This week, HogPro all-pro Suzanna Schwartz pointed my direction to the house crests displayed at the franchises Back to Hogwarts event in London. These were exciting for two reasons. Finally, us Ravenclaws have our eagle and house colours returned to us and each shield had an arcane and mysterious symbol added to the top.

Suzanna points out that the base of each symbol relates to the elements of earth, air fire and water.

Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:

• Air 🜁 ()
• Earth 🜃 ()
• Fire 🜂 ()
• Water 🜄 ()

Wikipedia

In Hufflepuff’s symbol there is a clear cup above the earth sign, and two bars at an angle that might be taken for elements of the letter H.

To the top of Ravenclaw’s air symbol is a curved V that could be a stylised diadem and elements of the letter R sideways.

Gryffindor’s fire sign has what looks to be a sword, but try as I might, I cannot make that rocking horse look like a G.

Slytherin’s symbol is much easier to decipher forming at the same time, a ring a capital S and a snake.

Let me know in the comments below what your interpretations of these signs might be.

Time for Strike 5, the Blind Spot in John’s Cormoran Strike knowledge!

Nick covers the front and the back of making Lake readings of Strike6 without a lot of circumspection and John talks about the eerie feeling he had while reading this book that the author was ‘having a go’ at him.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

Troubled Blood, John’s selection as Rowling’s greatest achievement to date, deserves two Lake and Shed conversations.

In this first exchange, Nick discusses Rowling’s history with the divinatory art of astrology and the occult resources and reference works she brought into play in writing a novel whose primary embedded text is a murder scene’s astrological chart. John talks about the astrological clock structure of twelve houses in which Galbraith tells this remarkable story.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

The ‘Lake’ point that Nick reveals is the probable identity of ‘Jenkins,’ the mystery person to whom Strike 2 is dedicated, a revelation consequent to no little detective work (and a very close reading of Louisa May Alcott!). He also discusses some real-life literary infighting in contemporary London that might have been lifted from the pages of Silkworm. John argues that this ur-novel of the series, its point of conception, is Rowling’s not especially opaque guide to how to understand a novelist’s life and to appreciate their work, in short, her first ‘Lake and Shed’ discussion (albeit one embedded in story).

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

John explores the Freudian parallels that Rowling paints into Chamber of Secrets, and Nick talks about her oldest, and probably best friend Sean Harris, the inspiration for Ron Weasley. For Strike Fans curious about Rowling’s recent twitter header of Freud’s desk, her familiarity with Freudian imagery in the second Potter novel may be of interest.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!