The Seven Wedding Blessings
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Key to the Code
Part 3: The Structural Framework
Part 4: The Characters and Concepts
Part 5: The Chemical Wedding
Part 6: The Heart of It All
Bridget Wenlock
1202 - 1285
Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven.
Just what are the "magical properties of the number seven" that J.K. Rowling mentions here? She hasn't shown us any in the books... so far.
But she has developed the Key of Seven -- the symbolic framework for her imagery and illusions. Here is the framework at a glance:
The symbolic patterns in this chart convey the two main themes of the Harry Potter series...
1. Death (and Rebirth)
and
2. Moral and Spiritual Growth
... both exemplified in the two primary symbolic motifs...
1. the Alchemical Process
and
2. the Trip to the Underworld.
Both of these symbolic motifs are unequivically tipped off to us in the first book -- the first by the Philosopher's Stone and the second by Fluffy -- and both are signified by, and signifiers of, the number seven. There are many trips to the Underworld from the Western literary tradition referenced in this series: the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the rape of Persephone, the labors of Hercules, etc. But the story most resonant with Rowling's symbolic key of seven is Dante's Divine Comedy. It is the Inferno that is the cross-referencing framework to the seven tasks, the sins and virtues, and Harry's moral progression through the series.
Dante's hero, like Harry, makes a journey of moral discovery. His true love, Beatrice, whom Dante met briefly only twice in life, has preceded him in death. She sends the poet Virgil to be his guide through Hell and Purgatory as he overcomes his human failings and ascends the moral ladder to be worthy to be reunited with her in Paradise. Critical thought is unanimous (29) that Virgil represents human reason, while Beatrice represents spiritual love, inspiration, and faith. Although Virgil is a consistently positive, helpful character, he is unable to enter Paradise, symbolizing the superiority of faith and love over human reason.
The ties to Harry Potter's story is obvious. As Dante follows Beatrice into the Underworld, so Harry follows Ginny. Just as Dante knew Beatrice only from distant glimpses and brief exchanges, so Harry knows Ginny only from brief glimpses -- a girl running after a train, a pair of bright brown eyes through the crack of a door. Harry goes into the Chamber for Ginny, thinking that she is dead. Just as Beatrice loves and watches over Dante from a distance, Ginny is "very taken" with Harry and watches over him -- defending him from Malfoy's accusations, stealing the diary back when she learns he has it, telling Fred and George not to tease him.
Harry's Virgil figure is, of course, Hermione. She is the very personification of human reason, with all its strengths and limitations. In the first book, it is Hermione whose reason helps guide Harry through the first six tasks, but she -- like Virgil -- must be left behind at the last and seventh (30). The seventh -- which is the number of Ginny, the number of the chemical marriage in alchemy, the number of the Seeker, of the Sun, of the astrological sign of Leo (shared by Harry and Ginny), of the Phoenix, of gold, of completion -- can only be entered by the "reborn" characters, including Harry, Ginny, and (interestingly enough) Neville.
As Beatrice symbolizes faith and divine love, Ginny symbolizes hope and rebirth. She is associated with the Phoenix, the hummingbird, the egg, the Snitch, the snake that sheds its skin (remember, Harry actually saw the basilisk's old skin) and the Ourobouros of infinity. Like Persephone, she is carried to the Underworld by the Dark Lord to be ravished and she is rescued, but only partly. Persephone is a fertility symbol, the Goddess of Spring, and her return to the surface allows the annual renewal of the growing season; Ginny is associated with fertility symbols such as the egg and the fecund Weasley family, and her return to the surface prevents the closing of Hogwarts (Harry's home of the heart). It is worth noting that in some of the best-known versions of the myth, Persephone ate seven pomegranate seeds (31).
Ginny is also closely tied to Eurydice and her (attempted) rescue by Orpheus. Like Eurydice, she suffers an ankle injury and is endangered by a snake and a predatory male figure (Aristaeus/Tom Riddle). Her rescue, like Eurydice's, is accomplished with the help of music. This essay explores the connections of the Harry Potter series to the myth of Orpheus in greater depth (32). Furthermore, this myth is also tied to the number seven (33) and to the imagery associated with Harry and Ginny. This image is the ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries:
"The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as encircled by the fiery Creative Sprit. The egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell is broken and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration." (34)
This death-and-rebirth corresponds exactly with the "return to the womb" experience Joseph Campbell refers to in his classic description of the hero's journey as "The Belly of the Beast." Harry's primary "Belly of the Beast" experience takes place in Book Two, in the "Chamber of Secrets" -- a name itself evocative of the Orphic Mysteries. In another work, Campbell connects the egg, the snake, and the rebirth experience using Orphic imagery:
This "rebirth" is depicted on an Orphic bowl (dating from the 2nd or 3rd century AD). Inside around the rim, a ring of naked figures - male and female - are shown in the Sanctum of the Winged Serpent.
"The mound in the center, covered by the winged serpent, is the top of the Orphic cosmic egg, within which all mortal creatures dwell. The company is outside and above the egg. They have ascended (spiritually) through the sun door, which opens at the instant of noon at the summit of the sky....The normal limitation of human thought and sense, the clothing of the mind, were destroyed in the fiery passage, the purging flames of which are now blazing at their feet; and the serpent wrapped around the mound, at which they gaze in silent rapture, combines the forms that would have been seen below as opposites: the serpent crawling on its belly and the bird in winged flights." (35)
The symbolic connection between this and the seventh step of the alchemical process -- the chemical marriage -- should be clear to all. It is important to understand, however, that the "Belly of the Beast" experience Harry and Ginny underwent together is only a part of the "Departure" phase of the hero's journey where the hero crosses the threshold into trials of manhood, while the "Chemical Marriage" (or "Apotheosis" in Campbell's terminology) is the final stage, which will naturally occur in Book 7. Returning to Campbell's words:
The Hegemony wrested from the enemy, the freedom won from the malice of the monster, the life energy released from the toils of the tyrant Holdfast -- is symbolized as a woman. She is the maiden of the innumerable dragon slayings, the bride abducted from the jealous father, the virgin rescued from the unholy lover. She is the "other portion" of the hero himself -- for "each is both" (36)
The rescued maiden is above all a symbol of the victory of life (birth, fertility, freedom, love) over death (stasis, sterility, coercion, indifference). This is the theme, as Campbell points out, of the "innumerable dragon slayings" of myth and archetype -- frequently the dragon (or the loss of the maiden) has caused drought and infertility in the land itself and rescuing the maiden allows productive life to resume. In the rescue itself, this is portrayed by the maiden sleeping (Briar Rose, Brynhild, Snow White) or as cold and pale as death (Andromeda in the legend of Perseus) or veiled (Una in Spencer's Faerie Queen). Ginny, of course, is both sleeping and as white and cold as a marble statue when Harry rescues her, bringing back life not only to her, but (in a "coincidence" of timing) to all the Petrified victims, and to the school as a whole, which is saved from being closed ("the end of Hogwarts," as Professor McGonagall puts it). See this wonderful essay for a concise history and explanation of the various dragon-slaying myths and their connections to the Harry Potter series (37).
