Discernment
A review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Harry’s Last Battle
A review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By Berit Kjos – July 18, 2011
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“I have been encouraged by my pastor at my CHRISTIAN church to read the Harry Potter books, because even though they have references to magic and sorcery, they can teach us more about the values of Friendship and Bravery than he can…. I am no longer Christian. Somewhere along the way my beliefs changed. I practice Wicca.” A young visitor to our website
“Days before the release of the seventh and final novel in the series, youth leaders are being told they could use the popularity of the Potter books and films as a ‘launch pad’ for exploring Christian themes.”[1]
“In its early years, ‘Harry Potter’ was a litmus test of orthodoxy for some conservative Christians, who expressed concern over its portrayal of witchcraft….The hysteria has largely died down, and not many religious leaders asked their flocks to avoid the final movie….Many Christians have cheered the portrayals of loyalty, courage and love.”[2]
“[They] practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord….” 2 Kings 17:17
I had plenty of company last Saturday morning as I hurried into the movie theater to see the final film in the Harry Potter series. Several families with children walked in ahead of me. Others followed. One little girl couldn’t be more than three years old! How would she react to this scary movie?
For more than two hours, the audience sat immersed in a mystical world filled with frightening shrieks, explosive sounds of death and destruction, and enticing suggestions certain to appeal to power-hungry youth already attuned to the forces of evil.
If you are a parent, please don’t take your children to see this movie!
By its end, it had exposed the two sides of today’s popular evil. Like the yin-yang symbol, there is an obvious dark side and a more subtle “light” side to occult deceptions. To resist their mind-changing allure, we need to understand both.
The Dark Side of Evil
This last part of the Harry Potter sequence promotes everything God bans in this warning:
“There shall not be found among you anyone who… practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead…. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord…” Deuteronomy 18:10-12
During the last three centuries, Americans have enjoyed relative freedom from the occult forces that have tormented many other parts of the world. From the beginning, the pilgrims and a significant number of other believers trusted God and built this nation on the foundation of His Word. Therefore God protected their land. Few were exposed to words and actions that led to the occult.
But times have changed and God’s actual truth is rarely heard in public places. We can no longer shut out the well-marketed forces of evil that press into our lives — even in churches. That’s all the more reason to prepare for the spiritual warfare ahead. Let’s begin by taking a closer look at the occult practices listed in the above verses from Deuteronomy. Each practice is featured in this movie.
1. WITCHCRAFT: Trusting the occult spirit world for power to perform all kinds of magical spells and wonders.
Witchcraft was common in Old Testament days. Back then it was already a “normal” part of life in cultures around the world. Finally, in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, such practices faded in the West. More recently, that trend has been reversed. The mind-changing fantasies spread by Rowling and her admirers have sparked a rapid revival of interest and delight in occult empowerment.
2. SOOTHSAYER: A fortuneteller, diviner or seer in communication with demonic spirits.
3. INTERPRETING OMENS: Receiving messages and interpretations — usually ominous – from the spirit world.
4. SORCERY: Performing magical feats through occult forces.
If witchcraft and sorcery sound like fantasy and fairy tales to teens and children today, the devil must be very pleased. He is constantly on the lookout for those who will follow his ways — even if “just” in their imaginations. As God warned long ago,
“They…walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart….” Jeremiah 7:24
5. CONJURE SPELLS: Manipulating occult forces according to mental formulas and projecting the spell through a physical object.
