In this book we have a clear example of two good reasons why Ozma does not permit anyone except Glinda and the Wizard to work magic.

It has been said that "One real magician would be two too many". And...in the Hub universe of novelist James Schmitz all planetary populations enslaved by people with the psionic power to control others eventually commit total suicide because of the mental instability of their psionic rulers.

Fear of those who can enslave others by magic or its equivalent seems to strike a deep chord. Helplessness in the face of a tyrant magician seems to feel ickier than helplessness in the face of your average horrible tyrant. After all an average horrible tyrant can be overthrown one way or another.

Here we have three absolute rulerships backed up by magic.

Ozma's is a rule of love. Glinda, the Wizard and Ozma use their powers to make the inhabitants of Oz happy and content.

In contrast the Su-dic is a sneaky bully who pretends to share his power with others but is in fact an all powerful tyrant.

And worse yet, Coo-ee-oh is a plain out and out awful tyrant who snoops on all conversations and has people tortured if they get out of line.

It looks like it would be justifiable to fear the single magician.

But what if magic were common and everybody had everything they wanted? Ozma opines that that would cause general unhappiness as people would have nothing to strive for and no need to help one another.

It seems as if any real magic is too much. As if no one can be trusted with that much power unless, like Ozma, they consider themselves the father or mother of the people and do what they can to make them happy and contented.

Then what about people like Kiki Aru who are congenitally unhappy and discontented? So far the solution for him, and Ruggedo for that matter, was a mindwipe. As a healing, not a pleasant thing to contemplate.

Theosophy purports to have a solution better than a static condition of happiness and contentment. The situation of the Ebionites, whether they are fictional or real, involves a small percentage of healer-judge-defender magicians ruling, guiding and protecting a much larger population to assist that population to evolve into a higher form of humanity. As if the human race were like a race of caterpillars that are able to reproduce as caterpillars and never become butterflies.

The Ebionite option is set forth as a way to fix the world by active recursion and gently encourage caterpillars to evolve. To that extent, Oz is specifically not a Theosophic Utopia as some have claimed, but something else. It much more nearly resembles a Theosophic Paradise which is what it is named after, Tir na nOg, that is, a combination fairy land and afterlife for children who will eventually grow up in their own good time and in the meantime need parents who will look after them lovingly and whom they can love in return.

If Oz were a Theosophic Utopia there would be an ongoing sense of change. Of development. The athletic college would be more than a place to keep young people occupied and out of trouble. Science would be supported by magic and magic would be supported by science. I don't know of any fabulist that has had that particular vision, other than Blavatsky of course.