Divination

Divination is the branch of magic that involves attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into events through magical means. It is considered a highly inexact and difficult art, with many in the wizarding world viewing it with skepticism. Professor McGonagall describes it as “one of the most imprecise branches of magic”. The success of most forms of Divination is largely dependent on interpretation and is often vague. However, true, unerring foresight is possible for those who possess the Inner Eye. This is an innate and very rare gift that allows a witch or wizard, known as a Seer, to make genuine prophecies. A Seer often has no control over their visions and may not even remember making a prophecy after the fact.

Various methods are taught and practiced within the wizarding world, though their reliability is often questioned. Known methods include:

• Tasseomancy: The art of reading fortunes from the patterns of tea leaves left in a cup. This was the first method taught to Harry Potter's third-year class, during which Professor Trelawney famously predicted the coming of the Grim.
• Crystal-gazing: Using a crystal ball to perceive visions of the future. Professor Trelawney frequently used this method in her classes and during Harry Potter's O.W.L. exam.
• Astrology: The interpretation of the movement of stars and planets to predict large-scale events and general tides of fate. This is the primary method used by centaurs and was taught by Firenze at Hogwarts.
• Palmistry: Foretelling the future through the study of the lines and mounds on a person's palm. This was part of the Hogwarts curriculum.
• Cartomancy: Using cards, such as playing cards or tarot cards, for fortune-telling. Professor Trelawney used a pack of cards to give Harry Potter a reading during his O.W.L. exam, predicting “a dark young man, who dislikes the questioner.”
• Fire-omens: A form of scrying that involves looking for shapes and images within flames to predict future events.
• Oneiromancy: The magical art of interpreting dreams. The primary textbook for this subject is The Dream Oracle by Inigo Imago. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley frequently invented dramatic dreams for their Divination homework.

Divination is an elective subject available to students from their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For many years, it was taught exclusively by Professor Sybill Trelawney in her classroom at the top of the North Tower. The Divination Classroom was a circular, stuffy room, perpetually filled with perfumed smoke and accessed only by a trapdoor and a silver ladder, creating an atmosphere Professor Trelawney believed was necessary for the art. The subject has a poor reputation among more logical and academically rigorous individuals. Hermione Granger famously dropped the class in her third year out of frustration with its lack of precision and Professor Trelawney's morbid predictions. Professor McGonagall also held the subject in low esteem. Albus Dumbledore admitted he considered discontinuing the subject at Hogwarts and only kept Trelawney on staff to protect her from Lord Voldemort after she made her first great prophecy. In Harry's fifth year, after Dolores Umbridge sacked Trelawney, the centaur Firenze was hired to teach the subject. His classes were held in a ground-floor classroom enchanted to look like a clearing in the Forbidden Forest at twilight.

While most Divination is guesswork, true prophecies are real and immensely powerful. They are made by a Seer with the Inner Eye.

• Sybill Trelawney: Despite her theatrical and often inaccurate classroom predictions, she is the great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney and possesses the Inner Eye herself. She made two critical prophecies during the series, both unconsciously:
  1. The First Prophecy: Made to Albus Dumbledore at the Hog's Head Inn, it foretold the birth of a boy with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. This prophecy defined the lives of both Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
  2. The Second Prophecy: Made to Harry Potter at the end of his third-year exam, it predicted that the Dark Lord's servant, chained for twelve years, would break free and help his master rise again. This prophecy foretold the escape of Peter Pettigrew.

Prophecies are recorded in glass orbs and stored in the Hall of Prophecy within the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic.

Divination, and specifically prophecy, is the central engine of the entire plot of the *Harry Potter* series. The first prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney caused Lord Voldemort to target the Potter family, leading to the murder of James and Lily Potter and the creation of Voldemort's own nemesis in Harry Potter. The series explores themes of fate and free will, questioning whether the prophecy's power lay in its own magic or in the choices made by those who heard it. The second prophecy directly facilitated Voldemort's return to power at the end of Harry's fourth year. Even mundane classroom predictions sometimes came true in unexpected ways. The “Grim” Harry Potter saw in his tea leaves was a foreshadowing of his godfather, Sirius Black, an Animagus who could transform into a large black dog.

• Sybill Trelawney: Professor of Divination at Hogwarts and a true Seer.
• Firenze: A centaur who taught Astrology-focused Divination at Hogwarts.
• Centaurs: As a race, centaurs are skilled in reading the future from the stars, but their predictions are concerned with overarching fate, not “petty human troubles.”
• Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown: Students who were firm believers in Divination and great admirers of Professor Trelawney.

The word “Divination” comes from the Latin verb divinare, meaning “to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to be inspired by a god.” This connects to the idea that true foresight is a rare, almost divine gift.

In interviews, J.K. Rowling has stated that the theme of prophecy was a way to explore the concepts of fate and free will, emphasizing that it is our choices that define us, not our predictions. Harry's decision to act against Voldemort is more important than the prophecy that foretold he could. In the film adaptations, Sybill Trelawney's delivery of her true prophecies is portrayed as a more conscious and dramatic event, with her voice changing and her body contorting, whereas in the books she enters a true trance and has no memory of the event afterward (film).