There’s a great scene in The Right Stuff
where an astronaut meets some aborigines in Australia. He tells them about his buddy who
is going into outer space, and to his surprise; the aborigine seems to know exactly what he’s
talking about; Fly over?
- Yeah. Your bloke do that too? You’re saying you do that yourself? No, not me mate, not me. See that old bloke there? He know, he know the moon, he know the star. It’s an interesting connection between old
wisdom and modern technology, about which Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette comment;
We often mistakenly think that we are very different from our ancient ancestors, with
our great knowledge and our amazing technology. But the origins of our knowledge and technology
lie in the minds of men like the old aborigine. He, and all those like him in tribal and ancient
societies were accessing the magician energy. The archetypal Magician is one of the four
basic building blocks of our psychology discussed in their book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover,
and it is the last one in my series exploring these instinctual energies in
film and television. Carol S. Pearson also wrote about the Magician
in her book The Hero Within, and gives us the following broad definition; The archetype of the magician teaches us about creation, about our capacity to bring into being
what never was there before, about claiming our roles as cocreators of the universe. To access the Magician is to adventure into
the world of ideas, to become a student of all kinds of hidden and secret knowledge and
take part in the constant process of creation. This is often achieved through the process
of initiation, in which the Magician is not only a student,
but also a master. In Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, these
are the mentors who guide the protagonist from the ordinary world into the special one
where transformation takes place. You've taken your first steps into a larger world. A distinction can be made here between the
Magician as a master of technology, and the Magician as a knower. The first relates to transformation in the
material world, the second to transformation in the personal psyche. This distinction is important, because as
Moore and Gillette argue; Ours is, we believe, the age of the magician,
because it is a technological age. It is an age of the magician at least in his
materialistic concern with understanding and having power over nature. But in terms of nonmaterialistic, psychological,
or spiritual initiatory process, the magician energy seems to be in short supply. Where did this imbalance come from? And what is this other half of the Magician
that we appear to have lost? In his book The Archetype of Initiation, Robert
Moore explores these questions by examining premodern tribal principles considered lost
or inaccessible to modern society. One of those lost principles is sacred space, which is separated from the ordinary or profane space. Moore refers to Mircea Eliade who, in his
book The Sacred and The Profane; explains how our modern society is based
solely on the profane and no longer acknowledges the sacred as an ontologically unique space; Properly speaking, there is no longer any world, there are only fragments of a shattered
universe, an amorphous mass consisting of an infinite number of more or less neutral
places in which man moves, governed and driven by the obligations of an existence incorporated
into an industrial society. The consequences of this are explored in films
such as Embrace of the Serpent, which recounts the stories of two explores,
both unable to dream, in search of a sacred healing plant in the Amazon. and The Tree of Life, in which the main character finds himself lost in our modern world. How did I lose you? Wandered. Profane space differs from sacred space in that it has no fixed point or center from which to gain orientation. Profane space has no axis mundi, no cosmic
tree or pillar leading to the heavens. This is the experience of modernity: people
unable to locate a center. It should be noted that sacred space in this context doesn’t necessarily have today’s religious associations, but rather signifies a more Star Wars-like Force that can be accessed through tears in the fabric of ordinary profane space. The consistent factor in premodern times was
not the belief in God but belief in some kind of regenerative power
or libidinal energy that could be tapped into for personal
and social regeneration. There’s a great Korean film called
Spring,Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring which I believe beautifully captures this kind of
sacred space. The story is centered around a small floating
temple that contains some peculiar doorways; in material terms, they seem of little use,
but symbolically; they form a threshold from the profane to the sacred; to the source for
personal growth and healing. Another film that exemplifies this type of
sacred space is James Cameron's Avatar; Avatar I'm trying to understand this deep connection the people have to the forest. She talks about a network of energy, Avatar not only features a clearly defined sacred
space, but also shows quite literally how it can be tapped into for its regenerative power. In today’s society, this might all seem
rather silly, but this is completely understandable As Moore explains; Modern persons find this notion difficult to perceive because they have been so exiled from an authentically spiritual or religious understanding of human experience. Modern secularized individuals typically think
that no true center really exists, and profane space becomes for them a formidable yet meaningless expanse that is fundamentally unreal. And yet, we can still find traces of sacred
space in today’s society, but they are mostly found on the personal level; in the places
that have a special meaning for an individual and can even hold some regenerative power. Think about Lady Bird’s hometown
