A River of Blood

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar."-Ezekiel 47:1 The Traditional Christian interpretation of this vision in Ezekiel is that it is a prophecy fulfilled in the blood and water that flowed from the spear wound in Christ's right side on the Cross (if you are facing east, as the Temple does in the vision, the south is on your right side). This post will be continuing on the fascinating line Pauli and I have both been developing on the meaning of the Sectum Sempra spell (and note we call it a spell, not a curse ... as will be discussed below). Make no mistake about it, I think this issue may be THE big one. There is something huge going on here ... I think it is huge on sort of predicting things about book 7, I know it is huge for the meaning of the books. Muggle Matters (practical uses of Sectum Sempra) I loved Pauli's comment from Keenspot. Here is what I would add as a possibility for Snape's familiarity with the curse. Why did Snape write the spell in his potions book? Why did he write it at all if it is originally dark magic? One runs more risk of being busted if one leaves a paper trail (Hint, Hint: how did Black get into Gryffindor's common room in book 3? Neville was writing the passwords down to remember them). I think Snape wrote the spell in his potions books because he used it for potions. Of course, if it were especially helpful in potions, and also has potential for grave effects (such as those on Malfoy, but also especially the effects if it can be used to create a horcrux) ... this would kind of reinforce what we have said about potions as relating to the water element and the serpent and "cunning." The "Sempra" is the important part here. I would advise the Keenspot writer against using the spell to open doors ... if they ever plan on shutting that door again. The things stay separate. Maybe you need this in potions, maybe some potions require some things not only to be cut but to be cut in such a way that they cannot re-coagulate. Maybe the "for enemies" was a later annotation when Snape was in a darker mood. Predictions Now for the fun stuff - the guessing game :) I do not think Pauli's speculation on Sectum Sempra being the Horcrux spell is "insane," I think it is dead on (What a great post). One thing to keep in mind ... with each horcrux destroyed Voldemort becomes weaker in total - ie, he no longer has the horcrux as a back up, but I don't think he gets it back either ... I think he is left then with just that much smaller and weaker of a soul. Here's my prediction: Harry hits Voldemort physically with Sectum Sempra but does not realize the scar is a horcrux ... but Snape is there and Snape does. SO, he hits Harry's scar with Sectum Sempra and forever severs that piece of Voldy's soul from Harry (I think A scar will remain, but not THE scar, meaning the scar as a horcrux). Without a host (and "ever sectioned" from the rest of his soul) that piece dissipates and Voldemort is left to bleed to death by the very same spell he has used to create his most powerful weapons. I still think Snape dies due to an unbreakable vow with the specific wording "will not let Voldemort die" (which would include actually killing him, but the vice versa might not technically be true and Voldemort might fear Snape thinks he might "get off on technicalities" if he wavers back to the light side). Using Sectum Sempra to remove the scar horcrux would definitely qualify as "actively" allowing Voldemort to die. Ever Bleeding I think I have mentioned before that for Hebraic thought blood (daam) carries the soul (nephesh) - this is why it was unlawful at least since the time of the Covenant with Noah after the flood, to eat meat with its life-blood still in it. Now, early Christian thought flowed from (but radically transformed) Hebraic thought. For example, the liturgy contained in the work "The Apostolic Tradition" bears witness to the Roman Liturgy circa the beginning of the second century AD, and interestingly it contains heavy borrowing from a formal Jewish ritual blessing known as the Birkat Ha'mazon, as well as blessings taken from more informal Jewish household blessing and such. If thinking on blood imagery passed from Hebraica and Judaica to Christianity, it would then pass from medieval literature (such as the lance in the Holy Grail issuing the blood of Christ) to Rowling's general way of looking at things and symbols she uses. "Ever bleeding" is not the literal meaning of the spell (since the spell has a broader application than humans/animals). BUT it is, I believe, part of the larger meaning behind that literal meaning (since it is the effect on human beings and human beings just happen to be what the Potter series is all about). If the blood is the carrier of the soul and Sectum Sempra is used in dark magic to divide the soul, the person creating a horcrux is literally "ever-bleeding" because their blood/soul is ever being divided from its source (ever leaving the body, or rather separate from it, and no longer in unity with the whole). There are two ways to be continually bleeding. The first is the blood of Christ continually flowing from the wound in His side that is ever open in Love, alive and life-giving ... in which case the blood is ever leaving but also ever returning, bringing back with it union with other human souls; IE those in a state of Grace. The other is to be continually cut into pieces in Hell, like Voldy's soul being ever-divided (as Pauli notes in his references to the "second death" and damnation). NOTE: In regards to "making the salt-water fresh" in Ezekiel's vision: Further down in the Ezekiel passage it is related that the river flowed and did this (turning salt water to fresh) as far as two towns which are named and to this day we have no real idea of the actual physical referents of these town names. But we do know this, that they represented the gentile nations and that the salt water becoming fresh represents the Gospel mission to the gentiles. BUT we also know that in Hebrew the numerical sum of the two names is 153 (in Hebrew, each letter has a numerical value). In John 21: 6-8, the risen Christ tells Peter and the others to let down the net on the right side of the boat, and then St John tells us exactly how many fish they brought up in the net ... 153. Numerology is a fundamental way in which first century Jewish writers thought and wrote ... for instance, In Hebrew, if you add the numerical value of "father" and the numerical value of "mother", the sum is the numerical value of the word "yeled" or "child"which you would know if you saw the movie Pi. ;)