Chapter 10: Halloween, Death, and the Occult in Harry Potter

First things first! Today (March 1st) is Ron’s 32^nd birthday.

Now that we have that out of the way, I have some exciting news of my own! We now have another individual contributing to this blog! My fellow student, Alice of Rabbiton, has graciously allowed me to use her notes as well as my own on this blog. Thus, together we shall strive to give you a fuller and more wholistic view of this class.

Enjoy! And spread the word!

-Victor Bennet

Death

Where do we encounter death in the books?

- Lilly and James are murdered by Voldemort. What is Voldemort’s attitude towards death? He is afraid of death but will kill anyone without hesitation. And yet he gives Lilly a way out of death if she chooses it. Harry miraculous escapes death.

- Killing animals is a bit different. Killing a unicorn is especially wrong. There are different levels of “bad.” (5-)

- Ghosts are all over Hogwarts. Prof. Binns is even a ghost. Professor Binns, the History of Magic Professor at Hogwarts, died one day; he continued teaching as a ghost. The ghosts of Hogwarts stayed at the castle after their deaths, and they play an important part in the stories. They also reflect a certain opinion of death.

- Did Harry kill Quirrel? He tries to stop Quirrel from killing him, but he does not mean to kill Quirrel.

- Nicholas Flamel is going to die because the Philosopher’s Stone will be destroyed. Dumbledore says that “To a well organized mind, death is just another great adventure.”

- Dumbledore’s attitude towards death: death is an adventure, and there are far worse things than death. Dumbledore erected the tombstones in Godric’s Hollow, and he chose the inscriptions upon the stones. The last enemy to be defeated will be death.

- Hagrid tells Harry that Voldemort doesn’t have enough left of him to even die.

- Ron, Harry, and Hermione were willing to risk it all to take on the defenses guarding the Philosopher’s Stone, no matter the cost, to keep Voldemort from returning to full power.

Rowling subtly explores a lot of attitudes in our culture towards death.

Neville

Neville is an orphan and an only child. And he has no family of his generation or his parent’s generation. His family isn’t well off, but they are “comfortable”. His grandmother berates him and tries to make Neville live up to his fathers legacy. It is only when Neville is able to do his own thing that he thrives, and yet he loves his grandmother and she loves him. Neville is receiving the brunt of his grandmother’s grief for her son, Neville’s father. Neville is forgetful and very uncoordinated. When we meet him, it is because he lost his toad.

Therefore it is clear from the very beginning (in Dr. Poe’s eyes) that Neville will be a hero of the story.

Part of Neville becoming a great hero, is that you have to feel the great change take place within Neville as a sense of spiritual transformation. She draws you in, makes the case of future change and growth, and she intrigues you with the way things could be.

She doesn’t denounce Neville’s grandmother, but by the end of the story, the grandmother has seen what was in Neville all along. Neville and his grandmother adore each other completely, but Neville gains the confidence to do what he’d enjoy rather than just what she wants him to do.

Edger Allen Poe & Art.

Art is at the center of a culture and is an artifact of a culture; it represents the core beliefs and values of a culture. There were so many struggles with art over the centuries because the cultures were collapsing. Rowling took a great stand, as many movie makers did in the twentieth century, and she managed to create a sustained effect. Part of that is how she wants you to feel when you read her novels; she’s not trying to lecture you to teach you something, but she’s trying to get you to feel something.

“Before you can have art, there has to be entertainment.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We meet Dobby for the first time. Harry goes back to the Dursley’s for the summer, and over the summer, a new character is introduced: Dobby the House Elf. He just pops up in Harry’s room, and he’s going to get Harry in trouble. Harry doesn’t like Dobby’s method of protecting him.

Harry doesn’t understand or like what Dobby is doing to try to save Harry’s life.

The mysteries of this book are why Dobby is trying to save Harry, who is the heir of Slytherin, and where is the Chamber of Secrets? Harry is the most likely candidate to be the heir of Slytherin because he can speak parseltongue. Harry doesn’t know he can speak Parseltongue, and there’s never been a witch or wizard who was a Parseltongue that didn’t end up becoming a dark sorcerer. When Moses cast down his staff in the court of Pharaoh, God transformed the staff into a serpent. This instance, like Harry’s ability, shows serpents in a somewhat better light.

Eve is the first parseltongue, but it runs in the family. Thus, we’re all Parseltongues, we’re all sinners, and we all have our little chats with Satan. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

The whole idea of the serpent explored here takes us to the idea of the animagous. The first great animagous was Satan, but the greatest animagous is Jesus Christ. The Lord of Glory, Creator of Heaven and Earth, should empty himself and become a servant? That’s even more important than turning into animals. Jesus is the greatest one because He is God and yet able to become human. 

