Conciousness of the Etheric Body

"The funny thing is that Harry came into my head almost completely formed. I saw him very, very clearly... It was almost like the story was already there waiting for me to find it ..."
J.K Rowling on WBUR Radio 1999 1

Joanne Rowling is certainly not the first author to pen an edifying tale of popular renown, and is neither going to be the last, I’m sure. But I have come to believe, and much appreciate, that Harry Potter may be the fairest of them all. Harry Potter is a person I recognise, and his story, something very familiar to me. Harry and I are both seekers, on the path of wizards, ascending the narrow winding staircase to truth and enlightenment. The more I search his story, the more I find mine. I am not alone in this, obviously. I am one seeker among many befriended by Harry Potter, one seeker with something to tell about it.

To begin with I guess I should make clear that it is best to read this article in conjunction with others. I offer my account as I have it, in such it is built on the foundations of what has been written by others on this topic. Hence rather than being a stand alone basis for understanding in itself, it is an extension of the foundations. An experiential account only, which I am grateful to be able to share.

The second episode of the series of books, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is proven in its likeness to the equivalent step in various mythologies and doctrines of liberation of humanity, many times already. I feel I need not retell what others have made already astoundingly clear. Instead I begin with a full acceptance and faith that this book relates the story of the seeker who becomes aware of and connects with the ethereal body.

Satisfying this assumption is easy, because becoming aware of the ethereal body is SO MUCH like Harry and Dobby. The hard part is reserving the urge to believe either that Harry is a real entity or JK Rowling has, herself, experienced an awareness of the ethereal plane. I can assume neither, of course but I am awestruck at the serious lack of alternate explanations.

When we become aware of our ethereal body we become aware of a connecting force between the dense matter of your physical body and the dense matter of the physical universe. In short we begin to realise that our environment is not separate from ourselves but a linked extension of our own being. Quite literally, sometime after we have relieved ourself of an attachment to the physical plane, we sit reclined on the grass staring at the world wondering if it was all for nought, when suddenly we see Houself staring back at us. Yes I deliberately used House-elf as a homophone for "ourself" and so does JKR's/Harry's story.

It doesn't end there. Dobby is to Harry in so many other ways, exactly what the etheric realisation becomes to the seeker.

Letters from the mind and the personality: The etheric body reflects to us ourselves (House-elves). While it is hiding from us, so is hiding with it the communication we want with ourselves. Just like Harry's letters from Hermione and Ron, confirming that he did escape his physical prison, that he is a wizard. Dobby holds them in his clothes until Harry demands them from him. The communications in the etheric body come forth in the same way, in a bundle of past and present messages tucked in the clothing and revealed all at once. The seeker gets them when he calls them forth, but they come with

The etheric nature, time is not relevant to them and, as Ron says when he comes to rescue Harry in the Flying Ford Anglia, the seeker hasn't answered them, so some of them are quite filled with tones of urgency.

It wants us to DO something NOW: Dobby has an urgent demand of Harry, and he wants his answer immediately. This is a pretty good analogy of time being irrelevant to the immediacy and urgency of the momentary existence of the etheric body. It is a ‘oneness’ of all dense matter and it wants the seeker to respond and understand instantaneously as it does. This Ourself knows the beginning and the end all in one momentary instance and does not work on our dense principles of time and matters of tomorrow. Only now exists and now is when the seeker *must* decide. Dobby personifies this momentary, time-irrelevant, existence brilliantly.

It becomes a saboteur: The etheric awakening has a knack of creating chaos in the seekers life, and embarrassing it in front of muggles. Houself gives information from its time universal viewpoint, as I said before, and having only this perspective insists on the urgency of the moment. What the etheric body understands through its time omnipotent existence the seeker is denied by its time singularity. Confusion erupts. Houself wants its "one" answer, and the seeker takes his time asking for answer following answer. Houself instead repeats its urgent message eventually causing the seeker to react with it's dense body. This has no effect on the etheric body and is not appropriate in front of muggles. The only result therefore is that the muggles are forced to excuse themselves what they don't understand with shorthands like "disturbed" , "distant relative" and "I have *tried*". Jo/Harry's story uses these three very telling shorthands in Vernon Dursleys reaction to the smashed pudding. Has Jo been there herself? Has Harry been here?

It creates a blockade: As I just said above the etheric body and the dense body can communicate but actions by the dense physical body cannot reach the ethereal realm and affect the Etheric body. Harry and Dobby just had this experience with the pudding, and the result of that is what eventuates at platform 9 3/4. The new soul (personified by Harry) and the personality (personified by Ron) are temporarily stopped from continuing their seeker journey. The seeker is ‘aware’ of houself, which means the mind (Hermione) can carry on to Hogwarts, but the seeker is only able to *operate* in the physical realm at this point to continue, fittingly Harry and Ron engage in more inappropriate behaviour in front of muggles to get around the blockade. Hence the flying car.

Aside on Flying cars: "Flying Car is "Seeker Journey" in an esoteric language. I am not sure how many of you will be familiar with this term. I think its related to an astral symbolism because you can find the basis of it in Dream interpretation guides.