“To cast a spell is to project energy through a symbol,” explained Starhawk, the wiccan author of The Spiral Dance. “Spells… require the combined faculties of relaxation, visualization, concentration, and [mental] projection.”[3]
Most spells in the movie were cast through magically empowered wands. The powerful Elder Wand apparently had a mind of its own and could choose whether or not to serve a new master. Wikipedia explains its bizarre history:
“In the preceding movie, Voldemort…opens Dumbledore’s tomb and claims the wand as his own. Assuming incorrectly that Snape is the wand’s current master, Voldemort slays Snape, not realizing that the wand’s allegiance was to Draco….Harry had subsequently disarmed Draco and taken his wand. …the Elder Wand’s allegiance had since shifted to Harry….Voldemort uses the Elder Wand to cast his final Killing Curse against Harry’s Expelliarmus charm. But since the wand’s allegiance is to Harry, Voldemort’s spell backfires and kills him once and for all.”[4]
Spells were also essential to the creation and destruction of the horcruxes used by Voldemort to secure his own immortality. “Invented” by J.K Rowling, they only exist in the imaginations of those who are captivated by her tales and by the additional “information” they inspire. For example, Wikipedia adds this gruesome description:
“…the creation of a Horcrux requires one to commit a murder, which, as the supreme act of evil, ‘rips the soul apart.’ After the murder, a spell is cast to infuse part of the ripped soul into an object, which becomes the Horcrux….Both inanimate objects and living organisms have been used as Horcruxes, though the latter are considered riskier to use, since an organism can move and think for itself….
“To be destroyed, a Horcrux must suffer damage so severe that repair through magical means would be impossible….Once a Horcrux is irreparably damaged, the fragment of soul within it is destroyed.”[5]
These dark fantasies share a common consequence with actual occult realities. Both stir cravings for new and ever darker occult thrills and knowledge. The natural consequences of pursuing such a path is spiritual bondage and torment. Listen again to God’s warning:
“They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.
Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.” (Proverbs 1:30-31)
6. CALL UP THE DEAD [Necromancy]: Invoking the spirit of a deceased person through occult formulas.
Here the story gets more complicated. Harry himself was one of Voldemort’s horcruxes, since a piece of Voldemort’s soul was hidden inside him. Therefore Harry had to die before Voldemort could be killed. That realization made Harry’s life bleak indeed. The months of hiding from Voldemort and his armies had taken their toll. Choosing to face his inevitable death rather than fight it, he walked unarmed into Voldemort’s forest camp.
But first Harry wanted to see his dead parents and friends. His magical Resurrection Stone enabled him to call up the spirits of his father and mother as well as Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They promised to stay with him until he died.
During his brief time in the state of “death,” Harry was visited by the spirit of Albus Dumbledore who suggested that he return to life. Since “dying” had freed him from bondage to Voldemort’s horcrux, he chose to return.
Many have equated Harry’s death with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They are way off track! Any such comparison is a mockery of God’s actual Truth.
The “Light“ Side of Evil
Surrounded by Hogwarts ash-covered ruins, Harry wins his final battle against Voldemort. Later, as he stands on a high ridge with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, he pulls out his Elder Wand, the most powerful wand known to wizards. He breaks it in two and throws the pieces into the canyon below. Apparently, there’s no need for it anymore.
Did he really believe that all warfare ended when Voldemort died? Would peace now prevail in the region cleansed of its cruel leader? What about Voldemort’s surviving army of ambitious, murderous “death eaters”? Might not some of them fight for his lofty, tyrannical position?
Harry doesn’t answer those questions.
The movie concludes with a brief glimpse of the three friends nineteen years later. Ron, of course, married Hermione. Harry married Ron’s sister Ginny. Now the two couples are standing with their children on the magical railroad Platform 9¾, ready to send their older children off to school on the Hogwarts Express.
When Harry’s middle son admits his fear of being “sorted” into the Slytherin dorm rather than Gryffindor, his father comforts him:
“Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin [Severus Snape] and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.”
He was? The sour, sullen, ruthless Severus Snape was no friend to Harry during his school years. Nor was any other member of the Slytherin clan. Most of them were deadly enemies. Many joined the Death Eaters. In light of the previous Potter books, this sudden emphasis on peace, harmony and reconciliation makes no sense!
