Now see, here was where it got confusing. He scanned the textbook. Each letter of the name lasts for as long as the value of that letter. Well, that made it sound like it depended on your name. But then again... The Transits are found among the individual letters of your name, and are used in conjunction with the Essence Cycles to provide additional information about your year ahead. Your Transits predict, in a general way, the events which are slated to befall you in life. And thus the confusion.

He flipped the page to see if the Essence Cycles could tell him anything. The Essence cycle number is the combined total of the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Transits that are influencing you during a particular year of your life. So it seemed most likely that it would be the year, then.

He thrust both fists into the air. "Professor, I think the book says that it's a year, but I could be wrong." And he hoped that he wasn't. He didn't like to let down Hadley.

Biting her lip, Vashti had to think for a few moments, trying to remember what the book had said in regards to how long it lasted. She could have looked in her book, but she wanted to try doing these from memory. She wouldn't have her textbook with her when taking her NEWTs, would she? Probably not.

Finally, she raised her hand. "It depends on...the value of each letter?" Or something like that?

Kurumi looked up from her note taking, once again about ready to raise her hand and answer, but her reflexes were...off...again. Her timing was off as it were, so her hand went back down and picked up her quill. She thought she had read that the numbers applied to the upcoming year...but then if you were making these predictions all the time and your birth name never changed...didn't that imply that these were sort of indefinite?

Confused, Kurumi simply cocked her head to the side and waited for Professor Hadley to speak. She was having a hard time concentrating on the lesson...for some reason.

Vickers read the textbook entry several times, brows knitted in concetration as he tried to comprehend what he was reading. A tentative hand goes up "Professor.... it says 'Each letter of the name lasts for as long as the value of that letter.' But... how would we could we determine the value for each letter? Is it how often it appears in our name?" Curious he was, but more so confused.

A year? Josephina shook her head.... "A cycle could last a year," she replied, you know depending on if it were an A, J, or S. But alas it was not generally the case.

"You find the value of each letter from the Pythagorean Number System." Fina nodded and clarified about Vickers question.

"Precisely right indeed!" Josephina praised of the Head Girl. "So if you have each letter of your name lasting as long as the value of that letter..... let's look at our first names first..."

She paused as she wrote out her name on the board:

J = 1
O = 6
S =1
E =5
P = 7
H = 8
I = 9
N = 5
A = 1

"So starting from birth, the J in my first name has a value of 1, which means that the first part of my Physical Transit will last 1 year, which is followed by 6 years, then 1 year, then 5 years and so forth...." She paused, pointing to each value of the letters in her name as she spoke. "When you add together all the numerical values from my name, Josephina, you get that the full numerological value is 43. This means that the first cycle of my physical transits will last forty-three years. What happens after these 43 years are up?"

Nope. Kurumi had been WAY off and the Gryffindor blushed in her seat and looked down at her parchment and wrote down a few more notes as she attempted to cover up her embarrassment.

She looked up when Professor Hadley had finished explaining and this time the Gryffindor felt that her timing with the lesson was more on target, so she raised her hand. "Does the cycle...start over? I mean, the name’s influence over your physical transit will return to the J in your name and go through the letters again?"

Oh right! The Pythagorean chart. Vickers scribbled things down on his parchment and looked up at the Professor's next question. He wasnt sure, and hearing Kurumi's answer made the most sense to him. But what if "Professor, would your last name, which usually represent the spiritual and/ or mental transit, shift to become your physical transit?"

Oh good! No one suggested she'd die at age 43!

"Exactly! Once you've completed one cycle of your transit, which will be equivalent in years to the numerological value of your name, then it simply starts over," Fina nodded, glad that Kurumi seemed at least somewhat back to her usual self.

"No. Your surname shall always be significant to your spiritual information about your life ahead depending on what part of the transit you're in." It didn't change from representing different themes about your life.


"Alright then, everyone go ahead and use your first names from birth to determine two things; the time your physical transits will be occurring," she paused a moment, "As in what age. And also tell me where in your transit you are now?" For some, they might even have completed one transit cycle depending on their numerological value of their names....

As she finished, she went ahead and circled the letter 'I' on the board for her own name, since that's where she was now. Interestingly enough is that she began teaching at Hogwarts right about at the start of the cycle I....

Kurumi nodded and turned her parchment over so that she could do her calculations on blank page. Well, it wasn't really calculations as much as it was note taking really. She pretty much had her first name's numbers memorized from all the times she had had to use them for other calculations. So, quill set to her parchment, Kurumi began to do what was asked of them, her eyes glancing around the classroom every now and again.


