The Esotericism of Coraline

A Traditionalist Perspective

Initial Recognitions and Core Story

As a result of our previous article on Spirited Away, as well as being within the Halloween season at time of writing, our attention has become more pointed towards a work of particular cultural importance, which we were familiar with in the past but feel that now is a good time to focus on and expand on the work as a whole.

If the reader has not viewed the film Coraline, we recommend that they go and do so and then read this article, as it is an enjoyable viewing experience, though a bit darker in general than most children’s media, and for a good reason. We will not go into a full digression into the plot note for note, but the core of the plot is essential to allow for recognitions to come forth. We will mainly be discussing the film and not the book by Neil Gaiman, the major differences being that the film is set in America, that Coraline makes multiple visits to the Other World instead of just one long one, and the character of Wybie being added in to allow for additional exposition and comic relief, as the book is decidedly much darker in tone than the film.

The story begins with the Jones family including Coraline, a name that is meant to seem bizarre on purpose to add to the tone of the story, moving with her family to the Pacific Northwest into an apartment within a subdivided house referred to as the “Pink Palace”. Coraline and her parents, Melinda “Mel” and Charles “Charlie” Jones, occupy the downstairs portion of the house, as well as part of the upstairs. Mr. Sergei Bobinsky, a Russian acrobat and mouse enthusiast, occupies the upstairs sublet, while Forcible and Spink, two elderly and ex-theater/burlesque actresses which often contradict each other and seem to be opposites (the former being bottom heavy and the latter having large breasts), occupy the basement with their three dogs.

While Coraline is out exploring she finds an old well, dark and deep, potentially even almost falling in, connoting a sense of descent and danger, but is enlightened by a new friend, Wybie. Wybie, full name Wyborne, another purposeful odd name, is the grandson of the woman who owns the “Pink Palace”, but states that the house is not safe for children and that his grandmother is superstitious about it without saying why. Wybie soon gifts Coraline a doll that has her exact appearance and clothing, something that was crafted in the title sequence of the film (unbeknownst to the characters, of course) by an odd creature with needle-like hands, changing and retrofitting an old doll, a small black girl with braids, to align with Coraline’s aesthetic. Meanwhile, a lone black stray cat roams the property watchfully.

The crux of the drama extends from the family just moving in and getting settled. The weather is dreary, frustration is high, and the Jones parents are focused on meeting their publishing deadline, being writers for a gardening magazine though supposedly disliking dirt and going outside, all while Coraline is left largely ignored, the unaddressed poison oak rash on her hands leaving an itch, with even the neighbors consistently getting her name wrong. The mother furiously types in the kitchen on her laptop, while the father types via the chicken peck style at an old desktop in a cramped room of moving boxes. The environment is muted, banal and gray, as well as aged and dirty. The contrast of Coraline’s blue hair and quirky attitude makes her seem out of place, with a strong will to be seen and acknowledged. This strong will brings her to find a wallpapered small door, a portal the inanimate doll supposedly moves to of its own accord. Coraline begs her mother to open it, using a key with a button on the handle, only to find it bricked over. With Coraline refusing to eat what her father prepares for dinner, her mother refusing to cook, the family finishes their first full day there. Coraline goes to bed alone, missing her old friends from back home in Michigan, their picture upon a mantis-themed stand.

Eventually, Coraline goes to sleep and is awoken in the night by little mice that guide her to the newly opened door to find a long and extending, ethereal tunnel that leads to the Other World, an alternative version of their Pink Palace home. There, Coraline explores and finds a version of her mother there, called the Other Mother, cooking delicious smelling and looking food, while her Other Father is introduced shortly after in his lavish study, having a player piano control him to play a fun and jaunty tune while he sings along; there is one detail that is off, however - both her parents, as well as anyone else in the Other World that extends from there, has buttons for eyes, a detail that makes them seem inhuman. The parents are joyous, attentive, encouraging, and willing to bend to Coraline’s every whim, though the Other Mother does tap her fingers on the table in a seemingly impatient fashion. The food they prepare is exactly what Coraline wants, and both the Other Mother and Father putting her to bed, even using mud to fix Coraline’s rash - leaving our heroine beyond contented.

