[Music]
[Music]
take hands close your eyes in a magic
space
[Music]
as above me so below as without and so
within the powers mind a light divided
the magic now begins by fire in water
air and earth
my magic brings the spell to birth my
light of star and Moon and Sun as I do
will so be it done my name is Oberon
Oberon Zell Raven heart and I am the
wizard oz
[Music]
previously the magic world was you know
another galaxy long ago and far away or
through the magic wardrobe or somewhere
over the rainbow or in some ancient lost
land that never really existed or you
can’t get there from here
basically and all the stories are like
that except this one
my life has always been immersed in
magic I lived in magic the way of fish
lives in water
my earliest reading were children’s
versions of the Greek myths so the ideas
of gods and goddesses magic and
Wanderers
those are my first stories I’m full moon
nights I would sneak out of my bedroom
window and go naked out into the night
it was this weird a little ritual that I
did I had a lot of connection with
animals it was really deep and I felt a
hand a telepathic connection the
strongest one of that was my first bull
constrictor histah in my dreams I could
like look out through her eyes and I
felt her connection with me and then I
felt her let go at the other end it’s
always sad when they die right before
your very eyes
within my soul I have the soul of a
snake you know when you’re a kid you
don’t think of yourself as anything
unusual everything that happens is
normal when I was a kid I was a prodigy
my father took me to the University of
Chicago and had me taken through a whole
bunch of testing stuff in the psych
department all my results were just off
the charts he said well how much what am
I supposed to do with this with kid like
this and they said well just support him
they thought I was just so strange they
wanted to find out whether I was okay or
supernatural or whatever it was they
regarded me as some kind of weird mutant
I think certainly I retreated into the
world of myth and magic and eventually
my path just took me so far away that my
parents couldn’t follow me at all
[Music]
I left them far behind I was really
always looking for my own true people my
own true home and stuff and I had this
vision and idea about moving to the
country with a bunch of friends living
in a community that was the hippie dream
– we all wanted to move to the country
with a bunch of friends and get it
together and we did that which unites us
is more important than that which
divides us
[Music]
[Music]
back in 1961 I read a book called
stranger in a strange land by Robert
Heinlein wherein is disgust
a kind of a science fiction religion
called the Church of all worlds the
Church of all worlds that’s meant to be
inclusive it’s meant to embrace the
wisdom and the good stuff from all
different traditions and not be
exclusive to any one particular one and
so we started that our initial vision
mission statement was to make the world
safe for people like us may you reign
forever we love you with your own love o
our God star there were lots of people
on the ranch there was like a hundred
families who moved up there even there I
was somewhat unusual when I was tasked
with trying to create this kind of
revival there wasn’t anybody else doing
it at all it was just me
somebody said so what kind of a church
is this that was I said well I guess you
can say we’re pagans and that caught on
like wildfire and so now there are
millions of us people are drawn to my
dreams and want to be a part of them and
help make them come true that’s part of
my a little magic that’s my magic as a
wizard my search had been to find other
people of my own species and as I
gathered around me such people that
resort really what became my family
[Music]
the greatest magic of all is love it’s
pure magic
let me be united with my true life made
my true love
I’m morning glory cell oh man
the love of my life most amazing woman
who else could possibly be an
appropriate made for each other than
each other morning glory and I
recognized each other instantly from the
first moment we looked into each other’s
eyes as true soulmates
we knew we were bound together for life
we’re so bonded in those ways I mean the
wizard and the witch and that was the
moment that my life changed the most
dramatically love is that condition
wearing another person’s happiness is
essential to your own
Morning Glory and I had always had a
fascination with things on the edge
mythical animals and beasts cherries and
all this stuff everybody has their own
creative way of making a living in the
country a lot of people do arts and
crafts type thing
some people do farming we raise unicorns
[Music]
of nature that was called and like I say
it’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to
do it we uncovered the work of
veterinary ocean state of Maine in the
1930s who was doing research in horned
development they start off as nodes in
the flesh if you move these around a
little bit then the horn would develop
where they are and what came out of this
was a unicorn
[Music]
and finally this evening the unicorn
a mythical beast according to most a
three star attraction according to
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey the
real magic happened we took them out
into the world and the way people
respond to them they touch people do you
believe in unicorns
we became part of a myth and sometimes
you think you’re doing the magic and
sometimes you realize the magic is doing
you and this was one of those moments
which was blighted considerably by a
tragic event that happened a terrible
story hit the paper and that was the
worst mass murder of the 20th century
