The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapters 20-22 - Harry 15-17

Harry [15]

The Order of the Phoenix The plane of life above the mental plane is the plane of the mental I. The human consciousness is a trinity: the mental I, the emotional I and the consciousness-I.

In Part 5 Voldemort attempts to gain control over Harry’s mental I. Dumbledore knows this and tells Snape to give Harry Occlumency lessons. (occlud- Latin: to close, ment- Latin: mind). As we know, this doesn’t work. However when Voldemort makes the effort to possess Harry’s mental I, Harry is able to expel Voldemort through the love he feels for his God-Father, Sirius.

Why does Dumbledore choose Snape of all people? Snape represent our shadow side, our ‘black’ side (he always wears black). This is the alchemist’s past experience of the ‘dark arts’, which we call occultism. Every candidate on the Path of Liberation has first attempted to reach the goal by means of occult experiments. It is inherent in the human being to learn by making mistakes, and this is what Snape personifies. He therefore tries to teach Harry to shut his mind to Voldemort by using his mental faculties. Harry has to shut out all emotions and concentrate his entire mind on closing itself off. But Harry fails. What can this teach us about liberation? It teaches us that the new soul cannot reach liberation by using the mental faculties. Using the power of the mind to achieve liberation is occult and this takes us back to the causes of the Fall.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix teaches us that occult methods do not work on the Path of Liberation. We must not be guided by the voice of our dark past, the voice of experimentation. The only guide on the Path is the New Soul itself. The Soul is linked to the God-Father, and its love for what this represents will always triumph against the old fallen microcosmic self, personified by Voldemort.

This how J.K. Rowling says it:

There is a room in the Department of Mysteries […] that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.

From: The Order of the Phoenix Chapter 37

Harry [16]

The Half-Blood Prince Part 6 describes the victory over Voldemort’s attempt to take possession of the emotional I in the candidate’s heart. The cave Harry and Dumbledore enter symbolises the heart. The locket, worn just over the heart, symbolises the emotional I. Harry and Dumbledore retrieve the locket with great difficulty, but Harry finds out later that the locket is a substitute for the real one, which was taken about the time Harry was born by Sirius’ brother, Regulus Arcturus Black.

This teaches us that when the New Soul is born, the emotional I in the heart is neutralised. Regulus is a star and hence is a wonderful symbol for a star in the auric firmament. He is the force in the microcosm that makes the person think he is a king, hence Regulus: Latin for ‘little king’. When the Lily opens and the New Soul is born, the little king falls down from his throne, because the New Soul is the real king. We are told that Regulus was pulled under the water by the Inferi, and died, just after Kreacher substituted the locket with a fake one.

It’s not till we reach Part 7 that we learn what’s happened to the locket. It was stolen by Mundungus Fletcher and then confiscated by Dolores Umbridge. Finally Harry managed to steal it back, and Ron was given the task of destroying it. He was subjected to an almost intolerable ordeal, including a sexual innuendo. It is a temptation in the wilderness. Ron was able to resist, and finally destroyed the locket, freeing the seekerfor enlightenment from sexual temptation.

Harry [17]

The Deathly Hallows A year before Part 7 was published I had a discussion with a person who is very experienced in spiritual matters. He agreed with my explanation of the symbolism in the Septology. But then he told me that the only way to test the purity of the hidden teachings in Harry Potter was to see how Part 7 would end. What he said then was engraved indelibly on my consciousness.

‘The New Soul does not kill,’ he said. ‘When the New Soul is attacked it will step aside and fill the voided space with Love.’

That is the Philosophy of Truth. That is the philosophy of Christ, who did not defend himself when arrested and crucified. That was the philosophy of the Cathars who were taken without resistance and burned at the stake. That is the universal philosophy of all those who wish to return to God as the Prodigal Son: there is no self-defence. This is completely contrary to the ways of this world. There is no legal system or government in the world that does not allow, or in the case of national interest, compel self-defence.

It is also completely against our nature. It is against the natural system of self-preservation, against the ego, against all our natural instincts.

Yet this is exactly what happens in Part 7 of Harry Potter. Harry faces Voldemort twice at the end, once in the heart of the forest and once in the Great Hall. On the first occasion Harry puts his wand beneath his robes and faces Voldemort unarmed, knowing he is about to die. Voldemort casts the killing curse and Harry enters ‘King’s Cross.’ The cross here connects us with the death of Christ.

On the second occasion, Harry and Voldemort both have a wand, but Harry uses his wand to cast a protective shield around those he loves. When Voldemort finally casts the killing curse for the last time, Harry once again (as he did in Part 4) casts the disarming spell. Voldemort’s curse rebounds and he is killed by his own curse.

The rebounding is caused, as we are told by Dumbledore, by the fact that Voldemort took Harry’s blood in Part 4 to create a new body. Hence Lily’s sacrifice, which was etched into Harry’s blood, is in Voldemort’s body too.

Another essential proof that Harry Potter contains the message of liberation is the disappearance of the consciousness-I. Chapter 19 explains the nature of the threefold consciousness of the human being. Part 5 deals with the liberation of the mental I, and Part 6 with the liberation of the emotional I (the locket).

The consciousness-I is symbolised by Harry’s scar. The consciousness-I is situated just behind the forehead, between the eyes, exactly underneath where Harry’s scar is. It contains a fragment of Voldemort’s soul. This relates to the fact that our consciousness is rooted in the microcosmic self that infused itself into the spinal cord of the foetus before birth. We are all creatures of our own Voldemort. However he is not our enemy; he is the enemy of the New Soul when it is born in our heart.

After Harry is ‘crucified’ and wakes up at King’s Cross, his scar is gone. He is liberated from the egocentric consciousness of the mortal human being. He now has the consciousness of a Child of God. He knows God’s Plan. He can go home.

But of course he doesn’t. Dumbledore tells him that if he wants to, he can get on the train and go ‘on.’ But, like a true Bodhisattva, Harry turns his back on his personal salvation and returns to the world to save it from Voldemort.

The Bodhisattva does not care about personal bliss. He is concerned only with the liberation of the world from the Power of Voldemort that has enslaved man in the great delusion for many thousands of years.

Harry has become a Master of Compassion.

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