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Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand.
Scapulimancy (also spelled scapulomancy and scapulamancy, also termed omoplatoscopy or speal bone reading) is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones (shoulder blades). It is most widely practiced in China and the Sinosphere as oracle bones, but has also been independently developed in other traditions including the West.
Scyphomancy (Greek skýphos, cup, or drinking bowl, and manteia, divination) is divination using a cup or goblet.This may involve forecasting or representing by using a cup of water and reading the signs specified by certain articles floating on the water.
The Magical Treatise provides instructions on how to create planetary, daily, and hourly talismans, [21] a magic sword, vessels for divination and conjuration, wax figures, scrolls (written in the blood of a bat), a ring, special clothing, and a garland, all intended to control summoned spirits. [22]
If a distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, [citation needed] usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes.
During the Middle Ages, scholars coined terms for many of these methods—some of which had hitherto been unnamed—in Medieval Latin, very often utilizing the suffix-mantia when the art seemed more mystical (ultimately from Ancient Greek μαντεία, manteía, 'prophecy' or 'the power to prophesy') and the suffix -scopia when the art seemed ...
The blood ritual described in this passage is a key example of the use and significance of blood in biblical tradition. The ritual involves the sacrifice of animals and the division of their blood into two halves, with one half sprinkled on the altar, representing God, and the other half sprinkled on the people.
This source suggests that Greek and Roman haruspices used the entrails of human corpses; the victim should be "without spot or blemish". Haruspices, article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities; Figurine of Haruspex, 4th Cent. B.C. Vatican Museums Online, Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Room III; l. Starr (1992).