leonard lake he’d been our neighbor when
we lived on the ranch
he was a great homesteader and we
learned a lot from him about livestock
and beekeeping care of animals
[Music]
when we went to do the Renaissance Fair
we brought him along to do photography
because he was a photographer he would
go around to schools and take cool
pictures and stuff they took him in for
it on a shoplifting charge and he
immediately committed suicide the local
coroner says five bodies have been found
here so far the Calaveras County Sheriff
once told me though he believes there
are as many as 20 victims though buried
on the property the papers went to his
wife and asked if she had any pictures
of him that they could put in the paper
and the picture that she gave them was a
picture of him at the inner corner and
so the unicorn became associated with
this horrific mass murderer because he
got called the unicorn man people
obviously made that confusion between me
and Leonard to be confused with mass
murderers is a pretty awful thing to
happen so there was this contamination
of the whole thing that really was
terrible and tragic and devastating to
the small and to the magic now that’s
been decades ago and I think the world
has forgotten all that stuff in fact
though for that matter the world’s
forgotten the unicorns when the unicorns
aren’t around anymore and people forget
they ever existed and they they once
again become mythical beasts
the wizard travels through the world
but there has to be some kind of a
vision or a reason to have whenever the
ventures baby
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
somebody asked the question he said
what’s the difference between a basilisk
and a cockatrice so we looked it up in
Encyclopedia Britannica and it had an
amazing story the basis of that legend
the origin of it was in a real-life
animal called the Egyptian spitting
cobra that sprays its venom unerringly
into the eyes of its victims and blinds
them and that gave rise to the idea of
all of the stuff the basilisk would
Medusa the cockatrice and we thought wow
that’s so neat oh I wanna bet that there
is some truth behind all these mythical
beasties or something that is the core
of the legend the little grain of sand
in the heart of the oyster that gives
rise to the Pearl New Era any wer a
naturalist exploring wonders is the new
and era is the echo Safa career search
association this is a research
organization designed to explore all the
weird stuff unicorns dragons sea
serpents Loch Ness monster Bigfoot
Atlantis whatever we think up basically
for crazy Harebrained Schemes for doing
amazing adventures and that’s what we
expect to pursue the reports have been
coming about these creatures that were
being sighted on an island off of New
Guinea and we had just gotten some
minstrel money from the circus deal so
we decided that let’s go out and and
find him
now it’s carrion reef explora do you
know who you’re talking to
yeah that’s an affirmative
what were your hands like Mindy’s
fingers
I think this her eyes yes with an avenue
now you had a drinker you want to show
that to the yes camera earlier Alphonse
I drew this drawing
this is his sketch has done by him as an
eyewitness mermaids
that’s what you got out here in the bay
yeah I always see these things all the
time from here on up where we wind us to
stay put it close to the shore and make
frequent contact with local villages
this would be the type of places that
they might hang out
[Music]
good morning we palet come on testing on
you fella
thank you this is fine we can come along
you’d be happy to have us come in
village
I’m gonna set up a little mother theta
landing on a fellow okay let’s bring in
okay this is where they live we didn’t
really have a good clear idea what it
actually looked like
the tail was quite large it looked just
like the one in the photographs
[Music]
she had been shot I thought that we were
going to find any evolved aquatic ape
with ape-like features and such like
that as it turned out of course it was
the indo-pacific dugong and as we were
able to explore the story and is we were
able to interview separately the men and
the women of the village we fleshed out
the story a little bit is this the same
animal that we saw with its tail
flipping up in the air yes they call it
the pish Mary the fish woman which is
pretty much exactly the same as our word
mermaid it’s the men who do the net
fishing and evidently what happens
occasionally is that if they catch them
are made they would take it into the
men’s house and have sex with him and
then they would send him back into the
water and then the story would build
that was the basis of the legend of the
mermaid we solved the mystery we did a
big report for the crypto Zoological
Society thing and and we came back
pretty broke the brightest lights cast
the darkest shadow I’ve had some very
bright lights and some very dark shadows
the darkest moments of my life have been
the ones that would be best exemplified
by the tower card of the Tarot where
everything that I had been invested in
and committed to in my life and my
fulfillment my joy and happiness were
just totally obliterated it still
surprises me when I look in a mirror and
realize I am actually old I’m not feeble
yet but I’m definitely old you’re young
you’re invincible and immortal you know
at some point in your life you confront
our mortality she was feeling a lot of
pain she was experiencing backache and
lots of stuff when they did the biopsy
an analysis of the hospital they
discovered she had cancer and it was a
profound thing that revelation that that
she’s doomed
you know how long did he keep her going
but there was no cure
the last moments came and I held her in
