The Wizard’s Words

A story about a humble wizard that teaches the nature of power to his chosen apprentice. This story illustrates the seductive nature of power and how it can lead to feelings of isolation and exclusion. It also shows the healing and transformative power of a proper apology and amends. Click on the title.

A long time ago, in lands not so far away – there were men and women of great power and wonder. There were several names for these people – sometimes called magicians, sometimes sorcerers, sometimes geniuses, and sometimes enchanters – but for this story, I think the best word to describe them is a wizard. Now a wizard could be any gender – though we often picture an old man with a long white beard – and, it is true, one of the wizards in our story is indeed an old man with a long white beard – but I just wanted to make sure you understood that wizards came in all shapes and sizes.

Now along with the different shapes and sizes, wizards also have very different powers. Some can change themselves, some can change the natural world, some can control animals and birds and others can create fire and ice out of thin air. Wizards are also varied in the way they use their powers – many will only bother with matters that affect their own life while others are very interested in the lives of others.

Well, our wizard story begins in a quiet land in the mountains surrounded by dense forest. This land had no king or queen - Instead, it had something of a mayor. It was a simple place populated by simple people who worked the land and generally took care of each other.

One day an old man with a white beard came out of the woods with nothing on his back and nothing in his pockets. When the people of this land inquired who he was and how he had found them, he said nothing. They asked him other questions and he remained mute. They gave him food and shelter - because in this part of the world that was how you treated travelers and soon he regained his strength. He offered his services as a healer, for he clearly had a knowledge of herbs and minerals—but he remained mute. He never uttered a word.

Well, this man was named Laska and he was a powerful wizard. There were actually many magical things he could do: he could change the weather, he could control birds and animals, he could create fog and confusion and even fire … but he chose not to use any of these powers in his new home. He chose only to use his knowledge of herbs to heal. Laska was known by the people of this land as the “Quiet One” and he became essential to their daily life. Whenever someone was sick, injured, or simply feeling strange, they would go to the “Quiet One” and he would treat them. Usually, he gave them an herbal tea or compress, but sometimes he pressed on their arm or their chest and made quiet, gentle sounds and suddenly they felt better, filled with vitality and strength. The Quiet One became loved by all in this mountainous land in the woods.

Now … Laska was by no means the only wizard in that part of the world. In fact, in the space between the sea and the tall mountains to the East, there were four wizards that were all powerful and used their abilities in different ways. One remained in quiet service to the natural world and lived in the forest. Another dedicated herself to the Queen of the land by the sea and remained focused on the affairs of her sovereign. The last, however, turned his powers toward gaining control which would eventually lead to war. His name is not important—we only need to know that he was strong and clever and wished to take over as many kingdoms as he could. This was what happened to many kingdoms and the wizard’s rule expanded closer and closer to the mountains and indeed closer and closer to Laska’s new home.

Laska understood the seriousness of the matter and as he had grown to love the people of the mountain land dearly, he decided to use his wizard powers once again. He decided to become the powerful wizard he once was, only in service to his people. And the first order of business was to find an apprentice.

He knew that the difficulties that lay ahead were going to take a long time to manage. Defeating a wizard is tricky business, especially one as powerful as the one that was headed in their direction. Laska knew he needed help. He needed a helper, an apprentice who understood the power of being a wizard and could appreciate how important it was to keep the mountain land safe from this new threat. So one day Laska stood on top of a table in the marketplace and spoke to the people. He hadn’t uttered a word in the many years that he lived there so this was a monumental event, to say the least. He stood tall, cracked his staff on the table a few times, and spoke out.

“Dear ones” he began, “Something is coming. Something that could change the beautiful ways of this land and it is for this reason that I now confess that I have not been fully truthful to you. I can, as you now hear, speak. And not only that, my dears – I am, in truth, a wizard. I tell you this because a great power is coming to our land that we must keep out and push away, or else everything here will be changed forever. I want you to know, however, that I can keep you safe. But I need your help.”

Then he told them he needed an apprentice.

This was a lot for the simple people of that land to swallow all at once but word spread and the wizard found he had many people knocking on his door. Laska met with each of them over the course of a month’s time and in that time it was clear that none of them would do. Laska told them that he was looking for a particular quality that he had yet to see in the candidates thus far. And then quite suddenly, he discovered her. Her name was Simone and she was the Blacksmith’s daughter.

She had a reputation in that land for her tongue – this was a land of polite people who always said, “Hello”, “Thank you” and “Thank you very much” – but Simone never said these things without a sneer or a scoff. For reasons people couldn’t understand she would taunt and tease and slander her friends and family and it was not uncommon for her to insult someone nearly every day. People thought that she was simply a dirty, unkind person with a bad temper and they learned to avoid her. When they heard that the Quiet One wished to see her, people were confused – what would a wizard want with such a person? She was impolite, impudent and rude. He must be mistaken.

But he met with her and within a few minutes he announced that he had found his apprentice. Simone was perfect and they would immediately start to work together.

Everyone was dumbfounded to say the least. In fact, many were angered by the choice. They thought it very inappropriate for the wizard to be rewarding such terrible behavior and reckless to entrust their safety to such a rude person. No one, however, was more surprised than Simone herself. She asked herself, what was he looking for? What does he see in the dirty daughter of the blacksmith?

Incredibly, the first thing he did was to give her a powerful spell. He taught her how to compel an object to do her bidding. With this spell, she could make a spoon dance or candle light its own wick. It was a very powerful spell and she learned it quickly. Then Lasko told her, “Use the spell wisely.”

