divination

1. The art or act of foretelling future events or revealing occult knowledge by means of augury or an alleged supernatural agency.
2. An inspired guess or presentiment.
3. Something that has been divined.

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noun

Something that is foretold by or as if by supernatural means: oracle, prophecy, soothsaying, vaticination, vision. See foresight.

Divination is an attempt to read the future, determine the will of God, or give practitioners a feeling of being able to control fate. Probably every religion ever practiced has used some form of divination.

The Hebrew Bible absolutely condemns it, but priests nonetheless threw some sort of ritualistic dice called the Urim and Thummin. Romans sometimes went to war on the basis of what priests saw when they killed an animal and looked at its entrails. Different objects were thrown, rolled, dropped, tossed, or heated to get results.

Even today people read cards, tea leaves, or messages in newspaper astrology columns, convinced they can discover the future. Psychic telephone lines do a big business.

There are those who demonstrate with great effectiveness that they are able to locate water with a divining rod. Others claim they can locate lost people after holding a piece of clothing. Police forces occasionally employ such people, though usually very quietly.

Objections to divination range from simple scoffers to those who believe practitioners are in league with the devil. Christian religions especially have a history of punishing any who practice the art. If divination fails, the practitioners are ridiculed as fakes. If it is successful, they are accused of dealing with Satanic forces.

Whatever the techniques employed, divination is an ancient religious practice, probably dating to the very first person who prayed to a god and then asked for a sign as proof that the prayer was heard.

Sources: Renard, John. The Handy Religion Answer Book. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2002.

The prediction of the future by supernatural means, called by the Greeks mantikē, was practised by the Greeks and Romans in many ways. The most important source of our knowledge is Cicero's De divinatione. Divination may be divided into two kinds, natural and artificial. The most obvious form of natural divination is based on dreams, which the dreamer might interpret for himself or take to professional interpreters (for an ancient ‘dream-book’ see ARTEMIDORUS). As the result of a dream the father of the young Galen directed his son to the study of medicine. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was thankful to have received advice from a similar source on how to cure his ailments. In the practice of incubation, a sick person would sleep in the temple of a healing god, most usually Asclepius, so as to receive from the god a dream which would suggest a cure. Another form of natural divination is prophecy from the speech of someone acting as the mouthpiece (prophētēs) of a divine power which possesses him. This kind of divination became institutionalized, with a succession of prophets, at the great oracular sites of Delphi, Dodona, Oropus, Ammon, and the various Sibylline sites.

Artificial divination is based on external observations of animals, plants, or objects; the best known form is augury, observation of the behaviour of birds, which at Rome was entrusted to a college of augurs. Widely used also was observation of the entrails of sacrificial animals (see HARUSPICES). Predictions were sometimes based on certain involuntary human actions, a twitch or a sneeze for example. Exceptional plant growth might also be meaningful. Divination by throwing dice or drawing lots was common, and localized at certain sites. In later times, random consultation of the works of famous poets was favoured, perhaps because they were considered divinely inspired: hence the sortes Homericae and Virgilianae (‘Homeric, Virgilian consultations’); see VIRGIL. Unusual meteorological phenomena were considered significant at all times, and at Rome were recorded in the annales maximi (priestly records; see ANNALS). Astrology became very popular after increased contact with the East following the conquests of Alexander the Great (second half of the fourth century BC). Necromancy, calling up the spirits of the dead, was practised at all periods but never acquired respectability.

Most people accepted the forms of divination that had become established by their own day but looked with suspicion upon any new forms. The attitudes of philosophers to divination seem to have varied with the individual, though Epicureans rejected it, as did some Sceptics. Prophecy by inspired utterance was more acceptable. Stoics, by the nature of their beliefs, defended most types. Early Christian writers saw pagan divination as the work of evil demons; the edict of the emperor Theodosius in AD 391, banning all forms of pagan cult, put a formal end to the practice.

