The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapter 34 - Dumbledore

Dumbledore is a very ancient man who lives in a tower and is in complete charge of Harry’s spiritual (i.e. ‘magic’) development. He knows exactly what trials Harry will face each year and organises a lot of them, for example the Mirror of Erised and the seven trials in Part 1. In each successive part of the Septology the collaboration between Harry and Dumbledore increases.

He lives in a room which is reached by a moving spiral stairway. The room contains many instruments of observation.

In The Chymical Wedding there is also a very ancient man who lives in a tower. He is in complete charge of the alchemical wedding which brings back to life the dead King and Queen.

What is the purpose of the alchemical wedding? It is the complete restoration of the Divine Human Being as he was before the Fall. In other words, it is the complete healing of the child of the Sevenfold Spirit. What is healing? Being healed means being restored to health, being restored to what God intended us to be. When we are healed, we are whole, we are HOLY. A person who has achieved the alchemical wedding has been transfigured from an imperfect child of Lucifer/Voldemort to a perfect Child of the Holy Creator, and is therefore Holy. Dumbledore symbolises the sanctifying, healing Spirit of God. He personifies the Holy Plan of Redemption of humanity. In other words, he is the Force of Liberation, the Christ-force.

This is what Jan van Rijckenborgh says of the Very Ancient One: He is the Supreme Watchman, the original spirit-man, the Holy Spirit, the divine Son. He is the great, fundamental power of the spirit expressing itself in a twofold ray; he is the divine trinity in abstract, which must become concrete in the candidate. As Old Atlas, he takes form in the pineal centre. One could compare this spirit-man or divine Son with a second microcosm, in which a high, superb life radiates, only able to express itself in the solar macrocosm.

In the Kabala this principle is called ‘The Ancient of Days’. ‘The Ancient of Days’ is also mentioned in the Book of Daniel, chapter 7. Why does Dumbledore live in a room at the top of a moving spiral staircase? This room symbolises the supreme spiritual centre in the head of the alchemist. This is the place where the crown chakra is situated, represented in the physical body by the pineal gland. Jan van Rijckenborgh says of the moving spiral staircase: This staircase symbolises the connection between the heart chakra and the uppermost chakra, which corresponds with the pineal gland. When the soul has been born and the candelabra are united and burning in harmony, a link of etheric light develops, literally and bodily, between the heart and the head. This link does not have any anatomical aspects, being formed from reflecting ether and light-ether which are mental and sensorial, and it has a distinct spiral motion. That is why we speak of a spiral staircase.

The difference between the occult development of the pineal gland and the liberating one is extremely important.

Occultists try to drive the serpent of the kundalini, situated in the sacral plexus, upwards, along the spinal cord, to the pineal gland. This is where people often get confused between occultism and liberating alchemy. In both the occultist and the alchemist a force rises up the spine and enters the pineal gland and the crown chakra. In both cases there is a tremendous change in the person. But in the occultist it is the Basilisk that rises upwards and enters the Temple of the Holy Spirit to defile it with its evil eyes and poisonous fangs. It’s called the Light-birth of Lucifer. In Alchemy it is the new, pure and Divine Soul, personified in, Harry that rises up to the Temple where it will celebrate the wedding with the Spirit. This is called the Light-birth of Christ.

The occultist will earn great powers and stop the wheel of reincarnation for a long period. He will become one of the great rulers of the Fallen Universe. He will become a Death Eater and serve Lucifer/Voldemort.

The Alchemist enters the Temple of the Holy Spirit and humbly serves the Potter of the Universe with an intense compassion for humanity. He will be free of the wheel of reincarnation, and hence will not be compelled to come to earth again, but he will do so as an unimaginable sacrifice, driven by the Love burning in his heart.