John the Baptist again

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 124751


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" <gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Hans Andréa <ibotsjfvxfst at y...> 
> wrote:
> > Hans: 
> 
> <post snipped in several places>
> 
> > Let me emphasise that I'm not asking anyone to believe the Path of
> > Alchemical Liberation is true. I'm saying Jo is writing a book 
> > which is a symbolic representation of that process, and it so 
> > happens that the writers of the Bible did the same thing. My series 
> > of posts is meant to show everyone that. 
> 
> > I know a lot of members are having trouble understanding this, but 
> > this is what both Harry Potter and the Bible are doing. Harry 
> > Potter is not a human being but a force WITHIN a person who goes 
> > the Path. Jesus is not a real person, but a force within a person  
> > who goes the Path.
> 
> > Geoff has stated that I'm contradicting myself when I say that Harry
> > symbolises both everyman and the Christ. Well I hope now everyone 
> > will see that if we regard Harry as personifying a force that is 
> > born in a seeker for liberation, and NOT as a human being, Harry 
> > can be both everyman and Christ. Harry PERSONIFIES a divine force 
> > that can turn everyman into a Son of God.
>  
> Geoff:
> You have on a number of occasions referred to "my theory of 
> liberation". Now you are saying that the path of liberation is not 
> true. That seems to be a paradoxical statement. A theory remains a 
> theory until it is proved to be correct; first you aroused this and 
> now you are saying that the path of liberation is not true. This is 
> questioning the faith of millions of folk worldwide who, like myself, 
> believe that Jesus took human form, died as a human for our salvation 
> and is now back in heaven.
> 
> I may not agree with people who are adherents of Islam, Buddhism etc. 
> but I would not question the fact that Mohammed and Buddha and the 
> other founders of faiths actually existed. It has been said that 
> there is more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there was for 
> Julius Caesar.
> 
> If you are not a Christian, you may say that Harry can be both 
> everyman and Christ; if you are a Christian, having experienced a 
> meeting with God through Jesus and are being supported in your daily 
> life by the presence of the Holy Spirit, this is just not on. Jesus, 
> to a Christian is our link to God, is God. We can only be followers 
> of Christ, attempting to seek the will of God and to do it. Unlike 
> the people of the Bible, Harry Potter is not a real person but 
> someone created for the story with whom we can identify strongly and 
> in whom we can see ourselves; with the same sweep of mixed emotions 
> which we have to deal with our life here on earth, wherever we may 
> have found ourselves.

I'm going to jump in here quickly, and not snip, because it seems clear to me that you are 
speaking entirely different languages.

The truth/myth dichotomy is one of those things that gets people tied up in knots all of 
the time. I think the point that Hans is trying to make, Geoff, is not that Jesus didn't exist, 
or the Buddha or Mohammed or Mahavira any of the other teachers whose adherents have 
found higher consciousness and better life through the study of their precepts (we can talk 
about Judaism and Hinduism another day). 

Hans's point--as I understand it--is that the historical, literal, Mel-Gibson fact of Jesus 
and death on the cross and the rest of it isn't the point; it's the birth of Christ's spirit 
within the individual that matters. That's a rebirth on a MYTHIC level--which isn't to say 
that it's false, but that it's a metaphor for an experience for which the image of physical 
birth is, at best, a gross representation (I mean gross in the denotative sense, not the "Ew, 
ICK" sense). 

I think Hans meant that he doesn't think of his interpretation of the 'Path to Liberation' as 
'true' in the same sense: it's not a literal description of a historical occurrence, or a 
newspaper how-to column. It's a myth: an attempt to describe in images and stories an 
experience that is, finally, ineffable. And I believe that he's saying (correct me if I'm wrong, 
Hans) that JKR is getting at the same thing in her books, whether by design or by a 
confluence of inspiration.

Now, if I'm totally off-base here, I'll take my autographed Joseph Campbell ball and bat 
and go home....

Antosha