To fully understand why Ginny is so blatantly associated with the symbolism of fertility and rebirth, however, we must examine not traditional mythology, but Rowling's personal belief system. Interviewer Brian Bethune discovered this in a November 2000 interview with Rowling:
Death and family are inextricably linked for Rowling.
There are many things that symbolize life, or the opposition of death, to us as a culture -- vegetative fruitfulness as in the Persephone story, resurrection and transformation as in the Phoenix or snake symbol, sex, childbirth, water, freedom, etc. But for Rowling personally, the most meaningful antithesis is Death versus Family -- specifically a large family of blood relations. Here is the full quote from Bethune's article:
Death is a major theme. The villain wants to live forever, by whatever means it takes, and the hero is the child of murdered parents, whose mother died to preserve his life. Death and family are inextricably linked for Rowling. "I'm fascinated with big families in the stories I like, probably because I'm from such a small one," she says. "My parents were so young when they married -- my mother was only 20 when she had me, 23 for my sister, Di -- that we had four living grandparents and lots of great aunts and uncles. But they soon began to die, including my mother from multiple sclerosis when I was 25, so now there's only me, my sister, my daughter, Jessica, my father and one aunt." (38)
It is not surprising Rowling repeatedly declares her love for big families and describes the Weasley family as her "ideal family" (39). For her, family symbolizes the triumph of life and love against death and loss. And that she has declared herself is the most important theme of her series.
But we need not depend on the interviews to understand this opposition. Rowling has given us our cue to the symbolic importance of the size of the Weasley family by making it a major part of the Key of Seven. With the Mirror of Erised (which she has described as her favorite scene in the entire series), she firmly established the object of Harry's life-quest -- to be part of a large family, his own family, of blood relatives with physical resemblances. If we missed that, she gives us smaller clues as well. For instance, in Book Five:
Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister for Magic and have twelve children.
Once we realize the specific symbolic significance of the Weasley family, the reason for their various characteristics fall into place. Their red hair, for instance, is indicative of fire and life -- the opposition of cold, stillness, and death. The number seven should be obvious by this time. Their strong family resemblance (often noted by characters in the books) is the most visible marker of the kinship of blood, highlighted in the mirror scene as well. The Weasleys' colorful hair and clothes, loudness, humor, pugnacity, disorderliness, generosity, extraversion, and warmth are all qualities of Life in opposition to the cold, silent, ordered stasis of Death.
Let me make one thing clear, however. The Weasleys symbolize Family and Life for Harry, but they do not embody it. Harry's quest is to be part of his own family -- the Potter-and-Evans family -- and his quest cannot be fulfilled by simply joining the Weasley family, by adoption or even by marriage. Yet Harry's original family is dead and cannot be recovered -- how is this paradox to be resolved and his quest fulfilled?
This is where the transforming magic of myth comes in (and perhaps the "magical properties of the number seven"). Harry longs to return to the bosom of his first family -- the happiness he had as a baby with his mother and father. Simply marrying and becoming a father himself will not give him that, no matter how many children he has. But when a hero reaches the apotheosis of his hero's journey and becomes master of the magical space, he transcends the limitations of dichotomies such as Life and Death, Past and Future, Parent and Child. He discovers the eternal nature of the love he desires -- that it waits, embodied, in the woman for whom he quests, his other self. As usual, Campbell expresses this eloquently:
The Lady of the House of Sleep is a familiar figure in fairy tale and myth. ...She is the paragon of all paragons of beauty, the reply to all desire, the bliss-bestowing goal of every hero’s earthly and unearthly quest. She is mother, sister, mistress, bride. Whatever in the world has lured, whatever has seemed to promise joy, has been premonitory of her existence. ...For she is the incarnation of the promise of perfection; the soul’s assurance that ...the bliss that once was known will be known again: the comforting, the nourishing, the "good" mother - young and beautiful - who was known to us, and even tasted, in the remotest past. Time sealed her away, yet she is dwelling still, like one who sleeps in timelessness, at the bottom of the timeless sea. (40)
It has made many people uneasy that Ginny, Harry's apparent future bride, resembles his mother in having long red hair. And yet this Oedipal resemblance is key to the symbolic function that she serves for Harry's psyche. Harry, far more intensely than any normal human male, longs to be re-united with the nurturing mother of his lost babyhood. This longing is embodied for him in a visual form -- the scene in the mirror of a red-headed woman, smiling through her tears, standing next to a tall, thin man with glasses and untidy black hair. It is thematically important that this lost vision be re-enacted, that the circle of loss and renewal be completed as a visible symbol of Harry's triumph on his quest. We must not forget that when Harry went forward to the seventh and final task in Book One, he found not only the Philosopher's Stone, representing his journey of growth and purification, but also the "Mirror of Desire", representing his quest for a loving family. Both of these symbolize transcendence over death in Rowling's symbolic framework.
I would like to highlight another aspect of the above quote: She is ...the reply to all desire. It is no light task being the love interest of a Campbellian hero. Ginny must not only allow Harry to in some sense regain his lost family and symbolize in her characteristics and family connections the triumph of life over death that is the object of his quest; she must personify the attainment of all his desires. Everything that Harry has ever longed for -- from success at Quidditch to enjoying himself with Cho Chang to acceptance and belonging in the wizarding world to sweets from Honeydukes to laughter and fun with the Weasleys -- is embodied in Ginny. It is important that she is a pureblood witch, because it is the wizarding world that Harry most loves and craves. It is important that she is a Seeker who can catch the Snitch for him (one of Harry's direct desires as well as symbolic of his more abstract desires), and yet encourage, rather than hinder, his return to playing his beloved position. It is important that she has all the qualities (both physical and emotional) that Harry desired in his first love, Cho Chang, and none of the qualities that disillusioned him about her. Ginny even meets the requirements which others have for Harry's love interest, such as Ron's demand for "someone a bit more cheerful" and the test Hermione set for loyalty to Harry and the D.A.
Is this sexist? Yes it is. Because Harry is the hero who suffers for the good of the world, he is rewarded with a love interest who has been specially created to be perfect for him. If Ginny was the heroine of these books (which she is not), she would be rewarded with a custom-designed perfect man to meet all her desires. That's the way it goes.
