Expecto Patronum

J.K. Rowling in her book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban introduces foul, sinister creatures called Dementors. If you have read the book or watched the movie you will be familiar with the nature of the Dementor. A Dementor is capable of filling your mind with outright despair, snatching away every single happy thought. When a Dementor is close to you, you will be gripped by fear and by Ronald Weasley’s account, feel as if you would never be happy again. The fear in you strengthens the Dementor and makes it impossible for you to resist it.

Once after watching the movie, I was analyzing the nature of Dementors in my mind and it was then that I stumbled upon the fact that the Dementors were nothing but an excellent allegory or portrayal of the negative emotions we experience. I started imagining that every time I experienced something negative, a Dementor was around me trying to take away all my pleasant feelings. I began calling it the Dementor Effect. So whenever I experienced anything negative, I was not afraid. I knew the key or to be magically correct, I knew the spell. Expecto Patronum!

In the book, Harry is taught by Professor Lupin to defend himself against Dementors. There is but a way to fight these creatures and that is by casting a Patronus. A Patronus is a form of an animal spirit filled with light. The Dementors cannot stand light as they belong to darkness. Well, the question is how does one cast a Patronus? A Patronus is cast when one holds a powerful pleasant memory in his or her mind, focuses on it and feels it with all his being, allowing it to fill oneself completely and uttering the incantation Expecto Patronum. Once you utter the incantation jets of light shoot through the tip of the wizard’s wand and the Patronus canters springing forth while the Dementors make a run to escape.

I decided that whenever I was attacked by a Dementor by which I mean to say that whenever I felt sad, angry, lonely, guilty or disgusted I would conjure my Patronus. I would search in the archives of my mind for memories or things which filled me with unprecedented happiness and just let it fill me to the core. My Patronus would make the Dementor flee.

I urge you whoever you are today, no matter what you are facing, if you are reading this I want to tell you, you can make that Dementor flee, just cast your Patronus, conjure it in your mind, hold onto what is good and you will see those jets of light shooting through the wand, you will see the Patronus cantering. Listen my friend, just say Expecto Patronum!!!