SPOILER!!: responses

SPOILER!!: mortar & pestles

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Skylar listened to her peers around her, trying hard to not think about the incense in the room which was more difficult than it seemed. Something connected to yoga? Interesting; the third year was definitely curious to see how yoga and meditation might relate to numbers. But moving on to ... brass bowls? How had she not noticed them before?

As for what use they might be for, Sky had no idea .... but she was pretty sure she'd seen a less decorative one in a magazine or something. Raising her hand tentatively, Sky spoke up "It looks like a mortar and pestle which is used to crush things up, I believe, but I'm not sure what that might have to do with today's task?" She admitted the last bit quietly

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Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Janelle listened as her classmates shared the areas that they would like to work on. It seemed like everyone had a different choice. There were some pretty interesting topics and Janelle wanted to see how they related to Arithmancy. Before she knew it, a second question was on the floor.

Janelle took a moment to look at the bowls in question and then raised her hand. "I agree. It looks like a mortar and pestle. Maybe we'll use them to crunch some numbers." Janelle didn't mean to be cheeky, but she couldn't suppress a smile. "Sorry Professor, I just couldn't resist that one. Seriously though, maybe we can use them to crush something.........to make incense. That can put us in the whole yoga, focused, ready for anything mood."

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Originally Posted by ChanceCoeur

The room had been set up in a meditation like circle. Noelle had no idea what mediation had to do with Arthimancy. She sighed. This was not one of her favorite classes but she enjoyed the professor who always seemed to surprise them.

Noelle sat down and looked at the laptop in front of her. She knew what they were but she'd never actually used one. Mum didnt allow too many muggle gadgets inside the house despite her father being muggle.

Noelle looked into the book and saw Reincarnation & Arithmancy. Now that seemed interesting. "Reincarnation & Arithmancy seems cool." Noelle mentioned in the midst of everything else.

She really wanted to get close to that lab puppy and just love on him. A little lap lab puppy. How cute would that be? Merlin she missed her pups at home.

And moving on....
Noelle's eyes glanced at the bowl and the wooden thing. She liked the letters painted on the sides of it. "Is that.... like one of those herb crushers that they used back in the day?" Like waaaay back in the day?

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Originally Posted by Watson

She took a seat next to Tenacius and then spotted Derf waving at her. OH! HEY! FRIEND! Olivia waved at Derf. His smiling face always seemed to brighten her day. He was just such a nice young kid! She looked forward to sharing some more classes with him and Zoryn. Nice troublmakers indeed! She remained silent and continued her notetaking as she listened to other students offer possible solutions to questions.

SPOILER!!: notebook!

Meditation Guidelines & Techniques
Vedic Arithmancy
Vedic Square
Reincarnation & Arithmancy
Astrology & Arithmancy Connections
Cheiro’s Numbers & Astrology
The Singular Number & Their Influence on Men & Women
How Music, Colors, and Numbers are Associated

As the professor pointed to the bowl, Olivia turned her head slightly. She had seen one of those before back at home. Her father had one for mixing different spices or crushing something. Though it certainly wasn't nearly as fancy or exquisite as the bowl before them. She wondered what the writing meant. If only she could read whatever language it was written in. Though back to the main point. What had he called it? A pestle? Ah! "I agree. It does look like a mortar and pestle...." she said, nodding in agreement with Kat (a girl who had mentioned this) but what were they going to do with it? Perhaps they were going to relate to diviniation to leaf reading? "Are we perhaps going to use the mortal and pestle to crush something and relate it to leaf-reading but..?" She had no idea but offered a guess.

Imogen didn't know how to respond for a moment when so many of her students had believed the bowls to be well...potions materials? That was quite a bewildering thing to the blonde witch. It would have given her cause for concern still, there were far more pressing matters to attend to. Janelle’s addition of crunching up numbers did get a grin out of Imogen. ”Now that would be a handy way to calculate things…too bad we can’t just make a potion to solve our arithmetic for us eh?” she gave the seventh year an almost cheeky grin as she looked at the other answers she was getting.