Speaking of languages, that is another *dead spot on* in Chamber of Secrets: Parseltongue.

As I wrote above the seeker and the etheric body can communicate. How they communicate is a fascinating parallel to Harry's experiences with Parseltongue. When we become aware of the ethereal plane it is because simultaneously we have become aware that we know its mysterious language. It is somewhat archetypal, but more profoundly it is deeply personal.

The problem with knowing "Parseltongue", is that it scares people and the seeker starts losing friends. This is exactly what happened to Harry in COS . First he hears Parseltongue emanating strangely from his environment, and then inadvertently, scares a bunch of people by responding in kind. This is a familiar emotional experience to a seeker. Remembering the urgency of the etheric message, note that Harry's speaking parseltongue in the duelling club chapter is in urgency. This is a good clue that Harry is communicating in the etheric manner.

Another thing common to my knowledge of the etheric awakening of the seeker, and Harry;s story is the effect it has on the mind. In COS Hermione is by mistake transformed into something strange and only partially human and before its over she is temporarily petrified. People in the world who have by some work of inspiration, come to be aware of the etheric ourself, have been known to pose fathomless statements like "I am God", "We are One" and "I am everywhere". This is the minds effort to simplistically describe the revelation that is occurring within the seeker. Unfortunately, it treads a fine line between who hears it being able to observe understanding of it and insanity.

I believe this may be why my fellow seeker, Hans, has observed the polyjuice scenario to be only weakly representative of the larger liberation. It is such, in order to be a strong representation of the liberation of coming to terms with the ethereal reality.

Hermione, the mind, concocts a way to transform the seeker into something that can attach to both the dense physical (people trusted by Draco) and the ethereal (the answer to the mystery for the seeker). The transformation is short lasting and seems relatively fruitless, but it just so happens that somehow inadvertently the process has achieved two remarkable things:

The ghost in the toilet is an occasional attention seeker and it moans and mopes its misfortune. It is madness. It is Moaning Myrtle.

Following all of this the seeker finds himself, and walking the line between madness on his right, and going back to the dense universe to do nothing, on his left. This is where the following liberation archetype is strongest.

"The new soul descends down the right string of the sympathetic nervous string to the plexus sacralis, where the kundalini is defeated. The soul-force then slowly rises up the left string, towards the pineal gland."

The madness is on the right and points Harry away from herself towards the two other options on the left and in the middle. This interpretation is strongly back by another incident in the Chapter named The Rogue Bludger.

Harrys right arm is broken by the rogue bludger and dangles "uselessly" at Harry's side, there we find the story painstakingly pointing out that the madness (right arm of the seeker) is "unusable" and furthermore that it will become "empty" if someone who claims to be a great wizard, but is not, comes along to fix it for you. Harry’s teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart is present here and as I see it seems to be as a subtle reference to something like clinical psychology or something intended to heal insanity, gone wrong. As something that "locks" the “heart” from liberation by replacing the brokenness with emptiness.

As well, there is a clear warning that if the seeker is injured by the bludger of madness, and allows it to be replaced by emptiness, regrowing bones can be a painful process.

To some degree this will all happen to the seeker in time, dealing with the madness is part of the journey as demonstrated above by the right to left archetype, which I will repeat.

" The new soul descends down the right string of the sympathetic nervous string to the plexus sacralis, where the kundalini is defeated."

The seeker comes down with the madness on the right on its way to break down the barrier in the centre.

After the seeker breaks down the barrier it returns to the world on the left looking like it belongs there again. This is Harry polyjuiced into Goyle, in a small way. But in a larger way it is shown by the way Harry chooses his next years subjects. He plans to stick with Ron. The new soul with the personality, this is a decision made for the seekers own protection (having someone friendly to share it with) and it is a way of dealing with the new etheric awareness. The personality is chosen as the new soul’s companion because it can offer itself as a mask for the revelations of the ethereal awareness by the soul and the mind.

The mind cannot forseeably protect the new soul in the immediate future, because it is assimilating too much information. Why Harry doesn't choose Hermione's subjects parallels exactly this.

In the next year (Prisoner of Azkaban) we are confirmed, and reminded, that Harry’s consciousness has reached and embraced the ethereal realm. Earlier, I explained how the ethereal universe is a time omnipotent place, from the beginning of Harry’s third year Hermione has at her disposal and object called a Timeturner.

In operating in the time irrelevant universe one does not have, so much, infinite power over time. It is limited to being able to absorb multiple layers of the dense universe in a unison single moment. Using her Timeturner, Hermione is able to layer dense universes into a single time period, her classes. They are separate unique layers, of the physical universe she experiences them all within the same timeframe and they all work together in harmony toward the same purpose. This is an excellent demonstration of the mind connected to all times in the ethereal universe, it is accurate and it is so tangible in our imagination.

The Chamber of Secrets is but one book in the Harry Potter series. Is it any wonder that so much anticipation abounds of what consequences such an exceptionally well received and groundbreaking spiritual message will have on our world?

Conciousness of the Etheric Body

A Seeker's Account of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by M. Clifford