The horcruxes (again)

[bluesqueak]

I've been desperately trying to work out why on earth JKR might 
use 'horcrux' in relation to 'a container for the soul'. For some 
reason, church plate kept floating into my mind.

Anyway, I think I've found the connection. Christian churches who 
use communion wafers (or 'hosts') often have a special little box 
called a 'pyx'. These are used to keep consecrated wafers when 
travelling, to be used in giving communion to the housebound, sick 
or dying.

http://www.inhisname.com/ChurchPages/Pyx_Cast.htm shows some 
pictures of pyxes. You'll note that very often, the box is engraved 
with a cross. Or, in Latin, a crux.

So, there's the horcrux, which contains a split part of a soul, the 
splitting created by murder. It cannot be opened. And there's the 
pyx, marked with a cross/crux, containing a wafer traditionally 
handed out with the words 'the body of Christ' (who, Christian 
tradition says, died to save everyone). 

Opposites? Or am I imagining the connection?

Pip!Squeak

"Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not 
known how to act?" - Severus Snape

"Whether you can act or not - next time I get asked to be your 
defence counsel, could you please *not* fire an AK at someone two 
weeks before the trial?" - Pip