HARRY POTTER AND THE ROSICRUCIAN STREAM

To begin the present article we will seek to place Rosicrucianism in a proper context to historical Christianity (and to the evolution of consciousness in general) before we attempt to show the extent to which Rosicrucianism figures into the Potter series primarily through an examination of the similarities between it and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz —one of the original manifestos of the Rosicrucians. To accomplish this we will be focusing mainly on similar outer characteristics such as story line, plot and setting while also providing some insights into their esoteric underpinnings. This is intended to provide a foundation for a subsequent article (PART IV, Harry Potter and the Rosicrucian Stream No. 2), in which we will attempt to show how the Rosicrucian spirit suffuses the books as well as the character of Harry Potter and his two closest companions Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who together, as mentioned earlier in this series, might well represent the members of the tri-partite human soul: thinking, feeling and willing.

ROSICRUCIANISM: A LESS KNOWN BRANCH OF CHRISTENDOM

Before we begin to show how the Rosicrucian stream may be found in the Harry Potter books, we must examine substantially, but as briefly as we can, the position of this often misunderstood wisdom stream with regard to the evolution of the Christ impulse in human development.

According to spiritual science, the Mystery of Golgotha (the sum of events surrounding Jesus Christ at the beginning of our era culminating on the hill named Golgotha), was the central and most significant event of world spiritual development, and every branch of Christianity, especially including some of those often considered unorthodox or heretical by the reigning church establishments, one of which is Rosicrucianism[1], plays an important role in the process of unfolding the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. Where a true or complete understanding of the Christ Mystery has come short in every branch of Christendom, notably the Catholic and Protestant churches and the plethora of denominational splinter groups spawned by them, we sin against the spirit not to acknowledge other valuable contributions that have sprung up directly under the influence of the events of Palestine. Although these branches of Christendom may not have gained wide acceptance they nevertheless have invaluable contributions to a greater understanding of the Christ event leading to a much needed redefinition of Christianity itself.

Spiritual science acknowledges that the well-known streams of Christianity have the crucial role of propagating the outer formal aspects of the Christian message largely by means of the institution of the sacraments of communion, baptism, marriage, etc. While these popular Christian confessions have succeeded in reaching humanity with the sacraments, which provide entrance into the mysteries of Christianity—they have not, as yet, been able to lead believers into a deeper experience, as individuals, to empower them to transform the culture around them. While no one would dispute the fact that Christianity, as a religion, has made an enormous impact on the religious life of Western civilization and to a certain extent the East, inasmuch as it has spread throughout the world, Christianity has failed to effect culture on the whole remaining, by and large, of slight consequence, separated as it is from both the prevailing secular scientific community and also from the larger culture represented in the arts and social sciences. We should note here that Christian art only played a significant role in the culture of the Western world[2] during a time when exoteric Christianity (Roman Catholicism) was more a sovereign political force than a spiritual one.

THE ROSICRUCIAN IMPERATIVE: REFORMATION OF CULTURE

In the view of modern spiritual science, the little known esoteric stream of Rosicrucianism has played a crucial role in providing an impetus not only to bring healing to the world through the message of Christ, as the popular churches seek to do, but also to transform culture through the Christ impulse. To point up the centrality of this goal of Rosicrucianism we can take note of the descriptive sub-title of the first of the three manifestos of the brotherhood of the Rose Cross: The Fama Fraternitatis RC,, published in 1614, sub-titled: “Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World...” which clearly states from the outset the aim of Rosicrucianism: to be not only a religious or spiritual reformation but a general reformation of culture[3].

While we can acknowledge that the goal of Rosicrucianism was to reform outer culture according to Christian principles, the heart of Rosicrucianism, its inner purpose should also be seen as clearly Christian as well, with its central three-pronged dictum made public in the Fama Fraternitatas[4] : Ex Deo Nascimur, In Jesu Morimur, Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus, which translates: Out from God We Are Born, In Jesus We Die, Through the Holy Spirit we are Reborn—invoking redemption through the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Together with these words of Christian Rosenkreutz was also written: “Jesus mihi omnia: Jesus is all to me,” an inscription found around the perimeter of the seven-sided tomb CR created for himself.