Foretelling the future or discovering what is hidden or unknown, especially through intuitive, occult, or allegedly supernatural means; this includes vaticination, only foretelling the future through esoteric or occult means, but is distinct from prophecy, which does not always imply a magical motive. Abundant commentary from both Celtic and non-Celtic sources testifies to the widespread Celtic belief in divination under many forms. From the earliest times birds, especially the raven and the wren, were thought to have divining powers. Celtic New Year, 1 November (Samain in Old Irish), was a popular time to practise divination, to see who would survive the winter or who would marry a young maiden. Druids, both male and female, were thought adept at divination. In many stories heroes and heroines, notably Deirdre, have their fate foretold at birth. To ignore such warning is to court disaster, as Conaire Mór shows. Divination might take many forms: signs from nature, omens, and dreams. Astrology may have been practised; an early Irish word for astrologer appears to be nél(l)adóir ‘cloud diviner’. At Tara a new king was selected by using a bull in a special rite called tarbfheis, ‘bull feast’. Wood was thought to have special properties for divination. In early Ireland one could learn the future by casting yew wands with ogham inscriptions upon the ground. In Fenian stories, wood shavings may help to find a missing or fugitive person. Fionn mac Cumhaill and Merlin are described as having special powers of divination.

See AWENYDDION; DÍCHETAL DO CHENNAIB; DYN HYSBYS; IMBAS FOROSNAI; SECOND SIGHT; SHAMANISM; SOUS; TEINM LAÍDA. See also Margaret E. Griffiths, Early Vaticination in Welsh with English Parallels (Cardiff, 1937).

The method of obtaining knowledge of the unknown or the future by means of omens. Astrology and the utterances of oracles are usually regarded as branches of divination. The derivation of the word supposes a direct message from the gods to the diviner. Divination was practiced in all grades of primitive communities and civilizations. The methods are many and various, and, strangely enough, in their variety are confined to no one portion of the world.

Crystal gazing and such allied methods as shell hearing may be classed as divination that arises from the personal consciousness of the diviner. Of the same class is divination by dreams, automatic writing, and so forth. What might be called divination by "luck" is represented by the use of cards, the casting of lots, the use of knuckle bones as in Africa and elsewhere, or coconuts as in Polynesia. Haruspicy, or the inspection of entrails, divination by footprints in ashes, by the flight of birds, or by meeting with ominous animals, represents still a third class of divination.

The art of divination is usually practiced among primitive races by the shaman caste; among more sophisticated peoples by the professional diviner—as in Rome and ancient Mexico— and even among modern civilized people by persons who claim the faculty of divination, such as the Spiritualist medium or the witch.

The art is undoubtedly of great antiquity. It was employed in ancient Egypt side by side with astrology, and divination by dreams was constantly resorted to, a class of priests being kept apart, whose office it was to interpret dreams and visions. Instances of dreams are recorded in the ancient Egyptian texts; for example those of Thothmes IV, king of Egypt in 1450 B.C.E., and Nut-Amen, king of the Eastern Soudan and Egypt about 670 B.C.E. The Egyptian magician usually set himself to procure dreams for his clients by such devices as the drawing of magic pictures and the reciting of magic words, and some of these are still extant. In Egypt, however, divination was usually effected by astrological methods.

In ancient China the principal method of divination was by means of the oracles, but such forms as the examination of the marks on the shell of a tortoise, are also found; they are similar to the examination of the back of a peccary by the Maya of Central America. Chinese monarchs consulted the fates in this manner in 1146 B.C.E. and found them unfavorable, but as in Egypt, most soothsaying was accomplished by means of astrology. Omens, however, were by no means ignored, and were given great prominence, as many tales in the ancient books testify.

In ancient Rome a distinct caste or college of priests called augurs was set apart to interpret the signs of approval or disapproval sent by the gods in reference to any coming event. This college probably consisted originally of but three members, of whom the king himself was one, and it was not until the time of Cæsar that the members were increased to 16. The college remained in existence as late as the fourth century, and its members held office for life.

A tenet of the Roman augurs was that for signs of the gods one must look toward the sky and glean knowledge of the intentions of the divine beings from such omens as the flash of lightning and the flight of birds.

