Of Mandrakes and Kings.

#mandrakeroot

Dear Diary.

As the legend goes, the mandrake root grows from the blood of a hanged man. Under forest trees, it flows deep beneath the earth and through the limbs of this root’s humanlike form.

The mandrake root comes from the Mediterranean, a plant as old as history itself. The Bible talks about mandrake in Genesis to enhance fertility. And King Solomon wrote of mandrake in his love songs. It has been used by healers in medieval times to temper anxiety and fear and sleeplessness just as Cleopatra did when Antony left her. But it’s not only a plant used by kings. The mandrake root has family roots. The patriarch of my family is a real life mandrake. Born on the west coast on Orcus Island in Washington State in the year 1911, my grandfather was the first Mandrake the Magician, a traveling stage performer who started his career as an eleven year old boy. And a decade later, another Mandrake the Magician would appear. Before Superman or Batman or Captain America, there was Mandrake, the very first comic superhero, born in 1934, a full four years before any other superhero. And it seems we have become a culture consumed with superhero movies. Living in a world of villains and heroes, monsters and saviors. And maybe all the world is a movie, a big superhero movie.

Maybe everyone secretly wants a king, someone to carry us on their shoulders and make everything better. But maybe we shouldn’t conform to the patterns of this superhero world. Mandrake seemed to understand this secret. He didn’t indulge in the dramas and backstabbing. He didn’t conform to the outer systems of this world. From my perspective, he displayed traits of nobility, compassionate, and honorable in a constant state of renewing his mind, renewing his show, renewing his relationship with the world.

Love always,
Käla