my arms as she took her last breath
and there were no words there was
nothing we can say we didn’t into each
other’s eyes that a everything else
just disappeared and one of our friends
was there called the stethoscope to her
chest but her heart stopped beating he
he said the queen is dead the whole
house it the whole house erupted and one
voice well her liver the Queen
[Music]
Oh
of sacred space whose passions all
enrich we are all within the grace of a
wizard
[Music]
there’s three basic rules of things that
you can’t do with magic you can’t bring
back the dead you can’t change the past
and you can’t compel love
[Music]
enough all stories have happy endings
and yet I have to go on for both of us I
have to carry on for her as much as for
myself one of the very last things that
she said it as she was you know she was
dying was don’t let it die all that we
did all that we were don’t let it end
when I died so that’s what I’m trying to
do just keep on keeping on with great
power comes great responsibility the
universe thing thing about wizardry
veena wizard is that they are the
teachers and the mentors of the young
heroes to teach them what they need to
know I really felt that teaching is an
important thing and it’s part of the
wizard we practice to do is to be a
teacher and we had this epiphany well we
should start a school
the Academy is a brand-new project and
I’m just starting that we created a
virtual campus in Second Life where we
can have avatars where people could
interact face-to-face with their
teachers and such a work mine up my sort
of costuming a Gandalf archetype figure
it would seem obvious we have classes
and we have conclaves and we have
graduation ceremonies there’s a memorial
temple for morning glory on the campus
it’s looking pretty good so far and I’m
very proud of it I think part of the
thing with any of these things is will
they continue when I’m no longer here
running them I have to pass the torch
because it does no good for me to know
all the stuff to spend a lifetime
learning all these things if I just take
it to the grave with me
[Music]
my life certainly has been a a fairy
tale or perhaps a romantic comedy fairy
tale it certainly has been full of
extraordinary adventures but you know
I’m also very aware of my mortality in a
way I never used to be you have to
consider well what stories will be
preserved what will be told I think
about that stuff
[Music]
I realize man everything I do all the
time is a story
I don’t really do magic so much as I am
magic the magic is in the stories and we
and we are storytellers this is the most
powerful magic that we have storytelling
there’s a saying that is part of the
funeral ceremonies in pagan culture
which is that which is remembered lives
so it is
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Music]
[Music]
take hands close your eyes in a magic
space
[Music]
as above me so below as without and so
within the powers mind a light divided
the magic now begins by fire in water
air and earth
my magic brings the spell to birth my
light of star and Moon and Sun as I do
will so be it done my name is Oberon
Oberon Zell Raven heart and I am the
wizard oz
[Music]
previously the magic world was you know
another galaxy long ago and far away or
through the magic wardrobe or somewhere
over the rainbow or in some ancient lost
land that never really existed or you
can’t get there from here
basically and all the stories are like
that except this one
my life has always been immersed in
magic I lived in magic the way of fish
lives in water
my earliest reading were children’s
versions of the Greek myths so the ideas
of gods and goddesses magic and
Wanderers
those are my first stories I’m full moon
nights I would sneak out of my bedroom
window and go naked out into the night
it was this weird a little ritual that I
did I had a lot of connection with
animals it was really deep and I felt a
hand a telepathic connection the
strongest one of that was my first bull
constrictor histah in my dreams I could
like look out through her eyes and I
felt her connection with me and then I
felt her let go at the other end it’s
always sad when they die right before
your very eyes
within my soul I have the soul of a
snake you know when you’re a kid you
don’t think of yourself as anything
unusual everything that happens is
normal when I was a kid I was a prodigy
my father took me to the University of
Chicago and had me taken through a whole
bunch of testing stuff in the psych
department all my results were just off
the charts he said well how much what am
I supposed to do with this with kid like
this and they said well just support him
they thought I was just so strange they
wanted to find out whether I was okay or
supernatural or whatever it was they
regarded me as some kind of weird mutant
I think certainly I retreated into the
world of myth and magic and eventually
my path just took me so far away that my
parents couldn’t follow me at all
[Music]
I left them far behind I was really
always looking for my own true people my
own true home and stuff and I had this
vision and idea about moving to the
country with a bunch of friends living
in a community that was the hippie dream
– we all wanted to move to the country
with a bunch of friends and get it
together and we did that which unites us
is more important than that which
divides us
[Music]
[Music]
back in 1961 I read a book called
stranger in a strange land by Robert
Heinlein wherein is disgust
a kind of a science fiction religion
called the Church of all worlds the
Church of all worlds that’s meant to be
inclusive it’s meant to embrace the
wisdom and the good stuff from all
different traditions and not be
