A thought about divination

[JMLeake at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 12352

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., naama_gat at h... wrote:
> 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

That's a good point.....could it be in response to all those 
complaints people made about how "those books teach children to 
worship Satan and practice witchcraft" that she made divination (the 
only one that really has any groundings in real beliefs today)out to 
be pretty much a big hoax in her books?
As long as I'm on the topic of that whole "Satanic influence" thing, 
I want to say that I notice that most people who do the complaining 
seem to be Christians. Well, I'm a Christian, and I love the Harry 
Potter books! Not only that, but lots of my fellow Christian 
believers also love 'em. Not all Christians are sour-faced old 
fogies! :)

Joey