Another Session of Hogwarts is Ended...

It has been an immense personal privilege for me to serve on the staff of St. Timothy's Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this past week.  We celebrated our week last night by closing with The Great Feast--Eucharist.

And I've been meditating on what this past month of being immersed in the Harry Potter phenomenon has meant to me, personally.

The first Harry Potter book was released stateside in the Fall of 1998.  In January of that year, one of the "prophetic" people in my church at that time prophesied "This will be the year that God reveals 'fear' in people's lives...people who have never recognized fear will learn that they live by fear."

And I yawned!  I was pretty skeptical of that "word", and knew for certain that was NOT what God was doing in my life...

Then came the first Harry Potter book.  I remember the fear-full frenzy well.  For example, I was sitting in the choir loft one Wednesday night at choir practice, when one of the other choir members passed around a petition to keep the Harry Potter books from being in our Lake Jackson library.  And I was torn--should I sign it or not?  I had heard enough of the rumors to be absolutely terrified of what that book was doing to our kids, but--should I sign a petition to censor it?  Fortunately for me, I didn't sign it. At the same time, I was very concerned because my step daughter was a HUGE Harry Potter fan, and had consumed the book in record time.  I didn't know much, but I knew that THIS series of books was meant to take our children straight to the depths of hell, because that's what I had been told.  You see, at that time, I didn't trust my own Inner Knower very well, and I had, as usual, depended on Outer Authority to keep me informed.

So I fretted and wrote in journal about my concern for my step daughter's soul, and I prayed...then one day, my Inner Knower spoke in a very quiet inner voice--"Why don't you read it for yourself? Then YOU decide if it's something to be concerned about."

So, I went to the public library (a very PUBLIC place), and I checked out the book, "put it in my brown paper bag", and took it home.  I never finished reading it, but I confess, I didn't see much difference between it and Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, which had been loudly applauded by the same Christian Circles that had renounced Harry Potter.  So, I quietly "let it go", and decided to trust God with my step daughter.

And even thought I didn't understand it, I made peace with Harry Potter.

At the same time, I discovered that Fear HAD ruled much of my life, and I was one of those people to whom that discovery had been prophesied.  I discovered Fear in my life through Harry Potter.  And I made a pact with God--I chose to no longer let Fear rule my life.  I told God, "When I discover that I am making decision based on Fear, I will purposely "kami kasi" into the other direction.

I am certainly NOT recommending that choice for others, but that was my heart-felt decision at the time.

So, here we are 14 years later--2 cycles of 7's (the number of completion, the number of Christian Sacraments, the number of chakras).  And I've spent the better part of a month immersed in Harry Potter, through my "institutional church," no less!

I've laughed with others this week about Christopher Corbett playing the role of Valdemort and Fr. Andy Parker playing Snapes--both really "good" people of "Light", playing shadow parts and loving it!

It wasn't until I began driving home last night that I realized I ALSO played my fearful shadow part!  I was a "Witch", Professor Prism, all week long!  I've laughed as I've told people, if reincarnation is a possibility, I probably killed witches in a past life. Not only did I play the part, I made my own Wand this week, and I posted a picture of me with my shadowy cat Athena on a very public Facebook!

The women of our last session's Grace Group went to Angleton back in May to meet Janet Davis, a Christian author who addresses women's issues in her books. She commented that a person who has been wounded by religion will be healed by religion, and a person who's suffered abuse in the church will be healed in the church.

That's been such an important thought to me over the last couple of months.

During the Great Feast last night, I knelt at the alter rail dressed as Professor Prism, with my own special hand-made wand in my pocket.  I looked around the rail at all the little witches and wizards who had worn their wizard garb last evening.  I was served the Blood of Christ by Professor McGonagall (better known as Carol Boley) still dressed in her pointed black hat.  And I was served the Body of Christ by the Head Librarian of Hogwarts (better known as Liz Parker)--all inside the 4 walls of my institutional church.

And I knew, that like Harry, I had found my place in the beautiful Body of Christ.  I am now walking this Christian journey linked arm-in-arm with others of like mind and heart.  Like Harry, my own Mother has given her life for me so that I might become who I was meant to be.

And I am one grateful woman.  Jesus Himself has brought me home, both inside and outside myself.

I am quite sure the adventures aren't over, but, like Harry, I have faced one of my biggest fears (being accused of being one of "them"), and I'm not afraid of that anymore.  I am suspicious that there are other fears lurking in the shadows, but I am also just as sure that Jesus will be on one side of me, even as Sophia holds my hand--Mother and Father God BOTH are watching over me, and I am in a community who loves me, Warts and all.

OWL MAIL

Isaiah 30.21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."


For a while now, I've wanted to paint some of my dreams that have meant so much to me over the years.  I started this one a few weeks back, but I felt compelled to "finish" it this morning.


So, we've been involved in a Harry Potter Vacation Bible School this week at St. Timothy's, and it's really been an awesome experience.  For those of you who've known me for a long time, when Harry Potter first showed up a number of years ago, I was invited to sign a petition to keep it out of our public library.  Fortunately, I didn't, but the books certainly worried me, what with all their witches, warlocks, wizards and magic.  As I fretted over the books, and the fact that my step daughter was voraciously reading them, and I couldn't stop her, I heard this "voice" inside myself saying, "Why don't YOU read it for yourself and decide."  So, I checked it out of the library (in a brown paper bag) and took it home to read.  Couldn't figure it out!  But something even then changed inside of me, and I just knew it was ok--not to worry.


And now, here I am all these years later, participating in VBS Hogwart style.  That's the story of my life! Actually, it really is.  I had this dream back in the 90's, and it's dawned on me this week, that this was my own initiation into the heroine's journey--my own "owl mail", so to speak.  I hope to illustrate how the dream unfolded, but this was my invitation to leave the pack and follow my own path. I take so much more liberty with Scripture now-adays, so I hope you don't mind if I take a very well-known passage and put a twist on it.  


Jesus said, "I am the way..."  That Scripture has been interpreted for most of my life to segregate us into two camps: the Right Way, the Jesus way, or the Wrong Way, any other way.

But what if Jesus meant something else? What if he heard a voice in his own ear saying, "This is the way; walk in it."  And he did.  What if that's what he's saying to us.  What if he said something like, "I've had an invitation to walk my own path with integrity.  I've left the herd mentality behind, and I've learned to walk MY path, the way of the heart.  And that's YOUR invitation as well.  Walk as I've walked.  Follow your heart.  Listen to the Voice inside of you, and walk with integrity the path opened up before you."

I don't dare argue this--I'm not a theologian as has been pointed out to me many times before, but this is MY experience.  I heard a voice.  I dreamed a dream.  I received a letter from the Owl--an invitation to go in a different direction.  And I've followed it as best I know how.  This is what Jesus has taught me.

O, by the way, that path isn't "safe".  I read this poem a couple of months ago, and I love it.  Following our own path, listening to our own heart, and singing our own song isn't safe--but it's honest, and it's real.

The Fire in the Song

The mouth opens and fills the air with its vibrant shape
Until the air and the mouth become one shape
And the first word 
your own word 
Spoken from that fire
Surprises burns
Grieves you now because you made that pact
With the dark presence in your life 
He said, “If you only stop singing 
I’ll make you safe”
And he repeated the line, 
“I’ll make you safe”.
Knowing you would hear it as the comforting sound 
Of a door closed on the fear at last 

But his darkness slipped under your tongue and became the dim cave 
Where you sheltered and grew in that small place
Too frightened to remember the songs of the world
Its impossible notes
And the sweet joy that flew out the door 
Of your wild mouth as you spoke

~ David Whyte ~