Character Discussion: Snape (& short response to Geoff)

[Hans Andréa]

No: HPFGUIDX 125604

Snape!!!
One of the most intriguing and thought provoking characters, judging by the
heated discussion he provokes on HPFGU.

I think Severus Snape and Remus John Lupin belong together. In my opinion
they represent respectively the black king and the grey king in "The
Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross".

As I said in my last post, these two characters personify two voices that
speak forcefully in the candidate for alchemical transformation. They
represent a harvest of experiences that has built up in the microcosm for
hundreds of incarnations. These experiences have all been caused by the
interplay of two opposite forces in our lives: good and evil - black and
grey. How apt! How superbly and cunningly appropriate! Not black and white,
but black and grey! For there is no Good; there is no pure white goodness
in this fallen universe! There are only shades of grey and black. Good is
where the Spirit is, Good is in the original divine universe we've left
behind. One of the greatest examples of a person who had reached liberation,
Jesus, said: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (Mark
10:18)

We'll discuss Lupin in the next post.

Snape, as you know, always wears black. He is the black king and therefore
the voice of our shadow side, our black side, our sinful aspect. He also
symbolises the accumulated bad experiences we've had. He is the cup of
bitterness we've had to drink throughout hundreds of incarnations. How many
times have we committed intensely evil actions, how many times have we given
in to the evil around us, how often have we made grave errors of judgement
that have caused great suffering to others? All these things have caused
extremely painful karmic consequences for each of us. We all have our black
side!

We human beings are unable to learn without making errors. The word "error"
literally means "to wander". What we do in life is to wander around in the
dark. Originally this was not so. Before the Fall we were always guided by
the Light of the Spirit and there was no wandering, no errors, and so no
sin. But we chose to turn away from the Light and go our own way. The more
we turned away the more we wandered, and the more we wandered the more we
fell into error and blackness. That's Snape.

Snape therefore is not just our evil side, he is that aspect in us which
caused us to turn away from the Light. And whenever we turn away from the
Light we seek the darkness. The darkness is any place where the Spirit is
not present, and that's this whole universe, which Jacob Boehme calls "the
nature of death". Whenever we seek life fulfilment in any aspect of this
fallen universe, Snape is talking to us.

One of the most dangerous aspects of our personal Snape is a tendency to
engage in occult activities. The human being has a conscious or unconscious
desire to rule over his life (the black "KING"), to make his temporary state
permanent, to conquer death. We know that Severus Snape studied the black
arts in his youth. He was a death eater and was marked by Voldemort with the
dark mark.

What is the essence of Occultism? It is in fact very close to alchemy. It's
Harry Potter without Harry.

What I mean by that is that the occultist goes the same path as Harry does,
but without a new soul born to Lily and James. As I said in my post about
the Chamber of Secrets (Harry 10 - post 316) the occultist goes to the
serpent of the kundalini in the plexus sacralis and drives this upwards
through all the chakras, endowing him with great occult powers. You can read
about these in "The Chakras" by C.W. Leadbeater (Theosophical Publishing
House).

No wonder Snape has such skill at legilimens and occlumency! Those are
occult powers. Jo shows us in the most powerful way possible that Harry
can't do that, and in any case he doesn't need it! His love is what drives
Voldemort out, not occult power.

The liberating message of Harry Potter is so clear, so bright, so pure, so
obvious I'm amazed so few people can see it!

In the Alchemical Wedding the black king voluntarily submits to
decapitation. When a person decides to go the Path of Liberation through
alchemical transformation, he surrenders his whole being to the New Soul,
personified by Harry. This is why Snape leaves Voldemort and later joins the
Order of the Phoenix. He tries to save Harry's life during the quidditch
match in Book 1.

The apprentice alchemist knows that both his good side and his bad side have
to be sacrificed so that the original divine human being can resurge in an
alchemical process of death and rebirth. He tries to restrict and restrain
his black side as much as possible, but it is still very painful to the new
soul. This is why Harry suffers whenever he is in contact with Snape.
Snape's very essence is abhorrent to Harry, as our shadow side is abhorrent
to the new soul.

Now you know why Dumbledore would never want Snape teaching Defence against
the Dark Arts. That subject symbolises the lessons the new soul needs, in
order to grow and become mature. It would be too big a temptation to
Severus. I quote Jo from the Albert Hall interview: "when Professor
Dumbledore took Professor Snape onto the staff and Professor Snape said he'd
like to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts please and Professor Dumbledore
felt that it might bring out the worst in Professor Snape." It all makes
sense now, doesn't it?

It is obvious that Snape hates Sirius, James and Remus.
Sirius: the archetype of liberation.
James: the longing for liberation.
Remus: the striving for goodness. 

These three aspects of the candidate on the Path of Liberation are intensely
abhorrent to the shadow side. This is why he tries to get Sirius "kissed" by
the dementors. Sirius is the very opposite to everything Snape stands for!
This is why he opposes Remus' appointment to Hogwarts.
This is why he loathes James with the utmost intensity.

But I'm sure that although he hurts Harry deeply and makes his life
miserable, he will ultimately sacrifice himself for Harry. I guess he will
hate him to the end; nevertheless he will see that the only way to defeat
Voldemort is to die for Harry.

In the Alchemical Wedding the black king has a very old and frail wife. As I
said in my last post, the wives of the black king and the grey king
symbolise their passive aspects. The wife of the black king is very old and
near death. This symbolises the fact that when the alchemist is approaching
liberation, the evil in him is weak, and close to its end.

The grey king's wife is quite young and vivacious, symbolising the fact that
the good side of the alchemist is approaching the rebirth of Absolute Good.
She rejoices in her self-surrender to the new born king.

Jo once said that some of the teachers indeed do have wives, and so I wonder
if Snape has an old frail wife and Lupin a young vigorous one. If they do
she's nailing her flag to the mast. Then she's admitting what I've been
saying for the last two years: Harry Potter is a new version of the ancient
alchemical Path of total human Liberation from suffering, sorrow and death.
Jo is bringing this message to the world in the form of a story that is so
rapturously beautiful I can't find words for it. The words "Harry Potter"
are enough to bring tears to the eyes!

Good on ya, Jo, yer blood's worth bottlin!

---------------------------------------------

Just a few conciliatory words to Tonks and Geoff about their reactions to my
post 125555. 

My sincere compliments to the restrained and dispassionate way they have
both reacted to my post. 

Just two short points to correct two false impressions I have made on Geoff.

Firstly I'm sorry I sounded patronising when I said Geoff sincerely believes
what he says about the Gnostics. Far from being patronising I was trying say
that I affirm the sincerity of his belief in what to me is false.

Secondly I agree with Geoff that we can't pull ourselves up by our own
bootstraps. Tonks said a similar thing. Because of my concentration on the
"Inner Christ" I have not mentioned the Universal Christ in that particular
post. However I do believe that "without me you can do nothing". This is
illustrated vividly by Christian's dream in "The Alchemical Wedding". He and
the rest of humanity is imprisoned in a deep well. Cords are lowered which
people can grasp. The cords are then pulled up. I believe the cords
symbolise the Christ. So I'm sure we agree on that.

What we won't agree on, I'm sure, is what exactly Christ is. But I won't go
into that. Let's finish this discussion on a note of concord.


"if I talk too freely about [if I believe in God] I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's coming in the books." JK Rowling

_____________________________________

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


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