The Magician Archetype - Exploring The Origins Of Wisdom

Welcome, guys and gals, to the Man Talk Show. I'm Connor Beaton, and on this week's midweek and mini episode, I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach and I'm going to start talking about four archetypes from the book King, Lover, Warrior, Magician. And these four archetypes can be seen in our culture and through movies, through books, through the hero's journey, through so many different pieces, but they can also be seen in. In modern masculinity. And one of the things that I find very interesting about these four archetypes. Well, first off, this is from the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, Rediscovering the archetypes of the Mature Masculine. And this is something. It was written by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, and this book has actually been out for a few decades. It's not new by any means, but it's definitely a prominent one. So if you haven't read it, I'm going to go through a few of the archetypes. I'm going to go through all the archetypes individually. This episode will focus specifically on the magician archetype. And in the book, they actually start with the king archetype, but I'm going to finish with the king archetype because I think it's one of the most powerful ones and it's also one of the most important ones that seems to be lacking in our culture right now. But anyway, these archetypes show up in a multitude of ways. They are in the book, really. They talk about it being a part of masculine psyche. They talk about the transition from boy psychology to man psychology, and it's really about the initiation. The ultimate goal is that we have done the work as men to integrate these different parts of us and not to sort of get lost in the idea that we are one only over the other, but that there is a journey for each of us to start to discover these archetypes and energies within us. But before I dive in too deep and really unpack the Magician, I just want to remind everyone listening to this podcast, guys, head on over to the Facebook community. We've got some great conversations going on there, and it's an amazing community where we dive deep into sex and intimacy, relationships, money, mindset, fitness, the whole gamut. And there's some really, really incredible men from around the world. There's. If you are looking to do some men's work, if you're looking for a coach, you can definitely look online and consider doing some work with myself or joining one of the men's weekends that I run, we have one coming up. And we also have an incredible group of men online called the Alliance. So you can find all that either@connorbeaton.com or mantalks.com so let's dive straight into the magician, because the magician is an interesting connection between the wisdom of the old and the wisdom of the modern. And normally we think of magicians as like people pulling rabbits out of hats. And I don't know what the guy's name is, but there's a guy that I saw the other day on TV, on YouTube, more accurately, because I don't have TV, who regurgitated a frog and was just doing some really crazy things. He basically freaked out Will Smith. Anyway, the magician archetype is so much more than that. The magician is really the wisdom seeker in many ways. And so it's the wisdom of the old and the wisdom of the new modern technology. And a lot of this in the book Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette.

Here'S how they describe it. They say we often mistakenly think that we are very different from our ancient ancestors with our. Our great knowledge and our amazing technology. But the origins of our knowledge and our 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. Now, in. In sort of modern movies like Lord of the Rings, we can see Gandalf being this very, you know, archetypal magician. He is the wise sage, the one that sort of keeps all the wisdom. He knows where things are stored, he knows how things travel. He. He is really the embodiment of that. And in real life, we can see this role being played by the shaman. And in the days of old, the shaman was just an individual, a being, usually a man who was the embodiment of knowing. He had studied the moon and the stars and how things moved and how everything was interconnected. He knew how things were connected, how the sun worked when it would rise and fall. And he was able to understand life and existence in a depth that very few seemed to be able to comprehend. And it's this type of wisdom, this type of wisdom and knowing that the magician really hosts and really latches onto. And we can see this energy. You can see this archetypal magician in one of the four basic building blocks, really, of our psychology. And it's in, you know, when they discuss it in the book, they talk about how this is sort of a fading. A fading archetype. And it's Interesting because in a book that was produced recently by a gentleman named Pearson, he said 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 co creators of the universe, as co creators of the universe. And so when you think about the magician, you can think about sage, sage people through different, many different cultures. You can think about monks. You know, Buddhist monks are almost a form of magicians. But the very interesting thing is that in our modern world, the age of the old wisdom of magician and the wisdom of creation and some of the pieces of interconnectivity have started to fade in. They're being replaced by the wisdom of technology. And oftentimes within the magician realm, the magician is responsible for initiation. Which is why I actually wanted to start with the magician and why he is so important, why this energy and this archetype is so important. The magician is often achieved through the process of initiation. And usually there is a magician that is not only a student, but, but it requires a master. And there's sort of a lineage that happens. And in this way, this is sort of the transcendence of a boy into manhood, and that every man requires this initiation into manhood, and that most men at some point in their life will seek out some form of a master, some form of a master who is able to equip them and teach them about the wisdom of transcendence, about the wisdom of interconnectivity. And you know, in Joseph Campbel Campbell's the Hero's Journey, these are the mentors who actually guide the protagonist in the journey from the ordinary world into the special realm where transformation actually takes place.

