Re Divination and Meaning

[Willamena]

Julian Jaynes categorized divination according to the following types:

·Omens and omen texts. "The most primitive, clumsy, but enduring method...is the simple recording of sequences of unusual or important events." (1976:236) Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of strange births, the tracking of natural phenomena, and other data. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategy. It is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination; Joseph Needham's work considered this very idea.
·Sortilege. This consists of the casting of lots whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, or some other item. Modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination.
·Augury. Divination that ranks a set of given possibilities. It can be qualitative (such as shapes, proximities, etc.) Dowsing (a form of rhabdomancy) developed from this type of divination. The Romans in classical times used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy (actually a form of extispicy). Haruspices examined the livers of sacrificed animals.
·Spontaneous. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, and actually a generalization of all types of divination. The answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some Christians and members of other religions use a form of bibliomancy: they ask a question, rifle the pages of their holy book, and take as their answer the first passage their eyes light upon.

I just eyeballed them, but all the "types" of divination listed in the Overview rely on the same method, aptly demonstrated in what Mr. Jaynes describes as "spontaneous divination". The significant thing they have in common is that the answer that "comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear" is meaningful in the moment in which is it is seen or heard. It is meaningful, in that moment, to the person for whom it presents itself.

A more sensible categorization is made by E.M. Zeusse in The Encyclopedia of Religion:

E. M. Zuesse distinguishes among "intuitive divination," in which the diviner spontaneously "sees" or "knows" reality or the future; "possession divination," in which spiritual beings are said to communicate through intermediary agents; and "wisdom divination," in which the diviner decodes seemingly random patterns found in nature. [1] /quote

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I think, though, that the third and the first have more in common than different. 'Wisdom' divination is also about spontaneous meaning. The only real difference between 'wisdom' divination and spontaneous divination is that one happens at a level of interpretation once removed from the other, with the meaning drawn from a set system of symbolism (rules) rather than from direct experience. The example of bibliomancy, for instance, or divination from an oracle, is of the spontaneous type, as the meaning comes directly from the words the eye falls upon. So is the interpretation of meaning from omens (a co-incidence of events) where meaning is drawn in a flash of insight. But interpretation from sortiledge (a random casting of items), augury and auspices (signs, a natural random pattern), and astrology (symbols of natural random groupings) are all examples of a similar method, one that has a person "reading" according to a system, which still has them drawing that same associative connection between randomized markers and what that marker means in relation to an issue for the moment that it is read.

What makes divination of religious context is in how it is about us: our person, our lives, our issues. Divination, properly done, is never without purpose: a question that needs answer, or a decision that seeks confirmation from the universe at large. As part of religious practice, divinatory methods "reveal the human quest for a larger context of meaning, a means by which to understand and respond to the many faces of suffering and uncertainty." [2]


[1,2] Both quotes from Art and Oracle.

 

[michel]

Divination, properly done, is never without purpose: a question that needs answer, or a decision that seeks confirmation from the universe at large. As part of religious practice, divinatory methods "reveal the human quest for a larger context of meaning, a means by which to understand and respond to the many faces of suffering and uncertainty." [2]

I'd agree with that comment fully. I think though that there is a great amount of intuition in divination.