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@corine

I love this topic… I really love this question.

So magic… I could say so much about this.

To start off I’ll give my background with magic and why I think we need to be really careful of it, and then I’ll explain how I do believe it can be used.

When I was 12 I had an unpleasant experience with a friend who took magic way too seriously (and just as a side note, remember she was 12 too, so it wasn’t Wicca, it just wasn’t good). Eventually I had to part ways with her because of her fascination with it. This left me very scarred with magic, and it took me a while to understand why I could say Narnia and LOTR was O.K. and other magic stories weren’t. As a fantasy writer I had to learn how to understand what magic is and the worldview behind it.

Side Note: My favorite definition of good magic would probably go to The Wingfeather Saga. If you haven’t read it you must read it at some point.

So… How I like to explain this would be to look at our own reality. We live in a world where there are powers of good and evil. Just because we don’t see things doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I often times think we’re sleepwalking through life without ever understanding that we’re in a dream and the reality is going on just beyond our sight. I’m a music major, so I will compare magic to music for a moment… Think about how music can move us in ways that we wouldn’t expect. How songs can make us cry without us understanding why, or we just feel that we can’t keep from dancing. I believe there’s power in music. Last night me and a friend went to a racquet ball room and she just stood there listening to me sing. It was honestly a magical experience because the acoustics were so enchanting. It was like we were under a spell… I honestly feel like a lot of the time, we miss the “magic” that goes on around us all the time. As the Wingfeather books say, I believe this world is pulsing with magic, but we don’t recognize it.

But how do we define magic? That to me is the key…

When I say something is magical, I honestly use that word to describe the beauty and joy that God has filled this world with. Yes, it is a broken world, but it is still brimming with the fingerprints and breath of God. He gives us so many blessings and I think much of the time we never stop to really see it. (Pause, go listen to Andrew Peterson’s Don’t You Want To Thank Someone?. That sums up what I’m trying to say pretty well). I wish there was a different word for the way that beauty can move us… C. S. Lewis called it Joy. Some might call it magic for lack of a better word… In my own books, I have a word that basically means life/meaning/joy/blood and sums all this up.

Now, for the other definition of magic… It means power. To me, when using this magic, it all has to do with where the power comes from. If it comes from the source of all power, the one who defines right and wrong, then I believe this is an accurate picture of reality and points back to God. I would say this is appropriate magic to use. And on the flip side, I also think that it is good to portray the other side of the powers. In our own world there are powers to do not come from God, fallen demonic powers that are evil because they are not of light and they defy God. I believe we should portray this as well in our writings. But I think in a nutshell, when writing magic, it all has to do with how we portray and define all this power. If it is a picture of truth and light, then I believe we can use magic and it can very powerfully paint a picture of what reality is, and even help to wake us up to ponder what reality might be there just beyond our sight. But if we create a window that opens our readers minds to the seduction of the darkness that does exist… I believe this is playing with fire.

Also, remember that when writing fantasy, you have creative liberties to show truth in a new light. fantasy is a very powerful tool to show truth, or deliver a skillfully dressed lie. I would have a lot more to say on this… but I don’t have time right now.

I would suggest that to anyone who wonders how to use magic, first read a lot of scripture on spiritual reality. Then pray about it and find out what you believe you can write. Lastly, don’t be afraid to just experiment and develop fantasy cultures/and realities, but always prayerfully and with great discernment.

If you have any more questions let me know, I would love to come back to this to think about it a little more deeply. I love this topic… I hope that some of what I said was coherent. XD Let me know what you think! I could potentially also take a while to get back to you, but I will try to get back as soon as possible!