Chapter 1: Enlightenment wizard

“Watch me!” Follow my ideals! Contemplate my solutions! Everything you can think of, I am able to understand and accomplish; everything you want to obtain, I can give you.”

As if they were words immediately removed from the mind of a narcissist, the one known as The Magician rehearses yet another new play. It’s not like he’s going to blatantly say things like that in public, but he needs to get into character; the rest is improvisation. He then opens the curtain on another new bunch of unfortunates.

“Lord, you promised us a good harvest!” says the first. “It would’ve been better if you had said nothing. What are we going to do now?” says the second.

The Magician looks ahead and says, “I never promised you anything; the harvest was good, and the land was fertile. What did you do then? Stopped plowing new land, thinking that the abundance would continue forever. No one is capable of receiving without first giving.”

“But we won’t survive next winter the way we are!” protests the first. “We ask that you use your magic to recover the lost harvest!” says the second.

The wizard looks at the first, responding to his protests: “How do you expect to solve your own problems without first sacrificing something?” He then looks at the second: “How can I use any magic if what was lost perished by your own hands?” He then turns his attention forward to the two: “Bring me what you consider most valuable. I promise that I will not separate you from your possessions.”

The men seem dissatisfied but leave, as if they had expected it. The next day, they reappear before the curtain, with the first man carrying a golden amulet, while the second one came with his family.

The magician begins the new exchange of words, looking at the first man: “Tell me, what is the value of this amulet to you, to the point of presenting it before me?”.

The first man responds, “This is an artifact passed down from generation to generation in my family. With it, I don’t need to fear demons or misery.”

The Wizard immediately gives the word: “What if I told you that what you hold is actually cursed, preparing to bring you great misfortune at your most vulnerable moment, just as it happened to your parents?” The first man goes into shock. He never thought that the amulet actually had an adverse effect, and he knows that the magician’s words are absolute.

He then looks at the second man and says, “I see you brought your family. Tell me, How much do you enjoy sharing your space with those you love?”The second man is happy with the question, deducing in advance that he is not going to receive a response as raw and cold as the first man: “They are everything to me. I don’t go through a day of work without thinking about the well-being of my wife, my son, and my two daughters.”

The Magician then retorts, “Your family is everything to you, but could you tell me when was the last time you received an ‘I love you’ from any of your relatives?” The second man then becomes thoughtful: ‘When was the last time I was complimented on my role as family man?’ he thinks, but he doesn’t know how to answer as precisely as he would like. Could the problem be the fact that he simply doesn’t remember, or perhaps that he isn’t receiving appreciation for his work in recent years?

Satisfied with the perplexed expression of the two men, The Magician then moves on to the final act: “Do not fear anything I have said. You stated why you appreciate a certain thing, and I showed you the other side of the coin. The same thing applies to good and bad harvests; the first gives you the desire to rest, and the second gives you the desire to solve the problem. Why, then, do you not continually try to solve your own problems as much as you can while respecting your own time to rest? If you try the first one without stopping, you will have no rest, and if you relax too much, the problems will affect you fatally only when it is too late to combat them.”

The men remain silent. The Magician concludes, “Here is my solution: If the first man’s amulet no longer wants him, then he must give it to the second, who must, in return, help the first man with his family’s labor. With this, both will be on track for the next few years.” The two men seem afraid of the proposal and leave the large hall in silence. It is not known what happened to the two men after that, but the Magician ended the day with a smile. One can wonder: What was going through his head?