Why the name “Hollywood?”
In ancient England, the Druids valued a variant of the Holly tree above all trees since that tree retained life throughout the year. They marked that value by crafting their wands made out of the Holly tree.
Keep in mind that the wand has been used since antiquity as a tool to direct the will of the user. Whether in the form of the wand or in other forms such as the staff or scepter of state.
You can see this symbology readily if you only look for it. Whether the fairy godmother in Disney with her magic wand or whether Gandalf the Grey with his staff or the whole Harry Potter world. In many University graduations the wand, it present by way of the Academic Mace carried at the front of the procession during graduation ceremonies. Some hold that the ancient medical caduceus with two serpents on a staff is playing with the theme of the wand of power and authority. When the next Royal is installed in England you will see that at some point during the ceremony they will be entrusted with a royal scepter. This is another spin-off of the wand motif. Even the Crozier as wielded by a Roman Catholic Bishop may have come into the Church via a syncretism with wand history.
So, the wand motif plays heavily in the naming of the film industry with the name “Hollywood.” Historically speaking many of those who began the nascent film industry were already familiar with the Jewish Kabbalah and they then took the name of the tree known for its talismanic qualities combined it with what the wand is made of and used it as the name of the industry that would bewitch the West.
Keep in mind the next time you watch a Hollywood film that the wand for which it was named has been used as a metaphysical meditation tool to represent the extension and direction of the user’s will (to channel energy) toward the desired result of the outcome of a situation.
Hollywood via the film is practicing magic and you are the one upon whom the magic is being practiced. The magic is ubiquitous but because it is the water we swim in we don’t see it. Think about it though. Hollywood has used its magic to teach us how to think, how to respond, how to emote and how to dress. Hollywood has used its magic to teach us what is beautiful, what is successful, and what is desirable.
As a passive viewer being bewitched by the magic, you are watching the story unfold on the silver screen. You become convinced that the actions, emotions, language, decisions, and fashion of the actors and actresses are reflections of your actions when in point of fact these actions, emotions, language usage, and fashion now owned by the viewer are part of the working of the magic upon the viewer. The film, by way of magic, causes you to act, think, emote, speak, and dress just as you viewed on the screen.
This is not to say that all films are evil. It is to say that if one is epistemologically self-conscious one will be aware that there is the intent of magic connected with what is produced in Hollywood.
