Tarot in the Harry Potter Series (Warning! Spoilers and Speculation about Book 7)

On J.K. Rowling's site she has given fans the title of Book 7 in her Harry Potter series. If you don't want to know yet.....back out now!
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It is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I find this title very interesting and has me thinking about the 4 Hallows of Arthurian legend and how those 4 hallows correspond to the 4 suits of the Tarot. I kept wondering if the phrase "deathly hallows" is just another way of referring to Harry's quest to find the 4 remaining horcruxes. There is a lot of speculation that these 4 horcruxes (pieces of soul hidden in 4 different objects) that Harry is going to have to find and destroy in Book 7 correspond to the 4 suits to the Tarot (and the 4 houses of Hogwarts.)

This makes a lot of sense to me since there was one significant reference to Tarot in Book 6 where Professor Trewlawney read Tarot cards and the Tower card came up. Plus, there is also the Hanged Man Pub in the series. I also see a lot of the characters fitting a lot of the major arcana as well.


Any other tarot connections that you can make to the Harry Potter series? And does anyone know if there are any threads here about the 4 Arthurian Hallows and their connections to Tarot?

Interesting speculation. I hope she hurries up and finishes it!

Though slightly off subject, I find the lack of respect for divination ironic in the HP books. I'm not saying that Rowling doesn't respect divination--but rather the magical community in the books doesn't. Nearly every character in HP finds divination to be a bogus and less-reliable form of magic.

I find this strange because the "real world" subscribes to divination more than any other form of magic. Astrology, Tarot, I-Ching--you name it. Mainstream society is saturated with divination--yet in HP, the magical people couldn't care less about it. Why do you think that is? Is Rowling trying to make a point about Magic in the "real world?"

Trelawney is viewed as a lune, a mental case. Yet she seems to be right-on about everything. I like that. With out Trelawney, the HP books just wouldn't work.

With Trelawney, I always get the feeling that its the stereotype that Rowling seems to poke fun out of... even in the magical world, Trelawney seems to put it on a bit, and like most of us here, it might seem that she is trying to overcompensate for her lack of substance. Oh the crystals and the incense... creating the right vibes and wailing off into trances lol.
However, she reminds me that the things we say and see, dont always mean what we think they mean, that we should leave our impressions and judgements away from our divination work.

But, I mean, whats reading a few tarot cards when you could be facing Lord Voldemort... or being at the Quidditch world cup!

I dunno if the Tower card was being symbolic or literal in regards to Dumbeldore though. Both in a sense.

Personally i think Harry is a Horucrux. Seeing Voldermort has already scarred him. It just makes sense. But who really knows. We have to wait and see.

Muser257 said:

Personally i think Harry is a Horucrux. Seeing Voldermort has already scarred him. It just makes sense. But who really knows. We have to wait and see.

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Ah! Interesting.....and they all have to be destroyed.....

Indeed. I always thought he was a Horcrux for Voledmort. But a friend has suggested maybe for his parents.... ??

Parceltongue

Also, we were told in Book 2; the reason Harry can speak Parceltongue (without having learned it), is that having been touched by V-he who must not be named, Harry was given some of V----t's abilities/powers. Why not a peice of his (V's) soul?

On the other hand, everyone KNOWS that Ron is going to have to hook up with Hermynie; and so, why not Jennie (Weasley) and Harry? It's a quandry, who lives, who dies.

SittingIdiot said:

On the other hand, everyone KNOWS that Ron is going to have to hook up with Hermynie;

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I always felt that this connection was awfully overemphasised by the movies - we all need a potential love story to sell a movie.
I feel that sort of burning blushing between the two of them, but its all very underhand and yet very old married couple-like in the books. Or maybe its because in the books I want to read the story, the magic and that awful discovery and working out who we are - not some sloppy teenage romance...

maybe I need to give these books a thorough re-reading

FaerieStorm said:

Though slightly off subject, I find the lack of respect for divination ironic in the HP books. I'm not saying that Rowling doesn't respect divination--but rather the magical community in the books doesn't. Nearly every character in HP finds divination to be a bogus and less-reliable form of magic.

I find this strange because the "real world" subscribes to divination more than any other form of magic. Astrology, Tarot, I-Ching--you name it. Mainstream society is saturated with divination--yet in HP, the magical people couldn't care less about it. Why do you think that is? Is Rowling trying to make a point about Magic in the "real world?"

Click to expand...

Well the way I look at it is the exact opposite. I mean, in Harry's world you can fly a broom, put on an invisibility cloak, attend an amazing wizardry school that is a castle in some unknown region of England. You can create magic with a wand, turn into a cat, own dragons and be chased by oversized spiders! In a nutshell, Harry's world is a make-believe world-one of fantastic. It is fun, but it is make-believe. Whereas things like Astrology, I-Ching, Runes, Tarot, have been around for ages and DO belong in the real world. Even Christianity began with the following of a star and all the signs pointing to an arrival of a counterpart on Earth, the birth of a mighty King, and none of it is smirked at by the various denominations. But, no matter what any of us believe, we can't fly a broom! Which actually sounds like a great deal of fun and what a break on traffic!