The Wizard

Why the Wizard?

I realize the image of a wizard may seem random, absurd, or even childish. Fair enough. It probably does deserve some explanation.

The truth is, I do not really know how a person is supposed to react to certain things after being put through the kind of shitstorm I have endured over the last four or five years. So this is, in part, a reaction.

For most of my life, I had no real belief in the supernatural. I have generally believed in science, because science makes sense to me. In fact, that is partly why I once explored unusual theories and ideas in Issue 2 of the iLearn.tw Magazine. Actually, just refer people to iLearn.tw/magazine.

Now imagine this: you have a friend you believe is truly your friend. Yet, over the years, you notice that people in his circle seem to die with strange regularity, around roughly the same time each year. Of course, rational explanations exist. One drank too much. One had a mountain biking accident. One had a heart attack. One developed cancer very quickly. Reason tells us these things happen. And yet, after enough of it, you cannot help but notice the pattern, whether or not it means anything.

Then, as you grow closer to this person, you begin to notice other disturbing things. One day, out of nowhere, an extreme hatred erupts from him toward another friend of his. Not ordinary gossip, not the usual frustration people sometimes vent about behind each other’s backs, but something much darker. It was seething, irrational, disproportionate hatred. I remember being genuinely gobsmacked by it. I tried to calm the moment, to steer the conversation away, and then I moved on.

Later, after a chain of events I will not go into in full detail, I ended up in the cursed living space where I spent my final period in Taiwan. If ever there was a cursed space, in my mind, that was it. A friend of mine, originally from somewhere in the jungles of the Philippines, tried to ward off bad spirits there with a jar of water and rock salt. The water, which had turned purple, was completely clear the next day. Maybe there was a simple explanation. Maybe it was a trick. I certainly hope so. But if not, then make of that what you will.

Not long after, I came to the painful realization that this person I had known for years had turned on me too. And that meant something to me, because I had seen him turn on others before. In hindsight, perhaps being turned on was the safer outcome. My mind cannot help but wander darkly when I think of the others who died. I know how crazy that sounds. I know how far-fetched it sounds. But when life becomes senseless enough, people naturally start trying to make sense of the senseless.

I have also seen this person positively gloat over other people’s ruin. I remember one case where a man was sentenced to five years in prison, and this person seemed almost thrilled to deliver the news, as though he had personally achieved something. It was eerie. It felt less like concern for justice and more like triumph. That stayed with me.

And when I look at my own case, I cannot see how destroying my finances and tearing my life apart over four years, with a six-month jail sentence hanging over me, was remotely proportionate to what was alleged. Sharing a rental contract from years earlier simply does not justify the scale of punishment I received. I also recall him asking me about my mail and whether I was going to jail two years before I actually had to leave Taiwan. He was unusually nosy. So yes, when I see someone delighting in extreme punishment, especially in a place where such outcomes can and do happen, it leaves an impression.

This same person also surrounds himself with what I can only describe as occult imagery and materials: pyramids, energy stones, tarot cards, books of spells, strange texts in English and Latin, and all the rest of it. That world is not my world. I do not want to educate myself in occultism or supernatural nonsense. I have no interest in it. But I know enough to say this: stay far away from that wizard.

So that is the reason for the wizard image.

Lately, I have also been dealing with nasty and taunting comments online, including what appear to be troll accounts. I cannot prove who is behind them, and I will not pretend otherwise, but the tone is sickeningly familiar. Comments celebrating my suffering, mocking what has happened to me, and acting as though the destruction of my life is something amusing or deserved. When I ask myself who could be disturbed enough to behave that way toward someone who has been torn away, at age 44, from the home and life he spent 15 years building, one figure comes to mind very quickly: the wizard.

Right or wrong, that is why I use the image.

It is not revenge. It is not vengeance. It is a reaction to what I experienced as bullying, intimidation, and malice. It is my way of saying: I am not afraid of you.

You can keep your spells, your stones, your rituals, and whatever else you put your faith in. I put mine in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only protection I need, and I believe it is more than enough.

So with that in mind, and with faith in God, I would ask people to forgive me for being human. This is not about trying to destroy anyone. It is not about revenge. It is simply a shameless, unapologetic statement: I am not afraid of you.

Maybe this person is just a troll. But after everything I have lived through, even absurd things stop feeling so absurd.

That is the message.

Loud and clear.

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Note: If the wizard image seems random, this post explains why I use it. It is not about naming names. It is a symbolic and personal reaction to intimidation, trolling, absurdity, and the very human effort to make sense of experiences that often felt impossible to explain.