The publication of the three manifestos of the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross created a furor of interest in Europe at the time of their publication[5], a sort of “Rosicrucian Enlightenment[6],” which took place during a time of moral decline like our own, one that raised the consciousness of Europeans to the power of the individual to address the state of human culture from a Christian, spiritual perspective in brotherhood or fraternity, as a social force—apart from Papal sanction and domination.

Among the many achievements of early Rosicrucians one can trace the development of modern scientific knowledge from the original pure alchemy (called proto-chemistry by modern science), which must be understood as distinct from the corrupt, popular alchemy that overshadowed early Rosicrucian alchemy and has been a target of so much criticism. One can also trace ideas set in motion by Rosicrucianism to the motto of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. With these catchwords the masses rose up against subjugation to the decadent ruling elite of the time. While Rosicrucian ideas fueled these historical transformations the violent ways they were achieved were by no means sanctioned by the Rosicrucian Fraternity itself. But those ideas contributed significantly to Reformation thought in general, helping to break the shackles of Roman Catholic domination from the minds of individual believers to freely discover the truths of religion and of life. As far as the Reformation is concerned it was not the intention of Rosicrucians to create numberless “protestant” denominations in the name of Christ but to direct individuals to the truth and knowledge that is only attainable through direct experience of the divine that may be achieved through hard work, study and above all—devotion to Christ.

An historical fact often overlooked today is that Rosicrucian ideas circulating at the time were far from inconsequential in molding culture. Prominent mathematicians, astronomers, natural philosophers and professors in 15th-16th century Europe gathered as an “Invisible College” of thinkers—an idea promoted in Rosicrucian writings. Such thinkers inspired by Rosicrucian ideas included luminaries such as Johannes Kepler, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Galileo, Elias Ashmole, Thomas Henshaw, Sir Robert Paston and Blaise Pascal. Isaac Newton became one of the presidents of London’s Royal Society in 1703, a fellowship that was founded in 1660: “a learned society for science,” which is still in existence today. These many scientists who were inspired by Rosicrucian/alchemical ideas joined with other scientists to create the Royal Society, seeking to develop knowledge that can be acquired by experimental investigation.

While one can easily value the achievements noted above from a modern perspective, a more important aspect of the Rosicrucian view remains largely hidden—a deeply moral approach to knowledge in general and to science in particular—a perspective that will need to be resurrected in our time to negotiate the challenges of a secular worldview and an amoral modern technology that is increasingly endangering humanity and indeed life on Earth.

ROSICRUCIANISM REBORN IN ROMANTICISM

One of the most powerful moral developments that later sprung from Rosicrucianism took the form of Romanticism, which arose during the late 16th century as a response to the dark underside of the Age of Reason or “enlightenment.” In many ways the Enlightenment, as it is called, was a further development of the Protestant reformation, which was a movement away from the central authority of the church in the sphere of religion, and away from the current aristocratic and monarchic forms of government in the political sphere. This latter, with its own hierarchical structure, was comprised of a social elite in the tradition of the “divine right of kings.” Both of these were decadent forms of what may be called the “ancient priestly wisdom,” authoritative schemes that don’t allow for growth of moral individuality, which Rudolf Steiner refers to as the counterforce working against the stream of human evolution that must lead humanity into the consciousness soul age—to true freedom in love.

The movement of Romanticism arose in response to the amoral, materialistic, anti-spiritual bent that arose in the guise of “Enlightenment” wisdom. The Romantics championed a point of view that rejected the growing inhumane elitism with its anti-nature inclination, which was the shadow side of the Enlightenment. Christopher Bamford, a recognized authority on Western esotericism, in his introduction to The Secret Stream: Christian Rosenkreutz and Rosicrucianism, says this about Romanticism:/p>

