[Editor’s Note: This piece is included in She Summons: Why… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality?” Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2021).]
This essay fuses Goddess-centered spirituality with post-colonial economic narrative. Using this lens, we will look at a popular video game to see its world, lands, and the productions of those lands as expressions of Mother Earth. The princess in this story is also an incarnation of the energy of Goddess. Using a Shaktist lens – where female divinity permeates and is expressed through all perceivable phenomena, where Goddess is the ultimate reality from whence matter and consciousness arise, I will consider the adventure story presented in Super Mario Bros. (U Deluxe) and examine the correspondence of the theme of invasion-expansion and the seizure of natural resources and of the means and modes of production, and I will bridge both of these with the meaning of Goddess as she is expressed as all things in the world.
The plot opens when Princess Peach and her kingdom are suddenly attacked and laid under siege. Colonizer-King Bowser Koopa attacks with his airship, surrounding the castle of Princess Peach. He installs his children, the Koopalings, in the varied regions of her world. This war-violence expresses a spiritual and political takeover that overturns the natural order of feminine power. Barbaric and militant force contradicts the soft-expressioned and mild-mannered Princess Peach, who is seen seated at a tea party at the start of the game. Princess Peach is the female steward of her lands as well as the manifest form of Goddess as monarch. King Koopa uses war to expand his boundaries; this violence is theft of the power that comes from a proper relationship with the spirits and with the soil, and it chains the self-born sovereignty of the Goddess. With military aggression, Koopa seizes and exploits natural resources along with their production capacity. To restore divine feminine sovereignty as it manifests in the female monarch Princess Peach, and to end exploitation of feminine divine energy as it manifests in nature, the ordinary plumber Mario rises up as agent of the Goddess. Mario takes the hero’s journey to avenge the disrespect against sacred female energy. He fights against the aggression of Koopa’s military industrialization complex. He ventures through the world to stop the invasion, usurpation, and exploitation of the Goddess as she is expressed in nature’s resources. He lays waste to enemies across the lands, battling bosses so as to end their reign. At his journey’s end, he comes to the castle to stop the siege and to rescue Princess Peach.
Before the main exploration of this world, let us briefly note two extraordinary characters. Of the heroes in this tale, a new female playable-character, Toadette, has been added. Toadette receives a special power-up called a “Super Crown” which allows her to transform into Peachette. With it, teen-aged Toadette ages to maturity, and her tunic-garb changes into a royal-pink ball gown that allows her to float. Little Toadette transforms into a tall and fully-grown sky princess, who floats on the wind – a most imaginative character, even for a fantasy adventure story. Her feminine divinity is seen in the simplicity of the unique gifts she receives and in the unique actions she can take. These denote her sacred status. Her transformative aspect takes place with a dress; its spiritual potential remains and is seen especially in her ability to soar and float in the wind.
Of the antagonists in the story, I want to briefly discuss King Koopa’s daughter, Wendy. From the lands that he annexed whilst laying siege to Princess Peach’s kingdom, King Koopa gave each of his children a region of their own to rule. Wendy Koopa received the most beautiful of the lands. Her world alone holds the starry twilit sky. Her lands have the glaciers and pine forests that stretch to the far snows and ice fields. Hers are moonless evenings that showcase the aurora borealis. Her airship has golden bangles adorning its cannons. In battle, she skates and dances on ice while wearing beautiful ornaments. I note that while Wendy plays the role of antagonist invasionist-colonizer, she is held in more beauteous regard as her aspect also holds the sacred feminine.
The advocate and agent of the Goddess is Mario, who, in rising to fulfill the goal which is Goddess, in journeying to reach her, and in saving the world and rescuing Princess Peach, he is more than ordinary, but “Super.” Super Mario is the hero who ventures to fight off invaders who seek to control Goddess energy as it manifests as natural recourses, as well as it manifests in the monarch and her people. Mario exemplifies action taken to center the Goddess in an individual life. He does so by serving Her. In taking up the fight, he saves the spiritual path, the lands and the soil; by saving the path, he becomes its protector. The path leads to Goddess. The feminine divine is expressed as the path. Visually, the roads lead region through region, finally to the besieged castle of Princess Peach. There are eight worlds with eight Koopalings to repel before Mario reaches Princess Peach’s castle, just as there are eight spears expressed in the lotus of the chakra Muladhara, where is said to be the house of Kundalini.
Mario ventures through the eight worlds. Below are their descriptions. I shall assay to express how the Koopa-colonizers attempt to control the appearance of Goddess as resource, and how these resource-manifestations are named in a long history of Goddess- centered spirituality. The “naming” and the “names” of Goddess as a force of nature are a critical aspect of understanding how the Koopas attempt to control Goddess herself.
World I: Acorn Plains, administered by Lemmy Koopa.
