The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapters 13-18 - Harry 9-14

Harry [9]

The Chamber of Secrets (1) Harry’s second year illustrates the New Soul’s liberation from the etheric plane of the time-spatial universe.

The etheric plane is next to the physical plane, and is in a sense part of it, for it gives life to physical bodies. All living organisms have an etheric* field or aura, and some people can see this. Our etheric body penetrates our physical body and is slightly larger. It regulates our health and facilitates things like metabolism, sexual reproduction, sensory perception, and the working of the nervous system and the brain. The etheric body is made up of etheric atoms which actually fit inside the physical atoms. It therefore follows our physical body wherever it goes, and is, in a sense, the ‘slave’ of the physical body.

There are many organisms which have an etheric body but not a physical body, and so are invisible to most people. However very young children and some animals can see them. Their existence was known long ago and many legends and myths name them. These include fairies, elves, gnomes, undines, salamanders, nymphs, sylphs etc. These creatures often work with nature in developing growth of trees etc.

We are introduced to one of these creatures right at the beginning of Part 2. Dobby is a ‘house elf’ who warns Harry that someone is about to wreak havoc at his school. Whenever liberating stories contain mention of etheric creatures, the author is drawing our attention to the etheric plane. So right away we know Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets takes place on that plane. When Harry stays at the Weasleys’ house he meets another type of etheric creature – the garden gnome. Harry’s first lesson in Defence against the Dark Arts is to learn to control a group of etheric creatures called pixies. As we know Hermione is the one who is able to do this immediately.

Harry meets Dobby throughout the book and near the end learns that he is the slave of a servant of Voldemort, namely Lucius Malfoy. If we look at the symbolism as I have explained it so far, we know that Harry is the New Soul born in the seeker in whom the Lily and the Stag have united, while Voldemort is the microcosmic self. When the Soul is born, this microcosmic self is weakened considerably.

Lucius Malfoy is a servant of Voldemort, and so we can deduce from this that Malfoy is a force within the human being which represents the microcosmic self. His wife is Narcissa. What better way to symbolise the physical body and its brain? In the discussion about the Malfoy family it will be explained how these together symbolise the body and its ‘brain-god.’

In my opinion Dobby personifies the etheric body of the alchemist who is undergoing the process of liberation. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but if we reverse the consonants in ‘Dobby’ we get ‘Bbody’. As stated above, the etheric body is the ‘slave’ of the physical body. It follows it wherever it goes, looks after it, and helps it in all its functions. This is exactly what Dobby does for Malfoy – until Harry changes things. By a brilliant act of quick witted intelligence and compassion for Dobby, Harry frees Dobby (how I love Harry). This is exactly what the new soul does for the etheric body at a certain stage of the alchemical transmutation. The New Soul actually lives in the etheric body and at a certain point the etheric body is freed from the physical body. It is no longer its ‘slave’ as it were, but can move independently. And just as Dobby does some very useful things in the later parts of the Septology, so the etheric body is extremely helpful to the New Soul.

You may have heard mention of wonderful robes worn by heroes in some fairy tales and legends. We hear about golden wedding vestures, and in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosycross the candidates for the wedding are repeatedly putting on new clothes. These usually refer to the various invisible bodies. When the alchemist has a New Soul that has been able to take the Philosopher’s Stone out of the mirror, his etheric vesture or aura will begin to radiate a brilliant golden light – hence the term golden wedding vesture.

Harry [10]

The Chamber of Secrets (2) One of the most overwhelming pieces of evidence that Harry Potter is NOT occult, is the defeat of the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. We all have this chamber, for it is the sacral (=sacred) plexus at the bottom of the spine. This chamber certainly has a powerful and magic serpent, namely the kundalini, the root-force of our existence as fallen, mortal human beings. This serpent is extremely ancient, and was put in the ‘castle’, i.e. our microcosm, from the beginning of its sojourn in this universe of time and space. The root-force it represents contains our entire karma, and links us to world-karma. It also contains our sexual force.

