THE HARRY POTTER SERIES [part 2]
(11.18.11)

SPIRITUALITY
After seeing HP:The Deathly Hallows:part2, I came away thinking it was very “eastern.” Then again, most people would say “What? It’s very western.” On the surface, of course, it’s western (Anglo, European) with the British accents and the castles and production design, but why did I think eastern?

For me, it seems that eastern religions are kind of internal; like Ghandi, “Be the change you want to see in the world” and Buddha sitting under a tree and finding enlightenment by meditating. Whereas western religions are external, relying on an external god to save you, and pushing their religion on others. I’m not sure eastern religions imperialistically go to other countries, spreading their religion to other populations. A school like Hogwarts internalizes; hides away to a castle, has secret transportation systems to get there, keeps its secrets and knowledge from muggle eyes. As in the previous post, the Fellowship of the New Life, many whom were Theosophical Society, wanted to set an example in the industrial age, work on the internal, whereas the Fabians were more external and sought to change things more politically. Isn’t that always the case? A grassroots, well-intentioned, spiritual, creative group always gets coopted and infiltrated by the corrupt and control-freaks. Author Michael Tsarion talks about the Theosophical Society being coopted by Fabians, who were “pushers of left-wing socialistic philosophy,” having connections to the British royalty and political establishment. Tsarion is big on clearing up misconceptions.

A good overview documentary that explains this is Secrets of the Occult. The occult doesn’t mean devil worship -- it means things that are hidden. All witches aren’t evil -- there’s white magic and black magic. Helena Blavatsky wasn’t an evil witch -- it was other people coopting her ideas and work. Secret societies initially were not evil -- they were coopted. I also think mystery religions like early Christians were coopted by the political elite. George Washington believed aspects of freemasonry were coopted by illuminati. The Ministry of Magic was coopted by Death Eaters. The Ministry coopted Hogwarts. Yet, there would be ones who would break away and start anew, small grassroots and back to basics, like The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army.

Organized religion aside, I think there is a spiritual quest in the Harry Potter saga (and for the atheists, there’s a science angle I’ll get into later). It’s not just a boy having a rite-of-passage to become an adult. It’s boy to adult to friggin enlightenment. Most so-called adults are not mature at all, and Rowling wants to show that many of us has got a long way to go. Rowling has carried us through the life of Harry Potter in his quest to find his purpose in life, and it comes down to The Deathly Hallows.

Before I get to that, Harry Potter deals with good and bad choices throughout -- free will -- all along the way.

FREE-WILL
Around Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry Potter got increasingly angry, I had thought Harry Potter’s scar and Voldemort’s piece of soul within him was just Rowling saying it was a metaphor for the raging hormones of adolescence. Then, by Deathly Hallows, I realized it was about free will, the good and bad within all of us. Sirius Black says, “We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Dumbledore also says, “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” The sorting hat may place you…wherever, but it’s up to you and your choices in life. Just like Star Wars’ Jedi -- anybody can be corrupted and use the dark side. Use dark magic, but it’s up to you. Even the seemingly incorruptible Dumbledore admits he can be tempted, when he followed Grindelwald in his youth.

So, these ideas are about an internal change or power struggle within us. The west, as in the Judeo-Christian-Islam religions, believe mankind is just plain born bad, and only by external grace that a external god can save mankind. They would say this mentality makes us lose our big stumbling block: our pride. Although, some would say it makes us slave-like, a subservient people. I.e. we are, by nature, a pitiful sinful lot, and our only hope of salvation is to be saved from an outside force. The guilt-trip is suppressive, makes one submissive (quite the powerful tool for a church-state, if one so chose to coopt a religion...). I don’t see much about an external god in the Harry Potter saga, but I do see a lot of internal struggle and internal strength. And there is strength in numbers, and the cooperation of other humans.

If Star Wars is more like Jesus, with Anakin being conceived by midichlorians, then Harry Potter is more like Buddha. Someone with human parents, who lived his life with everything basically handed to him until the end. To gain enlightenment, he had to give up everything, any attachments, his life -- an unbelievably selfless act. He mastered the patronus charm, a Buddha-like blissful state. He would attain a sort of nirvana, a cessation of the struggle to survive, and a sort of enlightenment and mastery of being able to choose to come back to physical life. Hmm… well then Harry is like Jesus -- sacrificing himself, destroying the sin in him (represented as the part of Voldemort’s soul within him) so that others may live. Well, then Rowling is combining east meets west. Yeah, she is a globalist.