Once she had finished the basics, Kurumi changed the black ink of her U and the 3 below it to red and then referred to her textbook to see what, theoretically, she had already endured in her life.

So...K meant...well, K meant a lot of good things, but she wasn't really sure how her at ages one and two was really able to comprehend what all the meaning implied. Extremely intuitive, well, babies were by nature curious, so that sort of applied. Deciding not to think much more on the first two years of her life and moved on to the next 3. U meant...well, not too many good things it seemed. Old and long forgotten emotional issues may surface... relatives and family may require effort and attention... Kurumi supposed that that applied, sort of. Moving on to looking at the meaning of R, which took up 9 years of her life, she felt a little nervous since this one seemed to have the most influence in terms of time. This is a time in which you will meet the best and the worst. You have to exercise caution in everything you do and every decision you make. Be aware of your surroundings. Yep...that seemed pretty important.

The knot in her stomach tightened a bit as she glanced back at the letter U, where she currently was, and quietly read over the description again.
A part of that description caused a sharp pain in her chest, but she tried her best not to linger on it for too long. Professor Hadley had already been watching her carefully last lesson, she really didn't want to have that attention again.

Looking up now, Kurumi raised her hand. "Professor, is this...right?"

Why hadn't Ellie been answering questions? Because she was holding a mini grudge against Hadley. Calling her 'Eliana'. PPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTT. MEAN.

Also, she was a bit worried they'd have to calculate their middle names. But she supposed she'd just pretend she didn't have one, as she usually did in Arithmancy....and always. A glance went Treyen's way, and she was quite glad he was sitting where he was. She didn't think he'd out her to the class, but it was good to know he wouldn't know that she was completely skipping it. He'd probably go on about how it 'wasn't such a bad name' and that her numbers were wrong if she didn't include it or some other nonsense.

The Ravenclaw opened her Textbook to the page with the grid thingy with the numbers and letters, because she hardly ever remembered them for herself, and it was easier than figuring it out and...yeah.



CRUD she was gonna die when she was 25?!!!?!!

Not cool, Hadley, not cool.

Ellie....tried again. Mhm.



That sooooo wasn't any better. And Ellie didn't understand HOW her longer name gave her a shorter life span. Good thing she didn't actually believe in this stuff...right?

Anyway, she was in the 'I' part of her short, short life, so....

The only part she felt she related to was the 'insecure' bit. But they'd moved past that so....then there was the 'success', which just made her upset considering the Quidditch Championship. She wasn't very successful then, was she?

HMPH.

Good thing.

Amelia really wasn't as good with Transit Cycles as she was with other parts of Arithmancy, but she was pretty sure that she could do hers rather correctly.

Opening her notebook, she started doing her work, highlighting what she got at her current Transit:

Quote:

Current age = 18

A: 1
M: 4
E: 5
L: 3
I: 9
A: 1
= 23

It was an I, so she looked it up in the textbook:

Quote:

I: This is a very emotional time with many ups and down's. You are high-strung and vulnerable to stress. You are somewhat accident prone. You need to develop calmness, centeredness, and an acceptance of life. You must control your moods and not slip into feelings of self-pity and insecurity. At the same time you are very competitive and have the opportunity to achieve success and financial reward.

47. Erm. Was it right? Wasn’t it a bit much? Come to think about it… it was almost 50. Almost. And 50 was kind of too much. Had she messed up something? Gwen drew her attention back to the piece of parchment and examined everything carefully for the second time. Well, even if it were a mistake, the third year wasn’t able to find it. Anyhow, I’ll assume it is correct… and then… I’d beeeee… at the 3rd thing. The one with E. She should check out what it means.

You will feel inspired and helpful. There can be change in career, travel, and possibly another residence. Heh. This seems promising. Though- inspired- she’d been a bit too inspired. That was why she got those awful blue hair streaks. Inspiration. Hmm. Moving on- You are attracted to new and adventurous experiences,- Mhm. It sounded at least good. Wait--- including love affairs. WHAT? Love affairs? Love? Gwendolyn tried very hard to hold back her laugher. Hmph. What next? Although this is a good letter for finances there may be a lack of focus and a more frivolous attitude, which will adversely effect your chances of real material progress. You feel attracted to new religions and philosophical ideas. Meh.



After having done what she was supposed to, the young Ravenclaw drew her attention to the Professor. Did they have to do something else for now? Hmm. She’d just wait for further instructions.

Sierra's eyebrows knitted inward as she stared down at her parchment. See, this was why she should never be in an advanced Arithmancy class. She didn't want to be either. Her mother had suggested the idea last year. Apparently, Sierra needed to stay in all her classes since her father was the Minister. A well-rounded daughter would reflect well on him, she'd been told.

