What Happens When Wizards DIE?: The Wizarding Afterlife - Harry Potter Explained
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. Today we’re 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?
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Thanks for watching! Check out my last 5 vids as well!
10 Things in Harry Potter Fans Can't Agree On: czcams.com/video/gOJ0YE1qwuA/video.html
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I got my comment before you btw
@@arunjoseph3256 very nice!
@@arunjoseph3256😊
They end up in limbo to roam as a disembodied ghost
One of J.R.R. Tolkien's contemporaries C.S. Lewis put it thusly, "The gates of Hell are locked from the inside." Shows how hanging onto those things that are inappropriate for Heaven because they'd make Heaven Hell. A place where "their thirst is not quenched and their worm does not die".
Listening to your calming voice became a bedtime habit
"Vol" can mean "flight" but also "theft". In Voldemort's case, it is to be understood as theft of death, not flight of death. Although a common pun in France is that Voldermort's arch nemesis is Atterrissagedevie (Landing of life)
I am glad this came out! As a classical philologist and cultural historian interested in religion, I am only happy to hear talking about these issues! I hope I will comment more substantially the video in the future!
Did you ever look into IRL witches beliefs in the afterlife? A lot of us worship our ancestors
As misanthropist, I dont know why i comment.
One thing is for certain Dobby went to Heaven 😎
Only if he accepted Jesus, and we don't see Jesus mentioned once in any book or film, and God is only mentioned in blasphemous ways "for God's sake" etc.
@@zoa1-99.......Oh my god, be quiet
@@Oscario2004 my God says no! Jesus is how you get to Heaven!
I have a theorie. What if dementors are just people hit by the killing curse. If your soul is gone when hit with Avada kedavra that means the body would have to be an empty shell. If the body became the form of a dementor and the reason dementors suck your soul is because they don’t have one
I consider 'limbo' in the Wizarding world to be the 'Hallows' as in Hallowed ground where you meet death and decide to move on or not
Thank you for this topic! I wondered how the Wizarding World might explain this. 👍🏻
Limbo sounds like hell alright, alone, forgotten and all others either pass you by or maybe return but non stay with you.
No acknowledgment you even exist anymore.
How did limbo go from being like Purgatory to a Caribbean party dance?
😂 I spat out my sprite in laughter
Omg hell no 🤣
I’m not sure if this has already been answered, but where did the other pieces of Voldemort’s soul go when each horcrux was destroyed? Do they linger on Earth, too weak to appear to the living? Are they divided in limbo?
My guess is that they were destroyed as well, and just sort of cease to exist
Seeing as how they affected Voldy and they were infused into the items themselves, damageable by only specific things, they were probably destroyed
Hi awesome job with the idea I was curious about this for a long time, can you explain or do a video on why Harry Potter did not come back as a ghost after limbo
But Mick was not restored so he couldn;t join the headless hunt .
1:12 This interpretation makes it more likely his name means “flight *from* death”. Flight *of* death is also a valid interpretation but Iʼd use it more for his penchant for killing people.
Sitting at a silent, solid white, empty train station for the rest of eternity sounds worse than hell, haha
If it sounds worse than Hell, it probably cos it IS Hell! Limbo = Hell.
In The Divine Comedy, or rather, Dante's Inferno, Limbo is the first of the Nine Circles of Hell.
Limbo is, according to the Inferno, meant for the unbaptized children and the virtuous pagans, those who have not converted to Christianity but who are otherwise virtuous people.
Would the ‘shades’ of the previous murders committed by Voldemort released by the priori incantatum be another way that those who are dead can commune with the living
Could it be that where Harry met Albus is a pre-limbo? Where people destined to limbo go and if they die they pass to limbo permanently?
I personally think in Harry Potter lore, after people die, they choose where to go, depending on the type of life they lived.
Ghosts chose to stay as such, people in limbo (or pre-limbo) can choose to stay in limbo, etc.
I think JKR wants to leave the idea that people after dying, leave their earthly bodies behind but their soul / spirit, is still sapient and makes choices in the afterlife (contrary to what many religions say, that the soul after death is controlled by god and the diety decides where to send it). 🤔
So souls that committed great evil and harm, they wouldn't face any kind of punishment for it?
@@nazimuddin5122 that's a good point, under this premise.
