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Suggest pagesMuggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Divination
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Magic | |
| Divination | |
|---|---|
| Type | Course |
| Features | Techniques of predicting the future |
| First Appearance | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Divination is presented as the ability to predict the future. While it is taught as a subject at Hogwarts, there are very few wizards or witches who can actually predict the future.
[edit] Extended Description
From watching the antics of the Divination teacher Professor Trelawney, one rapidly gets the impression that divination in the Wizarding world is no more a science than fortune-telling in the Muggle world. Formalized as it is, with its textbooks laying out instructions for tea leaf reading, palmistry, crystal balls, and dream interpretation, it still seems to be as deeply buried in nonsensical mysticism as any gypsy fortune-teller on a Muggle fairground.
The alternate Divination teacher, Firenze, seems to be more interested in teaching the methods of Centaur divination, and emphasizing that not all things can be determined completely. We should note in passing that, while it is never stated that we are seeing the results of Divination, the Centaur comments regarding astronomy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are almost certainly the result of Divination. Firenze speaks of this sort of interpretation of the heavens, and how it differs from Trelawney's, in his Divination classes.
[edit] Analysis
We must be careful to separate Divination from Prophecy. Divination can be taught; Prophecy is apparently a very rare gift, inborn and apparently uncontrollable. It would appear that prophets quite often fall into Divination as a career: Professor Trelawney does produce, in the span of seventeen years, two completely valid predictions. This seems to be completely separate from her teachings in Divination, and in fact she does not seem to remember having made either Prophecy.
It is particularly interesting that Divination can be taught and tested, but does not seem to involve any particular magic. We can see quite clearly, as Hermione does, that what Professor Trelawney is doing is little more than a fraud; she is using all the non-magical tricks that Muggle fortune-tellers use, including the foggy and mystical pronouncements. Yet she seems to be teaching out of approved textbooks, and there is evidently some testable technique involved, because there is an OWL exam (and presumably a NEWT exam as well) covering the subject. One wonders whether the purpose of the course is to codify a set of fraudulent techniques, and if so, for what reason.
It is possible that the published techniques are meant only to improve the sensitivity of the mind, and are not meant to be taken seriously. It is possible that the purpose of teaching Divination is simply to make it more likely that the apprentice Seer, assuming the inborn ability, would actually improve his or her chances of producing a true Prophecy. If this is the case, then it is somewhat unusual that Trelawney herself seems to be so serious in her techniques. It is possible that she herself does not know that she is a true Seer; the two times we have seen her making a real Prophecy, she has been unable to remember doing so. We do not know how common this trait is in Prophecy.
Prophecy itself seems to be surprisingly common; in the Battle at the Department of Mysteries at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it appears that there are many shelves full of recorded prophecies.
[edit] Questions
- What is the method of reading tea leaves? How is it meant to work?
- What is the meaning of the Centaur comment that Mars is bright, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?
