A two-decade old book
In 2002, publishing company Svetigora issued a collection of essays that I had prepared, entitled Harry Potter and the Hunt for Children’s Souls. There were funny misunderstandings at the International Book Fair in Belgrade – children bought the book, thinking that it was a new sequel to the novel by J. K. Rowling. If someone had told me then – you will one day write about Rowling’s views with some sympathy, I would not have believed them, of course. And now we see that the gender police is rising up against the author of the Harry Potter book series because she only recognizes the male and female sex, and because she believes that genderocracy humiliates women. The time has come for the British author to be “conservative” in the midst of the madness that has befallen us. Namely, today you are a conservative if you recognize that there are only two biological sexes.
Apparently, the apocalyptic apostates are rushing toward the abyss wearing seven mile boots. And the Harry Potter books now look like a game in relation to what Luciferians are now offering to children and youth.
But let’s not go ahead of ourselves.
However, we need to start from the story of Harry Potter, and see how far we have come.
On changing the paradigm
Several years ago, I did four shows about the importance of fairy tales for raising children for a local church television Logos. What I said then, I still think and believe: fairy tales are valuable for raising children. It’s dangerous to change their paradigm, because it is of essential importance for the human being.
C. S. Lewis, writing his seven novels about Narnia, a world where animals speak and in which the lion king is Aslan (the archetype of Christ), says: “I thought that if I had had such a book as a child, maybe it would have helped me not to lose faith. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ? … I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings … As a child, it seemed to me that the whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Maybe then the child will see faith in all its power for the first time and stay in it?”
In one of his letters, Lewis says: It seems to me, now that I am aware of it, that I grew up reading fairy tales, not novels. Now I get more pleasure from them than in my childhood – I am able to bring more into them, and even to take more /…/ It is possible to connect fairy tales with children only in certain cases. I think Tolkien made the biggest contribution to this. If you have read his essay on fairy tales, you know that fairy tales were not only aimed at children – they were loved by everyone. … That is why fairy tales ended up as old furniture – when it went out of fashion in literary circles, it retired to the nursery. Many children don’t like fairy tales, just as they do not like old couches; and many adults love them, as they love rocking chairs. It’s obvious that the love for fairy tales in both older and younger generations can be explained only by one cause, although it is difficult to detect. I am personally inclined to two theories – Tolkien’s and Jung’s.
According to Tolkien, the beauty of a fairy tale is that in it one realizes oneself most fully as a creator. He does not “comment on life,” as they now like to say; he, to the best of his ability, creates a “second world”. According to Tolkien, since it is one of the human functions, its successful realization brings joy every time. In Jung’s view, a fairy tale liberates archetypes that are in the collective unconscious, and when we read a good fairy tale, we follow the principle of “know thyself.” “In fairy tales we meet creatures that don’t look like humans, but behave almost like humans – giants, dwarves, talking animals. I think it’s a beautiful symbolism that helps describe human psychology and character traits much better than in the novel.” Lewis also thought that fairy tales deceive children much less than “serious books, because the truth about the fight between Good and Evil is eternal.” “Our children will already have to fight against various cruel enemies, let them at least learn that there are brave knights, courage and perseverance,” says the writer of the Chronicles of Narnia.
Orthodox Christianity and fairy tales
Russian fairy tale author and Orthodox Christian, Nadezhda Lokteva, says: “As a person who loves literature and mythology, I can say that from the moment of my conversion to Orthodox Christianity, I discovered a new – and at the same time the happiest, and sometimes even unbearably painful – border: the opportunity to see what is written through the eyes of a Christian. A joy knowing that even the completely secular works (and even those openly pagan and atheistic ones) can hold a glimpse of the light from Tabor, a faint, barely fading spark, which confirms the discovered truth (of course, not because I believe in literature more than the Gospel); and pain – because the contradiction between the divine and the fallen nature is something that is particularly strongly felt in art. The wise shepherd, preaching to the pagans, will first try to find something in another’s faith on which his sermon can be based, which is in accordance with the Word of God, which, as in a mirror (albeit a crooked, blurred one) reflects sorrow and aspiration toward the Supreme Truth, to the loving and merciful Creator – and there is no greater joy than when a man begins to see: this is what I have been looking for, here is the voice of Him whom I listened to in the most beautiful moments in the sound of the wind, the murmur of the waves, the thunder of the storm; here is He whom I unconsciously worshiped … The Apostle Paul was excited when he saw the pagan Athens, but he did not begin to expose the Athenians: look how many idols you have created! Instead, he began to talk about an “unknown God” who created the world and all that is in it, and whom the Athenians worshipped unknowingly, and about whom he, Paul, had come to preach.
Fairy tales are not a religion (thank God!), but in the best of them, as in the best works of secular art, there is a religious thread – a clear line between good and evil, the criterion of truth, which testifies that there is a principle of good in the world; it also has depths turned to the human subconscious, to the archetypes that exist in it – that is why the characters of a fairy tale, in whatever strange and fantastic clothes they are dressed in, are easily recognizable. One can be mesmerized by this outer shell, frightened by its strange appearance – and not see the inner meaning underneath, or yet one can be fascinated by emptiness. My suggestion is to look into the depth.”
And that’s why, in 2002, I reacted violently to the attempt to turn the fairy tale into witchcraft propaganda with the help of a book about Harry Potter.
What was it all about?
A question from a reader was once published on the religious portal Svetosavlje: “I read a statement on your website that Harry Potter is leading children the wrong way. Can you explain that to me?”
