Arthur :
Merlin, what have I done?!
Merlin :
You have •broken• —
What could not •be• broken..!!
Arthur :
Hope is Broken.
My Pride broke it.
My Rage broke it.
This Excellent Knight —
who fought with Fairness and Grace
was •meant• to win.
I used Excalibur to
CHANGE That Verdict.
I have lost, for all time
The Ancient Sword of My Fathers...
Whose Power was meant to unite ALL Men,
not to serve The Vanity of A Single Man.
I am — NOTHING.
"There is, of course, a scientific reason for all forms of divination
practised without hope or promise of reward.
Each person carries in himself His Own Destiny. Events do not happen to people by chance, but are invariably the
result of some past cause. For instance, in the last years a man becomes a
soldier who had never intended to pursue a military career.
This does not happen
to him by chance, but because of the prior occurrence of la European war in
which his country was engaged.
The outbreak of war is similarly the result of
other causes, none of which happened by chance, but were founded by still
remoter occurrences.
It is the same with The Future.
That which a person does
today as a result of something that happened in the past, will in its turn
prove the cause of something that will happen at some future date.
The mere act
of doing something today sets in motion forces that in process of time will
inevitably bring about some entirely unforeseen event.
This event is not decreed by Fate or Providence, but by the person who by the
committal of some act unconsciously compels the occurrence of some future event
which he does not foresee.
In other words, a man decrees his own destiny and
shapes his own ends by his actions, whether Providence rough-hew them or not.
Now this being so, it follows that he carries His Destiny with him, and the more
powerful his mind and intellect the more clearly is this seen to be the case.
Therefore it is possible for a person's mind, formed as the result of past
events over which he had no control, to foresee by an effort what will occur in
the future as the result of acts deliberately done.
Since it is given to but
few, and that not often of intention, to see actually what is about to happen in
a vision or by means of what is called the 'second sight,' some machinery must
be provided in the form of symbols from which an interpretation of the future
can be made.
It matters little what the method or nature of the symbols chosen is — dice or dominoes, cards or tea-leaves.
What matters is that the person
shaking the dice, shuffling the dominoes, cutting the cards or turning the
tea-cup, is by these very acts transferring from his mind where they lie hidden
even from himself the shadows of coming events which by his own actions in the
past he has already predetermined shall occur in the future.
It only remains for
someone to read and interpret these symbols correctly in order to ascertain
something of what is likely to happen; and it is here that singleness of purpose
and freedom from ulterior motives are necessary in order to avoid error and to
form a true and clear judgment.
This is the Serious and Scientific Explanation of the little-understood and
less-comprehended action of various forms of Divination having for their object
the throwing of a little light upon the occult.
Of all these forms perhaps
Divination by Tea-Leaves is the simplest, truest, and most easily learned.
Even
if the student is disinclined to attach much importance to what he sees in the
cup, the reading of the tea-leaves forms a sufficiently innocent and amusing
recreation for the breakfast- or tea-table; and the man who finds a lucky sign
such as an anchor or a tree in his cup, or the maiden who discovers a pair of
heart-shaped groups of leaves in conjunction with a ring, will be suffering no
harm in thus deriving encouragement for the future, even should they attach no
importance to their occurrence, but merely treat them as an occasion for
harmless mirth and badinage.
******
The ritual to be observed is very simple.
The tea-drinker should drink the
contents of his or her cup so as to leave only about half a teaspoonful of the
beverage remaining.
He should next take the cup by the handle in his left hand,
rim upwards, and turn it three times from left to right in one fairly rapid
swinging movement.
He should then very slowly and carefully invert it over the
saucer and leave it there for a minute, so as to permit of all moisture draining
away.
If he approaches The Oracle at all seriously he should during the whole of
these proceedings concentrate his mind upon his future Destiny, and 'will' that
the symbols forming under the guidance of his hand and arm (which in their turn
are, of course, directed by his brain) shall correctly represent What is Destined to Happen to Him in The Future.
If, however, he or she is not in such deadly earnest, but merely indulging in
a harmless pastime, such an effort of concentration need not be made.
The
'willing' is, of course, akin to 'wishing' when cutting the cards in another
time-honoured form of fortune-telling.
The cup to be read should be held in the hand and turned about in order to
read the symbols without disturbing them, which will not happen if the moisture
has been properly drained away.
The handle of the cup represents the consultant
and is akin to the 'house' in divination by the cards.
By this fixed point
judgment is made as to events approaching the 'house' of the consultant,
journeys away from home, messages or visitors to be expected, relative distance,
and so forth.
The advantage of employing a cup instead of a saucer is here
apparent.
'The bottom of the cup represents the remoter future foretold; the side
events not so far distant; and matters symbolised near the rim those that may be
expected to occur quickly.
The nearer the symbols approach the handle in all
three cases the nearer to fulfilment will be the events prognosticated.
If this simple ritual has been correctly carried out the tea-leaves, whether
many or few, will be found distributed about the bottom and sides of the cup.
The fortune may be equally well told whether there are many leaves or few; but
of course there must be some, and therefore the tea should not have been made in
a pot provided with one of the patent arrangements that stop the leaves from
issuing from the spout when the beverage is poured into the cups.
There is
nothing to beat one of the plain old-fashioned earthenware teapots, whether for
the purpose of preparing a palatable beverage or for that of providing the means
of telling a fortune.”
