4/15/2013
By Ingrid Sapona
The father of a very dear friend died recently. I was unable
to attend the funeral, but a few days after it, I visited with my friend and
his family. During the conversation he told me about a very moving tribute ceremony
some of his father’s friends carried out.
I hadn’t realized that one of his father’s hobbies was magic
and that he used to be pretty active in the local chapter of an international
magician’s association. When members of the association heard that my friend’s
father died, they phoned the family to ask if they could come and do a broken
wand ceremony. The family agreed and so, a few days after the funeral, a number
of members of the organization went to my friend’s mother’s house to pay their
respects and to honour their fellow magician with this traditional ceremony.
The focus of the ceremony is the literal breaking of the
deceased magician’s wand because once the magician dies, his wand is no longer
magic. I don’t think any family members knew what to expect, and my friend said
it was very moving.
Besides being struck by the symbolism of the wand getting
its magic power from the magician, I couldn’t help think about other moving
customs and rituals related to death and what they all have in common. Though
they’re always aimed at marking the death of someone in particular, those that
I find most powerful also remind us of others whom we’ve lost but not
forgotten.
After the visit with my friend, I thought about the symbolism
of the broken wand ceremony a lot and I thought about whether to write about
it. I hesitated for a number of reasons – including whether my friend would
mind me writing about his father. I also didn’t know whether the ceremony is
considered kind of secret or proprietary and something meant only for members of
the magician’s association and their families. I knew that there were
non-family members present when they did the ceremony for my friend’s father,
but I though perhaps they were asked to not say much about it.
Finally, the other day, I Googled “broken wand ceremony” to
try to learn a bit more about it, and I’m so glad I did. It’s clearly not a
secret tradition. There are many references to it, including a thorough
description of the ceremony, the protocol around it, and even the wording of it
on the web site of TheInternational Brotherhood of Magicians. Though my friend’s
description certainly gave a flavour of the meaningfulness of the ritual, I
found the actual words of the ceremony quite profound. Here’s an excerpt from the
non-theist version of it:
“This wand without (the deceased)
is now useless. The magic that infused itself into the life of performing on
this earth is now broken as we bid farewell when our loved one encounters
mortality. … The magic of (the deceased’s) performance is over. The magic and
mystery that he shared will remain in our memory … (The deceased) was endowed
with the talent to amaze, mystify and entertain. May we, like (the deceased) …
use our skills, dexterity of hands and voice to bring happiness and awe to
those for whom we conjure our pleasant and benign wonders. … May (the deceased)
rest in peace and may (the deceased’s) memories last long with those who
enjoyed (the deceased’s) love … talent and … companionship.”
I truly believe that all of us have wands and that we imbue
them with our magic. Indeed, like magicians, our lives are the opportunity to
use our talents – whatever they are – to do amazing things and to bring
happiness to others. And, if we perform well, though the magic our particular
wand was used for will cease at the end of our life, we’ll remain alive in the
memories of those whom we’ve enchanted with our magic.
My friend’s father’s wand was recently broken, but his magic
lives on in many ways – including introducing many to the profoundly meaningful
broken wand ceremony.
© 2013 Ingrid Sapona
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home