Romanticism is all too often considered merely as a literary or artistic movement. It was certainly that; but it was also much more. Romanticism, that is, the production of literary works by masters such as Herder, Lessing, Goethe, Novalis, Hegel, and Schelling, in fact brought the Rosicrucian impulse to a new social, scientific, and cultural level. It was like a second Renaissance, raised to another degree, at once more idealistic and more realistic. Science, art, poetry, medicine, law, religion, philosophy—all seemed poised to embody a new lived synthesis [...] Romanticism, however was not just a German phenomenon. In England, there were Blake, Keats, and Coleridge, all profound students and transformers of the Hermetic tradition; in America, Thoreau, Emerson, and Melville[7]; in France Nerval, Hugo, even parts of Balzac and Baudelaire; in Russia, Pushkin; in Poland, Mickiewicz; and so forth[8]. (italic emphasis mine)

While we can trace the influence of early Rosicrucian thought through Romanticism to illuminated life-sustaining undercurrents in today’s world, we see only feeble lights in the proliferation of so-called Rosicrucian groups claiming a connection to the early Rosicrucians, who, by and large, have lost sight of the original purpose of the Fama Fraternitatis—to inspire a “General Reformation of the Whole Wide World.” These groups have largely turned their attention inward searching for personal salvation and all of its egoistic comforts and worldly benefits, a tendency we can observe also pervading popular Christendom today.

Seeking the “General Reformation” spoken of by the Fama Fraternitatis is not, as some modern conspiracy theorists suggest, to establish a political “New World Order” in our time. Seeking the General Reformation of the Fama is the aspiration of those who are in quest of the community of “Philadelphia,” the loving community spoken of by St. John in his Revelations in the New Testament. This community will arise with the development of a new science of spirit and an extended culture formed on the basis of an understanding that the world that natural science examines, has its origin and ultimate illumination in the spiritual world—that spiritual life is not earth-denying or life-denying but is the alpha and omega of a vibrant and healthy human culture. True Rosicrucianism does not and never has had the slightest interest in gaining power over people through coercive or deceptive means. In fact, just as it stood in opposition to Papal authority and was persecuted by the Papacy[9], it has nothing to do with the sort of worldly authority of such secret lodges as seek world domination. In fact, those lodges are its arch enemies[10]. On the contrary, the task of modern spiritual science in its various guises, as a modern manifestation of the stream of Rosicrucianism, is to provide the means by which the optimistic goal of spiritual and cultural reformation may be reached, via a connection to Christ afforded under the aegis of the guiding spirit of the founding father of the movement, Christian Rosenkreutz.

MODERN FORMS OF ROSICRUCIANISM

The stream of Rosicrucianism will eventually achieve its goal through a penetration and spiritualization (Christianization) of the three realms that constitute civilization: science, art and religion. This stream, under various guises, will continue to work for centuries to come, until it permeates and transforms culture. One such guise is the Anthroposophical Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner, which, when practiced properly, achieves a unity between science, art and spirituality and therefore contains the seed of the Christianized, transformed culture of the future. Owen Barfield, the renowned British philosopher, author[11] and poet, one of the famed Inklings[12], devoted an entire volume to delineate the connection between Romanticism and Anthroposophy (and therefore Rosicrucianism as shown above) in his book: Romanticism Comes of Age[13]. In Anthroposophy a beginning of this future synthesis of science, art and spirituality can be seen in the many initiatives in existence that have been founded in the knowledge of Anthroposophical Spiritual Science and based on Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy of freedom: the Waldorf school movement, Anthroposophical medicine and clinics, the biodynamic farming movement, Camphill communities for those with special needs, the art of Eurythmy, therapeutic Eurythmy, the Christian Community movement for religious renewal, new Threefold economic and social models, new Anthroposophical impulses in speech, in theater, in fine art, and in architecture.

We would be remiss not to mention the fact that the spiritual scientific impulse, as a metamorphosis of Rosicrucianism, is also alive in the world today in various fields not generally recognized as Rosicrucian or Anthroposophical. Although fragmented in expression and therefore somewhat hidden, many such grassroots initiatives exist within modern culture, notably: alternative medicine with its countless developing, highly effective life-body (etheric) based therapies; philosophical interpretations of modern physics that lead to a reversal of the determinism that results from strict materialism; life-systems studies in biology; ecological science; sustainability in agriculture and other life sciences—more or less along the lines of R. Sheldrake’s Morphogenetic fields theory. Holistic and integral science studies such as those of Henri Bortoft[14] and future studies such as those of the World Future Studies Federation (WFSF)[15] are contributing to a spiritual scientific future, which must arise if humanity is to continue to evolve, indeed if it is going to continue at all. Some current trends in the arts and humanities and in literature and theater[16], are also indicative of a future where science and spirituality will sustain one another, in which religion and spirituality are not the only domains of the moral—where human culture can approach the dignity that the Christ impulse can give it.