Transit numbers, though? She may as well have been asked to write in Italian or something. With a sigh, she dipped her quill in ink and started writing.

S I E R R A (Physical Transit)
1 9 5 9 9 1

1+9+5+9+9+1 = 34
3+4 = 7

Er...seven year cycle? Was that it? On the off chance, she wrote that down.

7 year cycle

Having no idea what to do next, Sierra just tapped her quill against her desk and stared at her parchment.

Well, he had been pretty far off, then. Excellent. This just isn't my class today, I guess. He sighed and set about his work, first scribbling down his name.

K E E F E R

Then he looked up the letters, because he could never seem to remember the correspondences.

Well, K is 2. Scribble. E is 5. Scribble, scribble, scribble. F is 6 and R is... 9. Two more scribbles.



Well that added to 32. So his transit cycle would repeat when he was 32, then? But where was he now? The first three add to 12, and I'm not 18 yet. So that means the F right now. He circled it.

Once she had taken a few notes on the last few questions and answers, Vashti skipped a little ways down her parchment to scribble down her first name and the numbers that corresponded to it then calculated them.

Text Cut: Vashti's parchment

V A S H T I
4 1 1 8 2 9

4 + 1 + 1 + 8 + 2 + 9 = 25 years
Current Age: 18

Wow, hers wasn't very long... She was on her last letter, for Merlin's sake! Which wasn't a bad thing, she was sure, but still...

Before looking to see what this meant though, she studied the others and the ages that they would've corresponded with. Funny how some of them corresponded and changed along with certain life-changing things she'd experienced. Especially the H and the T, during the time she was 14, 15, and 16. She glanced over at the descriptions and...yes, they fit quite well. Especially T's description. Scarily accurate almost.

But those weren't the ones she should focus on at the moment, so her eyes moved away from the T and all the way up to the I.

Text Cut: textbook

I: This is a very emotional time with many ups and down's. You are high-strung and vulnerable to stress. You are somewhat accident prone. You need to develop calmness, centeredness, and an acceptance of life. You must control your moods and not slip into feelings of self-pity and insecurity. At the same time you are very competitive and have the opportunity to achieve success and financial reward.

...Merlin's beard.

Vashti couldn't do anything except stare at the words and wonder how this description could be so accurate too.

Well sounds like Kurumi got it right, although he appreciated the Professor's explanation that first and last names arent interchangeable in the rules of Transit cycles.

He drew his parchment to himself and began calculating his Transit cycle...

The Ravenclaw turned to his textbook to look up what it says about the letter N...

Well would you look at that, about half of it was true already. He was turning 16 in a few months, and as the Transit cycle shows, what the letter N is predicting for his Physical transit will hold true until he turns 18. Which means he's seeing what might be happening to him throughout his stay at Hogwarts.

Josephina walked around the room as she overlooked the student's work and many of them seemed to be figuring out their physical transits. Good, good.

She nodded as a few of them asked if it was right, smiling approvingly at their work. It was a different kind of calculation from what they were used to so the fact that they figured it out made her pleased.


Except for Sierra ..... she reduced the total in her name. "Er.... it's not a seven year cycle, dear because you interpret the transits by saying, okay the first part of your physical transit is a 'S' which will last one year, then you have the I, so that lasts nine years. Overall, one complete cycle of your physical transits will last 34 years." She paused after clarifying it hoping that the fourth year understood better now.

"And to find which letter you're currently under, you look at your name and add up the first few letter values until you get to your age." Yup.

Right, so moving on as time was ticking. "So knowing that you use your middle names to find your mental transit and then your last name to find your Spiritual transits, go ahead and find those transit cycles and highlight where you are at present within those transit cycles."

As she instructed, she turned around and proceeded to write her own on the board.... for the mental Transit anyway for now....

Mental Transit:
F: 6
A: 1
I: 9
T: 2
H: 8

Total = 26 year cycle

So her physical transit cycle was going to last longer than mental one. No surprise there, really.


ooc: Sorry about my lateness in continuing this. *blames work* =/

Seeing that Professor Hadley hadn't commented on her calculations, Amelia was able to go on to the next part of the class where she figured the Transits using her middle and last names. She started doing the calculations under the one for her first name:

Quote:

Current age = 18

I: 9
S: 1
A: 1
B: 2
E: 5
L: 3
21=

She looked up what E meant in the textbook:

Quote:

E: You will feel inspired and helpful. There can be change in career, travel, and possibly another residence. You are attracted to new and adventurous experiences, including love affairs. There can also be marriage. Although this is a good letter for finances there may be a lack of focus and a more frivolous attitude, which will adversely effect your chances of real material progress. You feel attracted to new philosophical ideas.

