MODLY NOTE:
Click here for redshoes's revised and complete "Alchemy in PS/SS" essay.
Most of this topic's pre-Jun 2008 messages had been originally posted in the mammoth (with 300+ posts) "Alchemy and Other Metaphysics" thread.. I've split them into a separate topic for to make them (somewhat) easier to follow.
- gal-texter Jun2008


Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

PART ONE

Here now is a compilation of various bits of alchemical symbolism in PS/SS. I’ve posted some of this before, but I thought it would be useful to have everything in a single place.

Any discussion of alchemy in PS has to acknowledge the foundational essay by alexism as well as the many discoveries by House_Elf_44 and the alchemy team here at PK, especially Salamon2 and Books&Cleverness. I’ve also benefited from the insights of angelsslave, azaria, and H_HrFan at emmawatson.net.

Emerald Green – Chapter 1

The significance of emerald green confused me for a long time, but I think I may have finally figured it out. Green is the traditional color for the element water, and, accordingly, JKR has made green the Slytherin House color. Worse, the Avada Kedavra curse is marked by a green light. So green is a "bad" color.

But emerald green has an entirely different meaning. We first encounter emerald green at the beginning of Chapter 1, when Vernon Dursley sees an older man (a wizard) wearing an emerald-green cloak. Later in the chapter Professor McGonagall is introduced wearing an emerald cloak; in fact, she wears emerald green robes pretty much all the time in HP (e.g., at the beginning of Chapter 7).

In Chapter 3, McGonagall’s letters inviting Harry to Hogwarts are addressed in emerald-green ink. In Chapter 12 Harry’s Christmas present from Mrs. Weasley is a “thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green.”

Emerald green is a color distinctive to the Wizarding World and it is associated with Harry’s entry into that world. It is JKR’s homage to the mythic founding document of alchemy, the Emerald Table of Hermes Trismegistos. Only 25 lines long, it was inscribed on a tablet that was green “like spring dew” (Fulcanelli), hence the name Emerald Table.

For a (fanciful) illustration of it, from Heinrich Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (1602), with the entire text in both Latin and German, see the following link:

http://rosecroix0.tripod.com/8smaragd.html

Here are a few lines that from it that become important later on (Holmyard’s translation, from Lyndy Abraham, p. 70):



For a selection of translations of the full text see—

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/emerald.html

Probably the best known use of “emerald” in an alchemy story is in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy’s destination, and the home of the Wizard, is the Emerald City.

Albus Dumbledore

Every alchemy story has at least one “alchemist,” who, figuratively at least, puts the hero—the Philosopher’s Stone to be--into the crucible, purges and purifies him, and acts as his guide. The “alchemist” always knows far better than the hero what’s really going on.

We will discover in Chapter 6 that Dumbledore is “particularly famous for….his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel,” a real alchemist who lived in Paris from 1330 to 1418. But in Chapter 1, we see Dumbledore carrying baby Harry and placing him on the doorstep of the Dursleys, putting the hero into the crucible of Privet Drive.

Dumbledore, with his silver hair and beard and his half-moon spectacles, is marked as a Moon character, mind, and white. His purple cloak recalls the purple red color of the Philosopher’s Stone. Nicolas Flamel called the philosopher’s stone “the true red purple” (Lyndy Abraham, p. 159).

Minerva McGonagall

Also present is Minerva McGonagall, wearing her emerald cloak. She has square glasses, which could refer to “earth” or to the four elements. Her first name, the Roman goddess of wisdom, marks her too as mind.

Her presence is unnecessary. Dumbledore and Hagrid could have effected the delivery without her. But the fact that Rowling puts here there suggests that she too plays the role of an alchemist in the story.

Baby Harry

In accordance with the verse from the Emerald Table that “The Wind carried it in its womb,” the Philosopher’s Stone is typically seen as born in the air. JKR’s version of this is to have Hagrid bringing Harry by flying motorcycle:



At this point the only two pieces of information we’re given about Harry’s appearance are his “jet-black hair” and, on his forehead, “a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.”

Baby Harry is the prima materia—the “first” or “black” matter with which the alchemist begins the process of transformation. Harry isn’t black, but his hair is, as befits his role. Hair color is a common way to mark characters in alchemy stories. Other names for the prima materia are “chaos, “dark abyss,” and “massa confusa.” Harry’s hair may not be chaotic, but it is stubbornly messy, which fits his role too.

Finally, his scar. Hjgfan1 and Salamon2 have both pointed out how Harry’s lightning bolt scar corresponds to the Sowilo Rune, which marks him as the Sun and means victory.

There may be more to it than that, however.



Think of the Greek ruler of the gods Zeus and his thunderbolt, for example.

The most direct parallel, however, is in Mozart’s alchemical opera, The Magic Flute. The villain of the opera is the Queen of the Night. When she and her small band of followers attempt to kidnap Pamina at the end of the opera, they are driven off by thunder and lightning. Utterly defeated, they sing a final couplet:



Harry’s lightning bolt scar is a permanent visual reminder of his defeat of the villain in his story, Lord Voldemort. (Later we will find out the less pleasant aspects of his scar.)

Finally, why is Harry’s scar on his forehead? Certainly, for the purpose of telling the story, it’s handy for Rowling to have the scar where everyone will see it the moment they lay eyes on him. But it could also be a nod to Dorothy Sayers’ detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, who had “a minute sickle-shaped scar on the left temple.”

Harry’s Name

We don’t learn Harry’s name until the end of Chapter 1. Let’s start with his surname, since that is clearly alchemical, despite what JKR has said. ("I got the name Potter from people who lived down the road from me in Winterbourne. [...] I liked the surname so I took it.")

As Mircea Eliade writes in The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy:



In alchemy emblems the alchemist was often depicted allegorically as a potter. See, for example, Emblem XV of Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens (scroll down to the bottom of the page):

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/atl11-5.html

JKR could have chosen “Smith” instead, but she apparently thought such a common name was more appropriate for a minor character, like Zacharias and Hepzibah.

“Harry” we can only speculate about. It may be a nod to Harriet Vane, the protagonist of Dorothy Sayers’ trilogy of alchemical detective stories that focus on Harriet’s courtship by Lord Peter Wimsey. Rowling has mentioned Sayers’ stories with great admiration and put her on her Bookshelf, so this is one good possibility.

Another possibility is that Rowling is applying the alchemy rule of assonance in the names of her protagonist and his partner. See below, “Hermione Granger,” for how that would work.

Harry’s middle name, James, is straightforward: James was the patron saint of alchemists.

Harry the Boy – Chapter 2

In Chapter 2 Harry is nearly 11, and we have a proper description of his appearance. He still has black hair and a “very thin scar,” but we learn two important new things about him. He has “bright green eyes” and wears “round glasses.”

So, Harry’s eyes. They’re not emerald green, so are they the green that corresponds to the element water, and/or the green of Slytherin House? I can’t imagine it’s that simple. Harry’s eyes, his mother Lily’s eyes, have been stressed far too much for there to be an easy answer based on alchemy or any other traditional symbolism.

What about Harry’s glasses then? What’s the reason for those? This is JKR’s explanation:



That sounds quite plausible and maybe that’s all there is to it. Especially since in none of the alchemy emblems I’ve looked at—well over 500 by now—the Sulphur/Sun Male Principle of the Work is not depicted with glasses.

However, there is one very curious alchemy engraving by Heinrich Khunrath that may be a clue. Khunrath used it as a logo or colophon with all his works, and it shows an owl with eyeglasses. Klossowski di Rola uses it as the frontispiece of his massive collection, The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century.

http://woolgathersome.blogspot.com/2007/03/owlchemy.html

The archaic German text reads: “Was helffen Fakeln, Licht oder Briln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen.” Which in English means, “What use are torches, light or eyeglasses if people don’t want to see.”

Of course Harry has round glasses, because he is pursuing the Philosopher’s Stone, and the circle represents the completed opus alchymicum. Hence all the circular symbolism that surrounds Harry—and later Harry and Hermione.


“Don’t Ask Questions”

The alchemy hero must constantly repress his curiosity. You see this especially clearly with Maria in TLWH. I guess it wouldn’t do for her to find out what was going on too soon. In Chapter 2, JKR actually writes this guideline into the text:



In Diagon Alley Harry longs to ask Hagrid about the parcel Hagrid took from Gringotts, but he “knew better than to ask.” At Ollivander’s “he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him…”

It’s a lesson Harry will also be taught by Dumbledore: be patient and the answers will come at the appropriate time. Here’s hoping that in HPDH Harry—and the readers—find out the reason for DD’s blackened hand in HBP.

