When I launched Modern Wizardry, one of the first things I discovered was that people disagreed almost immediately about the appropriate quantity of whimsy.
Some thought there should be less of it.
Some thought there should be considerably more.
That is probably a healthy sign.
What the archetype is for
Modern Wizardry is, at its core, an attempt to frame a serious approach to curiosity, study, craft, intellectual diversity and lifelong learning through the lens of the wizard archetype. The point is not to pretend that magic is real, nor to reproduce the trappings of fantasy fiction as though they were themselves the substance.
No supernatural claims are required. No wand-waving. No incantations. No obligation to own a robe.
The wizard framework is useful because the archetype has always represented something richer than a collection of magical powers. Wizards are seekers of knowledge. They study widely. They accumulate strange and useful expertise. They experiment. They make things. They notice connections. They teach. They advise. They disappear into obscure subjects simply because they are interesting.
Take away the impossible bits and there is still quite a lot left.
That is the territory Modern Wizardry is interested in.
The danger of being too respectable
But stripping away the supernatural does not mean stripping away all the fun.
There is a danger in making the project so respectable that it collapses into the language of corporate development plans: lifelong learning, transferable skills, interdisciplinary thinking, personal growth. All perfectly worthwhile ideas, but phrases polished smooth through overuse.
The wizard archetype gives those ideas texture.
It gives us permission to call a notebook a grimoire if that makes keeping one more enjoyable. To describe programming as technomancy. To regard brewing, cookery and fermentation as forms of alchemy. To find a little theatre in the act of learning something difficult.
None of that is compulsory.
The whimsy is there to enrich the practice, not replace it.
Cosplay is optional
A person should be able to practise Modern Wizardry in jeans and a T-shirt, carrying nothing more exotic than a laptop and a notebook. Another might enjoy the occasional long coat, unusual ring, fountain pen, staff, robe or magnificently unnecessary brass instrument.
Both are valid.
Cosplay is therefore optional in the most literal sense. If dressing as a wizard brings somebody joy, excellent. If it does nothing for them, equally excellent. Modern Wizardry should never require a costume, because the costume is not what makes the wizard.
The same applies to language. A little playful vocabulary can make familiar practices feel fresh again. Too much of it, and everything starts sounding like a themed restaurant.
The balance
The balance matters.
For me, the intended tone is something like:
Serious in purpose. Rigorous in practice. Playful in expression.
Modern Wizardry should be able to discuss philosophy, software architecture, astronomy, woodworking, music, ecology or history without embarrassment.
It should also be capable of occasionally referring to coffee as an elixir of recaffeination.
Those things are not incompatible.
Whimsy, properly used, is not an escape from seriousness.
It is one of the ways we remember that serious things can still be enjoyable.
And if somebody wants to wear the robe anyway?
That is entirely their business.