William Shatner
Last weekend, at FedCon XXI, a dream came true for many Star Trek fans. A legendary figure had come to Düsseldorf to sell autographs, pose for pictures and entertain the crowds of fans that had flocked-and overwhelmed- the convention hotel. I am talking Mr. William Shatner her, 81 years old, still going strong and best known to us Trekkies as the intrepid Captain James T. Kirk in the ground breaking 60s TV series that sparked an unrivalled SciFi phenomenon that still keeps us occupied, 50 or so years afterwards.
I have met Mr. Shatner on several previous occasions,
granted those were at US conventions and those have an entirely different feel
than ‘our’ European FedCon. I remember him as a rather unapproachable and
distant in personal contact, a born entertainer and extremely funny on stage,
but at his autograph table and at the photoshoots- to use a harsh term, rather a
jerk. So, yeah, it was rather great to have this legendary figure in our midst
but other than that, I was not expecting a great personal visit with him and
more of the ‘same old, same old’ entertainment show that he used to put on in
Las Vegas or Pasadena. Well, due to the sheer number of Con attendees it was
next to impossible to have any personal time with him at all, but I got a “You’re
welcome!” and a smile from him after signing my autograph book. Wow, that was
more than in all those previous times put together! I skipped his photoshoot ,
skipped his first panel, but went to his second panel on Sunday, basically drawn
by raving reviews from our friends who went to his first panel. And boy, was I
in for a big and happy surprise.
Granted, it helped a great deal that we were sitting front
and center, it always makes it easier to establish some kind of eye contact
with whoever is on stage. But right from the start, the tone and atmosphere of
his panel was completely different from what I remember. No more “Shatner, The
Great Entertainer, Larger than Life": there stood a human being like ourselves
and I was touched into my core when he spoke about his sorrows and grieves in life,
about what he feels is important in this day and age and the questions he is
asking himself about what it all means. Even when he told us why he ever
decided to make records while admittedly not being able to sing, it was a
sincere and honest account of how he wanted to explore his talents into that
direction: the power of the spoken word set to music. To cut a long story short:
William Shatner seemed like a new person to me.
Now during his panel I could not help thinking about what I
read some time ago in a magnificent book by Dennis William Hauck, entitled: The
Emerald Tablet. In it, Mr. Hauck explores a seven step process towards
self-transformation and personal development based on the hermetic alchemical
Emerald Tablet. The first step in this process is called “Calcination” and it
signifies the “burning” away of the gross and dross in one’s personality,
usually by a series of emotional upheavals. The reason I remembered this, was
that Hauck uses an episode in the life of William Shatner to illustrate how
this process works in people. Apparently, Mr. Shatner suffered from what might
be called an ‘inflated ego’ –or rather, others and fellow actors were the suffering
party- until Nature –or Life itself- decide to kick him in the butt. And his
Calcination began, expressed in a series of personal tragedies and those ‘grieves’
that he spoke about during his Sunday panel. That seems to have been quite a long process as it appears to have started around mid 70s and Hauck finishes his ‘example’ by
stating that the Fires of Calcination were not done with William Shatner’: that was in 1999.
Well, apparently, by now those fires are finally done, and to me it
seemed that Mr. Shatner has reached a new stage in his alchemical journey. A more
balanced, quieter, nicer and more sincere person, who dares ask questions, who
has no answers, but goes in search for them, and who is not afraid to
show some vulnerability. To me, it seems
that Mr. Shatner is currently undergoing not the second stage (Dissolution) but
is already in the third stage called Separation, where the personality sifts
through the various components for things of value to bring along and to
discard the rest.
It was interesting to note how my hobby and my spirituality
come together at such an event, and in the most unlikely of persons- when seen
in advance, that is. In retrospect, and knowing how such alchemy works, I might have
anticipated this. But one thing is for sure: William Shatner is finally where
he himself has always wanted to be: a human being like everyone else, and not thge hero -or even god-like figure that fandom has made him out to be. And I am
happy to have met this human being and spoken to him, however briefly.
Cover for 'The Emerald Tablet" by Dennis William Hauck, 1999, ISBN-13 978-0140195712
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