Piper longum (Piper officinarum)

Long pepper is related to the more familiar peppercorn, but it is hotter and at the same time a bit sweeter. This magick herb has interesting possibilities for incense, especially for times when you want the sweeter side of Mars - such as for works involving sex magick (interestingly, long pepper is still considered an aphrodisiac in Ayurvedic medicine and is mentioned in a rather dangerous (and painful) recipe in the Kama Sutra. In Indian astrology, long pepper is associated not with Mars but with the Sun and helps in the cultivation of independence, courage, self-esteem, and strength of will. In Persian astrological magick, long pepper was connected with the "great sinister Saturn." And in European magick, long pepper also has baneful associations - for instance, it was part of the recipe for preparing the fabled Hand of Glory. A dead man's hand (the hands of criminals were preferred) was squeezed in a cloth, usually a strip of shroud, to get the blood out. The hand was put into an earthenware jar with salt, salt petre (or nitre), long pepper, and verdigris (copper oxide) for two weeks to dry it out and to preserve it, then it was dried further in the sun during the dog days of summer (that is, under the Dog Star, Sirius, which often watches over baneful work and is in conjunction with the Sun in the period mid-July to early August). When the hand was finally dry enough, it was used as a candleholder rather than being lit itself. The Hand of Glory was said to make the owner invisible and to paralyze anyone who saw it, so it was very desirable amongst professional housebreakers. The picture shows an actual Hand of Glory from a British museum.

The hand of glory first appeared in COS when Draco and Lucius were at Borgin and Burkes, Draco wanted his father to buy it, but he didn't, saying he had greater hope for his son to become a theif.

Interestingly, the criminal from which the Hand of Glory was made was usually a Hanged Man.

It is a card of profound but veiled significance. Its symbolism points to divinity, linking it to the death of Christ in Christianity and the stories of Osiris (Egyptian Mythology) and Mithras (Roman Mythology). In all of these stories, the destruction of self brings life to humanity; on the card, these are symbolized respectively by the hanged man and the living tree from which he swings. Hence, the Hanged Man represents the sanctity of all existence and its need for salvation by self-sacrifice.

A simpler but deeper meaning resides in the journey of life [...] The Hanged Man is the initiate into mysteries. He understands the truth because he sees it from a different angle.

The Hanged Man is every hero committed enough to the adventure to die for it.

The Hanged Man’s association with the Empress can be ennobling or pathological. If the Empress is the object of desire, the Hanged Man is the one who desires. That desire can be destructively consuming or defining. If the Hanged Man appears with the Empress, it can signal consuming longing.

When he appears in a throw, he often signals a past sacrifice (of the Querant or otherwise) whose energy is either still enriching the Querant’s life or being misspent. He can also represent a sacrifice the Querant is being set up to make. That can be a good thing (initiating the Querant into the mysteries, saving the world) or not so much (duping the Querant into an unwise sacrifice). He may also signal something (usually not cheery) about the person’s relationship with their partner or parent.

That sounds like Snape to me.

What do you mean by occult power of the soul? Is this an alchemy term? Just curious.

What I was thinking was the Hanged Man from Tarot--there's a pub by that name in Hogsmeade (? I think)

wonder if the murderer who was hanged in Little Hangleton is the Original owner of the Hand of Glory?

I bet we will probably have Harry, or one of the other good guy characters, using an uber patronus light to defeat the Dark Lord and/or the dementors. There has to be a Lord of Light somewhere.