It is possible through occult exercises, which require extreme concentration, unyielding will-power and fearless dedication, to drive this force up along the spinal column. On its way up it will influence the chakras. It can rise up right into the crown chakra, linked to the pineal gland. If this succeeds, the person is linked directly to the root-force of the cosmos, i.e. the central astral fire of our earth. This fire is called Lucifer. It is obvious to me that Salazar Slytherin personifies this force. The result of such a unification with Lucifer is that the successful occultist achieves immense occult powers. He has the sort of powers that are ascribed to Voldemort, for example Legilimens and Occlumency. There are also clairvoyance, clairaudience, and a willpower that bears no resistance (except Harry’s!). But the greatest achievement of all is that the occultist is for the time being detached from the wheel of reincarnation. This is another reason why Voldemort keeps talking about immortality. Such a course of developmentleads into the exact opposite direction to the one leading to Christ. In addition it is extremely dangerous and perhaps one occultist in ten thousand succeeds. Failure can have extremely unpleasant circumstances lasting for several incarnations, for example uncontrollable erotic desires. However the essential thing is that it crystallises the personality as far as its susceptibility to the divine call emanating from God is concerned. It ‘kills’ Lily and James and therefore any chance of Harry being born. And as it rises up the spinal column it spreads crystallisation and death as far as the liberating possibilities are concerned. In fact the uppermost chakra, the ‘crown chakra’ is closed off to any possibility of liberation. The Gate of Saturn is closed.

What does our hero Harry do? He comes down the spinal column (J.K. Rowling calls it ‘pipes’) for a totally selfless purpose. Tom Riddle, personifying the Luciferic force in the sacral plexus, sets the giant serpent on to Harry, who demonstrates his loyalty to Dumbledore, symbolising the Gnosis*. This invokes the phoenix that pecks out the Basilisk’s eyes and gives Harry the sword of Godric. Harry kills the Basilisk and then destroys Tom Riddle. The phoenix takes Harry back up the pipes.

This is a very accurate description of the triumph of the New Soul over the old serpent of karma and the power of Lucifer. Once the New Soul has reached a certain stage of maturity, it comes down the spinal column, by means of the sympathetic nerve, affecting the chakras as it goes down. This process takes many years, but if the alchemist persists in his devotion to the New Soul, it will reach the sacral plexus and there will face the heir of Lucifer and the ancient serpent of the kundalini.

There is no will power needed in this, as in occultism. What is needed here is total devotion to the New Soul-force which was born out of the little Tao in the heart. Total loyalty must be shown to the power of liberation. Then the force of the resurrection (the phoenix) will destroy the lethal power of the kundalini and give the New Soul the sword of Christ (Godric - ‘Rich in Godliness’). The New Soul will then engage in a life and death struggle with the serpent of the kundalini. But the result is a foregone conclusion. The New Soul is certain to win, as it is a force from another universe, the Universe where God’s Will rules.

And so there comes a moment in the life of the alchemist when he becomes a Master alchemist. The ancient serpent is dead. The alchemist has broken all fetters with the past. His karma no longer rules his life. His links to world-karma are cut off and the representative of Lucifer is gone.

The severing of the fetters of karma means the total forgiveness of sins. All the mistakes of the past are forgiven. This is what the New Testament means by forgiveness.

The New Soul-force then flows upwards along the sympathetic nervous cord and reaches the pineal centre (Dumbledore’s office), where the enlightenment takes place. In the New Testament that’s called the descent of the Holy Spirit. Jacob Boehme calls it the Light-birth of God. The New Testament also describes this in the Transfiguration of Christ.

J.K. Rowling is able to incorporate these esoteric facts into an exciting story that a child of 5 can understand. I see Isabel Allende has said that J.K. Rowling deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. But more than that she deserves the Peace Prize. For she is bringing to humanity the ancient alchemical way to reach everlasting peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Harry [11]

The Prisoner of Azkaban (1) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is very clearly the struggle of the New Soul to break the chain to the astral plane of the wrathful universe, the world of Lucifer.

