So this is something I’ve wanted to get back on my bullshit for a hot second. The first time I saw this movie, my partner was getting real sick of me info-dumping about the occult symbolism in both the plot an imagery in Multiverse of Madness. I remembered this the other day, and remembered that I could write it all up for you guys. 

Symbolic Set

Identifying this gives you an overview of the type of symbolism you are going to be looking at. It provides an essential context to what each symbol will mean. For example, Stars have a very different symbolism within the context of Tarot, Muslim religious iconography, and the narrative structure of Howl’s Moving Castle. 

If you don’t know the overall symbolic set, you run the risk of ‘mistranslating’ what each symbol means and their place in the overall structure of what you are looking at. 

In the case of Multiverse of Madness, the primary symbolic set in this movie is The Tarot—specifically the Major Arcana and The Fool’s Journey. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Fool’s Journey: the Major Arcana within The Tarot represent a cyclical internal journey of lessons that each magician constantly repeats. This is indicated within the numbers on each Major Arcana. 

Thus, we know we are going to be looking at an internal journey as well as an external one within this narrative. But, where are we within that narrative / symbolic set? 

Our first clues are very visual. 

First, America Chavez creates portals that are stars. The Star motif is consistent with her character, such as on her clothing. So we can rest easy with this easy identifier. But what is around The Star? 

Right after The Star is The Moon. Before The Star, we have The Tower and—oh ok. Yeah that Darkhold is looking really overt—I love it. I would also argue that The Devil also makes an appearance—but we are going to get into that later.  

America Chavez as The Star

I don’t think that I have to make a huge argument with citations here.

America’s powers manifest with the star shape. She wears clothes with stars on them. She is young, and she still has hope and faith that Dr. Strange can help her. If you guys want to go super into this, you can look up the meanings of The Star in its upright and reversed states.

The Scarlet Witch as The Tower

So The Darkhold Castle is a dead giveaway in its very shape.

But, we also see the aspects of The Tower reflected in The Scarlet Witch’s mindset within this movie. Wanda has built up this whole scheme to use Chavez to transport herself to different universes and usurp her counterparts in order to essentially steal her alternate universe’s children. Within the scope of Tarot and the Fool’s Journey, the collapse of the Tower isn’t traumatic and dramatic just because it’s destroyed—but because The Tower was something we built ourselves. So it is a destruction of something we have held very dear and maybe even obsessed over for a long time. 

Wanda’s efforts and plans very much are a Tower that she build herself and has been building for a long time. So the moment of clarity she has at the end of the movie when confronted with how her alternative universe children see her is a huge moment of psychological damage. What  has she become? What about all the effort? What about everything she had sacrificed for this? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very much a The Tower moment for her. 

More information on The Tower meanings here.

Dr. Strange as The Fool (AND The Devil?)

I identify Dr. Strange as The Fool in this narrative—but not because I think he’s an idiot. Rather, it’s because he is the one going through an internal journey that mirrors the action on the screen. The biggest giveaway on this is the repeated phrase ‘Are you happy?’ that several characters confront Strange with during the movie. All of them seem to knowingly look at him askance when he answers ‘yes.’ In essence, they know he is fooling himself. 

The Devil comes directly before The Tower in the Fool’s Journey. So why do we think that Dr. Strange is in this mental stage? Well, there is the question about happiness. Everyone around him knows that he is lying to himself. Within the context of the Major Arcana, The Devil has no relation to same symbol within the context of the Christian religion. Rather, it’s about imprisonment. If you look at classic images, the Devil has two prisoners in front of him. But, these ‘prisoners’ have chains that are…actually very loose. Meaning, they could actually leave any time they want to. But, for some reason, they stay as ‘prisoners.’ 

One of my favorite contemporary depictions of The Devil shows someone staring into the mirror. Again, they could look away at any point, but they choose to believe they are stuck. This is consistent with the fact that everyone knows Strange is lying to himself. That lie is the prison he is choosing to stay stuck in. 

This is further supported by the image of Strange when he possesses his own corpse. He takes on a very ‘devilish’ appearance with wings made of the dead. Ironically, the wings represent ‘freedom’ from the ‘devil’ / mindset he has finally left behind. He has gone from The Devil to The Tower to finally The Star when he saves Chavez.

So What’s Next? 

Thank you for coming to my nearly 1000 word Ted Talk. I appreciate each and every one of you readers who choose to use some of your valuable time to read my blog, especially when I’m on my bullshit. If the Marvel movies were following an overall meta plot of The Fool’s Journey, The Moon would be next. But, I’m not going to hold my breath on that, unless I decide to do a breakdown of the previous movies and find out that they actually ARE doing such a thing.