It is not hard to understand why Rowling chose the number seven as the overarching device tying these symbolic themes together. Despite the direct or implied criticisms she has included in the series for other forms of Divination such as astrology and fortune-telling, she has consistently treated Arithmancy (Numerology) in a respectful way. Hermione says it is "wonderful" and her favorite, despite being "probably the toughest subject there is." The Famous Wizard card for Bridget Wenlock strongly implies that numbers really can have magical properties.
For someone favorably inclined to the symbolism of numbers, seven is irresistable to use for a "happy ending." Here is its meaning, from a numerology site:
In all cultures, myths and legends seven represents...
completeness and totality
macrocosm
perfection
plenty
reintegration
rest
security
safety
synthesis (41)
No wonder Rowling was determined to have seven books.
It is also not surprising, given the meaning of the number seven, that it has traditionally been associated with weddings. In Jewish and early Christian tradition, Seven Wedding Blessings are recited for the new couple at the end of the ceremony:
The seven wedding blessings are the heart of the marriage ceremony. They show that marriage is not just a transaction or contractual relation but a sanctification of two souls to a Jewish way of life. The creation of this loving partnership is woven into the Divine fabric of the universe; each marriage is the beginning of a new world. The beloveds drink wine from the same cup after the blessing to show that they have begun their life together. (42)
The bride also circles the groom (or the couple circles the chuppah, or canopy) seven times, one for each of the days of the Creation:
Under the chupah, the kallah circles the chatan seven times. Just as the world was created in seven days, the kallah is figuratively building the walls of the couple's new home. The number seven also symbolizes the wholeness and completeness that they cannot attain separately. (43)
There is also the story in the Bible of Jacob, who worked seven years to win Rachel as his bride, but was given Leah instead and worked seven more years for Rachel.
The number seven is also important in Hindu wedding ceremonies:
The bride and groom take seven steps together, symbolizing the beginning of their journey through life as partners. These seven steps reflect their guiding principles in life. As they take each step, the bride and groom exchange the following vows:
Together we will:
Share in the responsibility of the home
Fill our hearts with strength and courage
Prosper and share our worldly goods
Fill our hearts with love, peace, happiness, and spiritual values
Be blessed with loving children
Attain self-restraint and longevity
Be best friends and eternal partners (44)
In some cases, these seven steps are made around a sacred fire. Interestingly, many American Indian wedding traditions also include the newly-married couple making seven steps around the sacred fire while making vows to each other (45).
In Persian and Zoroastrian weddings, the couple is bound together by a cloth passed around their joined hands seven times, tied with a knot, and then wrapped seven times around the marriage knot (46). In Hungarian tradition, the bride gives the groom a gift of seven (or three) handkerchiefs (47). There are other seven-related wedding traditions too numerous to relate here.
But perhaps the most important connection between the number seven and weddings in the context of the Harry Potter books is the "chemical marriage" of alchemical tradition. Not only is the chemical marriage the seventh step of the process (see Part 5), but the well-known work The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkruetz -- a symbolic enactment of the alchemical process written in 1459 -- is divided into seven chapters representing seven days (48).
Does this mean that Harry Potter will find love in the seventh book in a symbolic (or actual!) wedding? Absolutely. We have already determined that his quest is to regain his lost family, something he can only find by uniting with his female counterpart. Since Rowling has promised us an epilogue detailing what happens to "the survivors" after the events of her books, we are almost certain to learn about Harry's eventual marriage. Here is what the symbolic framework predicts:
First, we must remember the nature of the Chemical Marriage. The male and female elements of the soul -- the King and Queen -- are tried and perfected separately, the female in the three steps of the Lesser Work and the male in the three steps of the Greater Work.
These two processes are not necessarily sequential. More often they proceed side by side, for they are related. Once the two states of the Work have been accomplished, the Bride, or perfected heart, the white unites with the Bridegroom, or perfected intellect, the red. (49)
Then comes the seventh and final step, the Chemical Marriage. When this is represented by two separate people -- the Alchemist and his Soror Mystica -- rather than in the two aspects of the alchemist -- both people are equally purified by the process. They are both Seekers, and they both achieve the purity that allows them to make the Stone. This is probably why, in canon, both of Harry's love interests (his past one and his presumed future one) play Seeker in Quidditch -- the quest for the Snitch is a clear symbol for the quest for the Stone. Unconsciously, he is looking for someone capable of achieving the Stone with him, an equal who is a Seeker in her own right.
Referring to the symbolism of Alchemy, it is easy for us to see that Ginny Weasley is the only possible candidate to join Harry in the Chemical Marriage:
- It is the seventh step of the process, and Ginny is the seventh Weasley child.
- It is symbolized by the astrological sign of Leo, and Ginny is a Leo (along with Harry, who will also reach the seventh step) -- the only female Leo we know about at this point.
- Its planet is the Sun, and Ginny is repeatedly associated with imagery of the sun and fire.
- It is represented by gold, and Ginny is a Seeker who successfully catches the Golden Snitch -- the only female we know of doing so.
- Its animal symbols are the Phoenix and the Snake, and Ginny is associated with both.
- It is associated with rebirth, and so is Ginny. She was "reborn" in the Chamber of Secrets, and she is associated with the Phoenix, the snake that sheds its skin, the hummingbird in the bell jar, and the egg -- all symbols of rebirth.
- It requires the participant to have been purified by an excruciating process in a sealed crucible, and Ginny is the only female we have seen suffer this kind of harrowing experience.
I am sorry to say that symbolism tells us we can expect Ginny to continue to suffer. If we recognize that her rescue from the Underworld is based on that of Persephone and Eurydice, we know that the seeming complete resolution in Book Two was illusory -- one does not escape from the Underworld without paying a price. It is very likely that Ginny will again fall prey to the Dark Lord, as both Persephone and Eurydice did. Only the complete apotheosis at the end of the hero's journey can fully set her free.
The alchemical process gives us further clues about how Harry's romance will progress. The male and female elements are kept apart in alchemy until their union in the seventh and final step. We can anticipate that Harry and Ginny will not be closely allied in the next book, either romantically or as friends, because the process of alchemy requires that the male and female portions be purified separately before being joined together.
When they are finally united, we can expect the process to be tumultuous and heated, as is the seventh step of Alchemy. Here is the procedure as allegorically described in an alchemical story called Parabola published in 1785 (with commentary by Bette Jo Benner):
A young couple, the male dressed in red and the female dressed in white, had just entered into a crystal room, shaped like an egg, which was water tight or "Hermetically sealed." Our Hero was placed in charge of guarding them.
Guarding the couple, who represent the intellect and the heart, respectively, refers to the work of the conscious mind (Our Hero), which must at all times be responsible for the actions of both the intellect and the heart, especially during the time in which they are developing their spirituality.
...The embrace of the intellect and the heart can only take place after a long period of preparation. That is what has been symbolized by Our Hero's journey to this point. The heart or emotions must be elevated above the negative feelings and base sexual passions of our former, ignorant state, to the spiritual expression of Love; emotionally and physically. (This process is what the Alchemists referred to as the Lesser Work.)
So also, the intellect must be elevated above the material thinking, including the selfishness, misuse of power and greed, of our earlier unregenerate state, to the spiritual expression of Wisdom. (This process is what the Alchemists referred to as the Greater Work.)
It is helpful to understand that both processes happen at the same time. The process of spiritual growth includes the development of both heart and mind and they usually progress together.
When this preparation is complete, represented by the woman in white and the man in red, the Chemical Marriage - the coming together ‘as one' of the Intellect and Heart - may proceed.
Soon after the couple entered into the crystal room, they began to consummate their marriage. Their activity was so passionate that a great deal of heat was generated with nowhere to dissipate.
...When the two join together in the Chemical Marriage, the process is symbolized by fire and here the fire of the passion of the union is used to indicate this concept. The most important element in the vessel is Fire. For the spiritual work, this is Love, especially passionate love - elevated and spiritualized - but passionate. Fire corresponds to the generative power. It must first be aroused and then tamed or controlled.
...The heat continued to increase until the groom was finally melted from his intense passion. The bride began to cry uncontrollably and her tears soon covered them both in water so that she was drowned.
Note that the fire and water, the masculine and feminine are both required. The deaths by fire and water here symbolize the passing away of the former heart and mind, which must die before the new person or Illumined Soul may take their place.
Our Hero was dismayed by this bizarre sequence of events. But, before he could decide what to do, he noticed a cloud beginning to fill the vessel. The cloud proceeded to rain down on the blackened bodies of the couple below. As he watched, the rain washed the bodies and they gradually lightened to gray and finally they were turned to white.
The heat which is symbolic of love continues to act upon the bodies and the vessel they are in. This heat causes the water to form into clouds and results in the cleansing rain. This same love is required throughout the process and grows stronger as the spiritual aspirant attains higher levels of consciousness. It is at once a requirement of the process and its result.
Right before his eyes, the couple became animated, opened their eyes and arose. It seems that even their souls could not escape the "Hermetically sealed" vessel, and were able to re-enter their bodies. They donned raiment of gold with purple cloaks and each was wearing a golden crown. Our Hero opened the vessel, on their request, and they embraced and thanked him and told him that he would be rewarded with anything he could ever want. (50)
From this we can predict that Harry's "chemical bride" will accompany him somehow in the journey through the Underworld and near-death experience he has in Book Seven. Remembering that she is "the reply to all desire," we can guess that she will help Harry fulfill his desire to defeat Voldemort without becoming a murderer himself. How she will do this is easily deducible from the symbolical Key of Seven, but (despite my hints to the contrary in the introduction) I will not reveal it here, because Rowling has clearly said that she doesn't want it to be guessed.
Who she will be is so abundantly obvious I will not even attempt to conceal it. Harry's chemical bride, his Lady of Sleep, has her identity proclaimed on almost every row of the chart at the beginning of this section. She is the seventh child and the mirror of Harry's desire. She pours out kindness like water to the thirsty. She is the smallest bottle that lets Harry "go forward" and the process of Transfiguration and Transformation that is part of his final triumph. She shares the markers of Harry's heroic fate -- a Seeker like him, a Leo, symbolized by gold and the Sun.
"Sol (Leo)," from De Sphaero, 15th cent. manuscript
The first girl Harry encountered in the series will finally be united with him in the last scenes of the seventh and last book. Queen to his King, she will bring him the gifts of seven -- completeness, understanding, and rest.
But what of the characters who cannot enter the sealed chamber with the King and Queen? The epilogue will deal with those left behind.
Notes:
(28) J.K. Rowling, Trading Card.
(29) See for instance Sparknotes online for the consensus interpretation.
(30) The comparison is even more obvious if you consider Hermione's name as a derivative of Hermes (or Mercury), the messenger god. Hermes served in a similar "guide" role for such heroes as Perseus, Odysseus, and Aeneas.
(31) Examples:
Ovid's Metamorphosis
Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece
Jill Bialosky's "Seven Seeds"
Rowling also refers to Persephone's story in OotP Ch. 17, when Harry almost adds "pomegranate juice" to his Strengthening Solution.
(32) major_dallas, posted 26 Jan 2005, revised version posted 28 Apr 2005.
(33) The double death of his Eurydice stole Orpheus' wits away ... He longed, he begged, in vain to be allowed to cross the stream of Styx a second time. The ferryman [Kharon] repulsed him. Even so for seven days he sat upon the bank, unkempt and fasting, anguish, grief and tears his nourishment, and cursed Erebus' cruelty." -Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.8.
(34) Bryant, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology.
(35) Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology.
(36) Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Part II, Chapter III, Section 4 - "The Hero as Lover" ( partially quoted online).
(37) connielane, posted 15 Sep. 2004.
(38) Brian Bethune, "The Rowling Connection: How a young Toronto girl's story touched an author's heart", Maclean's, 6 November 2000.
(39) From Sarah-Kate Templeton, "How Lolita inspired Harry Potter", The Sunday Herald, 21 May 2000:
Despite her recent reclusive behaviour, the author discloses that, all her life, she has been enchanted by the idea of large families. She says one of the motivations behind her Harry Potter books was the ability to create a big family for herself.
She says: "I have always been drawn to the idea of large families, even as a child The Harry Potter books were my chance to create my own, ideal big family, and my hero is never happier than when holidaying with the seven We(a)sleys."
(40) Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Part I, Chapter II, Section 2 - "The Meeting with the Goddess."
(41) Crystalinks, "Numerology: SEVEN".
(42) "Jewish Weddings".
(43) Aish.com, "Guide to the Jewish Wedding".
(44) Sanskrit.org, "Samskaras-Hindu Rites of Passage".
(45) Manataka American Indian Council, "American Indian Wedding Ceremonies".
(46) Avesta - Zoroastrian Archives, "Zoroastrian Rituals: Wedding".
(47) "Wedding Traditions".
(48) Special attention should be paid to the fifth day of The Chemical Wedding, when the hero descends into a sealed vault beneath the castle and sees a sleeping "Lady Venus" so pale and still he is unsure whether she is a statue or a human corpse. The parallels to Harry's experience in the Chamber of Secrets are unmistakable.
(49) Rev. Bette Jo Benner, "The Chemical Marriage," from The Spiritual Venturer, April 1999.
(50) Rev. Bette Jo Benner, "Parabola, Part 2," from The Spiritual Venturer, July 1999.
