Why the Dark Mark?

[Hans Andréa]

No: HPFGUIDX 121678

From: "northsouth17" <northsouth17 at yahoo.com>

I was reading through GoF, when I came to the description of the Dark 
Mark, and something that had always bothered me a bit, struck me 
quite strongly - it's rather silly. 

It's a skull with a serpent sticking out of its mouth, which is a 
little bit adolescent in itself, and what more, it's made out of 
emerald _stars_! This put me in mind not so much of a symbol of 
horror and evil, as of a somewhat tasteless disco light. 

Have there been any thoughts on what possible meaning the dark mark 
could have? It seems like a fairly prominent Voldemort symbol - his 
followers get it tattooed on themselves! - and yet it seems rather 
tacky. I feel like it should have a story, a meaning of some kind, 
but can't find it, beyond a general representation of Voldemort - 
Death, snake, etc. 

Hans:
This symbol is also used in "The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross"
and may very well have been where Jo got the idea.

I quote from Day Four:
'And last of all there was a skull, or death's head; in this was a white
serpent, who was of such a length that though she wound about the rest of it
in a circle, her tail still remained in one of the eye holes until her head
again entered the other; so she never stirred from her skull, unless it
happened that Cupid twitched a little at her, for then she slipped in so
suddenly that we all could not choose but marvel at it.'

As you can see the snake comes out of the eye socket, but for the rest it's
the same. I was actually panning to discuss this in my series of symbols,
but I'll do it now.

What the "The Alchemical Wedding" is describing here is an altar table with
various objects on it, the skull and serpent being one of them. The altar is
surrounded by six kings and queens: the black king (Snape) and his wife, the
grey king (Lupin) and his wife (TONKS!!! according to Valky) and the king
and queen who are to be resurrected by means of the alchemical wedding (my
conjecture: Harry and Hermione).

The symbol of the skull and the serpent in my opinion symbolises the rebirth
and the immortality which the alchemical wedding achieves. The white serpent
by itself symbolises wisdom. The fact that it's circling out of one eye
socket and out the other symbolises eternity.

Voldemort is misusing a holy symbol for his nefarious purposes. He is indeed
striving after immortality! Only he wants it in purely physical terms and at
the expense of every one else. Perhaps that's why his serpent doesn't form a
circle - he won't succeed.

I have a scan of an illustration of this scene. It shows the snake quite
clearly. If possible I'll upload it. If not, it's in the photos section of
Harry Potter for Seekers.

By the way, Geoff Bannister said some time ago that he thought it unlikely
that Jo would choose such an "obscure" publication as a source.

In 1616, when this book was published, it was certainly not obscure! It was
one of a set of three books called "The Rosicrucian Manifestos" published
during three years. This set raised a real furore in Europe in those days.
Of course the common people couldn't read, let alone afford books, but many
of the elite in Europe got hold of it and there was a hell of a controversy.
In fact this is perhaps the most fundamental of all Rosicrucian
publications, and literally hundreds of other books appeared as a result of
it. It was definitely the Harry Potter for Grownups in 1616!

=====

Hans Andra 
see you at Harry Potter for Seekers 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/harrypotterforseekers/
 




	
	
		
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