Jun 30, 2021
Why Love trumps Magic
In our house everyone is a Potterhead. Harry Potter and the folks at Hogwarts have influenced and inspired us and we have each grown up with Harry. The stories are funny, adventure-filled and deeply inspirational, the premises and characters often drawn from myth and life-truths.
The series chronicles a long-drawn tussle between the power-hungry and the champions of democracy — in Harry’s world these are Voldemort and the Death Eaters versus Harry Potter and Dumbledore’s Army. As the books make their way through eight titles, the final conflict arises over the possession of the Deathly Hallows.
The Deathly Hallows are three highly powerful magical objects supposedly created by Death and given to each of three brothers of the Peverell family — Harry’s ancestors. They consist of the Elder Wand, an immensely powerful wand that is considered unbeatable; the Resurrection Stone, which can summon the spirits of the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility, which, as its name suggests, renders the user completely invisible. According to legend, he who possesses these three artefacts would become the Master of Death.
But at the end of the great Battle of Hogwarts, what becomes apparent is that conquering Death is not as worthwhile as it is made out to be. It often renders you ugly and cruel (think Voldemort — noseless and slit-eyed) — an ugliness which you have to carry through your endless life. Which makes life rather horrible, even if you may have escaped death.
Why is the quest for immortality such a losing battle? The answer is in the nature of the Deathly Hallows. The Elder Wand, powerful as it is, can be acquired only through bloody warfare. It is such a desirable object, and arouses such passions that every megalomaniac is ready to kill to get it. And being immensely powerful, its also extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. The Resurrection Stone can be used to summon loved ones from the dead but they return only as shadows of their former selves. And the Invisibility Cloak can hide you from the clutches of Death but you’d have to be in hiding forever if you desired immortality and what good would that be.
Harry with his natural wisdom and a lifelong exposure to the evil that power could unleash, eventually destroyed the potency of each of the Hallows, foregoing authority and riches for the greater good. Because he knew that the only way to bring sanity back into the world was to break the chain of unbridled destruction required to possess such magic. To instead work the magic of love, the way his greatest teacher, Dumbledore, told him time and again.
“Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. And above all, those who live without love.”
For those of you who haven’t read of the adventures, it makes immensely delightful and compelling reading to find out how Harry Potter prevails in the end.
But what I find to be J.K. Rowling’s genius is the ‘meaning of life’ she insidiously hides in the story.
That one way to become powerful is to try to focus on attaining power. This usually entails scheming and plotting and making enemies — and one may succeed in defying death or poverty or obscurity by doing that, but it is likely to be accompanied by unhappiness.
A second way to become powerful is to spend your life caring and getting things done. Whether at home or at work, to root for the collective good instead of the individual selfishness. If you consistently do things in your life that help others achieve goals — an employer or a friend or your child, then your journey could be a happier one.
Voldemort only ever connected wands to power, thinking of them as weapons rather than tools, and thus missed out on things he could have done with them to build bridges. After all, like the Elder Wand, a weapon knows no loyalty except to strength. It’s completely unsentimental and will behave the way it is put to use by its master.
The sovereignty that comes with control is best utilized if shared. Handing back the power to democracy, upliftment, equality of opportunity or even just the freedom of choice for our children is far more immortalizing than any death-defying spell. Love and kindness are far more potent than nuclear heads.
Harry Potter survived the venom of Voldemort’s anger because his mother, Lilly’s love for him became a magical antidote. And in turn, Harry’s ability to love became his greatest strength. At every momentous occasion in the stories, he took up the cause of compassion. While Voldemort earnestly argued that love did not exist. Facing Dumbledore in The Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is certain that magic (and therefore his immortality) alone will make him happy.
“But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”
“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.
There could not have been a more different understanding of how the world works between these two wizards.
Albus Dumbledore had placed this inscription on the tomb of his mother and sister, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
An extract from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, it describes how the most indestructible possession is love.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19–24)
Where would you look to find your magic? In love? Or in everlasting power and immortality? I would argue for Love every time.