Coraline awakes back in the regular world in her bed, dissatisfied that she’s left the Other World, wondering if it was all a dream. Our protagonist goes about her routine, after telling her parents about her adventure, with Bobinsky warning her that his mice had a message for her “not to go through [the] little door”, while Spink and Forcible read her tea leaves that portent great danger, though the two women contradict each other and have a poor sense of sight and hearing. Shakespearian posters of their work line the walls, along with their taxidermized dog collection, with old salt-water taffy on the coffee table. Wybie also provides another warning, saying that he’s never been allowed in the Pink Palace because his grandmother’s twin sister supposedly disappeared inside.

Nevertheless, Coraline goes to the Other World for a second time. She falls asleep to find her Other Father gardening, riding a mantis lawnmower while the snapdragon flowers kiss Coraline, all to make the garden look exactly like Coraline’s visage from above. After having a nice brinner, the Other Wybie is introduced that can’t speak (Coraline thinks the real Wybie’s talking is annoying), and they go to view a fantastical mouse circus upstairs, put on by the Other Bobinsky, with even the mice having the button eyes as well. Afterward, Coraline goes to sleep again in the Other World.

Our main character awakes again to tell her real mother more of her fantastical adventures, while they run errands around town during the Shakespeare festival, much to her mother’s disdain. The father goes off to finish publishing their work, while the mother-daughter duo go buying school uniform clothes, where a child is heard saying “my kingdom for a horse!”, and Coraline’s mother refuses to buy the expensive gloves her daughter wants. Dissatisfied, they return home for Coraline to find that her mother has locked the door to the Other World, claiming Coraline’s dreams to be dangerous. The mother tries to reach out to Coraline but is met with a cold shoulder, offering to get her something at the grocery store, but, met with her daughter’s refusal, the mother leaves the house alone.

Defiantly, Coraline steals the key to the little door and opens it to find the tunnel to the Other World on the other side even during the daytime, confirming that this is indeed a real occurrence and not a dream. Coraline goes inside for the third time willingly. She’s met with a note to see a performance put on by the Other Spink and Forcible’s. Coraline also puts on a new set of clothes being left for her by her Other Mother that she changes into quickly. However, when she goes outside, she’s met with the stray cat that can apparently talk in the Other World, evidenced that he’s the real one since he doesn’t have buttons for eyes. The cat warns her that this place is not what it seems and that Other Wybie can talk to him, since cats have “far superior senses than humans”. The cat eventually runs off, scared by something, all for Coraline to go to the basement to find the older ladies’ apartment turned into a grand theater with the dogs as attendants, along with Other Wybie.

The performance has Other Spink as a siren, using the Odyssey as motifs, while Other Forcible is in the style of the Birth of Venus painting, contrasting one another with a shared nautical theme, all for the silly display to devolve into absurdity. Afterward, they move to high-dive into a bucket of water, but shed their old-woman shells to become their younger selves, as seen in the portraits in the real-world apartment, and engage in a high-flying trapeze act, even incorporating Coraline into the mix, all while quoting a section of Hamlet which is of great narrative importance. All of these Shakespeare quotes will be returned to later.

Coraline goes back inside with her Other Mother and Father, leaving Other Wybie dejected outside (though the Other Mother tries to correct him, motioning for him to smile). When they all sit at the table, the Other Mother offers a proposition to Coraline: sew buttons into your eyes and you can stay in the Other World forever. In horror, Coraline refuses and goes up to her Other bedroom to hide, all while her toys, and even her picture of her friends, begging her to stay and sew the buttons in. She eventually falls asleep, but, when she awakes, she’s still in the Other World. Let it be noted in passing, that her changing of clothes, both symbolically and literally, is why she can’t leave.