Part 2: The Key to the Code
Part 3: The Structural Framework
Part 4: The Characters and Concepts
Part 5: The Chemical Wedding
Part 6: The Heart of It All
Bridget Wenlock
1202 - 1285
Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven.
Just what are the "magical properties of the number seven" that J.K. Rowling mentions here? She hasn't shown us any in the books... so far.
But she has developed the Key of Seven -- the symbolic framework for her imagery and illusions. Here is the framework at a glance:
The symbolic patterns in this chart convey the two main themes of the Harry Potter series...
1. Death (and Rebirth)
and
2. Moral and Spiritual Growth
... both exemplified in the two primary symbolic motifs...
1. the Alchemical Process
and
2. the Trip to the Underworld.
Both of these symbolic motifs are unequivically tipped off to us in the first book -- the first by the Philosopher's Stone and the second by Fluffy -- and both are signified by, and signifiers of, the number seven. There are many trips to the Underworld from the Western literary tradition referenced in this series: the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the rape of Persephone, the labors of Hercules, etc. But the story most resonant with Rowling's symbolic key of seven is Dante's Divine Comedy. It is the Inferno that is the cross-referencing framework to the seven tasks, the sins and virtues, and Harry's moral progression through the series.
Dante's hero, like Harry, makes a journey of moral discovery. His true love, Beatrice, whom Dante met briefly only twice in life, has preceded him in death. She sends the poet Virgil to be his guide through Hell and Purgatory as he overcomes his human failings and ascends the moral ladder to be worthy to be reunited with her in Paradise. Critical thought is unanimous (29) that Virgil represents human reason, while Beatrice represents spiritual love, inspiration, and faith. Although Virgil is a consistently positive, helpful character, he is unable to enter Paradise, symbolizing the superiority of faith and love over human reason.
The ties to Harry Potter's story is obvious. As Dante follows Beatrice into the Underworld, so Harry follows Ginny. Just as Dante knew Beatrice only from distant glimpses and brief exchanges, so Harry knows Ginny only from brief glimpses -- a girl running after a train, a pair of bright brown eyes through the crack of a door. Harry goes into the Chamber for Ginny, thinking that she is dead. Just as Beatrice loves and watches over Dante from a distance, Ginny is "very taken" with Harry and watches over him -- defending him from Malfoy's accusations, stealing the diary back when she learns he has it, telling Fred and George not to tease him.
Harry's Virgil figure is, of course, Hermione. She is the very personification of human reason, with all its strengths and limitations. In the first book, it is Hermione whose reason helps guide Harry through the first six tasks, but she -- like Virgil -- must be left behind at the last and seventh (30). The seventh -- which is the number of Ginny, the number of the chemical marriage in alchemy, the number of the Seeker, of the Sun, of the astrological sign of Leo (shared by Harry and Ginny), of the Phoenix, of gold, of completion -- can only be entered by the "reborn" characters, including Harry, Ginny, and (interestingly enough) Neville.
As Beatrice symbolizes faith and divine love, Ginny symbolizes hope and rebirth. She is associated with the Phoenix, the hummingbird, the egg, the Snitch, the snake that sheds its skin (remember, Harry actually saw the basilisk's old skin) and the Ourobouros of infinity. Like Persephone, she is carried to the Underworld by the Dark Lord to be ravished and she is rescued, but only partly. Persephone is a fertility symbol, the Goddess of Spring, and her return to the surface allows the annual renewal of the growing season; Ginny is associated with fertility symbols such as the egg and the fecund Weasley family, and her return to the surface prevents the closing of Hogwarts (Harry's home of the heart). It is worth noting that in some of the best-known versions of the myth, Persephone ate seven pomegranate seeds (31).
Ginny is also closely tied to Eurydice and her (attempted) rescue by Orpheus. Like Eurydice, she suffers an ankle injury and is endangered by a snake and a predatory male figure (Aristaeus/Tom Riddle). Her rescue, like Eurydice's, is accomplished with the help of music. This essay explores the connections of the Harry Potter series to the myth of Orpheus in greater depth (32). Furthermore, this myth is also tied to the number seven (33) and to the imagery associated with Harry and Ginny. This image is the ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries:
"The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as encircled by the fiery Creative Sprit. The egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell is broken and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration." (34)
This death-and-rebirth corresponds exactly with the "return to the womb" experience Joseph Campbell refers to in his classic description of the hero's journey as "The Belly of the Beast." Harry's primary "Belly of the Beast" experience takes place in Book Two, in the "Chamber of Secrets" -- a name itself evocative of the Orphic Mysteries. In another work, Campbell connects the egg, the snake, and the rebirth experience using Orphic imagery:
This "rebirth" is depicted on an Orphic bowl (dating from the 2nd or 3rd century AD). Inside around the rim, a ring of naked figures - male and female - are shown in the Sanctum of the Winged Serpent.
"The mound in the center, covered by the winged serpent, is the top of the Orphic cosmic egg, within which all mortal creatures dwell. The company is outside and above the egg. They have ascended (spiritually) through the sun door, which opens at the instant of noon at the summit of the sky....The normal limitation of human thought and sense, the clothing of the mind, were destroyed in the fiery passage, the purging flames of which are now blazing at their feet; and the serpent wrapped around the mound, at which they gaze in silent rapture, combines the forms that would have been seen below as opposites: the serpent crawling on its belly and the bird in winged flights." (35)
The symbolic connection between this and the seventh step of the alchemical process -- the chemical marriage -- should be clear to all. It is important to understand, however, that the "Belly of the Beast" experience Harry and Ginny underwent together is only a part of the "Departure" phase of the hero's journey where the hero crosses the threshold into trials of manhood, while the "Chemical Marriage" (or "Apotheosis" in Campbell's terminology) is the final stage, which will naturally occur in Book 7. Returning to Campbell's words:
The Hegemony wrested from the enemy, the freedom won from the malice of the monster, the life energy released from the toils of the tyrant Holdfast -- is symbolized as a woman. She is the maiden of the innumerable dragon slayings, the bride abducted from the jealous father, the virgin rescued from the unholy lover. She is the "other portion" of the hero himself -- for "each is both" (36)
The rescued maiden is above all a symbol of the victory of life (birth, fertility, freedom, love) over death (stasis, sterility, coercion, indifference). This is the theme, as Campbell points out, of the "innumerable dragon slayings" of myth and archetype -- frequently the dragon (or the loss of the maiden) has caused drought and infertility in the land itself and rescuing the maiden allows productive life to resume. In the rescue itself, this is portrayed by the maiden sleeping (Briar Rose, Brynhild, Snow White) or as cold and pale as death (Andromeda in the legend of Perseus) or veiled (Una in Spencer's Faerie Queen). Ginny, of course, is both sleeping and as white and cold as a marble statue when Harry rescues her, bringing back life not only to her, but (in a "coincidence" of timing) to all the Petrified victims, and to the school as a whole, which is saved from being closed ("the end of Hogwarts," as Professor McGonagall puts it). See this wonderful essay for a concise history and explanation of the various dragon-slaying myths and their connections to the Harry Potter series (37).