George Orwell would probably agree. His familiar book, 1984, sums up such strange contradictions with these words: “War is PEACE. Freedom is SLAVERY. Ignorance is STRENGTH.“[6]
We might add this lie: Evil is Good! In a world that despises God’s Word and moral guidelines, it’s not surprising that a series of books based on witchcraft and wizardry has won the hearts of the people. Occult themes, whether in books, movies or computer games, have become one of today’s most effective tools for social transformation. Even churches are promoting the change. The “light” side of evil could hardly be more deceptive!
As God’s Word tells us, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) That’s reality today! But the consequences for those who believe his lies will be severe:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” Isaiah 5:20-21
God’s Ultimate Victory
Today’s rising world system has called for unbiblical peace and a prescribed form of solidarity that has little tolerance for Christians who refuse to compromise. Yet, if we stand firm in Jesus Christ, our sovereign Lord, He will surely meet all our needs — and much more! Those who resist the world’s tempting lies in His name will be safe in Him — now and forever!
This world system denies the message of the cross. That’s why the name of Jesus is banned from all kinds of public places. But we cannot be silent! What Jesus prayed to His Father almost 2000 years ago is now His message for us:
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one…. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John 17:14-19
Notes:
1. “Use Harry Potter to spread Christian message,” The Telegraph [a British newspaper], July 18, 2007. This link is now obsolete: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;?xml=/news/2007/07/17/npotter217.xml
2. Sarah P. Bailey, “How Christians Warmed to Harry Potter,” Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812104576441641674217076.html. See also John Granger’s message at www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/harry-granger.htm
3. Starhawk, Spiral Dance (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1979), 25.
4. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horcrux#Deathly_Hallows
5. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horcrux#Horcruxes
6. George Orwell, 1984 at George Orwell’s 1984
Harry Potter Overview
By Peter Lanz The story of Harry Potter is an allegory: It is written and packaged to look like fantasy when, in truth, it is a carefully written true description of the training and work of an initiate in an occult order. In every instance, everything Harry does is an extension of his belief system. His foundation is in magic through will. The concept that magick is an extension of will is a foundational occult truth and is diametrically opposed to the Christian concept of will where every born again believer’s individual will is brought into submission under Christ.
Everything that Harry learns is immediately applied to his life and practiced over and over. Harry learns that everything he thinks, says or does is an act of magick. This concept in magick is written out through the exercises that he does while at Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft. Christians should be discipled that their belief system is the foundation of everything that they think, do and say. The fact is that everything we think, do and say is an extension of our belief system. It is dangerous to suspend our belief system when it comes to judging the value of what we give our children to “read for entertainment.”
Harry Potter is instilled with the traits of “Every Man.” There are characteristics of Harry Potter that every kid will identify with. Kids will defend Harry’s choices and actions as justifiable. The author is very successful in evoking strong sympathy and empathy for Harry in her readers. The books teach situation ethics rather than absolute values of right and wrong that are taught in the scriptures.
What is important to emphasize is that words have meaning and power. Words influence culture. It is impossible to read something and not be effected by it or learn something from it. It is not only foolish but it is also dangerous to dismiss the indoctrination of the adventures of Harry Potter with the excuse, “It’s ONLY fiction,” “it’s JUST a book,” something without a real agenda. The agenda of J. K. Rowling is very real — she is writing to instill in children a familiarity with occult truth — she just clothed it in fun.
For the non-Christian, there is nothing wrong with this story. For the Christian, what the author writes is considered an abomination by the LORD. (Deut. 18) See the following!
