This week me and my eldest daughter visited the new Harry Potter-movie: 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1'. In this movie there was a tale in the tale that sparked my attention.
Three brothers try to cross a river. To cross it safely they build a bridge. Death, who most of the time takes advantage of passengers drowning, is not pleased with this. He appears on the bridge and acts as if he is delighted. He asks the brothers to name a gift and he will provide this to them. The oldest is given a wand that can not be defeated in battle (the elder wand), the second brother asks for a way to bring someone back from the dead. He is given the resurrection stone. The third, more modest brother, just wants to stay out of Death's claws. So he asks for a cloak that makes its wearer invisible. This will help him to hide from Death himself. The story doesn't end well for the two oldest brothers. But the youngest can stay clear of Death until he has reached a fine,old age. Then he reveals himself by handing the cloak to his son and Death finds him. Together these three objects form the 'Deathly Hallows'. The person that possesses them will be the 'Master of Death'.
It really is a nice story that suddenly popped up in this movie (I didn't read the book). But this is not what sparked my attention. The sign of the 'Deathly Hallows' got me thinking of icons in western culture....
The symbol represents the three objects: the wand (vertical line), the resurrection stone (circle) and the cloak of invisibility (triangle). Why these three objects and why these specific abilities? That was the question that came to mind. Now I don't know if the following will make sense and have somewhat the status of an explanation, but I do think that it is not just a wild guess. There may be some truth in it and even some insight in our anthropological situation.
What do these three elements stand for in the story?
The wand represents absolute power
The resurrection stone represents immortality
The cloak represents invisibility and a kind of presence in absence
These three things seem to me attributes of God (omnipotent, immortal and an omnipresent absence).
Now some people may think: "What is he babbling about?" But this symbol (triangle of divinity) has a long history in western culture.
To begin with, it is an equilateral triangle. The kind of the tetraktys of the Greek mathematicians and philosophers. We find traces of its divine nature according to the Greeks in the teachings of Pythagoras and Plato (Timaeus...if I'm not mistaken). According to the Greeks the dimensions of reality could be mirrored in this tetraktys. You need the numbers 1,2,3 and 4 to draw this kind of triangle. But the number one stands for the point, the number two stands for the segment, the number three stand for the mathematical face, the number four indicates the volume. So....every aspect or dimension of reality is represented. This is why the Pythagoreans thought that the sum of all these numbers (1+2+3+4=10) delivered a sacred number that embodied the total harmony of the universe.
But that is not all.....
This tetraktys popped up in christan symbolism as the allseeing eye of God. It became a very popular theme in the 17th and the 18th century.
It even became the symbol of the enlightened American revolutionary state with the Eye of Providence on top of the pyramid in a equilateral triangle.
So when this Harry Potter-movie introduced this symbol...it made sense. Because being godlike is the most exalting dream that humanity caresses. We all want a piece of the godlike status so we can continue this discontinue life that we have to spend separated from others in the constant reminder of the frailty of our human bodies. It goes deep down into the dreams and desires of human nature.
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