Being a member of Generation X, I believe it is important for me to know what is happening in the news. I keep up on theological and religious current affairs, but also, I keep abreast of trends, fads, and fashions. How else can we, as a community of faith, know if we are being counter-culture or not? Harry Potter is such a part of early 21st century culture that certainly future historians will spend a lot of time discussing the craze. Like any good Generation X-er, who is also a youth minister, when I find the opportunity to do something that brings generations together, I jump at the chance. Fans of Harry Potter range from too young to hear the stories but they know who he is, to pre-adolescents, to teenagers, to folks like my husband who were at the Borders midnight sale of the new book, to grandparents reading the books with their grandkids. Harry Potter, his friends, the other characters, and the idea of magic being all around us appeals to all ages. As muggles, we all wish that we would be the sort to recognize and appreciate magic if it showed itself. All of the magic, from the game of Quidditch to their Owls who deliver mail, makes for a great read, but at heart Harry Potter appeals to us because he is a lonely person who has love to give and wishes for love in return. He is an orphan who believes that there is a place for him. This is the book’s universal appeal, to the compassion in all of us.
There is an element regarding magic that makes some people very scared, defensive, and ready to fight. Personally, I do not define myself as wiccan, but I do identify strongly with our earth-based source for spirituality. Many women who do so refer to themselves as witches, and the imagery of witches and magic have come under fire in and between religious groups these last few years. Several groups, some religious, hate the Potter books and everything they stand for. Whether you be a witch, a wizard, a squib or muggle, explore with me now the magic of Harry Potter, and why we love him.
First there is the story of the author. J.K. Rowling had come up with the character of Harry Potter before she became a mother, when she and her first husband were moving from flat to flat, and she worked for Amnesty International. It was after a weekend's flat-hunting, when I was travelling back to London on my own on a crowded train, that the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into my head. I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. To my immense frustration, I didn't have a functioning pen with me, and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one. I think, now, that this was probably a good thing, because I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me. I think that perhaps if I had had to slow down the ideas so that I could capture them on paper I might have stifled some of them.
For five years--through a marriage, a baby, and a divorce, into single motherhood—she kept developing the Harry Potter stories that we know now. In 1995 her means of income had run out. She was an unemployed single mother. If some publisher did not give her book approval, she would have to accept a day job, but thankfully for fans everywhere, The Philosopher’s Stone, or as it’s called here in America, The Sorcerer’s Stone, was published, and the rest is very happy history.
She has three children, including a new baby with husband number two, and she loves her fans. Rowling keeps her own website because she can no longer answer individual emails. Most recently when all of the media was after her for interviews about the new book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, she chose to give interviews to teenaged reporters only, and her exclusive one hour expose was conducted, at her choosing, by the man and woman who run the most successful fan websites, Mugglenet and the Leaky Cauldron, not eminent journalists. This is an author with heart, imagination, and yes, more money than the queen of England. As a woman, a writer, and a mother, I admire her greatly.
Her main subject, Harry Potter, was born on July 31st to parents James and Lily, who were a witch and wizard. All around us, in every country on the map, there are regular people like you and me, who are not magical, and we are called muggles. Dwelling right here with us are magical people who have their own means of transportation, money, stores, schools, government, and houses--a whole magical world we are not privy to because we do not notice magic when it right un front of us. These people are human, but they are witches and wizards. And, they are born that way. Even as in the case of Harry who had no idea he was a wizard, and lived with people who disdain magic, he could not fight his true identity once it became known to him. This is a powerful message to be who you are meant to be, and not what people try to make of you.
Interestingly, a muggle can breed with a witch or wizard, and the child might be either magical or not. From time to time, two muggles can produce a witch or wizard, as in the case of Harry’s friend, Hermione Granger. Most rare of all is the magical couple who produce a non-magical child who is called a squib. Ancestry, parents, and lineage are very important in Harry Potter books, because those who do not learn from their past are very much doomed to repeat it, and family feuds can carry on through multiple generations. For the author, parents are important because Rowling lost her beloved mother early in life and writes of Harry’s pain with experience. Harry’s friend, Ron Weasley, is from a long and distinguished line of witches and wizards, but they have been poor for many generations. Their trademark is bright red hair—you can always spot a Weasley. The Malfoy family has hated the Weasley family for decades. In this generation, Draco Malfoy is always causing problems for Ron Weasley, as it had been when their fathers were teens, too.
