Why is everyone afraid of Luna?

[smaragdina5]

No: HPFGUIDX 84295

> Why was Luna introduced?
> Why was she given the moment at the end of OOP with Potter?


I mentioned two days ago that John Granger had a new article out, 
http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/16.9docs/16-9pg34.html on 
the alchemical elements in the series.  Here are two excerpts:

"The second stage is purification, usually called the albedo or white 
work...Frequently used symbols of the albedo stage of the work in 
pictorial representations and descriptions of it are the moon (Luna 
in Latin), the name of one of Harry's friends in the fifth book..."

and more interestingly:

"His new friend Luna is another alchemical symbol. "Luna is the 
bride, the white queen, consort of King Sol. She is the moist, cold, 
receptive principle which must be united with Sol, the dry, hot, 
active principle in the chemical wedding." A girlfriend for the hot 
and dry—burned to a cinder—Harry? Luna "symbolizes the attainment of 
the perfect white stage, the albedo, where the matter of the Stone 
reaches absolute purity." (Look for Harry and Luna to be a couple in 
the sixth book—much to Hermione's and Professor McGonagall's disgust.)

Certainly, an intriguing read...

smaragdina5