The astral plane is the plane of emotions and desires. Every plane has its own atoms and forces, and the atoms of the astral plane are a bit like sparks of fire of different colours. They are imperceptible to the ordinary five senses, but they can be perceived by our ‘sixth sense’, by our ‘feelings’. These atoms can pass through physical atoms and can move very much faster than them. All creatures with an active consciousness have an astral* field around them, which is often called the astral body or desire body.

Astral atoms are moved by a force we call desire or emotion. When we desire something, we create a force which attracts astral atoms of a certain vibration. For example if we have a strong desire for money we will attract atoms which correspond in vibration rate to that desire. If we strongly desire to help other people, this creates a force which attracts astral atoms of a much higher vibration. A clairvoyant person can see these atoms rushing in and out of our astral body, as each vibration radiates a different colour. With one glance people who have this sight can see what sort of a person they are looking at. A spiritual person will have a lovely light blue radiance; an intellectual person a bright yellow one. People with base, selfish desires and emotions will have very muddy, dark colours. A person suffering from depression will have an impenetrable grey cloud around him. A person with a New Soul, symbolised by Harry Potter, will have a breathtakingly beautiful golden aura. Harry has a lot of gold! Another extremely important property of astral atoms is that when a mental image is projected into them, they take on the form of that image. To understand this very clearly, think about the Defence against the Dark Arts classes dealing with the boggart. These lessons are perfect for understanding life in the astral plane. Lupin tells his students to concentrate on a form which makes the boggart look ridiculous. That’s exactly what happens on the astral plane. If you project a powerful mental image accompanied by a strong emotion or desire, you will create an astral form just like your mental image.

When we lose our physical body and our etheric body through death, we go on living for a few years in our astral body. This means the astral plane becomes open to us and we can travel throughout its many sub-planes, except that we can’t enter planes which are higher in vibration than our own personal key vibration. Obviously people with a low key vibration will have a rather unpleasant time while those with very spiritual vibrations will live in a land of light, happiness and spiritual companionship. The stories about hell and heaven are based on this, and the 1998 film, What Dreams May Come, with Robin Williams, is an excellent representation of life in the astral plane.

Once a person is conscious in the astral plane (he doesn’t have to be dead though) he can also learn to change his appearance. Once again, by intense concentration on a mental image, accompanied by a strong desire, a person can change his astral field to resemble anything he likes. J.K. Rowling demonstrates this by her description of the animagi. They have learnt to adopt the forms of animals. Transfiguration lessons are exactly the same sort of thing. In the astral plane you can change a teacup into a turtle.

J.K. is also very careful about what she tells her young readers about the astral world. For example crystal gazing is extremely dangerous for the astral body, and, as we know, she ridicules this practice. Harry, the pure New Soul born to the seeker who is thirsting for God, sees nothing in the crystal ball! Another indication of how Harry Potter is NOT OCCULT!

To sum up: Part 3 is about emotions. It begins by describing how Harry loses control of his emotions when his aunt tries to desecrate the memory of his parents, and ends with Harry’s supernal triumph over his emotions.

Harry [12]

The Prisoner of Azkaban (2) One ofthe most powerful effects of Harry Potter is that many readers identify strongly with Harry. I certainly felt that immediately when I first started reading it, which happened to be Part 2. I know from comments on Internet that many adults really love Harry almost as much as a living person. The press reports from all over the world tell us that millions of children identify intensely with Harry. To me that’s a sign that the Masters of Compassion, responsible for the salvation of humanity, are engaged in etching the essence of the teachings of liberation deeply into the blood and the subconscious of many millions of people. From there it is a small step for people to realise that Harry can actually be born in them. Every seeker carries Lily in his heart. The realisation that she can give birth to Harry, the true and eternal child of God, is just around the corner. The only condition is the true yearning for that which cannot be obtained in this universe. This yearning is personified by James Potter.