While it is the special task of spiritual scientific inquiry to lead us toward a general reformation of culture, a significant contribution toward that goal comes from Joanne K. Rowling, writer of the seven book Harry Potter series, who has woven a deeply penetrating and highly moral tale worthy of the name Rosicrucian. Let us continue to see how.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR HARRY POTTER AND ROSICRUCIANISM

While Rowling originally did not reveal her sources of inspiration for the seven books for fear that by doing so she would prematurely reveal the unfolding plot of her final book, The Deathly Hallows, she eventually admitted what became obvious: that she used Christ as her model, being by faith a Christian, and that she was writing in the tradition of English (often Christian) fantasy literature rich with Christian symbolism using alchemy, for instance, to convey spiritual realities. In our two previous articles we have examined echoes of the Christian path of initiation in the life of Harry Potter, understanding that the life of Christ is the archetype of all paths of initiation, that is to say all paths that lead a seeker to a direct knowledge of God and the spiritual world. We supplement this understanding with the knowledge, extensively demonstrated by Rudolf Steiner’s historical and spiritual research, that mystery schools since antiquity looked forward to the Christ event as a fulfillment of the goals of their own spiritually striving communities. They looked forward prophetically, recognizing the downward trend of spiritual guidance, and the need for a redeemer, to the event of Christ’s coming redemption with his incarnation on earth in the unique human being, Jesus of Nazareth. Rosicrucianism is a modern form of these ancient mystery streams that embraces Christ as the redeemer and seeks to deepen and widen the Christ experience of seeking individuals through a further understanding of the events in Palestine at the beginning of our era.

That Christian Rosenkreutz, the founder of the brotherhood of the Rose Cross, was inspired by the Christ story is hardly necessary to mention. The Chymical Wedding[17] of Christian Rosenkreutz, which resembles the more popular classic Christian allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress (1677) by John Bunyan, whose protagonist is also named Christian, in fact predates the publishing of Pilgrim’s Progress by about 70 years, and likely inspired its writing. As might be expected, not only are the protagonists of both stories named Christian, the aim and intentions of the authors of both stories are not dissimilar. The intention of John Bunyan’s work is evident in its complete title: The Pilgrims Progress from this World, to That Which is to Come, which bears a strong resemblance to the intention of Rosicrucians as made clear in their first published manifesto: The Fama Fraternitas RC, which was written to stimulate a: “Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World...” Both works sought to advance a future condition of civilization. Further evincing this ‘foretelling’ goal of Rosicrucians is an early poetic offering of Henry Adamson, from his ‘Muses’ Threnodie of 1638:

For what we do presage is not in grosse, For we are brethren of the Rosie Crosse; We have the Mason Word and second sight, Things for to come we can foretell aright.

HARRY POTTER AS A MODERN REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STREAM OF ROSICRUCIANISM

In the previous article in this series we have outlined a few correspondences between Christian Rosenkreutz, the founding father of Rosicrucianism, and Harry Potter, which we will briefly recall here with a slightly different emphasis. While we pointed out similarities between Harry Potter’s path of initiation and the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz as recorded in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in the context of that article’s title: Harry Potter and the Path of Initiation, our emphasis here will be on showing that the Harry Potter stories reflect the stream of Rosicrucianism in a modern light, and that The Chymical Wedding is a major source of inspiration for the stories.

Toward this end let us review the similar initiation experiences of Harry Potter and Christian Rosenkreutz discussed previously, which recount pivotal spiritual encounters that seal the characters of both and connect them to the spiritual source of their consistent moral strength and heroic deeds. In addition to this we will present a number of striking examples of correspondences between the story line, plot and settings of the Chymical Wedding and the Harry Potter books to dispel any doubts as to the validity of our comparison.

