and the Sacred Text 1.05- Diagon Alley: Being a Stranger

Casper: Hi, this is Casper. We recorded this episode before the attacks in Orlando, and wanted to offer our thoughts and love in response to the tragedy. A lot of people will turn to prayer or to their religious communities in such times of despair. We know that, for a whole ton of our listeners, that’s not really an option. What we wanted to suggest was, if there are times of sadness and loss of hope and courage, that this can be a kind of prayer, that turning to this text, and delving into it with attention and love, is a kind of prayer. So we found this one little passage that, for us, really speaks volumes in this time of mourning and of anger, that we hope will speak to you also.

Vanessa: This offering is from The Goblet of Fire. It is the speech that Dumbledore makes when ​ ​ Cedric Diggory dies at the hands of . And every time I say the name ‘Cedric Diggory,’ I will be thinking of the forty-nine victims in Orlando, and of their families.

“It is my belief, and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken, that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this hall have already suffered directly. Many of your families have already been torn asunder. A week ago a student, Cedric Diggory, was taken from our midst. Remember Cedric. Remember if the time comes when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good and who was kind and brave, because he strayed across the path of violence. Remember Cedric Diggory.”

Casper: May we all choose what is right over what is easy. Now let us turn to our text for today. Chapter Five: Diagon Alley.

(intro music)

Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight. It was a dream, he told himself firmly, I dreamed that a giant called Hagrid came and told me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes, I’ll be at home in my cupboard.

Casper: I’m Casper ter Kuile.

Vanessa: I’m Vanessa Zoltan

Casper: And this is Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.

(music fades out)

Vanessa: Just a quick announcement before we get started. Thank you so much for those of you who have applied to be our social media volunteer. We are going to keep the application up online at harrypottersacredtext.com for one more week. We are really excited to get more voices in to this conversation, so please go to our website and apply to be our social media volunteer. I went to Peru with my friend Emmy and we decided we were going to do this sort of epic biking and hiking trip in order to get to the peak of Macchu Picchu. And on day three of five maybe, the tire to my bike blew and I flipped my bike so I flipped over my handlebars. And I… what ended up happening, well, there are two ways to read what happened. One version of this story is what actually happened, which is that everybody who I came across over the next twenty four, forty eight hours while I needed medical care was incredibly generous to me. This stranger gave me a ride, and somebody else in my group carried my pack for me, and these strangers let me in the house and cleaned my cut and gave me some sort of Advil or ibuprofen or something and gave me a ton of water, because I clearly had a concussion, I was seeing stars or whatever.

So objectively what happened was all these people, all these strangers, came together and were incredibly kind to me and took really good care of me.

My experience at the time, as someone who didn’t understand culturally what was happening to me, who, it turns out! was concussed but who was just scared and a stranger, and in a foreign land, was just terrified. I was taken into a van with a stranger, I got separated from my backpack, I was handed pills that I felt socially pressured to take, and like the whole thing. I was just terrified the entire time. And I was just thinking about that story, watching Harry so bravely go through Diagon Alley as a stranger in a strange land for the first time.

Whereas I assumed everyone was just out to get me, that everyone was going to take advantage of my vulnerability, Harry on the other hand, is just so excited, about any change, and he is just so accepting of this world with optimism and hope and glee. SO I’m really excited to read this chapter through the theme of being a stranger, and excited to see all the ways that being a stranger in a strange land can impact the way that you walk through the world.

Casper: But before we get into the theme, it’s time for our thirty second recap. So Vanessa, last time I went first as the sacrificial lamb, so this time it’s your turn. Get ready!

Vanessa: Hang on, wait wait wait.

Casper: There is no waiting!

Vanessa: Hang on!

Casper: This is a thirty second recap! Starting- three, two, one, go!

(ticking sound)

Vanessa: Hagrid brings Harry to Diagon Alley in order to get all his school supplies for the year and it’s an orientation for Harry into the . And it is very much done through the lens of money- First thing they do is go to Gringotts, to the bank, and Harry figures out what money is- Nope! What Wizard money is. He finds out that has secrets to it, and then he buys all the things he needs for school, he gets and owl, then he gets sent back to the Dursleys in order to wait out a month before he goes to Hogwarts. (Angry buzzing sound- 106 words in thirty seconds!)

Casper: How does she do it?

Vanessa: I’m amazing! I mean Casper, you got to cheat and listen to me do it first. Are you ready?

Casper: So not ready.

