Book Covers

Sat Apr 7 11:24:54 UTC 2007

No: HPFGUIDX 167178

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, 
"yutu75es" wrote:
"No one seems to have noticed the strange design on the spine of
the British cover, over the title. It seems like an arrow, a circle
and a triangle. Any theories about what it might be/mean/represent??"

Carol "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> responded:
"I'm betting that it's an alchemical symbol, possibly related to the 
union of the houses if air, water, earth, and fire can all be 
symbolized by triangles. A circle, I believe, represents wholeness or 
unity--hardly unimportant if one of the themes of DH is unity not 
only within Hogwarts but within the WW as a whole. [...] In any case, 
the image almost certainly does relate to the themes and content of 
DH and possibly to the Sorting Hat's and Dumbledore's speeches 
regarding unity. [...] 

I refer anyone who's interested to the post upthread about triangles 
as alchemical symbols. I did a search for a symbol resembling the one 
on the book spine and found lots of triangles within circles, but not 
the reverse. Even the Muggle Granger (John, that is) was no help."

Hans now:
It is indeed an Alchemical Symbol!

As you know, I have told this group on many occasions that the 
deepest foundation of "Harry Potter" is a radiant spiritual message 
about liberation from evil, suffering and death, summed up in the 
word: "Alchemy". I have especially emphasised, and I do so again 
today, that there is an extremely large number of similarities 
between "Harry Potter", and "The Chymical Wedding of Christian 
Rosycross" published in German in 1616. For those who have not read 
my earlier posts, see my article "Harry Potter: The road map to 
liberating alchemy" here: 
http://www.harrypotterforseekers.com/articles/liberatingalchemy.php.

This symbol on the spine of the Bloomsbury edition is straight out 
of "The Chymical Wedding"! Not only that, but what the symbol 
describes is the very heart of "Harry Potter"!

You may remember from my posts that the Room of Love has its 
equivalent in "The Chymical Wedding", where it is referred to as "the 
sepulchre of Venus". The connection is obvious, as Venus was the 
Roman goddess of love.

The symbol in question describes a sepulchre that is situated above 
the bedroom of Venus. I will quote here a short extract from "The 
Hermetick Romance or the Chymical Wedding", in the 1690 translation 
by E. Foxcroft:

"And this (as I was informed) was the King's Treasury. But the most 
glorious and principal thing, that I here saw, was a Sepulcher (which 
stood in the middle) so rich that I wondered that it was no better 
guarded: [...] This Sepulcher was triangular and had in the middle of 
it a Kettle of polished Copper, the rest was of pure Gold and 
pretious Stones; In the Kettle stood an Angel, who held in his Arms 
an unknown Tree, from which it continually dropped Fruit into the 
Kettle; and as oft as the Fruit fell into the Kettle, it turned into 
Water too, and ran out from thence into three small Golden Kettles 
standing by. The little Altar was supported by these three Animals, 
an Eagle, an Ox and a Lyon, which stood on an exceedingly costly 
Base. I asked my Page what this might signifie; Here, said he, lies 
Buried Lady Venus, that Beauty which hath undone many a great Man, 
both in Fourtune, Honour, Blessing and Prosperity. After which he 
shewed me a Copper Door on the Pavement." 

Christian Rosycross and his page go down into this trapdoor and below 
the sepulchre they see a bed with naked Venus lying asleep. She is to 
wake up when the abovementioned tree has melted away completely.

So here we can clearly see the three symbols: the triangular 
sepulchre, the circular copper kettle, and the vertical line 
symbolising the tree.

Now I want to give you an extract from Jan van Rijckenborgh's "The 
Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross", which is an explanation 
of the original Chymical Wedding of 1616. I'm quoting from the 
beginning of Chapter 15 of Volume 2: 

"We have been speaking about the royal treasure that lies buried in 
the heart sanctuary of every human being - the divine spark, the 
rose, [or the Lily - Hans] Venus, universal love. A radiation 
emanates from this nuclear principle of the true man, but the nature-
born human being is incapable of reacting fully to it. That is why he 
is, as it were, driven hither and thither by this principle, seeking 
it in ignorance, constantly yearning for it, forever heeding its call 
without ever finding it completely, until like C.R.C., he is able to 
unlock the secret of the heart through the fundamental transmutation 
of the various aspects of the nature-born self. [...]

   We said that a radiation emanates from the divine spark, from 
Venus which still lies as if dead. The story tells of an altar 
combined with a sepulchral monument, as signature of the living dead. 
This altar is triangular; it is composed of copper, gold and precious 
stones; it is supported by an eagle, an ox and a lion; and on it, in 
the centre, stands an angel in a polished copper basin. In its arms 
the angel holds an unknown tree which is gradually melting away. 
Drops continually fall from the tree into the basin, and every time a 
fruit falls into the basin it, too, turns into water which flows into 
the three adjoining golden basins.

   With these words, The Alchemical wedding conveys something about 
the sunken divine spark. In fact, it tells you everything you need to 
know. You only need to understand the language of the symbols in 
order to comprehend with perfect clarity what is being said. [...]

   What central law governs the entire All? It is the power of 
universal love, the divine principle that lies sunken in every 
creature.

   And as we said before, a radiation emanates from this divine 
principle of love, affecting the entire being. This radiation is 
twofold. It has positive and negative aspects which in combination 
are creative and birth-giving and thus lead to a result, to self-
realisation.

   That is why the entire altar with the attributes placed upon it is 
encased with copper and gold. Copper is the symbol of the negative, 
receiving principle, while gold symbolises the positive, radiating 
principle. 

   The altar is triangular and adorned with precious stones, while 
above it several carbuncles are shining. The equilateral triangle has 
always been the symbol of divine wisdom, which imparts itself to and 
becomes concrete in the mind which has become ennobled to it, and 
thus also leads to a result. Here, too, we see the two aspects: the 
creative and the birth-giving. And the precious stones tell us of the 
radiance and the crown of victory.

   Thus a mighty radiation rises up from the divine spark and from 
the altar of the heart, like a tree spreading its branches in all 
directions. It is the radiation of the universal, divine love, which 
is omnipresent, and lies sunken in all of us. This love-power has, as 
we said, two poles, one creative and one birth-giving. It is the 
meeting with God in man.

    Both the creative and birth giving powers in turn possess two 
aspects. That is why C.R.C. sees the eagle, the ox, the lion and the 
angel, the classical symbols of the four elements: air, earth, fire 
and water, of which the nature-born personality is composed."

The DH symbol is the sepulchre of Venus, i.e. the Room of Love. It's 
interesting too, that this is described as the King's treasury, when 
the cover of DH shows the trio entering a treasury.

And so, in conclusion, what does the DH symbol mean? What is it 
telling us? It's telling us that Part 7 is about Divine Love, which 
inherently contains wisdom (the triangle), and brings the Path to 
attain everlasting Life.

This is just one more confirmation of my assertion that Harry Potter 
is the most sublime and holy work of symbolism written in modern 
times. It is about the force that connects God and Man: Love!

Warm regards to all,
Hans

PS For those living in the UK, I'll be presenting a workshop and 
lecture on the alchemical/spiritual message in "Harry Potter", in 
London on June 3rd. There will be a workshop in the afternoon and a 
lecture in the evening, in the Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester 
Place. http://www.theosophical-society.org.uk

Quote of the day:
"I've never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that's a 
different matter. To invent this wizard world, I've learned a 
ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I'll never use in 
the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do 
in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal 
logic." JK Rowling