Everyone was so…ready with answers, sure some were bizarre but it was the effort that counted to her. Everyone was trying and that was all that really mattered to her.

Herb crusher. She hadn’t heard that used to describe a mortar and pestle in a long time…heck, she hadn’t really used a mortar and pestle except in dire circumstances in the longest of times…the last time was likely when she had accidentally triggered a curse and lost all of her hair.

Darn Norse ruins…how would she have known it was cursed when nothing was written on the walls and she had simply stumbled upon it? She was just glad that her family wasn’t there to see her looking like a relative of none other than the only truly hairless wonder…Voldemort. Seriously, from the illustrations in the history books she had read her looked more akin to a Uncle Fester…with quite an atrocious case of botched rhinoplasty…seriously, he was one of the many that likely went a little too hard and heavy with the surgeon…Oh yes, I intentionally asked to look like a snake…because of my insane relationship with my snake.…Olivia Holden’s voice snapped her out of her reverie and she couldn’t help but give the girl a small smile.

”That does sound like a rather interesting idea for a joint lesson, I would have to speak with Laurel Vance about that…” she smiled softly, ”however the tea for today is just something I offer for students whenever possible, it is after all one of my vices…I have it almost too much I must admit.” she looked around again to the sea of raised hands and continued to respond to the answers given to her.

SPOILER!!: the really funny ones

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Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Zoryn was just beginning to tear into the box when she noticed Derf's face of HORROR. What? Was it something she said?

"Oh," dog's were allergic to chocolate?!?!?! That must be TERRIBLE! Zoryn gave the pup a look of absolute pity. "Sorry dog, you can't have this. You might die," she nodded, handing the chocolate over to Derf instead.

Car-what treats? Zoryn didn't understand any of the words her Professor was saying. Mostly because her Professor was saying a lot of words. And Zoryn didn't really feel the need to listen to them. But she did take a handful of those treats and begin feeding them to the little doggy.

This would be much more fun than paying attention in class, she decided.


The first question the Professor asked wasn't one Zoryn could answer. Were they, like, supposed to read the text book? Because Zoryn forgot to do that.

But she couldn't resist offering an answer to the second question they were posed with. "They're royal cereal bowls," she nodded. That's what they looked like anyways.

If Zoryn ever became a queen, she'd definitely eat cereal in THOSE.

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Originally Posted by RachieRu

That bowl looked pretty cool. It was nicely decorated, and the ones near her seemed quite deep. Honestly though, Harriet had no idea what they were used for. Arithmancy was not her thing. Not really. She was hoping that she would get a little better though, hoping was the big word in that questions to be honest. "They look like decent bowls to have some nice cereal in...." Hattie mused with a little smile. They looked like they would hold a nice portion of cereal, one that would fill someone up for the day. She had a feeling that they weren't for putting cereal in though, so she really needed to think of a better answer.

"But.... maybe they are used to put stuff in to help with arithmancy?" That made more sense, though she would have used it for cereal.

The second answer was simply...bewildering? And positively hilarious. Still, she would have to urge Zoryn not to eat out of the bowls. That likely wouldn't taste good...brassy cereal would probably make anyone feel like they were suckling on old dirty coins. That really didn’t seem like it would be a good idea…or even fun at all. Metallic things often made her own tongue burn and itch if she ever managed to touch them with it or simply failed to wash her hands properly after handling them.

With the second edition to the cereal answers all Imogen could do was chuckle yet again. ”I’m afraid the cereal would taste a bit brassy if you ate out of them,” she admitted with a small grin. Though they were entertaining she did have to move on and hear what the rest of the students had to say.

SPOILER!!: inquisitive & cute ones

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Making a face she decided that she really hated those smells! Whatever the professor was trying to do with the oil, Leesha hated it! Worried she wondered if he clothes were going to smell like the oil after the lesson because she was sitting all this time close to the oil and she hoped that it wouldn't happen. The smell was already bad enough in the classroom but she didn't wanted to take it with her while leaving the lesson!

