The Horror of Horcruxes - Harry Potter

Is there anyone in the Harry Potter world that we dislike (hate?) more than perhaps the much-maligned Professor Snape? Oh, yes, I think that Lord Voldemort must surely rank very high on our list. Well, this is rather interesting—and somewhat troubling—because Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, is very much like us.

All through his life, Tom Riddle makes choices, evil, disastrous choices, but the initial one, the formative one, was the one that would ultimately decide the course of his life and his final fate. It was his choice to ally himself with ‘the dark side’, to buy into it, rather than to go with what was life-giving and good and wholesome.

In a way, this is like the choice of our prehistoric forebearers, Adam and Eve, when they chose the way of the serpent over the way of God. (I don’t think that it is at all accidental that Rowling chose to give such a prominent place to snakes in Lord Voldemort’s life!) Our ancestors chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which stands for our decision-making ability, our ability to choose whichever we want when we want, our ability to actually begin to know, and then experience, good and evil for ourselves. They lost out on the Tree of Life, and yearned, strived, to regain it all of their lives.

In a very real way, this is exactly what Lord Voldemort yearned for, strived for, during all of his life. Indeed, it was in search of this immortality, this desire to master the forces of death and live forever that prompted his lifelong preoccupation with the creation of horcruxes.

Interestingly, this is where I find that Lord Voldemort and we are even more alike. Biblical scholars Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart remark that the ancient prophet Isaiah discovered a vital truth, namely that we become like the gods [or objects] that we worship. So, what did Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, worship? They are the six (or seven) things that he chose as his gods, as the objects for his horcruxes. It is worth noting that all of them were things of extreme value to himself, often of significant sentimental or historical value to either himself or the wizarding world.

a) Tom Riddle’s diary

-intimacy, belonging, but which eventually came to exert power over another person, in this case, Ginny Weasley. But it is easy to see how terribly attractive it was for Tom, the ultimate outsider, to finally have his life intertwined with another’s and to finally have some measure of belonging and control. But isn’t that very much like us?

The problem is: it never quite works, never measures up to expectations.

b) Marvolo Gaunt’s ring

-authority/ power; relationship/belonging. A ring, in old times, had some important symbolic meanings. It symbolized a delegated authority and power, and it denoted a treasured and valued relationship with someone of higher stature, often some sort of father figure. Voldemort, after the dismal track record with his own father, probably yearned for this, and yearned for some power and control in his seemingly useless and aimless life. And isn’t this, too, something that we often yearn for?

c) Salazar Slytherin’s locket (or amulet)

-protection/ power against evil, danger or disease. This, in olden times, was considered to have a power or influence that was more than could be explained in mere physical or material terms. We see this in Harry Potter when Dolores Umbridge and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger wore it, even if only for a short time. Voldemort knew the ins & outs of conventional magic, so does this not denote something of his desperation to tap into something more? To tap into something beyond the limitations of an earthly existence. Yes, this is something that we often want as well.

d) Helga Hufflepuff’s goblet

-celebration, status, honour. Given his lowly and troubled family background, this too was something that Tom Riddle felt dearly that he had long been denied, and now, seemingly as lord of all he surveyed, this would be something that he finally possessed.

e) Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem

-sovereignty, lordship, power: it is what kings and queens and people of high status were entitled to wear, and was this not what Lord Voldemort yearned for almost more than anything else. For him, right and wrong were irrelevant, meaningless. Only power mattered as far as he was concerned, and any lives, even those ‘on his side’, were expendable in his quest for it.

f) The snake, Nagini

-treachery, deceit, evil, death itself, a carrier of the ‘curse’ itself. It is fitting that his closest ‘friend’, his accomplice, a snake, that ancient symbol of evil and death, should be his final horcrux, the one that he prized and safeguarded above all else.

g) Harry Potter himself

-the sources appear conflicted as to whether Voldemort originally wanted six horcruxes, or seven. Certainly, Harry wasn’t an intended one. Indeed, it seems as if Godric Gryffindor’s sword was his first choice. However, in killing Harry’s parents, part of Voldemort’s soul became wedded to Harry, and so, Harry, quite unintentionally became the last and final horcrux.

In all this it is worth noting two things. Firstly, that in giving himself to each of these things, each of the things that constituted the gods of his life--his heartfelt needs and aspirations—Voldemort lost something of himself, a fragment of his own soul. He became more fragmented and less of a whole person. He thought that he was thereby staving off death, but in reality he was becoming all the more vulnerable. Any time one of his horcruxes was destroyed, he lost something of himself. And congruent to this, each time he constructed a horcrux, there was a death involved, not only of another person, but also part of himself.

And, is this not true for all of us? Any time we give ourselves to something, or invest ultimate value or worth, in something that is not really life-giving, not really life-sustaining, we lose something of ourselves, and surely die a little bit deep down inside ourselves. As Dumbledore once said, “the trouble is, humans do have the knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them” (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone p. 215).

Like Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, we yearn for something else. But, do we find it? That is something that Riddle never understood, or discovered, but we can. Just read ahead to the ‘next chapter’.