carolinepmannThis series asks what it might look like to deploy authentic ancient divination methods in a modern world. Can we replicate the methods? How well can we discern the meaning of a given sign based on surviving texts? Do these methods work for modern people, or do they fall flat without their original cultural contexts?
Astrology, tarot, and witchcraft are still having a cultural moment. These traditions are occasionally ancient (astrology), usually more modern (tarot), and always based on accumulated tweaks and innovations. This is fine, and even good; cultures shape divinatory tools to work for them. We often popularly use astrology in much the same way as we use a personality test. This works better for most of us than using it to predict, say, dynastic succession does.
But what if our fortune-telling methods didn’t work like this? What if we just took practices wholesale from ancient sources?
Plan and Purpose
In each post, I present a new method of divination used in ancient Rome or Greece. First, I will give historical context for the practice, explaining where it was used, by whom, and for what purpose.
Then comes the Practical. In the Practical, I explain how that type of divination can be accomplished using commonly available modern tools. I lay out tools, methods, and, where possible, interpretations. The idea is that a modern person should be able to execute something resembling an authentic ancient divination with readily available items.
In some cases, we don’t know precisely how a given sign was interpreted. And sometimes its interpretation is utterly meaningless to a modern practitioner. Other times, the exact methods are unknown. I will note where I have had to take liberties because of a lack of evidence. These are also cases where the modern practitioner might productively add their own interpretations and spin.
As a disclaimer, I believe in none of this. I am an atheist with a hobby interest in modern divination and neopaganism. I claim expertise only in Roman religion. My doctoral dissertation was on ancient Roman religion, and I have taught a course on Roman divination at Princeton. I make sure to cite ancient and modern sources to back up my claims, but I currently lack an academic affiliation, so keeping things up to date is a little tough.
I don’t mean to suggest that anyone should use the methods outlined here to make decisions, but rather I present them as experiments – can these methods work for us, now? – and as tools anyone can adopt, modify, play with, or endow with gravity, as they see fit.
Post Index:
All posts in this series are tagged “divination”