The power of the Ruler is to create a prosperous and peaceful world (life, business). The power of the Magician is to transform reality by changing the experience. Magicial, flow, transformative experiences.  Without the Magician, your world cannot be transformed.

The Magician

Goal:              Transformation of lesser into better realities

Fear:              Manipulation  (transformation in a negative direction)

Task:              Getting into the zone

Gift:                The knowledge about transformation

STORY TIME

Give some thought to when, where, how, and how much the Magician Story expresses itself in your life.

1.  How much or how little is the Magician expressed in your life? Has it been expressed more in the past and present? Do you see it emerging more in your future? Is it expressed more at work, at home, with friends, in dreams or fantasies?
2. Who are some friends or relations who seem influenced by the archetype of the Magician?
3.  Is there anything you wish were different about the expression of the Magician in your life?
4.  Since each archetype expresses itself in many different ways, take some time to describe or otherwise portray (e.g. choose favorite heroes and heroines from books) the Magician as it is expressed or could be expressed in your life. What does or would it look like? How does or would it act? In what setting does or would it feel most at home?

To see “Star Wars” again after 40 years is to revisit a place in the mind. George Lucas’ space epic has colonized our imaginations, and it is hard to stand back and see it simply as a motion picture, because it has so completely become part of our memories. It’s as goofy as a children’s tale, as shallow as an old Saturday afternoon serial, as corny as Kansas in August–and a masterpiece. Those who analyze its philosophy do so, I imagine, with a smile in their minds. May the Force be with them.

It’s possible, however, that as we grow older we retain within the tastes of our earlier selves. How else to explain how much fun “Star Wars” is, even for those who think they don’t care for science fiction? It’s a good-hearted film in every single frame, and shining through is the gift of a man who knew how to link state of the art technology with a deceptively simple, really very powerful, story. It was not by accident that George Lucas worked with Joseph Campbell, an expert on the world’s basic myths, in fashioning a screenplay that owes much to man’s oldest stories.

Two Lucas inspirations started the story with a tease: He set the action not in the future but “long ago,” and jumped into the middle of it with “Chapter 4: A New Hope.” These seemingly innocent touches were actually rather powerful; they gave the saga the aura of an ancient tale, and an ongoing one.

The film has simple, well-defined characters, beginning with the robots C-3PO (fastidious, a little effete) and R2D2 (childlike, easily hurt). The evil Empire has all but triumphed in the galaxy, but rebel forces are preparing an assault on the Death Star. Princess Leia (pert, sassy Carrie Fisher) has information pinpointing the Death Star’s vulnerable point and feeds it into R2-D2’s computer; when her ship is captured, the robots escape from the Death Star and find themselves on Luke Skywalker’s planet, where soon Luke (Mark Hamill as an idealistic youngster) meets the wise, old, mysterious Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and they hire the free-lance space jockey Han Solo (Harrison Ford, already laconic) to carry them to Leia’s rescue.

The story is advanced with spectacularly effective art design, set decoration and effects. Although the scene in the intergalactic bar is famous for its menagerie of alien drunks, there is another scene — when the two robots are thrown into a hold with other used droids — which equally fills the screen with fascinating throwaway details. And a scene in the Death Star’s garbage bin (inhabited by a snake with a head curiously shaped like E.T.’s) also is well done.

Seeing the film the first time, I was swept away, and have remained swept ever since. Seeing this restored version, I tried to be more objective and noted that the gun battles on board the spaceships go on a bit too long; it is remarkable that the Empire marksmen never hit anyone important; and the fighter raid on the enemy ship now plays like the computer games it predicted. I wonder, too, if Lucas could have come up with a more challenging philosophy behind the Force. As Kenobi explains it, it’s basically just ‘the flow’

The film philosophies that will live forever are the simplest-seeming ones. They may have profound depths, but their surfaces are as clear to an audience as a beloved old story. The way I know this is because the stories that seem immortal — ”The Odyssey,” “Don Quixote,” “David Copperfield,” “Huckleberry Finn” — are all the same: A brave but flawed hero, a quest, colorful people and places, sidekicks, the discovery of life’s underlying truths. If I were asked to say with certainty which movies will still be widely-known a century or two from now, I would list “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “The Wizard” of Oz and Keaton and Chaplin, and Astaire and Rogers, and probably “Casablanca”. . . and “Star Wars,” for sure.

The Power of Your Story Seminar

Amsterdam 17 April

You will examine with Peter de Kuster, founder of The Power of Your Story the way we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves — and, most important, the way we can change those stories to transform our business and personal lives.

“Your story is your life,” says Peter. As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about ourselves, our creative business, our customers ; about what we want and what we’re capable of achieving. Yet, while our stories profoundly affect how others see us and we see ourselves, too few of us even recognize that we’re telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them — and, in turn, transform our very destinies.

Telling ourselves stories provides structure and direction as we navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, and helps us interpret our goals and skills. Stories make sense of chaos; they organize our many divergent experiences into a coherent thread; they shape our entire reality. And far too many of our stories, says Peter, are dysfunctional, in need of serious editing. First, he asks you to answer the question, “In which areas of my life is it clear that I cannot achieve my goals with the story I’ve got?” He then shows you how to create new, reality-based stories that inspire you to action, and take you where you want to go both in your work and personal life.

Our capacity to tell stories is one of our profoundest gifts. Peter’s approach to creating deeply engaging stories will give you the tools to wield the power of storytelling and forever change your business and personal life.