“You’re a wizard Harry.”

What would be better than finding out you are a wizard or witch? What would be better than learning to cast spells and charms (especially if you’re in the cross-hairs of the darkest and most powerful wizard ever born)?

Harry Potter learns many spells and charms at Hogwarts. Here are some of the most memorable — and my favorites.

Is Lumos the most widely-used spell in the books? It’s also perhaps the simplest: the light spell. Needless to say, light is conjured from wands many times during the books’ “darkest hours.”

Nox, meanwhile, turns off the light. It’s the counter spell to Lumos.

In Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, Harry roams the halls of Hogwarts after dark looking for Peter Pettigrew on the Mauruder’s Map. Lumos let’s him see where’s he’s going (and see the map). He uses Nox when Snape catches him.

Avada Kedavra is one of the three “unforgivable curses.” It is mentioned in all of the books and first used in the sixth book. This spell or curse causes instant death to the victim.

This is a terrible spell to use, but a significant one nonetheless. Voldemort uses it on Harry’s parents and on Harry himself. Snape uses it to kill Dumbledore. And — for those who know Harry Potter through only the movies — expect to see this spell next in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Expecto Patronum is the Patronus Charm. It is used most in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry teaches this charm to Dumbledore’s Army. This charm conjures an incarnation, usually an animal, from the wizard’s wand when the caster’s feelings are positive. This charm is usually used against Dementors.

This is my personal, favorite charm. I love the fact that each caster has their own animal-incarnation. I also love that the Dementors, visually scary and almost impossible to “kill,” can be avoided through the use of this beautiful charm.

Not surprisingly, the movies have had a great time depicting it.

Expelliarmus is first seen in the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This charm is used to disarm another wizard during battle, and Harry uses it to disarm Draco Malfoy.

But of course, the most important time Expelliarmus is used is when it saves Harry’s life in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. During the final stage of the tournament, Harry and Cedric both touch the triwizard cup, which is a portal to the graveyard where Voldemort and his Deatheaters are. Voldemort and Harry duel and, while Voldemort uses Avada Kedavras, Harry use Expelliarmus. But both wands contain the same phoenix feather, which causes the spells to collide (and prove ineffective) creating the Priori Incantatem, thus saving Harry’s life.

Protego shields the caster from his or her enemies’ spell attacks.

I remember Protego (Totalum) the most from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry uses it against Snape during their Occlumency lessons. When Harry uses it, the effects of Occlumency are reversed, and Harry sees Snape’s memories instead of Snape seeing more of Harry’s.

There are, of course, many more spells used in the books. Some such as Sectumsempra are only used once, but it’s such a memorable spell that no reader could forget it.

Good writers are good because they make the reader believe that what the author has written is “real.” The incredible magical details that J.K. Rowling has added to her books don’t just make you believe in the stories themselves — at least while you’re reading them, they make you think that magic might be real too.

When I first heard the premise of the new documentary series Out of Egypt, airing later this month, I was intrigued: an Egyptologist uses her knowledge of that country’s ancient history to try to draw connections between that civilization and other civilizations, including our modern world today. In the process, she’d come to some conclusions about just what it means to be human.

Pretty ambitious stuff for a TV program, even one on the Discovery Channel.

Then I previewed the first two episodes of the show (which we’ll be reviewing soon) and discovered it pretty much delivers.

Better still, I got a chance to sit down and talk to the host, Egyptologist Kara Cooney, quizzing her on the eternal appeal of Ancient Egypt, the “truth” about magic and ritual, and even the deep-seated reasons why many of us find science fiction and fantasy so compelling.

I interview a lot of people in my job as editor of this website, but very few of these conversations turn out to be as interesting or as far-ranging as this one:

TheTorchOnline: Explain to me our fascination with Ancient Egypt.

Kara Cooney: Oh, there’s a lot behind it. I’ve had to think about this a lot. I give talks on Egypt all the time. My poor Byzantine friends, they never get asked, because no one knows what Byzantine is!

I was one of the curators for the King Tut exhibit, and when people are pounding down your doors, you have to ask yourself, “What hell is going on?”

I have a three-part answer. One, it doesn’t hurt that everything’s made of gold. We value that, we understand it.

Number two, if I showed you an ancient wall relief, you would immediately understand that it was, for example, a cat. It’s instantly recognizable. The ancient Egyptians understood how to communicate through images better than anybody. Just enough enough information so you know what’s going on, but leave you wanting more.

TTO: Even language, hieroglyphs, the language of pictures.

KC: Even the language! “Oh, I can see that that’s a sandal and that’ s a dog and that’s a face, but what does it all mean?” It intrigues people, because people want to know more.

And it has for centuries. The ancient Romans wanted to know what was going on, the ancient Greeks wanted to know what was going on! People have always been fascinated by this.

