Status Updates From Unlocking Harry Potter: Fiv...

Harry will integrate opposites of male and female energies. He will not follow the literal steps. In HP5, nigredo was the blistering hot drought. In HP7, the hot dry may be about the golden dawn and promise of a new day. It will also be the red-hot action of battle with Voldemort. He gives a long list of images. Granger thinks it will be red king, red lion, orphan, Phoenix, and quintessence.

Alchemy is not perfection of the soul. It is a return to Eden so that the Spirit can manifest God's peace, stillness, and love. Harry must resolve contraries and manifest love in the face of Voldemort's hate. White turns silver in the lunar stage and turns red in producing hold. Change that has been ongoing unseen will be revealed like Aslan's deeper magic. Harry will cross boundaries and bridge groups.

After a brief summary of literary alchemy and HP5 (black, death of Sirius Black) and HP6 (white, death of Dumbledore), he lists three characteristics of the red (HP7, possibly Rubeus Hagrid's book): contraries revealed and resolved, chemical wedding, and philosopher's stone made. He quotes Burckhardt. Literary alchemy depicts the Spirit's movement down from God, toward God. and expansion.

Harry has signs of being the heir of Slytherin. He’s a parselmouth. He had an insider view of the attack against Mr. Weasley. Harry has a snake in HP5. Love is the only thing which cannot unite the divided. Love of the prejudiced. Love of the object of prejudice. Harry is a hermaphrodite (two parts) and now he’s finally going to discuss the red stage.

Harry paired against Snape like the pairing with his dad. This disharmony will have to be resolved. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejuduce is a huge influence. Harry has been prejudiced against Slytherin since day one. He is also proud of being Gryffindor. For peace to happen, we must drop judgment and practice discernment with love. Austen was reacting to David Hume.

The fountain shows disordered relationships between wizards/witches and elves, goblins, and centaurs. Dumbledore destroys it in battling Voldemort, a step in restoring harmony. The centaurs' tribute at his funeral are a hopeful sign. On to twins, Tom's first name means twin! Genius! Not only are their pairs, but they are in opposition to each other and must be resolved.

Dumbledore pleads to Draco, and I wonder if he did the same thing with Snape. He passes the baton to Harry to find the four horcruxes and may make him the quintessence to unite the four houses. He is the one uniquely qualified to do so. He has had seven cycles of purification. He is the heir of Gryffindor, and the scar makes him the heir of Slytherin. He must unite the four brethren.

There is a trio of fours (houses, magical brethren, horcruxes). Harry reads "Quintessence: A Quest" for his charms class in HP6. The tension between Mrs. Weasley and Fleur (Phlegm) is a classic pairing of contraries. JKR confirms my chart (yeah). She goes back to discord versus harmony between the houses. Dumbledore as headmaster is the image of this. The sorting hat's song in HP5 illustrates the need for harmony.

The process of separation and union or distillation and conversion over several cycles transforms the square into a circle (fifth element, ether). It was thought of as a turning wheel. In story (Stan Lee's Fantastic Four), the villain sows discord and lack of harmony is disastrous. Resolving conflict between the opposition allows them to triumph over the villians.

Now for Harry Potter, Slytherin and Gryffindor are contrary to one another which explains the animosity between the two. It is why Snape being who he is and Harry being who he is so important to the overall story over seven books. The quintessence is the fifth element, ether, which is the element that heaven is made of. It is a spiritual element as opposed to the four material elements.

My head just exploded and I updated my diagram. There is a circle with the center as God with these axis: positive y is wet; negative y is dry; positive x is hot; negative x is cold. Now, the quadrants are the four elements: I - air, II - water, III - earth, IV - fire. To resolve contraries one must work across a diagonal. Fire liquifies. Water ignits. Air solidifies. Earth becomes weightless.

Consider Quidditch. Seven players = one seeker seeks the golden snitch which looks like an alchemy image. Voldemort does not seek balance, peace, and harmony within his spirit. He places a bit of himself into material thiings, meaning that he is out of balance and out of harmony. Harry went through six stages of purification to be ready to destroy the four idols, unite the four houses, reconcile the four brethren.

Plato, Jews, Christians, Sufi Islamists see seven as supreme. According to Burckhardt (and I have the book back in the BN days in MN), the stages line up with the seven planets and metals! I can’t wait to read the book if Granger doesn’t give the order. I think the idea is to bring the soul to the center where everything is in balance--where God is (at the center) to climb the Tree of Life through divine grace.

Martin Lings (tutorial student and friend of Lewis) states that the numbers 1 through 7 are like going from alpha to omega: 1 (Creator), 2 (Spirit), 3 (Heaven), 4 (Earth), 5 (Man), 6 (Edenic Man), and 7 (Rest in God, the Divine Center). Imagine man in the center of earth (Hell?) of the four compass directions, humors, elements, seasons but it’s flat. The z-axis is the Tree of Life which enables transcendence to God.

In the Bible, 7 is the number of completeness. In literary alchemy, it means divinization: the transforming effect of divine grace through the atonement of Jesus. The process involves seven cycles of the three color stages. So, does that mean each Narnia goes through red, white, black? Voldemort wants to make 7 horcruxes to obtain immortality and be like God in a demonic way: death to others, not death to self.

