For those who are not devotees of the Harry Potter universe, the Mirror of Erised is a mirror which is discovered by 11-year-old orphan-boy Harry Potter. In the mirror he sees his parents. He longs to show his best friend Ron Weasley, but Ron doesn’t see Harry’s dead family. He sees himself victorious in life as Head Boy at the school holding trophies. Ron is uneasy about the mirror, but Harry is drawn to it and refuses to stop gazing into it.
One night, whilst staring into the images of himself with his deceased family, Albus Dumbledore, the great wizard, and the Headmaster at Hogwarts, surprises Harry. Then this dialogue happens:
"Can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us?" [Dumbledore asked] Harry shook his head.
"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"
Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want... whatever we want..."
"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly.
"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.
"The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed.”
In this scene Dumbledore shows both impressive wisdom and also incredible folly.
Let me explain.
Dumbledore is absolutely right about the nature of dwelling on desire. When we make desiring the object of our desire we come to a point where we can never be satisfied. The kinds of people Dumbledore is speaking of are people who become so enraptured by seeing themselves achieving their desire that they fail to differentiate reality from fantasy. People who build their castles in the clouds tend to find them rather drafty. But the mirror allows them to have a form of fruition because they can see themselves achieving and apprehending the object of their desire.
But the problem is that ideation is not apprehension. At least not for a person who wishes to actually accomplish things in the real world. People who seek accolades and accomplishments because of what they will actually do in the world are never satisfied with fantasies and daydreams. They are only satisfied (and sometimes not even then!) after they have done what they set out to do. Doers fantasize only because they with to achieve. Fantasizers never get down to the doing. It’s enough for them to fantasize, because in the fantasy they have gotten all they want – they’ve seen themselves as famous, or successful, or beautiful, or romancing their dream-lover.
We’ve all known people like this. People who are always talking about the novel they’re going to write, or the diet they’re going to begin, or the girlfriend they’re going to get, or the PhD they’re going to earn, or the business they’re going to start, or the trip to Italy they’re going to take, or the…or the…or the million and one things that will never happen in the real world.
Fantasy is good, insofar as it allows us to visualize the end-purpose of our labor. But fantasy MUST be the servant of reality, never its master. Because when fantasy becomes the master of reality, we enter into the realm of insanity. Now, most people would call the person fixated on fantasies pathetic, not mad. But, there is a madness in the man who is addicted to dreams.
And Dumbledore is very wise to warn Harry of what could have been a very dangerous habit.
Indeed, perhaps, JK Rowling was giving a subtle condemnation of the way that the Millennials she was, primarily, writing for had been raised. Millennials (like me) were raised to be dreamers. But we were also raised to not keep score and get participation medals. We were taught to both dream big and also that everyone was a winner. The incoherence is palpable. And the end result of such a teaching is predictable. Children who never became women and men – who had weak character – they found happiness in fantasy that reality couldn’t overtop. And so they chose to live in a fantasy world.
But, most people would say – but why fixate on your own desires? What’s they point of seeing what you desire? Because in the fantastical world of the fantasizer, imagining oneself achieving the end of desire is the same as actually achieving it. Of course, that’s foolish – but it’s a very comforting folly. And there is ample biblical evidence to show that the person who only dreams and never does is a fool.
And so, Dumbledore was right.
And yet he wasn’t. Because he said that the mirror gives us: “neither knowledge or truth”.
But to know our desires, our real desires, the actual deepest desire of our souls – does any of us really know ourselves that well? Do I know what my true, deepest longing is? Would I want to know? The Russian Film, The Stalker (not about what it sound like), explores this theme. In the film there is a place you can go and when you go there you will be given your innermost desire.
But here’s the catch – it’s not what you SAY is your innermost desire. It’s not what you tell yourself it is. It’s not what you’ve deceived yourself into believing. It’s what you really, truly, deeply, most desperately, even if suppressedly, desire. Would you be willing to go into that room? What if what you truly desired was your neighbor’s wife? The death of an abusive or distant parent? To commit some horrid act of perversion? What if you discover you long to be anyone else and you discover how deep-rooted is your self-loathing? What if a Christian discovers they truly desire to hate God and be free?
Think on this for just a short bit and you may find that to enter into that place, “the zone” would be a frightening proposition!
But what if you didn’t have to get your desire – but what if you could just know it, so you could come to terms with it? What if you could know the depth of your depravity – or perhaps your zeal for God! What if you could know yourself at the most fundamental level? Would you do it? Would it be worth it? If you looked into the Mirror of Erised, would you like what you saw? And what would you do if you did? And what would you do if you didn’t?
Dumbledore was right – it doesn’t do to dwell on fantasies. He’s wrong to say that the mirror gives us neither knowledge nor truth. It gives knowledge to all, and it gives truth to the wise. Like so many things, the Mirror of Erised would be a blessing to the wise and a curse to the fool – but, then again, so is everything else!