Sacred Spines: Spiritual Bibliotherapy for reflection, renewal, and reclamation (HPST)

Once a story is shared with others, it no longer belongs exclusively to the person who first wrote it. While an author will always remain the original creator of the work, each reading of the story will be different, because it will be by a different person, with different experiences, at a different time in their life. Just as you can never step into the same river twice, every time someone reads a book, they have a unique experience… whether it’s the first time or the tenth. Stories, like any other art form, are symbols that we get to draw meaning from in ways that resonate with us. Erin Morgenstern’s book The Starless Sea addresses this beautifully when she writes, “Symbols are for interpretation, not definition.” We might not be able to change what an author intended with their writing, or even the personal beliefs that may have informed the story’s creation, and yet we still hold tremendous agency in shaping what a book means to us and how we choose to engage in it. 

For many of us, the Harry Potter books were never just stories, they were sanctuaries. Hogwarts was a place where lonely kids found friendship, where outsiders discovered courage, and where love stood in defiance of cruelty. Many readers saw themselves in the characters who lived on these pages and resonated with the struggles they faced, both big and small. The sense of safety and inclusion these books offered was a needed respite for many of us, particularly those who carried their own hurtful experiences of discrimination and isolation into their reading. 

This legacy has been marred for many readers by the painful and destructive transphobic rhetoric J.K. Rowling has said, in a very public manner as well as her choice to start an anti-trans foundation. Unfortunately, her actions have complicated many of our relationships with the books as well as the fandom at large because her stance feels so antithetical to the values upheld in the world she created. This betrayal has led to a variety of responses from readers. Some have had to distance themselves from the books, taking them out of their comfort-read rotation or even selling their copies as the hurt they hold is too sharp to currently revisit them. Others have channeled their anger by drawing firm lines in the sand, condemning her and anything associated with her books because of her actions. Then there are those who find themselves still wrestling with how to reconcile the stories they love in light of what feels incredibly unloving towards members of the LGBTQIA+ population. Those sitting with this confusion and discomfort often really struggle with how to hold firmly to their values while still allowing space for nuance in how they understand their relationship to the fandom in spite of the author’s actions. 

For those who are looking to explore that nuance and are open to a gently rigorous way of engaging with the books, particularly as an act of radical reclamation, the work of Vanessa Zoltan, Casper ter Kuile, and Matt Potts on the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast is an incredible resource. The first episode was released on May 19th, 2016 and they ended the podcast on February 17th, 2026. For the nearly 10 years that the podcast ran, each week these chaplains (Vanessa and Casper in the first seven seasons and Vanessa and Matt for the last seven) engaged with a chapter of the book, every week, as if it was a sacred text. They treated the series as an imperfect and flawed body of work that even as such, offered a wealth of wisdom and insight to us, if we chose to look for it. 

This was particularly important during the time the podcast was being recorded because there was a lot of darkness, fear, and unknown in the world. We suffered through the COVID-19 Pandemic, experienced multiple catastrophic natural disasters, witnessed heartbreaking and enraging international conflicts, and endured both the 2016 and the 2024 elections, so the depth of pain, loss, and anger was in no short supply. The podcast didn’t happen in a bubble, so many of these national and world events are addressed in the episodes, particularly in the Owl Post portion where listeners could offer their own blessings and thoughts, as well as share their sorrows. As Rowling became more public with her anti-trans beliefs during this time, you can hear that reflected in both the way Vanessa and Casper start engaging more critically with the text and challenging more of the pedagogy of Hogwarts as well as in a number of the Owl Post messages that spoke to the harmful impact her stance had on many within the community.  

It has always been an intention of mine to re-read these books, in their entirety, as I listened along to the podcast. When I realized recently that we are a few short days away from the 10th anniversary of the podcast’s first episode, it felt like the perfect time to start this venture. If this is something you’d like to be a part of, please consider this your open invitation, whether you just want to experience it vicariously through my own reading and reflecting or if you would like to do it alongside me. This is part of a new (fully online and asynchronous) book discussion group I’m starting called Sacred Spines where I’m inviting others to join me in the practice of spiritual bibliotherapy for reflection, renewal, and reclamation. 

All of this is going to happen on the bookclubs app which is where I have laid out the reading schedule I will be following that lines up with the original air date of each podcast episode (which are directly linked for ease of access). There is also an organized message board with a thread for each chapter so if you choose to read more quickly or more slowly than the schedule, you can still participate at your own pace.

If you want to participate but don’t own the books, there are many ways to access them without buying them new. Consider borrowing from a friend, looking for them at a local thrift or used book store, or check them out from the public library (physically or virtually). If none of those work out, you can usually find used copies on ThriftBooks (an online bookstore that’s not affiliated with Amazon) for around $5 each.

The Harry Potter fandom has been a painful and complicated space to navigate for many years now. My hope is that returning to the story from the very beginning, with intention and care, can allow us to reconcile our relationship with these books in ways that add meaning and beauty to our lives and how we choose to live them. As Vanessa says in the opening trailer for the podcast, “each of us is allowed to pull important lessons from wherever we can, as long as we do so with a critical eye and an open mind and with a heart really leaning towards learning lessons that we want to take out into the world.”

I’m looking forward to this experience and am eager to connect with anyone who would like to join me on it! While this is going to be a multi-year project ending in April 2031, you can join for as much or as little of it as you like and at any point in the journey.

*Please be mindful that while this is a group engaging in spiritual bibliotherapy, this is not therapy, is not to be a replacement for therapy, and doesn't establish any type of therapeutic relationship.