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Last Sunday, I met with a group of people to look at and think about one of the more iconic images of the Tarot, The Magician. With the help of a paper by scholar Khurshida Turayeva, we tracked the western European magician Merlin from his days as a prophet in early Welsh mythology and Medieval texts. We noted his shifting 19th century relevance as symbol of the interplay between reason, magic and nature, into his modern fantasy role as benevolent mentor to young heroes.
There is a shared idea across scholars about Merlin’s “tragic fate,” which is attributed in part to the fact that he is a prophet who foresees terrible futures but cannot always change them. Psychologist Donald Hoffman writes for instance, that while Merlin prophecies the downfall of Camelot—the mythological, utopian place of Arthurian myth—there is an “ineffectiveness” of his prophecy in that it knows, but changes nothing.
For Hoffman, Merlin “devotes himself to the completion of a project in the full knowledge of its eventual defeat.” Merlin is well aware that what he makes will eventually crumble, that “what he most loves will most painfully destroy him, and yet he goes on, committed and engaged…”
I’ve thought an abnormal amount about magicians over the years but something important unlocked for me this time, thinking of Merlin. We live in an age of prophets projecting catastrophic futures who may be similarly powerless to stop them. We live amongst people with impossible courage who take tasks upon themselves that at times do appear destined to fail.
Speaking for myself, like Merlin I know that if I let myself love I might wind up worse for it. I will for sure lose what I believe I can’t live without. And yet I’m still here, taking up the impossible, perhaps foolish task, of living and loving as much as I can.
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