The Harry Potter Magical Rosicrucian Coincidence

About four years ago, I wrote about the similarities between the Harry Potter stories and the Rosicrucian work, from 1616, The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. "Is this where JK Rowling got her ideas from?", I wondered, "or is it simply coincidence."

JK Rowling does know her magic. In an interview she said:

"I've never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that's a different matter. To invent this wizard world, I've learnt a ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I'll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic."

Okay, lets take a look at the 'coincidences' between Harry Potter and The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz:

~ Harry Potter goes to an ancient castle for seven years; in the Chemical Wedding Christian Rosenkreutz (CR) goes to a castle for seven days.

~ Harry Potter and CR are given a letter of invitation during a violent storm.

~ To reach the castle, Harry travels across a lake with mermaids in it. To reach the Tower of Olympus CR travels across a sea with mermaids.

~ Harry is faced with being sorted into one of four houses; CR faces four paths to choose from at the beginning of his journey to the castle.

~ Both books mention Paracelsus.

~ A number of mystery animals are mentioned in both books e.g. the phoenix, the unicorn and the griffin.

~ In both the Tower of Olympus and Harry's castle lives a very ancient man who is in control of the whole proceedings.

~ In both books the meals are served up by invisible servants in a hall lightened by floating candles.

~ In both books there is a funeral where a phoenix appears.

... and so on.

There is a free English version, in a pdf format, of The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz here.

So there we have it ... though there is one more similarity / coincidence:

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix we are told that, "There is a room ... that ... contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature ... It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldermort has not at all."

This force is called love ... but is called Venus in the 1616 book.

Other HP Posts:
JK Rowling And Harry Potter Birthday Coincidence
Harry Potter's Minister For Magic And The Narwhal Coincidence

We All Go To Our Own Version Of Heaven When We Die

Cafe Society - Heaven For Some People

A while back I published a post We Create The Afterlife We Desire in which I wrote:

"Could it be that, just as our dreams are individual, so is death, dependent on the actions and thoughts while alive in our physical body? Some may undergo fantastic adventures. Others may suffer from recurring nightmares, trapped in some form of hell created by their own minds. While others may experience a kind of paradise conjured up by their expectations."

I was looking at something by Joseph J Weed, a former Rosicrucian Grand Councillor. His thoughts seem to be similar to mine (or even mine to his!):

"The events of transition [death] are different for each individual and depend upon the state of consciousness and perhaps training. Some go to higher realms and are ecstatically happy while they study and train there. Some live in surroundings they have dreamed of living in, a creation of their desires while alive. This may be a cabin in a forest, a home on a beautiful farm, a cottage by the sea - in other words a heaven of their own making."

But, according to Weed, there are some souls who also remain earthbound. They fight death, even after death, and refuse to believe they are not 'alive'. He gives an example of someone he saw on the astral plane.

"I had known this man in life. He was handsome and charming and traded on these qualities ... he loved night life and cafe society and succeeded in acquiring the reputation as a playboy.

[During] World War II in 1941, he took up his commission in the Navy and became one of the first U.S. casualties when his ship was torpedoed and sunk in early 1942.

I encountered him in the astral realm. He was one of a party in a night club a very real-appearing creation of his own desire, and had no notion he was already dead in the physical sense ... he was drinking, dancing and joking and flirting in cafe society surroundings, fully convinced that the places and people were real and that he was still among the so-called living.

To cut things short Weed visited the man for about three years [in the astral realm] and saw that the man gradually became worried and anxious and looked unhappy. He was permitted to assist him and visited him once more.

"When I spoke to him he seemed to be in a stupor and it was difficult to get his attention. Finally, I succeeded in rousing him ...

I said, 'Steve, I want to help you. Do you know you are dead?'

Dumbly. he nodded slowly and then said, 'I have been thinking so for some time. But I don't seem to be dead. Nothing much has changed. I'm so confused.'

Weed explained to him how he was reliving the existence that had appealed to him most but could alter the situation with an act of will. Opportunities would then develop - and this is what is said to have happened. Steve was able to move on.

This may all sound far fetched but if we look at Near Death Experiences they vary in what the person actually sees. Christians experience something different from, say, Muslims - because of their beliefs.

As with everything there is no reality just our realisation of how things are. We are all responsible for what happens to us, whether on Earth or in 'Heaven' - well, that's my theory at the present time!

 Reference: Wisdom of the Mystic Masters

Other Heaven Stories:
We Create The Afterlife We Desire
Where Is Heaven?
What Version Of Us Will Go To Heaven?