Halloween

In all of the books, there are important days. There are never any birthdays celebrated, though we do know of Harry’s. However, Sir Nicholas’s deathday is celebrated, which elaborates a little more towards the attitude toward death (opposed to birth). There is also Halloween (All Hollow’s Eve). On Halloween in Harry’s first year, the troll is let into the dungeon and vanquished by Harry and Ron. Halloween = All Hallows Eve (Deathly Hallows), All Saints Day celebrates all Christians that have died for their faith. This day celebrates the martyrs and those who have vanquished evil with their deaths. On Halloween, Lily and James Potter died, and Voldemort was also vanquished. On All Saints Day, evil is vanquished, but you’re not protected from dying.

On Halloween during Harry’s second year, the saints are under attack. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave the deathday party, and the first attack has occurred. In order to have a martyr, someone has to die, and we see the first attack on this Halloween.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Christmas

Another holiday celebrated at Hogwarts is Christmas which is meant to celebrate the incarnation of God. There’s a breakdown in the passing on of the faith, and today is a culture that knows almost nothing of Christianity. That’s why, though they celebrate Christmas, Christianity, as a religion, is never mentioned in the books. All these elements are subtle. These books are very much intended for a secular audience.

“Christianity is one generation away from extinction.”

When we get to the last book, “for the greater good” is a vile and despicable philosophy that is prevalent; this means that someone’s going to get shafted so that others do all right. She teaches a generation that it’s not okay by writing for her culture’s feelings and brute reactions.

Dark Magic and the Occult in Harry Potter

Harry and Ron get to Hogwarts by means of a flying car, land in a Whomping Willow, and the car goes rogue. The car, like Riddle’s diary, can think for itself; it throws them out and heads off into the Forbidden Forest, yet it rescues them in their time of need.

Riddle’s diary is also considered occult. Wesley says “never to trust anything that thinks for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” Whenever we get into the occult in the books, there is always a warning. McGonagall and Dumbledore warn about divination, Wesley about Tom Riddle’s diary, and so on.

What’s the source of power for the occult? Like an Ouija Board or Tarot Cards, this is an aspect of the occult powered by the demonic. Rowling recognizes this, points to it, and she critiques it; you don’t dabble in things like that, even if, like voodoo, they’re a form of religion.

Chapter 5: A Short Interlude With Art

So today's notes are a bit shorter. Not because the lecture wasn't interesting, but because I was recording it and was hoping I could put in some sound bits this time around. Sadly, it didn't work the way I had hoped and the recording was unusable. I will be trying other methods to see if there is some way I can make it work. I'll keep you all posted. 

- V. B. 

A worldview is what gives a culture cohesiveness. Common worldviews share common Philosophy, Religions, Political, Art

In the Middle Age these were Platonic, Christianity, Feudalism, Art that wasn’t aimed at realism.

Plato was interested in the other world, Aristotle was interested in this world. Take Aristotle’s ideas and “stir them around for a while and you get Individualism, and put it on steroids and you have the United States.”

In between times, you have overlap where there is change. We are in a worldview shift right now. From Modernism (or Post-Modernism) to whatever is coming next. Our culture no longer has a cohesive philosophy, just like the Roman Empire. We have a lot of Perspectives, but not a common worldview.

Art is a canary in the mine. If there are poison gases in the air, the canary will die before the miners will. Art is a good judge of where culture is going. If there is no worldview, artists don’t know what to do with art. Art has never been the same after World War I. Art is the way we think of the direction of our culture.

Up until the WWI, most of the world was run by monarchies. During the war, Germany, Russia, Egypt, China, and the French (who couldn’t really make up their minds if they wanted a king or not) lost their kings. We have had several types of art arise since this time. Movies, sound recording, picture cameras are a blending of art with machines.

In stories, a culture will show its values. In epic stories, heroes will have good traits and perhaps a tragic flaw and villains will have bad traits. Love stories only arose after the 11^th century because of Christianity and Paul in 1^st Corinthians 7. Read The Allegory of Love by C S Lewis for more on the beginnings of romantic love.

Thomas Hardy tries to hold on to Christian values but without the God that makes them possible. Thus his stories are doomed to pessimism.

Science fiction and Mysteries both became popular around the same time. The 3^rd mystery story written was The Gold Bug, and the tricky part about the book is that you had to find out that there IS a mystery before you can look for the answer. Rowling does the exact same thing with Harry. He has to find that there is a mystery before he can solve it.

The Houses were then asked what the core values of Rowling's wizard world were. Here are a few of the things we came up with.

The core values of the wizard world are:

- Education (going to Hogwarts)

- Division from Muggles

- Ultimate truth – Rowling is not a relativist. There is truth.   

  Harry’s biggest flaw is that he is dishonest. The Daily Prophet is 

  always shown in a bad light.

- Family is very important, even with people like the Malfoy’s.   

  The Weasley’s are the model family because of their love. Harry 

  Potter is very much about love and death.

- Choices have consequences.

Next time, we will talk about the founders of our "Houses." 

Chapter 3: Muggles, Magic, and C. S. Lewis

When did we first hear about magic? Santa, fairy tales, etc.What is magic about Santa? He has a flying sleigh with flying reindeer. What is magical in Fairy Tales? Cinderella’s godmother. What is a godmother? It is a Christian term. Who is Santa? He is SAINT Nick. What is a saint? A Christian. So there you have it! The start of Christian themes in magical stories!

