The Living Philosopher's Stone (Was: Re: The Spiritual Symbolism)

[mongo62aa]

No: HPFGUIDX 56166

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Susan Fox-Davis <selene at e...> 
wrote:

'Bill collected many posts in this fabulous mystical thread. I 
apologize if I have mis-represented attributions, any errors are my 
own.

I think it was Bill who observed:

<(And, Dicentra, I'm not too worried about Eloise's protests either. 
`Cause even if yews always hang about graveyards, it's still Quite 
Significant that yew is V's wand wood.)>

Yew is also a tree of Death.  It is indeed planted in graveyards.  It 
is the proverbial wood from which deadly bows are made for archers, 
for both war and hunting.

In the Scandinavian runic system, its rune signifies death and 
endings. I really connect this Yew=Death aspect with Voldemort.  
Likewise, in the same mythos, Holly is a symbol of eternal life, 
being a protectively prickly evergreen with bright berries in the 
wintertime;  just right for The Boy Who Lived!

<<Caroline (Bonus tidbit: Another word for the Philosopher's stone is 
cinnabar: this means dragon's blood in Persian. Remind anyone of a 
certain chocolate frog card??) >>

I am very keen on the parallels between Cinnabar [an ore of Mercury] 
and Dragon's Blood [resin of a certain palm tree].  If you have seen 
a chunk of these substances, you notice that they are somewhat 
similar looking. Cinnabar is usually much lighter in color but I 
certainly see how they could get crossed up.

Susan Fox-Davis'

Me:

Actually, that was cmf_usc (Caroline) who made that observation.  All 
I did was collect the original posts.

I do believe that the reference to Dumbledore's greatest achievements 
is very important to the underlying story:

'Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore 
is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald 
in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and 
his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.'

I think that all three achievements may end up being central to the 
story by the end of book seven.  The third, of course, has already 
played a large role in PS.

Bill