Transcript Divination Techniques for obtaining information about things

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
Forms of Divination
Inspirational
Fortuitous
• 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
• Divination without any conscious effort
on the part of the individual
• Ex: black cat crosses one’s path, one is
overtaken by a trance
• Ex: Prophecy
Noninspirational
Deliberate
• 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
• Purposeful divinatoin
• Reading the Tarot, casting bones
• Ex: Mediums
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?
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
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/playe
r/places/cultureplaces/historical/greece_delphioracle.html