This is not a regular review but rather my observations on the pagan and occult aspects of the movie, “Frozen 2.” Pagan or occult aspects from the film are noted in italics, followed by my comments.
The four elements, air, earth, water, and fire are prominent in this film. These are presented as forces of nature that seem to have their own mind and/or character and can choose how to behave. In effect, they are spirits.
The four elements are a basic part of many pagan, occult, and New Age practices. They are prominent in modern Witchcraft and Wicca and often play a role when casting a circle or in rituals. In some practices, the four elements are viewed as “elementals,” actual spirits who can be summoned and used. Four points of the pentagram represent the four elements.
The four elements are also a part of astrology. The 12 zodiac signs are categorized as one of each of the four elements, so there are 3 zodiac signs belonging to each element that relate to character traits.
A long ago battle “enraged the spirits” who turned their magic against the Northuldra people who live in the Enchanted Forest. As king of Arendelle at the time, the grandfather of the heroine Elsa betrayed an agreement with the Northuldra and killed a Northuldra leader, leading to the battle. Consequently, a mist covered the forest locking the citizens of Arendelle out.
The idea of “enraging the spirits” is certainly pagan. The nature spirits (the elementals) expressed fury against man. In this film nature is always right and sacred while man is the one who ruins everything. This is a view common to occult and New Age thinking.
While it is true that man has harmed the environment, there is nothing sacred about creation. Creation was good when God created it but was corrupted when Adam and Eve sinned (Genesis 3). Being good stewards of God’s creation is one thing but viewing nature as sacred and pure is incorrect.
Elsa has been hearing a “voice” that she tries to ignore. She is afraid to follow the voice “into the unknown” (she sings this as a song which is a theme in the film).
Hearing a voice like this would seem to be a disturbing and rather frightening idea for some children.
After singing this song, Elsa identifies the 4 elements, air , earth, water, and fire, which start acting destructively, and the people of Arendelle must evacuate to the cliffs. It seems that Elsa “woke the magical spirits of the enchanted forest” as she tells her sister Anna, but she decides that whoever was calling her with that voice is good. She says, “My magic feels it.”
We see the four elements acting like independent living beings. Elsa decides because of a feeling about her “magic” that the voice she has been hearing is good even though at first, she had been disturbed by it. Elsa has magical powers because her mother was a Northuldran. Anna does not have such powers. So occult magic is presented as a good thing and as something that can guide someone.
Elsa, now Queen of Arendelle, says her “powers” will protect her going to the Enchanted Forest. She has been told that a “wrong needs to be righted.” She also wants to find the source of the voice.
Again, the magical powers are presented as a good thing. While Elsa’s powers fall more in the fantasy realm, the four elements and other parts of the film are real components of occult magic or pagan beliefs.
Elsa, Anna, Anna’s boyfriend, Olaf (a snowman character), and a reindeer travel to the Enchanted Forest. At the entrance to the Enchanted Forest are 4 pillars with symbols on them which stand for earth, air, water, and fire.
The four elements continue to be prominent in the film.
Olaf declares that “water has memory.” (At the end of the story, Olaf, who had melted away, is able to be re-formed from water into his original state. As soon as this happens, Olaf repeats, “water has memory”).
The belief that water has memory is a popular idea in the New Age and goes back to the belief of Vitalism. This belief is part of Homeopathy as well. Water, of course, does not have memory. Vitalism taught that an animating force permeated creation and this force could be manipulated for healing. This idea is essentially an occult belief.
Fire breaks out in the forest (this is presented as the Fire spirit speaking) and Elsa dowses the flames with her magical ice powers.
Note that fire is presented as an elemental, that is, an element that is like a spirit. This view is found today in some who practice Witchcraft. In truth, nature does not have intelligence and cannot act independently. However, in the occult and the New Age, nature is sacred and has consciousness, which is an awareness and intelligence.
Elsa and Anna discover their mother was a native of Northuldra who saved their father in the battle with the Northuldra. The Northuldra are “the people of the sun.” They are presented as connected closely to nature and they can hear the nature spirits.
The Northuldra are clearly representing indigenous populations, who are viewed by Neopagans and New Agers as special due to their alleged deep connection to nature. They also are depicted as peaceful and caring because the deceptive idea is that those who are connected to nature would have few faults and are wise and all-knowing.
Elsa is told by a Northuldran that there is a “fifth spirit” which is said to be a bridge “between us and the magic of nature.”
The fifth spirit (or fifth element) turns out to be a crucial point for Elsa. More on this later.
Elsa and Anna find the ship their parents were lost in supposedly in the Southern Sea, and they find a map showing that their parents traveled to the Dark Sea to find Ahtohallan, the “magical river said to hold all the answers of the past,” Anna tells Olaf. Olaf states that this confirms his belief that water has memory.
Again, the “water has memory” idea is planted into the audience’s mind. (It is repeated early in the film, at this point towards the middle, and then at the very end).
There is a scene where Elsa apparently can summon up the magic to walk on water. She dashes across the ocean, walking on it.
This reminded me of a scene in the 1996 underground hit “The Craft,” which featured 4 teen witches, and one scene shows one of them walking on water at a beach. “The Craft” was enormously popular on DVD and influenced a lot of girls to investigate witchcraft. I had some teens tell me this is what got them interested. Jesus walks on water in Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:46-56; and John 6:16-24. It is noteworthy that walking on water is a part of “The Craft” and “Frozen 2,” both films that extol some occult and pagan ideas/practices. Jesus walked on water to show that he has power over creation. Walking on water by Elsa and the character in “The Craft” is a supposed occult power and demeans what Jesus did and who he is.