Then the third reason: the ancient Egyptians aggressively and systematically dealt with the problem of death. And in our culture, we systemically deny the existence of death. We’re all about youth and beauty.

TTO: Now I thought that was a misconception we had, that the Egyptians were obsessed with death. I thought that’s what we assumed, because pyramids and tombs are all that’s left for us to see.

KC: You will read that in many coffee table books, but I disagree with that. Ask a different Egyptologist, and you’ll get a different answer. A lot of people say the Egyptians weren’t obsessed with death, they were obsessed with the continuation of life.

But the Egyptians understood that their lives would not continue in the way that it did on this earth. It was never like this life. They knew that death was not life. It’s not so simple as a continuation of life.

TTO: But why is that appealing? You’d think if they were obsessed with death, then that’s something we’d turn away from, since we’re so afraid of it.

KC: You would! And yet when I work in museums, I’ve seen people go up to these cases full of death human flesh and mash their faces up against it and get as close as they can.

Death is something that all humanity has to deal with, and it’s a hole in our modern-day culture.

TTO: So this is a safe way to look at death?

CK: It’s looking at death through a glass case. That’s what I think it is.

I think the Ancient Egyptians, because of their obsession with surviving life and going on to something else, I think we’re intrigued by that, we want a part of that. But I don’t think we know it.

TTO: In your show, you spend a lot of time talking about ritual and “magic.” But it seems to me the ancient world wouldn’t really think of magic as “magic.” If magic is just part of the way they see the world, it’s not “supernatural,” right?

KC: They did make a separation in a way. It’s arbitrary, you’re right, but magic is religious or ritual activity that has a concrete wish, desire, or conclusion at the end. So if I wanted you to fall in love with me, I would create a potion or walk around you three times to do some magical incantation that had a concrete benefit. Something that happened at the end.

Religion or spirituality doesn’t need a concrete benefit, something that happens — it can just be something you do make you feel better about the death of your loved one. So even the Egyptians did had a separate word for magic.

TTO:  Was there still a sense that what they were doing was supernatural, in that it was different from the natural?

KC: Now they’re you’re right on, because in the ancient world and in many Third World countries today, they don’t have such a separation between their daily life and their beliefs. Everything went together. When you’re baking your loaf of bread, that bread comes from the gods. In Ancient Egypt, that’s Orsiris who gave you that bread. You’re eating Orsiris. Where do you think the Christians got that one? But anyway…

The separation between daily activities and fervent religious belief, there was no disconnect, and there was very little doubt. There wasn’t any existential doubt — “Where are we going? What’s is it all about?” All the stuff that we’ve done to ourselves in the last two or three hundred years, since Enlightenment. So to speak!

TTO: So you just said something intriguing, that much of these beliefs still live on in the Third World.

KC: I think it’s very easy in the United States to look at fervent religious belief as primitive, and to denigrate it. And yet, they’re watching the Discovery Channel. When they see people with fervent religious beliefs, they’re almost jealously trying to consume it themselves. This is part of our our psyche, our humanity that we don’t have anymore. Which is why I think fundamentalism is making a huge comeback. It’s filling a hole.

And science fiction and fantasy, it’s not just entertainment. People are really seriously attached to this material in an emotional way. People are looking to the ancestors to fill that gap, and everyone has their own solution to it. So I think we’re a little ambivalent about it. On one hand, we look at it and say, “Oh, those primitive people,” but on the other hand, we have our lucky penny or we read our horoscope, or whatever we do.

TTO: Is that an essential component of magic: belief? If you believe it, does it work?

KC: Maybe. Placebo effect?

TTO: Well, maybe that’s the explanation we’d give it.

KC: I think that even if you don’t get the outcome you intend, I think the magical ritual has a healing effect almost every time. If you feel it’s helpful to you, yes.

I have a friend who’s a Wiccan. I may not believe that [the god] Diana is somehow going to change my life. I actually don’t believe the gods would intercede on my puny behalf, that’s not part of my belief system. But to watch my friend and his friends participate in that, I think is very meaningful. We’re trying to plug those holes, fill those gaps.

TTO: I completely agree with what you said before that for a lot people, these stories are their religion. In many ways, that’s true for me.

KC: You’re touching on a nerve here which is really interesting. People often assume I believe in the ancient Egypt religion — they assume I worship Osiris as a god, because I’m so passionate about these Egyptian beliefs. I don’t, but I don’t judge people that do. It’s fine. Why is that different from believing Jesus? Religious freedom is very important.

I can be incredibly interested about it, and passionate, and yet I don’t need go there myself. I have a different belief system.

TTO: Speaking about Egypt, for your point-of-view as an Egyptologist, what are some of the most infuriating inaccuracies?

