The meanings of the titles

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90397

David wrote: 
<huge snip>
> The Order of the Phoenix I have more trouble with. I can't see a 
> convincing meaning beyond the surface one. There is a latent theme 
> of unity (think of the Sorting Hat's song) even though it is mostly 
> worked out through examples of disunity and disconnection. One 
> could argue that by 'ignoring' Harry over the year Dumbledore has 
> handed over leadership of the fellowship of the good to Harry, 
> nucleated in the six who visit the MOM and extended in the DA.  I 
> dunno.
> 
> Any thoughts?   Is there a series of double meanings in the titles?  
> If so, does it point to anything?  Religion?

Carol:
Without getting too deeply into this topic (though I did ask, a while
back, for some symbolic rather than allegorical or archetypological
readings of the books!), there's obviously some rebirth symbolism
relating to the Phoenix (Fawkes himself, the Phoenix feathers in
Harry's and Voldemort's wands, and the Order of the Phoenix itself,
belatedly arising from its own ashes). If you want to give it a
religious twist, it could somehow be connected with resurrection. I
prefer not to go the Christ symbol route myself, and JKR has made it
clear in her interviews that the dead will not come back. But the
rebirth imagery is undeniable. We also see it in the associations of
both holly and yew with rebirth or immortality.

You might think about why Dumbledore has a Phoenix. Could Fawkes, who
is red and gold like the Gryffindor colors, have been passed along
from Godric Gryffindor to each successive Head of Gryffindor House for
a thousand years? (I'm assuming here that DD was Head of Gryffindor
House before he became Headmaster and that McGonagall, as his
successor, would receive Fawkes as a sort of inheritance when DD
dies.) What are the implications of the name, the Order of the
Phoenix? Was that its original name? If so, why, since it hadn't been
reborn? 

Anyway, I'm not sure how you're connecting "unity" with the Order of
the Phoenix (though of course I see the unity theme). And, um,
"nucleated"?

Carol