"And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"
The Mirror of Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring, LOTR
It is widely known that Tolkien did not like magic a lot. Or rather, he preferred not to call extraordinary happenings and abilities magic. As he also writes in his Letters, the word ‘magic’ does not entirely cover the meaning he wants to convey - the idea of an art that touches people and things at a deep level, and that changes the inner nature of things, rather than their appearance. What we will try and explore in this short paper is the interesting similarity between Tolkien’s own idea of magic, and the Renaissance idea of ars magica as developed by the fifteenth century philosophers who founded the movement better known as Neoplatonism. The focus will then move towards looking at how lady Galadriel – one of the main characters of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion – seems to perfectly embody the Renaissance idea of magus, in both her art and her life.
The first question we ought to probably ask ourselves is - what is Neoplatonic magic? Far from
thinking it possible to explain such a complex question in a few words, we can try and give a broad
idea of the matter. According to Marsilio Ficino, the main thinker and one of the founders of the Nuova Accademia Platonica - the first Neoplatonic Academy in Europe - magic is the highest and purest form of art and can be obtained and made perfect by years of study and spiritual perfection. The magus has a power of creation similar to God’s and her goal is to heal and elevate herself, and then extend her influence over the world around her to restore balance and harmony. Her life has to resemble that world of ideas of which God is the creator and source. Since magic was considered the highest form of art, second only to the art of Creation, the magus represents the ideal artist, a herald of goodness and healing.
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| Giordano Bruno's Vision of the Cosmos |
If one thinks of Elves, one can immediately perceive how their ideas did not differ much from those
of the Neoplatonists. Firstly, they have a tight bond with Arda, having been the first-born in its Creation and they share its destiny of slow decline and disappearance. By dying they end up in a limbo in which they have to wait Arda’s final days. Therefore it is almost as if Arda was an extension of their bodies and souls - they have to protect it and at the same time they can shape it, make it beautiful or destroy it. Whatever they do, they have control over something more than just reality. They seem to have access to the core rules of nature, the ones that regulate life on Arda. It is almost as if they had control over the Earth’s genetic code. In fact, they are exceptionally well-versed in crafts: the objects they make possess extraordinary powers and the places they take care of possess special auras or spiritual qualities that make them sanctuaries filled with spiritual powers. Their powers are always related to forms of art that change the core of things, just like the Neoplatonists did. One of the key elements of Ficino’s magic were in fact amulets and talismans - objects in which the magus infused the power of the stars and that possessed healing powers. From Feanor's Silmarils to the rings of power, to enchanted woods and powerful weapons, Tolkien’s works are full of examples of the Elves' exceptionally powerful creations.
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| The Nuova Accademia Platonica in Florence, Italy |
In the Neoplatonists' view, there are three stages of perfection that the magus can reach, according to the spiritual level she has achieved – magia naturalis, magia celeste and magia religiosa. Magia naturalis gives the magus control over the elements of nature. It is a basic, rough kind of magic, and the magus is more of a healer. Her duty is to provide protection and healing to the world around her.
The second type of magic involves summonings – the magus has control over the second level of reality and can communicate and control the stars and the celestial world. Marsilio Ficino thought this was the ideal level for a magus, since it allowed him to infuse the power of the stars into objects and medicines, thus enhancing their inner powers and properties.
The third, and most dangerous type of magic is religious magic. Having access to the world of angels and demons, he can summon them to do his biddings. He has tremendous power over the world around him and can even control other people’s minds. This third type of magic is also the most dangerous. If the magus is not sufficiently (spiritually) prepared, he will not be able to tell the difference between good and evil spirits and will risk being consumed by his own power. Galadriel seems to embody a part of the Neoplatonic idea of what a magus should be like. Marsilio Ficino would say that she reached the highest level possible - the one that brings you closest to God. She is highly spiritually elevated, she is powerful and she is above space and time (she can look into all three dimensions of time - past, present and future). She has control over nature of course, but her control is far beyond the simple control over the natural elements. Lothlórien is not just an enchanted wood. There is something more about it that makes it a locus amoenus - a sanctuary for healing and recovery, but also a place for reliving ancient memories and past lives.
The power of the rings of Eregion for instance is that of echoing the beauty of Valinor. The rings given to the dwarves on the other hand, allowed them to find the richest treasures, at the expense of awakening Arda’s darkest forces, such as Balrogs and dragons. ‘It is long since any of my own folk journeyed hither back to the land whence we wandered in ages long ago - said Legolas - but we hear that Lòrien is not yet deserted, for there I a secret power here that holds evil from the land.
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| Lady Galadriel by John Howe |
Unlike Rivendell, which is a place for resting and recovery, Lothlórien has something uncanny about
it, sometimes even disquieting. People and creatures entering it undergo profound changes, deal with inner fears and worries and discover new things about themselves. However, Galadriel does not seem to directly change people, whereas she prefers a less straightforward approach. Her influence is palpable but never coercive: she leaves people their free will while showing them the right way. She whispers suggestions, she makes people question their feelings and wonder about their decisions. In this sense, she is a very mature magus, because she uses her power wisely, never to directly affect reality. It is very similar to what Gandalf himself does: quite often, when a situation gets out of hand, he could simply step ahead and take control. Nonetheless, they will not do anything to directly tamper the natural course of things, nor they would ever go against what is considered to be the greater good. On the other hand, they can literally foresee what the outcomes can be and their clairvoyance does not limit itself to seeing back in time – they can foresee courses of action and consequences. This is one of the reasons why they decide to not take the ring for example. In Neoplatonism, the magus that lets desire for power take control will eventually be consumed by it and will end up bringing destruction to the world around him. If Galadriel had taken the Ring, she would have probably become the most powerful being Middle Earth has known for a while. She would have been erased from existence, while also bringing mass destruction and desperation to the world6. Instead, she decides to renounce her powers and accept her destiny, eventually leaving Middle-Earth and its fate in the hands of Hobbits and Men. This is precisely what a wise and expert magus is supposed to do: because she has experienced greed and thirst for power (one has only to think of her long life and everything she has been through – from siding with Fëanor in the First Age to seeing the destruction of the Beleriand region to having been exiled from the immortal lands of Valinor) she decides to step aside and eventually renounce her powers. Quite similarly to another great Neoplatonic magus - Shakespeare’s Prospero in The Tempest - Galadriel chooses to ‘break her staff’ and give up her magic.
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