There are many different ways to symbolise the Path to
eternal life. Just look how many myths, legends, fairy
tales, heroic epics and gospels there are that tell
the same story in different ways. Hence I find it
difficult to predict exactly how Hermione will end up.
So far Harry Potter has followed "The Alchemical
Wedding of Christian Rosycross" fairly closely. Will
it go on like that, or will it depart from that track?

I love the way John Granger has quite boldly stated
his predictions for the last three books in "Hidden
Key to Harry Potter" in a very jovial and laid-back
way. I'm taking his example and saying, "Here's my
guesses, but don't keep reminding me for the next 30
years about how wrong I was".

I still have that funny intuitive inclination to see
the trio as the Half-Blood Prince. As I've explained
in detail before, HRH = His Royal Highness, and the
amount of "pure-blood" in the trio is 1½. This would
mean the trio would end up as one person. This makes
sense in terms of an alchemical wedding, but not as a
children's story. The other clue I can't put out of my
mind is that in book 5 Harry dreams of Ron and
Hermione wearing crowns. In "The Alchemical Wedding" a
young king and queen sit in a circle of six with a
crown over their heads. Maybe it's a red herring, but
I find this a strong argument for seeing at least Ron
and Hermione ending up as royals.

Let's just briefly see who does what in "The
Alchemical Wedding". All three kings and three queens
are decapitated, but not Christian Rosycross. However
he "passes through the Gate of Saturn" symbolically by
playing a vital role in the revivification of the
reborn king and queen in the eighth floor of the Tower
of Olympus. The bodies of the six monarchs are used in
a long alchemical process that ends up with a white
clayey substance that is poured into the moulds of two
tiny children, a boy and a girl. These are fed on the
blood of a bird and they grow quickly to adult size
human bodies. Then the Spirit is led into them by the
"Old Man in the Tower" (Dumbledore obviously), and
they come back to life. Just after this the gate
keeper complains about someone seeing Lady Venus, and
this is when Christian Rosycross confesses he's the
one.

What is the meaning of this symbolism? The three royal
couples personify the three aspects of the
consciousness: the flawed good side (Lupin), the bad
side (Snape), and the new consciousness (Ron and
Hermione). As you can see, this means that Snape and
Lupin are each equivalent to a royal couple. Why?
Because "The Alchemical Wedding" symbolises the three
aspects in terms of them having a positive and
negative side, i.e. an active and passive role. The
male here symbolises the creative role and the female
the receptive and birth-giving role. Perhaps we'll
find out Snape and Lupin have wives somewhere; who
knows?

The death of the six monarchs symbolises the complete
termination of the old and new aspects of the
consciousness. This doesn't mean the candidate for
alchemical transformation dies or falls asleep. It's a
symbolical way of saying that the consciousness of the
candidate for liberation is totally renewed and
nothing of the old consciousness is left. A new,
omniscient, omnipresent and everlasting divine
consciousness is born. The new king symbolises the
Spirit living in the reborn Son of God, the queen
symbolises the reborn Soul living in complete unity
with the Spirit, and Christian Rosycross symbolises
the personality, the lower self, which is the perfect
vehicle for the expression of the united Spirit-Soul.

To pour the symbolic patterns of "The Alchemical
Wedding" into Harry Potter, here's what could happen.

In the final stages Lupin and Snape sacrifice
themselves for Harry (or the Half-Blood Prince). Ron
and Hermione are both executed. Harry passes through
the Gate of Saturn. This could be after a real death
(since he predicts his own decapitation in book 4) but
I'm inclined to think he won't die physically, but
pass through the archway as he is. Then a very big
BLANK BLANK BLANK. Something happens behind the Gate
of Saturn, and somehow Harry, Ron and Hermione are
united into one "Half-Blood Prince", with Sirius
deeply involved. Hermione would symbolise the Spirit,
Harry the Soul, and Ron the personality.

Then, as I mentioned previously, I think Harry or HRH
will come back to the muggle world somehow and take
Hagrid's place. Dobby will be at his side, and perhaps
Harry or HRH will liberate Nearly Headless Nick.
Perhaps the Deathday Party was a clue to how Harry
will liberate Sir Nick. He always wanted to be
decapitated properly, didn't he? Well perhaps Harry
will do the job properly, though with a wand rather
than an axe. Nick this time will face "death" without
fear, and he'll be able to charge off into the
distance, finally able to join the Headless Hunt!!!

That's getting right away from Hermione, but I just
thought of it and got carried away.

Getting back to Hermione, I realise all the above
sounds extremely vague and doesn't really convey any
clear images. But that's the best I can do. Perhaps
after July 16th I'll be able to do a better
prediction. Anyway predictions are fun only as long as
they're predictions. If I were quite certain, by
clairvoyantly looking Jo's mind for instance, you
wouldn't want to hear me, would you?

Thanks Alison for providing the chemical symbol for
Mercury. Of course, I'd forgotten that. Hg =
Hydrargentum = fluid silver.

Warm regards to all of you,

Hans

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