The Significance of Lily's Name

This morning I had a few more minutes to read in Sorcerer's Stone and got up to the chapter with the "Mirror of Erised." I always find the moment when Harry first realizes he can see his long-dead family in the glass to be very moving. The hunger with which he stares at their images, and how we come to find out that the mirror shows nothing more, nothing less than the deepest desires and longings of one's heart -- I still get a bit choked up even though I've read the scene countless times.

So I had that image in the back of my mind as I worked this morning. And one of the things I had to do at the office today was compile a list of people in our congregation who bought Easter lilies in honor or memory of loved ones, to beautify the church sanctuary this coming Sunday.

I got to thinking about the significance of Easter Lilies -- why we decorate with them on Easter, and what they mean -- innocence, purity, resurrection, remembrance -- and it suddenly dawned on me that JKR, who chooses her character's names oh so wisely, did not pick Lily accidentally. That's probably a "duh" kind of moment, but I still thought I'd share it.

I did a bit of google research to find out more about the Easter Lily tradition. Purity, virtue, life, hope -- those are some of the other words I found associated with the lily, besides the ones I already mentioned. There's also an old tradition that says lilies sprang up and bloomed in the Garden of Gethsamene from the drops of blood that Jesus sweated during his night of agony.

Interestingly, lilies also have significance in non-Christian legends and fables. In Greek mythology, apparently the milk-white lilies are associated with milk from Juno's breasts, hence with motherhood. The lilies were supposed to spring up from droplets of milk (although some of the milk also formed clusters of stars -- hence the name of our galaxy, the Milky Way).

The lily also has a long association with the Virgin Mary. Think of all the annunciation pictures where Mary is holding a lily!

I got most of this, by the way, from the following website: http://www.appleseeds.org/easter-lily.htm


I find all of this very apt for the character of Lily Potter. A loving, courageous mother who sacrifices herself at great cost for the life of her infant son. A woman whose blood plants, if you will, seeds of hope and life. It's her blood flowing in Harry's veins that grants him protection from evil while he is a child. One wonders if that blood, and the life-giving act that shaped him so profoundly before he could even consciously remember, is not what has kept Harry "pure in heart," open and vulnerable to keep loving even in the fact of great suffering. It's that purity, that love, that vulnerability, Dumbledore insists, that are Harry's chief weapons in the war against evil.

And isn't it interesting that Dumbledore himself, Harry's protector and mentor and one of the people who becomes a de-facto parent for Harry when the boy is orphaned, is named Albus? Albus, which means "white." I know the alchemical imagery is an important factor in his name, but it strikes me that it also gives him a deep kinship with Lily.

Now what we're to make of the name Petunia, I'm not sure. It's a much more common, garden variety flower, true...I did a quick look-up of "flower meanings" and discovered that Petunia is associated with anger and resentment. Though apparently sending petunias to someone can indicate to them that you find their presence soothing or calming. Hmm...