And when this actually happens, when you find the master, when you find the person, the magician who's going to be the guide for you on the journey, you've really taken your steps into a much larger world. And we can actually see this in so many movies, right? We can see this in Star wars where Luke Skywalker meets Obi Wan Kenobi. And Obi Wan is that magician, he's the one that is imparting wisdom and knowledge onto the young Jedi. And a distinction can be made here again, going back to the difference between the magician as a master of wisdom or a master of knowing and a master of technology. And the first, the first actually relates to the transformation that occurs in the material world. And so that is the wisdom of the knower, the magician knower. And the second is the transformation and transcendence of the personal psyche and the distinction is important because as Gillette and Moore talk about, they really, and this is a quote from their book, they say 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 non materialistic psychological or spiritual initiatory process, the magician energy seems to be in short supply. And this really sums up for me the importance of the magician in our, in our mainstream society. Because realistically, what a lot of men are facing right now is that they have never experienced the initiation process into manhood. They were sort of cast out onto their own to sort of figure it out by themselves. And even in ancient worlds where Spartans, you know, young, young men, young boys, young Spartans were given a spear and, you know, a piece of flint and sent off into the wilderness to provide for themselves, they had spirits and mentors and guides that we're meant to be this magician, that we're meant to be this guide in the process and an initiation into manhood. So where did the imbalance come from in our current society in terms of lacking the initiation magician, in terms of lacking this guidance of this mentor, as we would call it? And what is the other half of the magician that we appear to have lost this, this sense of connectivity with something greater, with something more prominent and deeper? Well, in the book the Archetype of Initiation, which is also written by Robert Moore, he really starts to dive into some of these questions by looking at and examining pre modern tribal principles considered lost and inaccessible to modern society. And these are, you know, these are some of the lost principles of our ancient ancestors. And one of the biggest principles, for me that was one of the most important things is the principle of sacred space. Sacred space. And this in the book is different from what he calls profane space. And more. Refers to a few things in the book and differentiates between. In the. Sorry. In a different book, Marcia Elade creates a distinction between the sacred and the profane by explaining how our modern society is based solely on creating profane space and that we no longer acknowledge the sacred space and the sort of ontological impacts of that. So in the book they say, 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. So the idea here, while that might sound complex, the idea is basically that that we have fragmented our society and our families and our communities at such an alarming rate that we have disbanded and disintegrated this idea of having a sacred space. And in ancient times, these sacred spaces were the places where people often went to explore their magician energy, where they were often taught that the interconnectivity of everything around them. And, you know, I think in ancient times, the church has often tried to be that sacred space. And in a lot of spaces, in a lot of different practices, it's more than just having a church, a house or structure that you go to. In many ways there, the sacred space is something that should return us to nature. And we can see this in so many different movies that have come out over the last decade or two where people really seem to be hearkening back to this need to reconnect with the sacred. And so more. In the book Lover, Sorry King, Lover, Warrior, Magician, he talks about. He says the profane space differs from the 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. Now, this is really profound because it actually unpacks much of the challenges that modern man face. Modernity is, just in case you're not familiar with that terminology, modernity is basically the seeking and the necessity to continue to modernize, to continue to grow. And capitalism as we know it is dependent on modernity. Capitalism actually requires modernity to happen. So we need to continue to innovate and use ingenuity in order to create new and bigger and better, in order to continue to grow. And because of that, the profane space, this idea that right now I'm living in a profane space, right? I'm in an apartment in Manhattan in a building with hundreds and hundreds of other apartments separated and segregated from my community. And in ancient times, if I lived in a community, it usually was under 150 people. And there was almost always a centerpiece in the middle of the village, in the middle of the community that would act as this center point. Or there was something outside of the village that would be the center point from which it was a sacred space. And we can see this in movies like Game of Thrones where they have the.