Now that she had the Transit from he middle name down, she started working on the one using her last name:

Quote:

Current age = 18

R: 9
E: 5
I: 9
N: 5
H: 8
A: 1
R: 9
T: 2
= 48

She had gotten an I, which was the same result as the one from her first name.

Sierra eyed Hadley out of the corner of her eye. The way she called her dear sounded almost like an insult. Sierra wished she could snap back, but no. She couldn't. She'd just think about everything she wished she could say, though.

"Okay," she said, her eyes on her parchment, "but what happens if it goes over 15?" Her age.

S I E R R A (Physical Transit)
1 9 5 9 9 1

1+9+5 = 15

"Oh," she said, realization dawning on her. "Nevermind." So what did she do now? Oh, ...right. The textbook.

...MARRIAGE?!

That was it. She was dropping Arithmancy.

Maybe she'd have better luck with her middle name...

H O P E (Mental Transit)
8 6 7 5

So what now? Did she do the whole age thing again? She eyed Hadley. but the woman had moved on.

8+6+7+5 = 26

8+6=14

Er...

8+6+7 = 21

...

"Professor Hadley?" she said, her hand in the air.

Seeing as it didn't seem as if Amelia needed her guidance; the girl seemed rather competent in her understanding of numerology, Hadley directed her sights on someone else instead.

.... Somewhere like a certain fourth year Slytherin.

"Yes? What's wrong?" Fina said approaching Sierra's desk as she looked over her work.

Spotting Hadley out of the corner of her eye, Sierra lowered her hand. Pointing at her parchment, she did a little tap, tap with her finger on the places she had questions on. "Does this work the same way? With looking for my age I mean?" she asked. "I ended up with a fourteen and a twenty-one, and I'm fifteen..."

H O P E (Mental Transit)
8 6 7 5

8+6+7+5 = 26

8+6=14

8+6+7 = 21

See, this was why she hated Arithmancy. Sierra Greingoth just didn't admit failure. Argh. She hated having to ask questions.

Okay, so...middle and last names now?

Vashti once again picked up her quill, dipped it in ink, and repeated the same process as before, though this time with her middle name and last name.

Text Cut: Vashti's parchment

Current Age: 18

R A C H E L L E
9 1 3 8 5 3 3 5

9 + 1 + 3 + 8 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 37 years

G R E E N W E L L
7 9 5 5 5 5 5 3 3

7 + 9 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 = 47 years

These lasted much longer than her Physical Transit... She wasn't even very far into them. Hmm... Well anyway.

She'd spend some time later analyzing what the meanings of the ones that had already past were and whether they properly corresponded or not later. Right now she looked at the ones she was currently in.

Text Cut: textbook; middle name; mental transit

H: Your mind will be very active during this year. Your thoughts are surprisingly unconventional. You come up with original, even inventive ideas. This is an ambitious time and self-promotion will pay of. Advancement and success are possible. You have self-discipline and a clear understanding of what you want. Emotionally you are a little vulnerable and in need of love and attention.

Interesting. This one seemed to apply a bit... She continued scanning until...

...in need of love and attention...

Erm...

...Yeah, moving on.

Text Cut: textbook; last name; spiritual transit

E: You will feel inspired and helpful. There can be change in career, travel, and possibly another residence. You are attracted to new and adventurous experiences, including love affairs. There can also be marriage. Although this is a good letter for finances there may be a lack of focus and a more frivolous attitude, which will adversely effect your chances of real material progress. You feel attracted to new philosophical ideas.

Also interesting, until...

...love affairs. There can also be marriage...

...

...

Yeah, once again she just sort of stared down at the page, eyes wide.

Glad that she hadn't made any mistakes this time around, Kurumi picked up her quill again and began to sort out the next bit of her Transits. It was times like this that she wished she had a shorter last name. Hollingberry was just SO long and the Gryffindor couldn't help but be a little sad at just how long her Spiritual and Mental Transits' cycles were.


Now that that was done, Kurumi glanced at her textbook to look up the meaning. Her attention was caught for a moment by Sierra, who seemed to be freaking out about something, and was just barely able to see her middle name written on the piece of parchment. Curiosity got the better of her, so the Gryffindor did some quick calculating in her head. Hmm....nothing for the Slytherin to be freaking out about...OH, wait, there it was.

