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22. Firenze the Centaur
If there is one thing of which my people are certain, it is that all the truths of the earth are recorded in the affairs of the sky.
This is not, as some think, merely true of the night sky. We focus on the stars not because they alone hold knowledge, but because the knowledge that they hold is of great and momentous matters. That is why we scoff at human fortune-tellers who look to the stars to learn which robes they ought to wear, or where their mates are to be found; do they seriously believe that the ancient rhythm of the planets, or of the great and far-distant suns, was instituted from the beginning of time to be their personal day-planner?
To recognize this for the arrogant nonsense that it is, however, is not to say that the skies do not speak of small matters. All the truths of the earth are recorded in the affairs of the sky. The folly of the human "clairvoyants" is that they seek in the night sky what they ought to look for in the day; it is the ever-changing clouds, not the fixed and immutable stars, that serve as the celestial record of trivial and quotidian things.
Consider the skyscape before us now. It is unusually distinctive, as the clouds often are just after a rain shower. The round cloud just above us, for instance, suggests good progress for Hagrid's pumpkins over the next week; the ragged patch somewhat to the north of it likely indicates a significant Potions mishap within the next few days; and in the curious altocumulus pattern on the far western horizon, one may read, I believe, an unfortunate fate for the House of Gryffindor in the upcoming Quidditch match. These are just some of the visible indications; there are many others, and will be more as the clouds shift their shapes over the next half-hour.
What I will be having you do, therefore, is: select four or five students from among you to sketch the outlines of the more prominent clouds; Multiply their sketches so that each of you has a copy; and write out what meanings, if any, you can read in the shapes of the clouds. This is not, of course, an ideal method, as even the most skillful drawing of a cloud will inevitably omit some of the subtleties of the cloud's shadowing and light-play, but I believe it will be easier for you (both as youths, and as humans) to Divine from a shape that is not continually in motion. Are there any questions?
Yes, Miss Lovegood?
Ah, yes, the rainbow. Thank you, Miss Lovegood; you have identified the weakness in my easy formulation. When I spoke of the day sky as the record of varied and minor matters, I had quite overlooked the rainbow.
For the rainbow has ever only one meaning, and it is by no means trivial. The meaning of the rainbow is this: that the rains may fall heavily but will never overwhelm all things, that, though the rule of evil may be cruelly prolonged, eventually it must cease and be as yesterday's winds. For the Master of the Universe, who takes such care for the stars, and lets not one of them stumble from its fixed and rightful place, takes care also for all living things, and will not let them be swallowed by the forces of chaos and disorder.
This knowledge is a source of great joy to us centaurs, but it is not confined to us, of course. It is a pledge to all living things, and is known, in some way, by all of them. Professor Burbage tells me that even the Muggles, in their sacred writings, are told of a great deluge that came over all the earth, and how, when it was ended, the Master placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign that such trouble would never come again until all things were ended.
It is strange, in a way, that so frail and temporary a thing as the rainbow should be so great a sign of permanence and fidelity – but, perhaps, no stranger than that the weakest of beings should so often be called upon to be the salvation of the strongest.
For all the truths of the earth are recorded in the affairs of the sky
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By Qoheleth