A Power To Give Direct Access To A Superior Knowledge

I remember ages ago, while in the Rosicrucians, being told that man is an intuitive being. It's something that I agree with entirely, though so much of the world mocks such an idea.

When I was managing an office of a finance and loans company they were always sending me on courses where I felt like a fish out of water. At one time the subject was all about recruiting the right staff. I said I used intuition. This caused a massive negative reaction from everyone concerned, it seemed I was on the edge of insanity! They went on to try and explain how to recruit 'properly'. It seems that there is a special formula to follow - but I immediately 'forgot' this once I was back to my office.

Anyway, the following is from my ancient cutting's file.

"Man has within him a latent faculty by means of which he is able to have immediate and direct access to a knowledge that is superior in range and quality to that which he is able to acquire through discursive processes.

While it is true that in most people this intuitive faculty is dormant and needs to be awakened, the potential is there waiting to to be recognised and employed. No doubt one of the most wasteful practices of the average individual is the constant neglect of this inner faculty we call intuition.

Intuition is a natural integral part of man's nature, and it will function freely and effectively if one does not interfere with its performance.

This faculty is generally much more evident in the lives of children than in most adults. This is because intuition is a natural attribute of the inner life which is all too often ignored or stifled as a result of negativism and by squelching opposition from the outside world during years of maturity.

After years of failure to recognise and exercise this capacity for intuition, it becomes dormant. Just as a muscle in a person's arm will tend to become weak through lack of exercise, so will the intuitive faculty lose its strength and effectiveness through continued neglect and inactivity.

When one is caused to realise the inactive status of his intuitive faculty and wishes to reactivate it, he will need to pursue his goal with fixed purpose and constant effort.

When the first efforts are made to restore this hidden power of insight to its proper function in life, its diminished voice is scarcely heard amidst the clamour of the objective world.

As the individual continues to listen and respond to this quiet call, then that which was heard only faintly and indistinctly at the beginning is heard with a constantly increasing degree of clarity.

If we fail to gain that knowledge which is available only through intuition, we deprive ourselves of the highest and most authoritative knowledge."

So there we go: use it or lose it!

Random 67 Not Out Posts:
Are We Simply A Bunch Of Memories?
Avoiding Train Crashes And Other Disasters
Presentiments Sent To Warn And Advise Us

The Harry Potter And Rosicrucian Coincidences

Hans Andrea of the Harry Potter For Seekers website has compared the similarities between the Harry Potter stories and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz published way back in 1616. It is thought to be a Rosicrucian work.

Are the similarities coincidences? Let's see:

~ Harry Potter goes to an ancient castle for seven years; in the Chemical Wedding Christian Rosenkreutz (CR) goes to a castle for seven days.

~ Harry Potter and CR are given a letter of invitation during a violent storm.

~ To reach the castle, Harry travels across a lake with mermaids in it. To reach the Tower of Olympus CR travels across a sea with mermaids.

~ Harry is faced with being sorted into one of four houses; CR faces four paths to choose from at the beginning of his journey to the castle.

~ Both books mention Paracelsus.

~ A number of mystery animals are mentioned in both books e.g. the phoenix, the unicorn and the griffin.

~ In both the Tower of Olympus and Harry's castle lives a very ancient man who is in control of the whole proceedings.

~ In both books the meals are served up by invisible servants in a hall lightened by floating candles.

~ In both books there is a funeral where a phoenix appears.

... and so on.

Is all this purely by coincidence? Well funny things happen. But JK Rowling knows her magic. As she said in an interview with The Herald in 1998:

"I've never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that's a different matter. To invent this wizard world, I've learnt a ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I'll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic."

It's interesting that the Catholic Church have warned us of The Dangers Of Harry Potter To Mankind but if we look at one more 'coincidence' perhaps Harry's not so bad as they think.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix we are told that, "There is a room ... that ... contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature ... It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldermort has not at all."

This force is called love - and is called Venus in the Chemical Wedding.

Isn't love the main teaching of Jesus?

See also:
A Message From The Harry Potter Owls
JK Rowling And Harry Potter Birthday Coincidence

Is Karma The Cause Of Ill Health

When I published magazines back in the late 1990s a theme I often went on about was how 'our thoughts, words, deeds, actions and beliefs of yesterday have created the life we are living today.' The clipping above was from Wealthy Times in March 1997.

I still believe something along those lines involving Karma. So when things are going well for me, it's because of how I've dealt with life in the past and conversely when things aren't doing so good it's my own fault. I don't blame God or the world at large.

