Soul status in the Harry Potter universe
This academic paper was written in the year 2013
The object of this essay is to survey the ontological1 and moral status given to (the concept of) soul in the Harry Potter series by collating it with some of the soul theories we touch upon in our academic syllabi.
Before diving into the discourse on soul, let’s revise a few indispensable facts about J. K. Rowling’s fabric:
There are, as I call them, modes of relations operating in the world - physical (Physics), biological, psychological, sociological and so on. All our interactions with ourselves and the world are founded on, materialized through and controlled by these natural or anthropic forces.
A fundamental feature of Harry Potter universe is the mode of relation called Magic. The conception of this numinous force allows the author to transmute various themes, problems, personal experiences, and expand Pottrerverse to her fancy.
One is/ isn’t endowed innately with magical faculty, and in that regard the Potterverse comprises chiefly two societies: the wizarding world and the muggle world. The Harry Potter canon features mainly three categories of entities along with many other subtypes – humans with magical abilities (wizards), humans without magical abilities (muggles) who are somehow aware of / involved in the wizarding world2 (as opposed to muggles in the muggle world), and non-humans with magical abilities.
To place ourselves in the setting, we would be muggles who refute the existence of magical forces and beings, or pretty much anything that can't be perceived by physical senses. We historically condemned witchcraft and wizardry. Consequently the wizarding society concealed its presence, safeguarding it with the International Statute of Secrecy.3
Let's return to Magic. Inside Potterverse, this uncanny power alters tremendously the nature of several philosophical issues like the dialectic behind actions, consequences and circumstances; the discourse on the character of Reality; notions of technology and invention etc., whereas things like vulnerability to death remain the same, along with the idea / entity called ‘soul’.
The way soul is employed as a plot device to ramify the battle between Harry and Voldemort is quite fascinating, we'd all agree. But can some beliefs about the nature and function of soul be inferred from those bits and pieces of descriptions scattered all over the series? Do they generate any philosophical questions?
Allowing that JKR didn't commit herself to fashion a philosophy of soul, I believe it would be amusing to organize the ‘Potterian’ perspective on it.
Today we have accepted the empiric, namely Cārvāks’ [चार्वाक] attitude towards soul: our psyche is a by-product of our necrology, biology. No immaterial, immortal principle exists within us.
Of course there are people for whom various designs of soul still hold true no matter whether occasionally or steadily. The allegory of soul is still widely used to describe, for instance, the depth of a sentiment. But to talk about soul as ancient humans did, or the wizards in the Potterverse do we must water down a little our criteria of judgement, our nomenclatures, our fine disciplinary discernments, because soul is a reality for them. They believe it exists, and render it very significant in their endeavour to make sense of the miscellaneous world.
The idea of soul generally stems from the affirmation that along with something which is perishable, finite, of material texture there exists something imperishable, infinite, of spiritual texture within humans – a continuity, a permanency. Philosophers and various witchcraft traditions differ on whether a world-soul exists, whether every living being has an equally competent soul and so. But immortality is commonly found to be the definitive characteristic of soul (for this paper I have considered western thinkers till Descartes and all Indian Darshanas.) Aristotle is the sole exception to this4, having stated that souls, being merely a form of the body, cannot survive the death of the body, although this reading of his views is controversial.
- Soul: the Rrreal me!
Invariable identity is essential to souls in Potterverse. A Soul is not just a principle of authentic identity, it Is the authentic self. Soul is the unpretentious, unforgeable centre of one’s personal identity. Although not physically immovable, a person's soul would belong to him / her alone.Uunder all circumstances. This relates to Avicenna/ Ibn Sina5, a Turkish thinker, who said that soul is ‘The indubitable Self’ which belongs to the respective body. In the Potterian magical saga; where one can alter the form of any entity (transfiguration spell), assume the form of another entity (polyjuice potion), enshroud oneself in a dead-body or morph oneself in an animal at will (Animagus) and so on, soul proves to be a kind of ontological credential of the self – the ‘Rrreal’ me! (Note that in fictions, perhaps in fictions alone, can Reality be known with such lucidity and certitude).
