Rowling did not create Muggles, nor, I suggest, even discover Muggles. She just gave them their name.

can get you, and making sure your gun is bigger than the ones the other side has. You quickly lose your ability to think about, let alone be on the lookout for, stars, angels, and nativity scenes.

Herod lost a lot of sleep because Magic threatened in the story the magi told. Like Harry’s uncle he had to do everything possible to get rid of any hint of magic. He was not about to lose his control of the universe (actually just his teeny tiny part of the universe but kings and prime ministers alike often think they control more than they do). Kings and prime ministers and presidents depend on the predictable and the controllable. They control their MPs, the information flow, the questions that get answered, and who gets to ask questions. Magic is far too uncontrollable for them to dare even to acknowledge its existence.

Muggles all, these religious leaders, Caesars, soldiers, and kings. We will let these and all the other Muggles be Muggles and leave them to their Muggle-ness. Leave the religious folk to their ancient texts – ancient texts can still speak to us. Leave the Caesars to their caesar-ing – we need political structure with a modicum of order in our world. Leave the agnostics to their scepticism – scepticism is a guard against gullibility. Leave atheists to their seeing of only half the world, the half that throws questions on the existence of God or god or g-d – we need to be aware of that half. To the Herods who would seek to stop Magic’s presence in our world we must simply say: “Get over yourself and out of the way already.”

And then let’s be thankful that there have always been those who Saw, who tuned in to the Reality of Magic, and can point us to the Magic, to where to find Platform 9 ¾. To experience Life, we need to be able to see the Magic that Is. There are those in the Christmas story who invite us precisely (as if Magic is ever precise) to that kind of Seeing. There were those who were open to see more than there was or Muggles thought might be. They did not have to control, they could follow. What their eyes saw and ears heard did not have to fit with what everyone said they should see and hear. Open to more, open to magic, open to the unpredictable and unexpected, they were ready to be surprised and they entered a whole new world with whole new possibilities, just like Harry when he took a run at the brick wall between Platforms 9 and 10.

Mary, not needing the world to fit a scientific theory or political system, was open to see and hear an angel speak. As a result she was invited to be a partner in what the Creator of the Universe was planning for the world and its people.

Joseph, unencumbered by religious demands or psychological dream analysis, knew his dreaming of an angel speaking to him was not just a “bit of undigested cheese.” His world enlarged and he too, became part of the “let’s re-jig the world” partner- ship Mary signed on for with her trembling, no doubt, but sincere, “Here goes, whatever you say.” Saying that to an Angel is risky business and the very opposite of Muggle-ness.

The shepherds, I suspect, at first thought what they were seeing came out of the bottoms of the little brown jugs they used to keep warm. But pretty quickly they realized this choir was more than that, more than the local oratorio, more and more magical than any concert they had ever attended. What they saw that night blew all their circuits. This was bigger even than Platform 9 ¾ and Hogswart. Something suggested to them the entire Universe might have shifted while the angels sang. That took a lot more magic than most of their neighbours were inclined to sign on for.

The members of the astrology department in an eastern university knew the Universe had shifted for the stars that controlled the course of history had changed in their paths. Muggle astrologers would have simply redrawn the star charts, given The Star a name, and kept on gazing at the heavens. These three however, (or was it two or five – does it matter? When you believe in more than 1+1=2 some specifics don’t matter. Those are Muggle concerns.) these three knew there was magic afoot. That star meant something more than that the Big Bang had started galaxies moving. It pointed beyond. To what? The specifics of “to what?” did not matter. That was a Muggle concern. What they knew is it pointed to more. The magi knew magic was in the air. And they were not going to miss it.

While the keenly religious, the powerful, and the rich slept and Herod tried to figure it out, fit it into his plan and stop it, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the magi entered a universe they had not known, a whole new world and way of seeing things and thinking about things, a whole new paradigm of reality, and a whole new set of possibilities and potential. They found the Magic that could transform life, society and the world only because they were open to it and the Universe Beyond honoured their openness and willingness to try catching a train at Platform 9 3/4. Even though to Muggles it looked mostly like a brick wall.

Each year the Christmas season is offered to us as an invitation to open our eyes. It is offered as a cure, an antidote to all the not-seeing so prevalent in our world. Each reading of Luke 2, each singing of “Away in a Manger,” each placing of an angel or a star on top of the tree is an invitation to see more, to believe in magic, to open ourselves to the possibilities of what can be. And if Luke 2 and nativity scenes seem too focused on one story for you, start at another place. Songs about red-nosed reindeer, movies about Santa Clauses, and the reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” can all be magical. Allow them to crack your façade of Muggleness. And, once you let magic in, well then, sooner or later, shepherds, angels, teenage parents, stars, wise men, and a baby in the manger will slide in through the crack and the magic will grow, till it is Magic and not guns and money, Magic and not power lunches and politics that control our world. It is Magic, Magic that has entered the Universe and is there for all to experience. Muggleness will be cured. The possibilities will be limitless.