Divination was a basic feature of life in Babylon, senior practitioners had influence and were held in
high esteem. They were consulted on all important occasions by both individuals and officers of state.
In old Babylon around 2000 B.C. a variety of Omens were written down and collected and are the
largest surviving category of Akkadian literature.
Omens were listed as to whether they were artificially induced or unintentional (unprovoked omens were considered the
most potent, black cats crossing your path, etc). Divination in Babylon was considered a major intellectual achievement
in the ancient world but was derided by the Hebrew prophets whose God was the famously intolerant
foreskin cutting, "Thou shalt have no other Gods except me", type of egotistical apparition. The Hebrews were also very much into
revelations in the old testament about the future, in the presence of a harsh Roman occupation. How would you say in Yiddish
"You Romans in a few years, we will have a leader to rub excrament in your face" Reminds me of a Lou Reed song where he describes a tea-shirt with the
Latin inscription "It's hard to give a shit these days" A truly long lived individual.
Divination was considered as a means of communication whereby the Gods could reveal their intentions,
evil could be predicted and avoided by purification rituals. Forms of divination employed included Extispicy
( reading animal entrails,) reading patterns of oil on water, smoke from incense, dreams, and reading
other natural phenomena. The behaviour of animals at city gates was especially important and Thebes
was reputedly founded by Cadmus on a spot where a cow lay down to rest.
On the other side of the world before European contact the Aztecs founded what was to become Mexico city where an
eagle perched on a cactus that grew out of a rock. Romulus founded Rome after seeing 12 vultures flying overhead
which was considered a good unprovoked omen for a spot to establish a city, the same went for Cadmus where a cow
lay down to rest, he founded Thebes.
Extispicy from the Latin to view entrails and was the major form of divination in the ancient world for Babylon
the Etruscans, Greeks and Hittites. It took precedence over astrology until the late Assyrian kingdom in Babylon.
The main organ examined was the processus pyramidalis of the liver and many Roman and Greek authors give almost
tedious accounts of the outcomes of this form of consultation. It is thought that the liver was a reflection of
the macrocosm a "smoking mirror" when plucked hot from a freshly slaughtered animal which developed into gazing
at oil on water and survives today in crystal ball gazing. Bronze Etruscan livers have been found which have
the liver marked out into sections as to represent the heavens. If the liver omens were favourable action would
be taken, otherwise if the processus pyramidalis of a sacrificial animal was malformed armies might face each for
days and take no action, as in an account by Xenaphon a student of Socrates who fought as a mercenary for a Persian army.
By the middle of 500 B.C. emphasis had moved from Extispicy and was based more on celestial omens leading to astrology and astrological
knowledge of the zodiac. The earliest horoscopes from around this period record the date of conception or birth and
future predictions for an individual's life.
Cicero publicly expressed respect for the Gods, in his dialogues on The Nature of the Gods he questions their existence,
while in On Divination, he questions beliefs in omens dreams and astrology. Cicero was Pontifex Maximus chief religious
officiando of Rome who presided over a college of pontifices, another college called augurs who practices divination (foretelling
the future by portents of bird flights and reading omens), and the care and interpretation of the Sibylline books.
The Sibylline books were written by the Sibyls of Cuma, (like the modern comic book hero The Phantom,
the title Sibyl referred to the position and not to an individual, there were many generations of
Sibyls over the centuries, 10 were listed by the Roman scholar Varro in the first century B.C)
The Sybils were the prophetess of Apollo, who wrote their answers to questions on palm leaves
which blew around the room when you entered. They reputedly offered 9 Prophetic Books to King
Tarquinius of Rome to buy, each time he rejected the offer, three books were burnt and the
remaining 6 were offered again; Tarquin rejected them again and 3 more were burnt.
At the final offer to Tarquin he relented under pressure from his own professional Augurs
(Divination by bird flight) and purchased the last three books at the price originally asked
for all 9 books; they were kept for centuries and consulted on special occasions only by order
of the Senate before battle or when in danger of attack. The cost of consulting the books
was to offer sacrifice and one report of 226 B.C. mentions prisoners being buried alive
after a consultation of the books.
The Sibylline books were destroyed by fire in 83 B.C. but many later forgeries were made.
Of the Sibyls the most famous was the Sibyl of Cumae in Campania who told Aenaeas how to enter the underworld. In Orvid'sMetamorphoses, the Sibyl of Cumae has already reputedly lived for 7 generations when consulted by Aenaeas, but although granted her wish by Apollo for as many years life as there are grains in a handful of sand she had forgotten to ask for perpetual youth and became a sign of withered hopes.
St Augustine said of the Sibyl that she was a citizen of the City of God as in an acrostic verse, a cryptic response to a consultation she had predicted the birth of Christ ( the first letters of each line spelt Jesus in Greek ).
The oracles were famous for giving ambiguous answers to those consulting them. For example, the King of Lydia
consulted the oracle on the question: Should I invade Persia?