Sacramento for example, or the well that Bruce Wayne fell into as a child. These are, as Eliade describes it, the holy
places of our private universes where we receive revelations of a reality beyond the one we experience in ordinary everyday life. Again, these are but distant relics of what was once a more complete and organized experience of sacred space of sacred space. Nevertheless, it is interesting to observe
how they still play a role in our lives. In fact; many even actively pursue these hints
of sacred space in the hope of finding direction and structure in an ever more fragmented society. Robert Moore observes how this pursuit often
signifies a desire to submit, to surrender oneself to the power of the sacred. A good example of this can be found in Sunshine, in which the Sun is not only a source of life
in literal terms, but also symbolically as several crewmembers develop a sacred connection to its overwhelming power. Although submission tends to be perceived
as a negative thing in modern society, when it comes to sacred space and personal transformation it is considered to be a necessary element, because, as Robert Moore puts it;
If you cannot submit, you cannot die, and if you cannot die, you cannot get reborn. I'm gonna die. Here we can turn to Victor Turner’s The
Ritual Process and introduce another distinction; that between liminal and liminoid space. Both are special forms of space that temporally
break us out of our everyday lives, but whereas liminal space enables true transformation,
liminoid space does not. Robert Moore adds that this is because unlike
in liminoid space, the boundaries of liminal space are stewarded;
Truly liminal space, truly transformative space, truly sacred space in the sense that
tribal peoples used it for personal transformations, always has ritual leaders. The presence of true magicians is required
to contain the powers of sacred space. Without their knowledge and guidance; people
in search for transformative space will only find liminoid experiences which at best are
momentary revelations or vacations providing some nourishment, but at their worst, they
can be dangerous and harmful. This happens when people don’t fully understand
sacred space and are not equipped to handle its power; or when they venture off alone
without the proper guidance, or when they stay in a liminal state for too long, not
knowing how to get back; this is often the result of pseudo-initiations, examples of
which we can find in the military, which succeeds at turning men into warriors, but often fails at bringing them home. The absence of true magicians also made us vulnerable to those who channel the archetype in a dysfunctional way. These so-called Shadow Magicians don’t guide
others, but direct them in ways they cannot see. They are not driven by a desire to help others,
but instead they use their knowledge to manipulate and belittle others as to maintain their own
status and superiority. For the first time in my life,
I began to know really violent thoughts. As the great film Amadeus shows us; this shadow often arises from being envious of life and of those who do act and share. All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing, and then made me mute. Their intentions can be more noble; take The
Dark Knight for example, where the Joker sees Batman’s morality as arrogant and wants to expose the flaws in his logic, You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. but instead of doing so in a way that helps him, the Joker has no intention of
constructive transformation, he only seeks to destroy, thereby accessing the infantile version of the Shadow Magician called the Trickster; This is the energy form that seeks the fall of great men, that delights in the destruction
of a man of importance. But the trickster does not want to replace
the man who has fallen. He does not want to take up the man’s responsibilities. In fact, he doesn’t want any responsibilities. He want to do just enough to wreck things
for others. So what then are the qualities of good magicians? And what function can they serve in a society
without sacred space and rituals of initiation? Ultimately; the most important purpose of
accessing the magician and venturing into sacred space is
the deconstruction of the ego. The magician keeps our grandiosity in check,
keeps our other archetypes in balance. It is the archetype of thoughtfulness and
reflection, of awareness and insight. Great magicians see into the
depths of human beings; they have the capacity to deflate our arrogance and call us out when we act in denial or pretense. I look at you, I don't see an intelligent, confident man.
I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. This is no trivial task; for unlike the magician’s efforts in the earlier mentioned technological sense, which accumulate over time, the magician as the steward of our psyche makes no lasting progress and starts from zero with every new life. It is no coincidence that the film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and… Spring parallels the lifecycle of one man, of one ego, with the passing of the seasons; the moment spring comes again; the previous
cycle has been erased from memory, and the entire journey begins anew. What is needed then is a deeper focus on the
seasonal cycle of the collective psyche; and wise magicians who guide new initiates through it; so that they may do the same when
the cycle begins again. Pearson emphasizes that;
Magicians do not try to force social change, because they recognize that people need to
take their journeys in order to be able to live in a human and peaceful world. Robert Moore too argues for the need of people of understanding who know how to control our grandiosity and reconnect us to the fabric
of the universe. Only then can we act from a place of unity;
a place of purpose, and grace. Only then can we channel our energy for the benefit of mankind, and the grand process of creation