Looking at the bowls before her she sighed, so this lesson w as again going to look a lot like Divination? Not good! Folding her arms she stared hard at the bowls and she worried if they were filled with more smelling stuff like the oil. "Frankincense?" She asked slightly worried, still thinking about the oil she was smelling.

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Originally Posted by potterobsessionist

Carlton sat with a goofy grin the whole time. He really enjoyed the class. It smelled nice, there was a dog, there was an Imogen. It was all nice and homey. But he didn't really know what purpose the bowls served. It wasn't just to smell nice and look pretty? Zoryn suggested cereal bowls, an answer Carlton appreciated. Fancy cereal bowls. Then he got an idea and his hand shot up in the air.

He waved his arm in the air before saying, "I don't know what the bowls are for, Professor." Obviously. "BUT, it smells nice. And people are happy when things smell nice." Why else did perfume exist? "So... It's to make us happy?" He shone up, hopeful. Because Carlton was happy. "And our robes will smell so nice after class." He waved his robe a little in the air. He'd strut this smell around all over Hogwarts. Yes, he would.

For a moment all Imogen did was just looking over to the young Slytherin girl before pausing…she was probably nervous as to the scents in the room? Right? That was all that Imogen could think as she simply shook her head. ”No, there is no Frankinsense in here, only Lavender and Jasmine” she paused, ”I do am planning on giving information on different aromas as they are a very personal thing to the user, one person will like the scent of thieves, and the other will find the blend to be a little bit…too pungent” she shrugged her shoulder and gave the girl a soft smile. ”If you want you can open the windows and let some fresh air from outside into the room, it might even wake us all up a bit…Lavender does have quite a calming effect on the brain and body” she meant every word of it. If anyone at all wanted to open the windows they could.

Little Carlton got a grin when he shot his arm into the air with such gusto. He obviously was a polite little one with his arm raising and the generally bubbly way he answered the questions…or tried to was really adorable to Imogen. It reminded her a lot of how her nephew Colin had been before he had gotten all…uptight and boring. ”Thank you for your insight Carlton, these themselves have nothing to do with the scent but they are often used a long side many different essential oils and scents” she gave him a small smile and really wanted to commend him for his eagerness in her class.

SPOILER!!: closest & the ones that got it!

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Okay, so maybe she was slightly disappointed that they wouldn't be learning how to cast super-charged ultimately powerful spells- but looking at personal numbers had to be important as well, right? And they wouldn't just be studying Cultural Arithmancy forever. If nothing else, her answer had been mostly right, at least.

Professor Grevyson still had to be at least the second-best teacher ever.

The bowls, she had noticed before, and kind of thought they just went with the whole incense-y atmosphere... but they actually looked kind of similar to something she'd seen before. She tapped one thoughtfully with her fingernail before raising her hand, suggesting,
"Are they for music...? They look like the ones my Muggle music teacher had. In primary school." Then again, everyone else seemed to have pretty different ideas- so she could be way off on this one. But she thought that was like a meditation thing, so it could fit in with the whole theme of this lesson.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

SPOILER!!: Zoryn & professor

SCORE! Another chocolate frog card for him! Best of all being that the professor didn't seem to mind them eating in class...or napping either given she hadn't scolded Brian. Maybe Arithmancy wouldn't be so bad after all? If one could pass in their sleep, you know.

Tearing into his chocolate frog - and letting the actual frog hop out of his reach because his real sights were set on the CARD within - Derf couldn't help but grin at the professor with what she said. "You hear that?" he beamed at Zoryn. "Wise. She called my words wise."

And yes, he DID want to pet Yeti...and feed him (so treats were grabbed)...and take him for walks and teach him tricks and...

...well...it was safe to say that all attention giving to the actual lesson had flown right out the window.


The first year heard not the first question, his attention entirely on feeding the puppy treats and scratching it behind the ears in hopes of making one of its back legs do that THING that happy dogs did. Meanwhile...the chocolate frog that he had haphazardly let loose was hopping around somewhere while the chocolate frog card had been discarded on the floor next to his bag.

