Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 83 – The Fake Locket (HP Chapter 16)
Dumbledore spent a lot of time throughout Book 6 preparing Harry with enough knowledge to complete the task he started. He and Harry spent most of the time piecing together the puzzle that was Voldemort. In Dumbledore’s wisdom, what he was actually doing was preparing Harry to come face-to-face with his Shadow Self. That is the ultimate challenge of Alchemy. To stop identifying with the false aspects of our self, renounce our false beliefs, and help put our True Self back on his Throne.
During this period of new understanding, we learn that Voldemort had split himself into several pieces. One of the Mystery Schools I’m familiar with calls each of these pieces “Not-I.” Each piece must be discovered, found, and then worked on, let go, or destroyed – individually. Harry also came face-to-face with the principle of Power. Power heals, but if it’s not strictly guarded and used properly, it can also destroy.
Teaching us about that Power and the intent behind using it comes through various methods. Jo used Ron’s backfiring wand to warn us throughout the series about what happens when we desire to see others suffer. That desire often backfires upon our self, but Harry didn’t understand the lesson, so it repeated for him again, and again.
In my own spiritual tradition, the wall that blocks our way at this level is referred to as “called” versus “chosen.” Many are called, but few are chosen. So why are they not chosen to go on? Because their hearts embrace the things of this world. We chase after the honors of men, what this world believes is important, but mostly because we don’t learn the lesson inherent within Level 6 – that vanity, pride, and ambition leads us to compel others to fulfill our desires and will. They don’t lead to lifting up our fellowman. They don’t lead to fulfilling the Lord’s will. They lift up or exalt our self.
Using our spiritual power to dominate and control others is the largest hurdle that our male energies must overcome and one of the predominant faults of the Natural Man. While learning to overcome our temper is also a big issue, domination and control chases away the Violet Flames of transformation, leaving us with no way to cleanse ourselves of our misdeeds and resulting karma. Eventually, if we don’t open the door to our heart, instead of transforming ourselves into the Divine Image, we become like Quirrell and transform ourselves into Voldemort.
It takes Harry almost killing Draco before he understands the damaging effect of Power.
All of that, coupled with the realization of the horcruxes and Harry’s experiences with Felix Felicis (the Holy Spirit) all serve to help him let go of his perceived riches, his perceived independence and precious beliefs, and place the real King back onto his Throne. The greatest lesson the Hanged Man has to offer us is that we actually control by letting go. We win only when we surrender and sacrifice ourselves to the Divine Will. That’s when we emerge the victor.
But as Harry is paralyzed, held against the wall, and forced to submit himself to Dumbledore’s will at the end of Book 6, he still doesn’t understand.
In addition, we have to eventually turn ourselves back around. Just as Harry picked up the locket from the grass where it had fallen out of Dumbledore’s pocket, we have to turn it over in our hands. When we do that, our perspective completely changes. The realization for Harry was that he and Dumbledore were One. Harry would go on to take Dumbledore’s place in hunting down and destroying the horcruxes. We see that new life begin as Harry expresses how Hogwarts was no longer as important to him as it was before. It had now taken a backseat.
The locket that Dumbledore had in his pocket had completely opened from the force as he hit the ground. Yet, it was a Fake. It was just as fake as our false personalities and aspects.
Someone had traveled the Path before Harry, and that person was in possession of the Real Locket. It was probably the body that temporarily jumped out of the lake when Harry tried to summon the horcrux, and I’m guessing it was also the Inferius that grabbed him by the arm in a type of conjunction within The Cave.
The experience Harry went through in The Cave wasn’t about the locket. Yes, Harry has to start hunting horcruxes (the false aspects of his self) and take care of them, but the locket he and Dumbledore retrieved from The Cave was a Fake. It mirrored the issues with our conditioned, fractured awareness. The experience in The Cave was about Harry’s union with The Holy Spirit.
Sulfur is sometimes referred to as the Spirit of Life. It comes in two varieties: white and red. It represents the active principle of The Great Work, while Mercury is passive. The first four stages of Alchemy work to purify and bring together the four known elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The last three stages purify and bring together the elements of Mercury, Sulfur and Salt. These additional elements represent the Spirit, Soul, and Body. That’s what we see in The Cave.
Mercury is the water aspect, Sulfur is the fire aspect, and Salt is the form aspect. At lower levels, Salt (knowledge and wisdom) is bitter because our self-knowledge can be quite painful. That’s why sea water or ocean is often used to symbolize self knowledge. It’s the second stage of The Great Work because that’s when light breaks through to bring us Wisdom – the Wisdom the serpent promised Eve in the Garden.
In the beginning, our Salt – our every day consciousness represented by Ron – isn’t pure. It has to be dissolved into the Divine Water of the Spirit and purified. This occurs during the White Stage and is the reason why Ron sacrificed himself at the end of the chess game. The Cave experience begins with Harry smelling Salt, hearing waves of water, and seeing Light. Harry and Dumbledore then enter the churning waters together, where Harry’s clothing (his impure self) billows around him and weighs him down. The passage way was tight and curved to the left.
Although left often represents our reasoning and judgment, Jung also referred to tight passageways and cramped quarters as symbolic of the trip we make to meet and face our Shadow. The left hand side also represents our subjective consciousness.
Dumbledore rose out of the water, and surveyed the place by rotating physically on the spot. He then explained to Harry that this was just the Entryway to the subconscious mind. They had to penetrate the “inner” place, the heart, to find what they were seeking after. From that point on, it was Voldemort’s obstacles they would face rather than nature’s. The troll had a bloody lump on his head because Voldemort required a physical injury that weakened the intruder in order to pass through the door. This was why Dumbledore must cut himself for them to get inside.
During the White Stage, the Divine Spirit unites with our Soul. Jo symbolized this by Harry and Dumbledore cramming themselves together inside Voldemort’s tiny boat in order to cross the black lake. The dead troll that the kids find was a lifeless body, similar to the dead bodies that Harry saw in the black lake.
Bodies are like boats. They are useful vehicles for the Spirit and Soul, but they are nothing to fear. It is the unknown that we actually fear, not darkness or even death. At first, I thought the dead bodies represented Harry’s past lives, but if our subconscious minds are connected to the subconscious minds of others, all of those bodies would actually represent everyone’s past lives as well as present demons.
Like all creatures that dwell in coldness and darkness, the demons in our subconscious mind fear light and warmth. As Hermione used the power of sunlight earlier to coax the Devil’s Snare into withdrawing from Harry and Ron, fire can also be used to aid us in our journey within the subconscious mind as well.
During this process of facing our inner demons, the Divine Spirit is brought down so it can spiritualize and shine through the Soul, but since our mind sees in opposites, Alchemical symbols often use opposing ideas such as fiery water or fire that doesn’t burn (in the case of Moses) to help us transcend our faulty perception.
The Red Lion purifies our male energies and helps us transform them into a more creative force. The sign of this accomplishment is when the Phoenix rises from the flames. That’s what Harry saw after Dumbledore’s body burst into white flames at his funeral. Yet, Harry had never felt so alone. All of his perceived protectors were now deceased. In his current perspective, there was only him and Voldemort.
As Harry and Hermione carefully stepped over one of the troll’s massive legs, Jo tells us that Harry was having trouble breathing . At that point, Harry’s old personality had died. He’d let go of everything, except – his heart was still just a Fake locket. Why?
“Severus,” said Dumbledore clearly, after they’d reached Hogsmead. “I need Severus.” Severus Snape was the one dark spot of hatred that still polluted Harry’s heart