The attempt to gain insight into a question or situation through a ritual or magical practice, reading signs, events or omens rather than through ordinary observation or inference.
Facts
Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNo single region: documented across virtually every culture studied, though the specific method used, such as astrology, tarot reading, rune casting, tea-leaf reading or water scrying, is often region- and tradition-specific. 1 Documented YearSourced to the subject's own accountThe year E. E. Evans-Pritchard published Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, the foundational ethnographic study of the Azande poison oracle and other divination practices. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Consulting the dead for guidance, a divinatory act, is one of the documented ways a belief in continued ancestral influence is put into practice.
A shaman's work in mediating between community and spirit world routinely includes acts of divination as one of its central purposes, alongside healing and guidance.
Belief in witchcraft functions as an explanatory framework societies use to account for misfortune; divinatory practice (identifying who is responsible) and witchcraft accusation are documented as working together in societies where both are live beliefs, most famously E.E. Evans-Pritchard's account of the Zande poison oracle, not yet a live entity on this atlas.
Studied By
Documented the Azande poison oracle and other divinatory practices as part of the same 1937 study.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Divination
WikipediaOpening definition, descriptionQuote, Opening definition, description
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a magic ritual or practice.
1. Wikipedia: Divination
WikipediaMethods section, typical regionQuote, Methods section, typical region
astrology, Tarot card reading, rune casting, tea-leaf reading, Ouija boards, automatic writing, water scrying, numerology, pendulum divination and countless more.
2. Wikipedia: E. E. Evans-Pritchard
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