Killing tears the soul apart redux. WAS: Re: Snape's penance?

[Deb]

No: HPFGUIDX 139839


  > Carol wrote:
 > For her, the soul seems to be sufficiently tangible to be sucked
 > out of a body by a Dementor--through the mouth--which suggests a
 > concept something like that of the ancient Greek word "psyche" 
 > (can't
 > do Greek letters, sorry), meaning "breath," ... 
 > What I'm trying to say is I don't think that the soul in the
 > Potterverse is a solid object that can be divided into halves and
 > quarters and so forth like a pie, with each succeeding "half" 
being
 > smaller until the portion of soul remaining in Voldie is so small 
 > that
 > it is hardly worth dividing. 
 > 
 > Saraquel:
 > I wish i'd seen your post before I posted my last one, 
 > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/139828 as we 
are 
 > thinking along the same lines I think. I took it one little step 
 > further and suggested that the soul is in fact the personality. 
But 
 > your post has sparked off more thoughts on the topic.
 > 
 > If this is accurate, and I did find quite a lot of canon that 
fits 
 > the model, then splitting your soul is not a physical thing, more 
 > like fragmenting your personality. So because personality is not 
a 
 > physical thing, size is not an issue. It doesn't get smaller or 
 > larger (as you suggest) IMO, it changes from being whole - 
meaning 
 > consistent and in touch with itself (more akin to holistic) - to 
 > split - meaning inconsistent, contradictory and at war with 
itself. 
 
 > In making a horcrux you could possibly choose which personality 
 > traits to syphon off into the horcrux. In fact, if that is the 
 > case, I can imagine that the early horcruxes are less deadly than 
 > the later ones, as they are likely to contain the softer sides of 
 > Voldemort's personality, the parts he despises the most. Tom 
Riddle 
 > in CoS, was much less foul than the later Voldemort - still foul 
 > though!
 
>  Kemper now:
> I agree and disagree. I think a Horcrux is composed of two 
separate parts of 
> a human: the Psyche and the Soul. I don't think they're 
interchangeable. 
>  What I propose is that the Psyche is a clone/duplicate of the 
Psyche of the 
> original thereby implementing Carol's 'Multiplying by Dividing', 
like cell 
> mitosis. The Soul is then 'Decreased by Dividing', like almost 
everything 
> else. The Body remains constant (unable to divide or multiply).
>  The Psyche has the same experiences as the Original at the time 
of the 
> Horcrux: as with 15 year old Tom and the Diary.
>  Spiritually, I don't like the idea of the soul dividing and 
becoming two 
> equal souls... it decreases the soul's importance, uniqueness, 
beauty. The 
> Soul, IMO, is a Gift from God, the Universe, a Higher Power, the 
Source, or 
> Whatever. The Psyche is evil by choice/circumstance.
>  So when the Diary and Ring horcruxes are destroyed, it is the 
Psyche in 
> each that is Destroyed and the Soul from both is Released, 
returning if not 
> to the Source then as far away from Voldemort as possible. 
>  For what it's worth...
>  Kemper

 Deb adds: Bravo Kemper! I think that does explain very well this 
quite knotty situation. I would add that IMO Tom Riddle created the 
diary when he was 15/16 (to preserve his 15/16yo self and to attempt 
to touch the future and cause the CoS to be opened again) but LV 
made it into a Horcrux years later. I personally don't think he 
learned how to make Horcruxes(and I also think that there is a quite 
intricate and evil ritual that must be performed in order to make 
them) ... or at least did not start making them if the "he learned 
how to make them from Grendwald" folks are to be believed.... until 
after he stole the locket and the cup and left Borgins and Burke. 
Canon tells us that LV wandered and learned Dark Arts for over 15 
years before he came back, organized the DEs and started trying to 
take over the WW. 

 Deb (djklaugh)-