No, whitches and wizards do not recon body less real or inferior unlike Vedāntavādi or Plato. How come? In what sense does a soul belong to someone? Is it conscious of its relation with the specific body? What's soul-body relationship like in Potterverse?
- Potterian Trialism and the nature of soul:
Every living being constitutes of three elements – body, mind and soul. Mind is the thinking, feeling faculty...could be equated with brain (a conversation between Snape and Dumbledore - DH). Body and mind may initially seem to be one unit since mind doesn’t exist as a separate substance. That's not the case, however. In the CoS, when Harry, Ron and Hermione attempt to transform themselves into students of the Slytherin house, (or when Barty Crouch Jr. transformes into Alastor Moody in GoF) their bodies alone are mutated (- they are aware of who they ‘truly’ are). Contrastingly in the DH, Hermione tells Harry and Ron of having altered her parents’ memories (- needless to say that outwardly they remain who they were: Mr. and Mrs. Granger). That is why it's a trio, and not a duo, notwithstanding the fact that only body and soul bear a manifest distinction.
Both mind and body are perishable. Both can be magically impaired and healed more readily than soul. Soul is immortal, being the vital principle of Life is its yet another essential quality. ...Wait, soul can be mutilated, destroyed, sucked out, right? Then how is immorality possible!? Besides, why should we call Potterian soul a ‘soul’ at all ...I mean... it’s corporeal, isn’t it?
Here I should refer to Professor Gregory Bassham’s essay ‘Harry Potter and the Metaphysics of Soul-Splitting’. It affirms that the descriptions of soul being harmed, sucked out etc. and of the actions it can perform clearly suggests that Potterian soul is corporeal. However, Bassham points a few difficulties involved in making such a deduction: Consider the forms in which it may appear (- remember the foggy loom of the souls from Horcruxes?) and also the what Hermione says in DH, that ‘if, for instance someone is ran through with a sword, it won’t hurt his/her soul at all.’ Now that's impossible if soul is a material substance. It makes more sense only, writes Bassham, if we suppose that Potterian soul is composed of a special, ‘spiritualized’ or ‘ethereal’ kind of matter.
- Dormant soul’s specified consciousness:
Nearly all major western philosophers and philosophical schools until Descartes (including Descartes himself) use the words ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ interchangably. All the Indian Darshana (schools of thought) - except for Sāṅkhya [सांख्य] and Yoga [योग]6, who distinguish between self/ Soul and Manas [मनस]/Intellect - do the same. They either mean that soul is a conscious, intelligent substance (– a feeling, willing, thinking subject) or that soul is pure consciousness itself, and somehow uses unintelligent, material body as a vehicle. There is divergence in opinion in witchcraft traditions. But if consciousness is dissociated from soul, it’s ‘realization’ of being the resident of a particular body becomes highly perplexing.
Witchcraft generally deals with the whole affair with a sense of enigma fairly stronger than Philosophy. Things are cryptical, mysterious and this mysteriousness is favored – exhaustive answers are not sought for. I feel the presence of this attitude within the Pottervese too.
Anyway, some traditions believe that soul is joined to the body by means of (an obscure) sensibility but they also believe soul to be conscious for the most part. I think Tertullian’s7 speculations would limitedly help here. He asserted that each individual soul is a new product, linked naturally, fundamentally to a perticular body. So there are only as many souls as there are persons and if they are to appear, say for the Last Judgement, they would appear in their own bodily forms. Saxon tradition of Witchcraft says something similar – that if there were reincarnation, a dog would reincarnate as the same dog, a man as the same man.