Harry’s Birthday – Chapters 3-4

As Harry’s 11th birthday approaches, he gets increasing numbers of Hogwarts letters addressed in emerald green ink and sealed with a purple wax seal. The Wizarding World and his transformation to gold await.

Vernon takes his family and Harry to the island, where a storm rages.



The storm—the lightning and thunder—herald and dramatize the coming together of the two worlds. (For more on the significance of the storm see below, “The Flute.”) At exactly midnight—Harry is counting down the seconds to the 11th birthday—Hagrid knocks heavily at the door. As soon as Hagrid enters the hut, the storm abates.

Now we have the first of many cycles of solve et coagula, the central process in alchemy. Harry has been “dissolved” by the storm, the ocean spray splattering on the walls of the hut, and sleeping on the floor “under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.” Hagrid “coagulates” him by telling him he’s a wizard and talking about his parents. Harry “looked into the fire” and starts to believe. (Dissolution is often accompanied by water or some other liquid. Coagulation is generally accomplished by fire.)

Hagrid introduces himself in Chapter 4, and we find out that his first name is “Rubeus,” which is Latin for red. For this reason many of us suspect that Hagrid will be the dreaded “Red Death” in the final book of the series, which corresponds to the rubedo, the Red Stage. He also tells Harry that he is Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts. In terms of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey template, Hagrid is the guardian of the threshold.

Hagrid presents him with a birthday cake, decorated in green icing. Harry’s actual birthday is not specified at this point, but we learn later that he was born on July 31, 1980. That makes him a Leo, ruled by the Sun, with Gold as his metal, and Fire as his element.

Harry, the protagonist of the story, is, in alchemical language, the Male Principle of the Work, i.e. Sulphur. In alchemy Sulphur is symbolized by the Sun and consists of Fire and Air. (Lyndy Abraham, p. 193).

Diagon Alley – Chapter 5

The first stop on Harry and Hagrid’s trip to Diagon Alley is Gringott’s. If alchemists are defined by their ability to create precious metals, then there might be an alchemist or two among the goblins of Gringott’s bank. The goblins wear uniforms of scarlet and gold, the two colors of the final, Red stage of the Opus. The Philosopher’s Stone is blood-red, as we learn at the end of the book (Chapter 17). Harry sees them weighing “a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.” The ruby is a symbol for the Philosopher’s Stone. (Abraham, p. 175)

It’s not surprising then to see from the UK children’s cover of HPDH that the trio will be returning to Gringott’s amidst piles of treasures and many rubies.

Finally Harry and Hagrid make it to Ollivanders, to pick out a wand. A single wand lies on a purple cushion in the window. Whose it is, we don’t yet know, but I’m betting we find out in the final book.

Ollivander, with his “pale eyes shining like moons” is marked, like Dumbledore, as a Moon character, and White.

Harry finds his destined wand, with a core of a phoenix feather from Fawkes. The phoenix is another symbol for the Red Stone, the Philosopher’s Stone, and we can tell that Harry has found the wand that will bring him to a successful conclusion of his journey to the Stone when he swishes it down and “a stream of red and gold sparks shoot from the end like a firework.”

Harry pays an alchemically appropriate 7 Galleons for the wand. Seven is significant in alchemy because there are seven metals and seven “planets” in the alchemists’ cosmology.


--to be continued

Another great analysis redshoes!!! You are truly amazing. Right after reading your post on PS, guess what I see on the first few pages of where I am in Order of the Phoenix??

page 822, Chapter 37 (US paperback)


It never even occured to me that emerald green has been used on so many occassions to describe things in the wizarding world.

Thanks, swong. It looks like you're the only one reading it though. I wonder whether it's worth finishing.

One of the things that's most interesting about doing the analysis is comparing what JKR has given as the reason for choosing things, like "Potter," for example, with what you can figure out from the text itself.

Yes, she's told the truth in interviews, etc., but she has frequently not told the WHOLE truth. In my book--and a court of law--that would be called "misleading."

Hey, I'm reading it as well! I just wasn't sure what to add to the incredible wealth of details and symbols you've found.

And you know I'm reading it, redshoes! It's just hard to find anything of value to contribute because you lay it out so clearly and with so much detail. Your insight is both brilliant and appreciated.

Please keep going.

I know PK hates one liners, but please keep going redshoes!

Your analysis and insights are amazing and point out what a brilliant writer JKR is in using these colors and symbolism in her story. It seems that no details in the series are "by accident" - they are all meticulously planned.

Forget John Granger - you are unlocking the secrets to HP!

I'm reading too, redshoes, and I can't wait for the next part! The only reason I didn't post a reply before was because I was waiting for you to post in entirety. Also, I'm a bit of a lurker sometimes (you can see my post count is rather low, even though I've been a member for 2 years).

Also, I would like to ask you a question about something swong and I were discussing a bit earlier in the thread. What do you make of sulpur=fire and air, mercury=earth and water thing in light of the fact that Harry was almost a Slytherin (water) and Hermione was almost a Ravenclaw (air)? I think I've decided that it doesn't matter, because pretty much everyone agrees that Hermione has to be mercury, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the matter.

~Dora the Delusional

Good question- -hey, you need to post more!

Since Sulphur is, by definition, fire and air, and Mercury/Quicksilver is, by definition, earth and water, those roles are set. And we see Harry being a "master of air" with his flying skills, while Hermione's affinity for water is shown by her Otter Patronus.

OTOH, you could argue that both of them have all 4 elements:

Harry - fire through his Leo birthday
- air for broom flying (plus he arrives in the story by air)
- water for being almost Slytherin and maybe green eyes
- earth, hmm.... Does he ever get a tan?

Hermione - fire as a Gryffindor, a master of fire with the bluebell charm
- air for being almost Ravenclaw
- earth through her Virgo birthday, brown hair/eyes, tanned skin
- water through the Otter

Harry being almost Slytherin I think will play a role in the Gryffindor-Slytherin Harry-Draco reconciliation that needs to happen in the final book.

Hermione being so smart I think JKR needed to address in canon why she wasn't put in Ravenclaw. It's an obvious reader question.

Hey redshoes! Have you and the other alchemy experts ever think about presenting your finding at a HP conference?? I went to one this May and it was amazing. I think you guys would blow them away if you decide to do Portus or Terminus next summer especially if H/Hr does happen in DH!

Regarding Harry - couldn't he be marked as earth with his patronus? A stag is landlocked, no? He's also done lots of yardwork for the Dursley's.

I think JKR addressed the Hermione/Ravenclaw issue when Terry Boot asked her why she wasn't put in Ravenclaw. Hermione said the SH considered Ravenclaw but decided on Gryffindor in the end. I think Hermione asked the SH to put her in Gryffindor, because she said on the train that it was the best house. Just like Harry was considered Slytherin but asked not to be placed there.

I like the yardwork connection. Otherwise you wonder what the point is of mentioning it so much.

Also---we can look at names. "Granger" links Hermione to Earth, since a granger is a farmer, who works with earth. But potters work with earth as well, with clay. Note that in LOTR Samwise was marked as earth by being a gardener, so it's been done before.

I'm not sure where this exercise gets us though. Their partnership is indicated above all by being Sulphur and Mercury, Sun and Moon, which they are.




Right that's what I was trying to say. Readers were wondering early on why Hermione wasn't put into Ravenclaw so Rowling wrote some dialogue into a later book to answer the question. Although it does make the point about it being our choices that makes us what we are, not inexorable fate. And that Hermione is not just about brains but has courage as well.

hey Redshoes im definately reading your analysis, its brilliant please continue...i will keep checking constantly to read the rest of it...being quite amateur in the topic of alchemy, i find it much easier to just read analysis and enlighten myself ...but i had to write a quick reply and thank you for your analysis

redshoes - I NEVER post (as you can see) - been around for a bit over two years reading all the terrific stuff so many of you have written, but I don't ever really feel I have anything worthwhile to contribute (and if I do have any comments, someone else generally beats me to it, so I figure there's no point in repeating what's already been said). Anyway - I just wanted to let you know that I'm reading too and would love to see more. THANKS!!