The battle between good and evil going on through the books is relentless, unapologetic, and the movement behind every subplot. The obviousness makes it a good read for the very young who understand in black and white. People in Potter books are good or bad-- not that they are charicatures—but they are either supporters of Voldemort or they are not. The characters have depth--as I said, they are not charicatures-- but the reader will know that if somebody has been a supporter of evil in the past, they are probably still, and they are to be avoided. This lends an aura of mystery to some characters, and some surprising twists, too, dispelling myths about stereoptypes. For instance, an ogre or giant can be kind, and werewolves are not always our enemy. If there is love in the heart, it does not matter what we previously thought. Individuals, even a werewolf or a giant, can have love in their heart.
For anyone who has not read a book or seen a movie yet, I have been speaking in the broadest terms. The first book begins with Harry Potter on his 11th birthday, finding out that he is a wizard. It is a wonderful thing for Harry to find out because he lives with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, who are muggles and despise Harry. His Aunt Petunia grew up knowing that she was a muggle while her sister Lily was a witch. She, her husband, and their awful son Dudley, have no imagination, little love for anyone but each other, and have tried to hide Harry away for fear of him turning out like Lily. Lily and James were killed when Harry was a baby, and the Dursleys, Harry’s adoptive family, have always told him it was in a car accident. Lo and behold, on his 11th birthday he is given his birthright—his true wizardly heritage, the chance to go to Hogwarts, the boarding school for young witches and wizards. Most importantly, and most poignant for any person who feels alone, at whatever age, he is given the chance to find out that there are people who adored his parents and who love him.
I often wish that Joseph Campbell had lived to see the Harry Potter phenomenon, because it perfectly fits the hero’s journey he wrote about and lectured on--the coming of age story where goodness triumphs and the man or woman supplant the boy or girl, never forgetting their childhood fantasies. The Rowling books contain carefully researched mythology, which Campbell would have loved, too. Harry, in his hero’s journey, is often likened to that of Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars stories, except that Harry is more literary than Luke, born specifically as a movie character. Harry has the advantage of causing millions of young people to become avid readers.
Some of the words and characters are very important to know if one is to speak with other Potter fans, and if you are not one yet, I hope you will become a reader. Who, at 11, would not wish to find out that they actually have secret, magical powers, and that they are about to learn about a whole new world they never knew existed? On many levels this is appealing. Hogwarts and the magical world, unseen to muggles, while a real place for Harry and his friends, is the escapist place each one of us dreams of from memory or imagination. His friends love him, protect him, and there is fierce loyalty. Ron and Harry became fast friends. More slowly, they welcomed Hermione into their friendship, and the three of them are very realistic, from the way they share secrets and loyalty, even to when they have fights and take sides. Clearly Rowling knows adolescents. The other students often take part in the subplots, and we get to know Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, the rest of the Weasleys, who are like the Waltons, wizard-style, and all of the professors at Hogwarts.
When a student first comes to Hogwarts, they put on the Sorting Hat, a speaking witch hat, that informs the Hogwart community which house the student was destined to be in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in Gryffindor, and the other two, mostly-good houses are Ravensclaw and Hufflepuff. The house long known for sometimes but not always turning out bad witches and wizards is Slytherin. In the constant battle between evil and good, people now or formerly from Slytherin need to be approached with extra care, because they could be in league with Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Voldemort is the epitome of evil, a bit older than Lily and James, and is now trying to gather his fellow evildoers for a glorious comeback. It turns out that it was no car accident that killed James and Lily, or that caused Harry to have a scar on his forehead that looks like a lightning bolt—it was Voldemort who killed them and tried to kill baby Harry. Harry’s parents were, in the last generation, the leaders for goodness against Voldemort. The lines were drawn back then, you were either on the side of love with James and Lily or on the side of power-hungry Voldemort. Now the children born from that war are being preened to fight the next stage. It is hard for Americans to comprehend this idea of fighting your father’s war. With news stories of longstanding wars in Ireland between protestants and catholics, or the 13 year old suicide bombers fighting their parents’ and grandparents’ wars, children in other countries may even relate to the books more deeply then our kids do. In the US, even the very young reader can understand the importance of family, of lineage, and of getting in with the right group for them. When the Sorting Hat chooses your house, it is really just seeing that which is already inside, waiting to come out. Which house would you be in?
Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts, and has seen the fight between Voldemort’s supporters and those who were loyal to the Potters for 20 years. Dumbledore is the quintessential sage, the wise man who knows that evil is real but that love will win in the long run. He has watched James and Lily grow up, as well as the older generation of Weasleys, Malfoys, and Longbottoms. Now as headmaster for their children, he has the advantage of experience. He is a father/grandfather figure for Harry and we all feel assured that as long as Dumbledore is in his position, Voldemort’s supporters will have a formidable adversary for their plot of domination over the magical world. Many of the other professors play important roles, too, such as the Headmistress for Gryffindor, McGonagall, a definite good egg, and Snape who leads Slytherin. Can Snape be trusted? He seems to hate Harry but also protects him at times.
As for religion within the books, there is no mention of Christianity or Wicca, no mention of God or Devil, and they do not go to chapel, as we usually picture British boarding school students in their flowy robes. But they do celebrate Christmas and Easter at Hogwarts, as well as Halloween. In each book, as Harry and his friends mature, becoming more and more powerful with their ability to cast spells, in the magical underground Voldemort is garnering support for a triumphant and scary comeback. Recently the sixth book came out, and we know that the final battle between good and evil, between Harry himself and Voldemort, will happen in the seventh book. Will good win out over evil? What power does Harry have over someone so frightening that other witches and wizards will not even speak his name?
Harry Potter has love in his heart. He was not able to be killed by Voldemort all those years ago because of the intense love his parents had for him. Not by magical spell, but by human compassion, he was enveloped in a safety shield of love that rendered evil power useless against him. In his friendships with Ron and all of the Weasleys, and Hermione and Dumbledore, Harry needs compassion and knows how to give it. One character, Hagrid, is disdained by many because he is a giant, and his deep love is for sometimes dangerous and onerous magical creatures. Hagrid is huge, wild, unkempt, and full of love for Harry’s trio, and fully endorsed by Dumbledore. The depth of feeling between these people is very appealing to the adolescent, who is forging deep friendships for the first time, or to the former adolescent. Let us never forget what it was like, going out into the world to form our family of choice—the friends who would become our family in adulthood. Harry’s story is the Hero’s journey, and each of us, muggle or wizard, is a hero.
Of course for some people, the books and movies hold no interest, and this is fine. For some religious groups, Potter Mania is seen as a very serious threat, wherein magic is seen as evil and the devils’ work. Into this environment I was introduced to Harry Potter and how he might affect my ministry. I was working as a DRE in Bangor, Maine in 2001 when the first movie came out. There were many groups who were boycotting the books and the movie. At our little church, if a widely publicized event drew 30 people it was a wild success. Two months into my DRE time, I invited people to bring me $5 for a movie ticket. I would go early and buy tickets for Saturday afternoon so that we could meet and watch a movie together. 60 people brought me $5, and more showed up that day. We had witch hats, a sign that said UUs for Harry Potter, and lots of UU witches and wizards in full wiccan dress. Needless to say, we got on the news, and yet another line was drawn in our culture, good Christians protecting their children from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, while we embrace them. Our church in Bangor, and for most of the country, was already at odds with fundamentlaists over gays and our anti-war stance, now witches were the issue.
That was also the first year I hosted a Hogwarts New Years Eve for all ages. At midnight in London it is only 7 pm here, so we change the clocks 5 hours, dress in witchy finery and play like we are at Hogwarts. At midnight (or 7 pm,) we have our count down and go home or on to other parties. These events in Bangor and Sterling have been intergenerational and much anticipated for any age group, even bringing into the fold adults who are not parents. While the subject of religion is not in these books, love is, and accepting all kinds of people. That sounds pretty UU to me.
In every age there are literary heroes. In many stories there is a fight between good and evil. There are many fantasy series that we are familiar with, from the Chronicles of Narnia to Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter has all of these elements, as well as love, loyalty, friendship, and the timeless story of a young person claiming their power—the hero’s journey. If you have not already started on the books, give them a try. If you do not like them, we can respectfully disagree. If you have already read the new book, please don’t share what happens because I have been writing sermons and not reading. In closing, I send my happy birthday thoughts, and my thanks and praise to J K. Rowling and her beautiful creation. Happy Birthday, Harry!