Divination

1
Divination

• Techniques for obtaining information about things
  unknown, including events that will occur in the
  future.
• Magic vs. Divination
• Magic based on the manipulation of perceived
  connections between things
• Ex Magical ritual to bring rain
• Divination based on observing these connections
• Ex Trying to figure out when it will rain

2
Forms of Divination

• Inspirational
• Involves some type of spiritual experience such
  as a direct contact with a supernatural being
  through an altered state of consciousness (called
  natural or emotive divination)
• Ex Mediums, Shamans, Possession
• Noninspirational
• More magical ways of divination including the
  reading of natural events, and manipulation of
  oracular devices (called artificial divination)
• Ex Oracle at Delphi, Magic 8 Ball, Ouija Board

• Fortuitous
• Divination without any conscious effort on the
  part of the individual
• Ex black cat crosses ones path, one is
  overtaken by a trance
• Ex Prophecy
• Deliberate
• Purposeful divinatoin
• Reading the Tarot, casting bones
• Ex Mediums

3
Divination Techniques

• Aleuromancy by use of flour (Fortune Cookies)
• Apantomancy by a chance meeting with an animal
  (black cat).
• Astrology by celestial bodies. Originally based
  on an earth-centered Universe. Hipparchus (130
  B.C.E.) discovered the position of the Equinoxes,
  which would later form the base of Astrology.
  Astrology and Astronomy interlinked until the
  16th century.
• Augury by the flight of birds. Also called
  Ornithomancy
• Bibliomancy by books (frequently, but not
  always, religious texts).
• Cartomancy by cards (Tarot).
• Chronomancy by time, lucky/unlucky days (related
  to Astrology, horoscope).
• Graphology by handwriting analysis.
• Haruspication by examination of animal entrails
  (Rome).
• Necromancy by the dead, or spirits/souls of the
  dead/recently dead.
• Oneiromancy by dreams. Prophethetic-like dreams?
  
• Onomancy by names.
• Ordeals by divination performed on the body of
  the accused. (Witchcraft in Christian Europe and
  drowning/fire). Guilty would burn, innocent would
  sink.
• Ouija board divination.
• Palmistry palm reading.
• Phrenology Study of shape/structure of the human
  head
• Scapulamancy by cracks and burns on a
  sheep/human scapula (Rome).
• Tasseology by tea leaves
• Other?

4
The Oracle at Delphi

• Temple of Apollo at Delphi (from 1400 B.C.E.)
• Where you went in the ancient world to know the
  future
• Built around a sacred spring that emitted a sweet
  smelling gas (pneuma).
• The medium or Pythia was the diviner. She would
  be the one through whom Apollo spoke (possession)
  and told the future.
• She would inhale the gas, read off the question
  from clay tablets and give her answer (which was
  then recorded in verse by nearby priests). This
  oracle never gave direct answers.
• Ex King Croesus of Lydia (560-547 B.C.E.), asked
  if he should go to war. Answer if he did, he
  would destroy a great realm! Croesus took this
  as fortuitous, went to war and inadvertently
  destroyed his own realm by waging war against the
  mighty Persian empire.
• A form of deliberate and inspirational divination