The Alchemy of JK Rowling

Chapter 66 - The Seven Horcruxes

A Horcrux in Harry Potter is an object in which a wizard can conceal part of his soul by means of a murder and an accompanying spell. We know that Voldemort has torn his soul into eight pieces by means of seven murders.

Every one of us has a Voldemort ruling our lives. He is our friend as long as we just do what he wants, but when the eternal spark of the Divine Spirit begins to glow again in the heart, and Harry is born as the wondrous Divine Soul that will lift us into eternal life, Voldemort becomes our mortal enemy. He tries to kill the beautiful new soul, but, just as Herod failed to kill Jesus, Voldemort cannot kill Harry. Harry is predestined, as the ‘chosen one’, to destroy the Voldemort living in our microcosm.

Voldemort is our microcosmic self, which is the result of our disobedience of the laws of God’s original universe. Liberation consists of an alchemical process of transmutation and transfiguration in which everything earthly and temporary (‘lead’) is converted to a divine and eternal (‘gold’) counterpart. As soon as we begin this process, we find that our microcosmic self becomes our Satan (‘enemy’) who tries to tighten his hold on us. We discover that we have to destroy not only him, but that he has seven other places in our being where he controls us. We have to seek out each one of these and destroy the domination of our personal Voldemort through them.

1. Voldemort Voldemort himself symbolises a mighty concentration of astral (‘emotional’) energy in our aura. It is bigger than the mortal personality and keeps on living after we die. It radiates part of itself into a new baby after our death, and so we can say that Voldemort is truly immortal - until Harry is born in the heart of the personality.

2. Tom Riddle’s diary One of the most powerful ways the microcosmic self controls the personality is through the subconscious mind. CG Jung said that the subconscious mind is more powerful in its effect on ourlives than the conscious mind. In fact the subconscious mind is a record of all the previous lives we have lived under Voldemort’s domination - hence this is symbolised by a diary, a perfect symbol for a record of events. The sacral plexus at the bottom of the spine is the place where the subconscious mind influences our ‘tree of life’, the spinal cord with the brain as its crown. This is also the place where our karma lies rolled up like a coiled Basilisk. The sacral plexus is symbolised in Harry Potter by the Chamber of Secrets, and this is why Harry was able to destroy both the Basilisk and Tom Riddle’s diary there. Harry destroyed the diary Horcrux by intuition.

Without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the Basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book. From: The Chamber of Secrets Chepter 17

3. The Ring of Peverell Our ordinary physical body is surrounded by a magnetic sphere several metres in radius. This sphere has a boundary, which alchemists call ‘the ring’. This magnetic ring receives astral or ‘desire’ energy, which it radiates into the personality through 12 main focal points and many lesser ones. This process causes all our interests, desires and talents. At the same time this ring keeps out divine energy. This is why we are mortal. If we were to be able to receive the indestructible energy from the divine universe, we would be immortal. In Harry Potter this microcosmic ring is symbolised by the Ring of Peverell, whichVoldemort took from his grandfather’s shack. This shack symbolises the ruined microcosm we have become since the Fall. The Horcrux was destroyed by Dumbledore, personifying the healing, sanctifying spirit that comes into us to do the work of alchemical transmutation. The microcosmic ring is made impotent and is ‘demagnetised’ by the process of transmutation, so that all the alchemist’s earthly interests and desires fade and are replaced by an intense desire to return to the Divine Fatherland. He wants to do nothing but God’s will again.

4. Slytherin’s Locket We feel our emotions and desires in our heart. That’s because we have a centre of consciousness there, called the emotional ego. A person’s heart can be a cesspool, a murderer’s den or a fire of love, depending on our desires. That emotional ego is put into the heart at our birth by our microcosmic self. At the same time our heart also contains the eternal flower put there by God. This is symbolised by Lily. The emotional ego is symbolised in Harry Potter by Slytherin’s locket. It’s a perfect symbol, as it is hollow and hangs in front of the heart. Harry and Dumbledore make a great effort to steal the locket from a cave (the heart) where Voldemort had originally hidden it, only to find that Regulus Black, Sirius’ brother, had taken it away before he died.

Harry, Ron and Hermione find the locket after a long search.

5. Hufflepuff’s Cup This cup was stolen by Tom Riddle from Hepzibah Smith, as we know. Dumbledore thinks Voldemort turned this golden cup into a Horcrux. This immediately brings into mind the Grail. Part of the process of alchemical transmutation that the candidate for liberation has to put into practice is to make the Holy Grail for himself. This means that he has to purify the whole region around the heart. All the organs in the chest, especially the 21 plexi in the throat and chest region, and the thyroid and thymus glands, must be purified by the soul-fire born from the Lily in the heart. This soulfire is personified by Harry, and so in effect Harry has to remove Voldemort’s soul from the golden cup, which turns it into a Grail. It is then worthy to receive the Blood of Christ. This Blood is the holy astral fire which will accomplish the process of transmutation and transfiguration, turning lead into gold.

6. Ravenclaw’s tiara The tiara symbolises the head. We know that Rowena Ravenclaw was very fond of clever students, emphasising the head again. The head of the normal human being is filled with a fiery etheric/ astral light which is concentrated in seven areas around the brain. This light is a force that belongs to the fallen universe, and is given to a foetus by the microcosmic consciousness (Voldemort) before birth.

In Part 7 the tiara is destroyed by a great alchemical fire. This symbolises the extinguishing of the 7 lights around the brain. They are replaced by the divine light of the new consciousness.

7. The scar Voldemort tore his soul when he killed Lily, and that he unwittingly created a Horcrux when he cursed baby Harry. This Horcrux was Harry’s scar, therefore. This explains why there is such a link between Harry and Voldemort. Harry had a piece of Voldemort’s soul in his head! We know from the previous books that Harry achieves a victory each time in upward order in one of the planes in which the human being manifests himself:

1. physical

2. etheric

3. astral

4. mental

5. the mental ego

6. the emotional ego

7. the consciousness ego. In Part 7 Harry liberates himself on the plane of the consciousness ego. This ego just happens to be situated in the head, behind the forehead just above the spot between the eyes - behind where Harry has his scar in fact.

8. Nagini In the spinal cord there is a fiery force known as the serpent-fire. It is clearly shaped like a snake. This fiery force is the column on which the I-consciousness rests. We’re not conscious of having it, but without it we could not be conscious. If we were to strip the human being to his absolutely basic core, we could visualise the serpent fire as the essential soul nucleus, and the I-consciousness as the snake’s head.

This is the first thing that the microcosmic consciousness thrusts into the foetus it’s adopting for a new incarnation. As soon as that happens, the foetus is alive. In Harry Potter this is symbolised by the snake, Nagini. As it’s the first, most basic force put into the personality, it is also the last Horcrux to be destroyed. In true life it is the Holy Spirit who enters the personality through the medulla oblongata, and then destroys the old serpent fire, replacing it with the fire of God. The medulla oblongata is symbolised by Neville Longbottom. His head is covered with the burning hat of Godric Gryffindor, giving us the same image as that of the apostles having tongues of fire on their heads as they receive the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament. Neville then decapitates the serpent, symbolising the death of the old serpent-fire, and hence of the old soul. The mortal, earthly soul is dead.