I think the punishment is that the soul gets fragmented when kiliing, maybe whole souls can transcend. BUT there's something about that theory, I just thought about it; the Bloody Baron. He killed Helena Reavenclaw and seems like his soul wasn't fragmented, since he could decide to be a ghost. 🤔
@@grec. Because He felt remorse... He wanted to let her choose Rest but couldnt make IT Happen even by becoming a Ghost which is what Most likely healed His Soul.
@@cedricsommerscave that's a good point. He regretted what he did immediately. It was an act of passion rather than malice.
@@cedricsommerscave That's a good point. Because unlike Voldemort, he regretted killing Helena but Voldemort never had any remorse for the people he killed nor for the ones he sent his deatheaters had killed.
They go into portraits and float the halls of buildings
coming from your wand video
What about perkatory isn't that where Voldemort is trapped in after splitting his soul so many times for all of those horcruxes
Yep
Limbo and Purgatory are two distinct areas.
Purgatory is temporary, essentially a waiting room, where souls are cleansed until they can go to Heaven.
Limbo is the first circle of hell (based on Dante's Inferno), where the punishment is not necessarily eternal damnation within the lower circles of hell, but instead are forever trapped in the bleak absence of God.
If ghosts can’t learn new things how does Nearly Headless Nick learn the new students names each year?
If the killing curse was to ripe out someone's soul, then that would make dementors lethal. Their kids sucks out a person's soul, leaving them an empty shell. The removal of the soul doesn't kill, so therefore that isn't how the killing curse ends life.
Interesting
Your second
Another interesting thing about the name Voldemort: it also means Death robbery in french
If you have unfinished business, what's the point of becoming a ghost if you can't influence things to finish your business?
Well... These are novels. Nothing more. There's a few things in them that don't make much sense.
Myrtle flooded the bathroom as a ghost, Helena Ravenclaw helped Harry find a horcrux, did you read the books/ watch the films?
Because those who choose to become ghosts aren't wise. Their judgement is clouded by their emotions
When I first read the title, I thought this was a video about Christianity
Gross.
Could Voldemort return as a ghost? He died in kind of normal way (not behind the veil) , had at least part of soul still, and definitely didn't want to move on
Well not necessarily. The difference between Voldemort and all the ghosts seen in the books is that their souls were whole and undamaged upon entering limbo, and Tom's soul was horrendously mutilated, ripped apart and hideously deformed, the result of creating his horcruxes. If his soul had been intact at the time of his demise, then yes, Tom Riddle could have (and probably would have) returned to the living world as a ghost; considering his efforts to avoid death, I think it makes sense for someone like that to return. Due to how badly disfigured his soul was, though, the ability to make that choice is forever lost to him. I'm starting to suspect that he is also unable to shape his surroundings the way Harry did. Harry wished for robes, then there they were. As he gained his bearings, his surroundings took on the appearance of King's Cross station. Riddle, though, or at least what was left of him, remained naked on the floor, seemingly unable to even give himself the simplest of garments. My theory is that when he finally died, he just found himself in a blank, silent, empty, featureless, mist-filled void of eternal nothingness, forever doomed to remain between the living world and the afterlife, unable to do anything to improve his situation, helplessly writhing in agony, with no one or nothing even making the slightest attempt to come to his aid. His only companion in this miserable pathetic state might just be his own thoughts. Knowing him, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume he would spend forever agonizing over what went wrong, not knowing or understanding just how badly and in how many ways he totally screwed himself over during his mortal life.
in french vol mean flight or theft so could be Theft of death
Death may be the big adventure, but if you ask me, it can wait
Indeed! 😂
I’ve always wondered, if the muggles have religion and worship a god, the wizards must have some kind of deity to worship too. Like Iluvatar in Lord Of The rings.
One of the ghosts in Hogwarts is confirmed to be Catholic (the Hufflepuff one, I think).
@@sevenrings9450 The ghost you refer to is the Fat Friar, whom by definition of the title is Catholic.
Yes they do. IRL they do have Gods. In the Harry Potter universe I don't remember any references to a God or Gods.
@@sevenrings9450 Catholics burn and kill witches and wizards so it makes no sense actually but okay
@@emanuelrrasi327 Christmas has nothing to do with christianity, christmas is a germanic and scandinavian tradition that christianty stole. Chrsitmas/ Yule is about death and rebirth, reincarnation, santa claus going thorugh the chimney/ vagina to be reincarnated. The reincarnated recieves material gifts of important items so that one may remember their past lives, it symbolises a lot more but aint got time to write it here
@harrypottertheory How can a ghost be incapable of learning new things if all the ghosts at Hogwarts learn the names of students and people etc well after they died. That to me would imply the learnt the names of people
I hope for the sake of all the Snapeheads out there that Sev found some form of peace in the afterlife. And I hope he saw Lily again; I know she would have wanted to thank him for all he had done to protect Harry and help him take Voldemort down permanently.
