Divination: Western Astrology
 

Professor Kapoor held open the latch door to his classroom to let the students in.

"Come on in, students!" He spoke with a warm and inviting tone, although the indoor vs. outdoor voice concept was a bit lost on him. "Please take your seats and have your book out. If you've forgotten, please find someone with whom you can share. We'll be going over Western Astrology today."

Nia glanced into the classroom,surprised to see that she was one of the first ones there. She'd had a bit of a run in with a moving staircase, and thought she'd be late. Obviously it'd served as a sort of short cut - she'd have to remember that one. She smiled at the professor, before taking one of the seats in the middle of the room. With any luck her brother wouldn't come and pester her today. Shame she couldn't block the seat next to her though, just in case.

Placing her bag on the floor, Nia pulled out her textbook, wondering what they'd be learning about Western Astrology.

Nicholai was glad to be reasonably early to class. He grinned at Professor Kapoor and sat up front, ready to be distracted from the outside world for the duration of the lesson... let the students that dislike the class hide up the back.

"Hello Professor." Nico greeted as he opened his book.

Divination was an.. interesting concept. Still Mariel felt the need to at least attend the class before making too many judgements about it. Stepping in through the opened door, she looked around into the nearly empty classroom. Again, she practically had her choice of seats. Determining the middle of the room to be the best choice, she said, "Hello" to the professor and settled herself in before pulling her book out.

Lucas walked into Divination. This was the one class that he didn't have a clue in. he found a seat near the middle of the class and pulled his book out. He didn't see anyone that he knew so he just keep his head pointed to the front of the room as he flipped through his book to the right chapter.

He saw Mariel walk in and he waved happily at her. He missed her, they had great fun in the mirror on the fourth floor.

Rachel walked in and sat down in the front row, as usual. She took out her books and equipment and set them on the table. "Hello Professor! How are you?" she asked and smiled at him. She had missed the last lesson, and wanted to make sure that she understood the work.

Erica walked into the divination classroom. This was the one class she had had so far which she had come to love. Seeing a Slytherin boy, about her age, sitting in the middle of the classroom she walked over to him. Erica smiled at the boy and asked "Hello, do you mind if i sit next to you in class?"

Anna headed into the Divination classroom and took a seat. She smiled and nodded a greeting to Professor Kapoor and then found her seat. Hmmm...Western Astrology...sounds interesting. Anna took out a few pieces of parchment, a quill, and her textbook, and then sat quietly to wait for the lesson to begin.

Lucas looked up at the girl that was speaking to him. He smiled at her and nodded. "Yes of course. No one else is sitting there." he told her. "I'm Lucas, Lucas Greenwood." he told her. "If you need a book we can share mine." He said moving his book around so she could look at it if she needed to.

Jessica walked in happily. Divination was one of her favorite classes. She greeted the Professor and went to find a seat.
She noticed Willow and Anna and greeted them with a smile.

"Why, yes, Misss...Kovak.", he said, recalling her name from the roster with some difficulty. "I'm having a splendid day. Thank you for asking."

"Hello, Mr. Toussaint, glad to see you in class." He watched as more students entered the class.

There were still so many students whose names he could not recall. Blast that ministry for segregating the school last year. This would be so much easier if he had previous knowledge from which to draw. Here's hoping their last Divination Professor taught them well. "Hello there." He greeted the new face back warmly.

"Wonderful, just splendid, thank you."

"Alright, everyone. In your seats now, books open. To begin, who would like to repeat what we learned in our last class about the history of Western Astrology?"

Erica nodded and slid happily into the seat next to Lucas saying "Thanks! Nice to meet you, Lucas! I'm Erica Goldbloom."Taking up her own copy of the divination book and other school materials she responded "Thanks for the offer, but i've got my own copy of the book." Fiddling with her book she heard professor Kapoor mention Western astrology.

Rachel kept her hand firmly down. She didn't know this, so she took her quill and got ready to scribble down everything that was being said.

"Western astrology is the system of astrology most popular in Western countries. Western astrology originated in Mesopotamia during the 2nd millennium BC, from where it spread to much of the world.Western astrology is largely horoscopic, that is, it is largely based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment in time, such as a person's birth, in which various cosmic bodies are said to have an influence." Jessica answered after raising her hand.

Kairi kept her hand down, she didn't know the answer to this question, so she took out her quill, awaiting the answer so she could scribble it down.
She scribbled down the answer that the girl had said, she would have never been able to answer that.

Raising his hand Nico replied, "Specifically, we covered that Western Astrology is linked to many other kinds of Astrology and developed from the Chaldeans and Babylonians watching the skies and realising through their observations that people born at particular times had personalities effected by the order of the stars and planets above them at the time of their birth. We also covered that this is mapped in western Astrology by a natal chart."

Anna raised to her hand to reply. "Western astrology was developed by the Chaldeans and Babylonians. These people watched the skies and concluded that those born during certain parts of the year all had a specific personality trait. You also told us that we can use a birth chart in Western Astrology," she said.

"Nice to meet you Erica," he told her with a bright smile. He was going to keep talking but the Professor started the lesson and he didn't want to lose any points so he just smiled at her and then returned his attention to the lesson.

"Exactly. Two points."

"Two points."

"Two points, Prefect Greingoth."

"Good. Two points, and a nice lead in to our next topic."

"What is one of the fundamental differences between Wizarding and Centaurian methods for divining by the stars?"

"Centaurs use the smoke from burning mallowsweet and sage to help refine their stargazing." Nicholai responded with a frown, "They use the stars and the planets to divine future events rather than to indicate personality traits."