Posted on 08/01/2007 6:59:32 AM PDT by ParsifalCA
I am warning those who have not finished the series . . . and there must be still a few of them by now. . . that there are spoilers ahead. I have just finished the last book . . . having spent an enjoyable evening with it thanks to Sam’s Club and an indulgent wife.
I am done with Harry Potter and enjoying the literary aftertaste the way one enjoys a fine meal almost as much after it is done as when it is being consumed . . . though it is a bit sad that the series is finished.
And it is really finished . . .
Will one be able to re-read the books with pleasure?
I think the answer is only a tentative “yes.” If one knows the “puzzles” and “the secrets” of the book, it will not take away the charm of the characters or the fun of a good Quidditch match, but the first read will always be the best.
The strength of these books is in the plot and the second read, when everything is known, will be satisfying for finding all the clues to what happens . . . but I am hard pressed to know if I will want to re-read them a third or fourth time.
A really great book is as good on the fourth read . . . and some children’s books (Little White Horse) are better.
I deeply enjoyed the last book and thought the ending satisfying. For those who found them quite Christian, they will find much in this last book to give strength to their idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at exilestreet.com ...
HP is Disney-fied occultism. The events in HP do not represent what goes on in real occultic practice. But beneath the surface there is a bed of solid occultic knowledge.
“btw, if I met a woman or man who said they were a witch or wizard (generational or not), I would think they were nuttier than squirrel $hit”
Occultism is real. The practitioners are real and, though many are fake, some have real power. Even the Bible speaks of them...
“But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. “
“Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. “
<”Nor, for that matter have I ever known a male witch to call himself a warlock. Indeed, one commented that doing so was a sure mark of a fake.”>
But if they CALL themselves the right thing that means they wont be a fake?
No.
Not sure why you pinged me. Not that it matters.
You need to get a few things crystal clear:
1. You are the only one taking this thread seriously. Everyone else is making fun of you. You're no one's enemy, you're our laughingstock.
2. It is not your calling in life to regulate other people's entertainment. If you try to, people will just make fun of you.
3. It is a sad existence to try to suck all the fun out of the world. Your efforts to do so on this thread are just silly. (ergo, we make fun of you)
4. Your interpretation of Christianity (the rigid, uptight, stick-up-the-butt, have no entertainments except for PM-approved entertainments version) is not shared by every believer and is the reason Christianity gets mocked the way it does. Thanks a lot.
5. Your only grasp of logic extends only so far as to be a human fallacy generator. You're very good! Keep at it. It's very entertaining.
6. Clearly your problem is not Harry Potter, per se, it's an unhealthy interest in the occult. Otherwise you would have stopped after the first movie. But no, you kept watching. It's like people who'll watch raunchy movies so that they can righteously "inform" others of the content and tell them not to watch. It's perverse. Have fun with that gig. We sure are... at your expense!
So bottom line is this: you're too dense to realize you have been the object of ridicule for hundreds of posts now. You keep posting and we keep laughing. You should try a more productive endeavor, such as changing the names of the days and the months. They're named after PAGAN GODS and might lead people to dabble in the occult. I look forward to that thread.
Cheers!
Bravo!
Just a few notes on the table that you posted earlier (#372)
Book 1, page 66. Harry is informed about how much work goes into becoming a wizard and about how much there is to study. The book tittles listed, while not actual books, are significant.
The content Harry has to study includes: Astrology, Herbology, Astronomy (book 1, p. 133), Channeling power, how to use magick wands and practicing rituals. The titles of the books listed closely align to actual occult book.
Oh my goodness! You mean that there’s a lot of studying to be done, and you need to study specific subjects to do anything in school? Who-da-thunk-it! Let’s see... If you want to be a doctor, you need to study all sorts of things, like biology, chemistry, etc... Oh, and you need a lot of different books as well. Will studying those things prepare a student to be a theologist, or an engineer? No, not really. Theology and engineering students would need to follow a different course path to prepare them for their future. It shouldn’t be surprising that it would be the same in the fictional HP world, where children learn to control their powers.
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Book 1, page 90-94 to get to the school, people have to go through a portal and get on a train.
