Episode 3: The Artist/Wizard

I was at a gathering recently at the home of our next guest where someone said something so stimulating to my ears. They said, "a wizard knows the hidden paths." That was really interesting to me because this event itself was what could best be described as a 'gathering of wizards.'

 

Now, 'wizard' is a term that has been eclipsed in recent years by the term 'shaman.' When people are trying to describe a person of magic, they are talking about somebody that brings that magic and humanity to bear in service to their community and to the culture that they're a part of. Our guest for this conversation is a tremendous teacher of people like that...wizards.

 

What makes them a tremendous teacher is in the way they speak, the way they teach, the way they offer their knowledge. They share with a sense of childlike wonder, not with the cumbersome, burdened by the weight of authority sort of voice of a teacher that I think too many of us have grown accustomed to or have experienced in our paths through academia or our careers. No, this is somebody that exists in a state of awe and holds that awe for you. One who shares awe with you is a true teacher. That is the kind of teacher who can show you what an idea like 'hidden paths' really means.

 

An idea like 'hidden paths' is describing truths to life that don't have signposts, at least in the ways that we understand them. They're not drawn in the kinds of lines that you might see on a sign or on a screen or on a page. They're not so visible as much as they're...felt. By being in that place of awe, that place of wonder, a teacher of wizards is holding a bit of a compass for others to help them understand how it is that they feel and how they can behold the paths that might become apparent to them and guide them through their life. The way that I experience some of these hidden paths, is in the in-between of the perceiver and the perceived. It's a forgotten scent in a perfume as somebody walks past that brings you back to a core memory. It's a symbol, a color, a place, a breeze, something that evokes a deeper recognition of where is it that you come from and where is it that you're trying to go.

 

To the artist and wizard, these paths are out in the waking world. They are in the pages of books. They are in the master strokes that they see on paintings. This entire conversation that you're about to be a fly on the wall for is a teaching from one of the greatest wizards I know, sharing their awe about how they followed the hidden paths in their life, how they interact with the masters and the paint strokes that they have left behind for us to learn from. Through their sharing of their awe, they invite me and through me as you listen to this conversation, they invite you to be in that reverence of life with them.