On a windless night, the augur took up a position on a hill that afforded an extensive view. Marking out a space for himself, he pitched a tent, seated himself and covered his head, asked the gods for a sign, and waited for an answer. He faced southward, thus having the east (lucky) quarter on his left, and the west (unfavorable) portion of the sky on his right. He carefully observed every sign that came within the scope of his vision, such as lightning, the appearance of birds, and so forth. Birdsong was carefully listened to and divided into sounds of good or evil omen. The reading of omens was also effected by feeding the birds and observing the manner in which they ate. The course of animals and the sounds they made were also closely watched, and all unusual phenomena were regarded as omens or warnings. Sortilege, or the casting of lots, was often resorted to by the caste of augurs.

The election of magistrates was nearly always referred to the diviners, as was the dispatching of an army for war and the passing of laws.

In the East divination generally appears to have been effected by crystal gazing, dreams, and similar methods of self-hallucination or self-hypnotism. Divination flourished in Chaldea and Assyria among the Babylonians and Ethiopians, and appears to have been much the same as in Egypt. In the Jewish Talmud witches were said to divine by means of bread crumbs. Among the Arabs, the future was often foretold by means of the shapes seen in sand. The Burmese and Siamese pierced an egg at each end, and having blown the contents onto the ground, traced within them the outline of things to be. Divination by astrology too was common in oriental countries, as were the predictions of prophets.

It is remarkable that among the native races of America the arts of divination known to the peoples of the Old World were, and still are, used. These arts, as a rule, were the preserve of the medicine man and priestly class. In ancient Mexico there was a college of augurs like the auspices of ancient Rome; the members occupied themselves with observing the flight of birds and listening to their songs, from which they drew their conclusions. In Mexico, the Calmecac, or college of priests, had a department where divination was taught in all its branches, but there were many ex officio prophets and augurs.

In Peru, still other classes of diviners predicted by means of the leaves of tobacco, or the grains or juice of coca, the shapes of grains of maize, taken at random, the forms assumed by the smoke rising from burning victims, the viscera of animals, the course taken by spiders, and the direction in which fruits might fall. The professors of these methods were distinguished by different ranks and titles, and their training was long and arduous.

The American tribes as a whole were keen observers of bird life. Strangely enough the bird and serpent are combined in their symbolism and in the names of several of their principal deities. The bird appeared to the American primitive as a spirit, in all probability under the spell of some potent enchanter—a spell that might be broken only by some great sorcerer or medicine man.

As among the ancient Romans, the birds of America were divided into those of good and evil omen, and certain Brazilian tribes apparently thought the souls of dead Indians entered into the bodies of birds. The shamans of certain tribes of Paraguay acted as go-betweens for the members of their tribes and such birds as they imagined enshrined the souls of their departed relatives. This usage would appear to combine the acts of divination and necromancy.

The priesthood of Peru practiced oracular methods by "making idols speak," and this they probably accomplished through ventriloquial arts. The piagés or priests of the Uapés of Brazil had a contrivance known to them as the paxiuba, which consisted of a tree trunk about the height of a man, on which the branches and leaves had been left. Holes were bored in the trunk beneath the foliage, and when the priests spoke through these the leaves trembled and the sound was interpreted as a message from Jurupari, one of their principal deities.

But all over the American continent, from the land of Eskimos to that of the Patagonians, the methods of oracular divination were practically identical. The shaman, or medicine man, raised a tent or hut that he entered, carefully closing the aperture after him. He then proceeded to make his incantations, and in a little while the entire lodge trembled and rocked; the poles bent to a breaking point, as if a dozen strong men were straining at them, and the most violent noise came from within, seeming first to emanate from the depths of the earth, next from the air above, and then from the vicinity of the hut itself.

The reason for this disturbance has never been properly explained, and medicine men who were converted to Christianity assured workers among the Native American tribes that they had not the least idea of what occurred during the time they occupied these enchanted lodges, for they were plunged into a deep sleep. After the supernatural sounds had to some extent faded away, the medicine man proceeded to question the spirit he had evoked. The answers were generally ambiguous, like those of the Pythonesses of ancient Greece.

Divination by hypnosis was well known in America. Jonathan Carver, who traveled among the Sioux about the latter part of the eighteenth century, mentioned it was used among them. The Ghost Dance religion of the Native Americans of Nevada had for one of its tenets the belief in hypnotic communion with the dead.

