One of my favorite fantasy movies of all time is The Dark Crystal. This groundbreaking film comes from the mind of Jim Henson. It is directed by his longtime collaborator Frank Oz (known to Star Wars fans as the voice of Yoda).
Unlike many fans of this cult classic, I did not watch The Dark Crystal growing up. In fact, I only first experienced this mesmerizing fantasy adventure for the first time a few years ago.
But I instantly fell in love with the movie’s rich worldbuilding, spellbinding puppetry, and classic fairytale storytelling.
Among of the most striking and memorable elements of The Dark Crystal are its disgusting villains, the Skeksis.
On the world of Thra, an ethereal race known as the UrSkeks meddled with the primordial Crystal of Truth. Their experiments caused the Crystal to crack and the UrSkeks themselves were split into two distinct races. They are the gentle, spiritual Mystics and the cruel, tyrannical Skeksis.
The Skeksis are an effective and compelling visual metaphor for sin and its consequences. They are creatures created by the internal metaphysical schism within the UrSkeks.
Sin causes similar internal division and strife within human nature that darkens our intellects and weakens our wills. As St. Paul writes that “what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.” (Galatians 5:17)
Not only are the Skeksis divided in body and spirit from their Mystic counterparts, they are constantly at strife among themselves. They squabble relentlessly for power and influence in their bizarre hierarchy.
What sin does to souls on the inside is what the Skeksis are on the outside. Their evil ways are wretched, slimy, and unsettling. There is nothing glamorous about them.
The cracking of the Crystal, which created the Skeksis and the Mystics also somehow made the entire world of Thra off-kilter.
The once green and lush realm became a barren desert, except in a few sheltered places where life still thrived. This resembles the classical theological understanding of how Original Sin, in some mysterious fashion, affected the entire cosmos.
Humanity’s relationship with the natural world became disordered when our First Parents chose to assert their own wills contrary to the will of God.
Even when you and I make sinful choices, these decisions don’t just affect our own spiritual states. The effects of personal sin ripple out into the world we live in. This causes all of our relationships with family, friends, and community to suffer.
Remember, that as Christians, we believe that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. When one member of this body is spiritually ill, the entire body feels the effects in one way or another.
Also, like the world of Thra, the planet earth has suffered great damage because we human beings have not stewarded the natural world as God commanded.
As Pope Francis warned in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, the small evils you do can have long lasting and wide ranging effects.
There is a kind of dualism to the Mystics/Skeksis, but not so much a dualism between pure good and pure evil. It’s more akin to a contrast between two disordered extremes. Yes, the Skeksis are prideful and vain and gluttonous. But they are also strong and purposeful and know how to lead.
The Mystics are humble and ascetic and cooperative, but they are slothful and they don’t do anything really to stop the Skeksis or help heal the world.
Both the Skeksis and the Mystics live in a barren desert. Their work bears no fruit. The Mystics are flawed creatures just like the Skeksis. In the end, they are not the ones to save the world.
It is the courage and self-sacrifice of the heroic Gelflings Jen and Kira that heals the Crystal of Truth. The sundered Mystics and Skeksis merge back into their original UrSkeks form.
The fact that the magical talisman is called the Crystal of Truth is, I believe, very significant. When the Crystal is healed, the UrSkeks become conformed to their true nature and no longer live a disordered, divided, and dualistic existence.
When the Crystal of Truth was damaged, everything was in disorder. Now that the rift has been healed, the world of Thra itself is rejuvenated into a beautiful, Eden-like state.
Myths and fairytales often reflect the Great Story of salvation that God is creating. The story of the Skeksis and the Mystics reminds us in a powerful way of the destructive influence of sin in our lives, in our communities, and in our world.
It also shows how sin can be overcome and God’s Kingdom established through humility, self-sacrifice, and reconciliation.
The Dark Crystal is, in my humble opinion, a triumph of the imagination that can stand beside the other great modern myths, such as The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Star Wars.
Thomas J. Salerno
Thomas Salerno is a Catholic author, freelance writer, and podcaster born and raised on Long Island, New York. Among his many passions are dinosaurs, Tolkien's Middle-earth, Star Wars, and superheroes. His writing has been featured in numerous publications including Word on Fire, Aleteia, Amendo, Busted Halo, Catholic World Report, Empty Tomb Project, and Missio Dei. Thomas is the creator and host of the Perilous Realms Podcast and is a contributor to the StarQuest Production Network (SQPN), where he serves as co-host on the Secrets of Movies and TV Shows and the Secrets of Middle-Earth podcasts. Thomas has a bachelor of arts in anthropology from Stony Brook University. You can follow his work on his Substack newsletter thomasjsalerno.substack.com or @Salerno_Thomas on Twitter.