HARRY POTTER’S SCAR AND THE WOUND ON THE HEAD OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ

As the reader will recall in the last article we compared the scar on Harry’s forehead to the wound Christian Rosenkreutz (CR) received on his head while he was being saved from his imprisonment “fettered in chains” in a “dark dungeon,” in which he found himself along with the rest of “fallen humanity,” in the dream that is narrated in Chapter one of the Chymical Wedding. As the Harry Potter story unfolds we soon discover that he and Christian Rosenkreutz both met circumstances in the beginning of their stories that marked them for life: confrontations with evil, which correspond to what spiritual science calls “the objectification of evil in the lower nature.”

From an esoteric perspective this refers to the meeting with the so-called “lesser guardian of the threshold” of the spiritual world, a meeting that is required of every student who aspires to a direct perception of the spiritual world. While Harry Potter’s initial encounter with Voldemort, in which he escapes Voldemort’s wrath, occurred on the physical plane (an encounter that usually occurs on the astral plane), nevertheless, this indicates his meeting with the lesser guardian of the threshold, to which it corresponds in essential ways[18]. Every spiritual seeker can expect a meeting with this guardian when their spiritual search becomes intense enough to call it forth[19]. This crucial meeting for seekers[20] like Harry Potter leaves a mark, what might be called a “wound” that is a reminder to the initiate of his inborn complicity with evil, and which he is subsequently able to observe in himself and others and is therefore able to overcome. The lightning scar on Harry’s forehead, like the head wound of Christian Rosenkreutz, is an outward symbol of this inner soul wound.

To be more explicit concerning the corresponding situation in the case of Christian Rosenkreutz (CR), while being pulled up by a rope out of an under-ground dungeon through a hole, he is wounded on his head by a sharp stone embedded in the earth at the edge of the hole. This scenario depicts a soul’s captivity and escape from underworldly forces, in which the stone (symbolic of the earthly or lower nature) inflicted a head wound. Reading the esoteric script reveals that this indicates a meeting with the Guardian at the threshold, where the hole in the earth is the threshold between the lower and upper worlds—the worlds of darkness and light, a fallen world and a world of spiritual light and resurrection.

In popular Christian parlance the lower (earthbound) nature is called the sinful nature. Regarding this sinful nature, without the personal acknowledgement of our human propensity towards our earthbound nature, human beings are subject to evil without knowing it and are inclined to deny its existence both in themselves and in the world at large. A confrontation with the lesser guardian of the threshold, a creation of the soul’s own lower nature, marks the initiate with an indelible knowledge of his or her inborn complicity with evil and instills humility within him or her. The meeting with this guardian of the threshold may occur with or without the awareness of the presence of Christ, but is part of a process of human spiritual development that occurs with the help of Christ’s presence in the etheric sphere of the earth. If the aspiring initiate meets this lesser guardian of the threshold in the right way it will eventually, if not immediately, lead to a direct and conscious experience of Christ who is referred to by Rudolf Steiner as “the greater guardian of the threshold,” and who then commissions the soul, in a similar but unique manner to that of St. Paul saying: “Rise and stand...I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.”

THE “CALL” OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ

If we further examine the circumstances in which Harry Potter escaped Voldemort’s death curse we will find that those circumstances correspond to conditions Rudolf Steiner referred in connection with the “beckoning call of Christian Rosenkreutz[21].” Steiner reveals that CR calls individuals to be his students in a very specific hidden manner, of which only the person receiving the call is aware. When an individual is saved from a certain death by a warning voice from the spiritual world before one inadvertently steps off a cliff, for instance, this is an indication of a call from CR[22]. In his previous incarnations, in which he was more than once martyred for Christ, and one in which he was Lazarus[23] who was called forth from death by Christ, CR gained the ability, through his fully conscious encounters with death accompanied by Christ, to accompany those who have near-death experiences. While many other similar circumstances than the one mentioned may indicate this call, the salient point is that the individual who has a similar experience is left with the indelible impression: “Were it not for the intervention of the divine spiritual world, I would not be alive.” Born within the soul of such a person, if he or she is attentive to the call, grows a feeling of overwhelming gratitude towards the world of spirit for their very life, a feeling which thereafter draws the soul into a relationship with the benevolent beings that guide his or her soul from higher worlds[24]. This gratitude must not be considered as merited but as altogether a matter of grace—such that henceforth one feels compelled to make oneself worthy of such grace by freely committing oneself thereafter to spiritual deeds of compassion and mercy towards others.