Vanessa: Oh come on, it’s only fun if you’re cocky and rude about it.

Casper: Okay, I’m amazing! I’m gonna do it great.

Vanessa: Ready, steady, go.

(ticking sound)

Casper: So Hagrid takes Harry in to Diagon Alley through a hidden bar in the London kind of jungle, and there he’s recognized instantly, and he’s returned as a kind of hero, and he meets Professor Quirrell, his future teacher in Defense Against the D-d-d-dark Arts. And he goes to all sorts of shops, and gets money from the little thing, and there’s something hidden in the h-he- Gringotts! And they’re…. not trolls, they’re definitely not trolls-

Vanessa: Goblins.

Casper: Goblins! And and uh uh- Two seconds one! Aargh!

(Angry buzzing sound- 86 words in 30 seconds)

Vanessa: You were doing really well, you just lost steam.

Casper: I just tried to be funny with d-d-d-dark arts.

Vanessa: It was funny. It just…

Casper: Didn’t quite work out.

(Vanessa laughs)

Casper: Let’s dive into chapter five, Diagon Alley. So we’re reading with the theme of being the stranger, and this whole chapter is about discovery. It is about new experiences, it is about engaging with a new world. Through owls, through a new currency, through different species that Harry is meeting. Seeing hidden places in London- he’s never even been to London, so even the non-magical world is a place where Harry is a stranger. And so, what strikes me is that nearly all of these engagements with the new is done through commerce, is done through shopping. Vanessa: Yes, this got pointed out to us by a professor of ours, by Professor Amy Hollywood, that Harry gets oriented into the Wizarding World through capitalism. It’s like ‘Don’t worry Harry, you are rich,’ which gives him agency in this strange world. I think this world would be a lot stranger to him if he just suddenly got there and also couldn’t afford anything. But the first thing Harry odes so he can get oriented into this world, is he’s given just heaps of gold, and he can access it. So this world is incredibly new to him, but it’s also accessible.

Casper: Absolutely, and the strange becomes familiar through that act of purchasing. I think it’s interesting how this act of consumption for Harry is one of ownership and of control of the strange.

Vanessa: I mean, he has purchase power, but what’s interesting is that it’s not the money which gives value to Harry. There’s a quote in the book: ‘While Hagrid asked the man behind the ​ counter for a set of basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined the silver unicorn horns at twenty-one galleons each, and minuscule, black glittery beetle eyes, five knuts a scoop.’ So these two things, which, one is tiny and super-expensive, and the other ​ which you can buy in a whole scoop and is quite cheap, they’re both equally interesting to Harry. It doesn’t matter that it’s a silver unicorn horn or if it’s a beetle eye, just the fact that he is touching these things and is in this different world, is exciting to him. And it’s also how he’s orienting himself to what is valued in this world.

Casper: But at the same time he wants, you know, this fully gold cauldron, which is first of all, against the regulations which insist on pewter, and Hagrid kind of has to bring him back and rein in that wanting the showy, shiny product.

Vanessa: Right, we’re seeing nouveau riche instincts.

Casper: It’s very nouveau riche. That Potter boy. And we should ask is that something he learned in the Dursley household, in terms of being wealthy and trying to show off wealth. It’s funny how he says in the bookshop, that even Dudley would be interested in these books. Some of them are as small as a stamp. He has learned what is valuable in the Dursley household, and I think that’s at play here in he’s interested in.

Vanessa: We’re also seeing some identity politics play out in what you purchase. You communicate things through our labels. And so I think Harry is learning that here; he is learning that he is going to putting off certain things through what he purchases and what he doesn’t purchase, even though in the magical world we also being taught to a certain extent that our purchases choose us. And we see that in Ollivander’s.

Casper: And I think, when Harry walks into Ollivander’s, this theme of the stranger being eliminated really takes place, because he encounters all these strange wands, and finally this wand of holly is the one for him, and suddenly he’s being reunited with a part of him that maybe always waiting for him, As Harry makes, not friends, but acquaintances in this new magical world, he’s also making acquaintance with a part of his own story, his own humanity, his own magic, which has so far been hidden from him. That moving from strange to intimacy happens in that reuniting moment between those phoenix feathers and Harry himself.