Divination by means of dreams and visions was extremely common in both subcontinents of the Western Hemisphere, as exemplified by the derivation of the word priest in the native languages. The Algonquians called them"dreamers of the gods;" the Maya, "listeners," and so forth. The ability to see visions was usually quickened by the use of drugs or the swallowing or inhalation of cerebral intoxicants, such as tobacco, maguey, coca, the snake plant, and others. Indeed many Native American tribes, such as the Creeks, possessed numerous plants that they cultivated for this purpose. A large number of instances are on record in which Native American medicine men were said to have divined the future in a most striking manner.

For example, in his autobiography, Black Hawk, a celebrated Sac chief, related that his grandfather had a strong belief that in four years' time "he should see a white man, who would be to him as a father." Supernaturally directed, he traveled eastward to a certain spot, and there, as he had been informed in dreams, met with a Frenchman who concluded an alliance between France and the Sac nation. Coincidence is certainly possible in this case, but not in the circumstances of Jonathan Carver. While was dwelling with the Killistenoes they were threatened with a famine, and their very existence depended on the arrival of certain traders, who brought them food in exchange for skins and other goods. The diviners of the tribe were consequently consulted by the chief, and announced that the next day, at high noon exactly, a canoe would make its appearance with news of the anxiously awaited expedition. The entire population came down to the beach in order to witness its arrival, accompanied by the incredulous Carver, and, to his intense surprise, at the very moment forecast by the shamans a canoe rounded a distant headland, and, paddling speedily shorewards, the navigators brought the patient Killistenoes news of the expedition they expected.

John Mason Brown recorded an equally singular instance of the prophetic gift of an American medicine man (see Atlantic Monthly, July 1866). Difficulties experienced while searching for a band of Native Americans the Mackenzie and Copper-mine rivers had forced the majority of Brown's band to return home, until out of ten men who originally set out only three remained. They had almost decided to abandon their search when they stumbled upon a party of braves of the tribe they sought. These men had been sent out by their medicine man to find three white men. The shaman had given them an exhaustive account of the men's horses, equipment, and general appearance before they set out, and this the warriors related to Brown before they saw his companions. Brown asked the medicine man how he had been able to foretell their coming. The shaman, who appeared to be "a frank and simple-minded man," could only explain that "he saw them coming, and heard them talk on their journey."

Crystal gazing was in common use among many Native American tribes. The Aztecs of Mexico used to gaze into small polished pieces of sandstone, and a case is on record in which a Cherokee Indian kept a divining crystal wrapped in buckskin in a cave, occasionally "feeding" it by rubbing over it the blood of a deer. At a village in Guatemala, the traveler John L. Stephens saw a remarkable stone that had been placed on the altar of a temple, but that had previously been used as a divining stone by the Indians of the village.

Divination by arrow was also common. According to Fuentes y Guzmán, the chronicler of Guatemala, the reigning king of Kiche, Kicah Tanub, when informed by the ambassador of Montezuma II that a race of irresistible white men had conquered Mexico and were proceeding to Guatemala, sent for four diviners, whom he commanded foretell the result of the invasion. Taking their bows they discharged some arrows against a rock. They returned to inform their master that, because no impression had been made upon the rock by the arrowheads, they foresaw the worst and predicted the ultimate triumph of the white man—an incident that shows that the class to which they belonged stood in no fear of royalty. Kicah Tanub, dissatisfied, sent for the "priests," obviously a different class of diviners, and requested their opinions. From the omen of an ancient stone (brought from afar by their forefathers) having been broken, they also foretold the fall of the Kiche empire.

Many objects such as small clay birds, boats, or boat-shaped vessels, have been discovered in sepulchral mounds in North America, and it is conjectured that these may have been used for purposes of divination.

Portents, too, were implicitly believed in by the American races. Nezahualpilli, king of Tezcuco, near Mexico, was accomplished in this type of divination. Montezuma consulted him concerning the terrible prodigies that startled his people before the advance of the Spaniards upon his kingdom, and that were supposed to predict the return of Quetzalcoatl, the legendary culture-hero of Anahuac, to his people. These included earthquakes, tempests, floods, and the appearance of comets and strange lights while mysterious voices were heard in the air.