All of us seekers have the potential for a New Soul to be born out of the Divine Thought-spark, which I sometimes call the Little Tao, in the heart. That New Soul will take us on a journey from the vale of suffering, sorrow and death to a New Life that is intensely happy, totally unselfish, imbued with all embracing Love for all creatures and for all of creation, and has no end, but is an eternal growth from one state of ineffable refulgence to the next, which is even more radiant, more fulfilling, with even greater power to bestow goodness on others. The price is small. All we have to do is give up our self-centred consciousness, as we are shown in Part 7.

The journey of the New Soul to attain liberation has seven stages, and we have discussed two. Part 1 shows liberation from the bonds tying us to the physical plane; Part 2 deals with liberation on the etheric plane. Part 3 shows clearly and unequivocally how we can be liberated from the astral plane of this universe.

This book has two main climaxes and therefore two lessons: the defeat of the Dementors and saving Buckbeak and Sirius.

Dementors are discussed in Chapter 73. Let me say for now that Dementors are not totally symbolic. They really do exist, and, as the book says, are invisible to us Muggles.

The activities of the Dementors are described very clearly in the Gnostic Gospel, Pistis Sophia. This gospel calls them ‘the rulers of the aeons’. In this scripture Pistis Sophia is constantly weakened by the rulers of the aeons, who ‘take away herlight-power’ (Chapter 31). This is exactly the same as when the Dementors suck ‘happiness’ from Harry.

What does this mean in practical terms for you and me? It is in the interest of many ‘principalities and powers in the heavenly places’ (i.e. the astral plane) that people definitely NOT be liberated.As explained in Chapter 4, a microcosm and a cosmos have the same structure. Just as our microcosm has a huge self surrounding our aura, so does the cosmos, i.e. the earth. I have called the microcosmic self ‘Voldemort’. In Harry Potter, Voldemort personifies both the microcosmic self AND the cosmic self. Just as our personal Voldemort tries to kill our Harry at any cost, so the cosmic Voldemort is the deadly enemy of all seekers who want to go the Path of Liberation. Just as Harry is bound to defeat Voldemort, so the collective group of seekers who have a New Soul will one day defeat the cosmic Voldemort. This is all described symbolically in The Revelation of John, the last chapter of the New Testament in the Bible.

The cosmic Voldemort, more commonly known as Lucifer, is a collective astral force which rules life on earth in the same way as our own microcosmic self does. And just as our microcosmic self has twelve main power centres in the auric ring which surrounds the microcosm, so the earth has twelve immense power centres surrounding it. We call their collective influence the zodiac. Pistis Sophia calls these the twelve aeons. Each aeon consists of numerous sub-powers which work for it, and these are called the rulers of the aeons in ‘Pistis Sophia’, and Dementors in Harry Potter.

When a seeker has received the incomparable blessing of the birth of the immortal and precious New Soul, he immediately becomes an object of great interest to the rulers of the aeons. The New Soul radiates ‘light-power’. This is astral energy of an extremely high potency. The rulers or Dementors prey around the seeker with the New Soul and try, whenever possible, to ‘suck out’ this energy with two aims: firstly to absorb the energy themselves, which makes them more powerful, and secondly to weaken and, if possible, suck out the new soul completely.

However the New Soul has a mighty weapon: the Patronus!

Essentially the seekeris totally safe.Although he may have moments of weakness when his focus on the Path of Liberation diminishes, for example through being absorbed by the problems of life, or by lapsing into negative emotions, he has a weapon against which not even 100 Dementors have the slightest chance of winning.

We are discussing the astral plane,the plane of desires and emotions. Every desire results in the attraction of astral forces of a certain vibration. We as creatures of the universe of Lucifer can attract only the forces from this universe. However as soon as Harry is born, there is a living being within us who is not from this universe. Tao has brought forth Te. Jesus is born in the heart. The Prince of Peace has arrived to reclaim His Kingdom. This means that in the astral body of the seeker there is a New Soul which can desire something that is not obtainable anywhere in this universe: the Living Water. This is a symbol for the life-force of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the astral substance of the Sixth Cosmic Plane.

Invoking the Patronus means concentrating oneself on the yearning of the soul for ‘the Blood of Christ’, the elixir of life, for Tao, for God.

