A Practice as Old as Time Divination

Probably as long as humans have had religion, they have had divination. It does seem to be a human instinct to seek insight into the future as we don’t like surprises as a species and divination allows us insight into what the future has in store for us. Psychologists also believe that divination exists to allow the human mind to make sense of a chaotic, seemingly random world. Humans like order and they don’t like surprises.

We don’t know the details of early human divination or even who the first seer was. One of the first times a visit to an oracle shows up in the European written record is in 332 BCE when Alexander the Great pays a visit to the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis in Libya while he was returning from conquering Egypt. The full prophecy he received from the Oracle was never shared beyond the part that Alexander was told that he was a son of the God Zeus. Alexander the Great promised to share the entire message he received with him mother when he returned home and seemed pleased with what he was told, but sadly, he died before returning home and his message was lost to history. It is believed that Alexander the Great may have been inspired to visit the Oracle after hearing tales of Heracles and Perseus making trips to visit the Oracle.

In what would become China at this time (Fourth Century BCE), there are records of philosophers developing theories on why divination works. Some of those theories include the idea that divination brings the energies in a person into balance with the Universe through reflection and guidance. Divination was simply a way to understand the cosmos and one’s role in the Universe. Chinese philosophers for the next two thousand years began to focus on what if the fortune teller lies and the effects of an untruth.

Humans have both loved and reviled the practices of divination throughout human history. Depending on the religious and political motivations of a time, divination was either revered as the word of God or gods through an oracle or made illegal with punishments going as far as the death sentence. Ancient Rome was obsessed with their oracles and seers. Very few decisions were made in Ancient Greece and Rome without first consulting the Oracle at Delphi or a local seer. Battles and wars would not start until it was deemed auspicious by a Diviner to begin, people consulted a seer before buying a home or entering a contract. This continued until the Early Christian Emperors of Rome declared all forms of divination to be a heresy and made it illegal. Many historians believe that this move was a way of taking away the control the Seers had over the people of Rome and putting that power into the hands of the emperor and his politicians.

Fortune-telling is such a part of human life that despite the prohibitions from the Church, many people continued to practice divination. Divination practices were a little low key but just as loved by the people in all echelons of life. Folk practices, like peeling an apple while reciting the alphabet to find out the name of your future spouse, became popular among the lower classes, while court astrologers occupied places of honor and many royal courts throughout Europe.

The Islamic Middle East refined and spread the practice of astrology to lands well beyond its borders during the Middle Ages. People from all social class and economic situations sought the advice of Islamic astrologers in the Middle East. During the Middle Ages, astrology was like oracles were to Ancient Greece and Rome. Islamic diviners were also developing other forms of divination during this time using the text of the Qur’an to explain the meaning of the omens. Geomancy (The interpretations of tetragrams traced in the sand), bibliomancy (using the text of the Qur’an to divine guidance), and oneiromancy (the use of dreams to predict the future) were all developed and refined during this time. And even though the spread of Islamic divination practices also spread the religion of Islam, it was considered pagan and forbidden in some Islamic lands, especially in places like Senegal and Gambia.

Even Pre-Columbian America had long practiced divination traditions. The Aztecs believed that their central gods were diviners and even had a god of sorcery and divination, Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca’s name is often translated as “Smoking Mirror” because it was believed that he used a smoked glass or polished black stone mirror to scry and practice his art. Several European scryers claim to have used Aztec mirrors to practice scrying, most notably Elizabethan era Court astrologer John Dee. In Aztec mythology, the first humans practiced divination with kernels of maize.

The Aztecs were not the only Mesoamerican culture to practice divination. Divination was an aspect of daily life in not only Aztec culture but also Mayan and Olmec culture. Scrying, casting lots, and the use of hallucinogenic plants to receive visions were commonplace. Even today, divination is a common part of life.

Divination has a long and storied history. We may no longer seek out the Oracle of Delphi to divine our futures, but divination is commonplace in Modern Culture. Modern psychology has studied why we believe in divination and its effects on the mind. Many have concluded that divination, like tarot, allows our mind to find order and patterns thus allowing the user to see patterns in their life that they might have otherwise missed. A lot of practitioners of divination for personal reasons are not trying to predict the future but rather are trying to gain insight and Divine inspired advice on how to live and grow.

Many modern divination practitioners will consult the cards daily to see where in their lives they need to focus to make improvements or changes. Yes, they are looking for insights that often tell them that if they do this, then things will work out. Modern divination is about choices and the best course of action. It is still a powerful personal tool in your spiritual growth.

Even a visit to a professional Tarot Reader or Diviner can be fun and insightful. Their interpretation of their tools with regards to your focus questions is often an insight into your situation and not a directive to be followed to the last detail. Many modern divination practitioners will tell you that the future is not written in stone, but rather is changeable based on your decisions and outside factors. For example, you go to a reader and ask which of two very similar jobs you should take to manifest your dream life. The reader lays her cards on the table and tells you that job A is a better fit, but you will need to be on guard for a jealous co-worker and job B will be easier but will not as emotionally satisfying. That is your job situation at the moment you had the read. Your actions after that point can and will change your options. You may receive new insight before you get a chance to act on your decision or something that may affect the company you plan to work for. We only control ourselves in this Universe and make our decisions based on what we feel is best.

Just like our ancestors worried that the seer they consulted may have been lying to them, we need to keep that in mind today when consulting a practitioner. Most places you go are pretty on the level as far as their abilities go, but there are those who use divination as a scam to steal money from people when they are vulnerable. Just because a reader asks a lot of questions, doesn’t mean it’s a scam (they could just be trying to understand you and how it relates to the message they received). But be aware of readers that suddenly say things like there was a hex placed on your life and they can do the spell work to break it for a sum of money. Bad things happen in everyone’s life, it doesn’t mean you were hexed. Be aware of the scams, you should not be asked to pay anything beyond the agreed upon fee for the read. Reads are usually charged by a set amount of time, number of cards in the reading, or number of questions in the reading in one sitting. And some readers offer additional services, in addition to reading cards that you can purchase to go along with your read. Services can include spell work performed by the reader on behalf of the person being read to, future consultations, healing services such as Reiki and aura cleanses, recordings of the read, etc. These are often add-ons that are not required. It only gets to be a problem when a reader insists that your purchase an add-ons and it was not agreed on beforehand.

Many areas, especially in the United States, have laws on the books that make divination and fortune telling illegal unless it is used for religious counselling or for entertainment. If you go to hire a reader, you will often see that they include on their information that “all services are for entertainment purposes only.”, this do not mean that they are a fraud, it just means that you live in an area that has laws against divination services.

Divination can be fun to do, bring insight into the chaos of your life, and make you see options you didn’t know exist. I personally believe that my readings come from my connections with the Universe and the Divine Spark within me. It is a tool to give me insight and advice. It is also a connection to my distant ancestors and how they found hope in life and connection with their Divine Spark.