[HPforGrownups] Re: Trelawney's Tarot Tarot Reading

[MadameSSnape at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 134273

 
In a message dated 7/22/2005 6:29:32 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
anthyroserain at yahoo.com writes:

leslie41  wrote:
> When Harry is hiding from Trelawney in book 10, just after he's  
> discovered the HPB's potions book, she walks past him, muttering  
to 
> herself. 
> 
> But it's not just muttering. She's  doing a reading.  She pulls out 
> the two of spades (conflict),  seven of spades (ill omen), ten of 
> spades (violence), and knave of  spades—"A dark young man, possibly 
> troubled, who dislikes the  questioner."
> 
> Trelawney is doing, in fact, a tarot card  reading.  Spades are the 
> lesser arcana's version of swords, and  the brief interpretations 
> that Trelawney gives as she walks support  this.  

anthyroserain:

Thanks for your brilliant analysis  of the cards! I decided to snip 
all of your comments from this post,  because they were so detailed 
and excellent that I didn't know what to  take out. Everybody, read 
the original post!

I have a few comments,  just to add some additional speculation to 
everything you've already  said.

Two of Swords:  

If you accept ESE! Snape, this could  be Dumbledore's blindness about 
Snape. He's too intelligent and trusting  to make the right decision. 

But then again, it's Harry's reading, so  it may be, as you say, 
Harry's need to "look at both sides." It might be  he who is blind to 
the situation. 

I'd also add that this card  seems to suggest occlumency. The 
description on the site you linked to  says "A balance between 
equally matched opponents. A duel. Blocked  emotions. Tension. 
Holding in emotions. Defensiveness." Sounds like Snape  and Harry's 
final duel, and Snape's advice.  


Seven of  swords:

It's The Flight of the Prince. This card, more than the others,  
might seem to point to ESE!Snape. But it also could signify intrigue  
and acting as a spy. It's Snape on the card, but whose side is he  
betraying? Of course, as in the book, it's ambiguous. And again, 
it's  Harry's reading, so this suggests that perhaps he doesn't know 
the  entirety of Snape's motives.

Another website  
(http://www.paranormality.com/tarot_seven_of_swords.shtml)
has the  description "Reluctance to carry through daring actions when 
necessary,  failure of nerve and indecision. Inability and reluctance 
to complete what  has been started." 
This definitely sounds like Snape's reluctance to kill  Dumbledore! 
But whether that is reluctance due to the UV (ESE!Snape) or  the 
promise Dumbledore may have urged him to make earlier (good!Snape)  
is left open.


Ten of Swords: 

The clearest. Nothing I  have to add here.


Page of Swords:

This is a bit of what  
http://www.paranormality.com/tarot_page_of_swords.shtml
says:
"Upright  - A good personal emissary, although sometimes a card 
associated with  spying or surveying others from a detached viewpoint.
Ill Dignified or  Reversed - A two faced, cunning and possibly 
vindictive person...  A  seeker of hidden weaknesses in enemies, 
devious and given to snooping in  other people's affairs."


---------------------------------
Sherrie here:
 
As a Tarot reader for more years than I care to count :-D this bit rather  
intrigued me.  Just a couple of comments (you'll have to excuse me - I'm  
posting from my parents' so I don't have my Tarot books here):
 
A)   IS it really Harry's reading?  I honestly didn't get  that.  In fact, 
since the Page of Swords usually refers to a younger  person/child, I took that 
card to be Harry's.  (I love the "snooping into  other people's affairs" bit 
there...)  
 
B)   Swords are not necessarily "negative" in a reading.  As  the suit 
connected with the element of Air, they also refer to the world of  imagination, the 
mind, the intellect - and that of business.  Most any card  in the deck (with 
the possible exception of the 4 of Rods or the 10 of Cups) has  some sort of 
"negative" connotation (take a look at the 5 of Cups, the 5 of  Pentacles, the 
4 of Cups, the 8 of Cups...)
 
C)   The 2 of Swords doesn't necessarily reflect blindness to a  situation - 
indecision, perhaps, which sometimes comes of knowing too MUCH about  both 
choices.  It is also sometimes a warning against movement at that  particular 
cusp.
 
D)   The 7 of Swords - definitely spying/snooping - theft,  perhaps; but not 
necessarily of material objects or money.  "Theft" of  choice, of self-esteem, 
of independence, perhaps?
 
E)    The 10 of Swords - HORRIBLE sorrow, without doubt  THE saddest card in 
the deck.  
 
F)    As I noted above, the Page of Swords is usually a  very young person - 
one who is connected with the mind, with messages (pages  carried messages, 
among their other duties).  IMHO, if this card  represented Snape, it should've 
been the Knight, not the Knave.
 
G)    The Lightning-Struck Tower - the Tower represents  the sudden passing 
away of the old, to clear the way for the new.  It's not  only sudden, but 
often catastrophic as well - but it doesn't signify the utter  end.  
 
H)      i don't know what spread Trelawney  was using - it's never described, 
really - so I can't tell what positions these  cards were in in relation to 
the others.  Which spread (there are hundreds  of different ones) and where 
each card falls makes a difference in the  interpretation.  However, the Page 
coming before the Tower would almost  imply that it is the Page who precipitates 
the downfall of the Tower.
 
All in all, I took this to be a reading relating not to Harry, but to  
Dumbledore - or possibly even to Snape.
 
Sherrie  
"Some  kid a hundred years from now is going to get interested in the Civil 
War and  want to see these places. He's going to go down there and be standing 
in a  parking lot. I'm fighting for that kid." - Brian Pohanka, 1990 



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