Vanessa: It just strikes me… I mean this is such a brilliant way of introducing us into the Wizarding world through Harry’s eyes, and you know, we’re given this amazing narrator, and Hagrid’s explaining things as we go, and so we’re offered three different points of perspective in Ollivander’s shop. We are Ollivander, looking for the right wand. We are Harry, not quite understanding what Ollivander is looking for. And then we’re also invited to see this experience through Hagrid’s eyes, when he’s sitting on the couch and watching it happen. And so we have all three perspectives happening of what the wizarding world is and one is as a stranger, we’re experiencing this for the first time and the other two are these very knowledgeable people in the wizarding world.

Casper: And yet, Hagrid is also a stranger. First of all because his wand is taken away from him; it is snapped in two. And we see him secretly hiding it away in his pink umbrella where the wand is kept.

Vanessa: Please read that quote real quick. It is so sad. Where um, Ollivander of course, remembers every wand he has ever sold and so Ollivander says about Hagrid’s wand-

“‘Good wand, that one, but I suppose they snapped it in half when they got you expelled,’ Said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

‘Er, yes, they did, yes,’ Hagrid said, shuffling his feet, ‘I still got the pieces, though’ he added brightly.

‘But you don’t use them,’ Mr. Ollivander said sharply. ​ ​ ‘Oh no, sir,’ said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly when he spoke.”

And this is really interesting to me because it’s a broken thing, still a thing. If you’re not allowed to use it does it still have power? A lot going on, in these few sentences here.

Casper: The other thing in taking Hagrid’s wand away, in the previous chapter we learned that Harry, before he knew he was a wizard, was already sort of magic with his own will. And so it’s sort of suggested that magic is in us, that there’s something which can’t be taken away. And yet you need a wand to bring that magic to focused power and fruition. And to think that the magical world, and the authority within the structure, has the power to take that tool away from Hagrid, and relegate him to a sort of childhood is such a violation of who he is. Because if the wand chooses the wizard, to take away the thing that chooses you is dehumanizing, don’t you think?

Vanessa: Absolutely. SO I love that Hagrid, who is so sweet and affable, and in a lot of ways is sort of disrespects authority- he has a very interesting relationship with authority. But I love that he’s kept the bits of it hidden in his pink umbrella, that he hasn’t given in to that being taken from him. Which is a continuous, constant act of rebellion.

Casper: And teaches Harry to stand up against structures of authority that seem unfair. I love that, because he’s never seen that in the Dursleys’ home, but in seeing Hagrid flout those rules, and doing things which sometimes are funny, like giving Dudley a pig’s tail, and sometimes are really useful, shows him that maybe following rules isn’t the best way to go.

Vanessa: Certainly thinking critically about when to follow the rules and when not to. The other thing that Harry is seeing through watching Hagrid is that full array in which the wizarding world responds to strangers. By watching Hagrid walk just a little ahead of him in this world, he is watching the way this world responds to outsiders.

Casper: Yeah. He is in so many ways a stranger. He is knitting on the Underground, he is too large to sit on the chair- the chair breaks. He is constantly a stranger in this world, both in the non-magical London and the magical London. Of course when he goes to the Giant world he is a stranger there as well. It’s interesting that Draco describes him as some sort of savage, who lives away from the rest of the world at Hogwarts. It just really struck me how odd Hagrid is except in one moment- where they enter Diagon Alley. He remembers which bricks he needs to tap, and the bricks reform into an arch through which he doesn’t need to crouch. And it made me wonder, does this arch in Diagon Alley, does this hidden secret entryway change to the shape it needs for whoever is passing through. Because, what I love about that, what it says to me, is even though these social structures reject Hagrid for who he is, these essential magical structure does welcome him, in the way that it welcomes Harry as well.

Vanessa: So now that we’ve discussed our theme a little bit, let’s take this a step further and pick a sentence for us to do our sacred practice for the week, which will once again be Lectio Divina. So I will just pick a sentence at random. Here we go:

“Up another escalator, out into Paddington Station: Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.

‘Got time fer a bit to eat before your train leaves?’ he said.”

So, this all presents a nice little challenge for us, because this is a really boring sentence. But I think part of what’s exciting about Lectio Divina, is that hopefully we will learn – we will see if we learn this – that you can find beauty and meaning in, not anything, but a lot of things, and certainly in unexpected places. So Casper (repeats phrase), what is literally happening, step one of Lectio Divina.

Casper: So Hagrid and Harry have left Diagon Alley, they’ve done their shopping, and thye’re headed back to the Dursleys’ home. Paddington is one of the biggest train stations in London and it takes you on trains west, so we know they live somewhere in the western suburbs of London. And before Harry’s train leaves, they’re going to get some food, because they’ve spent all day shopping.