Divination has persisted in modern civilizations. Perhaps one of the most remarkable diviners was Nostradamus (Michael de Nostradame, 1503-66) who published hundreds of prophecies in enigmatic verses. Many believe these prophecies refer to events that have occurred through the centuries and that some will be fulfilled in the near future. The seventeenth-century astrologer William Lilly predicted the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire in the following year.

In addition to such gifted individuals who seemed to be able to discern future events through signs and visions, there are also popular techniques by which ordinary people believe they can gain knowledge of the hidden present or future. As well as the popular practice of astrology, there are many fortune-telling systems such as dream interpretation, palmistry, and the tarot cards. Many such systems were successfully revived in the occult boom of the 1960s. Perhaps one of the most interesting revivals was that of the ancient Chinese system of the I Ching, where divination of present and future events is associated with a deeper philosophy of the function of destiny in human affairs.

Psychical researchers have recorded many cases of spontaneous prevision of future events, although there is as yet no satisfactory explanation for such phenomena involving clairvoyance, telepathy, or dreams.

Dowsing, or water-witching, is another form of divination, although it relates mainly to the discovery of hidden water, metals, or other information. The use of a twig or rod by the operator is reminiscent of the magic wand or the tripod of occult magicians in the practice of necromancy. It also seems related to the rationale of table turning, planchette and Ouija board in Spiritualism. Divination proper, however, is a system of interpreting hidden knowledge rather than eliciting information through the intervention of spirits. One development of dowsing of special interest is the art of radiesthesia, where pendulums are used instead of a dowsing rod, for the purpose of eliciting a wider range of information, such as ascertaining states of health or disease, prescribing remedies, tracing missing persons, or even divining distant events.

Some of the seventy or so most well defined systems of divination such as axinomancy, belomancy, and capnomancy are the subject of separate entries in this encyclopedia, as are such specialized related studies as astrology, crystal gazing, and palmistry.

Popular interest in divination continues to flourish in modern times and even to increase with the uncertainties and anxieties of economic and political life. Gypsies are still reputed to have hereditary talents for fortune-telling.

National newspapers carry daily astrological indications, and the use of tarot cards is widespread, but the art of divination still seems to require some basic or developed talent that no mechanistic system can entirely dispense with. A pertinent statement is that of the psychical researcher Count Cesar de Vesme: "Any system … is good for the man gifted with super-normal powers, and any system is bad for the man not so gifted."

Sources:

Aylesworth, Thomas. Astrology and Foretelling the Future; A Concise Guide. Danbury, CT: Watts, 1973.

Barrett, Sir William, and Theodore Besterman. The Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation. London, 1926. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1926.

Besterman, Theodore. Crystal Gazing. London, 1924. Re-print, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1965.

Black Hawk. Autobiography. St. Louis, Mo., 1882.

Bouche-Leclerq, Auguste. Histoire de la Divination dans l'Antiquite. 4 vols. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Collins, Rodney. The Theory of Celestial Influence. London: Stuart & Watkins, 1955.

Connor, W. R. Roman Augury and Etruscan Divination. New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Deutch, Yvonne, ed., and F. Strachan, comp. Fortune Tellers. London, 1976. Reprint, New York: Black Watch, 1974.

Ebon, Martin. Prophecy in Our Time. New York: New American Library, 1969. Reprint, London: Alhambra, 1971.

Freedland, Nat. The Occult Explosion. New York: G. Putnam's Sons, 1972.

Gibson, W. B., and L. K. Gibson. The Complete Illustrated Book of Divination and Prophecy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973. Reprint, London: Souvenir Press, 1974.

Grand Orient [A. E. Waite]. Complete Manual of Occult Divination. 2 vols. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1972.

Halliday, W. R. Greek Divination: A Study of Methods and Principles. London: Macmillan, 1913.

Hill, Douglas. Fortune Telling. London: Hamlyn, 1972.

Jahoda, G. The Psychology of Superstition. London, 1969. Re-print, Baltimore, Md: Penguin, 1971.

