Omens And Oracles

Addressing the role which divination played in ancient Greek society, this volume deals with various forms of prophecy and how each was utilised and for what purpose. Chapters bring together key types of divining, such as from birds, celestial phenomena, the entrails of sacrificed animals and dreams. Oracular centres delivered prophetic pronouncements to enquirers, but in addition, there were written collections of oracles in circulation. Many books were available on how to interpret dreams, the birds and entrails, and divination as a religious phenomenon attracted the attention of many writers. Expert diviners were at the heart of Greek prophecy, whether these were Apollo’s priestesses delivering prose or verse answers to questions put to them by consultants, diviners known as manteis, who interpreted entrails and omens, the chresmologoi, who sang the many oracles circulating orally or in writing, or dream interpreters. Divination was utilised not only to foretell the future but also to ensure that the individual or state employing divination acted in accordance with that divinely prescribed future; it was employed by all and had a crucial role to play in what courses of action both states and individuals undertook. Specific attention is paid in this volume not only to the ancient written evidence, but to that of inscriptions and papyri, with emphasis placed on the iconography of Greek divination.

Addressing the role which divination played in ancient Greek society, this volume deals with various forms of prophecy and how each was utilised and for what purpose. Chapters bring together key types of divining, such as from birds, celestial phenomena, the entrails of sacrificed animals and dreams. Oracular centres delivered prophetic pronouncements to enquirers, but in addition, there were written collections of oracles in circulation. Many books were available on how to interpret dreams, the birds and entrails, and divination as a religious phenomenon attracted the attention of many writers. Expert diviners were at the heart of Greek prophecy, whether these were Apollo’s priestesses delivering prose or verse answers to questions put to them by consultants, diviners known as manteis, who interpreted entrails and omens, the chresmologoi, who sang the many oracles circulating orally or in writing, or dream interpreters. Divination was utilised not only to foretell the future but also to ensure that the individual or state employing divination acted in accordance with that divinely prescribed future; it was employed by all and had a crucial role to play in what courses of action both states and individuals undertook. Specific attention is paid in this volume not only to the ancient written evidence, but to that of inscriptions and papyri, with emphasis placed on the iconography of Greek divination.

A mother receives an undeniable message of love from her deceased son A series of meaningful coincidences appear to save a life; A conversation overheard between strangers delivers a life-altering personal message to a bystander; A dream warns a woman of a wounded animal miles away; A reading of oracle cards prepares a daughter for an impending tragedy....Extraordinary? Unusual? It's not! Messages from Spirit are received every day by ordinary people in a multitude of ways. We are made of, and surrounded by, an all-knowing Divine field of intelligence that is just waiting to guide us and give us help whenever we ask for it. We just need to learn how to enter the conversation and understand the dialogue. So how do we ask? How do we receive and interpret the answers? By exploring ancient methods in a modern context of connecting to the Divine, renowned intuitive counselor and best-selling author Colette Baron-Reid shows you magical, fun, and practical methods that will enable you to delve into your own dialogue with Spirit. She'll take you on a mysterious and enlightening journey that will shake up your perspective, stir your curiosity, and prepare you for a Divine conversation that will forever change your understanding of the world around you.

A republication of the 1897 edition. An illustrated study of various omens and oracles, natural and artificial. Onomantics or divination by names includes both male and female names.

Discusses Celtic modes of divination and teaches how to use the most important methods in the Celtic tradition, including two methods that have never before been published. Also, tells how to make a number of ancient oracles, including sky stones, touchstones and Saxon wands.

The past, present and future are full of tantalizing mysteries: questions about our own and other people's lives that we long to answer. Across history, human cultures have devised a wide range of methods to discover what might lie ahead or to understand past events.This fascinating book features twenty-four divinatory techniques from around the world that have been and are still used to uncover hidden information: from astrology, palmistry, and Tarot to egg divination and Chinese Yijing. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with a wide range of associated objects, such as cards, dice, altars, candles and texts, and even mathematical tools including astrolabes and astronomical tables. While these practices are often seen as light-hearted entertainment, a soothsayer's uncannily accurate reading can catapult a client from scepticism to serious engagement.From ancient times to the present day, this spellbinding collection explores our need to appeal to powers beyond the realm of our day-to-day understanding for prediction and clarification, and how the questions we ask can reveal more than the answers we are given.

Using depth psychology to develop a globally rooted psychoanalytic perspective, Jerry Kroth explores the psychological underpinnings of events, conflicts, and changes that may have deeper symbolic meanings than we generally suppose. Through his strategy of treating real occurrences as dreams arising from the collective unconscious, Kroth is able to derive clues to the significance of present happenings and identify incidents that have accurately predicted subsequent events. Beginning with a dream interpretation approach to the Jim Jones phenomenon, Kroth discusses the power of the trickster archetype in American society. In another chapter, he connects the panic following Orson Welles's 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds to a collective dream anticipating the cataclysm of World War II, which was to unfold only eleven months later. In the remaining chapters Kroth sifts through some of the omens and oracles that confront us today, finding many of the same foreboding conclusions. His examination of the Gorbachev revolution from the standpoint of Russian national character and psychohistory yields future scenarios less optimistic than have usually been anticipated. Other topics addressed are the collective dreams and portents encoded in the mass media, the Cambodian disaster as an aspect of the American shadow, and Israel's David-and-Goliath duel with the Palestinians. This incisive work is aimed at alerting us to the fact that consciously perceived events contain vital symbolic information on the psychological state of the union and suggest a number of unsettling future scenarios. Appropriate for general readers as well as classes and studies in clinical psychology, social psychology, cultural anthropology, political science, and related fields.