Temptation, Deception of the Senses, and Appearance

We will now take the opportunity to expand upon certain Traditional considerations of the film and its narrative. Coraline is progressively tempted by her sense experiences throughout the first half of the film. From a spiritual point of view, the senses are the lower part of Man’s nature, the bestial part, whereas the purely intellectual/spiritual dimension is the higher part, of a supra-human character, even beyond logic and reason that distinguishes Man as human (“man is a rational animal”). As a result, temptation for sensory experiences is a pernicious thing, as it emboldens us to seek even more experiences that provide pleasure or general satisfaction, but, if left unchecked with regards to virtue, this will always push us towards vice, even predisposing us to not make use of our higher-natured intellect and intuition - blind, and Coraline is definitely no exception. However, the Other Mother isn’t tempting Coraline purely to get her to fall into vice, as she is doing this for other ulterior motives not yet revealed to the narrative.

Still, the Other Mother appeals to Coraline’s senses by creating a world suited to our protagonist’s wants, with regards to all the senses in practice - but, obviously, everything is not what it seems, both in the Other World and in our own world as well, and if it seems too good to be true it usually is. This motif is very similar to the folk tale Hansel and Gretel especially, with hungry children going off to find a Gingerbread house, only to find a witch that wants to eat them inside instead. Obvious parallels can be drawn here, as well as with regards to The Pied Piper, with regards to luring children away through the sense of sound, as well as the danger of the mysterious other that is not well understood or motives comprehended. These motifs were further accented by the use of the siren and Venus in Spink and Forcible’s little stage play.

Coming back to the story - with Coraline realizing that she can’t leave, she finds her Other Father looking depressed and dejected, now looking creepy in appearance, and it becomes apparent that the Other Mother is in full control of him and Other Wybie as well, some aspects of the illusion falling away. Coraline runs away to outside and tries to find an exit, the cat joining her along the way for exposition, and they come to find that the world becomes empty and void of detail as they walk away, all for them to circle right back to the same Other Pink Palace and grounds as before. The cat even dispatches with one of the faux circus mice sounding an alarm, revealing it to really be a rat and agent of the Other Mother. Everything is indeed not as it seems.

This is where ontology is useful in this aspect of the story. As referenced previously in our other writings, and very similar to Spirited Away in particular, Coraline going from her world to the Other World is likened to moving from the plane of Gross Manifestation, the lowest aspect of the physical world, to the plane of Subtle Manifestation, where subtle spirits dwell. Often only seen through near-death experiences, astral projection, and certain spiritual experiences - this realm of manifestation is very malleable in appearance, often taking the form of what people expect to see or want to see (see The Soul After Death by Fr. Seraphim Rose). Coraline has been “spirited away” here and abducted, similar in aspect to so-called “alien abductions”, to be manipulated to the ends of what the Other Mother wishes to achieve. As such, what Coraline knows, understands, and wishes to see is what the Other Mother makes appear using heavy amounts of psychic energy and influence, using the outward manifestation of mere appearance to push Coraline to stay in the Other World, a dangerous notion indeed.

Going back inside to try to leave through the small door, the pathway is blocked by furniture all in the style of bugs, a decidedly Kafkaesque motif, while the Other Mother eats literal chocolate beetles. After Coraline refuses to acknowledge her Other Mother as her actual mother, the Other Mother shapeshifts into a tall, lanky, spiderlike, and more horrifying version of herself, guiding Coraline by the nose to a “time out” zone by being phased through a mirror. While there, Coraline encounters three ghost children that refer to the Other Mother as the “Beldam”, a creature that lures children to steal their eyes and eat their life force within the Other World, the fate that these three children suffered. One child is a tall girl, a short farm-boy, and a little girl that matches the description of Wybie’s grandmother’s missing sister - their faces all frozen in horror and despondency, trapped in the Other World until their eyes are freed from it.