This longing is best described by Psalm 42: As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

Among those who read this there will be those who know this experience, but they will not be able to explain or describe it to those who don’t. When Harry is born in your heart you have a new sense organ. You are no longer a Muggle and a new world opens up to you. Trying to explain this deep yearning, this hankering for manna, is like trying to explain the view of a mountain range to a blind person or a symphony to a deaf one. The nearest we can get to describing this longing is to compare it to the intense craving for air one feels when one’s head is being held under water for a few minutes. Imagine almost suffocating and then suddenly being able to breathe fresh, fragrant, oxygen rich air. Only the relief isn’t felt by the lungs but by the heart. When the little Tao in the heart meets the big universal Tao there is an intense joy, a spiritual ecstasy. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to compare it to the joy of being reunited with a person, whom we love with utter intensity, and who we thought was dead.

When a person focuses on this supernal longing, he is invoking the Patronus. Patronus comes from Pater, father. Invoking the Patronus is in fact a cry from the New Soul for its Father. God loves His creatures with an intensity far beyond our understanding, and when one of them cries out to Him He reacts immediately with an abundance of Holy Light. This Holy Light has a vibration rate far above anything possible in this universe. When a seeker invokes the Patronus, when his soul, Harry, calls for the Light, there is an answer from Heaven. The New Soul is immediately linked to a ray of Light from another universe. In The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosycross this is symbolised by a cord being let down into a deep pit. This takes place in his dream, and Christian Rosycross is able to grab the rope and be liberated from the pit.

Harry invokes the Patronus and the light appears out of his wand. He is linked to his father at that moment. If all the hordes of demons and devils in hell, and all the rulers of the aeons, and Lucifer himself all were to try to attack us in one united thrust, they could do nothing to us if we invoke the Patronus. The Celestial Light of the Father will protect us and drive them all away. That is the victory promised to us in Harry Potter.

The number 100 in liberating stories signifies an infinite number, or ‘all’.

Let me assert with all my strength: There is nothing in the whole universe more beautiful than the story of Liberation. Harry Potter tells the universal story of that struggle and the victory, as do many other books and stories. Here is a quote which reflects this.

