I have been reading Jacob Boehme's `The Way to Christ' and suddenly it began reminding me of Harry Potter. Do you remember this bit in Harry Potter?

   Dumbledore now swooped down on one of the fragile silver instruments whose function Harry had never known, carried it over to his desk, sat down facing them again and tapped it gently with the tip of his wand.

   The instrument tinkled into life at once with rhythmic clinking noises. Tiny puffs of pale green smoke issued from the minuscule silver tube at the top. Dumbledore watched the smoke closely, his brow furrowed. After a few seconds, the tiny puffs became a steady stream of smoke that thickened and coiled in the air … a serpent's head grew out of the end of it, opening its mouth wide. Harry wondered whether the instrument was confirming his story: he looked eagerly at Dumbledore for a sign that he was right, but Dumbledore did not look up.

   `Naturally, naturally,' murmured Dumbledore apparently to himself, still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of surprise. `But in essence divided?'

   Harry could make neither head nor tail out of this question. The smoke serpent, however, split itself instantly into two snakes, both coiling and undulating in the dark air. With a look of grim satisfaction, Dumbledore gave the instrument another gentle tap with his wand: the clinking noise slowed and died and the smoke serpents grew faint, became a formless haze and vanished.

That passage comes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the beginning of the St Mungo's Hospital chapter, after Harry has experienced himself as the snake which attacks Arthur Weasley in the Department of Mysteries. Here is the passage from `The Way to Christ', from `Of True Resignation', chapter III:

7. There is an eternal contrariety between darkness and light; neither of them comprehendeth the other, and neither of them is the other; and yet there is only one essence, being or substance, wherein they both subsist. But there is a difference in quality and will; yet the essence or substance is not divided, but a principle maketh the division. So that the one is a nothing in the other, and yet it is there, but not manifest in the property of that thing wherein it is.

He carries on in a passage that further describes darkness, or Lord Voldemort:

8. For the devil continued in his own dominion or principality, not indeed that wherein God created him, but in the aching, painful birth of eternity, in the centre of nature and the property of wrath, in the property which begetteth darkness, anguish and pain. Indeed he is a prince in the place of his world, but in the first principle, in the kingdom of darkness, in the pit or abyss.

9. Not in the kingdom of the sun, stars and elements; he is no lord or prince there, but in the wrathful part, viz. in the root of the evil of every thing; and yet he hath no power to do what he pleases with that.

10. For there is some good in every thing, which holdeth the evil captive and shut up in the thing; but he can walk and rule only in the evil part or property; when it stirreth up an evil desire in itself, and bringeth its desire into wickedness. This indeed the inanimate creatures cannot do, but man can do it through the inanimate creature, if he bring the centre of his will, with the desire out of the eternal centre into it, which is the ground of enchantment, or false magic. The will of the devil can also enter into that evil whereinto man bringeth the desire of his soul, which is born also out of the eternal nature.

Further on in chapter III, he gives a synopsis of the Harry Potter story. Here we see Lily and her fate, the birth of Harry, his stoicism, his innocence and purity, his simplicity, his submission to Dumbledore's will – becoming Dumbledore's man – his saving people thing and his role as Seeker:   

A man must wrestle till the dark centre, that is shut up close, break open, and the spark lying therein kindle; and from thence immediately the noble lily-branch sprouteth as from the divine grain of mustard-seed, as Christ saith. A man must pray earnestly, with great humility, and for a while become a fool in his own reason, and see himself void of understanding therein, until Christ be formed in this new incarnation.

And then when Christ is born, Herod is ready to kill the child, which he seeketh to do outwardly by persecutions, and inwardly by temptations, to try whether this lily-branch will be strong enough to destroy the kingdom of the devil, which is manifested in the flesh.

Then this destroyer of the serpent is brought into the wilderness, after which he is baptised with the Holy Spirit, and tempted and tried whether or not he will continue in resignation to the will of God. In which temptation he must stand so fast, that, if need require, he would leave all earthly things, and even the outward life, to be a child of God.

