Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 90 – There is No Good or Evil (HP Chapter 17)
Harry brought up overhearing Quirrell sobbing a few days earlier. He thought Snape had threatened him, but Quirrell corrected that misjudgment too. It wasn’t always easy to follow his Master’s instructions. His Master was a Great Wizard and Quirrell was weak. Conditioned man often sees himself as weak. He believes what his Not-I’s tell him. He blames his reactions on what others make him do, because he’s full of greed, vanity, and pride.
Harry grew confused again. Was Quirrell’s Master in the classroom that day? “He is with me wherever I go,” Quirrell said. He met his Master when he was traveling around the world. He was a foolish, young man back then filled with ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed him how wrong he was.
Many of us have ridiculous ideas about good and evil as well. It’s part of our conditioning. However, duality has its place and purpose in the Divine Plan. We cannot overcome all things without first being caught in the trap of our self-made illusions. Each of the seven levels of Alchemy has a pair of opposites that must be resolved. In addition, three major poles on the Tree of Life must also be reconciled. These three last poles are represented by Dumbledore, Snape, and Harry.
In essence, we cannot come to understand, know, and embrace the Power of Love (self-sacrifice) until we have first experienced its two opposing forces of Severity/Judgment and Mercy.
To defend his point, Quirrell suggested that there was, “no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it…”
Most of us would look at Quirrell’s statement as being completely false. But if one has learned the lessons of the seven Alchemical levels, cleansed themselves of all impurities (our false selves and all of the accounts we hold against others), united with the Holy Spirit, and now view all things as One, there is no good or evil. Evil as we currently define it doesn’t exist because we are all One. Good and Evil are manmade creations that come from fear.
So what about power? Well, that statement is true too. There “is” only power. One Power. For example, there is the power to control and the power to submit. There is the power to take and the power to give. There is the power to heal and the power to hurt. There is the power to hate and the power to love. Try it. Take everything you now define as good and evil and place them within the context of power. It works for everything. There is no good and evil; there is only power.
It’s only after those first two statements that Quirrell presents us with the lie: “and those too weak to seek it.” This was subjective because it defines strength and weakness from Quirrell’s twisted perspective. It attempts to manipulate us into accepting Quirrell’s suggestion that we are weak if we don’t seek for power over others.
The truth is, we already have the Power to Act. We don’t have to seek it. Harry will learn that in Book 3 when he stops waiting for his father to show up and save him, and he uses his Patronis to save himself and Sirius. At that point, he rids himself of self-doubt and insecurity, uses his Power to Act, and comes to understand that he and his father are One.
The truth? There is no good and evil. There is only One Power – and what you choose to do with it.
Quirrell (the self) chose to give Voldemort his freedom and allegiance. He had been serving Voldemort ever since Voldemort tricked him into it. Jo showed us firsthand what the consequences were for those who allow their fears to overcome them. In reality, just before we wake up to our awful situation and begin to do something about it, we find ourselves in the condition that Quirrell is in.
The mirror continued to frustrate Quirrell. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?” Quirrell realized where the Stone was at, but he couldn’t understand how to use his mind and heart to acquire it. The only thing he could think of was to physically break the mirror.
At Level One, the physical level of being, we have no understanding of internal things. Everything is literal and physical to us. Harry’s mind, however, was racing. He was remembering what Dumbledore had told him. The mirror showed you whatever you wanted most at that moment. That was a bit simplistic, because the mirror is actually the doorway that leads into our subconscious mind, but it gave us a glimpse of what’s in there.
What Harry wanted at that moment more than anything else was to find the Stone before Quirrell did.
Harry believed that if he looked into the mirror, he would see that happening. He was introducing us to the idea that the mirror reflected our internal selves. Book 1 seems to be a “call” to Awaken to our Quirrell-like situation.
Harry didn’t know how to look into his heart without Quirrell knowing what he was doing. As he learned in the room with the flying Keys, it takes a lot of concentration to see internally. We have to literally shut out the material world. Harry tried to inch his way to the left. Harry’s goal was to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing. When he tried to do that, he tripped and fell due to his bonds, but Quirrell was so busy talking to himself he didn’t notice Harry fall.
Conditioned man believes everything is about “me.” We are totally preoccupied with our self. Others exist only as a means to help us get what we want. We fall many times as we attempt to move toward the Middle Path. Harry was trying to resolve the duality of Severity and Mercy. He didn’t understand that the Middle Path was found within the act of sacrifice. His sacrifice. He will only come to realize that once Dumbledore and Professor Snape sacrifice themselves first, and then Snape hands Harry that Key