Character Discussion: Peter Pettigrew

[Hans Andréa]

No: HPFGUIDX 123524

Who is the main character in Harry Potter?

"What?!" you all shout with amazement, "What an
idiotic question!"

May I humbly venture to suggest that it's not Harry?
No, dear reader, the main character in Harry Potter is
never mentioned. Because it's YOU! The next most
important character is Harry.

Harry Potter is a road map to the path of alchemical
liberation, written for you and me. Every character,
event and magic object or power is a force or
influence that we will encounter if we go this path in
actual practice. When we go the Path we must have Lily
in the heart and James must be driving us to seek for
liberation. These are the requirements, and if we
allow James to woo Lily and marry her, a most amazing
and powerful influence will begin to steer our life in
a new direction; in the opposite direction in fact.

This new influence is a new soul that will grow within
us and spread its influence throughout our four
bodies. However, as we know, there are also influences
within us which resist the new soul. Harry has
powerful enemies! The most powerful one of all is
Voldemort, the microcosmic (or "higher") self. He
personifies the power of our past incarnations and
especially the fallen state of our microcosm. He is
situated around our aura and we don't feel his
influence until Harry is born in God's little valley,
the heart.

There is another influence that initially co-operates
with Lily and James, but is actually a close ally of
Voldemort!

When the microcosm is preparing for a new incarnation
it seeks a foetus that is karmically suited for the
new personality. As I've described previously, the
microcosmic self pours its energy into the foetus to
enable it to carry on where the previous tenant of the
microcosm left off because of death. One of the most
important aspects that the microcosmic self bestows on
the new personality is the ego. The ego is vitally
necessary for the new personality, because it is the
force which gives the personality the instinct to
survive.

I'm sure you will all be aware of your ego. Just
observe yourself when somebody insults you. Did you
feel that spasm in the solar plexus? Or when you're
sitting on a plane and it gives a very hard,
unexpected lurch. Ouch! Panic in the solar plexus
(sometimes known as "the pit of your stomach"). What
happens when somebody treats you unjustly? The boxer
in your belly comes out, fists ready. And who takes
over your life when you're faced with a do or die
situation? For example when an enemy invades your
country and threatens the health and well-being of you
and your children? The naked ape appears with the
club, ready to defend at all costs. Or if you're in a
dance hall and the place catches fire? Who's there to
scream in panic and trample others to death in a blind
panic to get out?

May I present to you: Peter Pettigrew! The dirty rat!

Friends, every time again I am astounded to the core
of my being at the accuracy and the intelligence with
which Jo has created a coherent and gripping story out
of the facts surrounding the Path of Liberation*.

As I have stated many times, Ron symbolises the old
personality, the mortal soul. Of course Peter,
otherwise known as Scabbers, sits snuggled up against
Ron's body! That's where he belongs. That's his home.

In his youth he was a friend of Sirius, James and
Remus John. They are all aspects of the seeker before
he finds the Path. Until the seeker's heart is opened
to Tao, and Harry is born, everybody is quite happy to
be nice and friendly. Remus John personifies the
"good" in the person. James is the seeking influence
who flirts with Lily. And Peter is the ego that
protects the interests of the personality. Sirius is
the mental image of the perfect divine child of God.
Snape is their enemy because he personifies the
"black" side of the personality.

But watch out when Harry is born! Peter and Voldemort
are tarred with the same brush when it comes to
liberation. If Voldemort's existence is threatened, so
is Peter's. For when the new soul is born in the
seeker, both the microcosmic self and the personal
self have to die. When an ordinary earthly person
lives life in this vale of tears, he needs an ego in
order to survive. But when the soul is born, the
seeker has to hand over the reigns of his life to Him,
to Harry.

When a seeker has a new soul, he shall want for
nothing. Friends, if we could only have an inkling of
the intensity with which God loves his Son, we could
stop worrying about anything for ever. Harry has
enough gold to last for the rest of his life. And do
you remember the room of requirement? "Seek ye first
the Kingdom and its righteousness and all these other
things will be yours also."

But there is one condition: the ego has to go. Sorry
about that, Scabbers, there's no choice. And Peter
knows that. He may not be as clever as James, Sirius
and Remus John, but he is extremely cunning. What does
he do when Voldemort and he are in danger of being
vanquished one day by Harry? Simple! Pretend to be on
the good side. Pretend to go along with the seeker.