And then Harry saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. He spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure his vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them… ‘Hermione, think of something happy!’ Harry yelled, raising his wand, blinking furiously to try and clear his vision, shaking his head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it – I’m going to live with my godfather. I’m leaving the Dursleys. He forced himself to think of Black, and only Black, and began to chant: ‘Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!’ Black gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death. He’ll be all right. I’m going to go and live with him. ‘Expecto patronum! Hermione, help me! Expecto patronum!’ ‘Expecto –’ Hermione whispered, ‘expecto – expecto –’ But she couldn’t do it. The Dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. They formed a solid wall around Harry and Hermione, and were getting closer… ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM!’ Harry yelled, trying to blot the screaming from his ears. ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM!’ A thin wisp of silver escaped his wand and hovered like mist before him. At the same moment, Harry felt Hermione collapse next to him. He was alone... completely alone… ‘Expecto – expecto patronum –’ Harry felt his knees hit the cold grass. Fog was clouding his eyes. With a huge effort, he fought to remember – Sirius was innocent – innocent – We’ll be okay – I’m going to live with him – ‘Expecto patronum!’ he gasped. By the feeble light of his formless Patronus, He saw a Dementor halt, very close to him. It couldn’t walk through the cloud of silver mist Harry had conjured. A dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak. It made a gesture as though to sweep the Patronus aside. ‘No – no –’ Harry gasped. ‘He’s innocent… expecto expecto patronum –’ He could feel them watching him, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around him. The nearest Dementor seemed to be considering him. Then it raised both its rotting hands -- and lowered its hood. Where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, grey scabbed skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. But there was a mouth... a gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death rattle. A paralyzing terror filled Harry so that he couldn’t move or speak. His Patronus flickered and died. White fog was blinding him. He had to fight... expecto patronum... he couldn’t see... and in the distance, he heard the familiar screaming... expecto patronum... he groped in the mist for Sirius, and found his arm... they weren’t going to take him.... But a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around Harry’s neck. They were forcing his face upward… He could feel its breath… It was going to get rid of him first… He could feel its putrid breath… His mother was screaming in his ears… She was going to be the last thing he ever heard – And then, through the fog that was drowning him, he thought he saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... He felt himself fall forward onto the grass… Face down, too weak to move, sick and shaking, Harry opened his eyes. The Dementor must have released him. The blinding light was illuminating the grass around him… The screaming had stopped, the cold was ebbing away… Something was driving the Dementors back.... It was circling around him and Black and Hermione… They were leaving… The air was warm again… With every ounce of strength he could muster, Harry raised his head a few inches and saw an animal amid the light, galloping away across the lake… Eyes blurred with sweat, Harry tried to make out what it was… It was as bright as a unicorn… Fighting to stay conscious, Harry watched it canter to a halt as it reached the opposite shore. For a moment, Harry saw, by its brightness, somebody welcoming it back...raising his hand to pat it… someone who looked strangely familiar… but it couldn’t be… [...] From: The Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 20 [Later, after time travelling back three hours sees the scene again from across the lake] There was a bush at the very edge of the water. Harry threw himself behind it, peering desperately through the leaves. On the opposite bank, the glimmers of silver were suddenly extinguished. A terrified excitement shot through him – any moment now – ‘Come on!’ he muttered, staring about. ‘Where are you? Dad, come on –’ But no one came. Harry raised his head to look at the circle of Dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. It was time for the rescuer to appear -- but no one was coming to help this time – And then it hit him – he understood. He hadn’t seen his father – he had seen himself – Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his wand. ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM! ‘he yelled. And out of the end of his wand burst, not a shapeless cloud of mist, but a blinding, dazzling, silver animal. He screwed up his eyes, trying to see what it was. It looked like a horse. It was galloping silently away from him, across the black surface of the lake. He saw it lower its head and charge at the swarming Dementors… Now it was galloping around and around the black shapes on the ground, and the Dementors were falling back, scattering, retreating into the darkness… they were gone. The Patronus turned. It was cantering back toward Harry across the still surface of the water. It wasn’t a horse. It wasn’t a unicorn, either. It was a stag. It was shining brightly as the moon above… it was coming back to him… It stopped on the bank. Its hooves made no mark on the soft ground as it stared at Harry with its large, silver eyes. Slowly, it bowed its antlered head. And Harry realized… ‘Prongs,’ he whispered. But as his trembling fingertips stretched toward the creature, it vanished.

From: The Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 21

Harry [13]

The Prisoner of Azkaban (3) Harry meets Buckbeak at the beginning of his third year at Hogwarts. Buckbeak is a Hippogriff, a creature that is half horse, half griffin. In my opinion the griffin gives us the clue to what Buckbeak symbolises. The griffin is an ancient mythical creature occurring in the tales of many nations. It is also mentioned in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosycross. The front half is eagle and the back half lion. The lion symbolises divine love while the eagle symbolises the spirit. The mighty wings of the eagle symbolise the heights to which this mystery creature can rise, while the lion has its feet on the ground. Here we see a beautiful symbol of an animal that connects heaven and earth: the Christ!

When the sons and daughters of the Potter descended into matter millions of years ago they started a process of severance from the Original Spirit which lived as the king in the microcosm, next to the Soul as queen, with the personality as their precious child. The Original Spirit never forsakes His children, and so right from the beginning there was a plan to enable the human being to return the way he had come.

It is not possible just simply to open oneself to the Original Spirit again. The unimaginably high vibrations of the Spirit would destroy the human being instantly. There has to be an intermediary between the fallen human being and the Spirit. There has to be a guardian of God’s compassion who can descend to the earth, even to hell if necessary, to answer the cry of the seeker when he realises there is no point in life in the fallen universe and his heart longs for the return to the Spirit. This intermediary we call the Christ. His rays of hope and comfort can reach right down to us and give us the strength and desire to turn around and go the long, long way back to where we once came from. He will lift us up onto his back and carry us upwards, ever upwards towards the heights of the Spirit, for the reunion with the Father.

