A thought about divination

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 12347

Reading the astrology posts, it occured to me that JKR probably 
doesn't believe at all in astrology (just an impression based on 
her interviews). And then I realized that of all the subjects taught 
in Hogwarts only Divination impresses us as dubious and even 
ridiculous. Add to this the fact that only divination has real-life 
parallels, since astrology, numerology, tea-leaf reading, etc. is 
very very popular now (the other subjects - transfiguration, charms, 
potions, DADA - have much fewer connections with modern reality). 
I'm pretty sure that the way divination is described expresses JKR's 
attitude to real-life arts of divination. The question is - did she 
do this on purpose, to teach children scepticism towards the kinds of 
occultism they might encounter in their everyday life (astrology, 
numerology, Tarot, etc.)? 

Naama