“But you never could have granted my true wish….
There it is, the unicorn thought, feeling the first spidery touch of sorrow on the inside of her skin. That is how it will be to travel with a mortal, all the time.
‘No’, she replied. ‘I cannot turn you into something you are not, no more than the witch could. I cannot turn you into a true magician. – “The Last Unicorn”, by Peter S. Beagle
Taken from the book ‘The Last Unicorn’, a magician not yet realized, still floundering about and deemed a lost cause by his kind. He considers asking his companion the Unicorn to turn him into a true magician. But even he knows this cannot be so.
The Unicorn’s reply is matter of fact. Not meant to hurt. Not meant to be taken personally. Not meant to be turmoiled with emotion. It is simply, a statement of what is.
The problem isn’t the statement of fact, or how plainly it is spoken. For the problem isn’t the situation or circumstance life presents. The problem, if there is one, can be found in the perspective and mindset of the Magician.
The character of the magician and the outline of his story, mirrors our own. The truth of his story inspires and reminds us of our own journey towards self-actualization. It seems that there are two lessons that may be find in this excerpt.
First, there is no need for any of us to become something that we are not. We often live as if we are dead. Our demise having been determined by the sickness of ‘death by comparison’.
We become convinced that our worth is determined by measure of becoming something impossible to become. Worse still, this impossibility isn’t even something of worth. It is something we conjured, based on nothing but our own false and skewed idea of what is or is not worthy.
Second, we are all magicians in our own right. Not literally, for there is no need for magic. Magic if it existed would be a petty and meaningless power. If there was really a need for magic, there would be a need for a fairy tale.
Knowing that we are not in need of magic or a fairy tale, we come to know that life and our own journey’s unfolding is exactly as intended. It is the story of the world. It is a story shared by all of us. The story requires all of us. Each one has something powerful to add to it’s telling.
Backed by Divine Intent, we are called to become the greatness we are intended to be. This greatness looks different for each of us. Although it may not be recognized at first. And although it may not match what we have presumed to be true. It’s truth, which is the only truth, waits to be known by us. And once we come to know this, we come to know ourselves.
Our power, our magic if you wish to call it so, is found in the intangibility of the soul. It is this intangibility, that makes who we are so powerful. Unlimited by something so petty as the physical. Not yet fully realized or imagined by the minds of men that think only on what they can see with the naked eye.
We are exactly as we should be. All that is missing, is our own knowledge of ourselves and the unique power we possess. Just because we don’t know it yet. Just because we have not realized it yet. This does not mean that it is not there.
It is not the circumstance that must change. It is not our true selves that must change. It is the need for us to unlearn all that is false and to see not what the eye sees, but what the heart and soul would have us inherently know.