The answer was that if he did invade: "A great Empire will be destroyed" Of course it was his own Empire that was destroyed, so the oracles prediction was true no matter who won.
The oracle rarely gave unambiguous answers, except on one noted question:
When asked what he thought of the Oracle's comment. Socrates said "I wonder what the oracle meant" True wisdom for if he had of beat his chest and said
that the oracle was correct, that would be a fatal flaw of vanity, like King Solomon saying "Vaniy of Vanities , all is vanity" So in this case the answer is clear, but could never be tested.
The oracles liked to make ambiguous predictions; have a bet each way so they would always appear to be right, or give an answer that was untestable.
Socrates felt immense pressure to take his own life as he was judged as having corrupted young minds, but he had other options, like going into exile!
Did Socrate's have any free will? He seems to have taken the hemlock poison on his own volition. Did Socrates have any more choice than Oedipus, was he really that wise!
Perhaps if he was wise and brave he may have started his own academy and taught Aristotle some manners he could pass on to his student Alexander the Great, I hesitate to say
"great" about a personality so violent that could murder his friend in a violent rage. Perhaps with a more gentle nature with better education from Aristotle via Socrates,
Alexander may have acted differently, that is if you believe nurture can completely overcome nature. Alexander may have also been who he was, because his father Phillip had already gone partially genetically predetermined down the same path.
The Oracles predictions were that people had no choice. A negative prediction could be changed though, by appropriate sacrifice
and donating lots of goods (livestock, olive oil gold) to the Oracle would help the prediction as well. The oracle claimed to be able to change the fate of men, by "expensive" consultations with the Gods, the prototype priesthood.
To rush off against the Oracles prediction was to meet your fate. If you did as the Oracle suggested, make huge gifts, come back for many consultations, like ancient long term Freudian therapy
the Oracle's prediction might be more favourable. Initiation into the mysteries might take many years. Please donate at the door and come back every week to donate more, long term rich devotees preferred.
A modern analogy might be to the Church of Scientology who use old Freudian psychotherapy with an electronic lie detector. Rich celebrity members donate a high proportion of their income to the Church. James Packer must be a very welcome member. What percentage does Tom and John and the other rich celebrities pay the Church of Scientology. Like the ancient oracles, Clients are with them for life-time therapy, donating their income to fictional out-of-date psychological notions of a creative science fiction writer, Ron L Hubbard.
Has Ron been found yet? I heard there was fax from him at sea on his luxury yacht saying "I'm not dead yet" two decades or so ago, in a reply to a claim for his estate to be divided.
The Scientologists have the status of a religion in Australia and do not pay tax, they also have some high profile celebrity members and what is the core of their religion?
That they are going somewhere through levels of progression, in essence that their nature is completely malleable to their nurturing environment.
I wonder what Ron Hubbard would make of genetic developments and the decline of behavioral schools like Watson's who believed he could
manipulate the essence of any individual by training? Neophyte devotees are led to believe they are progressing through the levels of a church, through the personality to being clear to a mythical level called Thetan, based on a visit to earth by an alien, the inner sanctum of creative writing from a science fiction author which includes aliens from other planets.
What these religions or cults can tend to do is initiate in their devotees an isolating feeling of superiority over other people, preying on vanity and their ego.
Anyone who thinks they are part of a chosen race, or knows the secrets of God or psychology are in the inner esoteric circle of and think they are superiour than others.
Oedipus then leaves his adopted parents to avoid the prediction and then meets his father at a crossroad. Oedipus always has a choice
at the crossroads, to not kill a man he did not know was his father. Oedipus never takes any will in the matter and is a tragic victim of his own in action and slavish following of the oracles prediction.
If he had said of the oracle, that is ridiculous and stayed with his foster parents the prediction would never come true. His fate was to believe in his fate and not act to do otherwise.
Looking at oracle's predictions regarding the son of God, it is easy to where the followers of Jesus may have got their ideas from. Under a brutal Roman occupation
leading to the Jewish deaths at Masada, they were certainly wanting a saviour a leader. Jesus did what was expected of him if he wanted to be taken for the son of God, the prediction from the oracle is likely to be the impetus for the
combination of events regarding the resurrection, the central tenant of Christianity.
What a marketing ploy it was, advertise a few generations ahead, a great leader, son of God is coming in a hundred years and then a mortal man
or his followers (was Jesus complicit in the fraud, he may have believed his own publicity department), near death was revived to look like the prediction was true.
What is more likely, that one human being escaped death or that he was very ill and got better. He was only on the cross between 6 and nine hours
depending of which account you prefer, they all differ.
Jesus was barely up long enough to die, some others took days to die on the cross, depending on if they had support for their feet as Jesus did, it enabled them to breathe easier than without foot support, they could survive for days.
Jesus had a brutal but survivable crucifixion.