The Beldam Understood as Demonic Entity

The Beldam is indeed best understood as a demonic entity, both inside and outside of the narrative. All the pieces are there:

1. The deceptive nature of subtle spirits.

2. The use of temptation as a mode of deception.

3. The lying and misrepresentation of truth.

4. The manipulation of appearance, both of the entity itself and the subtle plane of manifestation.

5. Psychic parasitism, with the Beldam consuming the essence of the other children.

6. Contempt for humanity as a mode of being.

7. The infra-human aspect of the demonic as fallen entities.

These last three points have not been properly addressed and shall be expanded on in earnest.

Demons latch onto and either oppress or possess human hosts, often to their collective perdition, since demons, in their purely adversarial mode, are meant to divide humanity from itself, and even the will from the intellect for individuals or society as a whole, all to drive humanity into the same fallen state the demons are in. They leech psychic energy from living hosts, just as they can also subsist on psychic residues left behind in physical places or on objects (see “shadow people” in cemeteries or “cursed objects” phenomena). It should be noted that this is similar to how C.S. Lewis conceives of demons in The Screwtape Letters, in which its mentioned that demons consume the essence of fallen men and women in hell and the suffering borne from them, likening it to food and confection, and that the only way demons can conceive of connection to others is by eating them. It should be noted that the Other Mother claims to love all of the children she consumes, but its obvious to any viewer that this is no sense of true love, and that she is more like the female mantis that consumes the heads of those she shares a close bond, to build on the prior mantis motif in the film earlier. The Beldam’s “love” is predatory.

As for contempt for humanity, its a cosmological talking point that Lucifer, in his unfallen form, when seeing humanity and being told to serve it by God, he quickly rebelled, along with many other angels, and this was the impetus for fallen-demonic beings. This is attested to especially within the Qur’an, mainly in the Surrah Al-Baqarah 2:34 and Al'-A’raf 7:11-12, where Iblis (Lucifer) refused to prostrate to Adam, stating that he was made from fire, whereas Adam was made from clay, and, as such, became one of the disbelievers. As such, demons do indeed view humans with contempt to be manipulated to their ends.

To go along with this aspect of manipulation, we will remind the reader about the sequence in the opening title sequence involving the creation of the Coraline doll. The Beldam views the children the same way as she does the dolls: as something to be controlled and manipulated. The Beldam does not view humans as ends in themselves, but, rather, as a means to an end for its own satisfaction, as one would view a doll as a toy. The Beldam meticulously deconstructs and reconstructs the doll to how she sees fit, giving the appearance of humanity to thread and filling but, regardless, treating it and viewing it as an object in and of itself.

The one quote from the Other Spink and Forcible from Hamlet, as mentioned previously, goes especially well with this motif, which is quoted as follows:

“What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty.
In form, in moving how express and admirable!
In action like an angel.
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world!
The paragon of animals!”

Coraline obviously doesn’t know the fullness of the quote, though the Beldam certainly does, more than likely overhearing it from the real Spink and Forcible, and the remainder of the quote, that’s no doubt purposely omitted, reveals the true perspective of the Beldam:

“And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither;
though by your smiling you seem to say so.”

The Beldam and the Other alternates are always made to smile, to “put on appearances” despite all falsehood to the contrary, just as Other Wybie is forced to smile, which is revealed whenever the Other Wybie helps Coraline escape the Beldam’s clutches, though the alternate can’t follow or else he would turn to dust; this allows Coraline to escape back to the real world past the bug room through the little door.

Still, to expand on this quote further, its apparent that the Beldam puts on the appearance of lauding humanity, singing its praises and capitulating to it, but, in reality, the Beldam thinks very little of humans, considering itself to be superior.

It should also be noted in passing that Shakespeare wove many esoteric themes into his works and was rather enlightened to higher aspects of spirituality, as attested to by the works of Martin Lings (see The Secret of Shakespeare and The Sacred Art of Shakespeare), as well as by Rene Guenon, who noted elements of Freemasonic influence in his works (see Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage).