Kao, James. Chinese Divination. Smithtown, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1980.

Legge, James, trans. I Ching; Book of Changes. 1899. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1963.

Manas, John H. Divination: Ancient and Modern. New York: Pythagoran Society, 1947.

McIntosh, Christopher. The Astrologers and Their Creed. London: Hutchinson, 1969. Reprint, New York: Praeger, 1970.

Miall, A. M. Complete Fortune Telling. Greenberg, 1950. Re-print, Hackensack, N.J.: Wehman, 1962.

Rakoczi, Basil Ivan. Foreseeing the Future. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

Saltmarsh, H. F. Foreknowledge. London: G. Bell, 1938.

Schoenholtz, Larry. New Directions in the I Ching. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1975.

Waite, Arthur Edward. The Occult Sciences. 1891. Reprint, Se-caucus, N.J.: University Books, 1974.

n.

The art of nosing out the occult. Divination is of as many kinds as there are fruit-bearing varieties of the flowering dunce and the early fool.

Traditions of dream divination and classification are linked to popular lore and to the attempt to find meaningful patterns in everyday life. The most important tradition of dream divination is found in ancient Mesopotamia, where more interest was shown in divination than in any other known civilization. Only in Mesopotamia did divination occupy a dominant position during the entire span of the civilization, which quite early set down divinatory lore in writing. A number of cuneiform tablets dealing with divination have been found, and some of them make predictions based on the contents of dreams. To properly evaluate the role assigned to the dream in Mesopotamian civilization, it is necessary to place the dream omens in the context of the entire range of the diviner's art.

The Mesopotamian heritage of oneiromancy (divination of dreams) was imparted both to the Hellenistic world and to Islamic civilization. Oneiromancy is the oldest form of divination in Islam, where the influence of its pre-Islamic past is remarkable. The Oneirocritica of the second-century Greek Artemidorus represents the basis of a popular tradition of dream classification and interpretation. According to Artemidorus and those who followed him, the analysis of dreams is based on the observation of the commonality of daily experience, rather than on the belief in the existence of a divine spirit.

Dream divination plays a fundamental role in many contemporary traditional cultures. For instance, the power of Temne diviners depends upon active accomplishment in dreaming. They derive their abilities from an initiatory dream in they establish a contractual relationship with a patron spirit, whereas most ordinary people are passively acted upon in their dreams by spirits, ancestors, or witches. During divination, diviners do not merely comment on the meaning of a client's dream but may also ascribe a specific dream to a client who, until then, had been unaware of having dreamed it.

Dream divination can even play a significant political role in a traditional culture, as in societies where succession to leadership or other status is determined by dreams. Dream divination can be used as a way of deciding upon one claim or candidate rather than another, or even of effecting the selection of a successor from among those who had not previously claimed candidate status.

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For other uses, see Divination (disambiguation).

This article is about divination as a whole. For the numerous varieties of divination, see Methods of divination.

This man in Rhumsiki, Cameroon, tells the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a fresh-water crab through nggàm^[1].

Divination (from Latin divinare "to foresee, to be inspired by a god"^[2], related to divinus, divine) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual.^[3] Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency.^[4] Divination can be seen as a systematic method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed, random facets of existence such that they provide insight into a problem at hand. If a distinction is to be made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a formal or ritual and often social character, usually in a religious context; while fortune-telling is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion.

Divination is often dismissed by skeptics, including the scientific community, as being mere superstition: in the 2nd century, Lucian devoted a witty essay to the career of a charlatan, Alexander the false prophet, trained by "one of those who advertise enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-affairs, visitations for your enemies, disclosures of buried treasure, and successions to estates"^[5], though most Romans believed in dreams and charms. It is considered a sin in most Christian denominations and Judaism.

Contents 1 Categories 2 Forbidden in the Bible and in the Quran 3 Divination forbidden in Christianity and Western society 4 Divination in Ancient Greece 5 Common methods 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 8.1 Popular 8.2 Academic 9 External links

Categories

Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination according to the following four types:

• Omens and omen texts. "The most primitive, clumsy, but enduring method...is the simple recording of sequences of unusual or important events." (1976:236) Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of strange births, the tracking of natural phenomena, and other data. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategy. It is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination; Joseph Needham's work considered this very idea.