Marriage. Could you imagine? Not something she wanted to think about to be sure. Kurumi returned to her own parchment and looked over things one last time before referring back to her textbook and...

o____________________O

This is not a time to hurry. You want to carefully and thoroughly consider your path, plans, and future...You will make new friends easily. This is also a favorable time for marriage.... However, thoughtlessness and careless action may cause you to lose friends and resources.

These parts especially stuck out to her and the last sentence caused her to reach for the necklace from Jonathan and she clutched it as if it were a lifeline. Something inside her told her that she had done something...but her heart was telling her that it wasn't thoughtless or careless. It was just something. Someone had hit the pause button on Kurumi, because she sat in her seat unmoving for a few moments before her eyes returned to moving over the definition in her textbook again. ...thoughtlessness and careless action may cause you to lose friends...

Confused, Kurumi glanced up at Treyen, hoping that the answer was written on his face somewhere but knowing that it wouldn't be. Biting down on her lower lip hard, Kurumi leaned back from her parchment and sighed heavily.

Gideon was following along with the lesson as best he could though he stayed quiet throughout the lesson. His classmates seemed fine enough in speaking up and answering the questions so he was fine listening and paying attention and taking down notes as they went along. And then when Professor Hadley told them to work on figuring out their own physical transits, the fifth year got to work, inwardly hoping he was picking up on how to do things.

Quote:

G - 7
I - 9
D - 4
E - 5
O - 6
N - 5
------
36 Year Physical Cycle

Looking it over, it seemed to Gideon that his calculations were correct. So he figured he might as well move on to finding where he landed on the scheme of things in his physical transit. "Okay at 16 I would be at the end of the I transit...right?" he mused quietly almost to himself. If he was following along correctly and counted through the 7 years of his "G" and the 9 years of his "I" it fit. So with that in mind, he looked into the textbook listing of the meanings of the transit in question, copying it down in his notes for easy reference.

Quote:

I: This is a very emotional time with many ups and down's. You are high-strung and vulnerable to stress. You are somewhat accident prone. You need to develop calmness, centeredness, and an acceptance of life. You must control your moods and not slip into feelings of self-pity and insecurity. At the same time you are very competitive and have the opportunity to achieve success and financial reward.

He had just about finished on the first set of work when Professor Hadley moved them on to the mental and spiritual transits. So figuring his first calculations were correct, he went about working on the next two.

Quote:

G-7
A - 1
V - 4
I - 9
N - 5
-------
26 Year Mental Cycle
I: This is a very emotional time with many ups and down's. You are high-strung and vulnerable to stress. You are somewhat accident prone. You need to develop calmness, centeredness, and an acceptance of life. You must control your moods and not slip into feelings of self-pity and insecurity. At the same time you are very competitive and have the opportunity to achieve success and financial reward.

G - 7
E - 5
R - 9
T - 2
-------
23 Year Spiritual Cycle
R: You have much understanding and insight during this time. It is a time in which you have to deal with money, power, and authority. You have an opportunity to elevate your financial status and personal growth. This is a time in which you will meet the best and the worst. You have to exercise caution in everything you do and every decision you make. Be aware of your surroundings.

Listening to Sierra's question, she nodded. "Yes, it does. So you just turned 15, which means you would be at the transition point of where you moved from one particular cycle to the next. In your case, O to P, which the P will carry you through until you're 21." Make sense now? Maybe?

Noting the perplexed look on the Head Girl's face ... Fina strode over to have a look at her desk. Oh good, she figured it out. But why the look?

Oh.

Love. That would create confusion

"Yes, I never really pay much attention when the numbers involve matters of the heart," Fina said quietly. "But amazing how other stuff is .... scarily accurate, huh?"

Seeing other looks of confusion upon Kurumi's face , which almost similarly matched Vashti's, Fina curiously went over to her parchment to look.

Of course.

Transit numbers were rather heavily weighted in their meanings. In this, she was sure by not having younger students it was a wise decision.

"Your calculations fine," she said simply, wondering if she heard what she'd said to Vashti. Because it stood true.

Hearing another question, which was similar actually to Sierra's, with the exception that Gideon was simply confirming. "That's correct. At your 17th birthday, you will move into the "D" for your Physical Transit Cycle." Good time to change cycles - when you came of wizarding age. Alas, it didn't always work like that.


Right then, moving on as they still had another topic to discuss which was related to that of their transit cycles. Very important too. "So there's particular cycles which tie all your transit cycles together. What are these cycles I'm referring to?"


ooc: I'll continue tomorrow about 5pm est, and the lesson will be wrapped up by midnight est tomorrow. Just an fyi.