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Harry |
The Occult |
Book 1, page 51: Harry is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where:
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A person is INVITED to join an occult order
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The first book is called, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.” |
Occultists use sorcerers’ stones to transmute substances from one to another. |
Book 1, page 66. Harry is informed about how much work goes into becoming a wizard and about how much there is to study. The book tittles listed, while not actual books, are significant. |
The content Harry has to study includes:
Astrology, Herbology, Astronomy (book 1, p. 133), Channeling power, how to use magick The titles of the books listed closely align to actual occult book. |
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:Book 1, page 90-94 to get to the school, people have to go through a portal and get on a train. Book 1, p. 131-133. The rooms shift places until the students can lock |
The entire school of Wizardry and Witchcraft is a creative visualization and exists on the astral plane- not on the physical plane. You can’t get to it unless you go through the portal at the train station. This is why the rooms in the school move around. See Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism |
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is organized:
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Parallels any occult order:
No one confronts the power of an Imperator. |
Harry learns how to cast spells. |
Occultists manipulate elemental spirits, demonic entities, servitors, etc., as well as circumstances and people through spells, acts of will, creative visualizations, and ritual spells for their own benefit. (destruction spells, death spells) |
Book 1, p. 114: There are four houses within the Hogwarts School: Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. |
Each one probably represents an element. Air. Earth. Water. Fire. Since Hogwarts exists on the astral plane, that takes care of the fifth element – ethers. We do not know this yet by the end of book three. |
Book 1, 66. Harry has a spell book |
Grimore — and occultist’s personal book of incantations. |
Voldemort wants the sorcerer’s stone so he can “create” a new body for himself. |
There really is a sorcerer’s stone — no comment on what it does or how it’s used — just know that it IS! |
In Harry Potter, the “will in action” is a strong theme that runs throughout the story line. |
The will in action is a direct reference tot he laws of Thelma, more specifically, the first law upon which all other laws hinge: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Nothing supersedes the will. The supreme will rules.” |
Voldemort wants the |
There really is a sorcerer’s stone – no comment on what it does or how it’s used — just know that it IS! |
In Harry Potter, the “will in |
The will in action is a direct reference to the laws of Thelema, more specifically, the first law upon which all other laws hinge: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Nothing supersedes the will. the supreme will rules.” |
Book 1, p. 53. Harry was told that his parents died in a car crass. Actually they were psychically murdered. |
In the occult world, people “die” by “accident” or “natural causes.” |
Book 1, p.164. Hedwig- Harry’s pet owl. All the students at Hogwarts get and send their messages by owl. |
Actually, Hedwig and all the other owls are familiar spirits. In the occult — familiar spirits are used to convey messages from one occultist to others. |
Book 1, p.130-133. Harry returns to his dormitory room through a “portrait hole.” The portrait asks for a password.Book 2, p. 300. The sink – another example of a portal and how to open it up. |
Portrait hole = portal – the opening between the physical plane and the astral plane through which entities move back and forth. Portals open with the correct words. |
Book 1, p. 138 and Book 3, p. 2. Harry uses a quill pen, ink and parchment paper to document his magical spells. |
Standard occult practice — all occultists learn to document their spells in the initial stages of their training. |
Book 1, p. The author gives a description of what is referred to as Quirrell’s master.Harry could see a face on the back of Quirrell’s head. Quirrell is strengthened by unicorn blood, |
This is a description of a real psychic vampire. The face says, “See what I have become, mere shadow and vapor. I have form only when I can share another’s body. But there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds.” (Book 1, p. 293)Psychic vampires are real. Drinking blood is strictly forbidden in the Scriptures. |
Book 1, p. 291. “There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” |
Power is the greatest central them in the occult world. There is no god and no devil in the occult world. There is ONLY POWER. |
Book 1, p. “Always use the proper name for things — fear of a name of anything increases fear of the thing itself.” |
