Riding Death: Thestrals and Mysteries Theological

We all know that death and how to approach it properly are key Rowlingian themes. With a villian named "flight from death," how could it be denied? This post is about a central image if this theme that appears towards the end of book 5 - riding the thestrals - and how that image connects to what immediately follows it - the Department of Mysteries. Death Riders One immediate fact that escaped me until I sat down to write this just now, is what I'll call the "titular tip-off." There is a use of irony/word-play to point to the siginficance of the image, an irony in the title of the chapter in which the image is introduced: Voldemort's name literally means (as just mentioned) "flight from death," and the chapter which introduces the ride of the Thestrals is, "Fight and Flight." Here I'll only note the core of the image: One can see Thestrals only if one has witnessed death, and the group must trust/accept and ride these beasts of death to get to the Department of Mysteries and arrive at the main action of the story. Rather than flying from death, they must trust death to help them to fly. Blood and Prophecy I sort of covered some of the material I was going to cover here already in the "It's All Right, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" post, so here I'll simply note the primary image in this specific context: The Thestrals are "called" by the blood of Grawp soaked into Harry and Hermione's clothing and robes. They were not the ones, however, who shed Grawp's blood - this was done by the seers, the diviners - the centaurs. This is getting into the realm of mysteries that one cannot understand in the "logical" way (although there are understandings of other sorts that connect more directly with true wisdom), but there is, I believe, a connection here with the later revelation that Dumbledore heard the original prophecy, and hence his connecting that issue of prophecy with his own admission of guilt in the fact that Harry feels like he is bleeding to death. The Mysteries of Life That circular room at the center of the Department of Mysteries is really the key ... we think that the thing is really just a hurdle to jump to get to where he wants to go, the hall of prophecy, but it really is the true center. From here are accessed all the mysteries of life: Death, Love, Time-bound human life, Thought ... and "prophecy." But, while we will probably return here in book 7 and the mysteries of death and love will be central, in book 5 Harry is headed for the hall of prophecy and there are a few interesting things to note in that particular path. First, how do you get to the hall of prophecy? - You have to travel through the room of time. In this room we have "Chronos" in the form of all the clocks; and we have Kairos in the form of the beautiful bird continually rebirthed from the lovely egg (for the meaning and significance of these terms, "Chronos" and "Kairos," see the "Narrative Defined" post linked on the left side under "Internal links"). Secondly (and I am not entirely sure yet what all to make of this, but it's darn interesting to me) - who gets enraptured by the bird in the bubble? - Ginny, Harry's eventual "soul mate." All I can say is that life is simply a mystery. There is much to be criticized in this approach to prophecy as "fore-telling" rather than grasping that it is really "forth-telling;" but, like Harry going through the hall of time, this is the time-bound path we travel, with all its confusion and red-herrings. Along the way, the lover gets enraptured by Kairos, sometimes it is a distraction and sometimes a blessing ... it's a mystery - "It's all right, Ma, it's life and life only." Prophecy and Pedagogy: Dumbledore's Dilemna I haven't read the editorial yet that is mentioned by Pauli and MBR in recent comments, so I apologize if I am rehashing material there, these are simply my thoughts as they arise in the context of asking that question of what all this says about Prophecy. For there is a serious question here regarding the role of prophecy and Dumbledore's pedagogical deciscions concerning it, and the effects these deciscions had (ie, what has been asked in some recent comments on DD being "behind" the deaths of the Potters). First of all, here is the "logical argument": If DD had stuck with his orginal plan to discontinue divination as a subject (and I think that the way Rowling paints Divination and Astronomy, we can say with relative confidence that in general she views this as a better path) then the prophecy never would have been made, at least not in a place where it was heard by a death eater who then went and told Voldy, and Voldy would not have targeted the Potters and Harry specifically at this time. It is quite a central question. If we look back at book 1 and then follow a certain thread throughout the whole series, we find a stark juxtaposition between 2 institutions, the political and the pedagogical. In book 1 Hagrid tells Harry that at the time that Voldy went down, lots of wizards wanted DD to become minister, but he chose to stay at Hogwarts as headmaster, he chose pedagogy as the better path. But we notice that both institutions have a certain level of the "divination mentality." Hogwarts has it as a class and The Ministry of Magic has a hall of prophecies (if you want to see a central connection ... If my memory serves me right, ministry-minded Percy was the one who recommended to Harry that he stick with Divination as a class). In the end all that I can answer is that I love Dumbledore (well, as much as one can love a fictional character, but you know what I mean) and I think that if he is culpable it was a mistake made trying generally to follow a better path (he took the prophecy as an excuse to hire Trelawney, but his core reason for hiring her at all is the same reason that he allows her to stay in the castle after being sacked by Umbridge ... Charity), and that it is a "Felix Culpa." Here is where I see value in Red Hen's thoughts. RH's thought here is that even Voldy was inevitable from a certain set of princiles accepted by the MOM ... the main principle being the acceptance of allinace with the dementors. My thought is that, even had DD not continued divination as a subject, the Potters might not have died when they did, but they probably would have died un-naturally at sometime because Voldy would still be at large. The fact that it is a "happy fault" does not make it no longer, in and of itself, a fault ... but it is one with a surprise happy ending in the undoing of Voldy and ( I think) a serious and much needed "about face" by the MOM in certain core approaches (and, like I said, I think that even though DD's action was "faulty" he was trying his best to be charitable, especially in hiring Trelawney) This presence of "Felix Culpa" is one reason that, despite the complaints of many that there is an "absense of God" in the books, I believe that, like in The Lord of the Rings, there is a presence of "providence" (hmmmm .... might the very name of the luck potion in HBP be a hint that this presence of the "Felix Culpa" is conscious on Rowling's part? who knows ... :) )