What really happens to the seeker is that the ego
starts to play along with the activities of the
seeker. It begins to surround the mental image of the
Eternal Son of God with delusions, with unfounded
speculations, with absolute lies. Prometheus is put in
chains. The image of the Imperishable One is isolated,
or linked to occultism or religious movements which
reinforce the ego. In other words: Sirius is
imprisoned!

This may be hard to understand. However what this
simply means is that before a person can go the Path
of Liberation, his ego will urge him to go into
directions which seemingly lead to the truth but in
fact imprison the seeker in occult practices, or at
any rate practices which boost the ego. Just ask
yourself if you're a seeker: would you rather listen
to a movement that promises you all sorts of wonderful
things for yourself, or to a movement that says, "give
up your self-interest if you want to be liberated"? or
"He who gives up his life for My sake shall find It?"
What about this simple but true example from a
magazine advertisement: "Thoughts can influence
others"? Or would you choose, "Purify your thoughts of
self-interest?". It is a fact that every seeker has to
go through the occult or ego-religious phase before he
can find the true Path. That's why Jo makes such a
point of it. She's written a whole book about it!

So there we are. Sirius is in prison. James and Lily
are dead, but they both live on in Harry. Snape hates
Harry because Harry is the Light while Snape is the
black aspect of the seeker's past. Remus John looks
upon Harry almost as a son because Remus is good, and
knows Harry is (potentially) absolute goodness. Peter 
can now rest easily as Scabbers (the dirty little 
scab) on Ron's body.

However Harry grows older. He is no longer an infant
but can act independently. He has defeated Voldemort
several times. And a strange event takes place. Ron
and Scabbers go to Egypt. Sirius sees a photo of the
two of them in front of a pyramid. While the star
Sirius, the Bright Morning Star of Egypt, looks upon
Ron, the other Sirius, the chained Prometheus, is in
prison looking at Ron and Scabbers in front of a
pyramid in Egypt. What a coincidence! (No it isn't.)

Sirius escapes and goes after Scabbers. Of course,
written as this story is by superhuman intelligence,
we all think right to the end that Sirius is after
Harry. But Sirius loves Harry. He wants only to help
Harry, to be his God-Father, to show him WHAT TO DO.
He's Harry's future.

What does this mean to the apprentice alchemist? It
means that when he abandons all attempts to go the
path of the liberation of the ego, the mental image of
the Son of Eternal Fullness is liberated! If a pupil
gives up hope of finding salvation for his ego, which
is just a temporary survival mechanism for life in
this world, the mental image in the aura will begin to
radiate intense light, and will illuminate the Path
the seeker needs to go. Sirius will guide his
footsteps towards the dawn, the East.

And Sirius will come and drive Scabbers away from Ron.
What does this mean in practical terms? The mental
image of the inner God will move down from its place
in the aura and drive the ego out of the solar plexus!
There is a phase in the Alchemical Path of Liberation
when the mental image of Liberation becomes so
powerful and intense that it literally comes down into
the body and drives the ego out. It is no longer
needed! And what takes its place? Harry's Patronus,
the stag, the longing for liberation.

To some one to whom the Path of Liberation is new,
this may sound like a crazy fairy tale. But Harry
Potter tells us that when the new soul has become a
conscious, rational being, and its radiant Mental Plan
has become powerful enough, there is no further need
for an ego. It's not all that crazy when you think
about it. Didn't people like Jesus, Gautama the
Buddha, Lao Tzu and people like that show total
selflessness? They had no ego! When the alchemist
surrenders the control of his life to the God within,
He will take care of everything. "Come to me, you who
are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest",
He says to the seeker, "My yoke is easy, my burden is
light". When the alchemist surrenders his life to the
Inner Christ a Power of unimaginable beauty and
splendour takes over his life. He can let go of all
worries and cares, for not a hair on his head can be
harmed without permission from the Potter of the
Universe.

And what happens to poor old Scabbers? He escapes into
the aura! In other words he goes back to Voldemort
who's his creator and snuggles up there.

In the next post we'll go back to Sirius and see what
happens to him. It's pretty good, I tell ya!

Hans

*The whole phase of the Path described above is
contained in the book, "The Coming New Man", by Jan
van Rijckenborgh (same initials as Jo's) published in 1953.

=====

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




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