The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapter 4 - Voldemort

Imagine the human microcosm: in the centre the Divine Thoughtspark created millions of years ago by the Spirit in another universe where time does not exist. It’s a four dimensional universe consisting of length, breadth, height and infinity. There is no such thing as good and evil there. There’s only the plan of the One Architect and everyone in that universe works in accordance with that Plan and thereby increases his own glory and eternal joy. But where the Spirit is there is freedom, and eons ago groups of entities decided to develop a plan that deviated from the Divine Plan. They descended into a three dimensional universe and ‘fell in love with their own image’. Spirit and matter cannot mix and so they entered a process of crystallisation. The Spirit withdrew from the microcosm and the soul was left without its guide. Thus death became thewages of sin, and suffering became a familiar experience. The microcosm consists of a higher self and a lower self, which I will call the microcosmic self* and the personal self, or personality. In the Divine Microcosm these two form one single Divine Son of the Potter of the Universe. Such a perfect microcosm is truly a Temple in which the Spirit lives. The fulfilment of the Plan is that the Divine Human Being be able to manifest himself in the total Divine Septenary. Just like Creation itself, the microcosm has seven planes of existence in which the human being should become fully conscious. Because of the Fall, both the microcosmic self and the personal self became ‘kindled in wrath’ as Jacob Boehme puts it. The personality and the microcosmic self are reflections of each other and if the personality transgresses the divine laws, the microcosmic self shares the consequences.

When the microcosm ‘fell’ in vibration rate and so entered this universe of time and space, the microcosmic self kept losing his counterpart, the personality, through death. By the process of human reproduction the microcosmic selfwas given the opportunity of recreating the personality.

After a baby has been conceived somewhere, the microcosmic self of a microcosm without a personality infuses his life into the spinal column ofthe foetus and so the personality can continue the journey where the previous one was broken off through death. All the previous experiences, talents, fears, desires and faults are poured back into the foetus. The new baby about to be born is a faithful replica of the microcosmic self, which itself is a faithful replica of the previous person inhabiting the microcosm. And so the cycle of reincarnation turns endlessly, the lower or personal self changing the microcosmic self through life, then dying, and the microcosmic self projecting himself into a new foetus and thus creating a new personality.

Meanwhile Lily is asleep in the heart of the personality. She is like the sphinx under the desert sand. Like Peer Gynt the personality wanders through the endless deserts until one day he realises the total futility of it all, and finds the buried sphinx. He uncovers the sphinx and Lily wakes up. A microcosm is just like a cosmos. Just as the earth has a zodiac of twelve constellations surrounding it, so does the personality. The microcosm has a spherical ‘shell’ around it with twelve concentrations of energy and numerous smaller ‘stars’. These ‘stars’ are electromagnetic fields which contain all the person’s interests, ambitions, phobias, desires. Naturally they differ for every person.

The microcosm has seven ‘shells,’ each of which corresponds to one of the seven cosmic planes that comprise the universal House of God. As the human beings we are live in the Seventh Cosmic Plane*, the seventh shell of the microcosm is active and the twelve constellations of the microcosmic zodiac burn brightly and control our lives as the puppet master controls his marionettes.

Before the Fall it was the twelve constellations of eternal beauty and harmony in the sixth shell that governed the microcosm. As the twelve wise fairies bestowed their divine gifts upon the young princess in ‘Briar Rose’, so the twelve stars in the original microcosm shone with unbelievable glory on the personal self, providing him with twelve faculties to carry the Divine Plan to its spectacular fulfilment. This was ‘when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’. (Job 38:7)

However the Fall resulted in the extinguishing of the twelve Stars of Eternal Life and twelve new lights were lit. Lucifer, the bright morning star, fell from heaven and the whole microcosm was kindled in unholy fire. Man had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That is Lucifer: Voldemort - a mixture of good and evil. This is why Quirrell says, expressing Voldemort’s philosophy: There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.... And the personality, as a creation of Lucifer, is likewise a mixture of good and evil. However no matter how good, we still live outside of the Divine Plan. Until the twelve stars shine in the sixth shell of the microcosm, we exist as creatures of Voldemort and will remain subject to death and suffering. Voldemort is not our enemy. He is our personal god, our creator, the provider of our life energy, albeit a temporary life. Until Harry is born.

James kisses Lily, the sleeping princess of eternal beauty, and she wakes up. Their union results in the birth of a baby boy whose coming was foretold eons ago:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ (Isaiah 9:6)

A new soul is born in the person and this is destined to drive Lucifer from his throne.Atthe birth oftheBoy the ancient, long extinguished morning star begins to glimmer in the sixth microcosmic shell. Sirius, the bright new morning star, is visible again for the first time in innumerable millennia.

Voldemort knows that a power greater than he has been born in his realm and he sets out to kill it before it can grow beyond his control. Like Herod he attempts to kill the power not of this world, but, like Herod, he fails. He has become Satan, the ‘adversary’, and will fight Harry to the last breath.

This same story appears in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosycross. On the fourth day a play is performed and begins thus: A very ancient King came on, with some servants; before his throne was brought a little chest, with mention being made that it was found upon the water. Now it being opened, there appeared in it a lovely baby, together with some jewels, and a small letter of parchment sealed and superscribed to the King, which the King therefore opened; and having read it, wept, and then declared to his servants how injuriously the King of the Moors had deprived his aunt of her country, and had extinguished all the royal seed except this infant, with the daughter of which country he had now the intention of matching his son.

The King of the Moors here is Voldemort. There was no worry about racial discrimination in those days and with apologies to any black people reading this, black was used as a symbol of the power of darkness.

Voldemort is also discussed in eastern spiritual traditions; for example in Buddhism he is called Mara, bitterness.