• Sortilege (cleromancy). This consists of the casting of lots, or sortes, whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, or some other item. Modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination.

• Augury. Divination that ranks a set of given possibilities. It can be qualitative (such as shapes, proximities, etc.): for example, dowsing (a form of rhabdomancy) developed from this type of divination. The Romans in classical times used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy (actually a form of extispicy). Haruspices examined the livers of sacrificed animals. Note that augury is normally considered to specifically refer to divination by studying the flight patterns of birds.

• Spontaneous. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, and actually a generalization of all types of divination. The answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some religions use a form of bibliomancy: they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, and take as their answer the first passage their eyes light upon. Other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of Feng Shui such as "intuitive" and Fuzion.

Forbidden in the Bible and in the Quran

The attitude of the Bible toward divination is on the whole distinctly hostile and is fairly represented by Deuteronomy 18:10, where the prophet of God is contrasted with diviners of all kinds as the only authorized medium of supernatural revelation.^{[citation needed]} Divination is seen as an abomination but there are some notable exceptions where some forms are apparently sanctioned such as in the New Testament when Matthias is chosen as the replacement for Judas by casting lots. (Acts of the Apostles 1:26)

In the Quran, divination is described in Surah V (The Table) as an abomination: "O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination; of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper." ^[6]

Divination forbidden in Christianity and Western society

Divination was considered a pagan practice in the early Christian church. Later the church would pass canon laws forbidding the practice of divination. In 692 the Quinisext Council, also known as the Council in Trullo in the Eastern Orthodox Church, passed canons to eliminate pagan and divination practices.^[7] Soothsaying and forms of divination were widespread through the Middle Ages. In the constitution of 1572 and public regulations of 1661 of Kur-Saxony, capital punishment was used on those predicting the future.^[8] Laws forbidding divination practice continue to this day.^[9]

Divination in Ancient Greece

Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination. Oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth; their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of the high demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule, they were not the main source of divination for the ancient Greeks. That role fell to the seers (manteis in Greek).

Seers were not in direct contact with the gods; instead, they were interpreters of signs provided by the gods. Seers used many methods to explicate the will of the gods including extispicy, bird signs, etc. They were more numerous than the oracles and did not keep a limited schedule, thus they were highly valued by all Greeks, not just those with the capacity to travel to Delphi or other such distant sites.

The disadvantage to seers was that only direct yes or no questions could be answered. Oracles could answer more generalized questions, and seers often had to perform several sacrifices in order to get the most consistent answer. For example, if a general wanted to know if the omens were proper for him to advance on the enemy, he would ask his seer both that question and if it were better for him to remain on the defensive. If the seer gave consistent answers, the advice was considered valid.

At battle generals would frequently ask seers at both the campground (a process called the hiera) and at the battlefield (called the sphagia). The hiera entailed the seer slaughtering a sheep and examining its liver for answers regarding a more generic question; the sphagia involved killing a young female goat by slitting its throat and noting the animal’s last movements and blood flow. The battlefield sacrifice only occurred when two armies prepared for battle against each other. Neither force would advance until the seer revealed appropriate omens.

Because the seers had such power over influential individuals in ancient Greece, many were skeptical of the accuracy and honesty of the seers. Of course the degree to which seers were honest depends entirely on the individual seers. Despite the doubt surrounding individual seers, the craft as a whole was well regarded and trusted by the Greeks.^[10]

