Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today we’re going to be discussing the Wizarding Afterlife- taking a closer look at what exactly
happens to witches and wizards when they die.
The line between the living and the dead is unquestionably a blurry one in Harry Potter.
This is reinforced by the prevalence of beings that skirt these two planes of existence-
Ghosts and Dementors are some of the first that come to mind.
And with these blurred lines, the topic of death (which is also a key thematic element
in Harry Potter) becomes even more alluring.
In fact, one of the main messages of the Harry Potter books is that death is NOT absolute.
It’s also reinforced that it’s not anything we should be worrying about.
We’re continually reminded that death is simply a part of LIFE, and that rather than
obsessing over it we should instead shift our focus on seeking love and friendship-
enjoying the time that we do have.
Voldemort infamously tried to evade death - which is why his name is aptly derived from
the french ‘vol-de-mort’ meaning ‘flight of death’.
But the lesson the books teach surrounding the inevitability of death is one that never
quite resonated with our immortality-obsessed antagonist.
Rather than embrace life at it’s own pace, Voldemort devised all sorts of plans to achieve
the ever-elusive goal of immortality.
On a side note- there are actually FIVE methods of achieving immortality in Harry Potter.
If you’re curious about them, check out my video ‘all 5 methods of immortality in
Harry Potter’.
So life and death have blurred lines- but what exactly does that mean?
What happens to a witch or wizard when they die?
Why do some become ghosts?
Is there an AFTERLIFE?
The Soul
The first thing we need to focus on is the existence of the SOUL- that is, the lifeforce
by which corporeal and incorporeal form can be distinguished.
The existence of a ‘Soul’ is a somewhat abstract concept, which means it’s hard
to define.
However, the generally accepted concept of a ‘Soul’ is that it’s a kind of immaterial
spiritual essence- an actuating cause of an individual’s life.
It’s what makes us tick- and it certainly has no ‘scientific’ explanation.
It’s the ‘soul’ that Dementors feed on, it’s pieces of ‘soul’ that Voldemort
imparts into objects and it’s the ‘soul’ that Avada Kedavra (purportedly) rips out
of the body.
The ‘soul’ is what keeps our corporeal form earthbound, and that’s why it plays
a significant role in the conversation surrounding the wizarding ‘afterlife.
“You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still
working.
But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no . . . anything.
There’s no chance at all of recovery.
You’ll just — exist.
As an empty shell.
And your soul is gone forever . . . lost.”
Harry Potter very much perpetuates the idea that ultimately, the physical body is merely
a ‘shell’- a vessel that merely transports the vital life force within, and because the
soul is immaterial- it exists forever.
It’s also reinforced that unless you live a particularly cursed existence (like Voldemort)
then the soul won’t be affected by death and the subsequent exit from the mortal realm.
"Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldn't damage
your soul at all."
"Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," said Ron.
Harry laughed.
"It should be, actually!
But my point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched,"
said Hermione.
In fact, it seems as though (in most cases) quite the opposite happens- with the soul
becoming ‘vitalized’ or ‘purified’ and reverting the individual back to their
prime state.
This is reinforced through Harry’s interaction with the souls of his loved ones in the Forbidden
Forest.
“Sirius was tall and handsome, and younger by far than Harry had seen him in life.
He loped with an easy grace, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.
Lupin was younger too, and much less shabby, and his hair was thicker and darker.
He looked happy to be back in this familiar place, scene of so many adolescent wanderings.”
In the case of Voldemort, however, he wasn’t so lucky:
“Harry turned slowly on the spot, and his surroundings seemed to invent themselves before
his eyes.
He had spotted the thing that was making the noises.
It had the form of a small, naked chi*ld, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough,
flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed
out of sight, struggling for breath”
Though many interpreted the ‘ch*ild’ on the floor of Kings Cross to be representative
of the soul fragment expelled from Harry’s body, it turns out it was actually representative
of the ‘current’ state of Voldemort’s soul:
“What exactly was the mutilated baby-like creature Harry saw at King's Cross in chapter
35 of 'Hallows'?”
“I’ve been asked this a LOT.
