Notes from a Time Traveller by Elke Stevens

#Notes From A Time Traveller

To speak of disenchantment is to speak of dissolution in expectation. The Time Traveller has walked through many ages and discovered that The Fool did not discover that every guide was wise, but that wisdom and titles are not the same thing.

Through every century, she sees the scenery change, yet some performance remains curiously familiar. How genteel they retell the same story, only to become another commodity, while the needs of the vulnerable are once again being capitalised. Their charisma is not imaginary but cultivated over years of masking, of becoming something they are not, teaching the tricksters all the characteristic habits required to pretend to be the knower of the solution. It is a particular skill, perfected by the masked charlatan.

The Time Traveller has seen this theatre performed beneath different banners, in different languages, and by different generations. The costumes change. The applause shifts from one stage to another. Yet the script remains remarkably faithful to itself. Those searching for certainty are offered certainty in abundance, while those searching for understanding must often continue walking.

Perhaps disenchantment was never the loss it first appeared to be. Perhaps it is simply the moment one becomes their own illuminator[1]?

The Time Traveller notices that every age believes it has invented wisdom yet unknowingly borrows it from the last. As she cannot help but wonder, she asks: Are we searching for well-being, or are we searching to become good, as we learn to remember that feeling and being are not the same?

©Elke T.B. Stevens 14/07/2026

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[1] The charlatan sells answers as though they were possessions. Yet we can learn that understanding cannot be transferred, only awakened. One may point towards the path, but no one can walk it for another.