Man has always been interested in the opportunity to know the future. Each era had its own soothsayers and the predictions of the ancient priests and oracles were fulfilled much more often than the fortune-telling of modern seers. Often the fate of entire nations and states depended on predictions, and the fact that magical services were in demand indicates their great accuracy. Predictions were guided in matters of war and peace, decisive battles, harvest plans, marriage. They demanded sufficiently accurate answers from the soothsayers; they could not get rid of general vague phrases. Magic in antiquity was as in demand and natural as science in the modern world.
The most creepy way of divination was practiced in ancient Egypt. Initiated priests made predictions from the insides of women and children. A special board of priests selected candidates, among whom were very young children, and sacrificed them. According to the location and color of the internal organs of the slain, the priests predicted the future. Any smallest speck mattered. The secrets of interpretation were kept in deep secrecy and were passed on only orally, from one generation of dedicated priests to another. For thousands of years, there was never a single doubt about the truth of the predictions, although at times the priests fell out of favor with the pharaohs, they were accused of charlatanism.
In ancient times, many peoples adopted this barbaric method of divination from the ancient Egyptians, replacing it with a more humane one - fortune telling by the entrails of animals. This is how the speedy death of Alexander the Great was predicted in the prime of his power and glory. The great commander, who successfully ended the wars and successfully uncovered a conspiracy against himself, unexpectedly fell ill and died at a young age.
In Ancient Babylon, fortune-telling by the location of heavenly bodies was born, which became the prototype of modern astrology. For example, a month that looked out from behind the clouds during fortune-telling foreshadowed victory in the battle, and an accurate prediction of the time of its appearance promised misfortune.
The second, no less common method of divination in Babylon was to throw an arrow up. The position of the fallen arrow was used to judge the choice of the correct path. Later, the arrow was replaced with special magic wands, on which answers to various questions were written.
Fortune telling in mirrors was very popular in Persia. A special mirror was placed in front of a vessel with water so that the light of the moon was reflected in it. From the silhouettes and shadows in the mirror created by the moonlight, the fortuneteller interpreted various events.
In ancient Greece, the predictions of the Delphic Oracle in the Temple of Apollo were especially popular. The temple was built on the site of a crevice in the rock, from which strange fumes came out. The priests of the temple, after listening to the question, chewed the sacred leaves of laurel and inhaled poisonous gas. Falling into a trance, they began to broadcast. Once the famous Lydian king Croesus, deciding to start a war against Persia, asked the Oracle a question, to which he received the answer: "Croesus, crossing the river Galis, will destroy the great kingdom." The delighted tsar equipped a campaign, but was defeated and taken prisoner. “Does the god Apollo always deceive those who come to him for advice?” He asked the priests and received the answer: “Apollo did not deceive you with a single word. Crossing the river Galis, you destroyed a great kingdom, but not the Persian one, but your own."
Over time, the Oracle's predictions turned into a lucrative business, the priests began to give more and more vague answers, often shaping them the way the client wanted. Predictions put on a commercial basis lost mysticism and revelation.
Promotional video:
The predictions in ancient Rome on the flight of birds and celestial phenomena were no less popular. Only specially trained priests could do this fortune-telling. Without the advice of the priests, not a single important state decision was made, their power was so great that they could even cancel the decisions made.
The most amusing prediction was made on the behavior of the sacred chickens. During the wars, the Roman army was always accompanied by a cart with chickens. When it was necessary to find out the outcome of the battle, the priest poured grain into the chickens and watched how they ate. If the chickens pecked the grain with pleasure, it portended good luck, if they refused grain, the army was in for a defeat. The belief in this prediction was so great that several chickens could stop the army and even put it to flight.
Fortune-telling was very popular in India. One of the most beautiful fortune-telling rituals has survived to this day - a lighted lamp is installed on a small raft and the raft is set sail on a river or into the ocean. The longer the raft sails, the more favorable fortune will be to the fortuneteller. This ceremony is held in mid-October in many Indian villages at a festival in honor of the goddess of beauty, joy and well-being.
In Japan, the most ancient method of fortune-telling is considered to be a deer-blade fortune-telling. It is heated over a fire, and from the characteristic sounds and hiss emitted by the heating bone, predictions are made.
In Russia, they loved to guess on the coffee grounds. But this type of fortune-telling appeared much earlier than coffee appeared. Initially, clean sand was used for these purposes, and only then it was replaced by coffee as a more convenient means for salon fortune-telling. The fortuneteller drank a coffee drink and turned the cup over in the saucer. The drawing left by the coffee grounds on the walls of the cup and on the saucer was used to judge future events. The most famous case of such fortune telling is the prediction of the death of Alexander Pushkin from a white-headed man by the famous Petersburg fortuneteller Alexandra Kirchhoff.
Many types of fortune-telling have gone forever with the death of civilizations, some methods have happily survived to this day. But you shouldn't make fun of the naivete and credulity of their ancestors, they were naive and trusting in their desire to know the future no more than all of us living in the twenty-first century. Source: “Interesting newspaper. Magic and mysticism №17 2011