Ron's Jealousy and Astrology

[meboriqua at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21302

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Milz" <absinthe at m...> wrote:
I think the devaluation of divination in the books is a "red 
> herring".

I tend to agree with you on the Divination points, because there have 
already been predictions made (the biggest one being Trelawney's at 
the end of PoA).  However, I stand by my belief that Trelawney 
herself is, for the most part, "a right old fraud".  

I believe that JKR created her to show us that not all teachers have 
unquestionable knowledge (I know I don't), and some teachers pretend 
to be more than what they really are.  It is easy to say that 
Trelawney's comments to her students on the first day of class are 
accurate preditcions, but it is just as easy to say that Trelawney 
simply knew about the students before they came to her class.  For 
example, everyone already knows about Harry and Voldie (as Hermione 
so wisely pointed out), and it is quite possible that Trelawney knew 
that Neville is a clumsy and nervous wizard (especially since we 
found out in GoF that the Longbottoms were both well known and well 
liked in the wizard world).  

People who claim to be psychics in the real world do similar things.  
They listen to tones of voices on the phone, and in person, check out 
how people dress, sit, move, etc.  It is more an art of reading 
people than it is predicting people's lives.  It is also easy for 
psychics to make vague comments sound like real predictions - "You 
will have hardships ahead with your family," and so forth.

Trelawney strikes me as someone who is caught up with the idea of 
being a Seer - the way she dresses and speaks in that misty voices 
are indications of that.  She also has something in common with 
Snape, as she likes to intimidate her students by predicting their 
deaths or threatening them to not disclose final exam answers or 
terrible things would happen.

The fact that Trelawney can make real predictions occasionally 
doesn't really mean all that much to me. She clearly does not have 
any real control over her abilities and does not even appear to know 
that she can See at all - "I wouldn't presume to predict something as 
far fetched as that!" (or some such similar comment).  Because she 
doesn't know that she can predict things, I don't think she is the 
real deal.  I absolutely believe that there are people who have 
psychic abilities (and I believe that people can definitely see 
ghosts), but she is not one of them.  She's too caught up in her 
image to control and perfect her talent if indeed she really has one.

--jenny from ravenclaw, whose dislike for Trelawney is obvious******