Archive for Harry Potter
Alan Rickman Sonnet 130 Recitation
because everyone should see this…and because I screwed up trying to link this in an earlier post…
Harry Potter Allegory: This one is the bomb
I think I’m not alone in my eye-rolling regarding the genre of “Harry Potter as Christian allegory” books which have appearerd over the years. Still, there is a strong tendency to regard the series as prophetic, and just yesterday, a great and briliiant friend pointed out the recent Vanity Fair astrological forecast for the United States, beginning in 2008. (See below for link). I couldn’t help but get chills as I saw the similarites between America’s upcoming transformation, and the just-ended series of books about everyone’s favorite orphaned Boy Wizard.
According to the article, the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto, is going to be transiting our Cancer nation, through the sign of Capricorn. This transit will give the U.S. a very rough time for the next couple of decades. There will be a struggle between two sides, and finally, the two sides will have to surmount their struggle against one another, to make a choice for something better.
The upcoming Pluto transit through Capricorn will be, for the U.S., like the Dark Lord rising to power. There will be much initial scrambling to blame the conservatives, the government, and whine about our limited freedoms. But since Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, doesn’t give a rip about our petty ego trips, we’d better polish up our magical transformation skills (and I’m not just talking about shouting “Alohomora!” every time you open a door). This ride is going to be rough. It won’t matter who is in the White House. Remember Cornelius Fudge? Government is going to be owned by the business of the day.
Snape and Voldemort, representatives of the Dark, are both Capricorns. Also, the Harry Potter books were born in Cancer. Furthermore, Harry is an insufferably courageous, righteous Leo, who tries to fight the darkness before surrendering to it.
As we know, Harry thought Snape was the evil guy from the beginning, but Snape shows that darkness is not necessarily evil, and courage is not always the virtue of the light side. 
It isn’t until Harry surrenders himself to the darkness that the landscape is transformed, and Snape becomes visible as the Dark Angel.
Our own transformation relies on meeting the Dark Lord (in Capricorn) face to face, as he transits our horizon. As his shadow crosses the secure U.S. suburban dream we have come to embrace as a replacement for the true American Dream. And we have grown larger and larger as we have come to know and love this bastard dream — basically, we’ve gotten fat and lazy, and this “dream” is no more inspired than a Hostess Ding Dong. Is it any mistake that the Minister of Magic, and the ruler of the wizarding world’s status quo is called “Fudge?”
In order to move beyond the world of Fudge, where we stick our heads in the sand and say “I’ve got the right — it’s America,” this surrender and transformation is required. The battle for our collective soul will require the best we have to offer. In short, the world will be a better place when our Hogwarts is ruined. The good news? America will finally be one of the “good” guys.
Read about it here: Vanity Fair Special Alert: Horoscope U.S.A.
Deathly Hallows
Spoilers abound, of course, becuase I need to speak freely of my grief over “Deathly Hallows.”
I guess I never expected that so…many…would die.
The hardest for me is Severus Snape, who was such a complexity of light and dark. He loved and moved in the shadows, and his love was greater, really, than any of the courageous beings of Gryffindor. He was lighter than the light, darker than the dark, and neither side really understood him.
Even Dumbledore used Snape to his own ends…
And imagining Harry saying goodbye to his 3 children on Platform 9 and 3/4, with Ron, Hermione, and a balding Draco Malfoy doesn’t assuage the pain. I feel like I’m losing a family, that the story is over.
So at this moment, I’m indulging in the anger and beauty of grief, and it’s all getting mixed up in my long time fandom of Alan Rickman, who plays Snape. Here is the actor who plays Snape beautifully, reciting Sonnet 130.
It doesn’t help. It sort of mines the grief further. But at least it keeps the beauty going until I begin to understand all of this.
