Does Dumbledore Trust Divination or Doesn’t
He?
SYBILL TRELAWNEY DOESN’T GET A LOT OF respect.
Professor McGonagall sneers after learning Trelawney has predicted
Harry will die during this third year at Hogwarts. Dumbledore did
not want to hire her because he didn’t think she had a gift for
divination. Yet the whole plot of Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix centers on a Trelawney prophecy
that seems to be accurate. So does Dumbledore believe in divination
or not?
PERFECT VISION
Dumbledore, it seems, draws a line between
divination and prophecy. The difference is important.
Some types of divination, and what is
studied:
Belomancy: the flight of arrows
Bibliomancy: random passage in a book
Dactylomancy: swinging of a suspended ring
Daphnomancy: the crackling of burning laurel
Geloscopy: laughter
Lampadomancy: a lamp flame
Libranomancy: incense smoke
Divination is the interpretation of signs and
actions to predict the future or look into the past, or, sometimes,
just find lost objects. Many methods are used. The Romans favored
augury, interpreting the flight of birds. Other cultures examined
the insides of sacrificed animals. Some people still “read” the
arrangement of tea leaves or coffee grinds left in a cup.
Dumbledore doesn’t trust this kind of
divination. People see what they like in the flight of birds, which
isn’t influenced by mystical powers.
A true “seer”—someone who can see the future—is
said to have a “gift” of prophecy. Like all gifts, it must come
from somebody. Prophecy is said to come from the gods, who don’t
communicate through tea leaves. In the ancient world, seers called
“oracles” lived at temples so they could contact gods. The most
famous temple, at Delphi, Greece, endured for twelve centuries and
was linked to various gods: an ancient earth mother; a later earth
goddess, Gaea; Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine; and Apollo,
the god most associated with prophecy. The priestesses went into a
trance so the gods could speak through them.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
So why does Dumbledore give Trelawney a chance?
Rowling explains in Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix that Trelawney is
descended from “a very famous, very gifted Seer” and Dumbledore
wanted to be respectful. The name of that ancestor, Cassandra
Trelawney, says it all. Cassandra is the name of the most famous
seer in Greek myth, a woman who received her gift directly from the
god Apollo. He loved her, and promised her the gift of prophecy if
she would love him. But after he made her clairvoyant she changed
her mind. As punishment, Apollo declared that no one would ever
believe her predictions. This caused her a lot of grief, most
notably during the Trojan War. She was the daughter of the king of
Troy, and was in the city when Greek soldiers tried to invade.
After it seemed the Greeks had given up and left behind the gift of
a large wooden horse, she warned her father not to celebrate, and
to leave the horse outside the city walls. But because of Apollo’s
curse her father did not heed her. Of course, Greek soldiers were
hidden inside the horse. When it was inside the city they slipped
out and took over.
Perhaps the strange voice Trelawney used when
making the prediction to Dumbledore—not her usual fortune-telling
voice, Harry notices when Dumbledore shows him the memory—might
have made Dumbledore wonder if Trelawney’s great-great-grandmother
was speaking through her. Ignoring such a warning would not have
been wise.
Lithomancy: gemstones
Metoposcopy: forehead wrinkles
Palmistry: lines of the palm
Phrenology: shape of the skull
Some people burn sage to tell the future, as Rowling’s Centaurs do in Phoenix; and of course many people follow the stars with astrology, as the Centaurs do in Stone.
The divination textbook used at Hogwarts was
written by a “Cassandra Vablatsky”; her
last name refers to a real woman who claimed psychic powers. Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, whose aims
include “investigating unexplained laws of nature and the powers
latent in humanity”—in other words, magic.
See also: Centaurs Runes
Not coincidentally, Sybill Trelawney’s first
name also comes from famous prophets of mythology. The books
containing the predictions of the Sybils were the most valuable
volumes in the Roman Empire. Like Sybill Trelawney, the Roman
Sybils were inclined to offer predictions—often dreadful
ones—without being asked. Of course Prof. Trelawney will never live
up to the reputation of the Roman Sybils. One correct prophecy is
not much of a record, even if it is important.
Perhaps Dumbledore’s skepticism about divination
can be traced back to J. K. Rowling. She does seem ambivalent about
it. Hermione finds it “very woolly,” yet is fond of arithmancy,
which is divination from numbers. Though centaurs in the Forbidden
Forest read the future in the stars, they seem wise. They also burn
leaves to watch the smoke, as Firenze explains to Harry’s class in
Phoenix, but even Firenze reveals his
doubts about that. Maybe Rowling feels as Dumbledore explains to
Harry in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban: “The consequences of our actions are always so
complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very
difficult business indeed.”