Recently a question was posed on a magic forum about the contributions of Eugene Burger. Specifically the question was “What can we learn from Eugene Burger?”
Having had the opportunity to get to know him over the last twenty years of his life, I was overwhelmed by potential answers to the question. I composed different responses however I didn’t post any. Honestly I was paralyzed by too many choices.
Over the last few years, I’ve reread his books and pamphlets and making notes about his philosophy on life and magic. I believe I have Magic and Meaning next in the queue.
Jay Marshall is supposed to have said that Eugene wrote the same book many times. I don’t know if I would agree however there are themes that he revisited. When I finish all of his books, maybe I’ll create a summary.
Curiously, there were quite a few who took the opportunity to share that they didn’t like Eugene’s style of performance or they found him pretentious or that there was too many stories or attempts at injecting meaning. One felt compelled to resurrect the old misconceptions about the Mystery School gatherings. I think Eugene would have smiled his knowing smile as these were proof of his idea that there are many rooms in the house of magic and that we need to strive for fellowship across differences.
Fellowship across differences – now there’s an idea for our times.
