Riddles Part 2: Imagination

In the thing I posted on her on Silver and Gold in HP I stated that my own theory concerning what "magic" means in Rowling in the imagination. In thinking about this on my commute to work I thought of another supporting thing for that theory from the thing about Riddles. Riddles are all about imagination. It is often a key turn of phrase, another way of using or meaning the words - and seeing this (making the leap beyond what seems "evident," standing the thing "on its head," so to speak) is done by imagination. Even in "completely objective" things, like mathematics, the imagination is often very helpful, and sometimes even necessary. When I first began taking some paper practice tests in studying for the GRE I came upon one that stumped me ... but when I saw the answer my response was not "hmmm - long equation but I think I'm getting it slowly," but rather it was like "ooooh! of course! how could I have not thought of that?!?!" The problem was not not knowing a formula but a failure to look at the problem imaginatively, to look at it and "get it." I should probably note here that the word used in ancient Greek philosophy for "mind" is not what we usually think of as "smart." The Greek "Nous" mostly means an almost instantaneous perception, a faculty of the person by which they have a singular moment of insight; the connotation connected with it is that of "seeing with the minds eye," as one sees an image with the physical eye. The Riddle of Tom Tom Riddle is really the product of the riddle of humanity. The Riddles (Tom Sr and Merope) are really the same marriage that the human person is: the magical and the muggle, the spiritual and the physical, the meaningful and the mundane. In the case of the spiritual and the physical, they meet where? ... in the soul (the Golden Soul). When Tom Riddle Jr changes his name to Lord Voldemort, he does not forget the riddle altogether. Rather he, as a wizard, is the perverse use of imagination that yields not no answer to the riddle, but rather a very evil one. Harry, as a wizard, is the proper use of the imagination, the true antithesis and antidote of Voldemort. Imagination here being used in a fuller sense than usual, the quasi-religious sense used in the chart of symbol types given by Granger in The Hidden Key ..., p 109. the "Symbol" level symbol appeals to the faculties of Imagination and heart, whereas the allegory appeals to imagination combined with reason. Thus, in symbolist literature the imagination is a bridge to the heart, which is a bridge to the person because these two (heart and person) are the only two whose combination is unique to the religious symbol types of Icon and Signal and the Theological symbol types of Eruption and Incarnation.