No temporal honour must be preferred before the filiation. But he must with his own will leave and forsake it all, and not account it his own, but esteem himself as a servant only in it, who is to obey his master. He must leave all wordly propriety. We do not mean that he may not have or possess anything; but his heart must forsake it, and not bring his will into it, nor count it his own. For if he setteth his heart upon it, he hath no power to serve with it them that stand in need.

Self is but a slave to its temporal possessions, but resignation hath rule over all that is under it. Self must do what the devil will have it do in fleshly voluptuousness and pride of life; but resignation treadeth it all under with the feet of the mind. Self despiseth that which is lowly and simple; but resignation sitteth down with the lowly in the dust. It saith, 'I will be simple in myself, and understand nothing, lest my understanding should exalt itself and sin. I will lie down in the courts of my God at his feet, that I may serve my Lord in that which he commandeth me. I will know nothing of myself, that the will and power of my Lord may lead and guide me, and that I may only do what God doth through me, and will have done by me. I will sleep in myself until the Lord awaken me with his spirit; and if he will not, then I will look up to him in silence, and wait his commands.

Beloved brethren, men at this time boast of much faith; but where is it to be found? The modern faith is but history. Where is that child, which believeth that Jesus is born? If that child were in being, and did believe that Jesus is born, it would also draw near to the sweet child Jesus, and receive him and nurse him.

Alas! The faith of this day is but historical, a mere assent to the matter of fact that Jesus Christ lived and died, that the Jews killed him, that he left this world, and is not King on earth in the outward man; but that men may do what they list, and need not die from sin, and their evil lusts. All this the wicked child, self, rejoiceth in, that it may fatten the devil by living deliciously.

This sheweth plainly that true faith was never weaker since Christ's time, than it is now. When nevertheless the world crieth aloud, and saith, 'We have got the true faith'; and contend about a child, with a contention than which there was never worse since men were on earth.

If thou art truly Zion, and hast that new-born child which was lost and is found again, then let it be seen in power and virtue. Let us all openly see the sweet child Jesus brought forth by thee, and that thou art his nurse. If not, then the children in Christ will say, thou hast found nothing but the cradle of the child, that is, the history.

Where hast thou the sweet child Jesus, thou that art so exalted with the history, and with thy false and seeming faith? O how will the child Jesus visit thee one day in the Father's property, the property of anger, in thy own turba (mischief or hurt) which thou hast fatted! It calleth thee now in love, but thou wilt not hear, for thine ears are stopped with covetousness and voluptuousness. Therefore, the sound of the trumpet shall one day alarm thee with the hard thunderclap of thy turba, and rouse thee up, if haply thou wilt then seek and find the sweet child Jesus.

Beloved brethren, this is a time of seeking, of seeking and of finding. It is a time of earnestness; whom it toucheth, it toucheth home. He that watcheth shall hear it and see it; but he that sleepeth in sin, and saith in the fat of his belly, 'All is peace and quiet; we hear no sound from the Lord,' shall be blind. But the voice of the Lord hath sounded in all the ends of the earth, and a smoke riseth, and in the midst of the smoke there is a great brightness and splendour. Hallelujah. Amen.

Shout unto the Lord in Zion, for all the mountains and hills are full of his glory; he flourisheth like a green branch, and who shall hinder it? Hallelujah.

`Neither can live while the other survives' comes in the next part, in the first chapter of `Of the Super-Sensual Life'.

If you would like to read further, the whole of `The Way to Christ' is published on the internet at 

http://www.passtheword.org/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/waychrst.htm

I found the first book (50 large text pages in my copy, from Kessinger Publishing) the hardest going, but well worth persevering with. It needs concentration and some repeated re-reading of individual paragraphs to get on his wavelength and to absorb what he is saying. The first book equates to the fifth Harry Potter book, and that's why it is as painful to read in places as the equivalent episode of Harry's story. The second book equates to the sixth Harry Potter book, and the third book is a question and answer session, and they are both easier to read, but much easier to comprehend the meaning of once you have read the first book.

Chris, now off to read the fourth book online