On August 23 of last year the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text began reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is my least favorite book in the series. Reading one chapter a week meant the podcast wrapped up the book on June 20, and after steeping in the story for ten months, I like it a little more.
In a previous post I mentioned that I read and listen along with my best friend. She’s been busy this spring with a new job, so I’ve been doing one of the podcast’s primary spiritual reading practices on my own: lectio divina.
Lectio divina is a Christian monastic practice that reads the bible as living word, focusing on one sentence at a time. Harry Potter and the Sacred Text invites us to do the same with J.K. Rowling’s text. It’s a way to read deeply by focusing narrowly. How much meaning can one sentence hold?
In the Writing Toward Joy workshop we read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time this way and did group lectio divina in our discussions. The practice not only helped us read more closely but also leave each discussion with a personal connection to the story.
For the final chapter of Order of the Phoenix, “The Second War Begins,” I chose this sentence:
According to Madame Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else, though since she had started applying copious amounts of Dr. Ubbly’s Oblivious Unction, there seemed to be some improvement.”
Lectio asks us to read the text four ways, and the four that the podcast uses are Narrative, Allegory, Contemplation, and Invitation. I chose this sentence because I adore Rowling’s names for things in the magical world, like this ointment.
Here’s my deep dive:
Narrative (what’s happening in the story): This part happens in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, where Madame Pomfrey is treating everyone’s ailments sustained in the battle at the Ministry of Magic. Ron was attacked by brains, and this sentence is about her treatment of his internal injury, which is different than everyone else’s.
Allegory (what the sentence reminds you of): “Oblivious” makes me think of the spell “obliviate,” a forgetfulness charm, that obliviates memories. Gilderoy Lockhart used it all too well in book 2. Then “unction” means anointing, usually in a religious context.
Put them together, and you get a healing for thought-scarring that involves both taking away and giving anew. That feels relevant to addressing internal maladies.
Contemplation (how the sentence applies to the story & how it applies to life): For the story, this book revealed Ron’s penchant for jealousy. It’s low-key here, but really amps up in book 7, against Harry. Now I’m wondering if this attack on Ron’s brain weakened him, made him vulnerable in a way he might not have been otherwise, turning his pettiness into rage.
For life, I’m so grateful to have a (fictional) medical professional acknowledge that “thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else.” Sometimes it’s not the trauma but the thoughts about the trauma that do the most damage.
Invitation (call to action): When my kids were babies we kept a jar of Dr. Smith’s diaper rash ointment at the changing table. I’d like to have a jar of something I could rub on my temples when thoughts begin to re-scar. Alas, this Muggle world has no Dr. Ubbly’s, but perhaps a jar of Therapy Cream made from lavender oil extracted from the fields at Becker Vineyards, which I spied when I was there on Saturday, might not hurt. I suspect Madame Pomfrey would encourage me to give it a go.
Taking the abstract concept of mental health down to the specific level of Dr. Ubbly’s makes me think differently about the subject. For example, I’m curious as to how Madame Pomfrey applies this ointment — directly to Ron’s head? Did she shave his head for better penetration? How much is “copious”? More broadly, to what degree is touch healing? And if it is, what kind, and how, and how much or how little, and do we need a smooth surface or will Dr. Ubbly’s also make our hair bright and lustrous?
All that from a single sentence, simply because I took the time. In Reader Come Home, Dr. Maryanne Wolf says, “The quality of how we read any sentence or text depends, however, on the choices we make with the time we allocate to the processes of deep reading, regardless of medium.”
You can allocate that time as well, using any sentence from any book. Read it four ways, whether it’s an academic tome or a fantasy. Find some improvement in your reading experience.
June Pages
Finished
Poetry
The Sky Is Always in the Sky, Karla Kuskin, illus. Isabelle Dervaux
Did Adam Name the Vinegarroon?, X. J. Kennedy, illus. Heidi Johanna Selig
Adult
Midnight in Chernobyl, Adam Higginbotham (another Science Friday rec, read after watching the HBO series)
Circe, Madeline Miller (highly recommend the audiobook)
Early Readers and Picture Books
(both the poetry books are also picture books)
Middle Grade and YA
The Turtle of Oman, Naomi Shihab Nye
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Sliced & Diced
A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin
Made Progress
Goodbye to a River, John Graves (memoir, published 1959)
Your Turn
1. The Harry Potter books are middle grade to YA, as Harry grows—what is the last book you’ve read from this section of the library?
2. The entire series has been among the most-banned for over 20 years. (Well done, J.K. Rowling!) Have you ever read a banned book? If not, what’s stopping you?
3. Did you make some time for deep reading this month? What stories stirred your soul?
4. Share your June pages. Sliced, started, and abandoned are all fair game.
Photo by Jonathan Mueller, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome.
“Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry is not a long book, but it took me longer to read than I expected, because I kept stopping to savor poems and passages, to make note of books mentioned, and to compare Willome’s journey into poetry to my own. The book is many things. An unpretentious, funny, and poignant memoir. A defense of poetry, a response to literature that has touched her life, and a manual on how to write poetry. It’s also the story of a daughter who loses her mother to cancer. The author links these things into a narrative much like that of a novel. I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”
—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro
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Glynn says
I hadn’t thought of using lectio divina for the Harry Potter books, but I have on occasion created Harry Potter-like book titles to describe a photograph, an event, or what have you. (The picture for this article, for example, might be “Megan Willome and the Sacred Waterfall.”)
The last YA novel I read was “The 1000-Year-Old Boy” by Ross Welford. As for banned books, the one I’ve read that comes immediately to mind is “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.
Books read in June:
Mystery
The Comedy Club Mystery by Peter Bartram
His Hand in the Storm by Ritu Sethi
Kill Me Why by Ritu Sethi
Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin
Fiction
A Twist of Faith by Pepper Basham
Second Impressions by Pepper Basham
Soldiers Heart by Michele McMcKnight Baker
To Be a Queen by Annie Whitehead (if you like historical fiction, this one’s a winner – an imagined story of a real Anglo-Saxon queen)
Poetry
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
Paradox by Incognito
Kingdomland by Rachael Allen
The Last Visit by Chad Abushanab
As for deep dives, I’m reading Mark Haddon’s “The Porpoise” right now. Haddon is best known for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” I’ve also read his “The Red House,” The Pier Falls: Stories,” and “A Spot of Bother.” Haddon writes serious literary fiction, usually about families, that reads like a can’t-put-it-down thriller (the title story in “The Pier Falls” is one of the most gripping stories I’ve read). I’m not exactly sure how he does it, but it’s fascinating.
Megan Willome says
I need to read more Mark Haddon because Curious Incident is so good. Thanks for the tip on “The Pier Falls.” I love the variety of your reads each month.
And I love the title you gave to the photograph I chose. There’s a body of water on one of our favorite bike rides that we refer to as The Sacred Lake (from E.M. Forster’s “A Room with a View”), but it’s actually just a creek that’s been dammed. But it’s lined with cypress trees and is really lovely, especially now, when it’s full.
Glynn says
I realized part of how Haddon writes serious fiction like a crime thriller. He writes in the present tense, or at least he does in “The Porpoise.” It gives a sense of immediacy, of things happening quickly.
Megan Willome says
Hmm, a very YA technique.
Sandra Heska King says
What a great sentence to dive deep into. As you know. I’ve always kind of avoided Harry Potter books. As you also know, you’ve inspired me to eventually read them all.
Glynn says
Sandra Heska King and the Python of Doom.
Megan Willome says
Sandra Heska King and the Evil Iguana.
Sandra Heska King says
Too funny! Except last night I *did* have an iguana dream— two giant ones attacking two giant ones in the water and they all rose up together, one each on another’s shoulder and came after me as one as I ran down a dock. Evil iguana indeed!
No pythons of doom… yet.
Laura Lynn Brown says
What a great sentence to dive deep into. Choosing sentences from “A Wrinkle in Time” each week and doing lectio with them were highlights of our readings and meetings for me.
I’ll keep pondering your thoughts on ointment use and preventing thoughts from re-scarring. I had a dream a week or two ago about a foreign word that started with E, I think, and meant something like an active and benevolent forgetting of a particular memory.
Reading, recently (some completed, some in progress, some on pause):
Nonfiction
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, Pam Houston
Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren
The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom et al
The Book of Delights, Ross Gay
Be With Me Always: Essays, Randon Billings Noble
World Gone Beautiful, Linda Buturian (reread)
On Looking: Essays, Lia Purpura (partial reread)
On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation, Alexandra Horowitz
An American Childhood, Annie Dillard (reread)
On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry (reread)
Poetry
Croning, Paula Martin (short and physically small, but, like a Tardis, larger on the inside)
The Self as Constellation, Jeanine Hathaway
Hard to classify:
On Homesickness: A Plea, Jesse Donaldson
How Is Travel a Folded Form? Erika Howsare
Megan Willome says
Laura, I love your Tardis comment.
Maybe the reason I don’t classify my lists by genre is that some books, like the last two you mention, are hard to classify.
And I’m so glad you enjoyed all our sacred reading practices with Madeleine L’Engle’s clasic.
Katie says
Laura, I’ve also been reading Liturgy of the Ordinary. Tish Warren shares such a profound truth in her closing sentence to Chapter 5: “In Christ there will always be enough for us, with so much left over.”
Another title I’ve been enjoying is Michelle DeRusha’s True You: Letting Go of Your False Self to Uncover the Person God Created. So like this quote she shares at the start of Chapter 4: “God comes to me where I live and loves me where I am. If I am not where I am, God cannot meet me.” Brennan Manning
Megan Willome says
Katie, isn’t it fun when the various things you’re reading start to talk with each other? It’s like opening a whole other conversation. Happy reading!