To fully understand why Ginny is so blatantly associated with the symbolism of fertility and rebirth, however, we must examine not traditional mythology, but Rowling's personal belief system. Interviewer Brian Bethune discovered this in a November 2000 interview with Rowling:
Death and family are inextricably linked for Rowling.
There are many things that symbolize life, or the opposition of death, to us as a culture -- vegetative fruitfulness as in the Persephone story, resurrection and transformation as in the Phoenix or snake symbol, sex, childbirth, water, freedom, etc. But for Rowling personally, the most meaningful antithesis is Death versus Family -- specifically a large family of blood relations. Here is the full quote from Bethune's article:
Death is a major theme. The villain wants to live forever, by whatever means it takes, and the hero is the child of murdered parents, whose mother died to preserve his life. Death and family are inextricably linked for Rowling. "I'm fascinated with big families in the stories I like, probably because I'm from such a small one," she says. "My parents were so young when they married -- my mother was only 20 when she had me, 23 for my sister, Di -- that we had four living grandparents and lots of great aunts and uncles. But they soon began to die, including my mother from multiple sclerosis when I was 25, so now there's only me, my sister, my daughter, Jessica, my father and one aunt." (38)
It is not surprising Rowling repeatedly declares her love for big families and describes the Weasley family as her "ideal family" (39). For her, family symbolizes the triumph of life and love against death and loss. And that she has declared herself is the most important theme of her series.
But we need not depend on the interviews to understand this opposition. Rowling has given us our cue to the symbolic importance of the size of the Weasley family by making it a major part of the Key of Seven. With the Mirror of Erised (which she has described as her favorite scene in the entire series), she firmly established the object of Harry's life-quest -- to be part of a large family, his own family, of blood relatives with physical resemblances. If we missed that, she gives us smaller clues as well. For instance, in Book Five:
Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister for Magic and have twelve children.
Once we realize the specific symbolic significance of the Weasley family, the reason for their various characteristics fall into place. Their red hair, for instance, is indicative of fire and life -- the opposition of cold, stillness, and death. The number seven should be obvious by this time. Their strong family resemblance (often noted by characters in the books) is the most visible marker of the kinship of blood, highlighted in the mirror scene as well. The Weasleys' colorful hair and clothes, loudness, humor, pugnacity, disorderliness, generosity, extraversion, and warmth are all qualities of Life in opposition to the cold, silent, ordered stasis of Death.
Let me make one thing clear, however. The Weasleys symbolize Family and Life for Harry, but they do not embody it. Harry's quest is to be part of his own family -- the Potter-and-Evans family -- and his quest cannot be fulfilled by simply joining the Weasley family, by adoption or even by marriage. Yet Harry's original family is dead and cannot be recovered -- how is this paradox to be resolved and his quest fulfilled?
This is where the transforming magic of myth comes in (and perhaps the "magical properties of the number seven"). Harry longs to return to the bosom of his first family -- the happiness he had as a baby with his mother and father. Simply marrying and becoming a father himself will not give him that, no matter how many children he has. But when a hero reaches the apotheosis of his hero's journey and becomes master of the magical space, he transcends the limitations of dichotomies such as Life and Death, Past and Future, Parent and Child. He discovers the eternal nature of the love he desires -- that it waits, embodied, in the woman for whom he quests, his other self. As usual, Campbell expresses this eloquently:
The Lady of the House of Sleep is a familiar figure in fairy tale and myth. ...She is the paragon of all paragons of beauty, the reply to all desire, the bliss-bestowing goal of every hero’s earthly and unearthly quest. She is mother, sister, mistress, bride. Whatever in the world has lured, whatever has seemed to promise joy, has been premonitory of her existence. ...For she is the incarnation of the promise of perfection; the soul’s assurance that ...the bliss that once was known will be known again: the comforting, the nourishing, the "good" mother - young and beautiful - who was known to us, and even tasted, in the remotest past. Time sealed her away, yet she is dwelling still, like one who sleeps in timelessness, at the bottom of the timeless sea. (40)
It has made many people uneasy that Ginny, Harry's apparent future bride, resembles his mother in having long red hair. And yet this Oedipal resemblance is key to the symbolic function that she serves for Harry's psyche. Harry, far more intensely than any normal human male, longs to be re-united with the nurturing mother of his lost babyhood. This longing is embodied for him in a visual form -- the scene in the mirror of a red-headed woman, smiling through her tears, standing next to a tall, thin man with glasses and untidy black hair. It is thematically important that this lost vision be re-enacted, that the circle of loss and renewal be completed as a visible symbol of Harry's triumph on his quest. We must not forget that when Harry went forward to the seventh and final task in Book One, he found not only the Philosopher's Stone, representing his journey of growth and purification, but also the "Mirror of Desire", representing his quest for a loving family. Both of these symbolize transcendence over death in Rowling's symbolic framework.
I would like to highlight another aspect of the above quote: She is ...the reply to all desire. It is no light task being the love interest of a Campbellian hero. Ginny must not only allow Harry to in some sense regain his lost family and symbolize in her characteristics and family connections the triumph of life over death that is the object of his quest; she must personify the attainment of all his desires. Everything that Harry has ever longed for -- from success at Quidditch to enjoying himself with Cho Chang to acceptance and belonging in the wizarding world to sweets from Honeydukes to laughter and fun with the Weasleys -- is embodied in Ginny. It is important that she is a pureblood witch, because it is the wizarding world that Harry most loves and craves. It is important that she is a Seeker who can catch the Snitch for him (one of Harry's direct desires as well as symbolic of his more abstract desires), and yet encourage, rather than hinder, his return to playing his beloved position. It is important that she has all the qualities (both physical and emotional) that Harry desired in his first love, Cho Chang, and none of the qualities that disillusioned him about her. Ginny even meets the requirements which others have for Harry's love interest, such as Ron's demand for "someone a bit more cheerful" and the test Hermione set for loyalty to Harry and the D.A.
Is this sexist? Yes it is. Because Harry is the hero who suffers for the good of the world, he is rewarded with a love interest who has been specially created to be perfect for him. If Ginny was the heroine of these books (which she is not), she would be rewarded with a custom-designed perfect man to meet all her desires. That's the way it goes.