So the second layer is to think allegorically about what’s going on here. Is there anything that strikes you, Vanessa, about images or other stories that this reminds you of?

Vanessa: Yeah, I mean ‘Up another escalator, out into Paddington Station,’ this is a sort of transition happening, they’ve been down in this- I mean they’ve been down in London too, but they’ve been down in this wizarding world, this other world, you know that feeling where you get up and you’re in a totally different space, you get off an airplane and you’re in a different country. We’ve all had those moments where we get out of a movie, and it was light out, and you come out and it’s nighttime. It’s those moments where you go up an escalator and come out in a totally different place.

Casper: I’m getting like allegory bombs going off in my head right now. The fact that it’s an escalator reminds me that they were stuck on an escalator that didn’t work, they had to walk up an escalator that wasn’t working before they got to Diagon Alley, and now they’re on one that is working. There’s this sense of movement and there was eleven years of stuckness and now there’s this rapid transition for Harry, which I love, and secondly, the fact they’re in Paddington Station. Paddington Station reminds me of Paddington Bear, I don’t know if this was a big thing in America-

Vanessa: Oh it is.

Casper: Paddington Bear is a stranger arriving in London from Peru, which, oh my goodness, totally relates to your story, so you know, he builds this wonderful connection with Britain. Once again, the stranger becoming familiar. I’m just seeing a lot of symbolic overcoming strangeness into familiarity.

Vanessa: Oh my goodness, this sentence, it’s just a metaphor, right? I mean, Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. That could be the thesis for Harry’s life.

Casper: Who he is.

Vanessa: He only realized where he was when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. And then I love that it ends with this very pedestrian bit. Again, Hagrid feeding him. I mean, they met with Hagrid feeding him and now he’s like ‘I’m going to feed you up one more time.’ This goes back to last week’s episode of generosity, but Hagrid is just incapable of stopping giving to Harry. He always has to be feeding Harry, giving him things. He’s bought Harry a bird, right? He’s just constantly bestowing things to Harry. So Harry’s going back to the Dursleys but with a totally different orientation, of having been tapped on the shoulder, of having been fed, and all these things.

Okay, so step three of Lectio Divina is what does this say to us in our world? Casper. Casper: Once or twice in my life, I had a mentor who was able to see in me something that I wasn’t yet able to see in myself, and I love what you say about Harry being tapped on the shoulder by Hagrid to help realize who he is, because that’s exactly what’s happened to me. There’s been a couple times in my life where a really generous person has sort of metaphorically tapped me on the shoulder and who say something in me that I didn’t yet see in myself, so I think this passage really reminds me of that, because it takes someone else to help you see that, it took someone else to help me see that.

One of the reasons I’m in the Divinity School is for the amazing Charlotte Mueller, who helped me understand that what I was trying to do maybe had something to do with spirituality, without me knowing. And so that’s what I’m really reminded of in terms of my experiences. It takes Hagrid for Harry to feel really connected, to feel welcomed in, and it takes a real intimate loving connection to trust that invitation. How about you, Vanessa?

Vanessa: I’m really struck by ‘up another escalator, out into Paddington Station.’ I hate transition, I hate transitions. I’m terrible at them, and I do it to myself all the time. I mean it’s like, almost a joke. But there’s such optimism being projected on this. There’s plenty of time to get a bite to eat, and there’s a real abundance being offered in this moment. But I, as much as I always hate transitions, I think the reason I always constantly do them, is there’s always such an excitement to them. You don’t know what’s going to be up the next escalator. And it’s always so exciting those moments where you find yourself to be a stranger. Whenever I come back from a trip, I’m exhausted, but I’m also so refreshed and re-excited about the world and vastness of the world. So to me this speaks to the excitement of the adventure Harry’s about to go on.

Casper: And I love that there’s an escalator that leads to a train. That this is just a pit-stop, there’s always another train.

Vanessa: Yeah, that’s lovely. So Step Four of Lectio Divina is what does this call you to do? So Casper, this very boring sentence what has it called you to do?

Casper: I’m just very hung up on this image of mentorship and tapping someone on the shoulder. And I’m nearly 30 years old, so I’m feeling very aged. But most of the time I feel pretty young still. You know I think about, where are my elders, and I’m still so young and I still have so much to learn. And maybe I start thinking, who can I bring with me? What younger person can I turn to and tap on the shoulder? So that’s something I want to think about this week, about other younger people in my life, or do I actually need to make some new connections to do that. Because it’s such a gift that we can give, to help someone discover the gifts they can give to the world. What about you, Vanessa? What action does this unusual sentence offer to you?