I think that the "limbo" where Harry meets Dumbledore and sees Voldemort's flayed Soul is a little different. I think JKR is a little wrong here, too. To me, Voldemort would end up in a place of suffering-purgatory or limbo or someplace in spooky, dangerous lower Astral Planet-while Harry and Dumbledore are in a way station. Here there's a choice to go on or go back. Limbo doesn't give you that choice and might be a place for lost Souls to wander forever or a very long time. Purgatory is a place where you pay for your sins and evils with pain and suffering, and when they are paid for, you are released. If Voldemort is in purgatory, he's got many deaths to atone for, including an army of inferi. He's going to be there for a long, long time.
I don't think the Fat Friar should have come back as a ghost. Unless he had some unfinished business, to me he could have gone to the way station but returned in a different physical body to interact with people.
In my religion Eckankar, this is a possible outcome of dying. If the Fat Friar's mission is to help people live spiritually, then coming back in a new body could be something he could choose to do and continue hiss mission to teach Hogwarts children from his unique point of view.
I think the limbo is different for each person. For Harry it was a place to choose between Death and Return, therefore it manifested as a place of travel he knew well - King's Cross.
To me, Limbo is quite a torment quite fitting to Voldemort.
He was deathly terrified of Death. The fear of Death is based on the fear of the unknown; he doesn't truly know what happens when he is to die. He is also very egotistical, obsessed with being recognized as special.
Voldemort's obsession with immortality is thus granted in the most ironic way; he is stuck in a form of solitary confinement. Unable to move, unable to escape, unable to be seen or interact with anyone.
Truly alone, but unable to pass on fully.
Sounds a bit like the fates of men in The Lord of the Rings. They go somewhere and a desire to linger on the earth is undesirable.
if they are not capable of learning new things how do they learn new students names ?
I wonder if snape got to at least see Lily in the afterlife? I’m sure James, Sirus and Lupin would be right there
I really hope so; you and I both know she would have wanted to thank him for all he had done to protect Harry.
I think a higher power will send Voldemort's soul to hell without anyone finding out, but it will happen. After all. The afterlife is of 3 parts. Heaven, Purgatory to do penance so u can go up, and Hell.
Muggles can come back as ghost 👻 👽 Casper Freddy kreuger the ghost 👻 in ghost 👻 busters Danny phantom 👻 etc.
What about the dead in the art?
That’s a great question! I wonder if HPTheory would have an answer for that? I nearly forgot about those who had died, being immortalized and cognizant inside the paintings (Like Ariana, the late headmasters’ portraits, and so forth). I want to know as well.
How does religion fit in with the wizardry world?
It Is easy to think that muggles usually believe in Christianity as well as other known religions but wizards could have their own beliefs and cults.
Or maybe they also believe in muggle religions. I mean many wizards are from muggle families and they could keep their beliefs when they first meet the magic world.
@eriksanchez5955 Ikr? So much un tapped material here.
Vol like in voleur means thief.
Wouldn’t Voldemort be a ghost after he died then? Since he’s stuck in limbo he can’t cross over.
So if Harry enters limbo how did he come back to a living being?
This is actually explained somewhere, but the gist of it is that Harry "mastered" death by both his sacrifice, the union of death's hallows and being a horcrux until his death.
Voldemort didn't actually damage Harry's soul, he hit his horcrux part and sent Harry out of his body.
Basically Harry's case is special because he was unknowingly invoking old magic. This combined into an ancient spell. So since his soul and body was still complete, allowed him to slightly reverse the cycle of life and death for himself.
If you pay attention, Dumbledore is actually trying to keep Harry's soul complete for this very reason.
I have long thought that Dumbledore knew of soul magic because his own soul was damaged and he was trying to atone for it. It would explain so much, even why he is in limbo too. He likely healed his soul but struggled to move on from his past because of the deep regret such healing requires.
Im like number 999 lol cool 😎
All dobbys go to heaven
😊🏜🌏🏕
😂😂😂😂 Dumberdore in hell mate 😂
Not unless he accepted Jesus, however, we don't see Jesus mentioned once in any book or film, and God is only mentioned in blasphemous ways "for God's sake" etc.
FIRST
Lol I am fifth
first
Your third
Real garbage !
Even in fantasy !