Magic is a metaphor for anything that has a tremendous power which can be used either for good or evil. It is how we use these powerful energies that define who we are as humans.
For some time now, KH and I have been going through the 5 seasons of the BBC's Merlin. (We're in a pandemic lockdown remember!) Both of us have become hooked on it. The good thing about watching the series is that we are put in touch with many things that form part of the Arthurian legends and lore, although reinterpreted with artistic license in the series.
Some Noteworthy Points for me
Magic. 'Magic and the good or evil it brings' is a major theme of the series. The anti-magic attitude is personified in King Uther, Camelot's king and father of Prince Arthur. He is ruthless in his persecution of magic because he is convinced that magic is evil, that it can only be a negative factor that brings so much evil into the world. The flip side of this attitude is his all-out support for science and medicine, shown concretely in the affection for and trust he has in his court physician Gaius. Little does he know that it was Gaius himself who took the young Arthur under his wings, even if he knows that Arthur is a powerful warlock.
Different Attitudes to Magic. But not everyone is like Uther in his utter hate for magic. There are those who use magic but mainly for evil like the sorceress Morgause and eventually (her half-sister) Morgana, Uther's ward (actually his daughter) who becomes the main villain in the series from the end of season 3 onwards. There are those who seemingly support Uther's rejection of magic but are actually neutral toward it, knowing that magic is ambivalent: it can be used for evil but at the same time also put to good use. This is personified in Gaius. There are those who, like Merlin (the protagonist of the film), know that magic has this tremendous potential for good but have to live meanwhile under a regime that loathes the use thereof. There are those like Arthur who are just born into a social order where magic is perceived as evil and who do not know any other alternative. The series, one can say, is a continual battle for who will sway the young prince (he becomes king from Season 4 onwards) and either let him maintain his distrust of magic or turn him into one with a more balanced view thereof, a view which admits the tremendous potential of magic either for good or evil.
One major reflection of mine is ...
Magic, a metaphor for powerful forces. Magic can be a symbol for anything that has tremendous power--authority, sex, intelligence, material wealth, even Religion ... and so forth. Almost everything like that in life is ambivalent - having a potential either for great good or great evil. It is how we choose to utilize, better, channel this power that defines who we are as persons. That defines whether we are persons with character or not.
We finally finished watching the whole series today, May 17, 2020.
The Once and Future King. In the last episode, Arthur unfortunately passes away because of the wound sustained from Mordred's sword. However, the dragon Kilgharrah, tells Merlin that, although Arthur is dead, in a future time when the kingdom will have its greatest need for a hero-king, Arthur will rise again because he is the "once and future king." Arthur thus becomes a Christ-figure. One manifestation of the ideal king is gone but when things are at their direst, someone else who conforms to the image of Arthur will "rise again." Arthur is also like the biblical King David, also a once and future king, so much so that messianic figures in Jewish history were associated with him such as Jesus who was also called "Son of David."
