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The Magical Child and the Power of Imagination
- Stephanie Zajchowski, PhD
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
In the depths of midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere, the archetype of the Magical Child stirs. Celebrations abound: of a divine child who renews the world, of the light reborn from the longest night of Solstice, and of the threshold between one year ending and another beginning. Each of these observances invites wonder and hope, reawakening our imagination to possibility—all of which resides within the archetypal field of the Magical Child.
The 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story offers a cinematic lens through which to explore this archetype. In it, the Magical Child’s imagination becomes the creative force that restores a world on the brink of dissolution. Rewatching this film as an adult, I found myself wondering if it was one of the gateways to my study of myth. It certainly depicts the power stories can hold when we summon the courage to enter them fully.
Magical Child changes the game
Seeing the world through a child’s eyes is magical. Children often meet their surroundings with curiosity and awe, finding connections with glee and expressing joy with jubilant laughter. Anything is possible for a child, and yet there is an overall trust in life’s unfolding. As we step into adulthood, many of these childlike ways of being fade beneath the weight of responsibility. While the wonder of a child is honored, being naïve or unable to reckon with reality is dangerous, and escaping into an imaginal world of fantasy is detrimental; these pitfalls of the Magical Child archetype keep it on the outskirts of our lived experience.
In myth, the Magical Child often arrives in a time of change. An old world is dying, and a new world has yet to be born. The Magical Child arrives in this liminal space as a bridge, weaving together the old and the new while ushering in what is to become. The Magical Child then embodies a new way of being and is instrumental in creating this new world.
In Myth and Meaning, Joseph Campbell states:
The first universal, existential reality is that of the mystery of birth. That’s more than a biological phenomenon, believe me—the mystery of a new being coming in. And the next—every culture, everywhere, forever, has had to bring that little nature phenomenon into relationship to a society. That’s where the problem comes: into what society are you going to bring this nature phenomenon? (11)
To this end, myths are frequently employed to socialize children into current social norms and ways of being. The Magical Child, however, holds the unbounded imagination that is able to see things differently and create new societies. Thus, the Magical Child can change the game completely.
Endings neverending
In The NeverEnding Story, Bastian is a young boy who has just lost his mother. The world he knew is gone, and he is struggling to find his footing in this new reality in which he finds himself. His rich imagination helps him mitigate his sorrow, but he has retreated too deeply into his inner world, an escapism that leaves him without a foothold in day-to-day life. We witness his father scold him, “Get your head out of the clouds and start keeping both feet down on the ground … Stop daydreaming. Start facing your problems” (4:43). Bastian is running from his life—quite literally, in the film—and his inner turmoil is reaching a breaking point.
Seeking a place to hide from his problems, Bastian escapes into an old bookstore with a gruff owner who begrudgingly teaches him the wisdom of story. The owner warns him that when you truly immerse yourself in a book and enter a story imaginatively, it changes you. Stories can bring meaning and transformation, but it is dangerous terrain. “This book is not for you,” the owner warns Bastian, which, naturally, only ignites his curiosity, and he steals away with the forbidden book. This moment is his call to adventure as he leaves the familiar world for the unknown, and the Magical Child archetype begins to awaken.
Bastian is psychologically in a liminal space in his life; his mother’s death has left him between what used to be and what is yet to come. We see this reflected in the film's imagery. He runs to the attic of his school to hide and read, a space outside the common areas where discarded things hold forgotten memories, like the unconscious realm of our human psyches. He sits down, opens the book, and we, too, enter the liminal lands of the story with the first words, “It was midnight in the howling forest” (12:14)—midnight, the threshold between day and night, and the mysterious space of the forest that so often represents what is unknown in myth. The movie then places us in the magical world of Fantasia, on the verge of destruction.
The Nothing
A force called The Nothing is destroying Fantasia. Those who remain venture to the Ivory Tower seeking help from the Empress. But she, like the world itself, is dying; her life-force and Fantasia’s are interconnected. In response, the great warrior Atreyu is summoned. Yet when he enters the tower, he is merely a young boy, and the gathered citizens laugh. But Atreyu, like Bastian, embodies the Magical Child archetype, and the citizens quickly learn that the child holds the magical power to heal the world; only the child can fathom what is yet to be.