We have much to learn from foreigners. “International magical cooperation” as Hermione says. When east meets west, you combine each others notes, share technology and knowledge. The crusades brought back technology from the arabs and asians. The US got technology from the Nazis. Blavatsky traveled the world many times and brought back eastern religions. The coming together and breaking apart of knowledge has been on a repeat cycle for thousands of years. Hogwarts definitely knew this. How?

Let’s go back a couple thousand years. In the Egyptian/Greek times, there were mystery schools and ancient texts, like those attributed to Thoth and Hermes (the Hermetica) and others, that had all this ancient knowledge (that modern scientists would get inspiration from today) about astrology, alchemy, medicine, math, spirituality, etc. Buddha and Jesus traveled the world learning from gurus and collecting ancient knowledge. Christianity would be coopted as the Christian rulers suppressed all the the mystery school stuff, called it all heretical, to keep people dumb and controlled. It became occult, hidden. However, the east kept it. The west had their Dark Ages. Then the crusades traveled the world, brought back Arabic and Asian technology, and there was a resurgence of art and science in the 15th century, the Renaissance. Why do you think the east was more technologically advanced than the west? Fuck Darwin -- mankind didn’t advance in a linear fashion. The ancients and magicians already knew this knowledge. The west just suppressed it for political reasons, to keep its own people down. Ancient texts are under lock and key in the Vatican, no doubt. What’s also important is the theological renaissance, and that threatened the rulers of the west even more. Secret societies had to be formed to keep and maintain all this knowledge, but time and again, as stated before, they are infiltrated and coopted to be discredited. Knight's Templar, Freemasons, Hermetical Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, the Fellowship of the New Life. Time and again, there would arise a new theological and even artistic renaissance, trying to break free. The Victorian Age occult craze, the 60’s new age, and today. Ancient mystery school knowledge and spirituality are what the secret societies are about. This is what Hogwarts is. Why do you think people in the Harry Potter world look like they’re stuck in the Renaissance or the Victorian age? Because those were high points in the renewed interest in occultism and secret societies. Modern technology is all influenced from the ancients. Galileo and Isaac Newton‘s scientific ideas were influenced by the Hermetica and occult ideas. Thomas Edison was a Theosophical society member. Probably everything in your house is from alchemy. Carl Jung says alchemy “is the basis of our modern way of perceiving things.” I find it interesting that modern Russian scientists are making modern pyramids as healing centers.

THE VEIL
The Veil in the Ministry of Magic is an ancient stone arch with a veil in between the living and dead dimensions. It seems the only people who has seen death can see the veil and hear the voices behind it, and also see thestrals, like Harry and Luna. The others can’t yet. This seems similar to people who have been close to death and have had NDE’s (near death experiences) and have come back with increased intuition and psychic abilities, as studied by a Dr. Jeffery Long. And the veil, in various religions, is the barrier between the living and the dead dimensions, or between knowledge. Also in Kabala, it’s called Veil of Paroketh, or portal of soul to body, or Veil of Illusion. In Buddhism and Hinduism the veil is the barrier people have from realizing that our experiences is an illusion of the physical and mental world; the struggle is to pierce the veil, understand you’re one with everything, or god, and always have been. A confusing thought to westerners who strive and strive for something, but the east believe we need to realize we already are. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” Dumbledore says.

Some say the veil is thinnest around Samhain and Beltane, Halloween and May Day (hmm, what political events happened on May Day… Ritual perhaps?). The witnessing of ghosts can be thought of as the barrier, veil, portal flicker between the 2 dimensions.

The study of the veil is the quest for the meaning of life. In the tree of life our soul knew everything at the higher levels, then passed down through the veil to forget our memories, and fell into our physical bodies at the lower levels to this earthly experience and go through the test of free-will. For if we knew everything and love was automatic, we would be robots. The test of life is remembering our power.

As in eastern thought, visualizing what you want, you already have -- the universe time and space reconfigures itself and makes it so. Western thought is to pray and pray and wish for external help. It’s a dangling carrot you’re always striving for because you’ve willed it to be out there and not within you. Like in Fight club, “The gun is in my hand.” Maybe this is similar to Harry Potter visualizing the Philosopher’s Stone and getting it. Or Harry being the one deserving of obtaining all 3 Deathly Hallows. The twist Rowling adds is that he deserved those powerful objects because he would be at a point to understand his role in life and death, have a natural acceptance, instead of constant desire.

THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
The Deathly Hallows symbol seems very similar to the unofficial illuminati symbol of the eye and pyramid. Why? As in the previous post, it seems secret societies (Theosophy, Hermetica, freemasons, illuminati) were/are keepers of occult and spiritual knowledge, forced underground from the mainstream west, having many famous members who have spawned the most famous classic fantasy, sci-fi, and children’s books (Tokien, Lewis, Baum, Wells). From these books, the readers are groomed with these occult (simply meaning hidden) ideas already, planted with pieces to the puzzle of the universe, like parables containing huge wisdom and lessons of life. However, it's only a few people, only those smart enough to put all the pieces together, that reach an epiphany, an enlightenment, an illumination. Ron and Hermione both have heard of the The Tales of Beedle the Bard and The Tale of the Three Brothers, but Harry would be the one to live through its life lesson and actually become enlightened from it. The 3 Deathly Hallows would give great power to the wizard who had all 3, but the true possessor deserving of it would welcome death, would not fear it, when it truly came down to it. Would Hermione and Ron have done the same?

Fellow seekers of the Deathly Hallows wear the symbol or mark their stuff with it as a sign to recognize others who also follow the Hallows. Like the media's portrayal of a kooky conspiracy theorist, Xenophilius Lovegood is portrayed as a wacko. As if all people who believe in the illuminati are wacko nutjobs, so too are the seekers of the Deathly Hallows. But that's all proven wrong when well-respected professionals like Dumbledore bears the symbol in his letters, and ultimately in the end, the Deathly Hallows are true and do exist. I think George Washington was well-respected when he acknowledged the illuminati's infiltration in freemasonry.

In his youth, Dumbledore meets Gellert Grindelwald and they seek to possess the 3 Deathly Hallows. Talking to Harry in limbo, Dumbledore says, “I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”

Like the reluctant hero, who struggles with the idea of being the hero, only to not just eventually accept it, but to “wear it well.” It is only when we stop seeking or struggling, that we find. Maybe it’s Buddhist or Hindu (I’m mixing it all up, who cares) thought that we always have this struggle to survive so much, but we can realize we don’t have to struggle at all. Nirvana. Maybe it’s similar to when you struggle to think of a good idea or solution to your problem, only to come up with the best ideas later, sitting on the john, out for a walk, almost sleeping, or thinking about something else.

“I open at the close,“ reads the inscription on the golden snitch that holds the Resurrection Stone. It’s a similar thought to the acceptance of life and death. Consider the 3 ways in which the Peverell brothers died. The first brother was murdered -- a life lesson cut short, may have to start again and reincarnate. The second was a suicide -- life cut short and obviously didn’t want to play. The third, after living a full life lesson, willingly exposed himself and died naturally. Dying voluntarily, letting go of the thought of your physical self, knowing your physical body is vessel, that there is a higher dimension souls attain to, gaining an enlightenment of sorts. Harry’s tasted death as a baby, seen the ghosts of his family and friends, so he knows there is an afterlife. Knowledge is one thing. Actually doing it is another. True character is revealed when you’re truly tested to your limits, at your limits.

Harry would be responsible with power. Dumbledore would be tempted to abuse it, in his youth. “I was unworthy to unite the Hallows, I had proved it time and again…Maybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows, Harry…I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it…But the cloak, I took out of curiosity, and so it could never have worked for me as it works for you, its true owner. The stone I would have used in an attempt to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable my self-sacrifice, as you did. You are the worthy possessor of the Hallows.”

“I was scared that, if presented outright with the facts about those tempting objects, you might seize the Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons…You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.” Just as the last Percival brother, Harry Potter would depart this life with Death, “as equals.” I believe being equals to mean the enlightened person would know as much with the higher consciousness because he would reunite with that higher consciousness, or god, or whatever you choose to call it, passing on back up through the veil.


So, imagine the superiority complex that would arise in the type of power hungry people who would believe they had all this powerful occult knowledge. They would believe that people who are not as illuminated as they are would be considered inferior. Consider the definition of fascism.

COMING SOON IN part3: Voldy and Fascism and The Wizarding World.