The acorns here are spiritual seeds, controlling potential action and energy. The youngest of the Koopalings controls this first region. The seeds of future possibilities are also made manifest in the potential of the seed to grow further. Bijarupa is the name of Goddess when she manifests as a seed. This is all within the acorn. Socio-economically, these literal seeds represent crops, food, agribusiness, and farm-industry – a much needed input in controlling the means of production, as labor input requires food calories. These nutritional elements are Shakti in the form of food where her name is Annapurna. Controlling these elements is also controlling the Goddess as she manifests in the Acorn plains – the greenest region of the world map. In the background scenery, we see what could be called a “grandmother tree,” colossal and ancient, yet lively and fertile.1
World II: Layer –Cake Desert, administered by Morton Koopa Jr. This region on the map is the world of the historical Moai – the wondrous Rapa-Nui monoliths. Also found here are fire-opals / carnelian-red gemstones among the shifting sands. When the Koopas invaded this region, their colonial consumption would control the esoteric mysteries of the Moai as well as the gemstones. This region at first seemed the simplest to understand. On the surface, the two recourses – gemstones and Moai monoliths – are those that invaders would harvest. Simply seen, it is an exploitation of Mother Earth’s wealth. When investigated further, however, more complexity emerges. The Moai are not just stone statues. Ingame, their eyes move. This represents spiritual life. When Goddess is represented as a statue, her name is Shukramurtih, a name that discusses her stone stillness and her purity. In-game, the stone statues move and their eyes also move. They seem sentient. It is a colossal move for an invading colonizer to control the relevant narratives of Goddess-centered spiritual life. The hero Mario rallies against this to defend the Goddess as she resides in the stone statues.
World III: Sparling Waters, administered by Larry Koopa. Without the shining pearl of ocean economy, no empire is complete. Control of marine harvest, as well as naval potential and travel and trade by ocean is critical to control the flow of resources. While ingame, though the colonizers came in airships, they still moved to contain access to marine ports, which are faster than land travel. Potential shipping lanes to naval fortresses at port cities would 326
MAGO BOOKS
allow superior militarization. Also from fish to silk and dyes to algae, the ocean is a base of wealth. The name of goddess when she manifests as all sweet waters, all sparkling waters, all healing waters, is Sarasvati. There she resides on the ocean, seated in a white lotus. To control the water and the maritime world is to control the land’s lifeblood. The invaders would seek to control the Goddess and the waters where she manifests. Thus Mario fights.
World IV: Frosted Glacier, administered by Wendy Koopa. The frosted glacial world has the natural beauty of aurora borealis and pine forest perfect for logging, a critical building resource in expansion.
World V: Soda Jungle, administered by Iggy Koopa, known for its rain forest and poison.
Controlling poison, herbs, and applied natural medicines, derived from plants, is important for empire. Jungles often have several harvests and are known for fertility and unique flora and fauna. Interestingly, there are many “haunted” regions full of ghosts in this world, suggesting control of the spiritual and arcane resources as well. Relative to jungle environmental economics, controlling the production of a large fertile land could feed an army.
World VI: Rock Candy Mines, administered by Roy Cooper. The only world with a disingenuous name, the world features mines and a quarry. While mines will normally extract minerals and ores, in-game you see here the first presentation of bombs. This corresponds correctly to the saltpeter and sulphur extraction in the mineral mines needed to complete bomb production. Here as well you see chained bombs that function as guard dogs. The bombs and chains support militarization, as it expresses power structures using applied force. The bomb manufacturing here is exactly on point. We are also introduced to warding balls that guard with electric shock.
World VII: Meringue Clouds, administered by Ludwig von Koopa.
Ludwig von Koopa’s fortress is in the sky. His lair holds a giant organ, and his hand brandishes a conductor’s baton. A sky train separates this world from the rest. Trains consume coal, function on steam, and indicate industrial society. The clouds and the skies are an incredible fortress of wind, rain, electricity, and solar energy. In terms of mythology, the skies represent the house of thought. In terms of today’s inflection, the airwaves are where our media and news and culture broadcast from. Controlling the skies is an incredible metaphor used by the game to subtly discuss broadcasted politics as well. This world flaunts mechanized lifts and gear-driven switches, as well as skies full of timed bullets.
World VIII: Peach’s Castle, under attack by Bowser Jr. and King Koopa.
The floral and opulent grasslands of Princess Peach is currently under siege. Koopa’s scorched earth policies have surrounded the formerly beautiful place with a dark tornado. The castle grounds are transformed into a lava field of fire, dust, and smoke. Fireballs rain down from the sky. Closer to the heart of the tower where Peach is prisoner, parachuting bombs and electric-shock devices ward the path. In a flying vessel, Bowser Jr. antagonizes the hero, in attempts to prevent him from halting the invasion and rescuing the Princess. But to rescue the Goddess in the form of Princess Peach, the hero, her agent, empowered by Goddess, will always prevail. With the blessings of the Goddess, nothing is impossible.
References
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, 2003
Bhagavad Gita, Rig Veda, tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, 1896, at sacred-texts.com. https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07095.htm
Lalita Sahasranama Stotram, Brahmanda Purana, trans. Ravi Mayavaram, 3/31/2020. https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/lalita1000.html?lang=en-IN
1 RigVeda VII 95.5 references Goddess as a great tree
(Meet Mago Contributor) J.A.A. Narayan)