It takes Power to break a dog-sled out of an ice-lock, Power to start a train moving. It takes Power to make a Change.

As Below; so Above. It takes Power, magical power, to change the course of a group mind. From time immemorial, the storyteller has been the channel of that Power. Some of that Power comes from the members of the group mind, and some from Above – little if any from the Storyteller herself.

In modern times, the myth-maker of greatest Power has been television. Huge social changes have come to pass over the last 30 years, coincident with the unprecedented success of Star Trek. From where I sit, as a storyteller, I see a chain of cause-effect between what Star Trek has done and the social changes. From where others sit, it appears that Star Trek is the effect not the cause.

Marion Zimmer Bradley invented a science of ESP/Magic for her Darkover Universe stories which she dubbed "The Non-Causal Sciences."

The concept of connected chains of events which are not cause-effect sequences is most easily seen in astrology. Very often the effect precedes the cause by months.

This month I have a set of books and a Star Trek episode which together seem to be about the kind of Power needed to break the trend of trendlessness. That the trend is still in place was evidenced last month when Los Angeles, CA. failed to elect a new Mayor and will be holding a runoff election under the eclipse at 0 deg Cancer.

But Power is gathering in the group mind – a dialogue is in progress.

In 1997 the first Harry Potter book was published and an obscure, struggling single-mother story-teller achieved fame and grabbed the imaginations of children all over the world.

The trend of trendlessness was not yet established in 1997, when this first harbinger of the Breakout from trendlessness began to infiltrate the group mind with a statement in an age-old dialogue about Power and the stories we tell our children – stories that set their spiritual vision of Reality – stories which they grow up to make real.

The first Harry Potter book, "…and the Sorcerer’s Stone," sets up a fictional universe where the main conflict is good vs. evil. But the thematic statement it makes is somewhat different from those of Tolkien.

On television, we have seen affirmation of a trend (in the USA) of acceptance of people who are "different". On Buffy, the Vampire Slayer we seen gay women treated as ordinary people as are certain vampires. On the new Special Unit 2 we see a "Link" treated as a member of the team, while others are slaughtered.

In the 1950’s the prevailing slogan was "different is dead" and schools actually graded children on their ability to "fit in" (called Citizenship at that time).

Now Harry Potter is the ultimate non-conformist, the "Ugly Duckling," hero and champion of the different ones. And Evil is just another way of being Different. (Slytherin is for those who "use any means to achieve their ends" but, except for a few, they aren’t Evil)

Harry has Power, more than he can comprehend, and as a child has no idea what that means. The Aunt who raised him punished him for using Power. As an infant, he murdered someone who murdered his parents with power. His Power is a life-and-death matter.

He is rescued, given a fortune, and entered into a school to train him in the use of his Power. He avoids being sent to Slytherin, the House for those who are inherently ruthless, the House that trained the one who murdered his parents.

Harry makes an enemy at school, and proceeds to ignore the school rules. The girl who advises adherence to the rules, who studies hard and takes learning the use of Power seriously is held in low regard until she alibis Harry and friends during one of their rule-breaking excursions.

In the Potter Universe, as in Trek, the best of the Good are also rule-breakers.

But in Trek, before a rule is broken, the full and complete reason for the existence of that rule is wholly understood and the consequences for breaking it are willingly accepted. In the Potter Universe, the mere inconvenience of adhering to a rule is considered a good reason to break the rule.

Given Power (a cloak of Invisibility or a "Cloaking Device") what do you do with it? To what ends?

The Star Trek: Voyager episode first aired 4/11/01 where Q brings his adolescent son to Voyager to be taught a few lessons of responsibility is a stark counter-statement to the thematic truths about Power and Evil evidenced in the Potter books.

Even in the Q Continuum the use of Power to satisfy personal desire, to relieve boredom, to play, causes trouble, even disaster.

As in the classic Trek episode "Charlie" – vast Power in immature hands produces results indistinguishable from real Evil.

What is the difference? What did Q’s son learn that Harry Potter needed to learn and didn’t in Sorcerer’s Stone?

What is the, single, most important, primary, absolutely required lesson on the road to Maturity that enables one to handle real Power safely?

I think the key lesson is Relationship – the experience of Personal Validation in the interchange of emotional realities with another living person. The expansion of Identity to include Other (1^st House/7^th House).