To borrow from Rene Guenon again here, the term “infra-human” reflects demonic entities in their lesser mode as being fallen, a lesser form of being as a result of their transgression (see The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, Ch. 25 “The Fissures in the Great Wall”), just as man is fallen as a result of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, separating Man further from God. This is best reflected by the bug imagery, showing the lesser character of the Beldam and its creations being as lowly, creeping things.

The act of Coraline sewing buttons into her eyes would also reflect an even greater fall as well. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, and if one’s eyes are removed, then not only is one’s humanity removed with their removal but access to one’s soul as well. This may be very well as to why the eyes being kept in the Other World is the cause as to why the children’s souls cannot leave, the buttons sealing their souls away - but it was their choice to do so, plunging them into a living hell of torment with no sign of ending.

Trials, Tribulations, and Love

Once Coraline makes it back to the real world, she realizes she’s been gone for at least a day, her mother’s groceries left on the kitchen table to rot. After using her parents cellphone and talking with Spink and Forcible, the two gifting her a Ouija Board planchette to find “lost things” (a topic that can be expanded upon later), it turns out that Coraline’s parents are missing. She confirms this through the use of a mirror in the hallway (in the same place she was imprisoned in the Other World) which shows that her parents have actually been kidnapped by the Beldam! So, now Coraline must venture back into the Other World to save her parents.

Coraline goes back and challenges the Beldam to a game: she must find the eyes of the three missing children and her parents to escape, though the Beldam has no intention of letting her leave. Coraline retrieves one pair from her Other Father, who reluctantly tries to stop her and even helps her, reflecting the control motif once more. She then retrieves another from Other Spink and Forcible, who are intertwined as taffy monsters on the stage (for candy as temptation, see C.S. Lewis’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe via Turkish Delight), and even from Other Bobinsky, who is a hollow representation puppeted by the rats, she retrieves the last set of eyes with the stray cat’s help.

This aspect of a noble quest and trials is reflective of the initiatic journey in various forms of tales across Traditional spaces, similar to the Grail Legend, the story of Wukong from Journey to the West, as well as The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the protagonist must retrieve what was lost and/or attain what is precious. Earlier, Coraline would have given up what was precious for what was most desired for from her own selfish wants, harkening to the “my kingdom for a horse” Shakespeare quote, but now she would rather have “her kingdom for her parents”, a much more noble goal, now that she’s recognized what’s important - not her wants but what is essential: real love. Love is the binding force, to borrow from Empedocles, that brings all together away from Strife, the chaotic and centrifugal force of dispersion.

Thankfully, Coraline outsmarts the Beldam by finding her parents in the snow-globe on the mantle, an object of importance and symbolic of a happy time in the family’s life when they visited the zoo together, throws the cat at the now fully Spider-like Beldam which rends her button eyes off, escapes her web, and finally exits the Other World for the last time, even severing the Beldam’s hand in the tunnel through the process. Coraline’s parents are safe, not remembering the experience, and all is set right between them again.

Coraline goes to sleep, putting the children’s eyes under her pillow, and the victims of the Beldam ascend as angels, but they do so with a warning: get rid of the key to the door so the Beldam cannot come back. Coraline goes to throw the key down the well, but the Beldam’s severed hand stops her. However, Wybie comes to the rescue and helps Coraline dispatch with the hand and throw it down the well from the beginning of the story. With that and a nice garden party at the end with all the neighbors, where Coraline gets to talk with Wybie’s grandmother to set the record straight, everything is drawn to a close.

As we can see above, a Traditional perspective helps put much of the esoteric and cosmological context of the film into a sobering and higher level of understanding, lucid and clear. Just like how Coraline was ignorant of Shakespeare, we shouldn’t be ignorant of the Traditions of the past, let we easily fall into deception and not recognize what is in front of our faces. Beyond this, we will remind the reader to always remember what is important in life, to not be deceived by appearances or give into the senses, as well as to cultivate love between one another, without falling prey to influences that would draw us downward rather than lift us up.