Wands and other things

[susanbones2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 147699

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> Renee:
> 
> AFAIK, John Granger is not a proponent of the way of alchemical
> liberation. His views are - I hope to do them justice now - that 
the
> HP books are Christian literature in the tradition of the Inklings,
> notably Lewis and Tolkien. But while the message itself is 
Christian,
> but JKR presents it by using the imagery and symbolism of spiritual
> alchemy as developed in the European alchemical tradition. The 
medium
> is not the message, though, at least not in the eyes of John 
Granger,
> who is a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. If you take a look 
at
> his website and read some of the articles, you'll see that he does 
not
> propagate alchemical liberation as a worldview. Nor does he claim 
JKR
> is doing so.
> 
> Renee

Jen here,
Thank you Renee for that concise and very clear explanation of JKR's 
use of the Alchemical tradition. I found Granger's writings very 
enlightening because he was the first to demonstrate how deeply 
JKR's writing is steeped in the classis tradition and how that world 
view operated. We have lost so many of the reference points that 
someone even 50 years ago would have known about because we no 
longer study so many of the things that formerly comprised education 
in the classical sense. JKR and the Inklings share a world view in 
which the good doesn't have to be labeled overtly. And as you point 
out European alchemical tradition was a way of talking about 
Christian themes that people understood. Alchemical liberation has 
developed into its own tradition but the two still use many of the 
same terms but do not share the same world view at all. 
Jen D.