64% Innocent, 44% Orphan, 37% Warrior, 67% Caregiver, 48% Seeker, 46% Lover, 73% Destroyer, 50% Creator, 29% Magician, 29% Ruler, 76% Sage and 28% Fool!
Goal: Truth
Fear: Deception
Response to Dragon/Problem: Transcend it
Task: Attain enlightenment
Gift: Wisdom, non-attachment
Addictions: Being right, tranquilizers
Sages have little or no need to control or change the world; they just want to understand it. The Sage’s path is the journey to find out the truth– about ourselves, our world, and the universe. However, it is not simply about finding knowledge, but about becoming wise. The challenge of the Sage is to decode the clue and solve the underlying riddle of existence. They seek to cultivate and attitude of dispassionate reflection so that they can experience real truth. The Sage merely watches the action, while looking for the underlying truth.
Shadow Sage:
The Shadow Sage is not so much unattached as cut off from reality. S/he is so obsessed by non-attachment that s/he cannot commit to people, projects, or ideas. Sometimes a Negative Sage deludes her/himself with the idea that his provides him/her with freedom, but s/he is not free at all. The negative Sage is addicted to being perfect and truthful and right and has no tolerance of normal human feelings or vulnerabilities. Such a Sage often tends towards ascetic practices and constantly derides the self or others for any sign of not being perfect.
Shadow Sages also tend to try to make the world seem less mysterious by limiting the number of acceptable ways of perceiving reality. Such individuals are also incapable of acknowledging the way that their own subjective biases colour their supposedly rational findings. Shadow Sages typically want to control knowledge in such a way that it is not threatening by focusing on a style that correspond to their learning style. Knowledge, then, becomes a way of showing superiority to others. Their primary focus thus becomes not on the attainment of wisdom itself, but on the evaluation of others. Whatever relative truth they have discovered is identified with absolute truth, and their primary focus is in guarding this truth from assaults by the barbarians.