Jae

I never thought about that before--Granger being connected to earth. Hermione's name being changed from Puckle to Granger could support this, if JKR wanted to use it to link her to earth both by name and initials (with Granger making her initials HG or mercury). Of course...it could also be that she just liked the name Granger.

I would also like to throw out that perhaps the houses Harry, Hermione, and Ron could have been in other than Gryffindor are used to show that together they are the four elements, and a "complete" team. As I've stated before, Harry was almost Slytherin, Hermione was almost Ravenclaw, and Ron, IMO, would be Hufflepuff if he weren't Gryffindor--he's loyal, good friend, etc. So when you put them together, they have characteristics of all houses; but then you raised the interesting point of Harry and Hermione having characteristics of all four houses separately as well. A similar argument could possibly be said for Ron:
Fire: red hair, temper
Earth: Hufflepuff characteristics (purely my opinion on this one...)
Air: Quidditch skills (though not as good as Harry, he's still not bad)
Water: birthday

So each of the Trio could be seen as having all four elements, and they also represent all four elements when they are working together. (Which I guess means they are just fine as a trio, with no need of a fourth person...so I guess that's why Ginny got left behind... ) But I honestly don't know what to make of this. Is it coincidence, or does it mean anything?

One thing I do believe is not coincidence, though, is that Harry is sulphur and Hermione is mercury. You guys have managed to convince me that you're by far the most likely to be right out of all the alchemy theorists. And thanks to you, I have some hope for my beloved ship again after over a year of having basically none. So thanks for that. I find all of these theories so fascinating, and I'm proud to be part of such a scholarly ship!

~Dora the Delusional

Redshoes, I think a lot more people are reading this forum than you think. I have The Little White Horse upstairs reading it right now because of the comments written here. If Rowling didn't plan all of these clues then something will have to be seriously off and she has admitted to planning her stories. These threads have kept me interested in HP after HBP and the IOD. Thanks for keeping strong and looking for the clues. Think of how much interest you have created in literary alchemy.

Hi Redshoes! Just want to let you know that i'm also reading everything here (I'm with Dogma3 - i'm more a lurker ) and you're doing an amazing job. Everything is well thought out and interesting and I look forward to your new posts each day.

Please keep up the good work!

Lyndsey

Redshoes, You are amazing!. I read everything I can find from you. I lurk on a couple of the websites and enjoy all the hard work you put in! Thank you!
btw, where is hplab?
Cheers
Jen

That's the alchemy thread in the shipper forum at emmawatson.net.

I'M READING IT!! It's great so far!! Please keep going.



That's Harry for sure.



Well...so she could be Harry's mentor, right? Mercury guiding Sulphur.

Yes!! Keep going redshoes. It's been very insighful so far.

OK. I'm working on it. There's just SO much in PS.

Just wanted to stop by and say how much I appreciate and enjoy all of your views of Alchemy and HP. I had never even heard of Alchemy before, and now I'm so interested in it. You've also had a big hand in making me excited for HPDH to come out!

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks, especially to redshoes and Salamon2! Also, I can't wait to see the rest of your insight into PS, soon, redshoes!

Thanks, Claudia. Here is some more.

Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Part 2

The Weasleys – Chapter 6

At King’s Cross station Harry first encounters most of the Weasley family: Molly, Ginny, Percy, Fred, George, and Ron. All have “flaming red hair,” and are thus by convention, marked as Red. To find a mate, they will all need to look for someone “White.”

The first words we hear from Fred and George’s mouths is a joke they pull on Molly, each pretending to be the other. The future owners of Diagon Alley’s premier joke shop are marked from the beginning as the “trickster” aspect of Mercurius: “a protean, elusive duplicitous, inconstant, teasing spirit” (Lyndy Abraham, “Mercurius,” p. 126). Think of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example.

Ron Weasley

The most important Weasley in the story, however, is Ron. Ron will become Harry’s best friend and near-constant companion. With his hearty appetite, eye for pretty girls, insecurities, and occasional fearfulness, he is marked as the “Body” character in the story. “Body” characters come in many shapes and sizes; the one most similar to Ron in the alchemy literature that I’m familiar with is Papageno in Mozart’s Masonic opera The Magic Flute.

Like Papageno, Ron’s destiny should be to survive and be a Red King who marries a White Queen in the matrimoniathon at the end of the book. Ron is marked as Red right away, with his red hair, like the other Weasleys. He will not be marked as a “King” until OOTP, when the Slytherins taunt him with the “Weasley in Our King” chant. Appropriately, Luna takes the sting out of the taunt by singing it supportively. Luna, marked as a White Queen with her name, is also marked as Ron’s White Queen by her open admiration for him and transforming the chant from derision to support.

Although Rowling gave us Ron’s birthday years earlier, the March 1 date finally was cited in canon in HBP (2005). This is the same birthday as Aragorn in LOTR, the principal Red King in Tolkien’s trilogy. Aragorn plays a significantly different role in his story than Ron does in his, but Aragorn does marry his White Queen, Arwen Evenstar (“evenstar” = moon) at the end of Return of the King.

March 1 means that Ron’s ruling planet is Jupiter (according to the traditional astrology used in alchemy) and his metal tin. Contrast that to Harry, whose planet is the Sun and metal gold—as befits the hero, the Male Principle of the Work, i.e., Sulphur.

Ron is also a Pisces, a water sign. This is one of several clues that Ron has an additional role—that he has a key aspect of Mercurius—a different one from Fred and George’s. As Books&Cleverness argued in his recent essay, “Ron as Harmonian,” Ron most likely corresponds to the “third mediating principle” of alchemy, the mercurial water or “glue” that binds Sulphur and Mercury in the Chemical Wedding. See “Hermione Granger” and “The Seven Tasks,” below.

Neville and the Toad

The first conversation Harry overhears once he’s passed the barrier into the Wizarding World is one between Neville and his grandmother. Neville, despite all the misfortunes he endures in the book, may have a promising fate, since here and repeatedly he is referring to as “round-faced.” As noted earlier, the circle is a propitious symbol, as it represents the completed Opus alchymicum.

Neville’s first words are about his lost toad. The toad is a term that usually refers to the prima materia during the fermentation stage. However, a famous poem attributed to the English alchemist George Ripley describes the entire Opus in terms of the experiences of a toad. Here’s a link to the text, which also includes Philateles’ exposition on it.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rpvision.html

Rowling has Neville’s toad go through a variety of trials throughout the series, in line with the multiple assaults in Ripley’s poem.

On the Hogwarts Express

The train is “scarlet,” not uncommon perhaps for an old steam engine, but very appropriate for the conveyance taking Harry on the first leg of his journey to the Red Stone.

Ron befriends Harry and their first shared experience is a hearty snack.



Rowling has said that TLWH was the book that had the most influence on HP, and she cited the detailed descriptions of meals. Here you can see her following Goudge’s example. But there is alchemy in the scene too.

There were innumerable prescriptions for the number and names of stages in the alchemical process. Seven steps were quite common, corresponding to the seven metals and planets. But one of the templates that had the most influence on English literature was the model of Twelve Gates (or stages)contained in the Compound of Alchymie, by George Ripley, published in 1591 (and therefore known to Shakespeare).

The Seventh Gate in Ripley was cibation, or feeding the stone. Here is an example of how the demands of telling a story overrule the steps of alchemy. It makes no sense to have Harry—and Ron--feast only toward the end of the story. No, we see him and his mates eat repeatedly, throughout the story, just as Maria and her family have a number of splendid meals in TLWH.

Ron acts as Harry’s guide to the Wizarding World, telling him, among other things, about Chocolate Frogs and their trading cards on famous witches and wizards. This is how we learn of Dumbledore’s work with Flamel, for example. It is interesting to note that of the nine “witches and wizards” mentioned by name, Agrippa and Paracelsus were actually alchemists, not wizards.

Hermione Granger

Hermione makes an unpromising entry into the story in the middle of Chapter 6.



So the first thing we learn about her, before we even learn her name, is that she’s “bossy” and not particularly attractive. In the hero’s journey, the protagonist always has a “meeting with the goddess,” who is generally unattractive, sometimes even old and ugly, but who is ultimately revealed to be a beauty. (See Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. So here Rowling sets up the transformation of the principal female character that she will begin in the fourth book, GOF.

In terms of alchemy, note that the girl encounters Harry as she is searching for a toad. The toad symbolizes the prima materia, and Harry IS the prima materia of the story. She is, though she doesn’t realize it, searching for him.

