[This was another entry in the Literary Divination parlor game at Making Light. You are meant to study the clues and figure out which book or character the reading is for.]
- Cover, the influence affecting the person or subject generally: The Art of War / Sun Tzu (one may take advantage of positioning to defeat a more numerous enemy).
- Cross, the nature of obstacles: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Emmuska Orczy (how to organize an underground movement).
- Crown, the aim or ideal or best outcome: Miracle at Philadelphia / Catherine Drinker Bowen (the architects of a new nation lay a foundation for limited government).
- Beneath, what the significator has already achieved or made his own: When HARLIE Was One / David Gerrold (a computer network achieves self-awareness).
- Behind, the influence that has passed: The Fatal Shore / Robert Hughes (transported prisoners build a new society).
- Before, influence coming into action: The Federalist Papers / James Madison et al. (mentors working anonymously draw on historical examples of how people have won and kept their freedom).
- Significator, representing the querent: Johnny Tremain / Esther Forbes (during a war for independence, a maturing personality strives to understand his origins and forge personal relationships).
- House, environment and tendencies which have an effect on the matter: Saints / Orson Scott Card (pioneers in a harsh land remain under the jurisdiction of a great power but develop their own culture and institutions, including alternative forms of marriage).
- Hopes or fears: The Principle of Population / Thomas Malthus (we’ll run out of resources and all starve).
- Culmination, what will come: We the Living / Ayn Rand (the hero dies free).