Thanks Og!
What struck me about the movie was how the whole familiar thing was playing off of Catholic theology about souls and freewill. Wasn't it Augustine who argued for the necessity of the church's authority because if people were free to make their own choices, they'd choose wrong?
The witches represented paganism in general. Their souls could travel far away like shamanistic techniques.
The dust idea emphasized the point about freedom. The familiars needed dust to shift form which they lost the ability as children grew up. I suppose since the witches were had more access to the dust because they lived outside of society and could fly in the air.
The connection of the compass to dust represented the necessity of truth in relation to freewill. The truth that the church group wanted to control was the reality of dust and how it helped free the soul.
The separation of the main character's familiar makes me think of the necessity of differentiation in psychological development. Growing up is a loss of childhood, and often this includes traumatic experiences that help this differentiation process to occur.
Just thinking out loud. |