Vanessa: I’m struck by the ‘got time fer a bite to eat before your train leaves?’ Because I think there’s something so lovely about breaking bread with somebody else and you know, in divinity school, with chaplains, you talk a lot about communion, at this humanist chaplaincy where we work, we host brunches because we think it’s important to eat together. And Harry’s about to go back to the Dursleys, he’s about to have one last awful month before he gets to go to Hogwarts. And so I think that sort of nourishing him up through this lovely meal with Hagrid is a lovely way to send him off. So I’m feeling called to find opportunities to eat slowly, eat with people I love and really value those opportunities.

Okay, so it’s time for this week’s blessing. So Casper- that’s your name right?

Casper: Turns out.

Vanessa: So Casper, who would you like to offer up a blessing for this week.

Casper: I want to bless Ollivander. He reveals to Harry something very important- the fact that his wand and Voldemort’s wand are brothers. And this is something that Voldemort doesn’t even know. And this gives Harry an upper hand at a moment where he’s still so powerless and inexpert in the world of magic. He carries with him this knowledge he might not even know yet is important. And I wonder what else Ollivander tells other people when they come in about their wand. How he shapes who they understand themselves to be based on the choices that the wand has made, because Ollivander has to see who that child is in their eleven-year-old self to know what kind of wand will want that child.

So I think that he not only sells products that help people to find who they are, but he also gives them a sense of identity beyond the choice the wand has made. And it’s that point of mentoring again- every encounter that Ollivander has in his shop is a mentoring relationship of formation, of gift-giving, and helping that child understand who they were meant to be. How about you Vanessa, who are you blessing in this episode

Vanessa: I will say, that limiting to women, I am getting more excited to meet Hermione, to meet McGonagall, there are so many great women in these books, and we’re just ot seeing them so far.

Casper: It’s just Doris Crockford so far.

Vanessa: It’s just Doris Crockford, who very sweetly is part of the Harry Potter Welcoming Community, even though she’s just one woman among four or five men. And Madam Malkin, who measures for robes, bless her heart. And I did think that they both deserve our blessings. But I’m actually going to bless Lily. She’s been brought up a lot, but we’re already hearing this refrain of ‘you look like your father but you have your mother’s eyes.’ And Lily’s love for Harry protected him for the rest of his life, protects him from evil incarnate.

I carry my mom with me wherever I go, and the best advice I offer people are always direct quotes from my mom- ‘Have a nap before you make a big decision,’ ‘sanity has a price, and it’s always worth it.’ All the wisest things I say are from my mom, and I would like to offer a blessing to Lily, just for the amazing impacts that mothers who love their children unconditionally can have. It is a protection, it is a magical spell that- It’s a charm that works. We find out from Ollivander that Lily was best at doing charms. I’d like to offer a blessing to Lily Potter and all the moms who love their children unconditionally. Casper: Yay.

Vanessa: I love you too, Dad, just not as much.

Casper: Not as much.

(outro music)

Casper: Thank you for listening to this episode of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.

Vanessa: We can’t wait to reconnect you next week, when we read Chapter Six: The Journey from Platform 9 ¾ through the theme of expectation.

Casper: If you have thoughts or a different sacred reading of today’s chapter, we want to hear from you, so please use your phone’s voice recorder and send us a sound file in an e-mail, or you can just e-mail us in the old-fashioned way at [email protected] or use the contact box at harrypottersacredtext.com.

Vanessa: While on the website you can vote on today’s winner of the thirty second challenge, find programme notes about today’s episode, or about sacred reading.

Casper: A big thanks to our Kickstarter supporter of the week, Ruth Dawkins, Rebecca and Charlie Ledley, Shane, Lauren, and Rufus, our whole communications team, the Humanist Hub and the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text reading group. Our music is by Ivan Pyzow and Nick Bohl, this episode owas produced by Vanessa Zoltan, me, Casper ter Kuile, and Arianna Nedelman.

(outro music fades out)

Casper: Time to bless!

Vanessa: Bless!

Casper: I’m going to bless the lady goblins, because where are they?

Vanessa: Yeah! Why are there no lady goblins?

Casper: There are no lady goblins.

Vanessa: How do baby goblins get made?

Casper: Well.