Sirius Black - Harry Potter Lexicon

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SIRIUS IN THE MOVIES Sirius Black is played by Gary Oldman.

Quote: "I've done so much R-rated work, it's nice to have a job you can show your kids." -- on making Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

The Black Nigredo Sirius' last name leads many "Potter Pundits" (to borrow a phrase from John Granger) to speculate about the influence of literary alchemy in the Harry Potter Series (for more information see Episode 23 of the Mugglenet Academia podcast). Literacy alchemy borrows themes from the classical and medieval practices of alchemy which held the primary goal of transforming mundane or vulgar materials, such as lead, into pure and ideal materials, such as gold, or creating the philosopher's stone for everlasting life (obvious Harry Potter connections). Psychologist Carl Jung suggested that alchemy is a metaphor for the process of "individuation" or developing Self, or personhood. As a physical practice, metaphorical process, or literary device, alchemy involves three successive stages: the nigredo, the albedo, and the rubedo. The nigredo is a blackening or decomposition whereby all ingredients are combined to form a uniform black matter, or a shadow in the metaphorical sense. The albedo is a whitening, illumination, or purification turning the dark to light and dividing the subject of the alchemical process into receptive elements. The rubedo is a reddening that involves the unification of the purified elements into a new whole, of gold or of an elixir of life in the case of the philosopher's stone. In alchemical scholarship, the rubedo stage has absorbed an original third stage called the citrinitas (or yellowness) reflecting the dawning of the sun or an awakening.

In the alchemical scheme of the books, Sirius Black is associated with the nigredo, through his names (Sirius meaning "burning" and Black as an obvious connection). Metaphorically, Sirius is associated with the nigredo stages in Harry's journey. William Sprauge and John Granger suggest that Book 5 in the series reflects a quintessential nigredo (of a person's life) wherein the subject (Harry) 'decomposes,' in the sense that his emotional stability degrades over the course of the plot, due to his mental connection to Voldemort and the external pressures of the escalating war. At the end of Book 5, Harry is blackened and reduced by the grief of Sirius' death. Interestingly, the discussants on Episode 23 of the Mugglenet Academia podcast note that Book 3 can be considered a reverse nigredo, in that it involves the introduction of Sirius and, rather than a reduction, a burgeoning of Harry's prime element, love, as he meets his godfather and recognizes another component of his "family" which still survives. Along these lines, the first two books of the series can also be considered reverse rubedo (Book 1) and reverse albedo (Book 2).

Other characters with significant alchemical connections in the series include: Rubeus Hagrid, Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Harry Potter himself. --Hufflepuffskein