In Harry’s case, he narrowly escaped death by virtue of an unknown invisible force that protected him from the curse of the most powerful evil wizard Voldemort. Living with the knowledge of such an experience would certainly have produced in Harry the same gratitude that is the essential product of what Rudolf Steiner described as “the call of Christian Rosenkreutz”—it acted upon him like a call from the magical world to be a servant of the benevolent forces that saved him. Despite the fact that Harry was often elevated by others—considered to be “the chosen one”—he always knew that he was not special[25] or worthy, and humbly devoted his life to protecting others from Voldemort’s wrath, perfectly exhibiting the humility expected of those called to serve Christ by Christian Rosenkreutz.

We have here attempted to give a glimpse into the spiritual underpinnings of the lives of both Harry Potter and Christian Rosenkreutz by comparing and contemplating the above facets of the two stories, in which, through confrontations with evil, both received a power over their lower nature and were gifted with the capacity to recognize and to protect others from evil. Let us now move on from these reflections on the First Day of The Chymical Wedding to a further examination of the text as it corresponds to the Harry Potter stories.

DEPTH OF INSIGHT IN CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ AND HARRY POTTER

On the Second Day of the allegorical initiation tale, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, when CR finally reached the portal in the Castle, just beyond which the wedding was to take place, he was able to observe the discussion and activities of the “great multitude of guests,” who rushed en masse with him to assemble in the great hall. That CR had acquired “new sight” from a “higher world” can be recognized by observing his depth of insight into the character of the others attending The Chymical Wedding, a quality of insight that clearly revealed to him the untrue seekers (self-proclaimed Christians or “intruders”) who had contrived out of conceit to be invited to the wedding along with him. Of the crowd around him, he remarked significantly: “There were not a few pretenders.... Many a one (in my opinion) had good understanding, but assumed too much of himself, to his own destruction.”

The same quality of insight, as the spiritually awakened Christian Rosenkreutz, is evident in Harry Potter in an equivalent setting—while Harry was on his way to Hogwarts Castle. On the Hogwarts Express train, Draco Malfoy introduced himself to Harry with a warning against befriending someone like Ron Weasley, with whom Harry had already become acquainted. Draco exclaims: “You’ll find some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there,” as he thrusts his hand out to shake Harry’s hand. But Harry refuses to take his hand, saying coolly: “I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks.” Here we see that Harry instantly recognizes the “untrue seeker” in Draco Malfoy.

MORE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN HARRY POTTER AND THE CHYMICAL WEDDING

Before we continue to the next section of this exploration I would like to acknowledge that the connection between the Harry Potter stories and the Chymical Wedding has not gone unnoticed by numerous others. One example is Harry Potter expert, Hans Andrea (author of the forthcoming book: The Alchemy of J.K. Rowling in light of the Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross), who makes an astonishing assertion: “the main structure, the foundation story, comes straight from The Chymical Wedding[26].” We will now proceed to examine how this statement might be true and confirm our argument that the Harry Potter stories are a reflection of the Rosicrucian stream in a modern form by illustrating a few of the most striking similarities between the two stories[27].

While the Chymical Wedding takes place in a castle over a period of seven days with chapters named “Day One, Day Two, Day Three...” and so forth, the Harry Potter story, which also takes place in a castle, happens over a period of seven years with a book for each year at Hogwarts School.

The Chymical Wedding opens with a tremendous wind blowing on Christian Rosenkreutz’ little house on the evening before Easter day, when: “…all of a sudden arose so horrible a tempest that I imagined no other but that through its mighty force, the hill on which my little house was founded would fly into pieces,” says Christian. And shortly thereafter, he was greeted by an enormous lady, an angelic messenger who “held in her left hand a bundle of letters...” one of which was for him; it was an invitation to a Royal Wedding. So begins the allegorical initiation story of CR.