That is the griffin. In Harry Potter the Hippogriff rather than the griffin has been chosen as the symbol of Christ, but in my opinion this doesn’t make any difference whatsoever. The Griffin is, of course, the name of Harry’s House: Griffin d’or – Golden Griffin. Beware! The Hippogriff has very sharp claws! It is necessary to approach him with great respect and caution. The griffin is also the symbol of the protective power of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is the Brotherhood of the Masters of Compassion. In the past millennia many people have successfully gone the path of liberation. These people do not forsake humanity but help to send the rays of hope and comfort down to earth. When Christian Rosycross was freed from the pit he helped to pull the next load of people up. Hagrid is the example the Septology gives us of a master of compassion. It was he who introduced Harry to the magical world. And so it is only natural that he works with the body of Christ. When Hagrid tells Harry to sit on the Hippogriff’s back, naturally the New Soul enters the body of Christ and this takes him upwards immediately. And Harry and Buckbeak become instant friends. As an aside I must say I love this scene in the film. It has become my all-time favourite scene. The symbolism comes out so well!

But then Draco Malfoy (‘Bad faith’) approaches Buckbeak. He represents the type of person who is on the path of liberation for the self rather than the new soul that needs to be born. It is not possible for the earthly self to be liberated as it is an integral part of this universe. It’s an emergency measure to enable the microcosm to express itself in this world. Without it the human being could never be liberated. The Spirit has left the microcosm many thousands of years ago and the Original Soul has died. The earthly human being has the task of restoring the microcosm to its former glory, but he can do so only if he is willing to sacrifice himself as Ron does in the chess game.

It is natural for the human being to seek liberation for the natural self, or the ‘Self of matter’ as The Voice of the Silence calls it. But that is impossible. Nevertheless many people do try. Draco in my opinion symbolises such a person. At Hogwarts he belongs to Slytherin, the House of Lucifer. He approaches the Body of Christ with irreverence and disdain. He says, I bet you’re not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute? As we know, Malfoy gets slashed by the sharp claws. The body of Christ is a force-field of intensely high spiritual energy and beneficial only when it is approached by the immortal soul, but when the egocentric seeker for liberation for the self approaches it, he will be harmed. The high vibrations of the Christ Hierarchy will cause damage to the astral body of such a person. Draco goes to hospital and later he and his father organise the trial and fix the condemnation of Buckbeak.

Meanwhile Harry discovers that Sirius, his God-Father, is innocent and has spent 12 years in prison as a victim of Peter Pettigrew’s treachery. Chapter 20 explains exactly what force Sirius personifies. Just for now let’s just say he is the New Soul’s guardian and guide, a source of inspiration and spiritual power. He is in the microcosm, close to the new soul.

By means of a time-turner Harry and Hermione (note: Ron is absent) go back in time and save Buckbeak from the executioner. Then they fly up to the cell where Sirius is imprisoned and help him to escape. Sirius flies off on Buckbeak. Harry has saved two innocent lives. Harry Potter is the story of a candidate for Liberation through alchemical transformation. All the characters are forces, influences or entities the alchemist meets along the way. Dementors are forces which try to rob the new soul of the candidate of its soul power. Harry is able to drive these away through his mighty longing for liberation, as we saw in Chapter 16.

Buckbeak has been condemned to death. The influence of the Body of Christ, the Brotherhood of Compassion, is contrary to the purposes of the powers of darkness in and around the seeker. They want to get rid of this influence as soon as possible. Christ is dangerous! He upsets world order. Look at what he’s done to poor old Draco Malfoy! Exterminate!

The same with Sirius. He has been taken by Snape and locked up. Snape is our dark side, our shadow. He hates Sirius and Harry. He is the black king in The Chymical Wedding. Although Snape joins the Order of the Phoenix later, as we know, and sacrifices himself for Harry in the end, he is bound by his past to hate the Divine Light. However, Harry bows to the Hippogriff, and he and Hermione fly off to save Sirius.