Rumours abound that the Tourin shroud was declared a medieval fraud by the Vatican, because the blood flows were from a living body and do not show forensic markings
of someone whose blood had ceased to flow and settled in the lowest part of the body. Was Jesus the son of the God who made everything who cheated death or was he a man who survived crucifixion.
The early Greek author Homer who wrote or compiled the Odyssey on the legends of the siege of Troy and Greek heroes
also described a consultation by Odysseus of Teiresias the seer of Baia in southern
Italy. The enquirer of the dead had to pay dearly in livestock or precious gifts (and occasionally their life) to consult the underworld.
They were left alone in a small room decorated with images of old age and death for three days
near an underground entrance. To enhance the mystical illusion to the enquirer they were fasted
and feed on hallucinogenic drugs, Henbane was closely associated with the God Apollo. Pliny
the Roman author wrote that the knowledge of the safe use of drugs by the ancients of a few
hundred years before his time was lost and nothing could be taken safely anymore. The juice
from just three berries of Belladonna can be lethal, as can similar amounts of Datura or
Henbane which was referred to as Appoloinaris, it was also called Jupiter beans and was
closely associated with Apollo the God of prophecy. After three days preparation, an ewe
was killed and if its entrails gave favourable omens of good health for the consultation
the enquirer was given the "water of forgetfulness" and was made to crawl down a narrow
passages with contained concealed at its bottom the river styx.
Various illusions were created to answer the inquirer's question while they were in a drugged stupor and upon return to the surface they were given the "water of remembrance" and questioned about their experience to ensure they would only report favourable comments about the oracle. To ridicule the experience could cost the enquirer their life, probably by poisoning as their were often correct predictions of the imminent death of someone who visited for a consultation. The underworld of the dead at Baia was suppressed by Marcus Agrippa who went to the trouble to fill up the underground tunnels.
The famous Elusinian mysteries the oldest and most privileged cult celebrated in honour of Demeter
and Persephone both female earth Gods was situated in Eluisis in Greece and wasn't transferred to
Rome, though prominent Romans went for initiation including Cicero.
The oracle of Trophonios in Greece was credited with building the temple of Delphi.Delphi was
regarded as the major center of Greek divination from around 1000 B.C. and by 700B.C. foreign
barbarians were also giving tributes to Delphi.Herodotus gives an account from around this
time of the legendary (his reported ability to turn things into gold and his asses ears excepted)
but historically real King Midas of Phrygia giving to the Delphic oracle a royal throne as a tribute
and gift.
The oracle of Lebadea at Trophonious was ridiculed from a distance by the Roman poet Lucian for the absurd practice making an enquirer crawl through tunnels of snakes carrying pancakes.
To ridicule the Oracle in a consultation would be fatal, the oracle would poison you and announce to the population that you were
going to die and then you would. In the use of poisons, they cemented themselves in history as a religion with best "spin doctors" and
very proficient at murdering critics and detractors and making it look like divine retribution on those not paying them homage.
The Egyptians used what the Greeks call the Sothic Cycle after the star Sirius. A sothic cycle
was the period from one helical rising of Sirius before the dawn sun to the next pre dawn rising.
The Sothic Cycle was composed of 12 months of 30 days and 5 days not included in the calendar
which were feast days, this 360 day period caused an error in their measurement of a year by one
quarter of a day each year and until 1,461 years had elapsed the calender would be mostly out of
step with the seasons. Sirius was known to the Egyptians as the God Isis , the major deity of Egypt.
They could tell the time of day (divided into 24 hours,12 hours each being for light and dark) by
shadow clocks and at night by reference to star maps found on the inside of coffin lids from
2160 - 1786 B.C. Other Gods worshiped included Osiris, God of death whose cult began as early as
3,200 B.C. and influenced the making of pyramids complete with possessions for the afterlife.
By about 300A.D. the oracles had shut up shop, "Closed due to Hebrew Prophet" Hundreds of oracles around ancient Greece just disappeared
with the Christianisation of the Roman Empire by Constantine and even earlier around the time of Christ, Ceaser's chief henchman Marcus Agrippa went to the trouble
of filling the tunnels of the Oracle of the Dead at Baia with rubble so the oracle could not be visited.
Extispicy from the Latin to view entrails and was the major form of divination in the ancient world for Babylon
the Etruscans, Greeks and Hittites. It took precedence over astrology until the late Assyrian kingdom in Babylon.
The main organ examined was the processus pyramidalis of the liver and many Roman and Greek authors give almost
tedious accounts of the outcomes of this form of consultation. It is thought that the liver was a reflection of
the macrocosm a "smoking mirror" when plucked hot from a freshly slaughtered animal which developed into gazing
at oil on water and survives today in crystal ball gazing. Bronze Etruscan livers have been found which have
the liver marked out into sections as to represent the heavens. If the liver omens were favourable action would
be taken, otherwise if the processus pyramidalis of a sacrificial animal was malformed armies might face each for
days and take no action, as in an account by Xenaphon a student of Socrates who fought as a mercenary for a Persian army.
The 
