Cale grinned. He actually really liked the subject of Tarot cards, mainly cause he could actually understand them. He raised his hand. "The fool card is often associated with the number 0," he answered.

Ana raised her hand "The number 0"

(Ooc: Try not to edit your post. It makes it hard to tell what your answer is. It's okay to post more than twice to an answer if you wish to add to your characters reaction, so long as you don't double post.)

"It's quite alright, Miss Toussaint, and anyway those are very perceptive observations." He turned towards the students in the class. "Whatever mnemonic device you use to help you remember what number goes with what card, it's important to note that there is often a symbolism assigned with it. As you may have learned in Arithmancy, certain numbers have certain meanings. As with the Tarot, certain cards have certain meanings and numbers which often serve to enhance those meanings in someway.".

"What a perfect title for your dissertation on the role of luck in predictions, Mr. Sunrider. It'll be due by the end of the term." Professor Kapoor said assigning a bit of extracirrcular work to Sunrider to support his theory. He rather looked forward to hearing about more on the topic.

"Yes, Clifford. The Major Arcanwhats...Major Arcana." The Professor caught himself nearly repeating Cliffords word for it.

"Good, good. You've all studied up and have earned some points for your clever answers." He said, making a note to tally them up later.
"Now then, as I was saying earlier there are certain numerical correspondences to each of the cards in the Major Arcana. Would anyone like to venture a guess as to how the numerical symbolism for the number 2 is related to the meaning behind The High Priestess card?".

Kayla raised her hand, "Well the letters on the pillars in the picture of the High Priestess card is B and J. The B is symbolic as the second letter in the alphabet and J is number ten and in numerology this is reduced to 1. So on the pillars are the numbers one and two. This is symbolic of male and female, the two opposites."

Celandine nodded, listening avidly and making notes. She paused at the question and thought hard about it. She raised her hand. "Well, there are those two pillars and they have been suggested to represent a whole bunch of different things. One of them is Baal and Jehovah, the two paths to wisdom. Another is Jachin and Boaz, the pillars at solomons temple, but in reverse. As far as the menaing of the card goes, when it is drawn it often leads the querant to question how they have divided the world up as well as draw their attention to what is seen and what is not seen. Kind of a look beneath the apparently still water kind of thing, or if you relate it to the card itself, then what you can see in front of her throne and what is hidden behind it." Celandine chewed on her lip for a moment.

"Also, 2 stands for balance and I think this card tells us that to obtain that balance you have to seek the stuff that isn't immediately obvious."

"Bravo, ladies. That is some very good speculation. Take five points each for your answers.".

"Would anyone like to add anything to the idea of balance and opposition about this card?" He asked the class, including Kayla and Celandine, in case anything else could be said.

Cela raised her hand again, "Ummm. Is the High Priestess card supposed to be the balance and opposite of the Magician card? Since the Magician card is represented by 1 and is masculine, and the High Priestess is represented by 2 and is feminine..." Cela trailed off uncertainly.

Hmm...Kayla raised her hand once more, "The High Priestess card represents the subconscious mind. It is the balancing force between pairs. The pillars on either side represents opposites,light and dark and she sits in the middle impartial to one or the other. The curtain behind her connects the pairs." She was a little unsure of that answer.

Natka raised her hand.

"The number two is the numerical equivalent of karma, so it shows the link between the cause and effect, it's... universal law? The position of the Priestess shows that she's understanding, and the fact she comes after the Magician, who has pretty much undisputable power, indicates she has the same..."

Natka wasn't sure her answer made all that much sense by the time she'd finished speaking, but she hoped it made enough sense for the Professor to understand her.

The High Priestess? Uhhhm. Clifford raised his hand unsurely. "I think she's like a pair of scales, Sir.. y'know like the ones we use in Potions? It's her job to keep the balance, ain't it?" Gah! He sucked at explaining things. ".. and without any balance, then there isn't any power.. instead of there being any opposites, it's the hish ladies job to separate them, yet keep 'em balanced."

Cedric raised his hand...".the High priestess card was mysterious card, both frightening and wonderful while the magician is the charismatic showman with an audience..so the magician like to deal with the people while the High priestess card wasn't...as an addition,the Magician is all about possibilities while the high priestess was thinking all about impossibilities.."Cedric answered

Ana raised her hand "It's about the law of opposition, right? Things are not black or withe, sometimes they can be very gray. While the High represents non action and unconscious awareness, the magician symbolizes the opposite action and conscious awareness. And there's the necessity for a balance, balance of the opposities... i think"

Herminny had a different idea on the opposition of the high priestess so she raised her hand and said, "The high priestess tarot card suggests the person let there intuition be there guide and thats not always a good thing depending how the person interprets it, I mean some people may see what the person says about there life quie lightly, another person may hear the same exact thing but take it completely out of context on how it relates to their life and this shows things are not always black and white, but people interpret what they believe it but the challenge of this card is balance, things are not always as they seem, it's a battle of subconcious mind with concious mind and the balance of oposition is good vrs evil and it depends on the persons life and there interprtation what there reading will have tthem believing and what they will do with the information they now believe, it could be horrible, but it could also be great ".

Well, he couldn't NOT try. It wasn't a Tobi thing to do. He tried to recall everything Evie had ever babbled, but that was not especially helpful. Evie babbled a lot and it was hard to pick the useful stuff out. So he took a shot in the dark.

Tobi raised his hand, "The card, the number 2 even, represents duality sir, and where you have duality, there has to be a certain amount balance and opposition," he said, "If you look at the card itself, in the pillars especially, it tells us that there are two sides to an issue, and she sits between them to find the medium. The colouring of the pillars can be significant, as they are opposites, again, the high priestess sits in the middle to try fill the gap. But you'll notice she isn't making a mamoth effort, she simply is there. She's an intuitive card, not an active card, she is, knows rather than does."