Harry Potter was raised in isolation, spent long weeks in a dark prison under the stairs, had no friends, and was punished every time he reached to become himself. An upbringing like that produces a "Charlie" (from classic Trek), not a "Harry."

Stone is written entirely from Harry’s P.O.V. and we see clearly that this child has no actual connection with anyone else. He meets, gets to know, interacts with, has adventures with, instigates rule-breaking with, becomes the hero of the sports team with, all these other children and teachers – yet never connects with any of them in a Relationship. He is emotionally isolated from the internal realities of Others – which is to be expected in one punished by being locked in a closet.

Now look at Q’s problem child. The child has no idea that the people he hurts with his wonton use of Power are real people like himself. He has no Relationships – even with his father. He has no playmates, being the only child of the Q. He has no peers. He is just like Harry – unformed in the development of Relationships.

Janeway teaches Q’s child with rules and discipline. Q’s child gains an actual friend, leads him off on a lark to get away from punishment by his father, gets in serious trouble and brings his wounded friend home to Voyager to be saved. Q’s child has had his own personal reality validated by the deep inner experience of the Reality of another Person. He has taken the first step toward qualifying to use Power.

Harry makes it through the term gaining people who care enough to invite him home with them for the break, teachers who care about him. But Harry’s closing remark of the book, as his foster-parents are taking him home, tells it all. In reply when the girl who obeys rules and studies says, "Have a good holiday," Harry says, "Oh, I will. They don’t know we’re not allowed to use magic at home. I’m going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer …"

Dudley is the foster-sibling who tortures and torments him. After an entire term at a school that purports to teach the use of Power, he still seeks petty, personal revenge in direct violation of school rules -- all in the interests of fun. Another’s torment is his fun – just as Dudley tormented Harry for fun.

In Lady Crymsyn (the name of a nightclub owned by Jack Flemming, a Vampire), P. N. Elrod likewise deals with Power, invisibility as a Power, justifiable motive for revenge, the thin, fine line between the use of Power for personal gratification and for the good of others. At one point, some gangsters believe they have murdered Flemming and bury him in cement, and then he wakes and crafts a revenge only a vampire could design and execute. Elrod keeps you guessing right up to the last minute whether Flemming will actually murder his murderers as Potter planned to torment is tormenter.

Lady Crymsyn is a statement in the dialogue in progress about the use and abuse of Power to break out of a pattern, a trend. All the "The Vampire Files" novels so far tell the story of a mature adult with an ordinary sense of Relationship, handed extraordinary Power which he must learn to handle before it handles him. And all these novels have my highest recommendation for the way they explore this issue.

Precursor by C. J. Cherryh is a worthy sequel to the Foreigner Trilogy about which I’ve raved here before. It tells the story of Bren Cameron’s role in forging an alliance between the non-human atevi and two human political factions with old grudges unsettled – all in the face of a threat of a 3^rd species invading from deep space. Bren, trained as an interpreter, must take the role of diplomat and peace-maker, seize the moment with audacity, talk fast and ram home the agenda of the atevi ruler he works for – all while facing the severing of his last human Relationships.

Those ties have not yet been replaced by equivalent, functional ties to atevi, yet he wields untold amounts of political power – the very kind of power that forges and breaks group minds and trends.

Bren’s internal self-awareness is shaken horribly by the severance of Relationship ties, and he is terrified his handling of Power may be wrong because of it.

Harry Potter has no awareness of the role of Relationship in the qualifications for handling real Power. Q’s son doesn’t believe Relationships are a qualification until he experiences one. Flemming knows and struggles to normalize Relationships. Bren Cameron grieves his loss of human Relationship, believes in heart and soul no atevi can fill that role for him, and the fate of two, maybe three species depends on his wielding Power for the Good.

Potter and Q’s son are trying to change their own lives, Flemming has had his life changed and strives to cope with mob-dominated Chicago, and Bren Cameron is changing the fate of three species according to his own personal sense of right and wrong.

All are struggling with the Power to affect the course of history, the fate of Others. Who would you trust? Those who live within Relationships – or those who do not?

Send books for review in this column to: Jacqueline Lichtenberg, POB 290, Monsey, N.Y. 10952
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