Elsa is plunged under the waters, however, and must fight against ghostly horses (representing the water element) and other forces that seem to be against her. She manages to tame one of the horses and rides toward the voice that is calling her. She sings a song saying, “show yourself, I am ready to learn,” apparently addressing the voice. She sees a vision of her mother singing to her and Elsa sings, “I am found, show yourself, step into your power.” The song is very dramatic, and Elsa is shown as strong and unafraid.
The “Show Yourself” song and scene is what I would call a type of occult initiation for Elsa. Hearing something that summons you in the New Age or the occult is representative of feeling a pull toward someone, a certain teaching or practice, or place. I had this for years as I delved into the New Age and was feeling a pull to astrology. I felt that I was called to that. I know this is true of others in the New Age, Witchcraft, or other related areas.
When Elsa, who at first resisted the voice, now has followed it, and finally demands to discover it, it confirms she has embraced this calling and destiny. This is a very subjective way of making decisions but almost every belief in the occult and New Age is subjective. This is one reason it is a dangerous area, because feelings are stirred up and one is led by that. Things often happen that seem to confirm whatever path one may decide to follow. I think this is depicted quite accurately by Elsa in this movie.
Elsa is given visions of the past. She sees her grandfather as he tells someone that the Northuldra cannot be trusted because they are “people of magic” and magic makes them “feel entitled.” Elsa angrily says to her (dead) grandfather, “that is not what it does, that’s just your fear.”
The message is that rejecting this magic (the supernatural of the occult) is based on fear. This is a common way to castigate those against the occult. I get comments all the time on some of my posts asking me why I am afraid. Just because I warn about something does not mean I am afraid. I am warning about it because of what God says and because it is dangerous and leads away from Christ. Many of the things I warn about I once did myself, so I am hardly afraid of them.
Elsa sees (from the past) a Northuldran tell her grandfather that the dam is hurting the forest; then she sees her grandfather cold-bloodedly kill this Northuldra person (actual killing is not shown but we see him raise his sword over the Northuldra man who is on his knees). The grandfather had built the dam to make the Northuldra dependent on him.
The grandfather is shown as a villain who betrayed the Northuldra, those with magic, so his rejection of magic is characterized as wrong. One paints opponents of magic as bad people to get across the point that those who do magic are good and opposing it is bad. This is exactly the opposite of what God says about occult practices.
“When you enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, a soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is going to drive them out before you. You are to be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.” Deuteronomy 18:9-14
I think this scene about the grandfather killing someone is too disturbing for young children who may have a deep fondness for their grandparents. In fact, I do not think there should ever be a murder component in children’s movies.
Anna realizes that the dam must be broken to make everything right. This will flood Arendelle. Anna manages to get the giants (who look like rocks and represent the Earth element) to throw boulders at the dam, destroying it. The dam’s waters then rush toward Arendelle. However, Elsa, who has been going though some dramatic physical changes and seems to turn into ice and then shatter (it was hard to tell what was going on), appears on a horse and freezes the dam just before it hits Arendelle, saving it from a flood. The waters recede. The Enchanted Forest is now free and the Northuldra, the animals, and people of Arandelle are now at peace. Elsa finds Anna and tells her that “the spirits all agree” that what Anna did in getting the dam destroyed was right.
How the dam was harmful to the forest, I am not sure as that is never explained. But the “magic” was suppressed, and everyone was unhappy. Using magic to help nature makes everything right as rain according to the “spirits” who are seen as good in this film. The
messages in this are:
Man bad, nature good.
Man bad, spirits good.
Man bad; magic good.
Anna then realizes that Elsa is the “fifth spirit.”
The “fifth spirit” idea is very key. In modern Witchcraft and Wicca, there are 4 elements: air, earth, water, and fire, as explained earlier. There is a fifth spirit, usually called the Goddess or just Spirit. This is portrayed in the pentagram whose 4 points represent the 4 elements, with the top point being Goddess or Spirit. This is what Elsa discovers she is, the fifth element. It seems clear that the 4 elements in the film with Elsa being the fifth spirit match the pentagram’s symbology. It seems some Wiccans reviewing the movie have noticed this as well.
Summary of the pagan/occult messages:
1. One should follow any “inner” voice or leading, even if at first it is disconcerting or scary.
2. Water has memory.
3. Occult magic is good.
4. You can communicate with nature and nature can communicate with you through spirits and mystical messages.
5. People who live close to nature are “wise” (this is a popular romantic notion among Neo-pagans and New Agers, and even among some Christians).
6. Nature is sacred.
7. The film, aside from being rather dark, extols nature, spirits, and occult magic.
The clear messages of this film are dangerous because occult concepts and experiences are presented in dramatic, enticing, and glamorous manner.
Note of interest:
The mother of Elsa and Anna is Queen Iduna, apparently the name of a Norse goddess:
“Idun, also spelled Idunn, or Iduna, in Norse mythology, the goddess of spring or rejuvenation and the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry. She was the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, which the gods must eat to preserve their youth.” – From Britannica site at http://bit.ly/2s85ksM
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