Transcript Divination Techniques

Why does Magic work?
• Magic works because of
a human psychological
disposition towards a
positive result.
– Ex: Bone Pointing among
the Australian
Aborigines. (relatives
also do not feed/care for
the afflicted)
– Ex: The Secret, “mind
over matter”
Ethnographic Example
•
Trobriand Islands (Malinowski)
– Highest level of knowledge includes rain and garden magic
• Only a few have this knowledge and are highly revered in the community
– Magic is learned through family members, but is not “free”.
• The inquirer must present gifts over time to gain this knowledge. The giver will generally not
pass on all the info at once and may die before all magical knowledge is passed on. In this case,
other religious specialists from nearby islands to the South may be monetarily persuaded to
teach.
– Garden magic and ritual
• A Spell is used: an oral text that is transmitted without change from generation to generation
– The spell must be recited exactly, with the correct phrasing, wording, pausing, etc. One slip-up could
invalidate the magic.
• The magic compels the supernatural to bend to the person’s wishes, and success is seen as
inevitable
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 divination
• 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.
Divination Techniques
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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.
Divination Techniques
• 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.
Divination Techniques
• 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
The Oracle at Delphi
•
Temple of Apollo at Delphi (from 1400
B.C.E.)
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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.
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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
Oracle of Delphi