Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch, stood at the crossroads with his massive army of bloodthirsty Chaldeans behind him. Which way would be the most advantageous conquest to pursue - Rabbah of Ammon to the north or Jerusalem in Judah to the west? He ordered a chicken brought to him and had it slaughtered before a small golden idol. Reaching into the still warm corpse, he extracted the liver and closely examined the spots on it. Soon, the answer came to him, like a whispering voice on the wind: "Rise up, like a bear hungry for flesh, and go west to Jerusalem and lay waste the throne of David, which is in Zion."
Such is the picture painted by the prophet Ezekiel of how Nebuchadnezzar made his decision to take war to the Jews. Too bad for them that their fate rested on the liver condition of a chicken! Ah, where are those animal rights activists when you really need them?
Divination, of which looking into the liver, heptascopy, is but one type, has to do with trying to gain "secret knowledge," in particular of future events. Janet Farrar goes even further to distinguish divination from other forms of psychic awareness by calling it "clairvoyance with tools."
What is it that humans want to know? Oh, just about everything. "Will I live a long, healthy life?" "Will I inherit money?" "Will I marry a beautiful man or woman?" "Will I pass my college exams?" In short, just about anything having to do with the business of living has been inquired upon by some concerned person at one time or other. It has even been proven that modern-day politicians have been swayed by information gathered via divination. A good example of that can be found in recent times during the tenure of the Reagan administration. Nancy Reagan's personal astrologer, Joan Quigley of San Francisco, was practically the President's living, breathing Day-Timer. Nothing happened in the Oval Office without it being shown to be astrologically auspicious. Those who were brave enough to speak out against this were soon to be found a-beggin' in the streets of Washington D.C.; Nancy was quick to have them shipped off.
Far from being a modern invention, the art and mystic science of divination is as ancient as the stars themselves. Well... at least as old as humankind. Anthropologists attest to the permeation worldwide, in every society, of the belief that events in the life of a creature or even a nation could be predicted, even influenced, by naturally occurring phenomena. Just listen to some of the idioms we use in our everyday speech here in North America: "Bless my/your lucky stars!" "It just wasn't in the cards." Or how about this one: "Find a penny and pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck."
Looking back to the Babylonians for another example, they came to be known worldwide as master divinators and magicians, especially skilled in the field of astrology. Adad, the god-bull with a thunderbolt down his back, taught them to read the stars and their movements in the heavens. It is believed by scholars that the three so-called wise men or magi, who were supposed to have visited the Jesus-child, were astrologers from Babylon, "saying, 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him.'"
Frenchman Albert Champdor, in his book Babylon, tells us: "The heavenly bodies which they studied over the centuries were living gods, whose ordered movements in space, when correctly interpreted, could be used as a guide in the daily activities of men.... One can discern an underlying vast philosophical system, in which man was eternally linked with the movements of the celestial bodies, whose laws were immutable and inescapable. All life was but an infinitesimal part of the universe." Thank you for that piece of wisdom, Babylon.
Coming up to speed
Don't think for a minute that just because Babylon lies barren in the desert that chickens may sleep soundly at night. Oh, no! Haruspication, which is reading the condition of an animal's innards, and even a human's, of which heptascopy is a subset, is still a very popular method of fortune-telling among Third World medicine men. If you are like me, and I have a feeling that many are who read Widdershins, you may prefer a method not so expensive, inconvenient or sanguinary. Yes, in other words, reading the guts is a bloody mess for the bourgeoisie. So what else is available to the modern witch? Plenty! There are rune stones, I Ching, Tarot cards, pendulums, playing cards and bones, and gods only know what else is out there.