We can construe that Potterian soul possesses only enough consciousness to appreciate its attachment with a particular body and mind, for it is otherwise inert. (Such assumption would dissolve what Prof. Bassham calls ‘the puzzle of personal identity’: “If part of my soul is here, and other parts are there, where am I?” The Answer: You are all those horcruxed parts and also the remnant which resides in your body.) This reveals, perhaps not to our surprise, that JKR uses and upholds a typically Christian approach towards soul-mind-body’s ontological and ethical relationship. An approach that also pertains to western and asian Witchcraft to a certain extent.
- The Christian message:
However, much like Plato, indian philosophers are of the view that soul/ spirit’s association with matter/ body qualitatively degrades the soul.8 For them it is commendable to liberate the soul. This can be achieved through sanctifying the soul through observance of rituals, righteous conduct, self-restraint, self-knowledge, renouncement of worldly pleasures etc. meaning acting on the soul / affecting it physically is nearly impossible.
With the presence of Magic possibilities magnify immensely. Asian witches can control, kidnap, steal, hide or attack a soul causing the death of the relevant person. But in Harry Potter, a body can survive, stay alive without soul. When Dementors, soul-less themselves, kiss a victim and feed on his / her soul, the victim survives, though horribly, as an empty shell without any sense of vitality. What’s more, even corpses, where soul has left the body long ago, can be bewitched and animated through Necromancy (a form of dark magic) to serve as puppets (called Inferi) for the bewitcher. So body can survive/ be awfully reanimated without soul and on the other hand soul can, sustain without body too, being the vital life energy.
What’s Christian in that, you may ask. - it sounds like good ol' witchcraft still!
But when it comes to what is a desirable course of action; what keeps one’s humaneness intact; what keeps one from living a fragmented, wretched life, the answer JKR chooses to give is undoubtedly Christian.
Voldemort has extraordinary knowledge of dark magic. He craves immorality. He murders people with the intention to create Horcruxes by ripping his soul apart and successfully encasing the pieces magically into objects. He is a psychopath, and kills for several other reasons too. But when one murders - a vicious act already - with an intention to make a Horcrux, its viciousness heightens.
Even if one tries to put one’s soul back together by feeling genuine Remorse, the excruciating pain of it could destroy him/ her. Voldemort, when in bodily destitution, tries to acquire Philosopher’s stone he doesn’t know that the resulting potion (Elixir of Life) extends life only as long as one drinks it. He later seeks one of the Deathly Hallows, the notoriously invincible Elder Wand in order to terminate Harry for good, but Dumbledore recounts how the quest for the Hallows brings distress and despair. The implicit message is that one shouldn’t try to evade death. Evading death by the means of Horcruxes may invite it untimely, as the particular vulnerable pieces of soul can be hunted down and destroyed. The encased pieces are forced to live in a foreign container perpetual disconfort, seeking forever to reunite with their owner.
The message is that one shouldn’t crave for bodily immortality as the soul is naturally immortal. That is why we get to see Voldemort’s soul in the form of a flayed, crippled child in the secular Limbo9 of the Kings Cross station. In spite of the Horcruxes being completely destroyed, the part of Voldemort’s soul which left the body when body died shall go further in the course of death to reap the fruits of his deeds.
All this is thoroughly Christian. As Tertullian affirms – “a body without a soul is in an unnatural state and a soul without a body is in an unnatural state”. As can be cited from Thomas Aquinas, who emphasized the close union between soul and body – “The name 'man' applies neither to the soul alone nor to the body alone, but to soul and body together. The body and not the soul only, must belong to man.” Some western witchcraft traditions say something quite alike - The body without soul (- or with fragmented soul, we may add) would be less alive.
In Potterverse, the natural association between soul and body is morally idealized ( i. e. none is considered to be inferior to the other). Their natural separation due to Death is morally idealized. One may safely derive that the souls will then be consigned to Hevean or Hell on the basis of actions the associated body performed on the earth. There is no hint of rebirth.
