The magic of Harry Potter
Debate around the popularity of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books has intensified since the release of the movie of the series last month.
The pro-Potter faction says that Rowling presents a moral vision, one in which righteousness triumphs over evil by the exercise of one’s own (not necessarily magical) powers to do good.
Most critics of the series do not contest this view, but argue that the books propagate witchcraft, with the potential to lead readers to the occult and separate young Christians from God.
Many objections originate from people who have had experiences with occultism, either as practitioners, counsellors or exorcists. Their insights are valuable in appraising the nature of the wizardry in relation to individuals prone to experiment with the occult. Crucially, however, none of them have recorded experiences with black magic linked directly to Harry Potter.
Many objections originate from people who have had experiences with occultism, either as practitioners, counsellors or exorcists. Their insights are valuable in appraising the nature of the wizardry in relation to individuals prone to experiment with the occult. Crucially, however, none of them have recorded experiences with black magic linked directly to Harry Potter.
It is reasonable to presume that individuals inherently drawn towards the occult, often young people from a dysfunctional background, may acquire the impetus not so much from what is unmistakably fantasy, but through the prevailing abuse of astrology and dabbling in New Age metaphysics.
Several commentators, such as the US children’s literature expert Robert Otten, point out that in Rowling’s books “magic is never presented…as easy, as cheap thrills or as egotistical power, or as inherently superior to the ‘Muggle’ world” of ordinary human beings.
Those who suggest that Harry Potter poses a significant threat may be underestimating young people’s capacity to differentiate between fantasy and reality. The Potter phenomenon may be better understood along the lines of the assorted masked superheroes, whose popularity did not result in mass leapings off tall buildings, or Mary Poppins, whose commercial success did little for the umbrella industry.
Harry Potter is unlikely to disappear any time soon. Indeed, three more installments in the saga are planned. Banning Potter from children’s bookshelves is an unlikely solution to parental misgivings.
Conversely, the popularity of Harry Potter may provide parents and parish youth groups with a superb catechetical opportunity to discuss the occult from a Catholic perspective and to accentuate that in real life the battles between good and evil are won not through fantasy – be it Harry Potter or the grotesque carnage in the ubiquitous vigilante films – but only with and through God.
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