Quantum Harry, the Podcast

In Alfonso Cuaron’s cinematic interpretation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , time is a recurring theme. This extends to the visual joke of a wizard at the Leaky Cauldron pub reading a copy of A Brief History of Time by the Muggle Stephen Hawking. There are numerous lingering shots of clocks in the film, large and small, and the Whomping Willow’s progress through the seasons is also used by Cuaron to illustrate the passage of time. Unlike many film versions of the books, this manner of shaping the story is perfectly in tune with the book, since JK Rowling shaped the story around a complete Quidditch season, the only one Harry plays in the seven-book series. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 15: Prisoner of Quidditch   and Episode 16: The Seeker .) Using Quidditch to mark time prepares readers for the time-travel sequence at the book’s climax. Rowling chose to use a game, not the Whomping Willow, as Cuaron does, and her choice is obviously going to be...

Which famous physicist’s work appears in the third Harry Potter film? What links the Tarot Empress to Hermione almost being a Ravenclaw? And how do Sirius, Peter and Harry all embody The Hanged Man? Episode 35: Prisoner of Time Watch the Episode 35 video on YouTube. Related Essay: Traitors, Rebels, and Hanged Men ~ EPISODE GUIDE ~

The Tarot Major Arcana cards numbered one, two and three— the Magician, High Priestess and Empress—are the sequence cards aligned with the first book of the Harry Potter series. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 32: The Mirror and the Stone .) The next three cards—four, five and six—are the Emperor (the “seed card” for this book), the High Priest (also called the Hierophant or Pope) and the Lovers card. These are the cards aligned with the second book in the series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . In Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey , Sallie Nichols writes: “Culturally as well as personally, the Emperor’s number four heralds a new beginning”. The Emperor is usually depicted sitting on a throne with symbols of his office: a scepter and sometimes also a shield, which may display an eagle (though if there is no shield there may be a statue of an eagle or the image of a live bird present with the Emperor). There are also often rams’ heads on the arms of his th...