Also significant is that the girl converses initially with Ron and is drawn to join them because Ron was about to do a magic trick. Part of the job of Mercurius as the “glue” that binds Sulphur and Mercury in the Chemical Wedding is the get them together in the first place. This Ron does, by inadvertently rousing Hermione’s curiosity and influencing her to stay. He flubs the spell and she insults him, establishing the model for the Ron/Hermione relationship through the end of Book 6.

The rest of her speech gives us her two basic alchemical roles:

--“I’ve learned all our course books by heart, of course.” This is the first of dozens, if not hundreds, of references marking her as Mind.

--“I’m Hermione Granger, by the way….” “Hermione” is the female form of “Hermes,” which means “Mercury,” Mercury is NOT Mercurius; in fact, to avoid confusion, most alchemy treatises use the synonyms “Quicksilver” or “Argent vive” instead. Mercury/quicksilver/argent vive is the Female Principle of the Work, corresponding to earth and water.

Her brown hair is an additional marker for “earth,” as is her surname, since a “granger” is a farmer, a tiller of the earth. In LOTR, Samwise Gangee is marked as earth by his work as a gardener.

Later JKR will confirm that Hermione’s birthday was Wednesday, September 19, 1979, making her a Virgo, which is ruled by the planet Mercury, whose metal is mercury and element is earth. By convention, “philosophical Mercury” is symbolized by the Moon, just as “philosophical Sulphur” is symbolized by the Sun.

So, if we have been paying attention to all the little clues, we already know that Hermione (Mercury) is destined to join with Harry (Sulphur) in the Chemical Wedding that will conclude the book—and the series.

Rowling told us that she took the name from Queen Hermione in Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale. Shakespeare gave both his protagonists alchemical names: Hermione, of course, for Mercury, and Leontes, her husband, for Leo = Sun = Sulphur. Leontes develops an unreasoning, unfounded belief that Hermione has been unfaithful with his best friend, and Leontes’ jealousy drives the play. It appears that Rowling has used Leontes’ delusional jealousy as a model for the “Harry believes Hermione and Ron fancy each other” red herring.

Another great essay redshoes!!! It is always a joy to see that you have posted another essay for us to read. I have compiled a list of most of your essays from the old alchemy thread and some at harmonyforever.com in the 'Alchemy Discussions : A Quick overview' thread setup by NAPPA.

Excellent as always redshoes.

Just a question ... is this yet another reason why Neville feels a kind of attachment towards Hermione? We know that she's very kind to him and helps him out a lot, particularly in potions.
What I mean is, alchemically speaking, Hermione's supposed to be the "female principle." Neville, meanwhile, was an "almost king" (wasn't that how JKR described him?). Meaning Neville could have been the prima materia of the story, only Voldy had already chosen Harry long before Hermione meets either of them.

On a side note, I think it's interesting that Hermione has been attached to 2 pseudo-Harrys (Neville and Krum-both in GoF). Or I guess I should say they felt a kinship towards her. Too bad for them she was already attached to Harry.
Anyway, hope what I said above sort of makes some sort of sense.
Great job once again BTW.

@Redshoes : The more I read your posts, and the more I read the essays by others, I simply can't stop thinking about the similaries and how things just line up so bloody well. Before these alchemical discussions came into being, a lot of the other discussions were more based on what we felt and what we saw in terms of evidence in the books, but not exactly where and how JKR might have been motivated, and how it fit together.

It's an awesome job you guys are doing in making the discoveries you're doing. It gives the alchemy challenged people like me a way to keep our hopes alive a little brighter

NAPPA
( who is going to go off and read the ficlets ).

I'm just wondering in regards to the roles in the trio - heart/body/soul. Its been mentioned that Harry's role in the group is the heart, but according to an interview that Rowling did in 1999 she says:

"His particular role in the group [ of three friends] is conscience. He will break the rule if he thinks he's doing it for the greater good. But he has a fundamental sense of honor, and he learns that the choices a person makes show more of who you are than your abilities."

The Boston Globe, October 18, 1999

Thoughts? would that still make him the heart of the trio? Does this support the notion or vice versa or neither?

What's interesting is how some people still understood what was going on. Moonstruck wrote her essay about parallels with TLWH years ago. Pamina (at HF) saw the parallels with The Magic Flute long ago as well--and TMF isn't even on JKR's Bookshelf or been mentioned in interviews. Louielacious recognized the significance of Harry and Hermione's roles in the chess game in PS ("Keeping the Partnership" essay). All without knowing alchemy at all!

Think of it this way: How many diehard fans of LOTR realize that Tolkien was an alchemical writer? Not that many. But they enjoy the novels just as much.

v&sh - That's a lovely quote! Thank you for posting it --I hadn't seen it before. "He's doing it for the greater good"--that is the mark of the Heart character--love for his fellows, unselfishness. I haven't got to it yet in my analysis of PS, but JKR has Hermione define Harry as "heart" when she says that he is "Friendship and Bravery." Those are defining characteristics of the Heart character--friendship/love and bravery. But I'll stop now: I need to save something for my essay.

ETA: On Neville. Neville's role is a mystery to me. There are no clear parallels in any of the alchemy plays and stories I know. I like him a lot--we're MEANT to like him a lot--so I fear for his safety in HPDH. I'm just hoping his "round" face foreshadows good fortune for him. Perhaps Neville's asking Hermione to the ball is supposed to show that the other potential Sulphur (Neville is a Leo too) recognized WHO was Mercury.

Thanks, H_HrFan. Figuring out the tasks is a puzzler, for sure. But swong is in charge of doing GOF, so he gets to wrack his brain.



Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Part 3

Coming to Hogwarts

At the end of Chapter 6, the First Years approach the Great Hall.



Harry has had to cross three thresholds to reach the inner sanctum of the Wizarding World: the barrier at Kings’ Cross, the Black Lake, and, finally, the oak door. Then Hagrid knocks three times. Everything in alchemy comes in threes, sevens, nines, or twelves. The oak represents the “philosophical tree” (the Opus alchymicum) or the alchemical vessel where the Opus takes place. (Lyndy Abraham, pp. 137, 150).

At the beginning of Chapter 7 the door swings open and the students are received by McGonagall in her emerald green robes.

The Sorting Ceremony and the Stages of Alchemy – Chapter 7

The one thing everyone knows about alchemy is that it’s about changing lead to gold. Lead is a synonym for the prima materia. Harry is obviously at the beginning of the process, and, appropriately, he’s feeling a bit leaden:



Then, after the Sorting is completed:



And so, in two almost random references, Rowling takes care of the symbolism of Harry being lead in Book 1.

The seven metals in order from basest to noblest, along with their ruling planets, are as follows:

Lead – Saturn
Tin - Jupiter
Iron – Mars
Quicksilver - Mercury
Copper - Venus
Silver – Moon
Gold - Sun

For more details on the seven-stage version of the alchemical process, see House_Elf_44’s marvelous essay at Portkey.

http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopi...69&hl=Tasks

As Mircea Eliade explains, alchemists believed that everything on earth was alive and growing, including metals, and that each metal grew under the influence of a particular planet. Left on their own, over millennia, base metals would become gold. What the alchemist did was speed up this natural process. The alchemist manipulated time.

The stages of the Opus are not, however, named for the metals. They are named after the processes the alchemist carries out. A few treaties prescribe four stages (Solomon Trismosin, Roger Bacon), but most treatises set out seven. Ripley’s influential work specified twelve, however. Since Shakespeare drew on Ripley’s ideas, they continue to influence works of English literary alchemy today.

In his study, “Alchemy, Nature and Time in Pericles and The Winter’s Tale, Rodger Dale Sorensen drew on Ripley for his analysis, and I have followed his example. We can see three of Ripley’s “extra” stages in HP, for example (cibation, multiplication, and projection).

As Sorensen writes:



All of the formulas I’m familiar with, however, began with the Calcination stage.
In physical terms this meant “the conversion of a metal or mineral to powder or dust by the heat of the fire” (Lyndy Abraham, p. 31). In Ripley this meant in particular breaking matter into its four elements: air, earth, water, and fire (Sorensen, p. 39).

So Rowling takes care of the Calcination stage by the Sorting ceremony, where the new students are divided into the four Houses, which correspond, according to JKR’s explanation in the TLC/MN interview, to the four Elements:

Gryffindor – fire
Ravenclaw – air
Hufflepuff – earth
Slytherin – water

Then they go up the marble staircase to their dormitory. (I discuss the significance of the marble staircase in my analysis of COS.)

