The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapter 29 - Hagrid

After Harry, Hagrid is my favourite character. What does he represent?

It’s fairly easy to see what Hagrid stands for. What are the clues? 1. He brings the letter of invitation to Harry. 2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry. 3. He is the ‘ferryman’ for the first-years. 4. He is the ‘Keeper of the Keys’ at Hogwarts. 5. He loves dragons. 6. He is especially fond of a Hippogriff. 7. He was given his position because of a ‘punishment’.

These things all pointto one thing: Hagrid is a Master ofCompassion! To understand what this means we should look at The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosycross. Christian Rosycross on the second day of his adventure meets the gatekeeper to whom he shows his letter of invitation to the Alchemical Wedding. After the Alchemical Wedding, Christian meets the gatekeeper again on the seventh day.

Now we arrived at the first gate where the guardian, in a blue habit, was waiting. He held a supplication in his hand. As soon as he saw me with the King, he delivered the supplication to me, with the humble request to mention his faithfulness to the King. Now I first asked the King what was the matter with this guardian, and he cordially answered me that this was a famous and excellent astrologer, who has always had the high esteem of his Lord and Father. But as he had at some time committed an error with regard to the Lady Venus, by looking at her when she was resting on her bed, he was punished by having to guard the first gate until someone should release him from it. Then I asked: ‘May he be released?’ ‘Yes,’ the King said, ‘if anyone can be found who has as highly transgressed as he did, he must stand in his stead, and the other shall be free.’ These words went to my heart, for my conscience convinced me that I was the offender.

After that an enquiry is held, and Christian Rosycross confesses that he has seen the Lady Venus. Although the King is very fond of Christian Rosycross there is no way the King can transgress the ancient rule, and so Christian is told he has to become gate keeper next day.

There are people in this universe who have made great progress on the Path of Liberation, but who are so filled with compassion for humanity that they’re willing to sacrifice their own immediate advancement on the Path and stay behind to help their wandering brothers and sisters find the Path. This is beautifully described in The Voice of the Silence.

Verse 145: To don Nirmanakaya’s humble robe [the robe of compassion – H.A.] is to forego eternal bliss for Self, to help on man’s salvation. To reach Nirvana’s bliss, but to renounce it, is the supreme, the final step - the highest on Renunciation’s Path.

Verse 146: Know, O Disciple, this is the Secret Path, selected by the Buddhas of Perfection, who sacrificed The SELF to weaker Selves.

Verse 300: [...] Compassion is no attribute. It is the Law of LAWS – eternal Harmony, Alaya’s* SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.

Verse 301: The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become COMPASSION ABSOLUTE.

Verse 307: Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva - Compassion speaks and saith: ‘Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?’

* Alaya: the Universal Soul or Atman, each human being having a ray of it in him and being supposed to be able to identify himself with it and to merge himself in it.

It may be difficult to see dear old Hagrid with his moleskin coat and boar hound as a Bodhisattva, but the symbolism in Harry Potter lies on a certain level beneath the surface. The ancient symbols of liberation are all dressed in twentieth century clothes and manners, but their essence is unchanged.

1. He brings the letter from Hogwarts to Harry. This action symbolises the call from the Masters of Compassion to go the Path of Liberation.

2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry. The gatekeeper idea is very strong here.

3. He is the ‘ferryman’ for the first-years. This symbolises the role of Charon, the ferryman on the Styx. The Styx symbolises the borderline between the world of the dead (earth) and real life (liberation).

4. He is the ‘Keeper of the Keys’ at Hogwarts. Once again a pronounced reference to being gate-keeper.

5. He loves dragons. This may be a bit harder to understand. In the traditions of those learning to go the Path of Alchemy, there is the legend of the ‘six-winged dragon’. This dragon symbolises the human serpent-fire. The serpent-fire is what they call the force that resides in the cerebro-spinal system of the human being. In the case of the fallen, earthly human being it’s regarded as a dragon because of the unholiness of the fire that burns in our system. The six wings represent properties that emanate from the serpent-fire.

The dragon: that’s us!! To the pure and holy Masters of Compassion we are like dragons because of our selfishness, our base desires, the unholy fire we radiate. We have only to look at the world around us to see what we’ve done to Paradise. If you ever want to evaluate this human world look at the wars and the famines of today, or at the crimes against humanity in so many countries.

Everyone is responsible for the war crimes and atrocities that happen because all of us radiate an unholy fire which accumulates in the atmosphere and builds up to gigantic proportions. In this way we create the dragons that wreak havoc in the world and cause immeasurable suffering. Certain people are open to the accumulated forces which humanity radiates, and there you have your Stalins and Hitlers. This is what’s behind the constant massacres, the holocaust and every war that’s ever been fought. And we’re all responsible. But despite being dragons, the Masters of Compassion love us! That’s why Hagrid loves dragons.

6. He is especially fond of a Hippogriff. Chapter 17 explains what the Hippogriff symbolises. The Masters of Compassion have a living body, i.e. an astral force-field that radiates an intensely spiritual power into the world. If we tune in to that power it will liberate us - it will raise us up and fly up to the highest regions. If we try to go the Path of Liberation but preserve the ego, it will harm us with its sharp claws. The gate-keeper can handle the Hippogriff and he loves it because he is a member of the Brotherhood.

7. He was given his position because of a ‘punishment’. The gatekeeper in The Chymical Wedding was also given his position as a ‘punishment’. It may be hard to understand the joke, but this is humour. Well, I think it is. It may also be a veil to hide very holy things from the profane.

When people behold ‘Lady Venus’ it means they are beholding Divine Love! This Love is inside them, as I’ve tried to explain before. We all have a chamber in our heart that is magically sealed until Harry or Christian Rosycross open it. Once the door is opened and we behold what is within, we are seized by a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. This force - Love or Compassion - is what ‘punished’ Hagrid by making him gate-keeper. And it is that force which enables Harry to defeat Voldemort.