The Magic Flute of Forgiveness [AUDIOSTR]

Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

Mozart’s final opera, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), is the inspiration for this workshop, which focuses on the role forgiveness plays in taming the viciousness of the ego’s thought system of guilt and attack. The opera’s imagery of a magic flute causing wild animals to sit peacefully, as well as guiding Tamino and Pamina through the trials of fire and water, serves as a symbolic reminder of how Jesus gently leads us through fear to love. Emphasis is also placed on our resistance to forgiving; the ego’s way of preserving our separated and guilt-ridden identity.