Arithmancy teaches about 7, 4, and 2. Think about Narnia. There are 7 books. In the last one Tirian sees 7 lords and ladies which is one reason Susan had to stay. There is a pair in Magician’s Nephew, Silver Chair, and Last Battle. Horse and Boy, Lion and Witch, and Prince Caspian has 4. Dawn Treader has 3. Some things about 7 are obvious: days of week, creation, “planets,” sins, virtues, sacraments, liberal arts.

Ch. 2 Key 2 Part 2 Arithmancy (AP) - Androgyne is a fusion of opposites. Bilbo Baggins has a Took side and a Baggins side that war with each other. Literary alchemy is a set of images that purify the soul subconciously through repeated cycles of expansion and contraction by going through the three color stages to reconcile warring opposites into unity. It affects the reader through identification and catharsis.

Is it due to her classical education? Yes, but not everyonesides with the ancients in “The Battle of the Books” like she does. Lots of postmoderns give the classics bizarre interpretations and complain about DEI stuff. The books have other keys besides alchemy, but alchemy is the key that postmoderns understand the least. Her books resonate because we live in a material world that denies our true purpose.

Whoa!! So, Bilbo is a double because he has two sides of himself at war: the stay-at-home Baggins and the adventurous Took. Gollum also has a war between selves but that does not emerge until LOTR.

Is it a coincidence or inspiration by the same muse? That implies she got lucky, not her brain or hard work. Is it merely the compost of all her reading? It’s too structured and tightly constructed.

There are half-breeds, mudbloods, people who can live in two worlds, twins, pairs, brothers, and, of course, Harry/Voldemort. Doppelgangers depict the God/man--Christ is the perfection and, through the three stages, the struggle as a Christian (base metal) dies and is reborn to perfection through the Philosopher’s Stone (elixir of life). Rowlings four themes tie to alchemy: prejudice, death, choice, and change.

The phoenix’s symbolism is clear: it signifies the philosopher’s stone is ready to turn the base metal into gold. The raven is the symbol of the black stage. Then Granger gives a long list of words in her stories that are in the dictionary of alchemy. He brings up doppelgangers (mark of gothic romances). He gives a long list of them animgi (hey is that what Beorn is), half-breeds, magical creatures that blend two.

A beheading can kick off the black stage. Well, Beorn beheads a goblin and puts it on a stick and that’s right before Gandalf abandons the party and they are force to go through Mirkwood on their own. What? I may have to reread “The Hobbit” after I finish this book. A house can serve as an alembic. Lily is a white stage image as Luna is. James is the patron saint of alchemy (but it’s not widely known).

Order of Phoenix is nigredo because by the end, Harry is completely broken and isn’t even likable. It has a black king who dies (usually by drowning)--Kingsley Shacklebolt. There nis a heat source for the black stage and his nickname is Dung--which is hilarious. There is a white queen, consort of hot dry King Sol ; in this case cool wet Luna who dates him one time but once is enough to signal white stage.

Rubedo begins with Ron and Hermione union, battle over Bill's body, and phoenix sited at Dumbledore's funeral.

Symbolism is not cardboard or mechanical. Symbols point to a higher reality, a fleeting glimpse of the object casting it. The English greats knew this.

Hp4 images are dragon, egg, bath/fire, water immersion/flood, labyrinth, and grave.

Hp4 is not nigredo because Harry was not completely broken as a person. HP5 has many elements of black: hot and dry, House of Black, police state of Dolorous Umbridge, and death of Sirius Black. By the end, nothing he believes is true. Muggle world and magical world are mingling. HP5 is a nigredo masterpiece. It is full of contraries. By the end, he is cold and wet, sympathizing with Luna!

My brain just exploded! “As You Like It” had a green snake attack Oliver first and then his brother defended him from a lionness and was all bloody. Is that not Slytherin and Gryffindor!

The red work is a crucible scene underground or in a graveyard (think of what Mamillius said of the sad tale) and Harry “dies” and love saves him in the presence of a symbol of Christ. Resurrection transforms Harry to gold. BOOM!

The color is like that of blood. Granger wonders if Rubeus (red) Hagrid is the key figure. A common symbol in the red stage is the red lion and Hagrid was in Gryffindor as a student.

Black kicks off at Privet where Harry has fallen apart. The break-down continues in Snape’s dungeon. White begins in his meetings with Dumbledore, his studies, and painful separation/reunions with Ron and/or Hermione.

The white stage in Dante is Purgatory. I need to reread “The Winter’s Tale” to see white and red in where the white stage ends and the red begins. The baser metal has been broken down, washed, and purified, so it is ready to be reunited with the spirit that will give it eternal life and become gold. The body is resurrected. The fire’s heat increases (Gryffindor is fire). A red tincture flushes the white stone.

Albus Dumbledore - Albus means white. The white stage book is HP6 where Dumbledore dies. Luna (moon) and a lily foten symbolizes this. Dumbledore is definitely under the influence of Luna--half-moon glasses, silver beard and hair, he’s often called mad! In HP6, the tutorials break down Harry to purify him and prepare him for the death of Dumbledore which signals the end of the albedo stage.