Last Sunday, on a rainy, stormy day, I felt drawn to watch Doctor Strange again. The weather outside felt symbolic: thunder, rain, wind, as if the universe was setting the scene for an awakening.
I had just started reading The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black, a book that dives deep into the ancient understanding of mind over matter versus the modern belief in matter over mind. And somehow, this movie: mystical, cinematic, and deeply symbolic, resonated with every word I had just read.
It reminded me of all the knowledge that lives deep within the soul. That we are not powerless beings wandering through chance: we are creators, powerful beyond measure.
The Beauty of the Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe has always fascinated me, not only for its dazzling visuals or complex characters, but for the deeper truths hidden beneath the action.
Every hero’s journey in Marvel is, at its core, a spiritual awakening.
Whether it’s Black Panther connecting to his ancestral realm, Wanda Maxim off learning to face the chaos within, or Doctor Strange surrendering to the unknown, these stories speak to something timeless: the remembrance of the supernatural self.
Marvel’s heroes are modern mystics in disguise. They remind us that our real power begins when we awaken to the unseen world inside us, when we stop chasing control and start remembering who we are.
A Short Reflection on the Movie
Doctor Strange follows Stephen Strange, a world-famous neurosurgeon whose hands, his instruments of power and identity, are shattered in an accident. In his search for healing, he travels to Kamar-Taj, where he meets the Ancient One and discovers that reality is far greater than science ever dared to imagine.
What begins as a story of physical recovery becomes a spiritual initiation.
Strange learns that the true power to heal lies not in the body, but in the mind.
And that the mind itself is only a doorway, a portal to infinite dimensions.
Mind Over Matter: The Hidden Architecture of Reality
In the book The Secret History of the World, Jonathan Black explains that the ancients saw the world as a living mind, an infinite intelligence shaping reality through thought.
Doctor Strange visualizes that philosophy in motion. The world bends, mirrors collapse into infinity, cities fold upon themselves, as if consciousness itself is breathing through the architecture of matter.
It’s a reminder that reality is not fixed; it’s fluid.
We don’t live in the universe, the universe lives through us.
When the Ancient One says, “It’s not about your hands, it’s about your mind,” she offers a sacred key: power does not come from effort, but awareness. What we focus on expands. What we believe in materializes.
The Astral Journey: Leaving the Body to Find the Self
One of the most striking moments is when the Ancient One pushes Strange’s astral body out of his physical form. Suddenly, he’s floating outside himself, witnessing his own existence from another realm.
This isn’t just a special effect, it’s initiation. It’s the moment the soul remembers it was never confined to flesh.
Astral projection, in this film, becomes a metaphor for awakening: the moment consciousness realizes it can travel beyond the boundaries of time and matter.
When we dream, meditate, or have out-of-body experiences, we step into the same mystery, the realm where spirit moves freely, where past and future blur, and where our truest self is infinite.
The Power of Belief and the Alchemy of Surrender
Strange begins his journey by trying to control the mystical arts, approaching magic as he once did surgery, with precision, ego, and logic.
But control becomes his prison. Only when he surrenders, when he stops fighting the current of life, does he finally access his true power.
Magic, in Doctor Strange, is not manipulation, it’s co-creation. It flows through belief, trust, and surrender.
When the mind stops resisting, energy flows freely.
That’s when the impossible becomes natural.
Ego vs. Higher Purpose
Kaecilius, the film’s antagonist, mirrors Strange’s own shadow, both are seekers of power, but one is consumed by it while the other learns to release it. Kaecilius wants to escape time; Strange learns to dance with it. In the final battle, Strange doesn’t win through strength but through awareness. By looping Dormammu in an infinite cycle, he shows that true mastery is not domination, it’s transcendence.
It’s a lesson that power without purpose becomes poison.
The Multiverse Within
When Strange finally surrenders, reality becomes fluid. He learns to move between timelines, bend matter, and open portals.
But the real transformation happens inside: he stops trying to use power and begins to embody it. He becomes a vessel through which the universe expresses itself, a living reminder that when you stop resisting life, life begins to move through you.
This is the essence of spiritual awakening: to realize that we are not the doer, but the flow itself.
Remembering Who We Are
As the storm quieted outside my window and the credits rolled, I felt still, yet expanded. Doctor Strange reminded me that we don’t watch movies like this to escape reality; we watch them to remember it.
To remember that we are not small beings living inside a vast universe, we are the vastness itself, dreaming of being human.
When we stop trying to control time, we start flowing with eternity.
When we stop fearing the unknown, we meet the divine within it. And when we stop searching for power, we remember that we’ve always been the source.
Maybe that’s the real magic of the Marvel Universe.
It doesn’t just show us superheroes, it shows us ourselves. The part of us that can bend reality, transcend ego, and return home to the truth:
we are infinite, multidimensional, and powerful beyond measure.
Love, Mara
