[HPforGrownups] The _true_ power Voldemort knows not

[Lenore]

No: HPFGUIDX 171477

Eric:
>I was thinking about "the power Voldemort knows not," and it occurred to me
>that the said power might well not be love, but _friendship._
>
>[snip]
>
>So my own theory about the power is that it's friendship.  Voldemort may
>well be full of love, albeit only for himself.  Friendship, OTOH, he's never
>experienced in his life, and that may be his downfall.

Lenore:
I understand what you're saying but I don't quite concur, since love and friendship would be in any case inseparable.  While friendship is an aspect of love (and I believe that love can be very pure in true friendship), love itself is something which is all-encompassing...  In that sense it is an impersonal quality.  It is a totality, an all-pervading quality... (for  me, anyway).

I'm reminded of a quote that I've always loved (I don't recall the source):
"The only way to get rid of an enemy is to turn him into a friend."

However, we all know that Voldemort is not an enemy which can be turned into a friend!  So, archetypally, he must represent something else in the story.  For me, that would be the split mind, the ego, i.e., associated with the fall of man into separation and despondency.  He himself cannot comprehend love, and yet he must be returned to love in order to be dissolved back into the Wholeness, thus ending the separation...

Lenore