Pinocchio & The Journey To The Center Of Your Being
The famous Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi used to instruct his followers to endlessly meditate on the question “Who am I?” For him, that was the path to enlightenment.
I haven’t been seeking enlightenment, but I have been asking that question recently. Who am I? What is my authentic self? What do I really want? What am I doing here? What is my life about?
Uncomfortable questions to be sure, but also necessary it seems.
“I feel like Pinocchio.” I remember thinking that one day in the middle of the questioning. Questioning. Quest. (As I was writing that I was inspired to look up the etymology of quest. It’s from the Medieval Latin word questa meaning search or inquiry. So to question is to be on the quest.)
I hadn’t thought about Pinocchio in years. But more than any other film that I remember from my childhood, Pinocchio was mostly clearly on the hero’s journey.
On the surface, the film is about a living puppet that wants to become a “real boy.” Most people miss the depth of the film. As I read: “Critical analysis of Pinocchio identifies it as a simple morality tale that teaches children of the benefits of hard work and middle-class values.”
Nope. It’s not that. The film goes far deeper than that in the first 10 minutes.
In watching the film, we join Pinocchio on the archetypal journey that one takes to the center of their own being. We can all find ourselves in the story.
Let’s look.
LEAVING HOME
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
The film begins with Geppetto creating a little puppet boy. We can think of Geppetto as the embodiment of Divine Masculine energy. At this point, Pinocchio is all puppet (all machine). He has no life. You can’t have life with only the masculine.
Geppetto falls asleep and the Blue Fairy, the embodiment of the Divine Feminine, comes down from the stars to the room. It is she who grants Pinocchio life. He is now a living puppet. A living puppet, not yet a “real boy.”
Pinocchio isn’t alone in this kind of existence. Pop culture is abound with examples of people stuck in a mechanistic (puppet-like) means of living. Think about Darth Vader, the Terminator, and Data from Star Trek. It is a very low level of aliveness.
The hero’s journey — our journey and Pinocchio's journey — is to move beyond mechanistic, puppet-like living. It is to move beyond the life-denying patterns and scripts that we get stuck in. To move beyond fear, predictability, and security. To arrive at an authentic and dynamic way of living.
And that is our responsibility.
No one can do it for us.
That’s what the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio. In fact, it’s one of the first things she says to him.
Pinocchio: (blinking his eyes and raising his wooden arm) I can move! I can talk! I can walk! (walks a bit and falls over)
Blue Fairy: Yes Pinocchio, I’ve given you life.
Pinocchio: Why?
Blue Fairy: Because tonight Geppetto wished for a real boy.
Pinocchio: Am I a real boy? (he asks in amazement)
Blue Fairy: No, Pinocchio. To make Geppetto’s wish come true will be entirely up to you.
But how do we do it? What is the path to authenticity? Of course this is Pinocchio’s next question. Watch how the Blue Fairy responds.
Pinocchio: Up to me?
Blue Fairy: Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.
Pinocchio: A real boy!
Jiminy Cricket: That won’t be easy.
Blue Fairy: You must learn to choose between right and wrong.
Pinocchio: Right… and wrong? But how will I know?
Jiminy Cricket: How’ll he know!
Blue Fairy: Your conscience will tell you.
Pinocchio: What is a conscience?
Jiminy Cricket: What is a conscience! I’ll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice people won’t listen to. That’s just the trouble with the world today.
I could end this essay right here because the entirety of the genius of this film is contained in those few lines of dialogue. Look again. The Blue Fairy says, “Your conscience will tell you.” (!!) This film came out in 1940, not exactly the most progressive time in American history and yet the Blue Fairy points Pinocchio to look inside himself.
Imagine all the other things that the Blue Fairy could have said:
“I will tell you how to choose.”
“Your father will tell you what’s right and wrong.”
“The priest will tell you what to do.”
“Your schoolteachers will tell you how to be a real boy.”
“The politicians will tell you what your path is.”
She could have told Pinocchio to follow religious texts, to do what authority told him to do, or to do what society and his peers told him to do. But she doesn’t!
She says: “Your conscience will tell you.”
That is a radical statement.
And get this: the Blue Fairy is telling Pinocchio that the source of morality — the source of choosing right and wrong — is inside himself. Inside. Himself. What!? The moral path, the path to authenticity, to being a real boy is to follow his own conscience, his own intuition. And this is a 1940 children’s film. If you aren’t blown away by that then stop reading here.
It’s also in this scene that we’re introduced to Jiminy Cricket. A little homeless cricket with a top hat and cane. (Which happens to be exactly how I imagine my intuition looking.)
Jiminy’s small size is the perfect representation of how our intuition lives for us, especially early on in our journey. The small whisper amidst the noisy crowd. Jiminy says it himself, “A conscience is that still small voice people won’t listen to.”
The Blue Fairy dubs Jiminy Cricket to be Pinocchio’s conscience. She disappears and Geppetto awakens to find Pinocchio, the living puppet. They laugh and celebrate. Geppetto tells Pinocchio that he is to go to school tomorrow. (The Divine Masculine quick to kick the little one out of the nest to create himself out in the world.)
The next morning Pinocchio heads out for school.
And the very first thing he does is lose Jiminy Cricket (!).
So the hero’s journey begins…
