After Harry, Hagrid is my favourite character. What
does he represent?

It's fairly easy to see what Hagrid stands for. What
are the clues?

1. He brings the letter of invitation to Harry.
2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry.
3. He is the "ferryman" for the first-years.
4. He is the "Keeper of the Keys" at Hogwarts.
5. He loves dragons.
6. He is especially fond of a hippogriff.
7. He was given his position because of a
"punishment".

These things all point to one thing: Hagrid is a
Master of Compassion!

To understand what this means we should look at "The
Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross". Christian
Rosycross on the second day of his adventure meets the
gatekeeper to whom he shows his letter of invitation
to the Alchemical Wedding.

After the Alchemical Wedding Christian Rosycross meets
the gatekeeper again on the seventh day.
'Now we arrived at the first gate where the guardian,
in a blue habit, was waiting. He held a supplication
in his hand. As soon as he saw me with the King, he
delivered the supplication to me, with the humble
request to mention his faithfulness to the King. Now I
first asked the King what was the matter with this
guardian, and he cordially answered me that this was a
famous and excellent astrologer, who has always had
the high esteem of his Lord and Father. But as he had
at some time committed an error with regard to the
Lady Venus, by looking at her when she was resting on
her bed, he was punished by having to guard the first
gate until someone should release him from it. Then I
asked: "May he be released?" "Yes," the King said, "if
anyone can be found who has as highly transgressed as
he did, he must stand in his stead, and the other
shall be free." These words went to my heart, for my
conscience convinced me that I was the offender.'

After that an enquiry is held, and Christian Rosycross
confesses that he has seen the Lady Venus. Although
the King is very fond of Christian Rosycross there is
no way the King can transgress the ancient rule, and
so Christian Rosycross is told he has to become gate
keeper next day.

There are people in this universe who have made great
progress on the Path of Liberation, but who are so
filled with compassion for humanity that they're
willing to sacrifice their own immediate advancement
on the Path and stay behind to help their wandering
brothers and sisters find the Path.

This is beautifully described in "The Voice of the
Silence".

Verse 145: To don Nirmanakaya's humble robe [the robe
of compassion -HR] is to forego eternal bliss for
Self, to help on man's salvation. To reach Nirvana's
bliss, but to renounce it, is the supreme, the final
step - the highest on Renunciation's Path.
Verse 146: Know, O Disciple, this is the Secret Path,
selected by the Buddhas of Perfection, who sacrificed
The SELF to weaker Selves.
Verse 300: [...] Compassion is no attribute. It is the
Law of LAWS - eternal Harmony, Alaya's* SELF; a
shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting
Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love
eternal.
Verse 301: The more thou dost become at one with it,
thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul
unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become
COMPASSION ABSOLUTE.
Verse 307: Now bend thy head and listen well, O
Bodhisattva - Compassion speaks and saith: 'Can there
be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou
be saved and hear the whole world cry?'

*Alaya: the Universal Soul or Atman, each human being
having a ray of it in him and being supposed to be
able to identify himself with it and to merge himself
in it.

It may be difficult to see dear old Hagrid with his
moleskin coat and boar hound as a Bodhisattva, but the
symbolism in Harry Potter lies on a certain level
beneath the surface. The ancient symbols of liberation
are all dressed in twentieth century clothes and
manners, but their essence is unchanged.

1. He brings the letter from Hogwarts to Harry. This
action symbolises the call from the Masters of
Compassion to go the Path of Liberation.

2. He opens the door to the magical world for Harry.
The gate-keeper idea is very strong here.

3. He is the "ferryman" for the first-years. This
symbolises the role of Charon, the ferryman on the
Styx. The Styx symbolises the borderline between the
world of the dead (earth) and real life (liberation).

4. He is the "Keeper of the Keys" at Hogwarts. Once
again a pronounced reference to being gate-keeper.

5. He loves dragons. This may be a bit harder to
understand. In the traditions of those learning to go
the Path of Alchemy, there is the legend of the
"six-winged dragon". This dragon symbolises the human
serpent-fire. The serpent-fire is what they call the
force that resides in the cerebro-spinal system of the
human being. In the case of the fallen, earthly human
being it's regarded as a dragon because of the
unholiness of the fire that burns in our system. The
six wings represent properties that emanate from the
serpent-fire.

The dragon: that's us!! To the pure and holy Masters
of Compassion we are like dragons because of our
selfishness, our base desires, the unholy fire we
radiate. We have only to look at the world around us
to see what we've done to Paradise. If you ever start
to admire this human world please watch "Der
Untergang", the new film about the last days of Hitler
in his bunker in Berlin. Just think about the 50
million people killed in the war, and keep in mind
things like Auschwitz and the Gulag Archipelago. And
if that's too long ago look at Iraq today.

If any of us think, "I would never participate in
that", please read post 280. Everyone is responsible
for the war crimes and atrocities that happen because
all of us radiate an unholy fire which accumulates in
the atmosphere and builds up to gigantic proportions.
In this way we create the dragons that wreak havoc in
the world and cause immeasurable suffering. See post
189. Certain people are open to the accumulated forces
which humanity radiates, and there you have your
Stalins and Hitlers and Sadam Husseins. This is what's
behind the Rwanda massacres, the holocaust and and
every war that's ever been fought. And we're all
responsible. But despite being dragons, the Masters of
Compassion love us! That's why Hagrid loves dragons.

6. He is especially fond of a hippogriff. In message
321 I explained what the hippogriff symbolises. The
Masters of Compassion have a living body, i.e. an
astral force-field that radiates an intensely
spiritual power into the world. If we tune in to that
power it will liberate us - it will raise us up and
fly up to the highest regions. If we try to go the
Path of Liberation but preserve the ego, it will harm
us with its sharp claws. The gate-keeper can handle
the hippogriff and he loves it because he is a member
of the Brotherhood.

7. He was given his position because of a
"punishment". The gate-keeper in "The Alchemical
Wedding" was given his position as a "punishment". It
may be hard to understand the joke, but this is
humour. Well, I think it is. It may also be a veil to
hide very holy things to the profane.

When people behold "Lady Venus" it means they are
beholding Divine Love! This Love is inside them, as
I've tried to explain before. We all have a chamber in
our heart that is magically sealed until Harry or
Christian Rosycross open it. Once the door's opened
and we behold what is within, we are seized by "a
force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible
than death, than human intelligence, than the forces
of nature." This force, Love or Compassion, is what
"punished" Hagrid by making him gate-keeper. And I
believe it will seize Harry.

Hans

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