Harry Potter

I realize the debate over Harry Potter is a thing long-past, but it's come up a few times in conversation here at school. I've been thinking back over the ages-old arguments for and against the popular series...the following is my attempt to express the evidence I've found and conclusions I've drawn.

The justification I hear most often is that Harry Potter is fantasy fiction, and therefore the witchcraft and sorcery in the book is only imaginary. This is not quite true. The thunderbolt on Harry's forehead is a historically famous occult symbol, used by Hitler for the SS (he was involved in the occult) and by various admittedly occult death metal bands. Nicolas Flamel, a character from the first HP book, was an actual historical alchemist and occult figure. The "Hand of Glory" goes back through history as a famous occult object--a severed (and often mummifed) hand used as a charm and for black magik incantations. Here is a list of actual occult and satanic practices that are ACCURATELY described and employed in the HP series:

• Reading of palms and tea-leaves
• Crystal-ball gazing
• Divination
• Curses
• Incantation, charms, spells
• Rune stones
• Divination
• Astrology
• Arithmancy
• Numerology
• Auras
• Trances
• Blood sacrifice
• Scrying (direct contradiction to Deut 18:11 and Luke 16:19-31)
• Possession--"I could possess the bodies of others...I sometimes inhabited animals - snakes, of course, being my preference - but I was little better off inside them than as pure spirit, for their bodies were ill-adapted to perform magic...and my possession of them shortened their lives; none of them lasted long... 'Then...four years ago...the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard young, foolish, and gullible wandered across my path in the forest I had made my home... He was easy to bend to my will....I took possession of his body, to supervise him closely as he carried out my orders." (The Goblet of Fire, p. 567)
• Shape-shifting

The reader can walk into any bookstore or library and find books that will teach the reader to actually perform these occult rituals/practices as described! This is NOT true of the magic found in either LOTR or CoN. The magic of HP is NOT merely fantastical--it is magic from the real world, found in the real world! Real-world Wiccans, satanists, and occultists recognize this fact!

It is also commonly argued that the series presents an epic (and Biblically approved) battle between good and evil. The good and evil represented in HP, however, have a moral ambiguity that make its messages all the more subtle and dangerous. What basis do good and evil have in HP, and from whence does the HP magic come? Rowling writes of magic in one book, “There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it...". This thought aligns with the occult thought defined by witch Marion Weinstein, "No duality exists between good and evil. The One Power over all is neither good or bad; it transcends qualitative thought." The magic in HP has no higher power (allegorical God) that created and controls it, as the Emporer over the Sea does with Narnian magic. Rather, it is a sort of "force" that can be controlled and used as a character wishes--this nullifies any suggestion of a higher authority or God.

But this moral ambiguity also stretches into the actual actions of the characters. In MANY cases, the ends serve to justify the means. Harry performs good and sometimes noble actions, but often through/with disobedience and disrespect--not to mention the fact that witchraft in a sense chooses Harry and controls/guides significant life choices (which dorm he is placed in and which wand "chooses" him). Adults are viewed negatively and children escape to places where they have the power with Rowling herself admitting this idea as inspiriation for the series, "The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally and metaphorically, really appealed to me." In another BLATANT amoral concept, people who do not possess the ability to perform witchcraft and sorcery are looked down upon and typified as ignorant, boring, or bad.

Many still argue the permissibility of HP--after all, it isn't actually drawing children into witchcraft or the occult, especially if appropriately explained. On one hand, there is evidence that the rise of HP is related to a rise in occultism among juveniles: “... the Pagan Federation's Steve Paine, the high priest of a coven, said the highly successful Harry Potter books were popular amongst practising witches. "They are taken as fantasy entertainment. But they do encourage people to think about different forms of spirituality", he said." Deutoronomy 18:9 addresses interaction with occultism: "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations." The Hebrew word for "learn" means "to study, become accustomed to". The HP series--even if not directly pushing readers into the occult--does desensitize one to the occult simply by filling one's mind with an extremely positive representation of it. The reader in a sense becomes accustomed to the witchcraft represented in the book by reading about it over and over again.

Even if one finds no problem with the occultism or moral issues within HP, it would seem that the content is unecessarily dark and "creepy" and morbid. Phillipians 4:8 calls for CONSTANT meditation on what is beautiful and noble and good and true and pure and of good report. HP contains severed and mummified hands, black magik, blood sacrifices, a baby boiled in a cauldron, demons, werewolves, vampires, possession (described in eerie and dark terms), scrying, shape-shifting, among a host of disgusting/dark/morbid/just plain ickyness.

One last thought--if sorcery and witchraft can be justified in a fantastical literay setting, then adultery, immorality, murder, theft, lies, swearing, and any other negative element can likewise be justified. And in the end, is it not most important to simply avoid every HINT of evil? Especially an evil that is based on the worship of the Evil One, the greatest enemy of God?