Castle and Tower

The new Gryffindors go through a round portrait hole, into a cosy round room (with a conveniently located fireplace, we find out later). The boys’ room is in one of the towers, and each student has a four poster bed with deep red cushions. This is all conventional alchemical symbolism that I’ve explain before—except for the tower.

As Abraham notes, the “tower” is “a synonym for the athanor or philosophical furnace. Illustrations of the furnace frequently resemble the turret or tower of a castle.” (p. 203)

Here’s the illustration Abraham includes, from a 15th century manuscript in Florence. It looks remarkably like the illustration of the castle on the back cover of the HPDH UK children’s edition.

castle

So Gryffindor tower will be where Harry goes through many of the stages of his transformation.

The castle has a similar meaning: “a name for the hermetically sealed vessel which not only keeps the contents within well defended from the invasion of outside influences or substances, but also stops the volatile contents from escaping” (Abraham, p. 32).

As we know, Hogwarts is the most secure, most defended place in the Wizarding World.

--to be continued

WOW. I'm really gobsmacked at these new information. Are you hinting at possibility that we'll see a Hogwarts Siege ? More specifically, a final showdown inside hogwarts ? The descriptions sort of give me that idea.

Thanks, NAPPA. I don't know about Book 7 but in Book 6 it was made clear how impregnable Hogwarts was--and that it took Draco the whole year to figure out a way in for the Death Eaters via the Vanishing Cabinet.



Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Part 3A

I don't usually indulge in wild speculation, but, this close to HPDH, why not throw in my two golden galleons about Snape? Will they be fake, leprechaun gold? We'll find out soon.

Severus Snape, the Potions Master – Chapter 8

Snape is introduced in Chapter 7 and lends his Potions position to the title of Chapter 8.

Snape is a Capricorn (January 9), like Voldemort (December 31), so his ruling planet is Saturn and his metal is lead. Not very auspicious markers at all.

His first words are an almost loving tribute to his subject, potion-making.




He then goes on to ask about a bezoar, monkshood, and wolfsbane.



There are many theories about Snape—who his character is based on, whether he’s good or bad. I have one more theory to add to the mix. It’s purely speculative, but why not?

One of the most famous alchemical novels of the late 20th century was Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, translated and published in English in 1983. It’s not on JKR’s bookshelf and she’s never mentioned it in an interview, so there is no certainty that she has ever read it.

On the other hand, it was an international bestseller, and it's an alchemical detective story, like Sayers', but set in a medieval monastery. It was then made into a movie starring fellow Edinburgh resident Sean Connery. So I think the odds are good that she not only knows the book but has read it. Internal textual evidence suggests she has drawn ideas from it as well. Coincidence? You decide.

One of the monks in Eco’s story is Severinus, who is the monastery herbalist, its potions maker. He grows the herbs and makes the herbal medicines for the monks. He explains the perils of some of his plants to William of Baskerville, the English monk detective (Sean Connery's character). You can easily imagine the same words coming out of Snape’s mouth:




I suspect that Severus Snape is based at least partly on Severinus, especially when you consider Snape’s role as the Half-Blood Prince in Book 6.

Severinus has a powerful poison in his laboratory, which was stolen by the perpetrator of the murders, Jorge, the librarian. Jorge was determined to protect the most precious book in the library, the long lost third book of Aristotle’s Poetics. So he took a brush and spread the poison on the corners of the book, sticking them together. Overcurious monks would get poison on their fingers, then lick their fingers to dampen them to unstick the pages. Death came quickly.

The parallel with HBP could work this way: The HBP book could have been “poisoned” by one of LV’s minions, perhaps Slughorn, with a spell or curse that drove Harry’s increasingly obsessive behavior. Almost like an addict, and despite Hermione’s pleas, Harry refused to give it up.

In this scenario, Snape is innocent. The “poison”—the HBP book—was his, but he was not the one who gave it to Harry, even indirectly. In fact we know he ordered Harry to give it back.

As I said, this is all just speculation. However, I think Snape has a lot more in common with Severinus than he does with other people who have been suggested as inspirations, such as the Roman emperor Septimus Severus. And it points to Snape being good, or at least not bad.

Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Part 4

I realized that I explained why Ron is Body and Hermione is Mind but I never explained why Harry is Heart.

Alchemy stories generally feature a trio who represent heart, mind, and body and/or spirit, soul, and body. Think of the Scarecrow (“If I only had a brain”), the Tin Man (“If I only had a heart”), and the Cowardly Lion (“If I only had some nerve”) in The Wizard of Oz. LOTR actually has two trios: Frodo/heart, Samwise/mind, Gollum/body and Aragorn/heart, Legolas/mind, and Gimli/body. The book that is most relevant for HP is TLWH, of course, and Maria, the protagonist, is heart/spirit, her partner Robin, is mind/soul, and Wiggins, Maria’s dog, is body.

Harry corresponds to Maria, and is, in fact, marked as heart repeatedly through the books. Probably the most dramatic, explicit example comes in OOTP, when Dumbledore tells Harry why Voldemort could not possess him:



Harry is first associated with “heart” very sneakily, so you almost don’t notice it. In Chapter 2 of PS, Petunia announces that Mrs. Figg has broken her leg and can’t babysit Harry.



When Harry’s heart “leaps,” this is the mark of a true, noble emotion. We know that Harry doesn’t love Cho because it’s his stomach that reacts to her. We know he doesn’t love Ginny because it’s his chest (monster) that longs for her.

Harry also shows the qualities of a “heart” character—empathy and courage—throughout. Just one example: his kindness to Neville.



Most importantly, Hermione marks Harry as heart when she refers to his qualities of “friendship and bravery” in Chapter 16. See below, “Chemical Wedding.”

The spirit/soul/body triangle is one of the essential elements in the Opus Alchymicum. You see it clearly in this, perhaps the famous alchemy emblem of all, Emblem XXI from Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens (1618).

Circle Squared

The man and woman are Sulphur and Mercury. They must join completely—in spirit, soul, and body, in the Chemical Wedding, to create the Philosopher’s Stone. Together they have all four elements, as represented by the square, since Sulphur = fire and air and Mercury = earth and water. The two circles, connected by the calipers of the alchemist, represent the microcosm, the earth below, and the macrocosm, the heavens above. When joined, the Opus Alchymicum is completed.

I believe that the symbol on the spine of the children’s UK edition of HPDH is a simplified version of the Maier emblem. The main difference is that instead of the man and women, there is a single vertical line. This line recalls an even earlier alchemy emblem, by Heinrich Khunrath (1595).

emblem

Here we see the man and woman have already joined into a single body, with two heads, the hermaphrodite, the rebus, the androgyne. In simplest terms, they are a single vertical line.

As you can see the three sides of the triangle are labeled Anima (soul), left; Spiritus (spirit), right; and Corpus (body), bottom.

Now, of course, according to the Heron take on alchemy, Harry is not in the picture at all, except as the base line of the triangle. The man and woman are Ron and Hermione. Because, I guess, Harry isn't the hero. It wasn't Harry that got the philosopher's stone at the end of the book. Right.

You know what I don't understand the Heron theory about Harry not being the heart is that Rowling said that Harry appeared to her first. Not Hermione or Ron. So why would she start with him being salt. That just doesn't make sense to me. The heart is the very core, right?

Well, Redshoes, you have done a brillant series of essays that will be high demand once DH comes out.

They use New Age alchemy, which is Salt-Sulphur-Mercury. Salt corresponds to Body in that scheme. And it is SO obvious from the text that Harry = heart, Hermione = mind, and Ron = body.


Actually I think once DH comes out and everybody knows it's HHr, most people won't care why. Most of the interest I've seen in alchemy has come from people who've heard it strongly supports Harmony.

Thank you for posting. It's always good to know people are reading.

Gah! Where do you find these thing redshoes?
This is great, as usual.

I wanted to talk about this image for a moment.
emblem


If I remember correctly, there was a part in the old alchemy thread where our theoriests talked about how JKR seems to be comparing between new-age alchemy (Paracelsus?) and literary alchemy (Flamel). (Actually, I think that discussion might have been in the alchemy thread at EW.net)

Anyway, it was theorized that Voldemort is also going through his own alchemical journey to achieve the philosopher's stone, but instead of having a partner (i.e. sulfur/mercury), like Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle, he's trying to achieve it all on his own. This is much like in new-age alchemy where the one achieves the philosopher's stone without the aid of anyone. (That's correct, right?)

