Who I am thinking about today is Ogion the Silent. Do you know about him? He is one of the wizards in Ursula le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea stories. An interesting series; I believe she
originally intended a trilogy, which she wrote and then after a lapse of some
years tacked on a fourth book. It had a
different flavour from the first three, but had such treasures in it that I’m
really glad she wrote it. I think she
went back and wrote a further volume later, which I haven’t read.
Anyway, Ogion the Silent was the teacher of the main hero in
the first trilogy; we see him tantalisingly briefly but get to know a lot more
about him in book four.
What he is, is basically a hermit mage. Lives up a mountain very close to nature,
saying almost nothing and doing humble routine chores and paying attention to
animals, plants and birds, winds and weather and so on, getting wiser and
humbler and kinder and more patient all the time.
A nose around online discovers that, in her book Tales of Earthsea, Ursula le Guin fills
in something of his back story for us, in which it turns out that his given
name is Silence.
That stopped me in my tracks.
How entirely wonderful, in taking up one’s vocation, to be
given the name Silence.
So I rested in that imaginatively for a while and wondered
if I could spend some time with Ogion the Silent – with the mage whose name is
Silence – and maybe pick up a few better habits.
At church on Sunday our preacher was someone I esteem most
highly; a man from whom I can actually see the Christlight shining. He spoke to us about integrity, looking at
teaching from the book of Deuteronomy and on Christian practice and character
from the epistle of James, and then considering interactions between Jesus and
the Pharisees.
He (our preacher not Jesus) spoke about hypocrisy being a
disease – a pathological condition like an addiction – a small-mindedness that people get stuck in –
obsessiveness really – assort of spiritual OCD.
And he said that small-mindedness, the ailment of the Pharisee, spoils
our lives, spoils the joy God had in mind for us; and the hallmark of the
indwelling of the Spirit is joy.
This all gave me a lot to think about, because I myself am
small-minded, obsessive, inclined to over-preoccupation, and get stuck on minor
details that matter to me immensely. In
fact before we even got home from church a mental/spiritual arrow caught me by surprise and lodged poisonous and barbed so deep in my vital organs that I
still haven’t got it out properly.
Because of what the preacher said I began to pay attention
to my habit of small-minded Pharisee obsessing, but couldn’t see what to do
about it really – it’s how I am.
And my feeling was that it has to do with concentration –
intensification I mean – and the only thing I could think of that could allow
it to disperse and relax is space and silence.
So then I began to think about Ogion the Silent – the mage
whose name was Silence – and wondered if I could somehow apprentice myself to
him.
And that’s what I’ve been thinking about.
And you? What have
you been thinking about?