exclusive to any one particular one and
so we started that our initial vision
mission statement was to make the world
safe for people like us may you reign
forever we love you with your own love o
our God star there were lots of people
on the ranch there was like a hundred
families who moved up there even there I
was somewhat unusual when I was tasked
with trying to create this kind of
revival there wasn’t anybody else doing
it at all it was just me
somebody said so what kind of a church
is this that was I said well I guess you
can say we’re pagans and that caught on
like wildfire and so now there are
millions of us people are drawn to my
dreams and want to be a part of them and
help make them come true that’s part of
my a little magic that’s my magic as a
wizard my search had been to find other
people of my own species and as I
gathered around me such people that
resort really what became my family
[Music]
the greatest magic of all is love it’s
pure magic
let me be united with my true life made
my true love
I’m morning glory cell oh man
the love of my life most amazing woman
who else could possibly be an
appropriate made for each other than
each other morning glory and I
recognized each other instantly from the
first moment we looked into each other’s
eyes as true soulmates
we knew we were bound together for life
we’re so bonded in those ways I mean the
wizard and the witch and that was the
moment that my life changed the most
dramatically love is that condition
wearing another person’s happiness is
essential to your own
Morning Glory and I had always had a
fascination with things on the edge
mythical animals and beasts cherries and
all this stuff everybody has their own
creative way of making a living in the
country a lot of people do arts and
crafts type thing
some people do farming we raise unicorns
[Music]
of nature that was called and like I say
it’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to
do it we uncovered the work of
veterinary ocean state of Maine in the
1930s who was doing research in horned
development they start off as nodes in
the flesh if you move these around a
little bit then the horn would develop
where they are and what came out of this
was a unicorn
[Music]
and finally this evening the unicorn
a mythical beast according to most a
three star attraction according to
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey the
real magic happened we took them out
into the world and the way people
respond to them they touch people do you
believe in unicorns
we became part of a myth and sometimes
you think you’re doing the magic and
sometimes you realize the magic is doing
you and this was one of those moments
which was blighted considerably by a
tragic event that happened a terrible
story hit the paper and that was the
worst mass murder of the 20th century
leonard lake he’d been our neighbor when
we lived on the ranch
he was a great homesteader and we
learned a lot from him about livestock
and beekeeping care of animals
[Music]
when we went to do the Renaissance Fair
we brought him along to do photography
because he was a photographer he would
go around to schools and take cool
pictures and stuff they took him in for
it on a shoplifting charge and he
immediately committed suicide the local
coroner says five bodies have been found
here so far the Calaveras County Sheriff
once told me though he believes there
are as many as 20 victims though buried
on the property the papers went to his
wife and asked if she had any pictures
of him that they could put in the paper
and the picture that she gave them was a
picture of him at the inner corner and
so the unicorn became associated with
this horrific mass murderer because he
got called the unicorn man people
obviously made that confusion between me
and Leonard to be confused with mass
murderers is a pretty awful thing to
happen so there was this contamination
of the whole thing that really was
terrible and tragic and devastating to
the small and to the magic now that’s
been decades ago and I think the world
has forgotten all that stuff in fact
though for that matter the world’s
forgotten the unicorns when the unicorns
aren’t around anymore and people forget
they ever existed and they they once
again become mythical beasts
the wizard travels through the world
but there has to be some kind of a
vision or a reason to have whenever the
ventures baby
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
somebody asked the question he said
what’s the difference between a basilisk
and a cockatrice so we looked it up in
Encyclopedia Britannica and it had an
amazing story the basis of that legend
the origin of it was in a real-life
animal called the Egyptian spitting
cobra that sprays its venom unerringly
into the eyes of its victims and blinds
them and that gave rise to the idea of
all of the stuff the basilisk would
Medusa the cockatrice and we thought wow
that’s so neat oh I wanna bet that there
is some truth behind all these mythical
beasties or something that is the core
of the legend the little grain of sand
in the heart of the oyster that gives
rise to the Pearl New Era any wer a
naturalist exploring wonders is the new
and era is the echo Safa career search
association this is a research
organization designed to explore all the
weird stuff unicorns dragons sea
serpents Loch Ness monster Bigfoot
Atlantis whatever we think up basically
for crazy Harebrained Schemes for doing
amazing adventures and that’s what we
expect to pursue the reports have been
coming about these creatures that were
being sighted on an island off of New
Guinea and we had just gotten some
minstrel money from the circus deal so
we decided that let’s go out and and
find him
