Scooby Doo as Gnostic Allegory
The Voice of Lews Therin - 4/3/2004 2:42:13 PM

Scooby Doo can doo-doo but Jimmy Carter is smarter! For those of you who thought Scooby Doo was just a cartoon, read on and be amazed:

I've come to realize that Scooby Doo holds deeper meaning as an ongoing Gnostic allegory. The first clue that we have to this deeper meaning is the fact that the gang drives around in a vehicle that styles itself "The Mystery Machine". It's as though the producers of the show are shouting out "these people and their dog are adherents of the divine mysteries". The show itself, furthermore, called "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" initially, is a deeply philosophical question that demands the viewer engage in heavy introspection as to who he is, what reality means and what he sees his place being in the harmony that is creation.

The characters all represent the various types of dramatis personae that one encounters in a Gnostic view of life. Scooby represents the archetypical initiate or novice soul. He is depicted as a dog because he has not yet shed his "lower" nature. He is bound in the shackles of desire and instinct, and has not let divine Reason and Wisdom (Sophia) guide him to Truth and Gnosis. Fred and Velma are pneumatic Gnostics who are very patient with Scooby and Shaggy, realizing that they must let them find their own way to the truth. This is the reason why, in episode after episode, Fred invariably suggests that the two of them go a different way from the rest of the group and Scooby and Shaggy are left to their own devices. Daphne represents a psychic Gnostic being taken to the level of pneumatic Gnosticism, because she is continually questioning Fred and Velma and would be lost without their divine Wisdom but occasionally shows insight of her own. We are rarely shown what those three do together because, having attained a state of higher understanding, they are beyond morality. They can engage in deviant sexual practices, use narcotics and intoxicants or just go fly a kite if they want to, because they are under the control of divine Reason and will not succumb to addiction. We can speculate as to the nature of their activities (hot ménage à trois with massage oils) but they need not concern us. The Gnostic allegory is only important with respect to Scooby and (to a lesser extent) Shaggy.

More often than not, Shaggy and Scooby run into the "ghost" because they are interested in sating their lower, base desires. They are usually looking for food (raising the constant inference that at least Shaggy is also numbing his consciousness with cannabis), although on occasion they have been interested in finding "treasure". But this path will lead to moral and spiritual decay, and the path of decay leads to ultimate destruction. It is at this point that the ghost appears to them. The ghost is their psyche, desperately trying to warn them that they cannot continue on the path of submitting to animal instincts outside the bounds of Reason. The ghost frightens them, and in the process their psyche gains control over their animal urges. This process is represented by the way in which the ghost chases them through corridors, down hallways, into various vases, jars and boxes, and in and out of numerous doors in ways that seem to defy the laws of spatial dynamics. The reason for abstract representations is that the drama is taking place within the initiate, and not without.

Having thus sublimated the demands of the body, Scooby and Shaggy eventually collide with their psyche, and at that point they make contact with the spirit (pneuma) that is our link to God. This pneuma shows them that they must control even their psyche with reason. The ghost is not really a ghost, but just the illusion of one. Had they let their spirit control them, they would have taken the ghost for the warning it was and acted to correct their behavior in a rational, undaunted fashion. Fred, Velma and Daphne conveniently reappear to help them through their epiphany. I say epiphany because the unmasking of the ghost to reveal the curator/explorer/missing scientist/tour guide also represents the imparting of a portion of Gnosis upon the initiate. Thus, the initiate grows in his understanding of the mysteries.

Perhaps this message has been lost on a generation of viewers, and perhaps the ghost will chase Scooby and Shaggy in an eternal search for the Self without end, but we can hope that we, the viewers, will eventually see the ghost for what it is and learn the lessons we need to eventually attain the Pleroma of Reality.