In the Mokṣa [मोक्ष]-based Indian tradition, moral impetus is provided in the exact opposite manner. Only when you are free of Karma [कर्म] will your soul get liberated from the cycle of birth and death to enjoy the state of permanent bliss / dubiously desirable neutrality.
- Potterian soul’s got work..:
JKR seems to reasonably elaborate on it. She doesn't find the soul-body connection lamentable. Soul, in the Harry Potter universe, is inactive in its natural state but can surely be said to act as Life force.
When it is a Horcrux, and in danger of being annihilated, it can sens the threat. Such horcruxed soul strives to defend itself. It can gain strength and corporeality by possessing the mind-body of a host - anyone who falls into its manipulative grasp (e.g. Ginny in The CoS). From this we may conclude that the Potterian soul isn’t as idle as conventional souls, may we?
Notes:
1.Ontology - Philosophical study of the nature of ‘being’
2. For ex. Petunia Dursley
3. Refers to ‘A History of Magic’, a short article on the Harry Potter Lexicon website
4. “Soul is like the vital principle in living beings. Body cannot be soul since body is not ‘life’. It’s something that ‘has life’. Soul is the realization of body, it’s inseparable from the body. Soul is responsible for all the actions a human being can perform, including thinking. So, it doesn’t survive the death of the body. Soul cannot transmigrate nor inhibit a random body.”
5. “Soul completes and perfects the existence of the body to which it belongs. It belongs to the very subsistence of the body.”
6. Sāmkhya: The ultimate reality called ‘puruśa’ (पुरुष - does not necessarily refer to a male person) or self is different from body and senses, from ‘manas’and intellect. The self is conscious spirit which is always the subject of knowledge, never an object. It is Pure consciousness As such.
Yoga: Citta [चित्त] is in closest proximity to soul and reflects soul’s consciousness. Manas, again, is different from soul and chitta, it is internal sense.
7. Tertullian - a christian thinker who tried to resolve the problem of creation of souls with reference to the Original Sin. He actively advocated Traducianism. Traducianism affirms that every individual soul is a new product proceeding equally from the parents; it is derived from the souls of the parents. This implies that only Adam’s soul was created directly by God. This theory makes the existence of ‘Original Sin’ possible whereas the opposing theory, creationism (not to be confused with the ‘creationism’ of material universe) holds the view that God creates a soul for each body as it is generated.
8. Plato held that soul is clearly distinct from body. Soul beholds real existence. Soul is the seat of Reason which alone can grasp Ideas, the only reality superior to the world of appearances. Plato says a soul must be residing into the world of ideas before our birth. Soul’s inhabitation in the body is really a severe illness according to him. Body is the prison of a soul.
9. The edge of Hell. In the Catholic doctrine, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who haven’t been assigned to the Hell of the Damned. The Potterian Limbo appears as the edge of afterlife in general.
References:
• ‘The Harry Potter series’ (7 books) by J. K. Rowling
• ‘A History of Philosophy’ (Volume 1, 2 and 4) by Frederick Copleston
• ‘An Introduction to Indian Philosophy’ by Datta and Chatterjee
• ‘The Philosophy Book: Big ideas simply explained’ by various authors
• ‘Complete book of Witchcraft’ by Raymond Buckland
• ‘Shiva and the Primordial Tradition’ by Alain Daniélou
• ‘The Book of Ceremonial Magic’ by Arthur Edward Waite
• ‘Transcendental Magic’ by Eliphas Levi
• ‘The History of Magic’ by Eliphas Levi
• ‘Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia’ by Watson and Ellen
• ‘Harry Potter and the Metaphysics of Soul-Splitting’ (An article) by Gregory Bassham
• ‘Avicenna’ by Jon McGinnis
• The Harry Potter Lexicon – http://www.hplexicon.org/index-2.html
• Harry Potter wiki - http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
• Harry Potter universe (a webpage) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_universe
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