Part 1. The Joker Chapter 40 – A Course in Mysticism
”Interesting trick?”
Klein asked with great curiosity.
Old Neil hemmed and hawed:
”I’m going to make a round of the weapons, materials and literature library, you make two cups of coffee in the two mugs on the table and put something bad in one of them, you can make up your own mind about what exactly, use your imagination, the only requirement is that you don’t waste too much of the ground coffee, I hand ground it myself with the special coffee beans from the Highlands!”
”Okay.” Although Klein didn’t quite understand what Old Neil wanted to do, he still happily agreed.
Watching the other man take out the brass key and unlock the iron door to the armory, and hearing the long footsteps echoing from inside, he slowly set up his cup and confirmed that there was hot water in the pot.
Removing the lids from the silver-encrusted tin canisters, Klein shook a spoonful of richly scented coffee powder into each of the two cups with a small, shiny metallic spoon, then poured on the hot water and stirred it with familiarity.
–As a traveler who came from an era of abundant supplies, he was not unfamiliar with coffee, but it was limited to instant.
After doing this, Klein thought for a moment, sat down, crossed his right leg, twisted his hand to take some of the dirt that stained the soles of his leather boots, and put it into the cup on his left side.
Then he carefully did another stirring until there was little difference between the two cups of coffee in terms of their appearance color and their own aroma.
After a few minutes, Old Neil shook out his keychain and stepped out of the armory, clanging the iron door shut behind him.
”Got it.” His slightly cloudy, dark red eyes rolled to look across the table at Klein.
”Okay.” Klein replied with a nod.
The older Neil gave a chuckle and sat down as he unwrapped the silver chains wrapped around his wrists.
His expression quickly became stoic as he held the chain out in his left hand, letting the silver chain dangle vertically above the coffee cup on his own right side, the pristine white crystal just shy of staining the liquid.
In a moment of relaxing peace, the white crystal inexplicably swayed slightly, carrying the silver chain in a small counterclockwise motion.
”This cup is spared from bad things.” Old Neil said in an affirmative tone.
Without waiting for Klein to confirm, he put away the silver chain and picked up the cup of coffee next to him and took a sip:
”Do you like bitter coffee? I’m used to a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of milk.”
Without making a reply, Klein asked with great interest:
”Your divination results are very accurate, are you relying on that white crystal? It is a white crystal, is it not?”
”This is the pendulum method in divination, also known as the spiritual pendulum method, relying on the connection of one’s astral spiritual body with the spiritual world and the astral plane, and relying on the communication of some natural materials with the spiritual nature, such as crystals, precious stones, and special metals, to divine the goodness or badness of things. …… Let’s go back to the two cups of coffee we just had, and swing counterclockwise for bad, and Clockwise is good, and not moving is neither good nor bad. You can also write the event on a piece of paper, note that it is an event, not a question.” Old Neil put down the coffee cup in his hand and explained in detail.
Klein said as if thinking:
”That is, don’t use question statements?”
”Yes, you can’t use ‘Does whoever wants to be my fiancée’, you have to use ‘Whoever wants to be my fiancée’, write it on a piece of paper, lay it flat on the tabletop, and then hold the pendulum chain with your non-dominant hand, note that it’s the non-dominant hand.” Old Neil chuckled, “At this time, straighten your arm and adjust the length of the pendulum chain so that the crystal hangs just above the paper right above it, almost touching the event we’re writing about, then close your eyes and meditate on the passage in your mind seven times, after you’ve finished meditating on it, open your eyes and look to see if the Spirit Pendulum has swung around, and if it hasn’t, then close it again and repeat the process from before until it has swung around. ”
Klein said with a slight nod:
”Counterclockwise ‘no’, clockwise ‘yes’?”
”It can also be interpreted as not smooth and smooth.” Old Neil corrected, teaching Klein the other uses and details of Spiritual Pendulum Divination.
Klein recalled a few times and realized that this was a very practical divination technique, such as when he arrived in an unfamiliar environment, he could use it to quickly confirm whether the food was poisonous or not, and did not need to additionally “order” skills such as “field biology”.
Of course, this form of divination was too simple, and the answers obtained were only two or three, and it was impossible to carry out in-depth exploration and interpretation, for example, although certain things were harmful to itself, after certain treatment, it could become very beneficial, for example, there were some ingredients that were indeed damaging to the human body, but it was not serious, and in the case of being about to starve to death, there was not really a big problem with eating a little bit of it, and these were all impossible to use the Spirit Pendulum Method to judge.
”I’ll have to save up for crystals or sterling silver to make a Spirit Pendulum soon ……,” Klein sighed out.
Old Neil gave him a surprised look:
”You could have just applied for it, it belongs to the standard equipment of extraordinarys, especially for extraordinarys like us who favor the auxiliary type, and there’s also a citrine and a sterling silver spirit pendulum in the arsenal.”
”But I’m not yet considered an official member of the squad ah ……,” Klein thumped his heart, slightly hesitant.
Old Neil laughed softly:
”For extraordinary people, whether they are official members or not, since they don’t get a salary increase, they definitely have to be given certain facilities from other aspects.”
”Using ‘welfare’ might be more appropriate, I’ll apply to the captain later!” Klein secretly clenched his fist and made a decision.
