Harry Potter, Horcruxes, and the Healing Path
One of my family’s favorite Christmas traditions is watching the Harry Potter movies during Advent. Last year I wrote about Object Relations, Harry Potter, and Union with Christ. So I decided to add a tradition of writing a reflection after each viewing. This year, I want to talk about horcruxes. They are powerful symbols. I’m going to take them in a slightly different direction, but still drawing on J.K. Rowling’s symbolism.
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As Professor Dumbledore explains to Harry in The Half-Blood Prince, Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, desired immortality. He told his death-eater followers, “I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.”1 Horcruxes were the means to Voldemort’s immortality. For those who haven’t read/watched Harry Potter, or need a refresher, here’s Professor Slughorn’s explanation of horcruxes:
“A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul.” When Tom didn’t understand, Slughorn continued:
“Well, you split your soul, you see,” said Slughorn, “and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one’s body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged.”2
Seeking to be invincible, Voldemort split his soul into parts and hid those parts outside of his body. This reaches into universal, archetypal symbolism. It’s not just about the greatest dark wizard of all time. It represents how we all, sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, seek to transcend harm and evil. We dissociate. We disconnect. We split. When we are harmed, we don’t have to feel pain if we make ourselves out of touch with our body.
The healing journey is thus similar to the quest that fell to the lot of Harry, Hermione, and Ron: find the horcruxes and face the pain. In Rowling’s symbolism, this is a physical task: finding objects precious to Voldemort and destroying them. The healing quest is no less physical: find those parts of your self split and sequestered in your body. But rather than kill the horcruxes, healing is more like the mirror image of this3:
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“Is there any way of putting yourself back together?” Ron asked. “Yes,” said Hermione with a hollow smile, “but it would be excruciatingly painful.” “Why? How do you do it?” asked Harry. “Remorse,” said Hermione. “You’ve got to really feel what you’ve done…apparently the pain of it can destroy you.”
Really feeling. Whether that’s what you’ve done, or what’s been done to you. There is no other way to put yourself back together. And because the pain really can feel like it will destroy you, it must be done with another.
Hebrews 2:14-18, The Message
Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
Question
What do you do with your pain? Where do you put it, when feeling it is too painful? What helps you be willing and able to feel your pain in the presence of a safe friend?
1 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005), 510.
2 Rowling, Half-Blood Prince, 497.
3 Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005), 103.