Common methods

Main article: Methods of divination

• astrology: by the movements of celestial bodies.
• augury: by the flight of birds.
• bibliomancy: by books; frequently, but not always, religious texts.
• cartomancy: by cards.
• cheiromancy/palmistry: by palms.
• chronomancy: about time, lucky/unlucky days.
• cybermancy: by computers.
• gastromancy: by stomach-based ventriloquism (historically);
• crystallomancy: by crystal ball also called 'scrying').
• geomancy: by markings in the ground, or the way earth or soil lays when thrown.
• hydromancy: by water.
• I Ching divination: by yarrow stalks or coins and the I Ching.
• extispicy: by the entrails of animals.
• feng shui: by earthen harmony.
• haruspicy: by the livers of sacrificed animals.
• numerology: by numbers.
• palmistry: by lines and mounds on the hand.
• oneiromancy: by dreams.
• onomancy: by names.
• spirit board: by planchette or talking board divination.
• rhabdomancy: divination by rods.
• runecasting/Runic divination: by runes.
• scrying: by reflective objects.
• taromancy: by a form of cartomancy using tarot cards.
• tasseomancy: by tea leaves or coffee grounds.
• necromancy: by the dead, or spirits/souls of the dead.
• pyromancy: by fire.
• venomancy: by poison.

See also

Methods of divination Anthropology of religion Alectormancy Apollo Astrology Axinomancy Bone divination Dowsing Dream interpretation

Esotericism Fal-Gûsh frétt Futurology Geomancy Guru I Ching Ifá New Age Nostradamus Occultism

Oracle Omen (or portent) Postdiction Pueblo Philosophy Prophet Runic divination Scrying Tarot reading Western mystery tradition List of magical terms and traditions

References

1. ^ Also done with spiders see [1]
2. ^ http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Divinatio.html
3. ^ Peek, P.M. African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing. page 2. Indiana University Press. 1991.
4. ^ Definition of divination
5. ^ Lucian of Samosata : Alexander the False Prophet
6. ^ (Surah V, 90)
7. ^ http://apostolicconfraternityseminary.com/council_of_trullo.html
8. ^ (Ennemoser, p59, 1856)
9. ^ http://pluralism.org/news/view/147
10. ^ Flower, Michael Attyah. The Seer in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.

Further reading

Popular

• Robert Todd Carroll (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary. Wiley.
• Lon Milo Duquette (2005). The Book of Ordinary Oracles. Weiser Books.
• Clifford A. Pickover (2001). Dreaming the Future: The Fantastic Story of Prediction. Prometheus.
• Eva Shaw (1995). Divining the Future. Facts on File.
• The Diagram Group (1999). The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Fortune Telling. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
• Paul O'Brien (2007). Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God. Visionary Networks Press
• Andreas Seiler Novel (2008). Real Wizard. Numerology.

Academic

• D. Engels, Das römische Vorzeichenwesen (753-27 v.Chr.). Quellen, Terminologie, Kommentar, historische Entwicklung, Stuttgart 2007 (Franz Steiner-Verlag)
• E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande (1976)
• Toufic Fahd, La divination arabe; études religieuses, sociologiques et folkloriques sur le milieu natif d’Islam (1966)
• Philip K. Hitti. Makers of Arab History. Princeton, New Jersey. St. Martin’s Press. 1968. Pg 61.
• Michael Loewe and Carmen Blacke, eds. Oracles and divination (Shambhala/Random House, 1981) ISBN 0-87773-214-0
• W. Montgomery Watt. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Edinburgh, Scotland. Oxford Press, 1961. Pgs 1-2.
• J. P. Vernant, Divination et rationalité (1974)
• David Zeitlyn and others on African Divination systems: [See]http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Divination

External links

Look up divination in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Ancient Astrology and Divination on the Web, resources on Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian divination
• W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination (1913), a complete scanned edition of the most recent general treatment of Greek divination
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Divination
• Encyclopedia Iranica: Divination
• Ennemoser's History of Magic
• Council of Trullo

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - spådomsevne, spådom, nøjagtig forudsigelse, godt gæt

Nederlands (Dutch)
voorspelling van de toekomst, het waarzeggen, inzicht

Français (French)
n. - (lit, fig) divination

Deutsch (German)
n. - Wahrsagerei, Weissagung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μαντεία, μαντική

Italiano (Italian)
divinazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - adivinhação (f)

Русский (Russian)
прорицательство, пророчество, верная догадка

Español (Spanish)
n. - adivinación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - spådom, intuitiv blick

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
占卜, 预测

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 占卜, 預測

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 점을 치는 것

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 占い, 予言

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) العرفاة, فن التنبؤ‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הגדת עתידות‬

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