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human
[MCU] When Mordo takes Jonathan’s magic back, what is actually happening there?

Jonathan gets an injury and seeks out the Ancient One.  She teaches him how to use magic and he learns how to heal himself and regain the use of his legs.


Mordo comes along and “takes his magic back” and now Jonathan is back to being crippled again. 


Ok.. I get all of that; but why doesn’t Jonathan just redo the spells that gave him ability to walk again?  He learned them once... he obviously was skilled enough to pull off the difficult incantations... shouldn’t this just be a matter of mediation and hand motions again?

Throughout all of Doctor Strange’s training montage, it shows him reading all these spell books and hand motions and growing in knowledge... I think he even comments on how he has eidetic memory.  

Was Mordo taking Jonathan’s knowledge of the magic or is magic something completely different? Like crippling a Jedi by stealing his midichlorians?
gpt
In essence, Pangborn was using his magic as an extremely sophisticated crutch; he did not cast a spell that permanently changed his body, he was actively using magic to keep his body running at his pre-crippling level. This is the reason he essentially dropped out of Kamar-Taj, since he was tying up his power and abilities in mending his physical form instead of probing the supernatural deeper, and with the prime driver for his magical journey fulfilled didn't feel a pressing need to keep pushing the envelope of his potential. 

He has the knowledge and the skills, but Mordo's attack severed Pangborn's connection to the power that fueled the sort of magic taught at Kamar-Taj. He no longer has the energy to do the magical workings that kept his body mended and functional. If he got that energy back, he could reapply what the Ancient One taught him and stand up, but the suggestion is that getting that power back is not a natural or automatic process.