Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 51 – Harry Discovers the Mirror of Erised (HP Chapter 12)
Later on, after Ron fell asleep, Harry couldn’t help but wonder about the invisibility cloak. “Use it well,” the note had said. Harry climbed out of bed and tried the cloak on. It was smoother than silk and as light as air. When he looked down at his legs, he could only see moonlight and shadows. He was truly invisible. No one would be able to see him. That knowledge gave him a funny feeling. “Use it well.” Suddenly, Harry understood what the note was trying to tell him. The knowledge jarred him wide awake. The cloak of invisibility would allow him to go anywhere in the castle that he desired. Filch would never know. No one would know. That brought feelings of excitement.
Harry hesitated only because he was unsure as to whether he should wake Ron or not, but decided he wanted to use his father’s cloak alone this time. So he crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the Common Room, and climbed through the portrait hole. The fat lady who guarded the hole couldn’t see Harry, but she knew someone was there. Harry ignored her questions and kept walking. We are under no obligation to answer anyone’s questions. This was also similar to how we know we have a divine spark, but can’t physically see it.
At first, Harry didn’t know where he should go. This how many of us feel when we first enter the Path of Liberation. We have no clue as to what we are supposed to do with the information and pieces of the puzzle we currently have. It was only after Harry had left the Gryffindore tower that he realized the potential for success the cloak gave him.
In fact, it was only after Harry left his current environment that enlightenment came to him. Harry could sit in the restricted section and read for as long as it took to find Nicolas Flamel. The invisibility of our New Soul is what allows it to do its work without being hindered, but there also seems to be the point being made here that we have to take some form of action in order to move forward. The knowledge Harry was seeking wouldn’t have automatically came. He had to go in search of it by using the tools he had so far been given.
The library was pitch-black, similar to how we are inside when the New Soul has recently been born, but this also symbolizes our darkened condition when we first attempt to make the U-turn that will lead us to Eternal Life. It is often too dark to see clearly. Harry lit a lamp so he could see the books better, but the titles of the books didn’t help much. The book titles were in a language that Harry didn’t understand.
This made me smile because when you’re first introduced to symbolism and allegory it is pretty much the same for many of us.
Some of the books have no title at all. For Harry, they were absolutely no help. He set the lamp down carefully on the floor. Using his instinct to guide him, he pulled a large black and silver book from the shelf. While Harry’s instincts were generally correct, we don’t see the ultimate purpose in Harry’s picking that particular book because at his touch, the book started screaming!
Stumbling backward, Harry knocked over the lamp, which caused the light to go out. Harry’s knee-jerk reaction and shock at the book’s screams was what actually caused him to stumble. We cannot go backward without giving up at least some of our light, but in this particular case, Harry lost all of his light. That means he fell backward quite a ways, but the loss of light enabled him to prevent Filch’s capture.
We will all have momentary relapses as we travel the path. They are not a bad thing. Nothing is pure black or white. The dark things in our lives often turn out to be blessings in disguise.
Harry heard footsteps coming toward the library and panicked. Shoving the book back onto the shelf, he made a run for it. Harry was scared. His expectation of being able to read at leisure hadn’t materialized for him. He’d momentarily forgotten that he was invisible. He began reacting to his violent emotional response, rather than making a conscious choice. All he cared about at that moment was getting away from the library.
When he came face-to-face with a large suit of armor a few minutes later, he suddenly realized that he didn’t know where he was. Fear blinds and confuses us. When we react out of fear, we don’t always realize what we’re doing or where we are. We might not even understand how we got here. The suit of armor made me think it might be the same armor Neville tripped over earlier, but since Harry was so anxious to get away from Filch and the library, he didn’t pay attention to where he was going. That is much like us. We think we know what we are doing, but we don’t.
At that moment, Harry heard Filch’s voice. Filch was talking to Snape about someone being in the Restricted Section. Harry was shocked. He didn’t understand how Filch had caught up to him so quickly, but he guessed that Filch must know of a short cut because he and Snape were not very far away from him. We are being set up for when Harry receives the Maurader’s Map later on in the series.
Harry chose to stand still as the pair came around the corner. He was thinking more clearly now. He was invisible, but the corridor was narrow. If Filch and Snape come too close to him, they could easily bump into him. The cloak made him invisible, but he was still solid.
When we enter higher vibrational planes such as the etheric or astral plane, that doesn’t make us less solid. We are just vibrating at a faster pace, so those vibrating slower than us can’t see us – but we are still there. Likewise, if we are vibrating slower than another entity who is standing in our presence, we won’t be able to see them either. It takes both of us vibrating at exactly the same rate to come face-to-face with each other. But in Harry’s case, if Snape or Filch were to bump into him, they would know he was there.
Harry backed up as quietly as he could. He noticed a door off to his left. It was ajar, so he squeezed through the door, trying as hard as he could not to move it. Narrow hallways, squeezing through doors in hopes of not opening them any wider made me think about the internal situation our inner spark finds itself in initially. It runs around trying not to let anyone know it is there. For Harry, squeezing through the doorway worked. Filch and Snape walked past the door without realizing that’s where Harry was hiding.
Harry began to examine the room. It was a new place for him. It looked like an old, unused classroom, except for a large mirror that seemed out of place. An old classroom made me think of a past lifetime. Something Harry didn’t remember. The mirror had a gold frame, reached as high as the ceiling, and stood on two clawed feet. It was large. Framed in a gold aura with two clawed feet, the description of the mirror made it almost sound like it is a living being. It was tall, had a physical shape that was outlined in gold, and had two feet.
There was an inscription around the top of the mirror, but Harry didn’t know what it said. Undoubtedly, it was probably written in Latin and held the key to what the mirror represented. Harry didn’t understand what the mirror was, but still wearing the cloak of invisibility, he stepped toward the mirror thinking he would not be able to see his reflection. He was wrong. What he saw in the mirror caused him to scream out loud in shock. Not only could he see himself, but there was also a crowd of people standing right behind him!