How could he know if the captain would agree without trying?
”Okay.” Old Neil smiled, “Let’s start the official ‘Occult Course’, one of its foundations is called ‘Symbolism’, know what ‘symbolism’ is? ”
Klein said with deliberation as he recalled the only words he had heard earlier and what he had seen and heard in the spirit world, above the gray mist:
”Whether it’s the spirit world, or the illusory starry sky, and those unknown realms, they are all outside of our sensory world, and can’t be accurately described by the information gained by our ears, noses, and eyes, and what we get can only be unspeakable intuitive revelations and experiences, which are in turn externalized into abstract symbols and graphic symbols, and these symbols represent the different meanings of different things respectively. ”
”Very accurate, worthy of a ‘soothsayer’.” Old Neil nodded gravely, “Only with the mastery of interpreting symbols can one truly enter the doorway of the occult, well, the pattern on the tarot cards, every element on the pattern, is a symbol, artificially prescribed to help us understand and interpret the original ‘revelation’. ”
He pulled out a piece of paper, picked up a nearby pen, and drew a not-so-long arc.
Immediately following, he added a few vertical lines by brushing under the arc and looked up at Klein:
”Any idea what this symbol represents?”
Klein looked at it again and again for a moment before hesitating:
”Eyelashes?”
”……” Old Neil exhaled, “It’s the symbol of the Harvest sign, it’s from the Thunder sign, it’s from the White Frost sign …… ”
He drew several more symbols as he went along.
Klein couldn’t help but speak as he memorized them:
”The names of these constellations are so, so exceptionally rustic, yes, rustic!”
So rustic and primitive ……
Old Neil revealed a smile and said:
”At first, Rossel the Great thought so too, he always intended to change the names of the constellations to something like Virgo, Cancer, or Scorpio, but unfortunately, he still couldn’t resist the power of tradition, at least the ancient names of these constellations and the dates they each represent guide the plowing and the harvesting.”
”I have to say, Roselle the Great is a thoughtful man.” Klein didn’t know what to spit out.
Well, Rosel the Great would have been a decent man in life ……
Old Neil, unable to understand Klein’s humor, continued to explain the various basic symbols, such as those of the various constellations, such as the sun, the red moon, the brown star, the red star, and the blue star.
While he was talking about these, he also interspersed teaching the drawing method and precautions of the Divination Astrolabe, the making of the crystal ball and the selection of materials and incantations, which made Klein almost feel like he was in a daze.
If he hadn’t realized that the “Diviner” magic potion had slightly improved his memory, he would have asked Old Neil to stop, so that he could easily digest what he had learned.
”Today’s ‘Occult Lesson’ is here, think about it on your own and come to me if you have any questions.” Old Neil pulled out a gold pocket watch and snapped it open to look at it, “Don’t forget to read the historical materials I’ve prepared for you, frankly I feel intimidated by the sight of them.”
”Okay.” Klein took the drafts of the ones with symbols written on them by Neil Sr. and went through the mysteries he’d learned today quickly before it became apparent that he’d forgotten them.
Old Neil took another sip of the re-brewed coffee and said:
”Memorization alone won’t work, you must use it often so that you can turn the knowledge into your instincts, also, meditation must be done every day, only by practicing and using it more can you truly grasp the power of the magic potion, tap into its latent mystery, and dissipate the bad effects.”
At the mention of this, Klein remembered playing, remembered the Divination Club, and said tentatively:
”My magic potion’s ability is related to divination, practicing alone won’t work, I have to get in touch with a large number of people and divine them individually in order to master it as soon as possible. I plan to join the ‘Divination Club’ when I have extra money, the one on Howells Street in the North District, and become a real ‘Diviner’.”
This was something that would certainly not be hidden from the night watchmen in the future, and it was better to lay it out in advance.
”Your idea is very similar to Daley’s, she always talked about being a real ‘psychic’.” Old Neil shook his head and laughed, “But why wait until you have extra money? You could have written an application to Dunn and asked him to approve the fee!”
”Organizations like the ‘Divination Club’ might have members mixed in with cultists and evil organizations, and it’s part of the job for you, as a civilian member of the Nightwatchman’s Squad, a standard Extraordinary, to join them and keep a watchful eye on them conveniently! We would regularly patrol these places before, just because we didn’t have enough manpower to keep track of them for a long period of time, and now it’s just right to hand it over to you.”
There’s still this kind of operation? Looking at Old Neil’s serious expression, Klein was simply stunned.
This is brightly finding reasons to reimburse expenses for one’s own private affairs!
I simply know nothing about similar things ……
I’m really just a keyboard powerhouse ……
”You wish to do this with your own money?” Neil Sr. added with a smirk as he saw this.
Klein immediately shook his head and replied in a firm tone:
”I’ll call the report to the captain later!”
Old Neil nodded with satisfaction and looked at the cup of coffee that had not yet been poured and had bad things in it and said:
”What exactly did you put in it?”
Klein smiled shyly:
”Just, just a bit of sludge from the sole of a leather boot, it’s about the same color as your ground coffee, almost.”
Old Neil was stunned for a moment, then suddenly put his hand against his mouth and growled in a low voice:
”And don’t take it and pour it out!”