Harry is being instructed in how to purge fear. All emotion, in the occult world is purged out of a person. Fear could mean death. |
Book 2, p. 20-21. Harry broke the decree for the restriction of underage wizardry because he had just done serious magick. He gets a reprimand. He does it again in book 3 when he attacks Aunt Marge. (p. 28-30) |
AKA – he broke the rules of discretion that every occultists is well aware of. Occultist NEVER break the rules of discretion. |
End of book 2 (p. 317, 322) A young girl gets possessed; you see a conjurative being that threatens to kill. Harry kills a certain conjured spirit (a snake) with a special sword. |
These passages are an indirect reference to Kaballah, the Tree of Life, the Kundalini (snake) and the Sword of Kerubum. “SELF” is the source of power. |
Book 2, p. 52 mentions a “Hand of Glory.”Book 3, p. 208. Hit Wizards. | These are references to items used in VERY NEGATIVE magick. |
Book 2 explains why Voldemort is the way he was (a psychic vampire) in book one. Harry doesn’t understand Voldemort until Dumbledore explains him. In trying to protect Harry from a psychic attack on his life by Voldemort, Harry’s mother took the attack on herself and she died. When she took on the full brunt to the attack, she absorbed most of the energy. Harry absorbed some to the knowledge of |
Rowling gives a perfect description of the difference between demons and fallen angels on the physical plane in this example of Voldemort. She writes that Voldemort once had a body, then he didn’t now he does when he attaches himself to other people. This is the way demonic entities exist in the physical world. They need a physical body in which to manifest.Angels, holy or fallen, do not need physical bodies to manifest — they can make their own bodies on the physical plane. When occultists repel a psychic attack, |
Book 2, p. 314-322. Rowlings describes an occult war: Voldemort says he’s the greatest sorcerer in the world and Harry says that Dumbldore is the greatest wizard in the world. Then a fawkes, a phoenix and a sorting hat show up to defend and fight for Harry. Voldemort gave Harry permission to use the tools Dumbledore sent him. Harry defeats Voldemort. |
Occult wars are fought on the spiritual level. This story line is straight psychic metaphor. Harry found the weakness in Voldemort’s existence and capitalized on it. There are references to items used in VERY NEGATIVE magic. |
Book 3, p. 247. The Dementor’s kiss. | Lupin explains that when dementors wish to destroy someone utterly, they suck the soul out of the person through their mouth. “You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working.” |
Book 3, p. 250, 251. Hermione is reading a Rune translation. |
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Book 3, p. 426, 427. Harry has a conversation with Dumbldore regarding saving Pettigrew’s life. Dumbledore tells Harry that when one wizard “saves another wizard’s life, it creates a bond between them. This is magic at its deepest and most impenetrable.” |
This bond and debt is called an ON in the occult world. |
Harry does not know that he can talk in the language of snakes. You get an inkling of this in books 1, page 28. When Harry has a conversation with the boa constrictor, he thinks the snake is talking English, when, in fact, it is Harry that is talking “snake.” The conversation with a snake comes up again in book 2, page 194. In a class titled “Defense Against the Dark Arts,” a snake is ready to attack one of the members of his group, Justin, and Harry tells the snake to stop. The snake obeys immediately. People were astounded that Harry could speak snake. |
Those who practice the many forms of familiar magick have the ability to communicate with animals. I.e.: horse whisperers, medicine men, etc. |
Book 3, p. 28-30. Harry attacks his aunt Marge for her disparaging comments about him and his family by placing a swelling spell on her. |
This is a psychic attack. Harry’s lightening bolt scar on his forehead is a symbol of his psychic strength. The lightening bolt is similar in nature to the occult “Sword of the Cherubim.” |
Book 3, p. 133. Harry’s class practices on a bogart to remove whatever fear they have. A bogart is an entity which morphs into whatever anyone is afraid of. It is a shape shifter and will change itself into “whatever it thinks will frighten us most.” |
Bogarts, called something else in the occult world, are real. They are used in occult training as practice for conquering fear and for perfecting their craft. |
Book 3, p. 83. Harry has a confrontation with several dementors. These creatures are similar to vampires that can suck the positive energy out of a person. They cause a person to be confronted with their own evil and what the person fears. Harry is not successful in deriving the dementors away on his own. In book 3, p. 236-237, Lupin teachers him a spell to put a barrier between him and the dementors. |
In the occult, psychic vampires are similar to dementors. They feed on the emotional energy of people. Fear is a strong emotion that dementors feed on. |