“Wisely?” she thought to herself. “I don’t know about wisely, but I am definitely going to use it.” And she did. She had a marvelous time getting boots to jump out at people and brooms to wack passersby on the street. She used it to make people spill their food and drop their work. She used the spell to have a grand time playing jokes on everyone she encountered, and by the day’s end, she had upset a great many people. They came to the wizard and were angry wondering why would he let her have such powers. The wizard listened intently to everything they said and then asked that they trust him. They would sigh and bow their heads—of course, they would trust him—but they hoped things would change soon. And indeed things did change.

Simone was given another power: the ability to make people freeze in place—to compel them to be still. She could say the words and the person would freeze and she would say other words and they could move again. Now, this spell was particularly fun for her because she could freeze someone and then put funny hats on their head or paint their face or draw on a mustache, and then unfreeze them and watch them get upset. This made her laugh and angered the people of that land even more. It was not long before it became too much. The people of that land decided that they could no longer tolerate Simone’s pranks. A representative came to the wizard and asked that both Simone and Lasko leave their land. They were sorry to see the Quiet One leave as he had done so much for them, but they could not allow Simone’s behavior to continue. And as the wizard was responsible for giving her such power, he had to leave too. Lasko bowed his head, said he understood, and packed his things. Simone couldn’t believe it.

“We are just going to leave?” she asked incredulously, “You should just use your powers to change their minds and leave us alone. In fact, we could use both of our powers to take over this place! You and I could rule this land ourselves.”

Lasko the quiet one looked at Simone and said, “Now you understand what we are up against. You can see how attractive power and greed can be. That’s good. That’s why I chose you. Now it is time for us to begin the real training.”

Lasko led Simone to the thick of the woods where they would work together. He built a small hut with saplings and bark and put two small stumps inside to use as chairs. Then he sat down and motioned for Simone to take the other seat.

“I was once like you,” he told her, “I was upset at those around me. I thought I knew better than others and when I had an advantage, I used it to show them I was better, stronger, faster, smarter.”

“I served a king once. But I thought that my king made silly decisions for silly reasons. So I used my powers of shape changing, of bird control, and the ability to send lightning and wind wherever I wished … and I took over the kingdom and ruled it by myself.”

“Then I became hungry for more power and I started taking over other kingdoms until I had control over four large and wealthy lands. I ruled by fear and no one wished to cross me, worrying that I might turn them into a crow or sweep them away with the wind.”

“But the more power I had, the more uncomfortable I became. The feeling became so terrible that I was given to sleepless nights walking the grounds of one of my castles and mumbling to myself. I did this all night long and then one morning, I heard a sound by the gate. It was a beautiful sound – the sound of a thrush welcoming the morning. It stood in such contrast to my own terrible voice that I silenced the bird on the spot. I took its voice away. In an instant, the beautiful song was gone. And I was left with my own voice. A hard, rough, terrible voice. And then I could see what I had done. I had replaced pure beauty and love with ugliness. This is what I did and what I had become. So at that moment, I took a vow on the spot. A vow of silence. I would not speak unless it was to create beauty. I stayed silent until I could make amends for what I took away from the bird and to the world.”

Then the wizard was quiet. Simone frowned and was silent in thought. Then the wizard asked her, “Do you wish to be a wizard? Tell me the truth.”

Simone looked at the wizard and considered this. Did she want to be a wizard? Did she really want this? She thought about her life. She saw how everyone disliked her and even despised her. She remembered how people used to talk about how dirty and ugly and rough she looked in her soot-stained clothes and how she decided she would show them how truly dirty and ugly and rough a person could be. She stopped caring about how she looked and went out of her way to behave and speak in an ugly way. But deep down she wanted to be liked, to be respected, to be considered beautiful. If being a wizard could get here and there, then yes, she wanted to be one.

She nodded her head.

“All right then,” said the wizard. “Then we shall start with silence. You shall say nothing at all until I tell you to. Nothing. Do you understand?”

She nodded her head. But she had no idea how difficult that would be. She didn't realize it, but Lasko was going to take her back into town.

He spoke to the elders of the town and they agreed to let them both back in so long as there were no pranks or even impolite words. Lasko assured them there would not be. It was not easy for Simone. She had to bite her tongue on many occasions to be able to keep her word to the wizard. Weeks went by and then months. It got easier and easier for her until one day Lasko announced that a year had gone by and that it was time for her to speak.

“But here is your charge, Simone,” he told her, “You may only speak so long as you are creating beauty. That is the secret. That is the secret of being a truly powerful wizard. Speak only to create beauty and people will follow you. The people will follow you anywhere and those that stand in opposition to you will fall away.”

Simone marveled at the mantle laid on her. She knew this was a huge responsibility and something to take very seriously. So even though she was given permission to speak, she chose not to. She remained silent. For many more days and weeks, she remained silent until a day when she was lost in thought and accidentally bumped into someone. The man said, “Excuse me” and she looked at him in surprise. Then she placed a hand on his arm and said,

“I am sorry.”

These words washed over the man and over Simone. In those three words, she seemed to recall all the times she said something rude and impolite to her neighbors and family. She thought about all the pranks and tricks she played and felt such heaviness lifted. These three words, “I am sorry” worked like a most powerful spell. They turned the heaviness and darkness and roughness she had felt over the years into light and beauty. And she smiled.

The wizard could see the difference when she returned that day. He could see that she had changed.

“Now you know true wizardry – and the infinite power of words. Now you are a wizard Simone. Let us now get to work.”

And they did. The power-hungry wizard that had defeated so many kingdoms was no match to them. The power of creating beauty and light overwhelmed the dark wizard and he fled back into the darkness. Kings and Queens were restored and paid homage to the Quiet One and his powerful wizard’s apprentice