The hermaphrodite in the center of the picture sort of made me think of Voldemort. (Doesn't that ribbon-thing in the middle remind you somewhat of a snake?) Anyway, instead of having a partner and joining with that partner to achieve "imortality," Voldemort decided to go through the process himself by splitting himself in order to live forever. Perhaps that's what DD meant when he said "in essence divided" in OoTP. Maybe he was just thinking about Voldie instead of any Harry/Voldie connection and Harry seeing through Nagini's eyes helped DD to put the puzzle together about how Voldy has kept himself alive all these years. Well... that's just a thought. It's probably wrong.

Anyway redshoes, with regards to Voldy and his journey to the philosopher's stone in PS/SS, what are your thoughts with regards to Voldy forcibly taking the blood of the unicorn (silver/mercury in color)? Could that be his own way of "joining" with mercury?

This one is from the Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin.

http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Spec...th/4321big.html

Notice that the title for this is "The Four, the Three, the Two, the One."
The One is the joined man and woman (Sulphur and Mercury).

You can see how JKR is going back to the original ideas in alchemy, hence the vertical line in the spine symbol. Tolkien had the "One Ring." Maria in TLWH was called "the One." And Harry is "the Chosen One." But he is imperfect, incomplete. He needs .

Adam McLean's site has the biggest collection of alchemy emblems on the Web. He doesn't have this one, although Khunrath is discussed in the comments archive. I first found Khunrath in one of Stanilas Klossowski di Rola's books. These are the standard written collections, cited in every serious work on alchemy. If JKR knows a "ridiculous amount about alchemy," she has certainly seen (or bought) these books. They're published in the UK.


This is salamon2's idea, which is VERY intriguing. He said he was going to develop it into a full-fledged essay but I haven't seen it yet. Paracelsus was the first to introduce salt-sulphur-mercury (tria prima), but New Age is only superficially similar to Paracelsus.


The long narrow banner with text on it is a standard device in 16th century alchemy emblems--you see it in Trismosin as well, for example.


I'm sure it means SOMETHING alchemical but I don't have a theory for it.

One more thing on the Khunrath and Maier images:

Most of the anti-Harmony alchemy people are Herons. But there is one Choco argument I've seen, posted at Mugglenet by one of their featured theorists, Lady Lupin. She argues that Ginny is the Anima. So then Harry is the Spirit and Ron the Body. Now you see the problem: Where's Hermione?

Heron alchemy has Harry as Body, Hermione as spirit, and Ron as soul.

As you can see, it's impossible to have OBWHF alchemy. The two ships are in conflict. Chocos see Ron as Body; Herons see Harry as Body (in New Age alchemy Body = Salt = Ether = Quintessence).

Yes. Well... its comforting i guess to know deep down that Harry and Ginny are really over and done with...

because there is Hermione or Luna...with stuff ive been reading more recently it appears to be leaning towards Luna... which i'll still be semi-upset about because i thought Harry made it clear in HBP that he would never have romantic interest in Luna...but, then again...in real life that sort of thing DOES change all the time..

Redshoes, here's what may be a dumb question that just came to me. Do the three pieces (heart/mind/body) ever change during a story? Can the body be one person at one point in the story, and another person at another point?

Here's why I'm asking.

I've always seen this scene you quoted as very significant. It's the kindness that Harry shows Neville, in giving him the chocolate frog to cheer him up, that brings out the key to solving the mystery of what Fluffy's guarding - the chocolate frog card of Dumbledore.

Harry's involved - he gives the frog, with it's card, to Neville. Hermione's involved - she originally gave the chocolate frogs to Harry. Ron takes no part in the scene that I can remember. But Neville does. He returns the kindness Harry showed him by giving him back the card, which he knows Harry collects. Is it possible that Neville is taking Ron's place as body here?

I guess the only other alchemy "marker" I've seen in that scene is how the hero is always rewarded when he shows compassion or loyalty or bravery.



Honestly I don't know. I've never really tried to expand the heart/mind/body imagery beyond the trio. Although clearly Dumbledore is a "Mind" character as well. His more important role, though, imho, is as the alchemist of Harry's transformation.

In LOTR the whole "races" of people are divided that way: Hobbits are Body (they all live to eat, like Merrie and Pippin), Elves are Mind, and Men are Heart. Frodo, exceptionally, is Heart, and Samwise is Mind.

In the famous Lambspring image of the stag and unicorn in the forest, the forest functions as the "Body." House_Elf_44 and Salamon talked about this in the old thread somewhere.

We tried to figure out if Neville was the Body in the DOM scene in OOTP, where the Sextet is split up and H, Hr, and N are together, but the imagery didn't seem to fit.

JKR said Neville was "almost King." Did she mean, almost the Chosen One? Almost Sulphur? Or simply almost a Red King, like Ron and Bill?

Yeah, it seems pretty clear in the opening pages of PS that Dumbledore/McGonagall/Hagrid form another Heart/Mind/Body trio, though theirs is obviously much different than H/Hr/R. If we go with a theory that Dumbledore is a "failed" seeker, and that he failed because he didn't join with a partner, this might be a fruitful avenue of inquiry, to paraphrase one of JKR's interview quotes. However, there are strong parallels - Dumbledore and Harry, McGonagall and Hermione - that don't seem to match up as well with Hagrid/Ron. So why does the third leg not match up as well? Is that an indicator that this idea won't bear fruit?

I must have missed that - I'll have to go look for it, sounds like it would be very interesting. I do strongly believe that Neville will be doing something significant, maybe even pivotal, when the time comes.

Hmm. She's said things similar to that a couple of times, I think. She's certainly referred to Neville in a "but for the grace of God goes Neville" kind of a way, definitely indicating that, within the story anyway, whether Harry or Neville was Chosen was pretty much random. Of course, in JKR's mind that was never an issue - the story was always about Harry, Harry was always sulphur. But within the story itself, Neville could have been The Boy Who Lived. My question was always "but would he have lived?"

I believe the reason why the third leg (the Body) doesn't match up because in alchemy, sulfur and mercury (heart/mind) play the most important roles in the process. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am), but the heart/mind/body concept was not in ancient alchemy was it?

Dumbledore is clearly Mind, but MINERVA McGonagall is clearly Mind as well. (Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, the Roman version of the Greek's Athena). So in fact that's why she could not be his partner and help him avoid those "emotional mistakes" JKR mentioned. Dumbledore needed a "heart" partner. Hermione is Mind but she has Harry, her partner.


I think that was in the closed forum where a few of us retreat to throw theories around away from the prying eyes and snarky comments of Herons/Chocos. Yes, I agree with you that Neville is going to be very important in HPDH--somehow. I just hope it isn't by sacrificing himself to save Ginny: we haven't seen the payoff of his crush on her yet (referenced in both GOF and OOTP--and played up tremendously in the GOF movie).

-----------------

Here's more of my findings in PS:



Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Part 5

Harry as Seeker – Chapter 9

In any hero’s journey tale, the hero has some kind of exceptional ability, and in Chapter 9 we find out that Harry’s is flying.



Harry, as a Leo, already corresponds to the element of fire. As a superb flier, we now see that he is also a master of air. Again, philosophical Sulphur = fire and air.

For rescuing Neville’s Remembrall, for showing kindness, and for his extraordinary ability, Harry is rewarded. McGonagall, the second alchemist in the story after Dumbledore, names him a Seeker. His task is to pursue and catch the Golden Snitch, a small golden ball that symbolizes the Philosopher’s Stone. This is Harry’s quest.

Harry’s is not a journey of seeking enlightenment for himself. He is not a New Age disciple. Most importantly, he does not know he is going through a transformative process. His is a moral journey, where his conscience and goodness and bravery will be tested, where others, like Dumbledore and McGonagall, know far more about what is going on than he does.

Quidditch – Chapter 10-11

The alchemy hero always receives gifts to aid him on his quest. Harry’s first major gift is a new broomstick, from McGonagall.

Quidditch is a thoroughly alchemical game. Harry’s broomstick is a “Nimbus,” the name for the gold disc around saints’ heads in traditional religious iconography, and it’s labeled in gold lettering. The goals are hoops set on three golden poles. The balls are red, black, and gold. They even practice alchemically—three times a week. The Snitch is “bright gold” with fluttering silver wings.

