, and wearing red high heels, fishnets, and a fairy tutu dress, the rubedo, because the album is the culmination of her career, at least up to the early 1990s. Easter egg: the album was released on October 30, 1992, this author’s twenty-first birthday.
Join Rob on Monday, July 7th, ’25 (2 +5 = 7), i.e., 777, when he will be live on Jimmy Church’s Fade to Black! Rob will be previewing Cinema Symbolism 4, the Rainbow-OZ death curse, and discussing the Crowleyan masterpieces Longlegs (2024) and Late Night with the Devil (2024) The show debuts live at 10:00 p.m. EST; to watch, click the banner:
The Rob Sullivan Experience will be live on July 7, (77) 2025, when Rob returns to Fade to Black, hosted by fellow History Channel personality Jimmy Church. The show debuts at 10:00 p.m. EST; to watch, click the banner:
Brand new podcast! The Rob Sullivan Experience returns to Codega’s Codex of Curiosities giving a preview of his forthcoming books Cinema Symbolism 4 and Cinema Symbolism OZ – check it out!
The number 42 is the Great Number of the Curse. – Aleister Crowley, Liber CCCXXXIII, 1912.
7. A most evil number, whose perfection is impossible to attack. – Aleister Crowley, Liber 777, 1909.
77. OZ, the Goat, scil. of the Sabbath of the Adepts. The Baphomet of the Templars, the idol set up to defy and overthrow the false god–though it is understood that he himself is false, not an end, but a means. Note the 77 = 7 x 11, magical power in perfection. – Aleister Crowley, Liber 777, 1909.
333. ChVRVNZVN, see Liber 418, 10th Aethry. It is surprising that this large scale 3 should be so terrible a symbol of dispersion. There is doubtless a venerable arcanum here connoted, possibly the evil of Matter summó. 333 = 37 x 9 the accurséd. – Aleister Crowley, Liber 777, 1909.
Twenty-five (2 + 5 = 7) days after the sale of the Ruby Slippers on December 7th, 2024, at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, and 77 days after the supermoon of October 17th 2024, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, whose name has a sum of 77 using Pythagorean reduction[1] and is also from Texas, killed and wounded many when he drove his truck through the French Quarter in New Orleans, transforming it into the magickal Land of Oz. Syncing with the theatrical release of the Russian film The Wizard of Emerald City on January 1st, 2025 (the moon is a waxing crescent in Capricorn, the leaping goat, i.e., the godhead), the attack occurred at the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville Streets, a block from the Old Absinthe House (Bourbon and Bienville Streets), Aleister Crowley’s (1874-1947) favorite haunt in the Crescent City (the Mississippi River’s bend around the French Quarter resembles a crescent moon hence the moniker) when he wasn’t busy writing Moonchild (1917), summoning Diana’s brightness 77 days earlier. Of course, a few blocks from the scene of the carnage are two Ruby Slipper cafes, and the closest movie theater is the Prytania at Canal Place, located on the third floor of 333 Canal Street, suggesting the demon Choronzon’s involvement. Currently, the theater is playing both Wicked and Wicked Sing-A-Long films. Rob knows more but is keeping quiet for now as this curse is highly active! Cinema Symbolism 4 and Cinema Symbolism OZ coming soon.
In 777 (1909), Master Therion identifies 28 as his number of triumph and strength. Crowley writes “28 [7 + 7 + 7 + 7]. Attainable; and, so useful. ‘My victory,’ and ‘My power,’ says the Philosophus.” On Saturday, December 7, 2024, Heritage Auctions sold a screen-worn pair of the Ruby Slippers for $28 million (the final bid) in Dallas, Texas, the location of JFK’s assassination, and where Jack Ruby dispatched Lee Harvey OZwald, 61 years (6 + 1 = 7) earlier, continuing to remind us the curse is active.
Rob and Vadim continue their fascinating discussion about The Wizard of Oz (1939) and its nexus to the Back to the Future trilogy, John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), and President Donald J. Trump. This is the Russian dub – enjoy!
7. A most evil number, whose perfection is impossible to attack.
77. OZ, the Goat, scil. of the Sabbath of the Adepts. The Baphomet of the Templars, the idol set up to defy and overthrow the false god–though it is understood that he himself is false, not an end, but a means. Note the 77 = 7 x 11, magical power in perfection.
777. Useful in a similar way, as affirming that the Unity is the Qliphoth [the satanic forces of the Kabbalah marshalled]. But a dangerous tool, especially as it represents the flaming sword that drove Man out of Eden. A burnt child dreads the fire. “The devils also believe, and tremble.” Worse than useless unless you have it by the hilt. Also 777 is the grand scale of 7, and this is useless to anyone who has not yet awakened the Kundalini, the female magical soul. Note 7 as the meeting-place of 3, the Mother, and 10, the Daughter, whence Netzach is the Woman, married but no more.
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), Liber 777, 1909.
Baphomet, the Goat of Mendes, 77, becomes Dr. Dillamond in Wicked, to be released November 22nd, 2024, the 61st (6 + 1 = 7) anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination because this curse loves to overlap (I’ve never seen anything like it). Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) qua OZwald allegedly shot Kennedy from the seven-story Texas School Book Depository from a floor with seven windows overlooking the plaza, filmed by Abraham Zapruder (1905-1907) with frame 313 capturing the kill shot (3 + 1 + 3 = 7). JFK was riding in a ’61 Lincoln Continental (6 + 1 = 7), converted into an armored limousine by Hess & Eisenhardt, which has an ordinal value of 154 = 77 x 2.[1] Its license plate was GG, 77, and the shots rang out as Kennedy’s limo approached Route 77 (i.e., the Stemmons Freeway). Lee Harvey, the Wizard of OZwald, was thereafter disposed of by the Ruby Slippers, Jack Ruby (1933-1967), signifying the death hex. Easter egg: The Texas School Book Depository was designated a National Historic Landmark District Contributing Property (NHLDCP) on April 19th, 1993, the same day the Branch Davidian compound in Waco burned to the ground right down Route 77. Another Easter egg: Lee Harvey Oswald, was born October 18th, 1939, seven weeks (+ five days) after Oz’s theatrical release on August 25th, ’39, or 54 days later, which is 77760 minutes.
FYI: Rob’s November 15th appearance on WTFrick had to be postponed due to technical difficulties and will be rescheduled in December or February 2025.
Robert W. Sullivan IV 