Bow down before the Child Prodigy…

Several years ago, I was in a Walmart with an ex-girlfriend while she was buying some fabric. If you’ve never been in the fabric section of a Walmart before, sometimes they create little displays at the top of the shelves which feature some of their craft items combined with other products. I think this was around the time the first Harry Potter movie came out, so his products were everywhere - including one of these dioramas the ladies in the fashion department had made. While staring up at it though, I was struck by an odd impression… it seemed almost religious. Like they had unwittingly crafted a shrine to this little deity: The Boy Wizard. In his hands were the regalia of his office, and at his feet was a dinosaur toy, the dragon of the unconscious which he symbolically slays. Certainly these women hadn’t thought of all this consciously, but something archetypal in them must have been triggered when creating that.

I’ve carried that image with me for several years in the back of my head. Today I combined it with another archetype of the preternaturally wise child, Jesus. In Luke 2 the story of Jesus’s visiting the temple is told. He and his parents had been in Jerusalem for Passover, and were headed home, but they lost track of him:

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

This image uses Harry Potter’s head affixed to the Boy Jesus’s body teaching in the temple. Underneath him is the regalia of a modern Boy Wizard, Bobby Fischer - who became the youngest grandmaster chess champion at 15. I decided to call this card “The Child Prodigy” since it’s a bit more current and universal than Boy Wizard. The card is basically about being way ahead of the game, being gifted with knowledge and understanding well in advance of your standing in life. It can mean foresight and retaining youthfulness, or it can mean trying to grow up too fast - advancing beyond where you are really ready due to arrogance.

Behind him you see a hunched-over old man, whom the child prodigy has vowed to surpass. But even an enormous helping of youthful vigor still lacks experience. On the other side, we also see the emblem of youth-worship in this culture, the Teen People magazine logo. Above that is the logo for Toys R Us which features the slogan “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid.” This card may also have to do then with refusal to grow up and accept the responsibilities and limitations of age - for better or worse.

The chess board also stands for the battle between good and evil, of which the Boy Wizard is usually a pivotal player. Below the chess board we see the Egyptian temple of Ramses. This is a reference to Jesus teaching in the Temple, as well as the older flight of the Israelites out of Egypt. In the hands of the Child Prodigy we see the symbols of his knowledge: the sacred owl of Athena (who sprung full-formed from Zeus head) and the scrolls of knowledge (the Torah, or in Potter’s case the book of spells). Above that is the pentagram, which stands for the fears of Fundamentalist Christians that Harry Potter leads kids into witchcraft and paganism. The pentagram also serves a dual-meaning

Above the head of the Child Prodigy we see the thunderbolt of knowledge coming from the Father above. Speaking of Harry Potter, this is a nice tie-in Old Testament quote:

“Yet, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Isa. 64:8)

Also in it’s negative aspect the Child Prodigy card may exhibit some of the attributes we discussed in regards to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which basically describes what happens when vast power is coupled with caprice and inexperience.

You may also want to check out Dan’s card, The Paperboy, for another look from a different angle on the innocence of youth and the treacherous passage into adulthood. This card is also loosely supported by the Magician card in the traditional tarot deck.

[Go here for more info on the Pop Culture Tarot]