ANCR-701 Lessons

The Room of Runes is, technically speaking, well-outfitted for anyone who might like to gaze into the future. There is an air of peace and calm silence that very few would dare disturb, allowing for maximum concentration and the ability to easily get lost in one’s own thoughts. It is very dim, and the witch light lamps provide a sort of flickering ambiance. What’s more, all the magical energy from the artefacts lining the room would, as the Divination professor would say, help to open their Inner Eye quite nicely. It’s just that Professor Wessex does not take kindly to her classroom being used for random adventures by just any student. Truth be told, it always seems as if Professor Wessex would prefer students not enter the classroom at all. 

Unfortunately, as always, this preference is ignored as the Seventh Year students come streaming in as they do every Tuesday evening. If anyone was going to be allowed to use the Deputy Headmistress’ well-guarded room for extracurricular purposes, it would be this group. As the clock strikes five, Professor Wessex enters the full classroom, observing her most accomplished group of students with a keen eye, though as everyone has behaved themselves today, it’s not clear why such scrutiny is necessary. After a cursory check of her parchment and quill, the blond woman turns to the class and begins the lecture.

Introduction
Tonight we gather for our penultimate class together. Our time is drawing to a close despite the fact that there is so much more yet to be learned. Once you leave these halls, it will be up to you to further your education, hence why it is crucial that I finish equipping you with the tools to do so. 

 As I mentioned in the last lesson, technically I have given you all the necessities to study a script: you are aware of the theory behind inscription methods, materials, types of alphabets, and how all of these things impact or indicate the runic magic used in an inscription. However, there are a few more tricks of the trade that, while not strictly required — nor always applicable — can be of great help in your runic studies. Examining the area of overlap between runes and divination is one such trick that can take your studies to the next level. Therefore, without further delay, we will discuss how and when to do exactly that. 

How Does Divination Overlap With Runes?
To properly answer this question, we must delve into a layer or two of divinatory theory. If you have taken Divination prior,  you should be well-versed. However, I imagine there is not much overlap between the two extracurricular courses. It seems that, most of the time, each attracts very different sorts of people. However, something that many people don’t realize — or, in some cases, ignore — is that divination has quite a significant amount of theory behind it, of which we are only going to cover a small part today.

The theory that you need to concern yourself with is that you are the medium through which divination works, first and foremost. The Inner Eye, as it is sometimes called, is nothing more than a magical ability that some witches and wizards are more proficient at than others, much like some may have a talent for Charms, or others are particularly able Occlumens. The confusion lies in the fact that some people seem to be born with divinatory talent bursting forth from them effortlessly, just as a metamorphmagus immediately can transform their body at will. Still, with all this considered, the sight is a magical ability that requires training, whether you appear to have an immediate knack for it or require years of study. An infant rarely prophesies at their mother’s breast, unlike the timing of a metamorphmagus’s transformations.

The difference between our example — metamorphmagi and the Inner Eye — lies in the fact that the former is an inborn ability that requires no training, whereas the latter also relies on your intellect and your study. Different cultures have different meanings for similar omens and signs, for example. These become deeply ingrained, as these meanings are linked to long-standing cultural practices and beliefs. In this way, a flying raven can indicate impending doom to one person and mean absolutely nothing to another. When exerting your Inner Eye, your subconscious ability is reaching out to give your conscious a message. It will do so through whatever means possible. The way this works with omens is quite difficult to grasp for novices, so I will give a more concrete example, but if you find this topic interesting, you may wish to sit in on some Divination classes, though it is far too late to start the class in earnest.

 As a clearer example, when a student of divination is drawing runes, the runes they choose are actually subconscious messages to the interpreter. Their Inner Eye “knows” they will interpret the meaning appropriately, and therefore chooses the necessary signs. Therefore, when one asks “Will my marriage be successful?” they concentrate their divinatory ability while choosing their rune, and their Inner Eye directs them to select Thurisaz. Because of this, they know that the outcome of their marriage may not turn out the way they want it to, as this rune indicates conflict and emotional growth.¹ However, if the student was sub-par in their divinatory studies, they may not be able to focus their divinatory ability well, or, worse, they may not remember the meaning of Thurisaz well enough for their Inner Eye to send them a clear message.

Why Do We Care?
If you entirely ignore the fact that I do not waste my time telling you unimportant things, this seems to be completely unrelated to the study of ancient runes — that is, until you examine the fact that these deeply-held beliefs about the divinatory meanings of the runes could potentially impact their use in runic magic. As you know, runic magic is largely based on ideographic meanings which, as we have mentioned, develop over time. It is only after said meanings become deep-rooted beliefs that they are able to be used in magic consistently. In this way, a divinatory meaning can gain enough popularity to take hold and be used in creating a runic enchantment or contribute to the overall popularity of a meaning to become strong enough to be included in runic magic.

