When I was a youngster myself I read a great many science fiction stories, myths, fables, and stories of fantasy. Until the rise of New Age shamanism several years ago, I did not think too much about the nature of those stories, and whether that kind of entertainment was inherently at odds with walking in the Spirit. As I studied the principles and methods of shamanism, I realized I knew most of the methodology already, from the fiction I had read. Many of those authors were serious students of mysticism, and incorporated real practices into their stories. That is something to be aware of and discretion is to be advised.

However, discretion in what we consume is always apropos. That doesn't mean that fictional stories of fantasy are inherently evil or always in conflict with Biblical faith. Even in the Bible there is a place for a few fables in which unnatural events are pictured. There is a fictional story of talking trees in Judges 9:7-20. Ezekiel was was given allegorical stories to tell of eagles planting trees (Ezekiel 17) and describes Egypt's Pharaoh as a great sea monster (Ezekiel 29, 32). There is nothing inherently wrong with story telling in which imaginary events take place, contrary to ordinary experiences. No one was expected to believe that trees talk or that Pharaoh had scales. Those stories of course were intended to teach something.

I suspect that the great success of Harry Potter has not so much been because Rowling was teaching or endorsing magic, but because she was picturing the kinds of friends and loyalties that nearly everyone would like to have. The same was true of the original Star Wars trilogy. But Rowlings fictional magic isn't much like the stuff pursued in the world of real shamanism, although her depiction of only a select few having special power is typical enough. Her characters tend to see the sort of things done in real sorcery, such as fortune telling, as ludicrous. And her kind of magic, labeling that which you fear as ridiculous, smacks more of psychology than of what witchcraft is. Of course psychology might be another topic :-)

Perhaps others will have more to say, or a different perspective. By the way, Harry Potter came up before in the thread that starts with message #269, currently on page 3 of the archives.