It’s the weekend again. I am sorry that it has taken so long to relate one
conversation that took place last Sunday evening! I’ll continue from where I
left off last time…
Leonard then came to the fourth and final explanation for the magician’s
self-imposed secrecy: the promotion of personal ego and the desire to control
others. He said that the magician would wrap his words in poetic language and disguise
the details of his techniques in cryptography and mathematical puzzles in order
to hide them from other people. By concealing his activities in this way and implying
that his secret knowledge is far too powerful to be shared publicly, the
magician creates an air of mystery surrounding his secret knowledge that makes
it attractive to others and thereby accords the magician a considerable amount
of superiority and influence over those who do not have access to his privileged
knowledge. When an individual expresses an interest in learning the magician’s secrets,
the magician reveals his secret knowledge to him and the individual is
initiated into the magician’s network of followers. This network of followers
often forms a strong inner group bond, members may develop their own secret language
and rituals and the group will seek to keep its activities concealed from
outsiders who do not have access to their secret knowledge. And so the cycle of
withholding knowledge, nurturing the curiosity of outsiders and attracting followers
continues...
Leonard said that Jesus makes a similar division between insider and
outsider groups - i.e. those who have access to his secret knowledge and those
who do not have access to his secret knowledge - in the Gospel stories. Like
the magicians who wrapped their words in cryptic or poetic language, Jesus
speaks in a series of parables that are intended to be incomprehensible to the
general populace while the true teaching is revealed to his close band of followers
or disciples (or ‘magician’s apprentices’, as Leonard added with a wry grin). Leonard
highlighted passages in the Gospels in which Jesus withdraws from the crowds to
give secret instruction to his disciples and he teaches that the crowds must
remain ignorant concerning the true meaning of his parables. He also pointed
out passages in which Jesus urges the disciples that they should keep their
special knowledge to themselves and engage in solitary, secretive prayer. I
confessed that if anti-social behaviours and the creation of private and
exclusive groups were typical indicators of magical activity in the ancient
world then it is surprising that Jesus would openly engage in this type of
suspicious behaviour and risk attracting a charge of magic, but Leonard was
determined to surprise me even further…
He drew my attention to the strict demands for secrecy that Jesus occasionally
issues to individuals after they have been healed and he said that the Gospels reveal
that Jesus did not consistently silence every individual after every healing
and in some instances he was far from secretive, even making candid statements about
his identity to the watching crowds and performing miracles directly in front
of them. It appears from the sporadic nature of these secrecy commands that
Jesus demanded silence only of certain individuals
on certain occasions and so I asked Leonard what was particular to those
healings that warranted the need for secrecy. Leonard answered that the healing
stories in which Jesus removes the participants from public view and subsequently
orders them to keep silence typically involve unusual healing techniques that may
have been interpreted by observers as magical techniques and thereby attracted
an ensuing punishment. Consequently Leonard suggested that Jesus’ strict warnings
should not be interpreted as ‘don’t tell anyone who I am’, but rather ‘don’t
tell anyone what I did’…
Before I could question Leonard about these ‘unusual healing techniques’
we were interrupted by Mr. Parry who sauntered up the aisle to tell me that he
had locked the vestry and to ask how much longer we would remain in the church,
all the time eyeing Leonard suspiciously. I have my own key to the church and I
could easily have locked the building myself when we had finished our
conversation, but Mr. Parry was (quite rightly) unwilling to leave me alone with
a stranger and so we set about packing up our things and made to leave. Leonard
apologised profusely for keeping us both so late and left, promising that we
would continue our discussion at another time.
Edit - Tuesday 16 March - I received a lovely surprise in this morning’s post - a postcard from
Leonard! The picture on the front is a photograph of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St Teresa and the writing
on the reverse of the card is almost illegible as the ink has bled into the
paper in the damp weather. The message is typically ‘Leonard-like’ in its
apologetic and flattering tone:
‘Thank you for sparing the time. I feel that we can plan sensibly for
the immediate weeks and months. Take it easy, but, if I may suggest it – for
your own sake, don’t try to spread yourself too thinly...consolidate present
plans and hopes. Remain so wonderfully self-aware. With my own programme, I can
offer you up to ten hours p. w. More later – but take it easy. I can wait.’
Perhaps I should explain the contract-like nature of this postcard.
Leonard has offered to provide paid work for me once the pastel portrait is completed
and I have agreed to become the female counterpart to Luke’s male muse. I am extremely
excited about the prospect of working with Leonard on a long-term basis and learning
more about his techniques, his plans for our future work together and, most
importantly, his unconventional theories regarding Jesus the magician!
