Moral messages Re: The religious content of Harry Potter

[cat_kind]

No: HPFGUIDX 128722

> > catkind earlier (to Hans): 
> > I'm sure I'm not the only one who has said this before in
> > response to your JKR quote.  It can be interpreted in plenty of 
> > other ways than a Rosicrucian conspiracy. JKR is known to be a 
> > member of the Presbyterian church, so it seems more likely that if 
> > there is a religious message it's based on her own religion, not 
> > Rosicrucianism. .....edited......
> > For example, I think there are similarities between HP and alchemy
> > because both draw on similar "mystic" traditions.
> 
> Valky:
> I think catkind, that what you say here is precisely the significance
> of the above quote. I believe that the books reflect a fundamental
> understanding of many religions and the symbols that resonate most
> deeply with that religion's story of salvation, liberation and the
> grace of the creator (God). The HP books are overflowing with potent
> symbolism that calls many, regardless of their religion, to ponder the
> story of their hero of salvation/liberation again and more deeply.
> This, in my opinion, is hence why JKR was able to say that a ten year
> old would probably guess whats coming if they knew the basis of it,
> because the symbols that many of us have found in searching for the
> answers to our spiritual questions are there, even the ones that we
> have known from an early age.

catkind:  That wasn't the way I meant it though.  I think the
religious symbolism is not in the detail but in the overlying themes:
good versus evil, and how good will win. (Though actually, it's more
human vs. evil isn't it?) A religious parallel like that could indeed
be simple enough for a ten-year-old to understand, which all these
symbolism theories patently aren't. 

I think the "alchemical" symbolism comes from the fact that JKR draws
on traditional ideas of witches and wizards and magic, and those ideas
often stem from or are related to the old alchemists and other mystic
traditions.  For example, the Weasleys have seven children and there
are seven books because seven is "well known" to be a magical number
(seventh son etc.), not because of seven chakras or seven levels of
existence and so on. (Okay, and of course there are generally seven
years of secondary education in the UK.) I don't think this is
intended as religious symbolism.

For the record, I don't see anything deeply moral or religious in the
books so far. So there are good guys and bad guys. This goes for an
awful lot of books. To me, the best thing they do morally is to ask
questions that get us all thinking about the differences between good
and nice, or good and "on our side". 

I'm not even sure if this was deliberate in the earlier books: Hagrid
is good, the Dursleys are bad, therefore it's just fine for Hagrid to
be nasty to a terrified eleven-year-old boy, whom he's never met
before, for being fat. Or maybe this is done on purpose - the good
side being fallible (in the sense of doing bad things, not just making
mistakes) from the very first.  

In a slightly tongue-in-cheek attempt to discern moral messages in the
HP books, I come up with the following:
Loyalty is good.
Love is good.
Prejudice is bad.
Torturing people is bad.
(possible exceptions made depending on identity of victim)
Killing people is bad.
(possible exceptions made depending on identity of victim)
Slavery might be bad or not, depending on both slave and master.
Fun is good.

This really isn't a very impressive list is it? I must have missed
something. I did honestly try.

> Valky:
> I am posting at my own predictions
> contest group "The Prophecy Orb @ Row 97".
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Prophecy_Orb/

catkind: I look forward to seeing how all these predictions pan out.  
Doubtless plenty of us are making fools of ourselves, self included.
All part of the fun!

catkind (rambling so far it wanders out of the room)