Catch The Snitch

Professor Lockwood was already in her classroom, waiting as her student’s arrived through the small trap door. She was wearing her usual simple black robes, and her medium brown hair was styled loosely around her face. Although it was October and the air was turning chilly, the sunlight coming into the Tower made for a hot room. She’d cracked open a few windows and a cool breeze wafted invitingly through the room every so often.

“Welcome back to your second lesson,” she said in greeting after the majority of the students were seated. “I hope you all have had a chance to practice clearing your mind since our last lesson. Before we begin, I will collect your journal assignment from our last lesson.” She waved her wand and the students’ assignments began gathering themselves up, delivering themselves to her in a neat pile. She directed them over to a table at the front of her classroom to take to her office later.

“Now, today we are going to learn about symbols and their place in readings. We will begin applying these concepts to actual readings in lesson three.” Now she pointed her wand at a stack of thick, heavy books piled on top of one of the small tables at the front of the room. The books started dispersing themselves amongst the students.

http://www.dreambible.com/

“Symbolism is an extremely broad topic,” she continued as this was going on, “for a symbol itself is any sort of mark or picture that is used to represent a thing or an idea. Now, for the purposes of this class, symbols will represent more abstract ideas. For example, many cultures view the dove as a symbol for peace, forgiveness, and purity. The books I have passed around are just one of many resources you can use for symbol interpretation. However, it is important to remember that these definitions are not hard and fast. You must always consider the context and use your intuition. To help you practice this, your first term project will be to create a symbol dictionary of your own. You will fill it with symbols you commonly see or feel a sense of connection to as well as a brief description of what it means to you.” She turned and pointed her wand at her small chalkboard and writing began to appear.

Term One Project:
Create a symbol dictionary with at least 10 different symbols of your choosing
Ideally you will choose symbols that have a special meaning to you
You can have as many symbols as you want as long as you have at least 10
Include a description of the symbol (you may provide a picture but it is not required)
You may research the symbol’s traditional meaning or provide a meaning of your own
Include a brief description of the meaning of the symbol

“See me after class if you have any questions,” she said after all the writing had appeared. “This will be due in lesson 4, just before the winter break. For now, I would like for you to begin thinking of some symbols you have been seeing recently. This could be in your dreams or waking life. You will take the time in class today to begin looking up definitions and thinking of what these symbols mean to you personally. If you are having trouble thinking of something, remember that animals are commonly viewed as symbols.” She paced slowly back and forth at the front of the room as she spoke. “Finally, the Dream Bible I have passed out for you is only one small resource amongst thousands out there. Feel free to use any other resources you’d like. I will give you some time to begin your research and then give you an opportunity to share if you’d like.”

Lockwood gave her students nearly the whole rest of the class time to begin their research. While they worked, she quietly began inspecting the tea pots and delicate tea cups that were packed onto the shelves near the fireplace. It was rather dusty from sitting uncovered all summer and many of the items had cracks or were broken completely. After assessing the items, she moved about the room so as to make herself available to answer any questions the students had about their work. Once time was up, she returned to the front of the class and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Well, we are almost out of time for today, but would anyone like to share some of the symbols you’ve researched?”

[Student Responses]

After everyone shared who had wanted to, Lockwood nodded with approval and waved her wand to start bringing the books back to the front of the class. “Wonderful! That wraps it up for today then. Your homework is just to continue working on your term one project. Remember it is not due until Lesson 4 but you will want to start getting familiar with symbols and their meaning as we will begin applying this information to Tasseography in our next lesson.” She gave a little smile at some of the blank looks she received at the use of the technical word. “Which simply means reading tea leaves.” She winked and then dismissed her class.

Kyle was not quite looking forward to the second Divination class of the school year. The previous class had been a mixed bag: he had a good impression of Professor Lockwood, and the way the class was to be graded seemed fair. On the flip side, he had absolutely no idea how to calm down and clear his mind, and his attempt to do so in class had been an utter disaster. Furthermore, after the lesson he was also supposed to practice a meditation method of his choosing for his homework, but he had dozed off instead.

When the Seventh-Year clambered through the trapdoor into the classroom, he was surprised to find that it was only half-full. He had thought he’d be amongst the last to arrive: his leg had been giving him trouble since the weekend, and he had taken more time than usual to climb up the stairs with his crutches.

Seeing that the seat he had occupied during the previous lesson was still empty, he headed there and settled down. The classroom was bright and airy, as per Professor Lockwood’s preference, and the breeze that came in through the open windows provided cool comfort against the warmth from the sun’s rays. Quite quickly, he noticed the pile of heavy tomes at the front of the classroom. It seemed that with each year at school, the textbooks got thicker and thicker. Was he going to have to memorise everything in there?

A short while later the lesson began, and Professor Lockwood started off by collecting the assignment from the previous lesson. As his report was magically whisked away, Kyle tried his best not to fret over it. It was a done deal by now, and worrying only meant that he’d suffer twice. Though he was far from satisfied with what he had came up with, he could only hope that Professor Lockwood would appreciate the effort that went into it.