We see a proxy for Harry’s excitement at the coming match when Neville’s toad “zooms around” the Charms classroom.

In the match against Slytherin itself, Harry stays on his broom, catches the Snitch, and wins the game for Gryffindor, despite the interference from Quirrell. He has passed his first trial on the journey to the real Philosopher’s Stone.

Halloween and the Troll – Chapter 10

Harry’s attempt to rescue Hermione from the troll is typical of the alchemy hero: he’s brave but foolish. And for once it’s Ron who is guided by some unknown force.



This is the spell that Hermione had helped him with earlier.

The troll is knocked out with his own club—a creative way to turn the ogre’s own weapon against him. And he is not killed. This is one of the tasks the trio will face at the end of the book. Since they accomplish it here, when they encounter the other troll in Chapter 16, he has already been knocked out. (See the brilliant essay by Alexism, linked on NAPPA's alchemy thread, for a thorough discussion of the seven tasks.)

Hermione’s lie to McGonagall saves their skins.



Well of course the troll is an alchemically significant 12 feet tall! But in this passage Rowling breaches the rule that an author should “show” rather than “tell.” She tells us that the trio become friends. She doesn’t show any scene of their becoming friends. She doesn’t even put us in Harry’s head to learn his thoughts and motivations. There is perhaps no better example of how HP is a plot-driven story. The troll is vanquished; the task is completed. So the trio are friends.

Bluebell flames – Chapters 11 and 16

Hermione immediately proves her value to Harry by helping him with his homework, an entirely non-alchemical activity.

She also shows her exceptional ability by conjuring a “bright blue fire” to keep them warm. Alchemists are above all masters of fire, and Hermione shows here that she is a bit of an alchemist-in-training. The color is significant as well, as you would expect. This is the first time that Hermione is associated with blue: azure or periwinkle blue is the color of the Quintessence, the fifth element, another name for the Philosopher’s Stone. She uses those flames to set fire to Snape’s robe, after knocking Quirrell over and thus break his concentration on Harry’s broom. In Chapter 16, she uses them to repel the Devil’s Snare.

More famously still, she will be associated with azure blue when she wears periwinkle blue robes at the Yule Ball in GOF. Harry must join with Hermione to achieve his goal of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Flowers

Why bluebells specifically? Flowers are prominent in English literary alchemy. In LOTR Sam names his daughters Rose, Daisy, and Primrose. The Baggins family tree includes Pansy, Lily, Poppy, and Myrtle—all names used by Rowling in HP.

The white lily is a symbol of the albedo and the red rose is a symbol of the rubedo. But what about all the other flowers? The common source appears to be the flowers in the decorative borders of many alchemy emblems. In particular, note the bluebells in this emblem from Solomon Trismosin’s Splendor Solis.

Splendor Solis emblem



Notice also the stag in the bottom border, with its alchemically significant 12-pointed antlers. This stag was most likely the inspiration for the stag that appears on the back cover of the UK children’s edition of HPDH.

--to be continued

Excellent insights as usual, redshoes! I had totally missed the colors of the Quidditch balls, for example.

One comment, which isn't strictly related to alchemy:



The thing that struck me in reading that passage was how that was one of the lines that made me grin. The thing that drew me into the first book was its very British tone in the humor. There's something that I don't think I've ever seen done exactly the same way in children's books from other countries, something that Tolkien, Dahl, Barrie, Carroll, Nesbit, Goudge and Gaiman all have...a particularly gentle and daffy humor. This was one of those passages. I also note that such passages have gotten fewer and fewer as the series progressed as the plot has tightened around Harry and the events surrounding him.

I went ahead and posted a modified version of the PS stuff at Leaky.

Here's the latest installment. It's mostly about the Magic Flute and draws on discussions here and at HF with Salamon, Rhosyn, and Pamina.

Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Part 5

Music and Harry's Flute

Music is an integral part of alchemy. Michael Maier’s famous collection of alchemy emblems Atalanta fugiens included a musical score. The Sorting Hat sings in Chapter 7, and students sing the School Song after the Sorting. Dumbledore notes the significance of music:





Chapter 12 brings us Harry at Hogwarts for Christmas. Harry’s presents are always an opportunity for Rowling to load on the alchemical symbolism, and she doesn’t fail us. Harry gets an emerald green sweater from Molly and a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione. The frog, like the toad, is a symbol for the stone at the beginning of the Opus.

But the very first present he receives is from Hagrid:





The flute is a bit of a puzzle. It is not a standard alchemy symbol. It’s not mentioned in Lyndy Abraham at all. If you search at Adam McLean’s massive site, you turn up just a handful of references, all to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute or the fragmentary sequel to it written by Goethe.

Mozart’s opera is based on alchemy, but alchemy of a special kind. Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were Freemasons, and the opera celebrates the particular beliefs and rituals of 18th century German Freemasonry. Few would dispute that the opera is ones of the greatest achievements of Masonic high art.

There is some evidence that members of Rowling’s family were Masons, so perhaps that brought the opera to her attention. But however she came to it, the internal evidence in PS shows her familiarity with the story and symbolism of the opera.

Here are the characters and their HP equivalents (Salamon has written this up before).

Prince Tamino – Harry
Princess Pamina – Hermione
Papageno the birdcatcher – Ron
Papagena the birdwoman – Luna
Sarastro – Dumbledore
Queen of the Night (Pamina’s mother) – Voldemort
Monastatos – Snape? Lucius? Pettigrew? Draco?

First, let’s look at the magic flute itself. It was carved by Pamina’s dead father from a “thousand-year old oak” during a fierce storm of “lightning and thunder.” It came into the hands of Pamina’s mother, the Queen of the Night, and she gives it to Tamino when he accepts the task of rescuing Pamina. (Initially Tamino, and the audience, believe the Queen is good.) By now the flute has become a golden flute, a magic flute, capable of charming animals.

Tamino plays the flute at the end of the First Act and enchants the wild animals outside Sarastro’s Temple. He plays it again at the end of the Second Act when he and Pamina go through the final trials of fire, water, and death. Love is their guide. Music is their shield.

Like Tamino’s flute, Harry’s is also hand-carved from wood. The kind of wood is not specified, but Hagrid has been associated with oak more than once in the series. His wand is made of oak, and he is the one who knocks on the oak door of Hogwarts, as noted earlier. (The oak symbolizes the philosophical tree.) So it’s not too much of a leap to speculate that Hagrid carved Harry’s flute from oak as well.

Harry also uses the flute for the same purpose as Tamino did: to enchant a wild animal—Fluffy. Fluffy obviously corresponds to Cerberus, the three-headed dog who, in Greek mythology, guards the entrance to Hades. In the famous myth, Orpheus enchants Cerberus with music from his lyre when he goes to Hades to retrieve his dead wife Euridice. In PS, Quirrell deploys a harp, the modern equivalent of Orpheus’ lyre, to take care of Fluffy. But Harry, contrary to the Greek myth but copying Tamino, plays the flute. Then, at Ron’s suggestion, he hands the flute to Hermione, who plays it so Harry and Ron can jump through the trapdoor. She stops only when Harry tells her to jump as well.

Books&Cleverness has explained how Ron is playing the “glue” part of Mercurius here: putting Harry and Hermione, Sulphur and Mercury, into partnership. Ron does not offer to play the flute himself.

Steve Kloves and Chris Columbus obviously decided they weren’t going to ask Dan and Emma to take flute lessons back when they were 11 —they stuck with the harp instead. However, they did include a brief scene of Hagrid playing the flute in the film, so the flute was established in the Wizarding World should it be needed in a future film. We didn’t see it in Books 2-6: my fearless prediction is that it will return in Book 7.

The interesting question is how far is Rowling planning to follow the parallel with the Magic Flute? The opera is a celebration of lifelong, self-sacrificing love between a man and a woman. And Tamino and Pamina are equally important: by the end of the opera they have BOTH gone through the transformation and are BOTH admitted to the Brotherhood.

Mozart sets out his views on love in a duet between Pamina and Papageno.




If JKR is using this—and it’s a BIG if—then romantic love will be Harry’s power in Book 7.

The second question raised by Pamina’s equal role with Tamino is whether Hermione will share equally in Harry’s transformation. Have there been any hints that Hermione is more than a subordinate partner to Harry?

