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Showing posts from March, 2019

Episode 34: Emperors, Fools, and Angels

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What links the Tarot Emperor card to Harry exploring the wizarding world? When does JK Rowling first equate basilisk fangs and the Sword of Gryffindor? And how is Harry a human Sword of Gryffindor himself? Episode 34: Emperors, Fools, and Angels Watch the Episode 34 video on YouTube Related Essay: Upon Your Own Sword EPISODE GUIDE

Essay: Harry and the Priestess

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets being JK Rowling’s retelling of the Grimm version of “Little Red Riding Hood” is possibly one of the cleverest things she has done in the series. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 12: Grow Up Now , Episode 13: Deus ex Machina , and Episode 14: The Devil’s Game .) However, Rowling doesn’t just use myth and folklore to shape her seven-book series. When the Tarot Major Arcana cards numbered one through twenty-one are placed in a grid of three rows and seven columns, each column contains cards whose symbolism allows us to see that each column aligns with each book in the Harry Potter series, starting with the top card in each column aligning neatly with the archetype ruling each book. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 2: This Old Man .) Each book also aligns with a set of three “sequential cards” that take our hero through a Tarot journey from card #1 to card #21, a Tarot story , going back to the origins of the Tarot, which wer...

Episode 33: The Inverted Tower of Secrets

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How is Harry like a Hermit at the beginning of Chamber of Secrets? Why is it symbolically important for him to find a basilisk skin in the Chamber? And what links the Flying Ford Anglia’s Tarot archetype to Harry? Episode 33: The Inverted Tower of Secrets Watch the Episode 33 video on YouTube Related Essay: Harry and the Priestess EPISODE GUIDE