2. What is Divination?
Divination /dɪvɪneɪʃən/
Noun
--The act of predicting future events. Commonly
known as “fortune telling.”
3. Different Methods
• All around the world, people use different
methods to tell the future. One way might
seem strange to you, but it is normal in
another part of the world.
4. Nggàm
For example, this man
in Cameroon, tells the future by
interpreting the changes in
position of various objects as
caused by a fresh-water crab. In
Africa, this technique is called
“nggàm.”
Now let’s take a look at some
ways of fortune telling used in the
West.
5. Oracles
Let’s start with one of the oldest ways. In Ancient
Greece people talked to Oracles – special people
who were believed to talk for the gods – in order
to find out the future.
6. The Oracle of Delphi
The most famous oracle in Ancient
Greece was the Oracle of Delphi, a
priestess at the Temple of Apollo,
who was said to speak for the god
of the sun.
7. Hepatomancy
Long ago, priests in
Ancient Rome and
Greece would practice
“hepatomancy.” The way
that they told the future
was to kill a goat or a
sheep and examine it’s
liver.
Right: a bronze sheep’s liver
with instructions in Etruscan
from ancient Italy. 2nd-3rd
Century B.C.