In the Harry Potter story, Harry’s spiritual journey, we could say his initiation into the world of Witchcraft and Wizardry, after living a dull prosaic life with his aunt, uncle and cousin, the Dursleys—begins with a tremendous storm. In this case, it was the evening before Harry Potter’s eleventh birthday in what was called “a miserable little shack,” on a small island in the ocean, upon which “the storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on”....so that Harry, “hoped the roof wasn’t going to fall in…” Harry was greeted moments later by an enormous man, Rubeus Hagrid, a messenger who had magically flown to the small island from the magical world, and who was carrying—a letter for Harry, an invitation to go to Hogwart’s Castle, a letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

These similar scenarios in the two stories point allegorically to a spiritual event: a soul/spiritual “storm” that occurs in the astral world as one approaches a monumental spiritual experience such as that confronted by both Harry Potter and Christian Rosenkreutz, in which the storm itself is a device to depict an analogous but otherwise difficult to describe soul/spiritual phenomenon. The “enormous” messengers appeared so as to indicate a visitation from the spiritual world as well as to highlight the honor and gravity of their invitation. While the “letters” each are a summons from another world, in both cases this other spiritual world and its activities, as noted above, were housed in a Castle.

To reach the Castle of Hogwarts, Harry travelled, first by train, but then by boat across a lake with mermaids in it. Christian Rosenkreutz, to get to the Tower of Olympus, also crossed a sea with mermaids.

On the second day of the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, Christian discovered instructions that described four possible paths to the Wedding of the King and Queen. Initially perplexed as to which path he might take on his seven day journey, Christian ends up on the right path by rejecting evil (the black raven) and choosing instead to follow a beautiful white dove. In the Harry Potter story, Harry’s journey through seven years at Hogwarts would have to be in one of four houses and he chooses the right house by rejecting evil (Slytherin House) when being sorted into a house by the sorting hat.

Later on the Second Day of the Chymical Wedding: once Christian Rosenkreutz and his “companions” reached the “spacious hall” of the castle where the festivities were to begin, and when the great tumult of visitors had settled down, being arrested by the loud sound of trumpets, Christian Rosenkreutz observed: “... many thousand tapers [candles] came into the hall all of which themselves marched in so very exact an order as altogether amazed us...” This gathering was also attended by invisible waiters who served and kept order in the hall.

In both the Potter series and the Chymical Wedding there are paintings in the castle in which figures move.

With these observations we can begin to see something of the truth of Hans Andrea’s assertion that: “the main structure, the foundation story, comes straight from The Chymical Wedding.” To further support this thesis, we would be reminded of another perhaps obvious similarity: both The Chymical Wedding and Harry Potter stories are tales of initiation. We have shown, in part, in the previous article, Harry Potter and the Path of Initiation, how this is so. In both stories the protagonists progress through seven stages of initiation: seven days for Christian Rosenkreutz and seven years for Harry Potter. In the case of Christian Rosenkreutz, his seven days of trials led in the end to his being granted the high honor of bearing the cryptic title “Knight of the Golden Stone,” a reference to attaining the “Philosophers Stone,” which in part refers to attaining immortality. John Granger, known as “The Dean of Harry Potter Scholars, in his How Harry Potter Cast His Spell[28]has articulated seven stages or trials Harry encountered and overcame in each of the seven books to finally achieve the “prize,” as Saint Paul calls it, not the Philosopher’s Stone which Harry already possessed at the end of the first book in the series, but by demonstrating the ultimate Christian victory through sacrifice as spoken of by St. John: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.[29]”

With these observations I will leave my readers to contemplate the significance of the correspondences we have presented here between The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, one of the manifestos of the Rosicrucians, and the Harry Potter heptalogy. In the next article in this series we will turn our focus from the Harry Potter series’ outer similarities to Rosicrucianism to an evaluation of the Rosicrucian inner qualities written by J. K. Rowling into the characters of the protagonists in the Harry Potter series, in a further demonstration of the fact that the HP books are an expression of the important spiritual stream of Rosicrucianism in a modern form.

WHAT ABOUT HARRY POTTER:

IS HE OR WILL HE REMAIN SIGNIFICANT? A SPIRITUAL SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

PART III: HARRY POTTER AND THE ROSICRUCIAN STREAM

by Bill Trusiewicz