Magisterium Authority

Magisterium Authority, from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

The Magisterium serves as the supreme governing and religious authority in Lyra's world within Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It functions not merely as a church but as a totalizing state power that exerts strong control over society, mirroring the organization of the Catholic Church with its center of power relocated from Rome to Geneva by the fictional "Pope John Calvin." This body views Dust, mysterious elementary particles, as the basis of sin and seeks to prevent humanity's fall into original sin. The Magisterium drives much of the trilogy's conflict by funding secret projects to sever the bond between children and their daemons, a procedure known as intercision, believing this will halt the onset of troubling adult emotions.

Quick Facts

Geographic reach: Lyra's world (distinct from our universe/Will's Earth)

Lore & Background

In the cosmology of His Dark Materials, the Magisterium operates with terrifying efficiency across Lyra's world and into other universes. At Bolvangar, the Gobbler research station, kidnapped children undergo intercision, a procedure that severs the bond between human and dæmon. Mrs Coulter tells Lyra that intercision prevents the onset of troubling adult emotions. The Magisterium's reach extends beyond its own world; in The Subtle Knife, Lord Boreal, an alias of Sir Charles Latrom who is an ally of Mrs Coulter, establishes a home in Will's Oxford to aid their goals. In The Amber Spyglass, the Magisterium becomes determined to kill Lyra before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve, viewing her as the next Eve due to prophecy. Lord Asriel and the reformed Mrs Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent Metatron.

Reader's Guide

To understand the Magisterium in His Dark Materials is to recognize it as a theocratic government that conflates religious dogma with political terror. The Church exerts a strong control over society and has some of the appearance and organisation of the Catholic Church. The organization's primary mechanism of fear is the threat of intercision at Bolvangar, where children vanish to be cut from their daemons. Their goal is to destroy Dust, which they see as sin, while characters like Dr. Mary Malone discover that Dust is actually created by and nourishes life that has become self-aware.