Divination
Divination has a mixed reputation in Albion. Most people recognise that divination isn't absolute - what is seen can be affected by a whole range of aspects, including personal choice. Many people are familiar with Tarot cards (see below for notes on the Howard Tarot), and may use a deck either as part of ritual work, or for personal meditation and reflection. Scrying is also used in various circumstances.
Education
Divination is something commonly taught one-on-one, with a mentor (rather than either through formal education or apprenticeship.) There are a few scryers who work directly for the Ministry, but they are usually focused on specific known locations or people.Scrying
Scrying is the art of divining or distance-seeing using some sort of reflective medium. Ibis Ward scries in water in Magician's Hoard and several characters scry in a polished stone in Sailor's Jewel.Tarot
While the modern Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot is quite new in the 1920s (it was originally published in 1909), Tarot decks have a long and storied history in Albion. The primary deck used in Albion itself is the Howard Tarot, based on a deck commissioned in the 1700s by Alethea Howard. As with other features in Albion, it decentres Christianity (leading to some changes in symbology), and draws on figures from Albion's history as well as British myth, along with significant plant references. A number of the cards are referenced in In The Cards, but by no means all of them. My notes here don't reference those connections, just the description of the card itself.Learn more details about the Howard Tarot
All quotes come from In The Cards unless noted otherwise.
Major Arcana
The Magician
An Elizabethan era sorceror - modelled on John Dee - with ornate tools laid out before him. "There was real magic there, perhaps, but there was also smoke and mirrors." "The card’s colour caught her first, deep purples and shadows set against a brightly lit figure, as if he shone with light. The breath went out of her in a sudden gasp. The Magician, with his power and his sleight of hand, stared back at her, surrounded by all the paraphenalia of Elizabethan magic."The Heirophant
Henry VIII, depicted around the time of his marriage to Catherine Howard, all in formal robes of state. In the Howard deck, this card has an element of unpredictability - rulership but full of manipulation, not necessarily serving the higher cause claimed.The Lovers
Similar to the Marseilles Tarot, this card represents a choice. A woman of some beauty, choosing between two men, one young and handsome but poor, and one older, sharp featured, with a big cane, looking at her with disgust, but well dressed and with other signs of money.Wheel of Fortune
Battle of Bosworth field along the bottom, red and white flowers (white rising to ascendency again)Death
A skeleton standing before an archway, holding a scythe, with various poison plants in the background and a streak of lightning in the sky behind.Umbra
This card would be the Devil in many Tarot decks, but the Howard Tarot does something different. (It's also worth noting historically that neither the Visconti-Sforza or the Cary-Yale Visconti have this card in their surviving sets, though both decks are incomplete.) In the Howard Tarot, it represents the Silence. In a deck meant for meditation and reflection, this card is often charmed magically so that when it is face up and held in a certain way, it reflects your Silence-fear. Fear, bondage to fear, lack of light/hope/potential. Usually painted as a deeply black card, the kind of black you can fall into endlessly.The Star
A woman dressed in gauzy fabric (with her body visible beneath it), a la Primavera, with constellations visible in the sky, and her reaching up to touch one of them (or appear to), her other hand pouring water into a pool at her feet that gleams with reflected light. (Macrocosm and microcosm)Minor Arcana
The Court cards in the Howard Tarot are Child, Apprentice, Lady, and Lord (in keeping with Albion's stages of life and obligations) rather than Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Some versions of the deck use recognisable mythological figures for these. Each of the four suits is aligned with one of the Schola houses and their particular symbols and affiliations, and those animals may appear in the cards in the background or foreground, as well as their colours being prominent.- Swords are discernment, sharpness, clarity, the non-magical world, and often draw on symbology from Owl House.
- Wands are invocation, enchantment, the magical world, and draw on Boar House and Fox House.
- Cups are intuition, liminal spaces, doorways, wells and pools, draing on Salmon House and Seal House imagery.
- Pentacles are growing plants, usually with identifiable different plants on the cards, and drawing on Bear House and Horse House for symbology.