I'm totally blanking out, but the Starks have a tree outside of the castle that they all go to, and that's their sacred space, right? That is their. Their sort of tree of life where they go to pray where they are connected to everything that is bigger than them, everything that is outside of them. And it's these sacred spaces that we seem to have lost that we seem to struggle to actually connect to. And the challenge with that is that people, because of that, have started to devalue the connection to. To the magician, the connection to the mentor, and the consistent factor. This is again from Moore in the book. The consistent factor in pre modern times was not the belief in God as a singular entity, but belief in some kind of regenerative power or libidinal energy that could be tapped into for personal and social regeneration. So the idea here was that we had these spaces that we could bring ourselves back to, and these spaces connected us all, that even if you didn't have a close relationship with people in the village, there was still a space that daily or weekly that they would go and connect to, that you are also connected to. And that was the thing that bound you together. And I think that's why in the past few years, we've seen a rise of, of people flocking to gurus, people flocking to these men and women that will act as this center point. And that can be helpful as long as the guru is living, as long as this sort of person or entity or being is in the true nature of the magician, of the guide, of the mentor, and has this sort of wellness and direction of, of the individual in mind.

Rather than their own tyrannical needs. And that's usually where the king comes into, and I'll tie that in at another time. So what do we really need to know about the magician? Well, the magician, as I've said, has a few different important pieces, right? The magician is usually a ritual leader. So the ritual leader is someone that will guide men, guide women, but specifically in this case, because this man talks, guide men through the process of understanding how to create a sacred space, not only outside in the world, but within themselves, and how to find that sacred space, that connectivity to everything outside of them, that interconnectivity to everything around them, to help them understand that they are never inherently alone because they are an interconnection of everything around them. So the magician plays that role of the ritual leader. He or she helps individuals find sacred space within themselves and within their world, but also helps them connect to being the sort of cupbearers of this wisdom, of this knowledge, of this knowing and information. And the people who really feel drawn to that magician, really feel drawn to that mentor, will connect with them and learn their ways. Over years and potentially decades. And that the magician's job is not to try and convince them to follow them, but rather that the people see an immense amount of wisdom in what that person is imbuing and bringing to the world and the space to want to learn from that experience. And in many ways, there's also a dark side. There's also a dark side to not having the magician energy, right? This is where we see a lot of lost men, a lot of lost boys, a lot of lost energy, a lot of depression and disconnection to the world around us, a lot of disconnection to rituals, to something greater than ourselves. And many people will struggle and they will embark on journeys that are not productive for them, that leave them feeling alone, that leave them feeling isolated and disconnected from something greater than themselves. And we have also seen this in many different movies where someone will wander off on their own. It's one of the reasons why in Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is never really left alone, right? He is always surrounded by a group of people who are supporting him on that journey. And the magician, being Gandalf, is the one that continues to come back and make sure that that journey happens to its fullest extent. But Frodo's never alone. He never wanders off by himself because he understands that it requires other people to support him on that journey. Even when he tries to disband from Sam and the rest of the group, they still find their way back to him because they realize that there is a mission. And in this way, this is a part of what the magician teaches. And so without it, people can feel incredibly lost. And they can feel as if.