Merlin. Again. He had about 15 of him already. Alas.

But it was just as well that he had not heard the question as he really did not have much of an opinion on the subject. He had scanned over the chapter headings prior to class...and mostly just gotten nervous thinking about some of the topics. Particularly those relating to color.

Fancy cereal bowl? But where was the spoon?! He was also unconvinced about the guess for mortar and pestle as well...the texture was all wrong on the bowl for it to be efficient in any way...not to mention the curvature of the bowl being such that grinding anything with the wooden...thingy there would be difficult.

"Looks like a bell," he observed, only paying attention this time around because Zoryn had spoken. Although he WAS still feeding treats to Yeti and offering more scratches behind the ears. "A bowl-bell."

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Originally Posted by Govoni

A little surprised at the offer of tea, Olivia frowned...wondering if this woman could dig into her mind. No, she'd not been thinking of the steaming beverage specifically, but... Well, it remained her favorite. Had she mentioned that to this professor before? Perhaps she had.... Or maybe Professor Greyvson simply thought to be welcoming... When did she start overthinking so much? It was extremely exhausting. Bless you, Ravenclaws.

"No, thank you."

Rubbing at her knee, Liv figured the soft tones were meant to also be relaxing, but unfortunately, she wasn't quite there yet. Maybe as they progressed in the hour.... Perhaps then.... "Yogic Arithmancy..." Yoga.... Her mum did yoga and Liv had been known to join in at times, but if she could somehow apply that to numbers... Well, maybe it could help in figuring out how to better learn this awful material. Had she mentioned that she hated numbers? Because... Yeah, Olivia Phillips most definitely did. LOATHED, to be more precise.... but............ "Those are singing bowls!" It was almost said excitedly. Almost. There was some animation happening, lightly coloring the lilt in her voice. "My mother has a set of them.....and they are a bell." In regards to that smol Hufflepuff child.

Hello, smol Hufflepuff child. (Derf)

Also.... "I'm terrible in this subject but I'm putting my faith in you. To help me really understand, you know?" It didn't cost her anything to admit her own shortcomings. It wasn't like the Gryffindor was ashamed or anything. There was little shame to be found, as an aside.

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Originally Posted by SarcasticStrawberry

Should she be writing this stuff down? She had know clue so she didn't. Kat just sat there, rather comfortably in fact. How was half of the class not asleep for this. Arithmancy wasn't for everyone, apparently. She did however listen to do the others answers, everyone was quite different, though there was many areas covered in the book.

Her blue eyes looked at the bowls she had seen when she first came into the classroom. Last time she checked this wasn't potions. "That looks like a really fancy mortar and pestle." Like who would want a mortar and pestle that fancy? Right? "But really they are meditation bowls." She nodded, "They are used to make sounds to calm you for meditation." So they were really doing the meditation things today. Yes.

Imogen gave Sinead, Derf, Liv and Kat small smiles and even muttered a small thank you to Liv as she had given the correct answer. It was blissfully nice to have someone be aware of what she was demonstrating with today, that and their answered had all been so close and quite accurate in most regards. ”Miss Dance, I do have to say that is a wonderful point to make, these do have some connection to music as I will demonstrate in a moment.” she smiled,

SPOILER!!: quiet ones

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Originally Posted by Shanners

Rooney stuck with reading through the contents pages of his textbook whilst listening to the answers given by his peers. With nothing more to add, he made a face and carried on reading. He could tell you one person in this room that needed to get meditating and work on her stress levels. Also, weren't these bowls used for healing in some ways? He didn't know. He didn't care.

He was bitter Ravenclaw with a bee in his bonnet.

Why wasn't he getting attention from the dog yet?

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Originally Posted by Lady of Light

Etta made notes in her notebook, already feeling like this class wasn't going to be very easy for her. She had no idea what half of those words meant at all.. which was a little worrying. Idly staring at her book, she pondered over the professor's question. How were they to know what those bowls were for? Wasn't the professor supposed to tell them that?

