Divination

Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIV : Divination

This article is about the religious practice of divination. For other uses, see Divination (disambiguation).

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[link].

Divination is the attempt of ascertaining information by interpretation of omens or an alleged supernatural agency[Definition of divination]. If a distinction is to be made with 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. 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" [link], though most Romans believed in dreams and charms. However, advocates say there is plenty of anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of divination. Divination is a universal cultural phenomenon which anthropologists have observed as being present in many religions and cultures in all ages up to the present day.

Contents

1 Divination and science
2 Theories
3 Categories of divination
4 Common methods of divination
5 See also
6 For further reading
7 References and notes

7.1 Popular
7.2 Academic

8 External links

Divination and science

Divination does not follow the scientific method and is considerd entirely distinct from science. Divination assumes the influence of some supernatural force or faith which is not bound by known empirical laws. Thus, as an operational definition, divination would be all methods of prognostication that cannot be reduced to models of predictable causal processes, and hence is completely distinct from science.

Further, as divination is not falsifiable, the validity of divination cannot be determined using scientific principles.

Theories

Beyond mere explanations for anecdotal evidence, some theories have been proposed of how some forms of divination might result in meaningful messages. One theory is that the divination process allows messages from the subconscious mind to emerge into the conscious world. For example, using the I Ching orcale, a person with a very good knowledge of the 64 chapters of the I Ching might subconsciously direct the division of the yarrow stalks to obtain a relevant oracle. After an I Ching hexagram has been found, some interpretation is needed to obtain an answer to the question posed, and again, this allows the subconscious to influence the outcome. This theory presupposes that the subconscious mind has a relevant message to deliver, which in any particular case may or may not be true.

Categories of divination

Julian Jaynes categorized divination according to the following 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 whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, 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.) 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.

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 Christians and members of other 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.

By far one of the most popular methods of divination is astrology, typically categorized as Vedic astrology (Jyotish), Western astrology, and Chinese astrology, though besides these main three branches many other cultures also have or have had their own forms of Astrology in the past.

Common methods of divination

For a more complete list, see Methods of divination

Astrology (by celestial bodies)
Ailuromancy (by the behaviour of felines; see Felidomancy)
Bibliomancy (by book, frequently but not always a religious text)
Cartomancy (by cards, e.g., playing cards, tarot cards, and non-tarot oracle cards; see also Taromancy)
Cheiromancy (by palms; see Palmistry)
Crystallomancy/Scrying (by crystals or other reflecting objects)
Extispicy (from the exta of sacrificed animals)
Geomancy (by earth), includes Feng Shui divination
Graphology (by handwriting)
I Ching divination (ancient Chinese divination using I Ching): (However, as performed by some diviners with heavy reliance on an accompanying I Ching manual, this is, in effect, also a form of Bibliomancy/Stichomancy)
Numerology (by numbers)
Oneiromancy (by dreams)
Onomancy (by names)
Ouija board divination
Padomancy (by the soles of one's feet)
Palmistry (by palm inspection)
Phrenology (by the shape of one's head)
Pyromancy, or pyroscopy (by fire)
Runecasting (by Runes)
Scatomancy (by droppings, usually animal)
Taromancy (by specially designed cards: Tarot; see also Cartomancy)

For further reading

References and notes

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.

Academic

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)
Michael Loewe and Carmen Blacke, eds. Oracles and divination (Shambhala/Random House, 1981) ISBN 0877732140
J. P. Vernant, Divination et rationalité (1974)

External links

Look up 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 editon of the most recent general treatment of Greek divination
[1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Divination]
[Encyclopedia Iranica: Divination]
[Theory of Divination] by Tim Maroney, exploring different possible mechanisms

[Voyance] Portal

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