The late proto-missionary and a wonderful preacher Dušan Kolundžić answered:
“Dear brother Nikola, a lot has been written about the harmfulness of books and films about Harry Potter in magazines and on the websites of the Serbian Orthodox Church. I would recommend that you read an extraordinary text by an Orthodox publicist and an expert on occult teachings and phenomena in the Serbian language, Mr. Vladimir Dimitrijević. He wrote (in “Harry Potter and the Hunt for Children’s Souls”):
Harry Potter is the son of a wizard and a witch who were killed by the demonic magician Lord Voldemort, and who, as a baby, survived death. That is, Lord Voldemort killed Harry as well, but Harry was “resurrected”, and a mark remained on his forehead as a sign that he was chosen. Now he is being raised by the Darsleys, his aunt and uncle, who are “muggles”, that is, stupid human beings who know nothing about magic. They and their son Dudley harras Harry all the time. It is clear to a Christian-educated person that this “copying” of the baby and the prophecy represent a blasphemous caricature of the birth of Christ and the salvation of the Infant Jesus, who fled to Egypt from the infanticide of Herod.
The school that Harry will attend was founded by four witches and wizards in the Middle Ages, when they were persecuted. The headmaster of the school is Albus Dumbledore, a great wizard. Professors are top occultists, including the “animagi”, wizards who occasionally turn into animals. The subjects taught in the school are: Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology (science of occult properties of plants), History of Magic, Care of Magical Crceatures, Flying and Potions. The school has magic cellars, a wizarding salon, a room of secrets, etc.
Unlike traditional fairy tales, in which the line between good and evil is clear and unambiguous, this is not the case in books and films about Harry Potter. Evil creatures from traditional fairy tales have completely different roles in witchcraft: professors at Harry’s school are wizards and witches, and Harry himself also received a part of the energy from the very personification of evil…
We must never forget that one of the basic messages of the books’ author is a rebellion against parental authority, against normal people who are “feeble”, and who do not know what magic is. What is most disturbing is that children go to school where they learn how to cast spells and study other magic courses. The message is that this is not only for “old people”, but for kids. And the child easily chooses to enter the desired world and try out whatever he or she has read or seen there. The child has no idea that behind the illusion of innocence lies a demonic world of enormous destructive powers, with which we must never play. What has been a symbol of evil for centuries has now become a symbol of good in the Harry Potter books. After the books and movies, children go to the internet where experts explain and do real spells.
On Harry Potter’s forehead is a scar in the shape of a lightning. Lightning is a sign of power of the god Thor, who is a horned god. He is the god of power, and the lightning is so important in runic magic that Hitler, a great occultist, put it on the uniforms of his SS troops. Children, for example, now try to make a scar on their forehead, imitating Harry, and they put it on the very spot where, one day, a false prophet – the Antichrist, will demand that all people have the sign of the beast, as a symbol of loyalty to him. Many tens of millions will be prepared for this specifically thanks to the stories about Harry Potter. Without sufficient knowledge and still insufficiently developed reasoning capabilities, children are, at the very least, doomed to confuse Christianity with paganism, whereby the goal of diluting Christianity is accomplished, until Christianity, as the only dam against the Antichrist, disappears in a whirlpool of various magic practices and sorcery. This is another goal that is to be achieved, among other things, with books and movies about Harry Potter: to get people used to the signs, traits and appearance of Satan and his demons, to ensure little resistance to his coming.
Children do not know, and adults forget, that the basic rule of occultism is that Satan does not give anything for free, or for long. He may allow some of his earthly followers to feel the possession of some of the powers at his disposal, but he will soon ask them to pay for it. We all know what the price is.
Everything becomes even more interesting if we know that the author, Mrs. Rowling (born in Wales, Great Britain, 1965), now a multimillionaire and one of the richest women on the Island, until several years ago lived as a single mother on wellfare, on the brim of bankruptcy. In recognition of her books, on 2 March 2001 Prince Charles presented her with the Order of the British Empire, for “services to children’s literature”.
That is why we must not allow Satan to find the “key to our lock” in such an insignificant way, and on an even more insignificant occasion, via the “American film fairy tale”. If we decide to break the law of God, and if we do not understand where it leads, sooner or later we will be aware of the consequences. That is, if they don’t know about their Heavenly Father, our children will not respect their earthly fathers and mothers. If we do not follow the supreme Meaning, which is Christ, our everyday life will not make sense either. If children have misconceptions about good and evil, if they believe in occult powers, how can we be certain that, when they grow up, they won’t join a black magic cult or a sect?
And indeed: if people don’t believe in God and the immortality of the soul, in the fact that this life is only a preparation for eternity, then they don’t care too much about what they see, what they hear, how they live and what they believe in. They don’t care how they raise their children, or whether they will be raised on their own, “spontaneously” and “freely”.
But if one knows that the Kingdom of God is our true home, and that the world is governed from the children’s room, then these few words will be a serious warning of what a culture without Christ can bring, a subculture offered by the media machinery of the “New World Order”.
If we remain faithful to our Church, its tradition, its Communion and asceticism, we will be able to resist the temptation of the days to come. And the Holy Gospel teaches as what the final outcome will be, when the Lord says: “But take courage, I have conquered the world.” Let us, therefore, be on the side of the Almighty Good, which is Christ our Lord.
I hope, brother Nikola, that you are satisfied with this answer of brother Vladimir and that he will know how to explain to his children all the harmfulness of this kind of literature.
Christ is in our midst – Your fr. Dušan”
That’s how things used to be.