Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 102 – Gryffindore Wins the House Cup (HP Chapter 17)
This was the seventh year in a row that Slytherin had won the House Cup. Seven is sometimes considered to be a cycle. It represents the seven processes of Alchemy. While Harry was living and sleeping at the Dursleys, Slytherin had won the House Cup for the past six years. Now, it looked like they were going to win again.
This could be a reflection of how at the very end, it will look like Voldemort had won. It will look like Harry had lost the game. But it also seems to define the stakes as being all or nothing. We either heal our fractured awareness, unite with the Holy Spirit, and achieve the Red Stone or we fall short of the goal of pure consciousness and remain Silver, rather than Gold.
Covering the wall behind the High Tables was a large banner that displayed the Slytherin serpent. This was a strong clue as to who Professor Snape might be.
A serpent is often seen as an evil entity because it was a serpent that approached Eve in the Garden of Eden and enticed her to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In reality, the serpent plays two roles. When he first approached Eve, he had wings. He didn’t lose his wings to crawl on his belly until after Eve partook of the Tree, but once the final victory had been achieved, Moses showed us that the snake’s wings were restored.
This implies that the serpent’s presence in our life was simply a role he took upon himself independent of his True character.
When Harry entered the room, there was a moment of complete silence. And then, everyone started talking loudly – all at once. Harry moved through the tables and slipped into a seat next to Ron and Hermione. He tried to ignore all of the people that were standing up to get a look at him. When the false aspects of our self learn that our True Self has woken up and is observing them, they will begin to watch him. They will feel uncomfortable and threatened.
Thankfully, Dumbledore arrived, causing the noise in the room to die. That was what happened at the very end. Once our self has been cleansed of everything that is impure, The Holy Spirit fills our being, and the noise of mental confusion and inner conflict dies.
“Another year gone,” Dumbledore said. Jo was setting us up to move into the next stage of Alchemy. The past dies the moment it’s lived, but our carnal nature and vanities hang onto it. We have to learn how to allow it to stay gone. What happened over the past year no longer exists. The only thing that exists is the present moment. Much of our inner conflict and the judgments we hold against others are a result of clinging to the past. We believe that “then” is “now.”
What a year it had been Dumbledore told us. That’s kind of the way we feel once we come to our senses and decide to pass through the strait and narrow Gate that leads Home. Life has beaten us up. What a Life we have had. “Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were…you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…”
This was a surprising comment. Dumbledore hoped the student’s heads were fuller than they were before the year started. He hoped they had more Not-I’s running around inside of their head than they had before coming to Hogwarts! Jo was calling attention once again to the head and our fractured awareness, but the inference here was mind blowing. Regardless of the original Biblical command to not partake of the Tree of Knowledge, it seems that our split awareness, our mortal conditioning, and our mortal illusions are all part of the Divine Plan.
In Egyptian Mystical Endowment, the goal was to reach the rank of Summer: a head that’s nice and empty of all false personalities. The school offered the students seven years of studies to help them reach that level, a Master, but it didn’t always happen that quickly. In fact, it’s pretty rare – even at Hogwarts. Not every Seeker has had the capacity to catch the Snitch. We see that in Harry’s father, James, and again in Draco.
Gryffindore came in last place with 312 points. Hufflepuff had 352, Ravenclaw 426, and Slytherin a whopping 472 points.
Harry felt sick to his stomach as he watched Draco happily bang his goblet down on the table. Draco was flaunting The Win. He was basking in the pleasure that winning gave him. He was wearing his happiness on his sleeve. However, Harry’s discomfort wasn’t something that he attempted to get rid of. He made no judgment regarding Draco’s actions. Harry simply revealed his own discomfort, but accepted it for what it was.
He didn’t see its value, so he still wasn’t reporting what’s going on accurately, but he was not trying to change things to get rid of his discomfort either. He was accepting things as they were.
“Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin,” Dumbledore said. Slytherin’s role in the events that occurred on the physical plane were exactly what we need to bring us to the point of Waking Up. If Harry hadn’t thought that Snape was going to try to steal the Stone, he never would have tried to save it. “But recent events must be taken into account.” The House Cup apparently symbolized the Holy Grail, so what we do up to and including the last minute matters in our attempt to acquire it.
At the announcement, the smiles on the Slytherin faces faded, and the room went still. Dumbledore had decided to award a few last minute points.
To a purple-faced Ron Weesley, Dumbedore gave 50 points for the best chess game Hogwarts had seen in many years. That took a combination of judgment, skill, and strength to pull it off. Harry could hear Ron’s brother, Percy, telling the other Prefects how his little brother had gotten past Professor McGonagall’s giant chess set. That was a clue that Percy was trapped within his carnal nature, vanity, and pride because he was just as prideful of Ron’s accomplishment (he’s identifying with Ron) as he was of his own.
When the room went silent again, Dumbledore also awarded 50 points to Hermione for her cool logic in the face of fire. Hermione’s role in figuring out Professor Snape’s riddle took a great degree of skill, restraint, and mental power because there was fire on both sides of the room. But the award embarrassed Hermione. She buried her face in her arms. Harry assumed she had burst into tears.
The Gryffindore students started going crazy, as they were now 100 points up. Fifty plus fifty is 100, which can be factored down into 10 and then 1. That’s the Middle Path on the Tree of Life: 10, traveling upwards through the Heart of King’s Cross and onward to the Crown. It gave them 412 points. It took both Ron and Hermione’s talents to get Harry to the Stone.
When Dumbledore mentioned Harry’s name, however, the room went deadly quiet. He was awarded 60 points for pure nerve and outstanding courage. Sixty factors down to the number 6, which is the very center sphere on the Tree of Life, the Heart. The Gryffindore students were hoarse from screaming as they now had 472 points and were tied with Slytherin.
Dumbledore raised his hand to quiet them. The end was not yet. When Harry and Professor Snape unite in Book 7, Harry’s task still wasn’t finished. He still had to sacrifice his Life Power in order to make the Transformation complete.
“There are all kinds of courage,” Dumbledore said. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies…” In reality, we don’t have any enemies, but Dumbledore is speaking to the students from their perspective. He’s using terms they can understand and relate to. Often, courage is only seen in the light of standing up to our enemies or something we are afraid of. Its additional forms of manifestation go unrecognized.
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” Dumbledore wasn’t looking at Neville’s actions in terms of right or wrong. He was simply seeing the bravery it took for Neville to do what he believed was right. It didn’t matter if Neville was right or wrong. The only thing that mattered was Neville’s courage and determination to do what he believed was right, despite what anyone else believed or thought of him for doing so. That is one of the qualifications for entering the Journey Home.
Dumbledore awarded Neville 10 points. Ten is no different from 100. It can symbolize both 10 and 1, the Middle Path. While Ron and Hermione unite to travel that Path together, Neville will do it by himself.
Gryffindore had 482 points so the Great Hall exploded with shouts for joy. Harry, Ron, and Hermione cheered while Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. This suggests that he’s completely buried by the false aspects of his self. He hadn’t won a single point for Gryffindore all year. Neville’s progress will be hidden throughout the series, just as Professor Snape’s is, but he will perform a great courageous act at the very end that will allow both Harry and Neville to accomplish the Great Work