CK: There are a lot of them, and I think people are starting to get sick of these kinds of things.

The biggest one out there is the aliens-built-the-pyramids [theory]. It’s inherently racist, this idea that these “primitive” people couldn’t have built the pyramids, because they’re too stupid and they don’t know how, that they needed the aliens to come down from on high to tell these people who are always in Third World countries, who always have dark skin. I mean, come on.

This incenses every Egyptologist I know. We do have a detached view, but we’re also protective of the ancient people, and there’s no reason to make this claim. There are much more compelling reasons for why the pyramids were build, and when. It’s interesting enough just in human terms.

I get all angry about the alien theory, but then I remember Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon Haunted World, and I remember people like stories. It’s not just that they like them, they need stories. When they see something like a pyramid in Mexico or Egypt, they get a little freaked out. And if they don’t have a story to help them explain it, I think they feel like they’re shaky ground.

TTO: But as you’ve pointed out, that tells us more about the people who believe that, their racism and their limited world-view, than it does about Egypt.

KC: People like simple explanations. They don’t like the hard explanations.

Kara’s show Out of Egypt airs Mondays at 9 PM on the Discovery Channel starting August 24th.

For those living in or close to New York City, the wonderful tradition of Shakespeare in the Park — free performances of the Bard’s plays set in the beauty of Central Park — continues this year with Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s great comedies (that features a strong female lead to boot!).

While Shakespeare has a bad rap for being alienating and esoteric, the fact is there’s a lot to enjoy from his works for your average fantasy fan. Chances are if you like Tolkien and Lewis, you’ll probably get a kick out of Shakespeare.

Now, not all of his works are astoundingly fun and exciting. He had quite a dark side, as evidenced by some of his tragedies, like Othello and Titus Andronicus. Those looking for action and magic might be bored by his history plays, even though there’s some great drama in them.

But what endeared Shakespeare to me at an early age was his blatant and unapologetic love of fantasy storytelling. His works are littered with magical sub-plots, powerful sorcerers, and mystical potions. He was a student of world mythology, and thus had a respectable knowledge of gods and faeries, which he used freely and liberally, often changing characters or inventing new ones depending on the needs of his story.

One of his most famous and oft-performed comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is a series of one magical plot after another. The play opens in Ancient Greece, when a wedding celebration between Theseus and Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen, is overshadowed by four young lovers who just can’t seem to figure it out. (It’s complicated and non-magical, so to us it’s boring.)

Soon we are treated to a scene featuring a quarrel between Titania, the Queen of the Faeries, and Oberon, her consort and Faerie King, over which one should have custody of a changeling servant. Oberon orders his spritely servant, Puck, to dose her with a magical potion and make her fall in love with some nasty forest creature.

Wackiness, as always, ensues. Puck (a character whose fame has possibly outgrown the play that features him, and is where we get the word puckish) puts a spell on a mortal, giving him the head of an ass, and sets it up for Titania to get hot for him. The love potion — has there ever been a better plot device? — is also used to mess around with the mortal lovers, but of course, this being a comedy, all ends happily.

If you’re intrigued by the story, there’s a pretty decent film version from 1999 starring Rupert Everett, Kevin Kline, and Michelle Pfeiffer (who, as Titania, looks so beautiful she might melt your television screen.) If you like musicals and don’t mind a little guy-on-guy action, there’s also a really interesting film called Were the World Mine that just came out last year, which features a high school kid who discovers the secret to the love potion’s formula while playing Puck in a school production.

A less light-hearted but no less magical work is The Tempest, a play about an exiled magician, Prospero, who comes to rule the spirit-infested island on which he is marooned. He rescues a spirit, Ariel, who is trapped in a tree, and then forces Ariel to do magic on his behalf. (Arthurian scholars might remember the legend in which Merlin is trapped in a tree by the sorceress Morgan le Fay — a story Shakespeare was probably familiar with.)

Prospero takes revenge on those who did him wrong by sending out a great storm and shipwrecking his enemies on the same island, eventually drawing them closer towards an inevitable reunion. Also of note is the character Caliban, who is said to be the son of a mortal woman and a devil, and is sometimes describes as half-fish, but always referred to as a monster. (He also might be the basis for the character Calibos in Clash of the Titans, a creature who has no actual Greek counterpart.)

While Midsummer and Tempest are Shakespeare’s most obviously fantasy-rich plays, bits of magic are speckled in his other works. The presence of a ghost kicks off the action of Hamlet, and a ghost also appears in Julius Caesar. Three witches, commonly called the Weird Sisters, are heavily featured in Macbeth.

It’s clear Shakespeare enjoyed a nice magical romp. Even if you’re not a fan of him per se, at least you can know you and Shakespeare were fans of the same genre.

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