now it’s carrion reef explora do you
know who you’re talking to
yeah that’s an affirmative
what were your hands like Mindy’s
fingers
I think this her eyes yes with an avenue
now you had a drinker you want to show
that to the yes camera earlier Alphonse
I drew this drawing
this is his sketch has done by him as an
eyewitness mermaids
that’s what you got out here in the bay
yeah I always see these things all the
time from here on up where we wind us to
stay put it close to the shore and make
frequent contact with local villages
this would be the type of places that
they might hang out
[Music]
good morning we palet come on testing on
you fella
thank you this is fine we can come along
you’d be happy to have us come in
village
I’m gonna set up a little mother theta
landing on a fellow okay let’s bring in
okay this is where they live we didn’t
really have a good clear idea what it
actually looked like
the tail was quite large it looked just
like the one in the photographs
[Music]
she had been shot I thought that we were
going to find any evolved aquatic ape
with ape-like features and such like
that as it turned out of course it was
the indo-pacific dugong and as we were
able to explore the story and is we were
able to interview separately the men and
the women of the village we fleshed out
the story a little bit is this the same
animal that we saw with its tail
flipping up in the air yes they call it
the pish Mary the fish woman which is
pretty much exactly the same as our word
mermaid it’s the men who do the net
fishing and evidently what happens
occasionally is that if they catch them
are made they would take it into the
men’s house and have sex with him and
then they would send him back into the
water and then the story would build
that was the basis of the legend of the
mermaid we solved the mystery we did a
big report for the crypto Zoological
Society thing and and we came back
pretty broke the brightest lights cast
the darkest shadow I’ve had some very
bright lights and some very dark shadows
the darkest moments of my life have been
the ones that would be best exemplified
by the tower card of the Tarot where
everything that I had been invested in
and committed to in my life and my
fulfillment my joy and happiness were
just totally obliterated it still
surprises me when I look in a mirror and
realize I am actually old I’m not feeble
yet but I’m definitely old you’re young
you’re invincible and immortal you know
at some point in your life you confront
our mortality she was feeling a lot of
pain she was experiencing backache and
lots of stuff when they did the biopsy
an analysis of the hospital they
discovered she had cancer and it was a
profound thing that revelation that that
she’s doomed
you know how long did he keep her going
but there was no cure
the last moments came and I held her in
my arms as she took her last breath
and there were no words there was
nothing we can say we didn’t into each
other’s eyes that a everything else
just disappeared and one of our friends
was there called the stethoscope to her
chest but her heart stopped beating he
he said the queen is dead the whole
house it the whole house erupted and one
voice well her liver the Queen
[Music]
Oh
of sacred space whose passions all
enrich we are all within the grace of a
wizard
[Music]
there’s three basic rules of things that
you can’t do with magic you can’t bring
back the dead you can’t change the past
and you can’t compel love
[Music]
enough all stories have happy endings
and yet I have to go on for both of us I
have to carry on for her as much as for
myself one of the very last things that
she said it as she was you know she was
dying was don’t let it die all that we
did all that we were don’t let it end
when I died so that’s what I’m trying to
do just keep on keeping on with great
power comes great responsibility the
universe thing thing about wizardry
veena wizard is that they are the
teachers and the mentors of the young
heroes to teach them what they need to
know I really felt that teaching is an
important thing and it’s part of the
wizard we practice to do is to be a
teacher and we had this epiphany well we
should start a school
the Academy is a brand-new project and
I’m just starting that we created a
virtual campus in Second Life where we
can have avatars where people could
interact face-to-face with their
teachers and such a work mine up my sort
of costuming a Gandalf archetype figure
it would seem obvious we have classes
and we have conclaves and we have
graduation ceremonies there’s a memorial
temple for morning glory on the campus
it’s looking pretty good so far and I’m
very proud of it I think part of the
thing with any of these things is will
they continue when I’m no longer here
running them I have to pass the torch
because it does no good for me to know
all the stuff to spend a lifetime
learning all these things if I just take
it to the grave with me
[Music]
my life certainly has been a a fairy
tale or perhaps a romantic comedy fairy
tale it certainly has been full of
extraordinary adventures but you know
I’m also very aware of my mortality in a
way I never used to be you have to
consider well what stories will be
preserved what will be told I think
about that stuff
[Music]
I realize man everything I do all the
time is a story
I don’t really do magic so much as I am
magic the magic is in the stories and we
and we are storytellers this is the most
powerful magic that we have storytelling
there’s a saying that is part of the
funeral ceremonies in pagan culture
which is that which is remembered lives
so it is
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Music]
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