This is all well and good but what about health? I wondered about this following my recent operation. Had I done anything wrong to make my health suffer? After all disease means a lack of ease: dis-ease.

The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes makes suggestions as to the cause of various ailments. Here are a few examples. I'm not, by the way, saying that I necessarily agree with these.

Headaches: Confused, worried, anxious, tense thoughts.

Constipation: Often due to a belief in limitation or burden.

Growths, Tumours, Cancer: Destructive emotions, desires or ideas, unless neutralised, will grow into some bodily condition.

Hay Fever: Nervous persons, and those whose work is largely mental, are most often attacked by hay fever.

Kidney and Bladder Disturbances: All kinds of kidney troubles from worry, anxiety, fear and criticism.

And so on and so on.

Gill Edwards in her book Stepping Into The Magic has similar ideas. A few examples taken at random:

Ulcers: Fear, being driven, being a perfectionist, feeling unworthy.

Inflammation: Suppressed anger.

Stiffness: Being inflexible, stuck in your ideas.

You get the picture, both authors claim there are reasons for any ill health we may suffer.

This got me thinking and wondering if health is purely down to Karma and maybe the displeasure of the Cosmic, or perhaps carried over from a previous incarnation. I was undecided about the answer and by 'chance' (yes, I know there's no such thing) picked out a publication from the 1970s from a pile of Rosicrucian writings I have on file. This, of course, just happened to be relevant to what I was pondering.

Discussing the same question the writer came up with the following:

"... Thus we must admit that by science or logic alone we can neither understand nor predict the course of any single human life, because we always reason from insufficient data.

However, as mystics we can experience within ourselves the condition and the motives of our Brother by loving sympathy that 'assumes' and achieves identity with him from the inside, through our common tap-root.

Without this 'knowledge through compassion' it is presumptuous to pass judgement on anyone and, even more so, to measure spiritual advancement by physical condition or material success.

Socrates, the wisest man of his time, was poor and reportedly ugly. In modern times the great scientist and humanist Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a hunchbacked cripple. Under such circumstances, it is reassuring to remember that, according to a wise old professor, most of the world's work is done by people who are not feeling well!

By human reason we cannot discern whether misfortune and sickness are due to accident, heredity, present guilt, or past Karma, or whether a karmic condition is meant as retribution, as a lesson, or as a spur to greater effort.

To sum up: Mastership is not proved by worldly success nor disproved by misfortune. It is shown by the ability to overcome difficulties and to use all of life's vicissitudes - pleasing and painful, good and bad - as stepping stones to further progress."

Though there is a lot in what the likes of the Science of Mind suggest, it's probably more than what they write. Any emotion, especially a negative emotion must have an effect on our physical bodies but I think it's simplistic to think it is the only reason for any ill health. It can be a combination of several things as the Rosicrucian quote suggests.

In saying this we can, no doubt, help ourselves by right thoughts, words, deeds, actions and beliefs - which puts me right back to the position I was spouting at the beginning of this post!

Life is full of circles and cycles.

Fossils As Reminders Of Previous Lives

It's strange how articles come into your life but you don't know how - or is that just with me?

I was thinking about two fossils I have. The one in the photo above, for example, I've known since I was about 13 or 14 years old. It never belonged to my parents or any other relation and was never given to me. It just became 'mine'.

A long time ago I used to say that I found the fossil in a field but, as a teenager, I was living in west London so this isn't really possible. It somehow simply appeared in my life from, I've no idea where.

I like to think I have a good memory otherwise. As a check I went through all of the other bits and pieces and souvenirs we have about the house and was able to recall from where they originated.

But it gets a little stranger with fossils as I don't know where the other one I have (photo below) came from either. It sort of appeared at about the time my son was born.

I've always felt that the two fossils - which were probably living organisms some 60 million years ago, or maybe more - are something to do with me. But no idea what.

 Can objects simply appear in our lives from completely unknown sources? Or is my imagination running away with me?

There is actually one more item I have that somehow appeared in my life as a teenager. It's an ivory carved cross with a rose at it's centre. I may write about this another time as I can see a link with the Rosicrucians, of which I was a member for a while. The organisation has always fascinated me from an early age.

Maybe that's the link ... perhaps things come into our lives as reminders of ... well, previous lives or experiences.

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
Magic Talisman Attracts Money
Reincarnation Changes Us For Better Or For Worse
Reincarnation Gave Couple A Second Chance