Divination

Hellenic religion

• Divination appears in Delphi.

  Pausanias’s Delphi is a working oracular site in the Roman-era landscape. The method is not Ifá’s chain and palm nuts.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  appears in · sourced · documented

• Divination is connected to Oracle.

  Oracle names a speaking house of answers. Divination is the broader craft. Delphi is one overlap, not the definition.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  connected to · partially sourced · documented

• Dream is used in Divination.

  Artemidorus writes a professional handbook for interpreting dreams. Dream-reading here is a Greek technical service, not temple incubation and not Ifá.

  from Artemidorus of Daldis · Oneirocritica, 2nd century CE

  used in · sourced · documented

Yoruba Ifá

• Divination belongs to Yoruba Ifá.

  Ifá, as Bascom describes it, is a named West African system of verses and lots. It is not a dialect of Greek oracles.

  from William Bascom · Ifa Divination, 1969

  belongs to · sourced · culturally specific

• Eshu is used in Divination.

  Ifá communication, as Bascom describes it, requires Eshu as messenger between client, babaláwo, and òrìṣà. This is not Delphi and not tarot.

  from William Bascom · Ifa Divination, 1969

  used in · sourced · culturally specific

Daoism

• Divination is used in Daoism.

  The Yijing is consulted by casting and reading hexagrams. Wilhelm’s book taught a Western public that method; the classic is Chinese and not only Daoist.

  from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950

  used in · partially sourced · historically uncertain

• Yijing is used in Divination.

  Consulting the Changes is a divinatory use of a classic. It is not Delphi and not Ifá.

  from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950

  used in · partially sourced · historically uncertain

Astrology

• Divination is connected to Astrology.

  Astrology is one family of sky-reading. It is a technique with handbooks, not a folk raven omen.

  from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE

  connected to · sourced · documented

• Moon is associated with Divination.

  In the Tetrabiblos the moon is among the bodies read for earthly outcomes. The reading is astrological, not Ifá verse and not a Greek temple dream.

  from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Seven is associated with Divination.

  A seven-planet scheme organizes what is asked of the sky in Hellenistic astrology. The technique is not folk luck.

  from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Divination is used in Tarot.

  From the eighteenth century, tarot packs were used to tell fortunes. The use is modern relative to the game; it is not an ancient Egyptian book.

  used in · interpretive · modern interpretation

• Divination is connected to Omen.

  Some divination waits on omens; some makes lots. The unasked sign and the asked question are different techniques.

  connected to · interpretive · culturally specific

• Divination contains Lots.

  Lots are one instrument inside the broader craft of asking.

  contains · interpretive · documented

• Key is associated with Divination.

  Modern card-reading sometimes treats a pictured key as access to a hidden matter. That is a recent pictorial habit, not Delphi.

  associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation

• Mirror is associated with Divination.

  Looking into a reflective surface for a sign is a named practice in more than one later European and East Asian setting. Each setting has its own name and should not be merged here.

  associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

• Prophecy is connected to Divination.

  Divination is the craft of asking; prophecy is often the name for the answer. They meet without being identical.

  connected to · interpretive · documented

• Fate is associated with Divination.

  If something is allotted, asking may be a way to live with the allotment. Asking does not prove the allotment.

  associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

• Rune is used in Divination.

  Later popular practice draws runes as lots. That use is modern relative to the medieval poems; keep it labeled as such.

  used in · interpretive · modern interpretation

• Omen is used in Divination.

  Divination is the craft of asking; an omen may arrive unasked. Reading the unasked thing is still a technique.

  used in · interpretive · culturally specific

• Lots is used in Divination.

  Casting marked pieces is one family of asking. Ifá, Yijing, and Greek sortition are related as a method-type, not as one rite.

  used in · interpretive · documented

• Crystal is used in Divination.

  Looking into crystal for a sign is a later popular and occult technique. It is not Ptolemy and not Ifá.

  used in · interpretive · modern interpretation

European folklore

• Eye is associated with Divination.

  Seeing signs with the eye is ordinary; calling a glance itself a technique of harm is a specific folk claim.

  associated with · interpretive · culturally specific