Thursday, July 21, 2011

From Merlin to Harry Potter.


Waking the Wizard Within

“In the West a wizard is primarily thought to be a magician who practices alchemy, turning base metal into gold…but the word alchemy is really a code word.  It stands for turning human beings into gold, turning our base qualities of fear, ignorance, hatred, and shame into the most precious stuff there is: love and fulfillment.”
                          Deepak Chopra (The Way of the Wizard)

“You are an unconditional spirit trapped in conditions, like the sun in eclipse.”
                          Rumi  (12th century Persian Poet)

         Most of us in the West are familiar with the stories of Merlin and King Arthur, and more recently of Harry Potter and Dumbledore.  Our fascination with these stories persists because the Wizard archetype exists in all of us.  In the Arthurian legend, Merlin, who lives backwards in time and therefore knows the future, resides in a crystal cave deep within a mountain.  It is safe and incorruptible, a place of power and purity.  In the case of Dumbledore, his “office” in a tower at Hogwarts is reached by a magic stairway guarded by a fierce gargoyle, and requires a secret password to enter.  Dumbledore’s personal symbol is the phoenix, the mythical bird that burns up and then rises again from the ashes. 

         Each of us has a crystal cave deep within where there lives a wise old alchemist.  The twentieth century psychologist, Carl Rogers, called this wizard “the inner physician.’’  He knows how to take any situation, no matter what it is, and turn it into gold.  He can show us how to understand the events of our lives as lessons, as a means of acquiring necessary skills.  Understanding does not change the events, but it can help us to feel stronger and clearer.  We can face the next such event with more muscle and better equipment.

         The fact that the Wizard never dies, or at least is capable of resurrecting after death, means that he is always there.  Remember in Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) how Gandalf, even after he was killed by the Balrog, came back as the White Wizard?  The wizard sees and knows everything.  His kind of learning can be spontaneous. When you begin to listen for his voice, you’ll hear it in random conversations, on the television, walking down the beach, in the synchronistic events of your life.  Once you believe in him, he will mentor you.  You can find the Wizard by going within and asking to see him.  He’s there and his purpose is to lift us out of the ordinary and into life on a whole different level.  Pay him a visit today.

                                  Namaste,
                                  Jane

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