"Harry Potter" and the Practices of Pagan

Hogwarts Legacy, what a game this will be....

If it ever comes out.

This game is delayed to 2022 due to Covid-19/Coronavirus, and is being targeted by numerous problems in its wake (JK Rowling's Transphobia and, now a Youtube channel from a designer who was fired). Yet, it is the biggest "Harry Potter" title to date. That is apart from the, now finished filming, Fantastic Beasts III. But we the fans are still wanting to play it, and we the fans are still talking about it. I did talk about the game before, and in the matter of this blog, I mentioned the below image before.

This picture, or shot, is from the only trailer to be released, which shows a man in some old garb and, most notably, an animal mask. This shot is not the only shot in the trailer to show this. One showed the player fighting another with the mask, who is most likely the same character, unless..... we are talking of a cult.

The story seems to be focusing on an awakened old magic, an ancient magic, that you the player/character, are able to connect to. In light of recent interests, or rather revisitation, I am looking into an old form of magic that also exists in the world of "Harry Potter", or as today it is known as, "The Wizarding World". That magic is Paganism.

“It's a different concept of magic to the one laid out in the books, so I don't really see how they can co-exist.”

When asking about Wicca in the world, JK Rowling, the author and creator of "Harry Potter" straight up says that Wicca does not exist in the wizarding world. This is responded in that question regarding existing religions that all religions exist in the world and all students are from many religions except for the one religion that inspired the world, WICCA. Which was taking with negative feedback on how it makes no sense. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/jk-rowling-only-religion-belief-system-not-represented-hogwarts-wicca-9930337.html

While WICCA does not exist in the world, there is one thing that does. Paganism. Now before I go on, Wicca is a religion, yet also not seen as such by some people ("WICCA for Beginners" by Lisa Chamberlain) and some are careful about those who do study and practice it. Furthermore, WICCA is a modern rendition of Paganism of old but not strictly the same. That is, to say in conclusion, the religion of Paganism today is largely associated with a mishap in satanism due to, confused? nature of two pentagrams of one right-side-up and one upside down, and many many other people who believe in the latter. Those people at a time were Puritans.

I bring this up as the mask in that shot is also attributed to the nature of Pagan, an animal mask, and if this is old magic, this person could be a Pagan and the story could largely be around Paganism

This is what is known of the subject in the world via Wikia. https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Paganism

"For one thing, the lack of common words for chemical concepts and processes, as well as the need for secrecy, led alchemists to borrow the terms and symbols of biblical and pagan mythology, astrology, kabbalah, and other mystic and esoteric fields; so that the even the plainest chemical recipe ended up reading like an abstruse magic incantation."— Libatius Borage, Advanced Potion-Making

Wicca, Pagan, astrology, spirit animals, crystals, herbs, birthstones and birth trees, flowers, alchemy, and even, to me, cryptids, are part of this whole big world of meaning. Magic itself was largely practiced and studied a long time ago like the author and practitioner, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa; a German Theologist and Occultists, as others, who wrote "Three Books of Occult Philosophies". His book was indirectly mentioned by Playwright Christopher Mawloe in Dr. Faustus. Today these subjects can be found under the category of Self-Transformation, as along with other subjects in its family, like Divination and the paranormal.

As the author in-world, Libatius Borage says, the use of Pagan symbols and lore is to keep their life and world a secret, presumably as what Newt says, to keep themselves from being hunted.

Perhaps, the most significant in-world object to show this old magic is a book by none other than Bathilda Bagshot herself, a Historian who wrote "A History of Magic". The book was entitled "The Decline of Pagan Magic".

The art is a prop seen in the film, "Harry Potter and the Death Hallows Part 1", "taken from an 1889 English translation of the French book Le livre des figures hiéroglyphiques (The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures)". https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/The_Decline_of_Pagan_Magic

Le livre des figures hieroglyphiques is a French book published in 1612, and wrtiiten by non other then... Nicholas Flemmel.

Which you can view here: https://archive.org/details/b24887092/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater

Other than this, nothing else is known of it in the world, Sybyl Trelawney seems to be a Pagan herself in that she gets her vision from the Greek Goddesses. This is referencing the Sister's Fate, and because there are many names per culture, and she is getting it from Greek, the Sisters of Fate are Moirai, incarnations of Destiny. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirai

The Fates are Morai in Greek, Parcae in Roman, many Deities in Slavic Mythology, Norns in Norse, and in Baltic Paganism.

So how does this relate to the image in the game, Hogwarts Legacy?

In lore or even Hollywood storytelling, Pagans usually are seen wearing a mask of an animal. Pacifically, in controversy with Satan, the mask of a Ram.

The image of this mask is prominent in referring to Satan for it has horns and appears to be a Goat-like being. I mentioned before that the person in the game seems to be a cult around animals or Patronus cult. In other words, a man/group who believes in the significance of animals. or a pagan man.

In this case, are we seeing a story in the game about Paganism?

The ram in question is the Pagan God, Baphomet, who represents the equallity of all things (man and woman for it is a man with breasts, human and animal, and good and evil as other things and opposites. This would mean heaven and hell). But what does it mean in the Harry Potter world?

The mask has no horns, but it does have a diamond-shaped hole in the center.

Course this ultimately could just allude to an early form of Death Eaters and a man or group that Tom Riddle was inspired from. Could also be both a predated take on Death Eaters and an allusion to old magic in Paganism.

"You have received a late acceptance to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and soon discover that you are no ordinary student: you possess an unusual ability to perceive and master Ancient Magic." https://www.hogwartslegacy.com/en-us