(SPOILERS!)
Okay, so, if you’ve seen this new Amazon Prime adaptation of Wheel of Time, you’re probably intrigued, and it’s probably captured a part of your imagination, your mental bandwidth.
I’m writing this article as speculation, more to get this stuff out of my head (and onto the page, where it does not return to me).
So, the Dark One, the Aes Sedai, Light and Dark..
What I’m suggesting here is not a Christian world view. We have the Dragon, who bound the Dark One, at the price of Madness for those men who channel the “One Power,” and the Aes Sedai, White Wizards (in their own context) who use the One Power, the Light of it, for good.
The Dragon is this ultra-powerful channeler, usually male. Is this related to Christianity’s Dragon? Satan? traditional Western dragons? The Dragon is a strong, willful character who uses his power to change the world, irrevocably, until his return. In that sense, his “I will” is similar to our Satan. But is this a fairy tale for Satan, in which Satan is the hero, not the Dark One, but a powerful, near-deity level sorcerer who can bend reality and the Rules to his whims?
The Aes Sedai oppose the Dark One, who controls army of Trollocs (see Troll-orcs), Fades.. Eyeless horseman who lead the Trollocs and probably much worse.
But if it’s the One Power.. is the Dark One just the flip side? Every time a woman channels for good, she incurs a debt, a debt to darkness, a modicum of Power for the Dark One to use as he sees fit. Otherwise, wouldn’t there be the “Two Powers?” I’m talking the Principle of Price: Magic comes with a Price. And that Price is hastening the return of the Dark One. Can the Dark One be destroyed? I sincerely doubt it. Because without the Dark One, where would the balance be? If we accept circular time that the Wheel of Time suggests, then the story implies other Eastern beliefs, like the Balance between yin and yang, wherein lies the Aes Sedai problem. If I am correct in this speculation, then this Last Battle is just the flickering of a candle that goes out, leaving the room in darkness. Their resistance is futile. And their lack of understanding of this part of the nature of their world is short-sighted, not madness, but stubborn, willful refusal to see the world as it is.
You have seen my assumptions, ideas taken out of context, general ideas about magic in a fantasy setting, Light v. Dark, etc. What do you think? I’m not interested in your comments. I’m interested in your own drafts, preferably with references to the actual books. I guess I’m asking you for a semi-academic paper, instead of the rantings and brief musings of my own.
“Magic with a Price” is an idea so old in pop culture (and perhaps in occult practices) as to be nearly untraceable in origin. The Light versus the Dark is an old idea, Eastern, but as common as Day and Night, being just a natural cycle (and thus relevant to a Wheel concept).
The thing about reading all these fantasy books, of playing games like D&D, is that you are exposed to occult ideas gradually, without realizing your world view, your ideas, your mind is being changed. The danger for nonbelievers? Not nearly so great as those who believe. For the Christians who turn aside to idolatry, there is only darkness, anger, wrath, and often madness. Christians cannot practice witchcraft, sorceries, the practices forbidden in Deuteronomy, and those the Holy Spirit forbids.
You can see my own feelings on Fantasy, on Magic in literature, and my own experiences with alternative world views. And it has cost me. Joy, peace, health, intelligence. So, as you read, watch, listen, guard what enters your heart (in the Hebrew sense), your mind, your will, your emotions. Because 1) it’s much more difficult to remove things from your heart (particularly if they leave remnants) and 2) The natural heart is desperately wicked-it will pursue, in its own way, will, instinct, self-destructive, harmful, sinful things.
For those of us who have the Spirit, we are in a battle every moment, against Darkness, for Light, trying to yield to Messiah (Jesus), who is quite different than a “Dragon” invented by a brilliant author. His Dragon, Neo of the Matrix, Optimus Prime, are all “Messiahs” made in our image. Messiah is the Word of God, not created by anyone, but co-eternal with the Father (as stated in the first gospel of John).
It is not that man nor woman is superior, or that Light and Darkness are somehow friends when they’re off screen. But God has told His story in the bible, laid better principles than that of a human author, and that in seeking to understand different works, or different views, mature Christians filter it through the Holy Spirit’s tutelage, and to the Bible. We measure new things by our standard, which does not change. “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever!”
And aren’t you glad? That He won’t willfully alter creation as He sees fit without anyone able to stop Him? That a frail human being didn’t write the rules of our world? Some of you might think these things might be better than our world. But that is the real fantasy, the real delusion of a proud imagination.
Trem