Ethan's kind of power
Oct. 28th, 2004 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethOkay, I've had this thought sitting in the window here for ages trying to think of the right way to say it. I still lack a right way. So I'm just going to say.
In the Tarot there are four cards in the Major Arcana that sometimes get seperated out. Between them they represent different paths to power, different approaches to life.
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The World
The Fool is pretty much going with the flow. Letting things happen. The Universe kind of happens and you happen too. Not exactly power, but a way of doing. Actually, more a way of being done to. There is a kind of wisdom in the Fool, but there's the other thing too.
The Magician basically says 'My Will be Done'. The Magician looks at the Universe and thinks it could do better, by doing exactly what he says. Willow's 'will be done' spell was not a perfect example of this because it was more her words than her will, but Willow's later attitude to magic, using it to rearrange the world to her spec, is very much that of the Magician card.
The High Priestess says 'Thy Will be Done'. They look at the Universe, usually embodied in a particular god, and they see something so much bigger than them they know it knows better. They try and follow that greater will. Your classic Christian Priest, figuring God has a plan. This can look a lot like the Fool, but a Priest can become the embodiment of their god's will.
The World is a more complicated one. It can mean dancingly fluidly between the other positions, taking whatever attitude is right for the moment. But it can also refer to lots and lots of people.
Ethan probably isn't The Fool. Sure, life happens to him in fairly unexpected ways, but he pushes back at it. He could be the Magician, with a grand plan he wants to fit the world into. But when he calls on Janus, he says 'take the night for your own purpose'. So maybe he is the High Priestess, trying to be a fit vessel for a greater being. But I think he is more likely the World. Not just because he can push or run away, adapt as needed. But because all his spells seem to be about bringing things out in other people.
Ethan's spells, the costumes, the candy, even turning Giles into a big strong scary thing, can all be seen as enabling other people to express their will. He brings the magic, but they chose the form. He lends them the power to become these things, but what they do with it then is up to them. He doesn't seem to push enough to be the Magician. We don't know enough about his beliefs to know if this is what his god wills. But it seems to fit the World, to enable the will of other people.
I might be misrepresenting the tarot a bit. But I'm trying to explain Ethan. And also to explain why it always strikes me as quite wrong when Ethan crosses a particular line about consent. To substitute his will for that of another person doesn't seem to me to be his style.
In the Tarot there are four cards in the Major Arcana that sometimes get seperated out. Between them they represent different paths to power, different approaches to life.
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The World
The Fool is pretty much going with the flow. Letting things happen. The Universe kind of happens and you happen too. Not exactly power, but a way of doing. Actually, more a way of being done to. There is a kind of wisdom in the Fool, but there's the other thing too.
The Magician basically says 'My Will be Done'. The Magician looks at the Universe and thinks it could do better, by doing exactly what he says. Willow's 'will be done' spell was not a perfect example of this because it was more her words than her will, but Willow's later attitude to magic, using it to rearrange the world to her spec, is very much that of the Magician card.
The High Priestess says 'Thy Will be Done'. They look at the Universe, usually embodied in a particular god, and they see something so much bigger than them they know it knows better. They try and follow that greater will. Your classic Christian Priest, figuring God has a plan. This can look a lot like the Fool, but a Priest can become the embodiment of their god's will.
The World is a more complicated one. It can mean dancingly fluidly between the other positions, taking whatever attitude is right for the moment. But it can also refer to lots and lots of people.
Ethan probably isn't The Fool. Sure, life happens to him in fairly unexpected ways, but he pushes back at it. He could be the Magician, with a grand plan he wants to fit the world into. But when he calls on Janus, he says 'take the night for your own purpose'. So maybe he is the High Priestess, trying to be a fit vessel for a greater being. But I think he is more likely the World. Not just because he can push or run away, adapt as needed. But because all his spells seem to be about bringing things out in other people.
Ethan's spells, the costumes, the candy, even turning Giles into a big strong scary thing, can all be seen as enabling other people to express their will. He brings the magic, but they chose the form. He lends them the power to become these things, but what they do with it then is up to them. He doesn't seem to push enough to be the Magician. We don't know enough about his beliefs to know if this is what his god wills. But it seems to fit the World, to enable the will of other people.
I might be misrepresenting the tarot a bit. But I'm trying to explain Ethan. And also to explain why it always strikes me as quite wrong when Ethan crosses a particular line about consent. To substitute his will for that of another person doesn't seem to me to be his style.
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Date: 2004-10-28 06:06 am (UTC)*whines to self about needing to html the essay you gave me permission for and convince you to make others so I can host them*