I am a Wizard of Oz

I’ve been watching a series of workshops from Lou Tice of The Pacific Institute. Yesterday I watched the final installment and it really re-enforced my EOGs from last night. He combines 3 pieces to create the ultimate loving machine (my words). He suggests using:

1. A Rite of Passage or Graduation Ceremony


2. A One Time Affirmation


3. The Wizard of Oz

So here is the background. Rites of Passage move us from one state to another. For example, a High School Graduation acknowledges that we have been exposed to a set of information and assumes that we have a minimal skill set to function in the world.

A One Time Affirmation is a statement of fact that has a high likelihood of becoming fact. I now pronounce you man and wife is such a statement. After that statement most young adults ACT like they are married.

The story, The Wizard of Oz kind of puts these two together with it’s own additional spin. When Dorothy is lost Glenda suggests she travel to the land of Oz and ask the Great Wizard to see if he can help her return to Kansas.

Along the path she runs into a brainless Scarecrow, a heartless Tin Man, and a cowardly Lion. When they reach the Wizard and ask for his help he looks at each one and continually confirms that they already had in them that which they were seeking.

However, he uses the 3 steps above to help them see that they possess that which they are seeking.

For the Scarecrow the Wizard said that his head was full of stuffin, but all that he needed was a diploma. By the power vested in the Wizard he conferred upon the Scarecrow a diploma and told him that he was smart. Based on that one-time affirmation, through a rite of passage, the Scarecrow went out and acted differently. It was in him all along, but it took an outside person affirming it before the Scarecrow chose to believe it and act accordingly.

For the Tin Man the Wizard said that all he lacked was a Clock so that he could hear it beat. Through the power vested in the Wizard he presented the Tin Man with a clock and pronounced that he had a heart. Again, an outside person simply confirmed what was already there present and the Tin Man went out acting like he had a heart. A one time affirmation, through a rite of passage caused the Tin Man to act differently.

For the Lion, the Wizard said that all he lacked was a Medal. He then bestowed upon the Lion in his Rite of Passage a Medal and with the power vested in the Wizard affirmed that he was courageous, and the Lion went out and acted courageous, He needed an outside person to affirm his abilities even though they had been in him all the time.

Lou points out that many of us meet up with the Wicked Witch, instead of the Wizard of Oz. We may spend a lifetime being told how un-capable we are by those in authority over us. Over time we can begin to believe those messages and act just like they say, just as the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion believed the positive pronouncement of the Wizard.

My goal is to be a true Wizard of Oz and to take every opportunity through Rite of Passage and One Time Affirmation to see the good in everyone and everything. I intend to offer a Rite of Passage and One Time Affirmation at every presentation that I do and in every opportunity I have to interact with another human being!

Another theme song for me now is:
I’m off to be the Wizard the wonderful Wizard of Oz
Because, because, because, because
Because of the wonderful things I does!

Another part of the movie that Lou didn’t mention is how Dorothy finally got what she wanted. This is especially relevant to me and is the ultimate rite of passage and one time affirmation. The Wizard offered to take Dorothy home in his hot air ballon, but through a series of snafus the Wizard left without her. Dorothy was glad that she had been able to help her friends, but was in some degree of despair because it appeared that her own dream was not to be fulfilled. That outside source that she had counted on was gone and she had no other hope; or did she.

In my version of the Wizard of Oz, Glenda is actually that light or flame that I talk about in each of us. Hindu myth called it the divine, placed deep inside of man where they were likely to never find it. Anyway, Dorothy listened to Glenda one more time and Glenda told her, “The power has been in you all along. Just close your eyes, click your heals and repeat, ‘There is no place like home, there is no place like home.’”

When Dorothy closed her eyes and remembered Who She Truly Was and Where Home Was, she returned home. The power was within her all along.

I feel that I’ve had the good fortune to be touched by several Wizards of Oz along my path and they helped me believe what already was, so that I’ve learned to act like who I truly am, not who I from time to time think I am. As wonderful as these experiences were, the ultimate adventure was when I quit looking outside of me and got my answers from within; when I truly came to believer, “There is no place like home,” and then went to that place!

I will continue being a Wizard whenever the chance is there, but even more important I will continue to invite others to become their own Wizard!