Potter and Pirates

Pauli warned me in that comment on Pirates of the Caribbean that I better relate it to Potter Well, I'll try to relate it all to Harry Potter ... but a lot of the commonalities are broad. The Truths that alchemy reveals about relationship etc are there in Pirates, but not necessarily in a format that lends to easy comparison without some further explanation ... at least as far as alchemy is concerned. Some of the obvious ones are: -Use of mythopoeic plot devices: such as the fact that both Potter and Pirates uses the "descent underground/among the dead." -Use of Christ symbols in Potter, and Christological Reading of Pirates "resurrection" after three days on the island (the first time, before the story of this movie begins). -Religiously charged metal: such as alchemy's quest for the Golden soul and the pirates who say, "The Gold calls to us" and gold is here definitely religiously charged, "The heathen gods placed upon the gold a terrible curse." -Psychology: The three aspects of soul in Potter (biological, Intellectual and Golden soul) and Pirates (appetites, reason and Will.) Differences But it has to be realized going into this that they are also pretty different works. Gold In Harry Potter gold is ubiquitously a good symbol; in Pirates it is not. This is because, on the Christological level as Dom and I read Pirates, the direct tension involves three elements: The Christological, the pagan idolatry, and the Law of Judaism. For instance - and I am spilling some beans here in case it takes me a while to get the posts written - the gold of Cortez has a curse on it by heathen/pagan gods because was blood money ... a religious identity of paganism which must be put away just as they must gather the gold only to make sure it is put away. Rum Pagan idolatry in Pirates also corresponds to Rum (whereas in HP butterbeer is simply butterbeer.) Note that on Jack's second stay on the island the rum is what has to be burnt (as in a holocaust sacrifice in Judaism) to bring Norrington (the Law) and then Will must help Jack to escape the Law (by becoming Christ-like and being willing to lay down his life.) Here Jack is maybe a grey character like the way that "Sunday" strikes the council in The Man Who Was Thursday - he is ultimately good but the way it strikes the detectives it seems sort of chaotic (or anarchistic) at times. The fact that Jack asks why the rum must be destroyed does not necessarily mean that he is no longer the Christ figure, but he might also be sort of a being that by being a foil. It may be the author's way of bringing out or highlighting the answer to the question. ...and by "author" I do not necessarily mean Gore Verbinski on the conscious level, it may only ultimately be the intention of the "muse". But, as I said, "The Rum is most important." Both gold and rum symbolize paganism when the mythopoeic turn to pagan idolatry, and therefore must be left behind. But rum is also called "spirits," and in certain instances it symbolizes true spiritual content. Notice that in fighting the bad pirates, the pirate Gibbs must put his empty flask in the canon, and when Jack finds it he finds it empty (which is why I noted that blip from the trailer), he finds piracy/paganism bereft of its "spirits," and it is he who hands the flask back to Gibbs and points out that it is bereft. Psychology While there are definite commonalities between Potter and Pirates in development of psychology (meaning psyche in the classical sense as "soul"), Potter is a distinctly Alchemical work, whereas Pirates is not (that I can tell).