"They look like... um..." She started, raising a hand but.. No. Etta gave up. She abruptly turned silent, not wanting to repeat what others had said anyway. Instead, she just waited for the professor to explain.

Imogen looked over to Rooney Bronwyn as he seemed to refuse to answer the questions or really rather interact with the class at all. Instead of asking him to say anything on the topic Imogen simply turned to Etta as she spoke and simply tapered off. She had tried, that was all that she had ever asked for. She tried to convey to her that she didn’t have to worry about repeating herself, it was after all more important that she was here, and that she was trying.

SPOILER!!: other & loud ones

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Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Kane wanted to answer with none of them but knew that wouldn't be acceptable. So instead he sighed and opened the table of contents to his book, scanning all of the different options. Hmmm, what was YOGIC arithmancy? He tapped his chin for a moment before raising his hand. He had a thought...

"I think I'd like to read about yogic arithmancy. I think..maybe it's about yoga and arthimancy? Yoga is supposed to enlighten your mind and all, sounds like something similar to this...and is that incense in the bowls? Maybe?" he answered in response to her last question.

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Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Oh hmm what did he like to learn about this book?... he wasnt quite sure, Arithmancy itself was generally complex that he didnt quite know what was what with the exception of the crunching numbers part, so this new Cultural book thing was even more foreign to him, however that thing about Muggle US Presidents did catch his eye....


And then there were those bowl things. Kat did say mortar and pestle and he chuckled loudly at that. Yep thats the first thing he thought too. But as he reached out for one of the bowls closest to him, he turned it over then tapped the wooden stick against the bottom of the bowl-- and it made a soft gong-ing sound.

*gooooooooooooong*

"Time for tea!" he beamed.

Yeah thats what he thinks its for.

Imogen just nodded and listened to Kane’s answer and to think it was a smart answer…except there wasn’t any oil in the bells. The incense and scents were simply coming from the essential oil infused candles and the small incense burners at the corners of the room. She hadn’t wanted to over stimulate anyone with too many essential oils that is.

Her moment was broken by the long GONG sound. Merlin. ”No…no you don’t need to bang it like a gong, you simply roll the lined mallet on the edge and as Miss Phillips mentioned the metal will sing. Her ears were still ringing. Merlin. Was her brain vibrating in her head?

Imogen stretched slightly and rolled her neck from left to right before she moved on to the lessons major parts. It was simple really; she just wanted everyone to feel comfortable for the lesson…and well, which made this easier than anything else really. ”Now, Olivia Phillips, I want to say thank you for bringing up the Tibetan Singing Bowls,” the facts were accurate of course. ”These are as Miss Phillips and Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne mentioned and guessed at, Bells.” taking a moment to look around at everyone she just grinned.

”Tibetan Singing bowls are used a lot of the time with meditation and even in some cases with yoga as well,” turning and tapping the board with her wand the image that had been becoming slowly more clear as the students answered the questions continued to form until it was finally clear and legible.

It wasn’t the only image on the board. There were others depicting the Chakras on the board. Each of the images clearly depicted the chakras and some even had details such as what the chakras were tied to in the outer life.




”It may be odd, or confusing to some to think about the chakras in regard to Arithmancy and numerology, however an imbalance in chakras" she paused for a moment and looked around at the students, "as well as an imbalance in your life, be it more stress, or other such outside influences has a great effect on your life. This can even effect how we read and interpret our numbers in Arithmancy."

Looking around at everyone she began to speak again "if you look at the images on the board you will not only see the names of the Chakras but also their spiritual location in the body, what effects they have on our lives when they are in balance, as well as a special point here below the base chakra." She looked around at everyone. "This spot below the base chakra that looks like a spiral is where the Kundalini energy is believed to be stored, it is also called Kundalini Shakti." She took a deep breath before continuing speaking...gosh she normally didn't speak this much, "Kundalini Shakti is believed to be the divine spiritual energy within every human being, which if you put that to Kundalini Yoga, it brings its importance forward defining it as a type of yoga with the sole purpose of awakening your spiritual energy. Muggles even practice this form of Yoga, however they often do not have spiritual energy or magic as we all have here in this room. " This wasn't all that the class was covering of course. She was just, this was what she loved doing. She loved this. Teaching people about the magic and connection in the more eclectic branch of magic.