The entire school of Wizardry and Witchcraft is a creative visualization and exists on the astral plane- not on the physical plane. You can’t get to it unless you go through the portal at the train station.
This is COMPLETELY WRONG! The portal at the train station simply hides the platform from the muggles. It just happens to hide it from the wizarding world too, as magical folk can’t see it, they just assume that it’s there, as we saw in the second book, when the portal was closed by Dobby, and Ron and Harry couldn’t get onto the platform. So, they used a bewitched car to follow the train to Hogwarts (where through an inconsistancy in the story between “Chamber of Secrets” and “Half Blood Prince” the enchantment that would block anyone from being able to fly onto the grounds of the school was ignored.)
However, there were a number of times that people entered or left the Hogwarts school WITHOUT going through a magic portal... The arrival of Ron and Harry in “Chamber of Secrets,” the arrival and departure of Charlie Weasley’s friends to pick up Norbert in the first book, Serious Black’s (and Harry’s, George’s, and Fred’s) repeated entry and exit through the secret tunnels, into Hogsmead, Harry’s entrance through the main gate and Harry and Dumbledore’s flying onto the school grounds on broomsticks in “Halfblood Prince.”
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is organized:
* Dumbledore (a man) (#1)) Supreme Mugwump
* Snape (a man) (#2)
* Professor Minerva McGonagall (a woman) (#2) Deputy Headmistress (book 1, p. 51)
Parallels any occult order:
1. Imperitor (a man) (#1)
2. Temple Master (a man) (#2)
3. Cancellareous (a woman) (#2)
No one confronts the power of an Imperator. No one is more powerful than he. He rules the order.
Oh my goodness! You mean that an organization, like a school, has a heirarchy?!?!?! Do you home school? Because if you don’t, you might be shocked to learn that public, private, and yes, even religious day schools often have heirarchical organizations as well... They have positions known as “Principal,” “Vice Principal,” - oh no! “The principal of vice!” He or she must be especially evil! Seriously, Dumbledore is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, but he’s ALSO the Supreme Mugwump of the Wizagemot (sp?), which is sort of like the Supreme Court of Wizards in the HP world. BTW, he was removed from that post in Order of the Phoenix. Regarding Snape as #2, that’s just nonsense. He’s simply another teacher at Hogwarts. The only reason that he’s featured more prominantly in the HP books than other teachers (like McGonagall or Flitwick) is because he’s got a far more important roll in the stories.
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Harry learns how to cast spells.
Occultists manipulate elemental spirits, demonic entities, servitors, etc., as well as circumstances and people through spells, acts of will, creative visualizations, and ritual spells for their own benefit. (destruction spells, death spells)
I’d sort of assume that’s why someone would attend a school known as “Hogwarts school of Wichcraft and Wizardry. But what these children are learning is how to use and control powers that are innate within themselves. They are NOT channeling powers from other sources.
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Book 1, p. 114: There are four houses within the Hogwarts School: Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
Each one probably represents an element. Air. Earth. Water. Fire. Since Hogwarts exists on the astral plane, that takes care of the fifth element - ethers. We do not know this yet by the end of book three.
The key word here is “probably.” It allows ALL SORTS of speculation. For instance, you could say that “the four poster beds in the dormitory rooms PROBABLY represents the 4 elements listed above.” Actually the four “Houses” represent the four founders of Hogwarts: And the members of those “Houses” are assigned by the qualities of the students, based on the qualities that founder valued the most.
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Book 1, 66. Harry has a spell book
Grimore — and occultist’s personal book of incantations.
I’m a network administrator... I’ve got LOTS of books on networks and computers. What’s the point here...
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Voldemort wants the sorcerer’s stone so he can “create” a new body for himself.
There really is a sorcerer’s stone — no comment on what it does or how it’s used — just know that it IS!
“The stone is real! We don’t know what it looks like, how it works, or how to use it, but we know it’s REAL and it exists!” OK.
Yes, at the end of the story, we learn that Voldemort wants the stone for his own use, in order to bring him fully back to strength, as well as granting him imortality, thoough the use of the “Elixer of Life.” Actually, the entire book leads us to that conclusion, and there are a number of wrong turns taken. It’s interesting that Dumbledore’s protection of the stone will only allow someone to get the store if they do not want the stone for themselves. And that the stone is purposely destroyed in the end.
