Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 109: Astrology

When Professor Lal came in, she clearly noticed the poster; she glanced at it and pursed her lips, but then she started the class like usual. Today's topic was astrology, and she handed around copies of a star chart with the twelve astrological constellations clearly delineated, then copies of another chart showing the different astrological signs, the planets, and the "houses" that they could be in.

There was a brief lecture on how astrology was used—apparently the main way was to predict people's personalities and major life changes, which Corrie found interesting, and the other way was to predict from minute movements of the stars what life would be like from day to day, which Professor Lal was fairly dismissive of. Corrie remembered how she used to read her horoscope in the newspaper every day while she was in high school, though she'd never taken it very seriously.

"Astrology isn't truly a magical discipline, but it can be a helpful one for magic," Professor Lal said at last. "Knowing the signs you were born under can help you understand why you might be better at some kinds of magic than others and how you can work to change things. And if you learn other people's astrological signs, you can understand them better, as well. We'll be starting psionics next week, and that is a discipline that is much easier if you understand your subject."

Lin raised her hand and, when the professor called on her, asked, "What about Chinese astrology and other non-Western systems?"

"Excellent question," Professor Lal said with a nod. "Those can be just as helpful as Western astrology. I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with any other system, so I chose to leave them out of this class, but feel free to discuss it with others. When it comes to Chinese astrology in particular, you will almost all have the same astrological animal as you were mostly born in the same year, so I find it less interesting to describe in class. However, if you take Professor Strega's divination class next semester or next year, she does get into more detail on the various systems of astrology. Any other questions?"

There were none, so Professor Lal directed them to form into small groups and discuss the astrological charts. "I've only given you the very basics of astrology in today's lecture," she said. "See if you can find similarities or differences with your friends and try to decide what those might mean in terms of general astrology."

Naturally, Corrie formed her group with Dawn and Roe. "I'm a Capricorn," she said, pointing to that sign on the star chart. "What about you guys?"

"Cancer," said Roe. "My birthday's in the summer."

"I'm a Virgo," said Dawn.

"That's right, your birthday was back in the beginning of the year," said Corrie. She grinned. "You're old."

Dawn snorted. "You're only a few months younger. Edie might have the right to call me old, if anybody does. She skipped a year so she's still seventeen," she explained to Roe.

"Well, do you guys have any, um... Saturn in your charts?" Roe asked. They spent a little while trying to figure out how everything worked—it wasn't as simple as it had looked at first—and looked for astrological items that they had in common. They didn't find any.

"I guess astrology doesn't predict whether you'll know about magic or anything like that," Corrie said.

Dawn shook her head. "I think the only kind of divination I could rely on would be Roe's visions."

"They're not so reliable either," said Roe. "I'm going to discuss tarot with Professor Strega when I meet with her tonight. I wonder if working with that, or with one of the other divination systems, would help me control or make sense of my visions. I'm already signed up for her class for next semester."

They got back on topic when Professor Lal came by to see how things were going in their group, even though they had to explain to her that they hadn't figured anything out. She assured them it was all right and there would be very little on astrology in the final. Before the end of class, the professor had a few people explain things they'd figured out to the whole class. Then she sat at her desk and waited patiently while the rest of the class filed out but Corrie, Dawn, and Roe stayed behind.

"I had somehow expected that this unusual gift might come from you," she said dryly. "Is it another poster bought on campus?"

Corrie shook her head. "It's one of the same as before. Annie said her poster was giving her nightmares again and asked me to bring it to you so she wouldn't have to deal with it."

Professor Lal's eyes widened and she stood up hastily. She picked up the poster and unrolled it, spreading it over her desk. "Yes, this is the same poster as before..."

"You said earlier that the magic level on campus was higher than it usually is," said Dawn. "Didn't you fix that?"

The professor frowned, still staring at the poster. "We thought we had."