The Nothing is ambiguous, yet everyone responds with dread and despair. While others run away, Atreyu is tasked with running towards the terrifying force. Mythologically, spaces of no-thing-ness or the abyss are the inert void out of which creation emerges. Staring into such emptiness is horrifying, yet it is also full of possibility for those who can withstand the existential dread. The Magical Child is the archetype suited for such a quest, for they know this terrain, the realm into which they are born, and from which they dream new worlds into being. Atreyu enters the nothingness that Fantasia has become, relinquishing everything familiar so that something new may take form, while trusting the unfolding of creation, that clarity and coherence will emerge when the time is right.
The road of trials
As a storm rages outside the attic walls, both Atreyu and Bastian embark on a long road of trials. The first is the Swamp of Sadness, where Atreyu is confronted with loss and learns that true healing begins when emotions are honored and expressed. The second is the judgement of the Sphinx, a test of self-awareness and the nature of the hero’s heart. Each trial reveals that the Magical Child’s power emerges when imagination is rooted in the reality of human suffering and courage is tempered with self-awareness.
In the final trial, the Magic Mirror Gate, the child faces his true self. The gnome Engywook explains that most people run away screaming when confronted with who they really are (57:33). In the mirror, kind people discover cruelty and the brave uncover cowardice—a cinematic rendering of the psychological encounter with one’s shadow. The film plays this out as Atreyu, the hero of the story, looks in the mirror and sees Bastian, the cowardly child hiding in the attic with his book. Reading this passage, Bastian is confronted with the possibility that he himself is the child destined to save Fantasia, a realization so terrifying that he throws the book across the room. Yet he can’t stay away. Bastian returns to the story, and Atreyu steps through the mirror gate, merging the two children into one force.
What’s in a name?
At last the children learn that the only way to heal Fantasia is to give the Empress a new name—an act that seems so simple, yet it is profoundly archetypal. Bestowing a name is to participate in the sacred act of creation.
No one within Fantasia can name the Empress, no one from the dying world can name the world yet to come. Yet, as the Empress says, Bastian “simply can’t imagine that one little boy could be that important” (1:24:24). She assures him that the power lies within him: his imagination, his childlike magic, is the key to restoring Fantasia. As he reads this passage, he finally understands that he is not merely an observer—Bastian is the hero of the story. Throwing open the attic windows, he cries out the Empress’s new name into the raging storm, and creation begins anew. Bastian’s imagination is the magic of the Magical Child, the creator and the bridge between what was and what is becoming.
The Magical Child holds the unbounded imagination that is able to see things differently and create new societies.
Imaginal intelligence
The NeverEnding Story powerfully depicts the symbiotic relationship between story and reader, showing how stories live within us, change us, and accompany us throughout our lives. Bastian’s story reflects a journey through change—integrating the trauma of what has been lost, holding the complexity of what currently exists, and imagining what might yet be. The film reveals a trust in our interconnectedness, the grace that supports the human imagination, and the way the universe conspires with those who dare to create. Archetypally, the Magical Child embodies both who we were and who we are becoming, reinvigorating the world by entering the imaginal and gleaning its wisdom through creative participation. Both the bridge and the world itself, the Magical Child lives into the imaginal as it flows through them, showing us that imagination is not simply escape but an integral part of creation.
MythBlast authored by:
Stephanie Zajchowski, PhD, is a mythologist and writer specializing in the intersection of myth, religion, and women’s studies, with a background in corporate communications, operations, and instructional design. She serves as the Director of Operations for the Joseph Campbell Foundation, writes for its popular MythBlast essay series, and teaches in the foundation’s online courses. Stephanie is also a co-founder of The Fates and Graces, which hosts webinars and workshops for mythic readers and writers. She is a contributing author of Goddesses: A Skeleton Key Study Guide and she holds a Ph.D. in Mythology with a focus in Depth Psychology along with a certification in Spiritual Direction. Ever in search of the deeper narratives that shape the human experience, she shares her work at stephaniezajchowski.com.
This MythBlast was inspired by Myth & Meaning and the archetype of The Magical Child.
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This Week's Highlights
"The first universal, existential reality is that of the mystery of birth. That’s more than a biological phenomenon, believe me—the mystery of a new being coming in. And the next—every culture, everywhere, forever, has had to bring that little nature phenomenon into relationship to a society. That’s where the problem comes: into what society are you going to bring this nature phenomenon?"
-- Joseph Campbell
Myth and Meaning, 11