Next, Professor Lockwood distributed the stack of heavy tomes to the class as she launched into a brief introduction about symbolism. Leafing through the thick volume, Kyle was immensely relieved to find that it was not a textbook, but a reference book that listed down various symbols and their plausible meanings. The professor explained that the definitions in the book were not hard and fast, and that the same symbols could mean different things to different people, depending on the context. Her words essentially confirmed what Kyle had suspected after he had that dream where he was walking along a railroad. Indeed, he had even mentioned briefly in his assignment how prosthesis and crutches might be less significant to him, or perhaps even hold different meaning because of his condition.

Curious about what this book had anything to say about prosthesis and crutches, he searched for those terms in the book. The entry on artificial limbs didn’t resonate with Kyle. Not that he could fault the author; most people simply wouldn’t know what it was like to lose a limb, and even their best guesses would fall short by a mile. Likewise the entry on crutches didn’t really quite hit the mark for him either, although the last line might be accurate if the crutch in question was a makeshift one instead of his usual forearm crutches, such as the metal pole in his dream.

When the class discussion started, Kyle ruminated on whether he should raise his question, or talk to Professor Lockwood after the class. After all, the problem was unique to him… or was it? But as he looked around the classroom at his fellow students, he figured that each and every one of them had their own unseen struggles and preoccupations that would likely colour their perception of the various symbols detailed in the book. Although he didn’t want to draw any attention to his own worries about his condition, he was probably the best person to bring up the matter for discussion. After all, his condition was no secret, and he had nothing to lose by talking about it.

Sensing an opportunity to speak up, he raised his hand even before he had properly formed the question in his head. “If I may, Professor,” he started as he was called upon. “I have a rather long question, but I’ll try to be concise.” After taking a moment to sort out his thoughts, he proceeded with his question. “As you’ve mentioned earlier, the definitions for the symbols are not hard and fast, and the same symbol could represent different things to different people. By extension some symbols may not even bear any significance to certain people.” It was at this moment that he realised Professor Lockwood might not have known about his condition before today; he had worn his prosthesis during the first lesson, and most people wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary if they didn’t know what to look out for. “In case anyone is unaware, I had my right leg amputated below the knee a few years back. As such, if I were to dream about having an artificial leg or using a pair of crutches to get around, that would be a pretty normal dream by my standards. But to someone else, the same dream could be very unusual and symbolic. So my question is: how do we tell if a symbol that we encounter is significant, or if it’s just a reflection of our mundane worries and anxieties?”

Professor Lockwood motioned for Kyle to speak when he raised his hand. She admittedly had not noticed his prosthetic leg on the first day of class, but she had since read and graded his homework assignment where he had revealed the fact in the context of a lucid dream he’d had. He seemed like a very thoughtful and bright student, so she was glad he was curious enough to ask a question.

She allowed him to finish his thoughts fully before answering. “That’s a very good question, Mr. Winters, and you are right to point out that your dreaming about having an artificial leg or using a pair of crutches would have a very different meaning than someone dreaming about those things who has not had a limb amputated.” She slowly walked back and forth at the front of the classroom, addressing the rest of the class as she talked. “In short, you can tell if it’s significant if it captures your attention. Something that is out of place, or particularly intriguing or noticeable to you, is a far better candidate for a meaningful symbol than something you’re used to seeing everyday. For instance, let’s say that this morning you saw a spider on the floor when you were getting out of bed. Not a big deal - you’ve seen spiders before. But then you see another one on the wall in your first period class, and at dinner you overhear a group of students telling a joke about spiders. Now it’s not so insignificant.”

“It’s harder when you’re doing a reading on someone else because you don’t know their background. That’s why a certain level of back-and-forth is required. For instance, if I were doing a reading for Mr. Winters without knowing anything about him and a symbol of a crutch came up, I would probably ask him if he or anyone close to him had ever been disabled or needed crutches. To this he might respond, 'Yes, I had my right leg amputated below the knee a few years ago.’ Now I know the reading is about Mr. Winters himself, and I would use other symbols that had come up to help piece together more information about the reading. If he had replied 'no’, that would be my cue that this symbol has a more universal meaning in this context. Crutches traditionally symbolize dependency.”

She opened it back up to Kyle to give any further feedback if he wanted, and also to the other students to share anything that had come up during their work today in class.

Kyle found himself nodding along as Professor Lockwood associated the significance of a symbol to how out of place or intriguing it was. Armed with this new knowledge, he recalled the dreams that he had been having recently, including the lucid dream that he had written about in his assignment. His prosthesis had largely been an insignificant part of those dreams, but in that lucid dream he had been forced to abandon his prosthesis , and thus his prosthesis might have been significant in some way or another. It was also the only dream he had recently where he had to use a makeshift crutch, and this was likely to be just as noteworthy, if not more.

There was still one more thing Kyle was unsure of, but before he could ask his follow-up question, Professor Lockwood went on to explain the importance of knowing the background of a person one was doing a reading on. All along he had thought that one would be able to use Divination to learn about the fortunes of others, including complete strangers whom one knew nothing about. In hindsight that was a bizarre misconception to have, but at least he had cleared that up. “I understand now,” he said. “Thank you so much, Professor.”