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Book 1, p. 53. Harry was told that his parents died in a car crass. Actually they were psychically murdered.
In the occult world, people “die” by “accident” or “natural causes.”
In the non-HP (real) world, people die by accident and natural causes too. And sometimes they’re murdered as well.
“psychically murdered?” Not really, as the “killing curse” has has a physical manifestation, and as we saw in later books, you COULD dodge or hide behind objects, blocking the curse, just as with dodging or blocking a bullet. Or the curse could be misaimed. No, Harry’s parents were murdered, but by an evil wizard, using the weapons that an evil wizard in the HP world would use.
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Book 1, p. 138 and Book 3, p. 2. Harry uses a quill pen, ink and parchment paper to document his magical spells.
Standard occult practice — all occultists learn to document their spells in the initial stages of their training.
Of course, only evil occultists would ever take notes in classes while they’re going to school. I must have been a particularly evil occultist, given the sheer volume of notes I took in my physics and math classes... Well, at least I must have hated trees!
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Book 2, p. 20-21. Harry broke the decree for the restriction of underage wizardry because he had just done serious magick. He gets a reprimand. He does it again in book 3 when he attacks Aunt Marge. (p. 28-30)
AKA - he broke the rules of discretion that every occultists is well aware of. Occultist NEVER break the rules of discretion.
Book 3, p. 28-30. Harry attacks his aunt Marge for her disparaging comments about him and his family by placing a swelling spell on her.
Actually, this is wrong on BOTH parts. First off, Harry did NOT performed “serious magic.” The “house elf” dobby performed a “hover charm” which got Harry into loads of trouble, because the “monitor” that the ministry of magic uses can only detect when magic is used in a location, not who actually used it. So Harry was blamed, even though he didn’t actually perform the spell. Big difference.
Secondly, Harry did not attack “Aunt Marge,” at least not intentionally. Something learned in the first book (and is reinforced in the later books) was that underage wizards have certain magical abilities, which they can’t control. This was an example of that. This is also the reason for going to schools like Hogwarts: To learn to control their powers.
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What I’m getting at here is that there’s a lot in table that’s simply inaccurate, or even downright silly, based on the HP books.
Mark
I thought Scrimgeour was more of a John McCain type....liberal when it comes to gov’t dominance but conservative when it comes to the fighting of war(that’s where the heroism takes place). Also the description of him having an auror like a lion, I can definately see that in McCain. Fudge is more of the Clinton type. A blind eye to all that is going on around him(terrorism). Too worried about appearances and what his legacy will be. Dumbledore of course is Reaganesque. :)
Eating of pork, I meant. There’s no barbecue at all!
Excellent observation ... although it's funny that we use "liberal" to mean "dictatorship," isn't it?
AIR they were Lot's guests. But it's a while since I watched the Noah's Ark minseries.
although it’s funny that we use “liberal” to mean “dictatorship,” isn’t it?...
True, LOL.
I can’t believe how big Vlad is now! When does he get his FReeper name?
Won’t take you long . . . you’ve seen most of it before. :)
Oh yeah, Jen, you’re gonna love Post 542.
It’s the funniest part of a very funny thread.
That guy doesn’t want her. He wants to borrow her moisturizer and is just asking nicely.
I can sit around and claim stuff all day. That doesn’t make it true.
For instance, my family tree says I am a lineal descendant of Marie Antoinette, Sitting Bull, and one of the bishops who got defenestrated in Prague.
See how easy that was for me to do? I mean, it’s a total lie, but I claimed it was true, so in your world it must be, yes?
Either your association with those people is coloring your perception of the Harry Potter stuff, or my *lack* of similar association is coloring mine (and I grew up in New Orleans, a place notorious for its resident assortment of voodoo practitioners, tarot card readers and other fruitcakes). Where the heck *do* you reside, anyway?
Two-way mirrors? You’re now forced to argue that kids need to be protected from two-way mirrors???
No he's talking about Heliography
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