In terms of popularity, it seems to me that Tarot cards are in the forefront of today's metaphysical movement. Tarot cards are easily available from almost any toy store and very often in many mainstream bookstores, eliminating the necessity of trying to find a pagan-oriented business in Podunk, USA. (However, when you can, please support the livelihoods of those who provide wares to the pagan community. Not many of them are materially rich from their efforts, but that is no reason not to help them along.) Also, Tarot cards come in quite a variety of deck styles. The last time I was in a shop in Seattle's University District, I counted not less than 30 different decks of cards. There are dozens (hundreds?) of books on how to interpret a spread, many claiming to teach a method that is quick and easy to learn with a greater degree of accuracy than others, which is without a doubt greatly appealing to the masses of American consumers that must be on top of every trend. (If you don't get what I'm saying, go to a bookstore and try to buy a book on dieting sometime. I think I just made my point.) Don't get me wrong, Tarot is easy to learn and can be a powerful tool, but I personally tend to sneer at the way spiritual aids are made into common everyday blather by the cowan (nonwitches).
Ranking right up there with the Tarot in popularity is astrology. Who of us hasn't read the horoscope in the newspaper or doesn't know what "sign" we are? I even know a fellow who claims to be an atheistic scientist who reads extensively about astrology and gets the local paper just so he can read his horoscope and those of others. Yet he claims he doesn't feel there is any value in it for us. Yeah, right.
Two less popular but still well-known methods of divination are palmistry (cheiromancy) and tea-leaf reading (tasseomancy). A good palmist can tell you a lot by reading the lines on your palm. the shape of your fingers, palm, fingernails and fingerprints, such as your lifestyle, your health, how you will fall in love and whether it will last, education and lots more. It's really fascinating. Tea leaves, when swirled in a cup, are read by the patterns that they make; which side of the cup they gather on indicates whether it is the past, present or future that you are reading. These two methods' relative lack of popularity surprises me, considering how romantic they are. I just love the scenes in the movie Dead Again when that darling Brit, Kenneth Branaugh, is reading Emma Thompson's future. Kenny, baby, you certainly are my cup of tea!
Though it is far from common, a really bitchin' way of finding things is by dowsing, or rhabdomancy. In some parts, the people who do this are called water witches, water being the thing that they are most commonly called upon to locate. When dowsing, you hold a forked rod of hazel, preferably, or ash in both hands. The rod will jerk and twitch in the direction you should follow, till it stops near the place you should search. I get the impression that this is not something that is learned. Either you have it, or you don't. I could be wrong on that one. Nevertheless, what a privilege to have such an ability it must be.
Of course, as our world has changed some methods have fallen out of use and are relegated to the pages of books on quaint customs. How often have you seen someone read the meaning of how an arrow strikes the ground? Or someone reading the configuration of drops of oil on water?
Once, it was believed that a dog that barked for no apparent reason at an open door was heralding the coming of death to that home. If the outer skin of an onion was extra thick, it meant that the coming winter would be exceptionally cold.
Divining: the future
Because our world is changing, I advocate changing with it. Let's develop new and interesting ways of divination to go along with the traditional means. How about "linguamancy" - the art of knowing how much a person loves you by the way that person sticks his or her tongue down your throat? A friend of mine told me about a teacher she knew who would run into McDonald's, demand 10 orders of fries, empty them out on a table and do French-fry fortune-telling. Apparently it worked, too. That's so cool! I think it would be an educational experience to hear what the community at large is doing. Why don't you write in to us and tell us what you do on your own, traditionally or otherwise?
Most of those associated with the pagan and magickal community have probably explored different techniques of divination at different times. For those who haven't, I have two words of caution. First: Beware of unscrupulous persons who charge astronomical (as opposed to astrological) prices for their services. I'm speaking in particular about those 1-900-INSTA-PSYCHIC lines. The person you talk with is not necessarily a trained psychic, whereas they definitely are trained in ways to keep you on the phone and to have you call back.
Second: Divination is nothing more than a tool to help you recognize trends and patterns in your life. Keep it in its place. Don't let it take charge of your life. Remember the words of the Greek philosopher Epicurus when he says: "A strict belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery, imposing upon our necks an everlasting lord and tyrant, whom we are to stand in awe of night and day."
Have a great Samhain, folks.
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