The Christian Magician
When I first read about Joseph Smith—about the seer stones, the buried treasures, the talisman engraved with planetary signs—I did not feel surprise. I felt recognition. A magician who sees himself as a faithful Christian. That was the phrase that trembled in my mind, like a thin wire pulled too tight. And in that trembling I saw him again: The Magician. The one that taught me when I was young, the one that I saw as a second father. I refer to him not by his given name. Not by the name that friends and enemies alike used in whispers or accusations. He will be only The Magician. Because what I am writing about is not formal biography. It is pattern. It is recurrence. It is archetype. A magician who sees himself as a faithful Christian. Others may see a contradiction. But contradiction is often the surface foam of a deeper current. The Magician did not reject Christ. That would have been too simple. Too theatrical. He did not burn crosses or invert them or shout reb...