Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 89 – Harry Starts To Wake Up (HP Chapter 17)
Since Harry believed he needed to keep Quirrell talking in order to survive, he brought up seeing Quirrell and Snape in the forest together.
The comment didn’t distract Quirrell from the mirror. Quirrell simply walked behind it and kept talking. Quirrell’s movement was a slow circular action. He was circling the mirror, but Jo hid that from us because Quirrell was talking and moving so slowly we don’t see it. At the moment, Quirrell is on the backside of the mirror. This circle is the same movement Dumbledore did just before he and Harry entered The Cave (the subconscious mind, or heart) at the end of Book 6.
Professor Snape suspected Quirrell of wrong doing. He wanted to find out just how far Quirrell had gotten in his plans to steal the Stone. He tried to frighten Quirrell, but that wasn’t possible because of Quirrell’s Master. This was Quirrell’s perspective. We learn that Quirrell was a servant, but at this point, we don’t know whom he’s working for.
Our clue is that Harry was shocked to see Quirrell, confused because he thought Snape had tried to kill him, and he was tied up (or paralyzed). When our conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed (asleep), some people believe that the Shadow Self surfaces and attempts to overcome us. This sets us up for the possibility of our false Ego selves (our collective Not-I’s) and Shadow Self to unite. At which point, the Shadow takes over completely and sits on the Throne. If that happens, we become a slave to our Shadow.
However, like everything else about our self that we believe is real, but isn’t, this Shadow Self is just an illusion, a piece of our conditioning. Further down the road at the end of Book 5, after Harry experienced the dramatic shock of Sirius’ death, Voldemort did attempt to possess him, but it was a pivotal moment in Harry’s journey.
Because of that attempted possession, we learned that Voldemort’s greatest weakness was his failure to understand that there were things worse than death – like the pain Harry felt as the two of them united, or the torture and result of that torture Neville’s parents experienced. We learned that Harry being able to feel emotional pain was his greatest strength. Those who cannot feel cannot Love. We also learn about the existence of the locked room in the Department of Mysteries, our inner self.
To someone who hasn’t reached that pivotal moment in their journey where love ignites and becomes an active force in their lives – when we find our anima and discover our loving self – the “Power” of Love is basically an unknown force. In our conditioned state, our blindness, we believe we know what Love is. We believe we have a heart, yet we are cold, indifferent, angry and controlling toward our fellowman.
In fact, we literally create accounts against those we believe have wronged us or mistreated us in some way. Accounts that can never be paid. Accounts that keep others eternally in our debt.
Voldemort despised Love, so he was unable to remain inside Harry once Harry’s heart filled with Love at the thought of seeing Sirius again. It was a clue that the Power of Love was what will defeat Voldemort.
Voldemort characterizes the conditioning that causes us to strive for power and control over others, in addition to avoiding discomfort and seeking after pleasure, but the Key I’ve been overlooking was found within the Prophecy that Harry retrieved from the Department of Mysteries: “Neither can live while the other survives.”
Harry (who characterizes the Pure Love of Christ) cannot co-exist with Voldemort. Why? Because “I” cannot serve both God and Mammon. What popped into my mind at that question was a scene in the third movie where Lupin tells Harry that what he feared most was fear itself. As many times as I’ve seen that movie, it never clicked what he was sharing with us until now. If Harry and Voldemort cannot co-exist, then Voldemort (or Mammon) can only represent Fear itself.
It is fear that cannot co-exist with Love because perfect Love casts out all fear!
Quirrell believed he had Voldemort’s protection because he served him. Self serves his conditioning or fear. He didn’t realize that Voldemort only protected those who were useful to him. Once that use was gone, you became disposable. Voldemort was like one of the many false gods we worship, only he’s the strongest one. He was the last bit of conditioning that Harry faced because he ruled over all of the others.
Quirrell returned to the front side of the mirror, completing the circle (reminiscent of the snake biting his own tail), and looked directly into it. He could see the Stone. He could see himself presenting the Stone to his Master, but couldn’t figure out where the Stone was. Quirrell had no desire to obtain the Stone for himself. Everything he did was for Voldemort’s immortality, not his own. He had completely sold himself to Voldemort. He had given into his fears, and they were now in complete control of him.
Harry struggled against the ropes. His struggle was a sign that his mind was coming out of its paralyzed condition. He was Waking Up to who and what he was. As he Awakened, he felt a strong need to distract Quirrell from the mirror.
At Level Five, we learned about the existence of Love within ourselves through personal, one-on-one relationships with significant others and family members, but its Power was weak. We had only discovered its existence. It wasn’t perfected yet, so we continued to seek for Salvation outside of ourselves. We still owned possessions. Everything continued to be “I” and “me.” We still had needs. We still perceived the world in terms of black and white.
“But Snape always seemed to hate me so much,” Harry said. In Harry’s perspective, Professor Snape hated him, so he hated Snape. Quirrell agreed. Snape and Harry’s father went to Hogwarts together. They hated each other, but Snape never wanted Harry dead. Again, this was Quirrell’s perspective. It’s faulty because with fear in control, Quirrell had no ability to understand or relate to the Love that Professor Snape carried in his heart for Harry. But neither did Harry.
Harry viewed Snape as his mortal enemy, an opposing force that was preventing him from reaching his goal of non-disturbance. Snape made him feel uncomfortable. He probably triggered emotional memories that reminded Harry of the way the Dursleys treated him. As a result, Harry set up an account against Snape. No matter what Snape did, Snape still owes him. It’s an account that Snape can never repay. It will remain open until Harry Wakes Up and realizes that account isn’t valid.
The role that Snape plays in Harry’s life will remain hidden until fear removes him because Snape and Voldemort cannot co-exist either. In fact, if Snape had been portrayed as a loving character reflective of his heart, Voldemort would have considered him weak and useless rather than a valuable ally. In addition, Snape’s Severity is as important to Harry’s evolution as Dumbledore’s Mercy is. Together, they help Harry understand what few of us ever find: the Truth.
That’s because like Harry, we are unable to see past our conditioning and fears. Although Harry resents the Dursleys, they gave him the environment he needed to construct his illusionary belief system. Among other things, that belief system required him to blame someone for his discomfort. It required him to see the world in terms of opposing forces. It weighed him down with the accounts he constructed against others.
While Dumbledore offered him understanding, protection, and mercy, Snape was the one who finally presented Harry with Truth. The War in Heaven wasn’t real. It’s an illusion. It never was. It is, and always was, a lie. There is no opposing force, no winner, or loser. Satan and Lucifer are evil creatures we have created in our minds. We have not been mistreated or wronged. We have not been sinned against. We must give up “all” of our possessions and belief systems, including our will to win a war that doesn’t exist except in our own mind.
Snape did call Harry’s father a swine (impure) and he obviously carried pain due to the way James treated him, but he never used the word “hate” as Harry does. He simply suffered from the accounts that everyone created against him due to the illusions of their conditioning, and reported what he observed to Dumbledore. “You see what you want to see.”