Abby raises her hand. "The moon is associated with the number 2. The high priestess as also associated with the moon. She is a mediator. The high priestess mediates between two oposite things. She is all about duality. The high priestess can hold two oposite thoughts at the same time and recognize that they can both be true. She lives in the grey areas. Because the high priestess is passive energy, the two's in Tarot cards is often shows a time of waiting, deciding, balancing, weighing, discerning. There is a time of recognition in the two's, of seeing what is the same and what is different, of comparing and constrasting.

Chris raised his hand to answer Professor Kapoor's question about the stated card. "Well the High priestess represents the mind in its subconcious. She is the gap between light and dark."

"Yes. And, that is a good point, Celandine. Two points for your answer."

"Symbollically, it could. And, if helps you to remember her meaning, by all means, use that visual. She is grey. And in-between of sorts. Take two more points for your answer. Thank you, Kayla."

"Good. Equal, but opposite power. Two points."

Clifford generally gave a good answer in class, however...this. was. deep. And, it caused the Professor a due bit of worry at Cliffords introspective analogy. "Yes. Yes, you could think of her role as that of the scales in your Potions class. That's brillaint." He said. "Three points."

"A sort of balancing agent to the Magician. Very good. Two points."

"Very informative answer. Take three points."

"Very thurough explaination, Tobias. Four points."

"Good explaination. Two points."


"Two points." He said, assessing the boy's answer.

He looked over at a sundial perched at the window. "The four classical elements consist of air, water, fire, and earth. Would anyone like to guess how they relate to the cards of the minor arcana?"

Elizabeth raised her hand, having been quietly listening and taking notes during the rest of the lesson. "The four suits of the minor arcana represent the four classical elements," she said. "Specifically, the correlations are cups to water, pentacles to earth, and wands and swords represent fire and air." Now if she could only remember where she had read something about that before.

"Well professor isn't earth represented by penacles, wands representing air and fire, and last but not least cups for water." he asked raising his hand

Cela raised her hand, "Water is represented by the suit of cups, it represents emotions, how they flow and how sometimes it goes deeper than it looks at the surface. It is symbolic of the flow of consciousness and-- just like how water can be a mirror-- the suit of cups can be a mirror for how you react to things. It sorta makes sense because a cup is a vessel and if water is like emotion then looking into the cup can totally give you an idea of the depth of your feeling about a subject. Ummm Pentacles is earth and it represents the tangible, things you can touch, material wealth and the measure of time. If you look at a pentacle it's a star that keeps flowing from point to point, kind of like how certain events in your life are defining points. Sometimes it is drawn in a circle which connects it all together. That one is kind of sense-making too, earth is tangible, it's growth, toil, hard work, support and development so it makes sense that the suit of pentacles is associated with it and material wealth and hard work and success." Celandine twisted a strand of hair around her finger.

"The other two, wands and swords, they get mixed up a bunch but mostly swords are associated with air and wands with fire. So the suit of swords, with air, it's like... you know how gossip is? It can totally cut you but then it goes away as if the air has changed? It's a bit like that because speaking and breathing are just like words on the wind and the sword is sharp on both sides, you can wield it and it is powerful but it might end up cutting you. It's thought and consciousness and finding a balance between intellect and spirit." Gosh was she making sense? Cela hoped so, some of this stuff was hard to put into words.

"But wands? It's kind of my favourite. It's fire. It's passion and energy and your soul and your intent. Exactly like our wands are. There is a core and your intent can make things happen. It's ambition and it's drive and it's intensity. It's what you burn to do and yearn to be. Umm so yeah, those are the relationships and why I think it makes sense that they relate to each other."

Clifford could've SWORN he saw a shadow of ... worry or something strange in the Professor's epression for the teeniest tiniest fraction of a moment, and the Prefect gulped nervously before raising his hand once more.

"Well, I think air.. that's associated with the suit of swords, Sir. I really like swords.. I think they're pretty cool." Uhhhm. Right. Moving on. "And water, that one's associated with the suit of cups. I think fire is related to the suit of wands, and what was the last one? Earth? That one's related to the suit of pentacles." WOOO!

This was a tad confusing, tarot was something very new to Miranda but it was very interesting aswell. She raised her hand to answer.
"Professor, well there are four different types of cards, being the coin, the sword, the cup and the wand." she took a deep breath, "The cups are associated with water, because you can...drink from it. The coins go with earth, because the metal to make coins is extracted from the earth!"

Miranda was really confused about the other two. She frowned.
"The sword... It can be associated with air, because you sort of pick up a sword and swosh it around in the air..." Really? Don't you do that with a wand aswell? "The wand is fire then" Because there's no options left "Because you can produce fire with a wand! Yeah..." That made sense. Totally.


ooc: source, Wikipedia.com

"Fire is related to Wands and means creatuvity and will. Earth relates to Pentacles or Coins and represents material body or possessions. The water is related Cups or Chalices and represents emotions and love and finally the air relates to the Swords and means the reason" she said raising her hand

"The 56 cards of the Minor Arcana have four suits: pentacles, cups, wands, and swords. Each suit is represented by drawings that symbolize the the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air.

The Pentacles mean material gain, money, and industry. They are represented by earth. The Cups reveal happiness, emotions, beauty, and fertility. They are represented by water. Wands are associated with fire and represent growth, glory, enterprise, energy, and animation. Swords are associated with air. The individual cards mean agression, ambition, courage, misfortune, and force.

EEE! Miles knew the answer! He grinned, and his hand shot up.

"Fire is wands, staves and things. Earth is pentacles or coins, Cups is water, and air is swords and things." He nodded at himself. "In some deck of cards, Fire means swords and air means wands instead."