The need for power and knowledge can be overwhelming. And this is where we see a lot of men seek knowledge, seek just things, facts and data incessantly. And they buy the courses and they read all of the books, but they never truly are able to integrate them. And they never open themselves up to a guide or a mentor or a magician who is able to help them integrate those pieces in a way that transcends just simply knowing information. Because the magician is the realm of experiencing that. The Magician is the realm of experiencing that, and not only understanding information, but knowing it at an experiential level. So I hope that this was helpful for you. The last piece I'm going to talk about is the Joker. And the Joker is the anti Magician. The Joker, as we can see in Batman, is the absolute chaos. The absolute chaos of the Magician and the Joker in Batman really has, like, no intention of constructive transformation. It doesn't really matter what happens in that movie with Heath Ledger playing the Joker. In that movie, he only seeks to destroy. He only ever seeks to destroy. And he accesses this infantile version of the shadow magician called the trickster. And Robert Moore and Gillette actually talk about the trickster in their book. And if we're careful, the first thing that we need to know is most of us have the trickster energy within us. Most of us have this shadow magician that wants to destroy and pull things apart. And this is really a part of the sabotager. If you've ever felt that sabotage energy within you, that is a part of the shadow magician. And the shadow magician shows up like the Joker. It's complete chaos. It's complete destruction. It makes no sense whatsoever. Even within the bad guys. Right. Of that Batman movie, I'm going to keep referring to that. The Joker pisses off even the bad guys. He's just complete chaos. And again, this is from Moore and Gillette's book. They say 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 at all. He wants to do just enough to wreck things for others. And this is where we have to be cautious of the magician, because the shadow energy of the magician is this is this Joker. And in many ways, this part of us, there is a part of almost all of almost everybody has this part within them, within their psyche that wants to destroy, that wants to take apart their life, that wants to find the reasons within their life why they should, you know, smoke weed and binge, watch Netflix for the next two years straight and not accomplish anything or go out in the world and rob and steal and cheat and create chaos and destruction in relationships. Most of us have that part. So what then are the qualities of a good magician, lastly, and what function can they serve in a society without sacred space and rituals of initiation? Well, first, hopefully, we can learn through this episode that we can provide and seek out more of those spaces in our life. Ultimately, the most important purpose of accessing the magician within our culture and venturing into the sacred space is the destruction. Or, sorry, not destruction. The deconstruction of the ego. And the magician keeps our sort of grandiosity in check. It keeps the other archetypes in balance. In balance. It allows us to find a resemblance of balance within our psyche, within our existence. It is the archetype of thoughtfulness and reflection and awareness and insight. It's usually the piece of yourself that you feel deeply when you meditate, when you are questioning existential queries, when you are wondering about God, when you're wondering about the universe, when you are in awe of the energies of existence, when you look out at a sunrise or a sunset in a beautiful place and you are left just in complete awe. And there's a wisdom within that where you know that you're connected to it, but you, in words, can't seem to describe how you necessarily fit into all of that. So that's why it's important. And great magicians really see into the depth of human beings. Great magicians see into the depth of human beings and they have the capacity to define, deflate our arrogance and call us out and call us forward when we act in denial or when we act in arrogant and ignorant ways and they seem to be able to look at you and they see through the facade, they're able to look directly at the cocky or scared ego that never wants to be seen. And it's able to call us forward and initiate us into the wisdom that we already know is there, that we already know is buried deep within us, that we've touched, that we felt at one time or another in our lives. And maybe we've lost connection with. And maybe it's so far gone that we need someone who is powerful enough and strong enough to be able to pull us back into that space of knowing and release us from that, from that shadow of the magician. So that's what I have for you today. I hope that you found value in this. I am going to cover the King, the Lover and the Warrior in episodes to come, so I hope that you enjoy this. Please don't forget to share and subscribe. Leave us a rating. It goes a long way. And share this with just one person because this might give them some deep insight into their own personality and lives. So until next week, this is Connor Beaton signing off.