Expecto Patronum

Reflection #83: True power comes when we do only what we see the Father do

In The Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter learns to protect himself from the terrifying soul sucking specters called dementors with the difficult expecto patronum charm. The key to successfully casting this charm is choosing the correct state of mind by focusing on a happy memory. At first, Harry fails, but then he chooses a more powerful memory and succeeds spectacularly.

Professor Lupin praises Harry:

“Well done, Harry. Well done! And just so you know, Harry, I think you'd have given your father a run for his money. And that is saying something.”

Harry replies:

“I was thinking of him.”

I was thinking of him. Harry chose to focus his mind upon his father, a man he never truly knew, yet still, he feels the love of his father, and he feels his love for his father, despite the fact his only memory of the man might have been his imagination. His patronus even takes the shape of a stag – the same his father’s had been.

Later in the story, in the most desperate hour, when surrounded by a large group of real attacking dementors, Harry astonishes everyone by issuing a supremely powerful stag patronus which protects them all from a fate worse than death. The dementors were no match for the power of his love for his father, a poetic symbol of our love for the heavenly Father.

Harry Potter casting the Patronus Charm by Elias Neo, Digital Art, Courtesy Elias Neo — Learn More on DeviantArt

Expecto Patronum comes from the latin word expecto which means to expect, to wait, or to long for. And the word patronum which relates to the roman idea of a patron, a protector, a father figure. The word patron is etymologically related to the latin word for father, pater.

Expecto Patronum is to expect help from the loving Father. It is to love, have faith in, and to long for, the Father’s protection.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for love is ahavah, אהבה in the Hebrew alphabet, made up of the Hebrew letters Aleph, Hey, and Beyt, each of which has its own meaning. The Aleph means something like, “the oneness of God, the father.” The Hey means something like, “look, behold, here is.” And the Beyt means something like, “the house of, family.” So a loose attempt to translate the Hebrew word for love would be something like: God, the Father, reveals his oneness, for all to behold through his house, his children¹. The expecto patronum issues forth through love.

For a spell of protection, a fictionalized version of prayer, to have any true power, our mind, emotions, and soul must all agree in focused attention and intention. All three aspects of our being must, in their own way, “speak” the words together.

Simply saying the words aloud is not enough. That is why Harry fails in a later book to successfully kill with the Avada Kedavra curse. Thankfully, the goodness of Harry’s soul contained too much light to truly intend death upon even the most evil Death Eater. In that case, his words were empty.

For the spell to be effective, the vibrations on the physical, the emotional and the spiritual planes must be in complete synchronization and harmony. For the father’s protection, expecto patronum, our three-fold will must be in harmony with the loving Father's will.

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." — Roald Dahl

Jesus said he could do nothing except what he saw the Father do.

“the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” — John 15:9

When Christ longed for the Father's help, as a being in complete harmony with the Father in every way, no power was beyond his grasp.

“Lazarus come forth" he commanded, longing for, expecting through faith, for the Father, protector, to drive away even the darkness of death. And Lazarus walked out of his tomb.

Expecto Patronum.

Harry, through a magical time turner, saw the future where his father issued an unbelievably powerful patronus to protect his friends, but when the moment actually arrived, Harry realized that though he had seen his father, it had really been an extension of the father’s power through himself.

And so, Harry finally found the full measure of his patronus’ power as he focused his internal spiritual eye, the lamp of his body, upon the longing he felt for his father’s protection. This thought filled his body, mind and soul with love. He saw his father through himself. He and his father were, in that moment, through love, as one. That was the moment Harry finally tapped the full power to do what he had first seen the father do.

With full expectation, longing, and complete faith in the father’s love, through himself, he pronounced "expecto." Then he called out to him for help, for protection for which he proclaimed, “patronum!"

Expecto Patronum!

The tremendous energy of this tripartite faithful power – physical, emotional, and spiritual – issued forth, with the loving power of the father, the patron, like a stag, and galloped toward the dementors — symbols of anxious egoistic dementing doubts that torment us all.

And thus, the dementors that previously seemed so powerful to his ego, were cast away by the Father’s loving power as laughably irrelevant; they were thrown into outer darkness, unable with their feeble, illusory power, to penetrate the blinding light, truth, and life of The Father’s loving protection issuing forth from the divine singularity deep within the well of Harry’s soul.

Expecto Patronum.

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.” — Sigmund Freud

Harry Casting the Stag Patronus, Illustration by Jim Kay from the official illustrated novel

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Referenced Posts:

The God Spell
“Love to you Clint in exposing truth to readers. Very well thought out words, sifted through the mind and soul of that one known as Clintavo, that one small but unique piece of the holistic puzzle called life.” — Louanne Headrick

The Gravity of Love
“Yes - we all have a gravitational pull to one another, and we'd be much better off if we wouldn't resist it.” — Donald Wayne White

The Unthinkable Has Happened
A reflection upon the dementors in my mind.

The Divine Singularity in our Core
“Beautiful and deep reflections from the void - your writings are so inspiring and thank you for sharing my artwork with this one particularly!!!! Keep shining <3” — Laura Krusemark

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1. I’m no Hebrew expert so my attempted translation of אהבה could certainly be somewhat incorrect, but I think directionally it gives the right idea.