First, as we just saw, they BOTH play the magic flute in PS. In POA, Hermione actually takes the lead in the Timeturner adventure. She manipulates Time.

In GOF Hermione wears the color of the Quintessence, azure blue, in her periwinkle dress robes for the ball. In that book as well, Fake!Moody tells BOTH Harry and Hermione that they would make good Aurors (Aur-or = person becoming gold).

In OOTP Hermione is hit with a purple curse from Dolohov, just as she goes through purple flames after completing the Potions trial in PS/SS. And she is wearing purple robes in the HPDH cover. (Just as Harry is wearing black on the cover and went through black flames in PS/SS.) Purple is a common way to describe the Red Stone, the Philosopher’s Stone, which is actually reddish-purple.

Another example of lovers being jointly transformed, though I hesitate to mention it, is Romeo and Juliet. At the end of the play, the fathers of the dead couple pledge to raise “golden statues” of both of them: both Romeo and Juliet will become, quite literally, “gold.”

Against this, however, is the other tradition in the hero’s journey and most alchemy tales, where the hero accomplishes his final task alone. That’s what happens in TLWH. Maria explains in a letter to Robin:




So it’s a hard call which way Rowling will go. The extraordinary lengths she has gone to deflect from a Harmony ending is the final bit that tips the scales for me: I’m laying my very modest and completely symbolic bet on Harry and Hermione being together at the end against Voldemort, and both of them being transformed.

Just a thought on the bluebell flames/fire thing, now im sorry if im worng because im new to the alchemy stuff and the like.

Ahat i noticed was when Hermione uses the flames to stop Snape for Harrys sake, who stops quirrel, doesnt that mirror the end of PS/SS, when Hermione 'stops' or gets past Snapes flames for Harry, so ultimatly Qurriel can be stopped?

Also i think there was a quote about Hermiones Mastery of fire/bluebell flames back in their first year(written in CoS) could this relate to Hermiones 'Mastery' over Harry, who has the symbolism of Fire? and also at the end of SS/PS when she does that 'bravery' speech, she finaly understands Harry ...

okay i'll stop babbling now and you can all go back to making sense.

A bit more of my analysis of PS/SS: Part 6. Just one more part after this.

Alchemy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Part 6

The Mirror of Erised – Chapter 12

It seems that ever since Tolkien created Galadriel’s Mirror in LOTR, British alchemy stories have to have a prophetic mirror. In fact, the magic mirror has a long ancestry in fairy tales. In Spenser’s Faerie Queen, Merlin has a “looking glass” that can show everything in the world. Snow White’s stepmother has a magic mirror. Alice enters Wonderland through a mirror in Through the Looking-Glass.

The Mirror of Erised has a gold frame with an inscription on top, an easy-to-decipher backwards code for “I show not your face but your hearts desire.” Harry has a strong reaction: his heart was “pounding.” Before the Mirror can become an obsession—Harry almost forgets his mission of researching Flamel and finding out what the three-headed dog is guarding—Dumbledore has it removed.

Nicolas Flamel – Chapter 13

Chapter 13 is named for the famed French alchemist, who lived from 1330 to 1418, but who is still alive at this point in Rowling’s story.

Hermione and Harry both show kindness to Neville, who has been cursed by Malfoy, and their good deeds are rewarded. Harry looks at the Chocolate Frog card from the candy he gives Neville and finds the description of Dumbledore’s partnership with Flamel. Hermione explains that Flamel is “the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone!” Although several other alchemists are mentioned in the book, Flamel is the only one who is not only an actual character but is shown, in canon, to have created a Philosopher’s Stone.

Flamel has taken on considerable importance in debates about the kind of alchemy Rowling is using, because his treatises focused on the creation of the Stone from two substances, Sulphur, the Male Principle of the Work, and Mercury/Quicksilver/Argent vive, the Female Principle of the Work. In Flamel’s traditional alchemical theory, there is a third substance, Mercurius, but it is merely “the great uniter and binder” of Sulphur and Mercury, sometimes being referred to as “glue” (Lyndy Abraham, p. 176). Also of note is that the description of Flamel in the book Hermione has found mentions his famous wife, Perenelle. At age 665 and 658, respectively, the couple is still living happily together in Devon. A long and happy married life—that is the mark of the achievement of the Philosopher’s Stone in Rowling’s view.

So, if Harry is successful on his quest for the Stone, this is what he has to look forward to: Love, happiness, family, and a true partner as his wife and lifelong companion.

In the next match with Hufflepuff Harry, like a good Seeker, “circles the game like a hawk” and captures the Snitch in record time.

Seven Professors – Seven Tasks – Chapter 14

Hagrid blunderingly tells the trio who created the spells that are guarding the stone: Hagrid himself, Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Dumbledore, and Snape. So seven teachers created seven spells, which correspond to the seven tasks the trio will encounter at the end of the book, which in turn correspond to the seven books of the HP series. (On this latter point, since the brilliant essay by Alexism.)

Chapter 14 is also where Rowling drops a little clue about Hermione being born on Wednesday, September 19, 1979: “Wednesday night found Hermione and Harry sitting alone in the common room….” The highly unusual reversal of Harry and Hermione’s names puts “Hermione” in closest proximity to “Wednesday.” Wednesday, in Romance languages, is named for the Roman god (and planet) Mercury.

Rescuing Norbert

For the first time, Rowling arranges for Harry and Hermione to have an adventure alone together—by putting Ron in the hospital wing with a swollen dragon bite.

In a plotline that recalls the rescue of Serena the hare by Maria and Robin in TLWH, Harry and Hermione deliver Norbert safely to Charlie’s friends. They climb the astronomy tower by ascending a spiral staircase, going in repeated circles as they carry out their good deed.

The Forbidden Forest - Chapter 15

Every alchemy story worth its salt has a forest, a place of mystery and danger--think of the Dark Woods in TLWH—or the upturning of usual roles—as in the forest of Athens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Lambspring’s emblem of the stag and unicorn, the forest represents the “body” in the union of the deer (“soul”) and unicorn (“spirit”) (see Lyndy Abraham, p. 206).

--to be continued

@Redshoes : Amazing work. The volume of your work is extraordinary. I've not even finished reading the last one. I'm only halfway through. Thanks.

I really have enjoyed the last two chaptered. Perhaps the most illuminating part you posted was this :

So, if Harry is successful on his quest for the Stone, this is what he has to look forward to: Love, happiness, family, and a true partner as his wife and lifelong companion.

Even if I didn't believe in H/Hr, and believed in Harry/Ginny, I would not think that his partner can be Ginny. The reason that part gave me the most comfort reading would have to be the way in which it has been presented thus far. It does not fit her. The only people fits is Hermione. Luna is a possibility in my mind, and I wouldn't hate it much if it's her instead of Hermione.

Anyway, great post

Thanks NAPPA!

The foreshadowing for Harry's survival and long life is there if you want to see it. Put that together with Hermione being revived with mandrake root in COS and Trelawney's prediction in OOTP that Harry will have 12 children, and you get a very pretty picture.

I'm going to try to finish up the last couple of chapters by this weekend. They include Harry and Hermione's first CW , so I want to do it justice. Hopefully I can crib from my general CW essay.

Also--I posted a new, expanded analysis of POA here a couple of days ago. You should probably change the link in your Alchemy Essays post to this version, which has some important new information, such as more ideas of why Harry's Patronus is a Stag.

The alchemic angle has brightened my spirits more than any other bit of pre-DH discussion...particularly with the symbol on the DH hardcover spine, and I really appreciate all of the hard work you and others in this discussion and this forum have done.

That said, a couple of quick comments/observations:



Nitpicky, but Hagrid wasn't yet a professor in PS/SS. I also think it's a stretch to talk about seven designing seven spells, since three trials clearly involved no spell work (i,e, devil's snare, cerebus and troll), and the potions trial only required spells to create the barriers of fire.



This is where I wished I had an electronic version of canon, so that we could figure out how many times a day of the week is mentioned, how often Hermione's name precedes Harry's, and whether tha latter only happens on Wednesdays. This is nice, but with her name itself derived from the god Mercury it's almost redundent.




While I accept the circle as an alchemic symbol of great import, I also believe that there are enough round towers in Hogwarts that are traversed by enough circular staircases to lesson the importance of this reference as a clue to JKR's designs. Unless, of course, it's the only when H and Hr are alone that she mentions the spiralocity.