Because symbols are such a powerful and common part of ancient magic, it is not uncommon to find an alphabet² that has ideographic meanings that are also used for divination. Sometimes it is the divinatory meanings that came first; other times the runes were used for enchantments first, then repurposed for divinatory practice. But whatever the order of events, this dual purpose serves to strengthen the belief of the meaning, thus making the runes more potent. It also means that looking into divinatory practices of the area in which a script was used can be very useful to a researcher. Of course, as with everything in life, there are no guarantees. There are many divinatory practices that have nothing to do with scripts, such as arithmancy, true dreaming, and many omens. There are even forms of divination that do use scripts, but their meanings and use are in no way similar to their meanings in runic magic.

Example of Turkic Runes
There are many instances when divination and runes have overlapped, such as the Elder Futhark, the divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones, and potentially even Rongorongo. But perhaps the best example of the usefulness of studying the divination of a culture to gain insight into their runic use can be found in Turkic runes. For many decades, the runes uncovered in Mongolia puzzled curse-breakers and runologists alike. It wasn’t until an entirely separate team of researchers, equipped with expert seers, found and began to study the Irk Bitig, that pieces began to fall into place. 

Uncovered by a wizard named Wang Silu in 1899, the Mogao caves were home to countless magical manuscripts on various topics including historical accounts, ledgers, alchemy, bestiaries, and more. One of the many literary treasures uncovered in Cave 17, otherwise known as the library cave, was the Irk Bitig, or Book of Divination and Omens. As soon as this text was deciphered, it was immediately understood to be of great importance to the understanding of Turkic runes, though that is not the overall topic of the book. It is, simply put, a book on all divinatory practices of the Göktürks and other nearby cultures. The manuscript contains no fewer than six of the most common divinatory practices, as well as scores of pages filled with detailed instructions and notes for success in each type of divination. One of these six is an interesting practice called “bitigtaš,” or “eternal stones,” and the pages of this section outline the use of the symbols of Old Turkic themselves in divining the future. 

It need not be said that this discovery required frantic work to be kept hidden. Teams of wizards from all sorts of magical professions toiled overtime to excavate the finds, catalogue them, and discern their use to the wizarding world. All of this was done, if you can believe it, while also attempting to keep this large undertaking hidden in the middle of an area populated mostly by non-magical folk. Finally, when all was said and done, they still had to decide what to leave behind (in some cases leaving behind altered versions of artefacts that used to refer to magical practices) just in case Muggles might be able to benefit from it as well. Our topic of interest in this story is an example of this. In all of the hubbub, the Irk Bitig was noted as related to divination and slated to be reproduced with sanitized and disguised contents so that Muggles could safely excavate it later without fear of uncovering the magical world. However, it wasn’t until many years later, in 1911 that, after the dust settled, the book was properly studied. Once the secrets of Old Turkic were safe in magical hands, witches and wizards of varying professions began to study the book. 

Magilinguists noted that the runes had been used for slightly over a century for divinatory purposes, and each had their own meaning, or set of meanings. Inspired by this, numerous teams and individuals began to compare magical artefacts from this culture with these runes and their meanings. They found, to no great surprise, that the runes had similar effects in runic magic as they did in divination. The symbol that indicated healing in bitigtaš,  was also used on medical implements and seemed to have an identical magic effect. The rune of fear according to this divinatory practice  was found inscribed on a kilij that was recorded to be called “blood-chiller.”³ These were not isolated incidents; the meanings, once examined, were nearly identical across the entire alphabet. Of course, with combinations, the nuances of these meanings became increasingly more complex to compare, but with a large enough corpus of artefacts to work from, it was agreed upon that the base meanings were very similar to that of the divinatory meanings. The magiliguistic community learned that divinatory meanings were valuable research tools and have been a part of elementary runic inquiries ever since. 

Closing
If you were originally convinced of the pointlessness of divination, perhaps you will not be so quick to discount it in the future. While there are many who practise it as an inexact and shady art, it is truly an exacting subject when performed correctly. This briefest of looks at the importance and influence of divination in runic studies will hopefully serve as a useful primer, as it is time to close for the day. Next week, we will convene once more before the end of classes, your N.E.W.T.s and, if you are successful, your departure from Hogwarts into the wizarding world. If you are just realizing the significance of the moment now, it may be too late for you. But, for the rest of you, seven years of hard study is about to pay off.  

There are a number of assignments to see to before this, however. Firstly there is the customary quiz to test your general knowledge of the subjects covered in the lesson, as well as an assignment in which you must identify which of the scripts in Spellman’s Syllabary has connections to divinatory practices. Finally, there is also your optional, though highly recommended, review assignment, with this week’s topic focusing on Proto-Canaanite and Phoenician inscriptions

Footnotes

1. Of course, that may mean something else entirely, depending on your interpretation, which is why it is often best to draw more than one rune at a time and to utilize spreads, but this is a conversation better reserved for actual students and professors of Divination.
2. Or syllabary, or abugida, etc.
3. A kilij is a type of curved, one-handed saber common to the Turkic Empire.

Original lesson written by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here