Symbols - A Detective's POV

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 128658

I have posted from time to time about the Christian Symbols in HP
and this has caused some conflict on the list. I would like to
explain my POV in a more basis manner and will start where I should
have started, from the beginning.

Symbols - A Detective's POV

When is a story just a story and when is it something else? A
number of years ago I had never heard about Harry Potter, but 2 of
my elderly friends wanted the book for Christmas and then I heard
that the book had been banned in some conservative southern state.
Banning a book in this day and age? What is all the fuss over some
kid's book? I read a lot, but not fiction; too many books, too
little time in one lifetime. I had not read a book of fiction for
30 years. I went to the library and to the children's section and
checked out SS. Read it over a weekend and became, like everyone
else, hooked forever. There was nothing here that justified banning
this book from anywhere. It was a fascinating story, in a
compelling world. But there was something else, towards the end of
the book. The part where we learn of Harry's scar and his mother's
love and her death. "Hummm, there is something familiar here.
Could it be? Interesting, wonder what the author was thinking when
she wrote that. Hummm. ?? I really like that old wizard with his
wise words of wisdom, reminds me of a wise old monk that I know."

So when is an image in a story a symbol and when isn't it? Lets
look at that part of the book, near the end when DD explains to
Harry the meaning of his mothers death. First we have the name of
the mother. Lily. It is a woman's name, nothing more. To some it
might invoke the image of a flower, to others a specific type of
flower. Even then it could be an Asiatic Lily, a day Lily or the
pure white lily used by Christian churches on Easter, and often
referred to as an Easter Lily. Harry's aunt is Petunia so there is
no reason to read anything into his mother being called Lily. Her
parents just liked flower names.

But wait, there is more. This woman died on Halloween to save her
son. We are told that for some yet unknown reason that she did not
have to die. LV was not planning to kill her. LV told her to stand
aside. Humm.. Then we are told by this wise old wizard that Harry
was saved, spared from death by the sacrificial death of his mother
because of her love for him. And that the encounter that night at GH
left Harry with the scar on his forehead. A really big *Hummm*
here.

So we have a woman named Lily and a sacrificial death out of Love. A
Love so powerful that it triggered an ancient magic that saves her
son from death. Those are the facts of the story. Pure facts. So
when does a woman's name become a symbol of Christ? The name Lily
becomes the image of an Easter lily when we put it together with the
rest of this story. Why? Because in a country like the UK where
Christianity is such a part of the cultural history that the Queen
is considered the head of the church, the story of the sacrificial
death of Jesus out of Love is very well know to everyone including
non-Christians.

If that is not enough, there is Harry's scar. This for me was the
real telling sign which pulled it all together. Harry has a scar on
his forehead. Now again a scar is just a scar. Even if it looks
like a map of the London underground system, it is still only a
scar. It means nothing unless it is tied to something else. Is
there anything else associated with Harry's scar? Again the facts,
madam, just the facts
 We are told that it is the mark that is left
when a really dark wizard tried to kill Harry and the spell
rebounded. Everyone in the WW sees it as a symbol of the "boy who
lived". It is the symbol of the one who triumphed over death.
Everyone in the WW sees it as a symbol of the defeat of the greatest
evil wizard of the era. Harry is famous as the only one who came
face to face with LV and his curse and lived. These are the facts.
The pure basis facts of canon.

If we put it all together we have this: A woman named Lily who did
not have to die, but chose to die as a sacrifice to save her son
from the most evil entity of that time. As a result the evil entity
is vanquished and the innocent baby boy, her only son, is left alive
and with a mark inflicted by the dark lord on his forehead.

Now to RL. When a child or adult is being baptized into the Church
is it customary for the priest (in the Anglican Church, which is the
C of E in the UK) to mark the person with the sign of the cross on
his forehead. It is the sign of Jesus' brush with the forces of
darkness in the world and his overcoming death.

Again putting all of this together we have both Lily as a symbol of
Christ on the cross and His sacrificial Love and the mark of baptism
on Harry as *everyman* into the death and resurrection of Christ
(overcoming death at the hand of LV.)

It is this symbolism in the end of the first book that has led me to
wonder if the author was writing about something deeper that a
simple fun story of good verses evil. I think, as I have said
before, that the HP books are written in the style of the great
Jewish Rabbi and scholar Maimonides who wrote "The Guide for the
Perplexed". That book was written on 3 levels. Each reader could
get something from it depending on their level of spiritual
development. I think that JKR (either consciously or
subconsciously) has done the same and this is why both children and
adults can enjoy the books and even become obsessed by them. There
are different layers of symbols in the books. But even if someone
reads the books and doesn't see any symbols, it doesn't matter. The
underlying message will still come through and that message is that
in the war between good and evil, Love will be the answer.

Tonks_op