Divination is the practice of employing supernatural methods of attempting to predict future events. Practitioners acquire secret knowledge via sortilege (casting lots), augury (interpreting omens or portents), astrology (interpreting the positions and conjugations of the stars and planets), and tongues (inspired utterances by someone in a state of trance, oracular priests or mediums) (1).
Ancient Egyptians used divination to gain information and to petition their gods for assistance, Babylonians used bones carved into dice to cast lots, while the Assyrians used clay dice and the Greeks consulted oracles which spoke to their gods. The Roman politician and orator theorized that there was inductive/learned and intuitive/natural (2). The ancient Norse and Teutonic alphabet, runes ascribed various magical, mystical, and divinatory properties. The magical properties attributed to runes were believed to be released in the etching of names, phrases, memorial inscriptions, and spells upon bones, metal wood and stone (3).
Divination was also performed throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Practitioners sought solutions to their problems. Afro-Caribbean religions are centered on the principle of contact or mediation between humans and the spirit world via numerous and complex rituals which included divinatory practices (4). Divination in Central and West Africa entails chants, songs, prayers, rhythmic beats on drums and shaken from rattles by the diviner with questions and declarations made to the supplicant (5). The Chinese read markings created when tortoise shells were heated, a method which developed into a variety of divination systems: I Ching, Chinese numerology and geomancy.
In Western America, palmistry is a popular form of divination. It is mainly concerned with assessing an individual’s character via the study of their palm. However, some palmists can predict future life directions or specific events after examining someone’s palm (6). Tarot cards are a set of seventy-eight playing cards with symbolic illustrations on one side, grouped into the Major Arcana (twenty-two trump cards) and Minor Arcana (fifty-six suit cards) which are dealt out in various patterns and interpreted by a gifted reader (7). In Appalachia, there is a tradition of using playing cards as tarot cards; each number or suit relates to a person or event and can be interpreted in a multitude of ways (8).
- Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. vol.15.
- Webster, R. 2017. Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Divination.
- Guiley, R.E.1991. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience.
- Olmos, M.F. & Paravisini-Gebert, L. 2003. Creole Religions of the Carribean.
- Pemberton III, J. 2000. Insight and Artistry in African Divination.
- Walker, C. 1995. The Encyclopedia of the Occult.
- Randi, J. 1995. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural.
- Richards, J. 2019. Backwoods Witchcraft.