Movement Magazine Issue 156

You can count some of our members as fans of your
podcast, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. The podcast
looks at how reflective reading practices can illuminate
popular fiction, but is there anything readers of sacred
texts can learn from how fandoms engage with texts?
Are there already similarities you’ve noticed?
We think about sacred reading quite differently from fan
reading, fan fiction and fan theories. Both are wonderful, but
they are different. Often fan reading focuses on interesting
new theories, or plot questions and difficulties (Hermione’s
time turner!) - while sacred reading is really about applying
the text as a mirror for our lives. Sacred reading asks what
can we learn about how to live from engaging with these
texts with rigor, and in community. We trust that the more
time we spend with the text, the more we will learn about
ourselves and the world around us. So, the practices like
Lectio Divina and Havruta, are really tools to help us navigate
our own experience and questions using the images, stories
and metaphors of the text.
What chapter are you most looking forward to reading?
What chapter have you most enjoyed so far?
I can’t wait for the end of book four, when Voldemort
returns. I think the embodiment of evil is such a fascinating
idea!
As for the most enjoyable chapter so far, perhaps the
episode where Hermione encounters the troll in book one.
By engaging in the sacred reading practice that week, we
totally changed our perception of why Hermione chooses to
become friends with Harry and Ron. I love it when we get
a new insight!
We heard that Jeremy Corbyn sent you a message
after your wedding! How did you feel?
It was a lovely gesture. I especially appreciate his references
to the activist tradition of Massachusetts, where I live now!
Who else talks about social justice history in a sixty second
wedding video?!
that extends far beyond simply physical fitness - those
communities are just as interested in forming you ethically
also. ‘The way you show up in the gym is the way you show
up in life’, they often say. You see new mums’ groups,
funerals, improv comedy shows and baby showers all taking
place in these gyms. People meet their partners and bring
their kids to classes. They drive one another to the hospital
or raise money for cancer charities together. What looks
like a fitness group is actually a deeply engaged community
- some are now even getting involved with electoral politics
together!
The big take away from communities like this and others -
maker-spaces, co-working spaces, social justice groups - is
that secular leaders are being asked to perform very pastoral
roles in the lives of their ‘congregants’. They’re asked to
officiate weddings, counsel people through bereavement,
give advice on ethical quandaries - in short, perform all
sorts of jobs they’ve not really had much training for! So, a
key part of my work is trying to build the infrastructure that
will support this new generation of spiritual leaders.
You’re the Co-Founder of two great social justice
organisations - UK Youth Climate Coalition and
Campaign Bootcamp. What has inspired you to start
these organisations and how do you hope they will
make an impact in the world?
I’ve worked especially with young people because we/
they (I’m 30 now, so not sure if that still counts as young!)
are perhaps the most untapped resource to push through
change. Young people are nearly always at the forefront of
social movements because they will often have the most
at stake, and the least to lose, by putting everything on the
line. Crucially, young people are able to hold the tension
between what is and what could be in a productive way, and
not get downtrodden by cynicism and bitterness. Reading
about previous movements for change - anti-colonial
movements, gay liberation movements, even movements
that we forget now like the temperance movement - I find
absolutely inspiring. We’ve changed things before, so we
can change them now.
What general guidelines would you give for people
wanting to use your approach with other texts?
Firstly, trust the text. We practice the belief that the text
is not just ‘entertainment’, but if taken seriously, can give
us generous rewards. Trusting the text doesn’t mean we
understand the text to be perfect - either in construction or
moral teaching - but that it is worthy of our attention and
contemplation. A guiding principle is that the more time we
give to the text the more blessings it has to give us.
Secondly, use rigour and ritual. By reading the text slowly,
repeatedly and with concentrated attention, our effort
becomes a key part of what makes the book sacred. The
text in and of itself is not sacred, but is made so through our
rigorous engagement. Particularly by rigorously engaging
in ritual reading, we believe we can glean wisdom from its
pages.
Thirdly, read it in community. Scholars of religion explain
that what makes a text sacred is not the text itself, but the
community of readers that proclaim it as such. The same
applies for us. We started reading Harry Potter in community
in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 2015 and
are excited to be expanding that community through this
podcast!
If you could give students one piece of advice, what
would it be?
Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission. If you’ve got
an idea and are passionate about changing something - just
go for it. The world doesn’t need you to hold back.
If you could live in any period of time, which would you
choose?
The Regency Period. Finally, an age where men’s clothes
were beautiful!
Casper blogs at caspertk.com, and you
can find out more about the Harry
Potter and the Sacred Text podcast at
www.harrypottersacredtext.com
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MOVEMENT Issue 156 MOVEMENT Issue 156
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