It is not hard to understand why Rowling chose the number seven as the overarching device tying these symbolic themes together. Despite the direct or implied criticisms she has included in the series for other forms of Divination such as astrology and fortune-telling, she has consistently treated Arithmancy (Numerology) in a respectful way. Hermione says it is "wonderful" and her favorite, despite being "probably the toughest subject there is." The Famous Wizard card for Bridget Wenlock strongly implies that numbers really can have magical properties.
For someone favorably inclined to the symbolism of numbers, seven is irresistable to use for a "happy ending." Here is its meaning, from a numerology site:
In all cultures, myths and legends seven represents...
completeness and totality
macrocosm
perfection
plenty
reintegration
rest
security
safety
synthesis (41)
No wonder Rowling was determined to have seven books.
It is also not surprising, given the meaning of the number seven, that it has traditionally been associated with weddings. In Jewish and early Christian tradition, Seven Wedding Blessings are recited for the new couple at the end of the ceremony:
The seven wedding blessings are the heart of the marriage ceremony. They show that marriage is not just a transaction or contractual relation but a sanctification of two souls to a Jewish way of life. The creation of this loving partnership is woven into the Divine fabric of the universe; each marriage is the beginning of a new world. The beloveds drink wine from the same cup after the blessing to show that they have begun their life together. (42)
The bride also circles the groom (or the couple circles the chuppah, or canopy) seven times, one for each of the days of the Creation:
Under the chupah, the kallah circles the chatan seven times. Just as the world was created in seven days, the kallah is figuratively building the walls of the couple's new home. The number seven also symbolizes the wholeness and completeness that they cannot attain separately. (43)
There is also the story in the Bible of Jacob, who worked seven years to win Rachel as his bride, but was given Leah instead and worked seven more years for Rachel.
The number seven is also important in Hindu wedding ceremonies:
The bride and groom take seven steps together, symbolizing the beginning of their journey through life as partners. These seven steps reflect their guiding principles in life. As they take each step, the bride and groom exchange the following vows:
Together we will:
Share in the responsibility of the home
Fill our hearts with strength and courage
Prosper and share our worldly goods
Fill our hearts with love, peace, happiness, and spiritual values
Be blessed with loving children
Attain self-restraint and longevity
Be best friends and eternal partners (44)
In some cases, these seven steps are made around a sacred fire. Interestingly, many American Indian wedding traditions also include the newly-married couple making seven steps around the sacred fire while making vows to each other (45).
In Persian and Zoroastrian weddings, the couple is bound together by a cloth passed around their joined hands seven times, tied with a knot, and then wrapped seven times around the marriage knot (46). In Hungarian tradition, the bride gives the groom a gift of seven (or three) handkerchiefs (47). There are other seven-related wedding traditions too numerous to relate here.
But perhaps the most important connection between the number seven and weddings in the context of the Harry Potter books is the "chemical marriage" of alchemical tradition. Not only is the chemical marriage the seventh step of the process (see Part 5), but the well-known work The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkruetz -- a symbolic enactment of the alchemical process written in 1459 -- is divided into seven chapters representing seven days (48).
Does this mean that Harry Potter will find love in the seventh book in a symbolic (or actual!) wedding? Absolutely. We have already determined that his quest is to regain his lost family, something he can only find by uniting with his female counterpart. Since Rowling has promised us an epilogue detailing what happens to "the survivors" after the events of her books, we are almost certain to learn about Harry's eventual marriage. Here is what the symbolic framework predicts:
First, we must remember the nature of the Chemical Marriage. The male and female elements of the soul -- the King and Queen -- are tried and perfected separately, the female in the three steps of the Lesser Work and the male in the three steps of the Greater Work.
These two processes are not necessarily sequential. More often they proceed side by side, for they are related. Once the two states of the Work have been accomplished, the Bride, or perfected heart, the white unites with the Bridegroom, or perfected intellect, the red. (49)
Then comes the seventh and final step, the Chemical Marriage. When this is represented by two separate people -- the Alchemist and his Soror Mystica -- rather than in the two aspects of the alchemist -- both people are equally purified by the process. They are both Seekers, and they both achieve the purity that allows them to make the Stone. This is probably why, in canon, both of Harry's love interests (his past one and his presumed future one) play Seeker in Quidditch -- the quest for the Snitch is a clear symbol for the quest for the Stone. Unconsciously, he is looking for someone capable of achieving the Stone with him, an equal who is a Seeker in her own right.
Referring to the symbolism of Alchemy, it is easy for us to see that Ginny Weasley is the only possible candidate to join Harry in the Chemical Marriage:
- It is the seventh step of the process, and Ginny is the seventh Weasley child.
- It is symbolized by the astrological sign of Leo, and Ginny is a Leo (along with Harry, who will also reach the seventh step) -- the only female Leo we know about at this point.
- Its planet is the Sun, and Ginny is repeatedly associated with imagery of the sun and fire.
- It is represented by gold, and Ginny is a Seeker who successfully catches the Golden Snitch -- the only female we know of doing so.
- Its animal symbols are the Phoenix and the Snake, and Ginny is associated with both.
- It is associated with rebirth, and so is Ginny. She was "reborn" in the Chamber of Secrets, and she is associated with the Phoenix, the snake that sheds its skin, the hummingbird in the bell jar, and the egg -- all symbols of rebirth.
- It requires the participant to have been purified by an excruciating process in a sealed crucible, and Ginny is the only female we have seen suffer this kind of harrowing experience.
I am sorry to say that symbolism tells us we can expect Ginny to continue to suffer. If we recognize that her rescue from the Underworld is based on that of Persephone and Eurydice, we know that the seeming complete resolution in Book Two was illusory -- one does not escape from the Underworld without paying a price. It is very likely that Ginny will again fall prey to the Dark Lord, as both Persephone and Eurydice did. Only the complete apotheosis at the end of the hero's journey can fully set her free.
The alchemical process gives us further clues about how Harry's romance will progress. The male and female elements are kept apart in alchemy until their union in the seventh and final step. We can anticipate that Harry and Ginny will not be closely allied in the next book, either romantically or as friends, because the process of alchemy requires that the male and female portions be purified separately before being joined together.
When they are finally united, we can expect the process to be tumultuous and heated, as is the seventh step of Alchemy. Here is the procedure as allegorically described in an alchemical story called Parabola published in 1785 (with commentary by Bette Jo Benner):
A young couple, the male dressed in red and the female dressed in white, had just entered into a crystal room, shaped like an egg, which was water tight or "Hermetically sealed." Our Hero was placed in charge of guarding them.
Guarding the couple, who represent the intellect and the heart, respectively, refers to the work of the conscious mind (Our Hero), which must at all times be responsible for the actions of both the intellect and the heart, especially during the time in which they are developing their spirituality.