There was a sort of calming peace to it. Similar, for her, to the calming and centering feeling of being by the ocean and hearing the waves crash on the beach. That was something that always made her tranquil, like the waves on a windless day.




"For today's lesson, I want you to all sit for a moment on your meditation pillows and use the boards I brought for you to take some notes. We'll get to the relaxing bit in a moment after we go over the main aspects of Chakras" she smiled over to them.

"There are eights Chakras, they are often divided up into two triangles, the lower and upper triangle. They are often divided into these triangles as a way to keep them in balance more easily." Taking a sip of her tea she placed the cup down below her and with a swirl of her wand she conjured what looked like a translucent statue of the chakra painting on the board. The image was silvery and shimmering as it hovered in front of the students, clearly it was just an aid to high light the chakras. "The lower triangle is made up of the Base Chakra, or the Muladhara Chakra which is believed to be located around the tailbone, the second charka, also known as the Svadhisthana chakra which is located here" another swish of her wand and the chakra glowed orange on the hovering statue. "the lower triangle also has the manipura chakra in it which is located around the waist or naval" she gave everyone a small nod. "the upper triangle is made up of the Anahata chakra, which is located around the chest and breastbone, the vishuddha chakra which is located at the throat, and the anja chakra which is located at the top of the head or approximately where one would say the third eye would be located." she took another sip of her tea to warm her now positively dry throat.

"both of the triangles and the chakras within deal with specific needs, desires, and wants you may have. The lower triangle chakras deal with physical needs of the body where at the upper triangle is more spiritual." She took a deep breath.

"The first - or Muladhara chakra is associated with security and survival. This chakra is always depicted in a red tone and it is associated with earth." Taking another sip of her tea and clearing her throat slightly she continued on. "The second Chakra or Svadhisthana Chakra is associated with creativity. It is orange in color and its element is water. The third Chakra, is about action and balance which is why it is located at the navel point. It is the color yellow and the element is fire."

Clearing her throat again she paused, "the most important thing to know about chakras as a whole, is that if one of your chakras is blocked or imbalanced in any way the chakras located above it will remain closed. This can become detrimental to your mental and physical health as it can be caused by outlying factors or reservations that you have in your life...now, continuing on. The Heart Chakra or Anahata Chakra is both in the lower and upper triangles and is the balance point of both chakras. This charka is associated with compassion and love, its element is air and the color green." Yeah...when she first learned Chakras she didn't know why it had to be green...wouldn't green water be...well, gross?

"Now, the upper triangle, the fifth chakra or the vishuddha Chakra is about projective power of the word, its color is light blue and it is associated with the element of ether." pausing to take a sip of her tea again she couldn't help but think about how much she would have to pee after this class....also did Yeti pee before class? She wasn't sure. "Now, the sixth, seventh and eighth Chakras in the upper triangle correspond to the non-physical and more subtle realms that chakras can be associated with." did that make sense? Was she making sense she didn't even know at this point. All of the planning and her worrying was starting to catch up with her. "so, the sixth, or Ajna Chakra which is located at around the location of the eyebrows is about intuition and wisdom the color is indigo." Indigo such a beautiful color. "the seventh or Sahasrara Chakra is located at the crown of the head. This charka is known to resemble humility and vastness, the color associated with this Chakra is Violet." So many words...more tea. She took another sip and cleared her throat. "Now the eigth Chakra is harder to notice as it is white. This Chakra is the aura, it is the electromagnetic field surrounding your physical body."

So. Many. Words.

So many.

Too many.

"the chakras are known to flow through channels in the body and channels that pass through the chakra points called Nadis." She took another centering breath and looked around at everyone, "now, how would you think one would meditate in order to balance the chakras?" she asked kindly and looked around at everyone.