It is the last piece of soul Voldemort possesses.”
Ok, so you die and (presumably) your soul vacates your physical body.
What happens NEXT?
As it would appear- Witches and Wizards actually get to choose their fate- deciding between
moving on to the afterlife or remaining in the world of the living.
However, there is a catch to remaining in the mortal realm- you won’t possess any
kind of PHYSICAL form.
The decision to return to the world of the living can be reflected by GHOSTS in Harry
Potter, who make the choice to return to the mortal plane usually due to ‘unfinished
business’.
However- here’s the thing about remaining as a ghost- you are just a shell of your former
self- kind of similar to the shades produced by the resurrection stone.
You aren’t alive and you aren’t dead- which means that you can never truly ‘move
on’- it’s a bit of an empty existence.
Per Pottermore:
“Muggles cannot come back as ghosts, and the wisest witches and wizards choose not
to.
It is those with ‘unfinished business’, whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets
or overt attachment to the material world who refuse to move on to the next dimension.”
Should a ghost choose to remain in the land of the living due to this ‘unfinished business’,
they should expect a very different existence than what they had during their mortality.
The existence of a ghost is rather shunted- as they are no longer able to derive any kind
of physical pleasure , nor are they capable of learning new things.
The WORST part of being a ghost, however, is that they harbour resentments that they
had from their mortality for the remainder of their existence-rendering them entirely
incapable of moving past things.
This sounds more and more like a bad decision.
Ok, so some make the decision to return, but- where exactly do they make this decision?
Limbo
After being killed by Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, Harry found himself in a place filled
with mist that looked like Kings Cross Station.
But this place wasn’t King’s Cross at all, it was limbo.
Limbo, in many religions, can be described as ‘the border place between heaven and
hell’ - a place where lost souls go before moving on to the afterlife.
It’s a place where one is neither dead nor alive, a place that’s often perceived as
a ‘forgotten or ignored place’.
Many different religions/cultures view limbo differently, however- one aspect of limbo
is consistent across all of them - it’s not somewhere that you want to be.
Most outline that limbo is the place that a recently deceased person can make a choice:
move on to the afterlife or return to the world as a ghost- which is consistent with
Harry Potter, however, JK Rowling ALSO stated that limbo was somewhere you could be trapped
if your soul was damaged.
JK Rowling confirmed in an interview that because Voldemort had destroyed his soul with
Horcruxes, he would be permanently stuck there - a place that interestingly enough would
have been a stark reminder of Voldemort’s formative years when he was left at Wool’s
Orphanage as a baby.
And with 2 out of the 3 options for lost souls already discussed- purgatory in limbo or returning
to the world of the living as a ghost- all that’s left is the FINAL destination-
The Afterlife
When discussing the process of becoming a ghost with Harry, Nearly Headless Nick goes
on to state that very few wizards would choose the path he chose- implying that there is
some form of life after death- an option OTHER than returning to the mortal realm.
This is again reinforced through the existence of open channels of communication between
the land of the living and the land of the dead, namely the ‘Veil’ and the ‘Resurrection
Stone’.
In fact, in the presence of the Veil (which is considered as a sort of gateway between
the land of living and dead) Luna, Harry, Ginny and Neville were all entranced- hearing
the voices of their deceased loved ones from beyond.
"He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on
the other side of the archway.
Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there; all
that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil."
And via the Resurrection Stone Harry was able to quite clearly communicate with ‘shades’
of lost loved ones- implying that they do exist..Somewhere.
The ‘afterlife’ in Harry Potter is never clearly defined, but what IS clear is that
it’s the best place you can go upon dying- an idyllic place akin to a state of ‘Nirvana’.
Here, your soul lives on it’s ‘purified’ state in a place with all of the other souls
that made the same decision to ‘move on’- a place where it’s subjects are released
from the cycle of death and rebirth.
We know that the wizarding world is aware of the concept of hell, as Neville Longbottom
once references it, but if Voldemort’s fate is anything to go by- then remaining in Limbo
is likely the Wizarding World equivalent.
And that’s it for this video!
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Until next time
Remember
To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure