Analogical Meaning in Lord of the Rings

by Mark Murdock

conclusion

The ring is destroyed in the fires of Mt. Doom, and with it the destruction of the fiery eye of Sauron. Fire, an active masculine element, was originally stolen from the gods by Prometheus and represents among other things creative and destructive power.

So the dark, masculine destructive power has been destroyed. The goddess-bestowed King returns to rule the lands. The Age of Man has dawned. And the Hobbit Halflings return to the paradisical Shire.

But far from being a happily-ever-after story, something is still incomplete...

Frodo is unable to heal from his wounds. He chooses to join the immortals on the last ship West.

He tells Sam, “You cannot always be torn in two, you have to be one and whole for many years...”

How is Frodo torn in two?

Clearly the implication is that the death of Gollum along with the ring somehow split Frodo. Frodo lost some important aspect of his masculinity symbolized by the loss of his finger (phallus). This makes sense if we see Gollum as Frodo’s shadow.

How are we to understand this for ourselves?

It is all about wholeness. Before a return to the natural union with the feminine, one must first reject the dark lord, the destructive aspect of the masculine power. This process begins with disengaging from the ego, removing the ring, and luring our shadow out of the unconscious. The shadow is then slain, or integrated into ourselves.

This is the alchemical process that Gandalf followed in his battle with the Balrog, and the fairy-tale story of all knights who seek to free the feminine princess from the phallic tower. Before one can do so, he must slay the serpent dragon. Like Gandalf, Tolkien is saying to smote your enemy is symbolically akin to this psychological integration.

But Frodo does not consciously smite his enemy! Rather he dons the ring and claims the destructive masculine power for himself. Frodo does not defeat his shadow, rather his shadow defeats him!

Remember, the ring falls by accident, through the actions of the Fates.

When the tower falls and frees the feminine, it is not for the wounded hero Frodo. Some part of his masculinity was lost, and his ability to balance with the feminine was lost with it. So he chooses to travel West (into the right hemisphere, into the feminine) to heal in the land of the immortals.

And if we look at Frodo and Gollum as but psychological complexes of Sam, then the picture becomes even clearer.

It was Sam and always Sam who was the true hero of Tolkien’s story. He is The Fool, the first card of the Tarot, the gardener who overhears voices in his master’s house, voices of doom and dark lords and end of the world. Sam is the one who takes the hero’s journey out of the Shire.

And it is Sam who clearly rejects Gollum all along. If Frodo is but a heroic aspect of Sam, then an attempt is made to integrate Gollum along the way, but it fails in the end.

Frodo’s failure is Sam’s failure. And now it is up to Sam to become one and whole. Sam returns to the feminine Shire, with its round doors leading into womb-like houses built into the earth. Sam marries Rosie (anima) and sets out to continue his own shadow work.

Meanwhile, the archetypes of the feminine hemisphere, the elves, the wizards, dwarfs and ring bearers all slip into the sea, and return to the immortal lands to the West, Valinor. The Age of Man begins. Only through the initiatory process described herein can the voices and archetypes return.

But let’s look at another level of the novel, one of history. For I contend the story also describes events in our pre-diluvium past.

The destruction of the ring of power ushered in The Age of Man. And over time, it appears that the masculine imbalance has indeed returned. One needs only to look out upon a sprawling city to see the phallic imagery. We have both lost touch with the land and increasingly with the feminine principle.

Sauron has returned, the ring has been re-crafted, and its black magic of technology and industry is poisoning us on deep psychological levels, and literally destroying the planet.

How is it that this imbalance persists?

Throughout these essays I have made mention of some theories of consciousness that attempt to link the advent of literacy, the creation of the alphabet, and the introduction of reading and writing as shifting consciousness into the left, more masculine hemisphere.

The black magic that infects us today is rooted in the words you are reading on this page. It alone rewires us and shuts off the fellowship voices until only one voice remains, that of our left hemisphere ego selves, through which Sauron ultimately returns to rule again.

When we believe that knowledge lies outside of ourselves, in books, in priests, in doctors and politicians, we allow the source of all power to reside out there in the world. We permit the black magicians to rule over us.

When we abandon the feminine side to our being, we allow them to appropriate and pervert its power to manipulate us. We become ignorant of symbols only because we are taught to believe in a literal world.

But the true nature of Man is that our power comes from within. All knowledge comes from within, not without. One need only look to the Shamanic tradition. Shamans possess knowledge that defies explanation; they have a communion with the world. When they seek knowledge they ask questions and the answers are given from within.

We have access to this knowledge and power when we prove to our feminine nature that we are worthy, and integrate our shadow selves to become whole.

The ultimate irony is that Tolkien was a philologist, a lover of words. For the manner in which we interpret our experiences is through this left hemisphere, and when we chronicle knowledge in books, we move the source of power outside ourselves. Oral traditions of old remembered their values. Literate traditions have no need to remember, the stories are there in the book. But the books themselves are forgotten to the dusty chambers of Minas Tirith.

And so Sauron returns as we forget. This is told to us at the very beginning of the Jackson trilogy. “For none now live who remember it...”

Then it is no surprise that both ring bearers, Bilbo and Frodo, are authors like Tolkien. They commit the story of the ring to words. Sauron lives on in the words of Frodo.

I do not advocate burning of books or the return to an oral culture; however I do believe that we will one day willingly refuse the technology of literacy.

But that day is not today.

Today, the feminine is trapped in the tower of materialism. We mistakenly believe it is money that takes care of us, and meets our needs. But money is but a mere magic trick. We have lost the trust in the unknown, and lost the courage of our nobler convictions.

We need to right the masculine imbalance once again. We need to raze the tower.

If we chose to take the journey, we will begin to feel the stirrings of the trust that lies buried beneath all of that fear. Our true natures will beckon, and we will be given the sword of our destiny.

We will then truly lead magical lives that are filled with serendipity and wonder. We will help others and have saved the world.

This is the lesson of the Path of Sam-wise that anyone can follow.

Recognize that you possess a ring of power, your false ego self. Disengage from it.
Journey out from your false comfort zone to face your deepest fears of abandonment.
Find strength in new found internal guidance and serendipity. Experience fellowship.
Breakdown: defend against worldly fears, meet your shadow and suffer doubt.
Breakthrough: integrate your shadow, die to your destructive masculine power.
Paradise regained: become whole again, re-balanced with the feminine.

This is the way into Mordor, and the way back to the Shire.

And you are the lord of the ring.

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