Character Discussion: Hagrid

Thu Feb 10 16:59:48 UTC 2005

No: HPFGUIDX 124298

After Harry, Hagrid is my favourite character. What does he represent?

It's fairly easy to see what Hagrid stands for. What are the clues?

1. He brings the letter of invitation to Harry.
2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry.
3. He is the "ferryman" for the first-years.
4. He is the "Keeper of the Keys" at Hogwarts.
5. He loves dragons.
6. He is especially fond of a hippogriff.
7. He was given his position because of a "punishment".

These things all point to one thing: Hagrid is a Master of Compassion!

To understand what this means we should look at "The Alchemical Wedding of
Christian Rosycross". Christian Rosycross on the second day of his adventure
meets the gatekeeper to whom he shows his letter of invitation
to the Alchemical Wedding.

After the Alchemical Wedding Christian Rosycross meets the gatekeeper again
on the seventh day. 'Now we arrived at the first gate where the guardian,
in a blue habit, was waiting. He held a supplication in his hand. As soon as
he saw me with the King, he delivered the supplication to me, with the
humble request to mention his faithfulness to the King. Now I first asked
the King what was the matter with this guardian, and he cordially answered
me that this was a famous and excellent astrologer, who has always had the
high esteem of his Lord and Father. But as he had at some time committed an
error with regard to the Lady Venus, by looking at her when she was resting
on her bed, he was punished by having to guard the first gate until someone
should release him from it. Then I asked: "May he be released?" "Yes," the
King said, "if anyone can be found who has as highly transgressed as he did,
he must stand in his stead, and the other shall be free." These words went
to my heart, for my conscience convinced me that I was the offender.'

After that an enquiry is held, and Christian Rosycross confesses that he has
seen the Lady Venus. Although the King is very fond of Christian Rosycross
there is no way the King can transgress the ancient rule, and
so Christian Rosycross is told he has to become gate keeper next day.

There are people in this universe who have made great progress on the Path
of Liberation, but who are so filled with compassion for humanity that
they're willing to sacrifice their own immediate advancement on the Path and
stay behind to help their wandering brothers and sisters find the Path.

This is beautifully described in "The Voice of the Silence" by HP Blavatsky.

Verse 145: To don Nirmanakaya's humble robe [the robe of compassion -HA] is
to forego eternal bliss for Self, to help on man's salvation. To reach
Nirvana's bliss, but to renounce it, is the supreme, the final step - the
highest on Renunciation's Path. 
Verse 146: Know, O Disciple, this is the Secret Path, selected by the
Buddhas of Perfection, who sacrificed The SELF to weaker Selves.
Verse 300: [...] Compassion is no attribute. It is the Law of LAWS - eternal
Harmony, Alaya's* SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of
everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.
Verse 301: The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its
BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt
become COMPASSION ABSOLUTE.
Verse 307: Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva - Compassion
speaks and saith: 'Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt
thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?'

*Alaya: the Universal Soul or Atman, each human being having a ray of it in
him and being supposed to be able to identify himself with it and to merge
himself in it.

It may be difficult to see dear old Hagrid with his moleskin coat and boar
hound as a Bodhisattva, but the symbolism in Harry Potter lies on a certain
level beneath the surface. The ancient symbols of liberation are all dressed
in twentieth century clothes and manners, but their essence is unchanged. 

1. He brings the letter from Hogwarts to Harry. This action symbolises the
call from the Masters of Compassion to go the Path of Liberation.

2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry. The gate-keeper idea is
very strong here.

3. He is the "ferryman" for the first-years. This symbolises the role of
Charon, the ferryman on the Styx. The Styx symbolises the borderline between
the world of the dead (earth) and real life (liberation).

4. He is the "Keeper of the Keys" at Hogwarts. Once again a pronounced
reference to being gate-keeper.

5. He loves dragons. This may be a bit harder to understand. In the
traditions of those learning to go the Path of Alchemy, there is the legend
of the "six-winged dragon". This dragon symbolises the human serpent-fire.
The serpent-fire is what they call the force that resides in the
cerebro-spinal system of the human being. In the case of the fallen, earthly
human
being it's regarded as a dragon because of the unholiness of the fire that
burns in our system. The six wings represent properties that emanate from
the serpent-fire.

The dragon: that's us!! To the pure and holy Masters of Compassion we are
like dragons because of our selfishness, our base desires, the unholy fire
we radiate. We have only to look at the world around us to see what we've
done to Paradise. If you ever start to admire this human world please watch
"Der Untergang", the new film about the last days of Hitler in his bunker in
Berlin. Just think about the 50 million people killed in the war, and keep
in mind things like Auschwitz and the Gulag Archipelago. And if that's too
long ago look at Iraq today. 

If any of us think, "I would never participate in that", please read post
280 of HPfS.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/harrypotterforseekers/message/280

Everyone is responsible for the war crimes and atrocities that happen
because all of us radiate an unholy fire which accumulates in the atmosphere
and builds up to gigantic proportions. In this way we create the dragons
that wreak havoc in the world and cause immeasurable suffering. See post
76704. Certain people are open to the accumulated forces which humanity
radiates, and there you have your Stalins and Hitlers and Sadam Husseins.
This is what's behind the Rwanda massacres, the holocaust and and every war
that's ever been fought. And we're all responsible. But despite being
dragons, the Masters of Compassion love us! That's why Hagrid loves dragons.

6. He is especially fond of a hippogriff. In my post on Harry (13) I
explained what the hippogriff symbolises. The Masters of Compassion have a
living body, i.e. an astral force-field that radiates an intensely spiritual
power into the world. If we tune in to that power it will liberate us - it
will raise us up and fly up to the highest regions. If we try to go the Path
of Liberation but preserve the ego, it will harm us with its sharp claws.
The gate-keeper can handle the hippogriff and he loves it because he is a
member of the Brotherhood. 

7. He was given his position because of a "punishment". The gate-keeper in
"The Alchemical Wedding" was given his position as a "punishment". It
may be hard to understand the joke, but this is humour. Well, I think it is.
It may also be a veil to hide very holy things to the profane.

When people behold "Lady Venus" it means they are beholding Divine Love!
This Love is inside them, as I've tried to explain before. We all have a
chamber in our heart that is magically sealed until Harry or Christian
Rosycross open it. Once the door is opened and we behold what is within, we
are seized by "a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible
than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature." This force,
Love or Compassion, is what "punished" Hagrid by making him gate-keeper. And
I believe it will seize Harry.

Hans

=====

Hans Andra 
see you at Harry Potter for Seekers 
http://www.harrypotterforseekers.com/

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