What is Magic?

There are three categories it can fall into and Rowling deals with all three of these in her books.

1. Make believe – Not related to facts in anyway, just for fun and story telling.

2. Wisdom and knowledge – In ancient times, studying to gain wisdom and knowledge was considered supernatural.

3. Occult religion – Associated with dark powers, Satan worship, and the like.

C. S. Lewis didn’t choose to do philosophical work, because his “day job” was medieval literature. He didn’t start with Christian apologetics, but rather, was asked by his book publisher. The publisher asked him to write on how there can be suffering if there is a loving God in heaven. The book did well, and a programmer at BBC radio wanted Lewis to talk on the radio. These talks became the book Mere Christianity. His last apologetics book was called Miracles and he was asked to do this book by Dorothy L Sayers.

Sayers started as a mystery writer but then became interested in Christian apologetics. Sayers loved drama and so started writing Christian apologetic drama. Sayers said that someone must write a book on miracles, because there is no place for God in a cause and effect universe. And we live in a world that only knows cause and effect.

In his book, Lewis broke the world into two parts: People that believe in “something else out there” and those that don’t. Thus there are “Naturalists” and “Supernaturalist”. Rowling is doing the same thing that Sayers did with drama and what Lewis did in his fiction only she used the word Muggle to describe Naturalists. Harry is a true innocent. He doesn’t know anything at the very beginning and then learns about the supernatural over time.

Lewis said that a logical argument in apologetics was to be used for the edification of those who already believe (Poe disagrees because Chuck Colson’s conversion due to reading Mere Christianity disproves that idea). Lewis said that the best type of apologetics was a book of any subject with Christianity underneath it all.

Dr. Poe has written many Christian works, but wrote a book on Edger Allen Poe for the recent bicentennial. Hal Poe followed Edger Allen Poe’s human struggle and eventual conversion and used it to place Christianity underneath the overall story. The book won the Edger Award and was very popular.

Muggles

Richard Dawkins is a good example of a “Muggle”. He would say that the Bible is a book of “magic” and make believe. Marxism is a purely “Muggle” philosophy.

Worldview - The core values and beliefs of a culture.

What is Rowling’s attitude toward the history of magic?

Ron and Harry find it boring. Hermione finds it very useful. Their teacher is a ghost. He was so boring he didn’t even notice he died and has just continued to teach.

So what is Rowling’s view of history?

Personal history is important. Personal background is very important. But… how do you solve the Chamber of Secrets if you don’t know the history?

We have to know how we got here, what we are doing, and where we are going.

How would Harry’s relationship with Snape changed if he had known their relational history

What are her thoughts on history teachers?

She has strong views on what is a good teacher and a bad teacher. She loves education. She loves history but hate the way it is taught.

Timelines

The Bible has a timeline from the beginning to the end of time. Hebrews saw history as cyclical rather than linier. Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. Seasons are a cycle. There is no physical evidence that history is linier in their eyes.

The Bible adds direction. It shows that the world had a beginning and is going somewhere.

Until the 1970s it was believed that the universe had just always existed. But then science caught up with the Bible and found that there was a sudden beginning to the universe from nothing.

Where does a linier view of history come from all of the sudden? Revelation from God. Cyclical views of history always have a unconscious god or no god at all. The Bible (and the religions that came after it) has a personal God that is sending messengers that can be tested. If a prophet is from God, what he says will come true.

The prediction of future is a TEST. NOT the message. “Prophecies” are just to prove that the messengers are indeed from God. Isaiah had proven that he was a prophet said that Babylon was coming, that was his message. This was his message because it didn’t happen until much, much later. And lo and behold! When the time came Nebuchadnezzar took over!

The Bible has changed the way Western people thinks. You don’t even have to be a Christian to acknowledge that.

Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans and went to the land of the Canaanites. They were VERY different cultures. They had the same worldview, but very different cultures.

Dr. Poe and Richard Dawkins have the same worldview.

In fact, Dawkins and I have the same worldview.

If you stop to think about it, YOU and Dawkins have the same worldview. We just all have very different “cultures” or whys of thinking, and different points of view. (Yes that was a shocking statement in class and Dr. Poe promises more to come.)

The Babylonians have influenced us today. We have 24 hours in a day, because of them. We would have done it in base 10 because it’s easy to count on our fingers. But the Babylonians counted the JOINTS in their fingers (not including their thumb, because they counted with their thumb). 360 degrees in a circle was laid down by them as well.

After the Babylonians, came the Persians, then the Greeks. By the time of Christ, Jews couldn’t even read Hebrew because they only knew Greek. Then Rome came. Rome conquered the Greeks, but Greek culture conquered Rome. Rome included almost EVERY culture that they had conquered. They didn’t have a unified worldview, there was nothing to hold it together except the army.

In 411 Alaric sacked Rome and this started Augustine writing City of God.

And then Dr. Poe ran out of time and we have to wait until next week.

V. B.