The theory of Harry Potter symbolising the Path of Alchemical Liberation.

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 125583


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Hans Andréa <ibotsjfvxfst at y...> 
wrote:

Hans:
> Sorry everyone, but I have no intention of engaging in a brawl. My 
> only goal here is to testify of my recognition of Harry Potter as 
> being a new version of the timeless Path of Liberation. I'm not 
> even going to debate in the sense of wanting to prove I'm right. 
> I'm just going to answer some questions and correct some, what in 
> my opinion are, misconceptions.

Geoff:
I have come to the conclusion that we have to agree to disagree but I 
believe that in saying that you are not going to debate is a cop out 
because you are then going on to attempt to prove that you are right. 
Your last sentence underlines that.

Hans:
> So to sum it up: I'm just addressing myself to those people who 
> have open minds and are interested in the spiritual path Jo might 
> be propounding in Harry Potter. If people get upset at my 
> comparisons may I invite them to press "delete" whenever one of my 
> emails arrives? 

Geoff:
And leave you with a wide open field to give just one view to people 
on the group who are trying to make sense of life? Come, come, Hans, 
to suggest that anyone not agreeing with you does not have an open 
mind is the accusation which you yourself are laying at the door of 
the early church.
 
Hans:
> The fact that some members keep saying I'm propagating heretical 
> teachings proves to me they do not understand the point of these 
> posts. I just want to expose people to the truth: not the truth of 
> the teachings themselves, but the truth of whether Harry Potter is 
> BASED on those teachings. Reject the teachings of liberation by all 
> means, call them heretical, satanic or occult or whatever you like. 
> That's not the point. The point is: does Harry Potter contain them  
> or not? Quite simple.

Geoff:
I believe that Harry Potter is based on the teachings of Christ as 
laid out in the gospels and much of what is said and done by 
individuals in the books reflects that basis.


> Geoff:
> In the 2nd century, Gnosticism was a heresy which taught that only 
> people with "special knowledge" who had gone through initiation 
> into the cult could approach God and they were considered to be 
> special – a cut above the hoi polloi.
 
> Hans:
> I am quite convinced Geoff really, genuinely believes this. However 
> I'm sure 99% of the members of this group know and understand that 
> history is written by the victors. Tom Harpur, an Anglican 
> theologian and Professor of Greek and New Testament studies, proves 
> in his book, "The Pagan Christ", that the Gnostics were persecuted 
> and suppressed by the early Christian Church in itsbattle to gain  
> supremacy over the wide range of religious communities that
> populated the western world between 200 and 300 AD. I'm not blaming 
> modern Christians for what the founding fathers of the church did 
> 1700 years ago. However in order to be honourable and honest I 
> sthink modern Christians hould be able to face the fact that the 
> early church stamped out many groups and many teachings which it 
> saw as dangerous to its rule. 
 
Geoff:
I hope I didn't see a hint of patronising in your remark about me 
above. 

The gospel of Christ - as I have pointed out many times - is a 
surprisingly simply one to embrace. It merely asks for BELIEF. The 
reason that Gnosticism was frowned on was that it implied that to be 
a believedr or anyone of importance within the church, you had to 
possess this special knowledge which could only be acquired by 
rituals and ceremonies. It was the 2nd century equivalent of the 
Death Eaters and "pure-blood" superiority.

Hans:
> The reason that self-initiation is such hard work is that humanity 
> has sunk so low after the fall from the Kingdom of Heaven. The 
> reason the world is in such a mess is because we human beings have 
> lost touch with God. Our minds do not understand what God wants. We 
> are blind and deaf to the Divine Plan. Voldemort lives in each one 
> of us and wants to keep it that way. 

Geoff:
But self-initiation will not save us because we are not sinless. e 
cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootlaces. This is why God came 
to earth in the fully-human and fully-divine form of Christ.

Hans: 
> Indeed, as Geoff says, "God so loved the world that he sent his 
> only son so that whoever believed in him would not perish but have 
> everlasting life." Each one of us has His only Son asleep in our 
heart. 

Geoff:
Agreed.

Hans:
 > Why use so many Christian analogies? I believe the Brotherhood of 
> the Masters of Compassion (my nomenclature) has given the Christian 
> gospels to humanity as a road-map to liberation. They were given to 
> all of humanity and do not belong to any particular group. The 
> gospels are wonderful guide books
> to the divine laws of alchemy if you don't take them literally. 
> They were always meant to be understood symbolically, as applying 
> to the Inner Christ. However in its bid for dominance the early 
> church imposed a literal interpretation on them. Instead of people 
> being allowed to use them to give birth to their inner Christ the 
> church imposed the teachings of the birth of Christ as a solely 
> historical event. 

Geoff:
Which it was. It was the point in time where God entered his creation 
to save it. Read the teaching and sermons and letters of Peter and 
Paul and the other disciples. These were not politicising the early 
church. They had met with the risen Christ and seen his glory.


Hans:
> "Why were the secret teachings of the original Christians brutally
> suppressed by the Roman Church?

> Because they show that the gospel story is a spiritual allegory 
> encoding a profound philosophy that leads to Gnosis – mystical 
> enlightenment.

Geoff:
We're back to people having to have a mystical enlightenment instead 
of seeing the real Jesus.


Hans:
> What I'm saying is that the teachings in the gospels were in fact 
> taken by the early church and made out to be their sole property. I 
> deny ownership of the gospels

Geoff:
...that's an interesting comment.... We'll have to hold you to that 
:-)

Hans:
> and I feel I can and should compare Harry Potter to the gospels
> as well as the Alchemical Wedding or whatever else I can see 
> parallels with.

Geoff:
As long as you have the courtesy to accept that Christians interpret 
their *own* scriptures differently to you.


> Hans:
> Why get so excited? Because Liberation is the most wonderful, 
> ecstatic and rapturous thing there is. There is nothing more 
> glorious, blissful or heavenly than that. When God's Son wakes up 
> in your heart you have God inside you! He (gradually) lifts you 
> above all worries, all suffering, all anguish. To have God wake up 
> inside your heart is like having a spiritual orgasm, so intense, so 
> heart-warming, so pure, there are no words to describe it.

Geoff:
Now there, except perhaps for your metaphor, I can agree. One of the 
modern paraphrases of the Bible always refers to Jesus as "The 
Liberator".

I sensed that over 40 years ago when I came to accept Jesus into my 
life and felt the entrance of the Holy Spirit into my heart and life; 
but of course I met Christ, the Son of the living God, not "a 
spiritual allegory encoding a profound philosophy".

Hans: 
> Harry Potter is both a new religion and an old one. It's old in the 
> sense that it's the timeless teachings of liberation. It's new in 
> the sense that millions of people are absorbing it in a new way 
> unconsciously. At some time in the future, when the Path of 
> Liberation is taught overtly, with less symbolism, it will be a 
> very short jump indeed for people to make the connection from Harry 
> Potter to liberation. 

Geoff:
To disagree yet again, Harry Potter is not a religion but a fictional 
young man - very close to real life, very understandable who, like 
all of us here on earth wants to know the real truth about "Life, the 
Universe and Everything". We see pointers in the books which 
underline the teaching of Christ and folk, such as Dumbledore who 
show us the clues to finding that truth and even folk like Lucius 
Malfoy who give us a yardstick of evil to avoid.

Finally, may I say that I commend Tonks' reply to this post for 
reading as well as my ramblings.