Magical Thinking in an age of Dark Magicians
JK Rowling one the world's leading magical thinkers.
** this one didn’t quite make it through to the book.
Magical Thinking in an age of Dark Magicians
This morning was filled with clouds and a dearth of cigarettes. Before I knew it I was thinking about JK Rowling and abortion. Separately but at once too. Now, there are quite a number of reasons to admire the author of the Harry Potter series, not least for her recent public commentary and defence of basic women’s rights in the bathrooms and sports arenas of the world.
But, as glorious as Rowling’s slaying of penis-shaped dragons in the toilet cubicle is - what I really want to talk about is her natural ability to think magically. For, she is above all else a magical thinker. Which is why she deals so effortlessly with her critics and with no little panache too.
Rowling’s Harry Potter series brought magical thinking to the masses through character lineage. Those who could and those could not. She did this by creating unique types of lineage centred largely on magical thinking ability and beliefs in magic: Muggles, Muggles-born, Half-bloods and Purebloods and one or two others I am possibly missing.
The term Purebloods, many readers might recall, became a word many unvaccinated people around the world utilised to self identify with during the harshest of the pandemic years in 2021. I was never entirely comfortable with its use in this fashion, to be honest. Not many attaching to the term did so because of the link to the Harry Potter series of books, I suspect. The point to note here, though, is Muggle-born, Half-Bloods and Purebloods could theoretically all be magical thinkers and believe in magic. For any unaware, Muggles are simply ordinary human beings without any magical abilities whatsoever and almost always with no awareness of the existence of magic. A thought bubble is forming around this rivulet of consciousness so let’s try it on for size.
The soul is to spirituality what magical thinking is to imagination.
An imagination fuelled with magical thinking is the awakening soul’s reward to the mind.
Perhaps if considered in this fashion magical thinking might not just be an ingenious literary device, but also quite possibly be an ingenious living device and maybe even thought of as a spiritual reward of sorts. Approaching the world in this fashion might bear some rewarding fruit. A useful psychological balm to negotiate a western world seemingly dead-set against both spirituality and magical thinking.
I’d argue a good chunk of people who answered the vaccine question in the negative also possess a capability to magically think. In that they recognised dark magic approaching. But, that is not to say no magical thinkers exist in the general population. I suspect quite a number operate in that segment of the nation too and any hopes of a bright future ahead involves reaching out to try and find a few of them.
One of the more interesting groupings of people I’ve met on my travels are individuals who are unvaccinated, magical thinkers and staunchly pro-life in outlook.
Yet, the leaders of the pro-life movement in Ireland are unmagical, establishment, often jabbed and Muggles. With a couple of dark magicians thrown in for good measure. I am sad to report I was mostly asleep for 2018 abortion referendum in Ireland and didn’t vote. From what I can tell, though, the pro-lifers experienced a media and government black-out not dissimilar to a lot of the pandemic propaganda and coercion visited upon the unvaccinated during the vaccine roll-out and vaccine passport era.
Part of my journey of self-reflection has brought me back to re-examine previously held positions, or even previously held apathy, on a range of issues in the outer world. I suppose, the life and death of unborn children is one of them.
Last night, I was reading a section from Paramahansa Yogananda’s - The Second Coming of Jesus Christ - the Resurrection of the Christ within you - and a couple of lines in it got me thinking.
“ The medulla oblongata at the base of the brain is the seat of life, formed from the seed cell, the original nucleus, entered by the soul at the time of conception “
No-one really talks about when the soul is created or enters the human realm. We live in a small country hitting nearly 10,000 abortions a year. It seems a rather high number from a standing start. Perhaps, a small change of focus might yield a little more success and open up some honest conversations in this space while also offering some comfort to women who have taken the deeply difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy in Ireland.
Thought Bubble: Yes, the act of abortion is the termination of an unborn physical life but it is also the attempted murder of a soul. However, a soul cannot be murdered or aborted. Where it goes or what or whom it becomes part of is anyone’s guess. But, the soul of that unborn child must surely still exist. Which may well be a comfort to some who have gone through the ordeal.
I suspect the Irish government and governors of the world are even more uncomfortable talking about trying to murder souls than unborn children. Because the forces guiding the path ahead are not hapless Muggles but darkly magical thinkers methinks. They do believe in magic and on from that spirituality too just the darker shades of it, I think.
Anyway, a Muggle is a Muggle is a Muggle. So, getting angry at someone who either can’t or refuses to magically think is a fool’s errand. It’s a bit like getting upset with your cat for not barking like a Jack Russell.
Equally, though, if we take this thought bubble a step further, and as I highlight above not every magical thinker is a force for good in the world and then consider something else. Similar to the Voldemort character in the Harry Potter series dark magical thinkers might have additional motivations in the soul arena. Could it be they seek to neutralise the souls of not just the unborn but the born too.
It is worth reminding ourselves that most, if not all, of the key battles in Rowling’s series of books took place not in the realm of the Muggles but in the land of the magical thinkers and dark magicians.
So, if we take the analogy into the world around us and say: Most of the major Irish and world players on the average Irish digital smart-phone over the last four years are most probably Muggles. But Muggles controlled and directed by some darkly magical thinkers it begs a question.
How much of our time should be spent battling Muggles?
How much of our time should be spent identifying and slaying the dark magical thinkers?
The Muggles live in one reality and the shadowy magicians in quite another. Unfortunately, it leaves open a stark new reality for my consideration.
Does the path ahead mean the next battle-front is with a whole different scale of entity altogether?
Ah, synchronicity.
Yesterday in my yt feed there was a zen master of modern times talking about the origins of Daoism. He spoke about demons who were energy beings that fed on human beings. Thousands of years ago before humans developed 'social mind', they could see them. But once they became social they lost that ability and it was the job of the Zen masters to battle these demons.
Dr Michael Heiser does great work on the Unseen Realm - talks about the Cosmic Geography that’s explicit but ignored/lost in translation in the Bible (psalm 82). Loads of his work on YouTube, including a documentary based on his book Unseen Realm (which I couldn’t put down)