Magic is truer than you’d think

The concept of magic has captivated the human race from the beginning, has it not? Our stories, ethereal and mystical, are riddled with spellbooks and mythical creatures. Why, though, are we continually drawn to magical themes? To the defiance of the laws of the universe? To storylines that seem far too good and redemptive to be true?

I would argue that this desire stems from our very core as human beings.

By nature we long for something otherworldly, something beyond the physical, objective confines we have placed ourselves in. Toying with magic provides us with a glimpse of our Creator, who logically is not bound by natural laws. And our fascination with magic points us to the existence of a spiritual realm and its role in our lives on earth–that our home is not here but elsewhere. For we shall have no desire for nor conception of the spiritual and the magical were we incapable of experiencing it, created with an opposing nature, or never purposed to live in it.

As written by C.S. Lewis, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

The fantasy world can thus be viewed as a kind of human reinterpretation or recreation of the spiritual world in a way that appeals to our desires and serves as a form of escape. These stories allow us to find comfort in what should have been–even if we don’t consciously recognize where they come from. To have some semblance of this “other world” in the form of magic reconnects us with the very nature we have attempted to ignore, seeing that our longing to break the boundaries of the physical dimension runs deep in the essence of our being.

Consider the following quote by J.R.R. Tolkien:

“We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that He knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor.”

We seek the magical because we cannot ignore the reality of the spiritual realm and its reign over the physical. We seek stories of redemption because our soul cannot rest without the hope of the Gospel. And we will forever search aimlessly until we place our hope upon the One for whom we were created. Until then, attempting to fill our soul’s deepest, innermost desire with mere glimpses of God’s majesty will not suffice.