...The embrace of the intellect and the heart can only take place after a long period of preparation. That is what has been symbolized by Our Hero's journey to this point. The heart or emotions must be elevated above the negative feelings and base sexual passions of our former, ignorant state, to the spiritual expression of Love; emotionally and physically. (This process is what the Alchemists referred to as the Lesser Work.)
So also, the intellect must be elevated above the material thinking, including the selfishness, misuse of power and greed, of our earlier unregenerate state, to the spiritual expression of Wisdom. (This process is what the Alchemists referred to as the Greater Work.)
It is helpful to understand that both processes happen at the same time. The process of spiritual growth includes the development of both heart and mind and they usually progress together.
When this preparation is complete, represented by the woman in white and the man in red, the Chemical Marriage - the coming together ‘as one' of the Intellect and Heart - may proceed.
Soon after the couple entered into the crystal room, they began to consummate their marriage. Their activity was so passionate that a great deal of heat was generated with nowhere to dissipate.
...When the two join together in the Chemical Marriage, the process is symbolized by fire and here the fire of the passion of the union is used to indicate this concept. The most important element in the vessel is Fire. For the spiritual work, this is Love, especially passionate love - elevated and spiritualized - but passionate. Fire corresponds to the generative power. It must first be aroused and then tamed or controlled.
...The heat continued to increase until the groom was finally melted from his intense passion. The bride began to cry uncontrollably and her tears soon covered them both in water so that she was drowned.
Note that the fire and water, the masculine and feminine are both required. The deaths by fire and water here symbolize the passing away of the former heart and mind, which must die before the new person or Illumined Soul may take their place.
Our Hero was dismayed by this bizarre sequence of events. But, before he could decide what to do, he noticed a cloud beginning to fill the vessel. The cloud proceeded to rain down on the blackened bodies of the couple below. As he watched, the rain washed the bodies and they gradually lightened to gray and finally they were turned to white.
The heat which is symbolic of love continues to act upon the bodies and the vessel they are in. This heat causes the water to form into clouds and results in the cleansing rain. This same love is required throughout the process and grows stronger as the spiritual aspirant attains higher levels of consciousness. It is at once a requirement of the process and its result.
Right before his eyes, the couple became animated, opened their eyes and arose. It seems that even their souls could not escape the "Hermetically sealed" vessel, and were able to re-enter their bodies. They donned raiment of gold with purple cloaks and each was wearing a golden crown. Our Hero opened the vessel, on their request, and they embraced and thanked him and told him that he would be rewarded with anything he could ever want. (50)
From this we can predict that Harry's "chemical bride" will accompany him somehow in the journey through the Underworld and near-death experience he has in Book Seven. Remembering that she is "the reply to all desire," we can guess that she will help Harry fulfill his desire to defeat Voldemort without becoming a murderer himself. How she will do this is easily deducible from the symbolical Key of Seven, but (despite my hints to the contrary in the introduction) I will not reveal it here, because Rowling has clearly said that she doesn't want it to be guessed.
Who she will be is so abundantly obvious I will not even attempt to conceal it. Harry's chemical bride, his Lady of Sleep, has her identity proclaimed on almost every row of the chart at the beginning of this section. She is the seventh child and the mirror of Harry's desire. She pours out kindness like water to the thirsty. She is the smallest bottle that lets Harry "go forward" and the process of Transfiguration and Transformation that is part of his final triumph. She shares the markers of Harry's heroic fate -- a Seeker like him, a Leo, symbolized by gold and the Sun.
"Sol (Leo)," from De Sphaero, 15th cent. manuscript
The first girl Harry encountered in the series will finally be united with him in the last scenes of the seventh and last book. Queen to his King, she will bring him the gifts of seven -- completeness, understanding, and rest.
But what of the characters who cannot enter the sealed chamber with the King and Queen? The epilogue will deal with those left behind.
Notes:
(28) J.K. Rowling, Trading Card.
(29) See for instance Sparknotes online for the consensus interpretation.
(30) The comparison is even more obvious if you consider Hermione's name as a derivative of Hermes (or Mercury), the messenger god. Hermes served in a similar "guide" role for such heroes as Perseus, Odysseus, and Aeneas.
(31) Examples:
Ovid's Metamorphosis
Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece
Jill Bialosky's "Seven Seeds"
Rowling also refers to Persephone's story in OotP Ch. 17, when Harry almost adds "pomegranate juice" to his Strengthening Solution.
(32) major_dallas, posted 26 Jan 2005, revised version posted 28 Apr 2005.
(33) The double death of his Eurydice stole Orpheus' wits away ... He longed, he begged, in vain to be allowed to cross the stream of Styx a second time. The ferryman [Kharon] repulsed him. Even so for seven days he sat upon the bank, unkempt and fasting, anguish, grief and tears his nourishment, and cursed Erebus' cruelty." -Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.8.
(34) Bryant, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology.
(35) Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology.
(36) Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Part II, Chapter III, Section 4 - "The Hero as Lover" ( partially quoted online).
(37) connielane, posted 15 Sep. 2004.
(38) Brian Bethune, "The Rowling Connection: How a young Toronto girl's story touched an author's heart", Maclean's, 6 November 2000.
(39) From Sarah-Kate Templeton, "How Lolita inspired Harry Potter", The Sunday Herald, 21 May 2000:
Despite her recent reclusive behaviour, the author discloses that, all her life, she has been enchanted by the idea of large families. She says one of the motivations behind her Harry Potter books was the ability to create a big family for herself.
She says: "I have always been drawn to the idea of large families, even as a child The Harry Potter books were my chance to create my own, ideal big family, and my hero is never happier than when holidaying with the seven We(a)sleys."
(40) Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Part I, Chapter II, Section 2 - "The Meeting with the Goddess."
(41) Crystalinks, "Numerology: SEVEN".
(42) "Jewish Weddings".
(43) Aish.com, "Guide to the Jewish Wedding".
(44) Sanskrit.org, "Samskaras-Hindu Rites of Passage".
(45) Manataka American Indian Council, "American Indian Wedding Ceremonies".
(46) Avesta - Zoroastrian Archives, "Zoroastrian Rituals: Wedding".
(47) "Wedding Traditions".
(48) Special attention should be paid to the fifth day of The Chemical Wedding, when the hero descends into a sealed vault beneath the castle and sees a sleeping "Lady Venus" so pale and still he is unsure whether she is a statue or a human corpse. The parallels to Harry's experience in the Chamber of Secrets are unmistakable.
(49) Rev. Bette Jo Benner, "The Chemical Marriage," from The Spiritual Venturer, April 1999.
(50) Rev. Bette Jo Benner, "Parabola, Part 2," from The Spiritual Venturer, July 1999.