The New Immortal Soul defies the powers of this world and enters the Body of Christ with great respect. He surrenders himself to it and the Christ-force lifts him up and enables him to liberate Sirius. Harry has completed another phase in the Divine Plan of Redemption. He has become free of the astral world. He has set free the Power of Christ within himself and has brought up into his firmament the new Bright Morning Star, Sirius.

Harry [14]

The Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire takes us on to the mental plane. Once again the first Defence against the Dark Arts class gives us the clue. Professor Moody starts by talking about the Imperius Curse. This is a curse to make a person do exactly what you want them to. It’s total mind control. In later lessons Moody actually puts the curse on the students. We see that Harry is the only one who can resist the curse.

Moody insisted on putting Harry through his paces four times in a row, until Harry could throw off the curse entirely.

These lessons are vital for Harry, for although (fake) Moody is Harry’s deadly enemy, Harry’s will-power is strengthened, which helps him defeat Voldemort.

At the end of the year Harry and Voldemort fight a duel. This is what happens:

As Harry shouted, ‘Expelliarmus!’ Voldemort cried, ‘Avada Kedavra!’ A jet of green light issued from Voldemort’s wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry’s – they met in mid-air – and suddenly Harry’s wand was vibrating as though an electric charge were surging through it; his hand seized up around it; he couldn’t have released it if he’d wanted to - and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold. Harry, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Voldemort’s long white fingers too were gripping a wand that was shaking and vibrating. [...] The golden thread connecting Harry and Voldemort splintered; though the wands remained connected, a thousand more beams arced high over Harry and Voldemort, crisscrossing all around them, until they were enclosed in a golden, domeshaped web, a cage of light, beyond which the Death Eaters circled like jackals, their cries strangely muffled now… [...]And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air… It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Harry and Voldemort. It was a sound Harry recognized, though he had heard it only once before in his life: phoenix song. 59 ENG De Alchemie opmaak.indd 59 20-10-20 14:42It was the sound of hope to Harry… the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard in his life… He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just around him… It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore, and it was almost as though a friend were speaking in his ear… Don’t break the connection. I know. Harry told the music, I know I mustn’t… but no sooner had he thought it, than the thing became much harder to do. His wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever… and now the beam between him and Voldemort changed too... it was as though large beads of light were sliding up and down the thread connecting the wands – Harry felt his wand give a shudder under his hand as the light beads began to slide slowly and steadily his way… The direction of the bead’s movement was now toward him, from Voldemort, and he felt his wand shudder angrily… As the closest bead of light moved nearer to Harrys wand tip, the wood beneath his fingers grew so hot he feared it would burst into flame. The closer that bead moved, the harder Harry’s wand vibrated; he was sure his wand would not survive contact with it; it felt as though it was about to shatter under his fingers – He concentrated every last particle of his mind upon forcing the bead back toward Voldemort, his ears full of phoenix song, his eyes furious, fixed… and slowly, very slowly, the beads quivered to a halt, and then, just as slowly, they began to move the other way… and it was Voldemort’s wand that was vibrating extra-hard now… Voldemort who looked astonished, and almost fearful. One of the beads of light was quivering, inches from the tip of Voldemort’s wand. Harry didn’t understand why he was doing it, didn’t know what it might achieve… but he now concentrated as he had never done in his life on forcing that bead of light right back into Voldemort s wand… and slowly… very slowly... it moved along the golden thread ... it trembled for a moment… and then it connected… At once, Voldemort’s wand began to emit echoing screams of pain…

From: The Goblet of Fire Chapter 34

We can see here that Harry’s will-power is actually greater than Voldemort’s. Harry’s resolve is strengthened by the song of the phoenix, the symbol of the resurrection.

The microcosmic self wants to kill the New Soul as it’s not under the control of the microcosmic self, but the New Soul is able to resist the microcosmic self. The latter can neither control nor kill the New Soul. It has won the victory on the mental plane, fortified by the power of the resurrection. It has broken the fourth chain to the universe of time and space.

Click here to return to the Symbols page.