Editing Divination (section)

{{short description|Attempt to gain insight into a question or situation}}
{{hatnote group|
{{Other uses}}
{{redirect|Divining|pseudoscientific attempts to find water or other things|Dowsing}}
}}
[[File:Rhumsiki crab sorceror.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A man in [[Rhumsiki]], [[Cameroon]], attempts to tell the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a freshwater crab through the practice of ''[[nggàm]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Divination|title=Anthropological Studies of Divination|work=anthropology.ac.uk}}</ref>]]
{{Anthropology of religion}}
{{magic sidebar|Forms}}
{{Paranormal}}
{{Esotericism}}

'''Divination''' ({{etymology|la|{{Wikt-lang|la|divinare}}|to foresee, foretell, predict, prophesy}})<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0043|title= M. Tullius Cicero, Divination}}</ref> is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an [[occult]]ic ritual or practice.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Divination {{!}} Religion, History & Practices {{!}} Britannica |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/divination |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a {{linktext|querent}} should proceed by reading signs, events, or [[omen]]s, or through alleged contact or interaction with  [[supernatural]] agencies{{sfnp|Silva|2016}} such as [[ghost|spirit]]s, gods, god-like-beings or the "will of the [[universe]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Divination {{!}} Religion, History & Practices {{!}} Britannica |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/divination |access-date= 2023-10-28 |website= www.britannica.com |language= en}}</ref>

[[File:Divination display at the Pitt Rivers Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Display on divination, featuring a cross-cultural range of items, in the [[Pitt Rivers Museum]] in [[Oxford]], [[England]] ]]

Divination can be seen as an attempt to organize what appears to be random so that it provides insight into a problem or issue at hand.{{sfn | Morgan | 2016 | pp=502–504}} Some instruments or practices of divination include [[Tarot card reading|Tarot-card]] reading, [[Runic magic|rune casting]], [[Tasseography|tea-leaf reading]], [[automatic writing]], water [[scrying]], and [[psychedelics]] like [[psilocybin mushrooms]] and [[DMT]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=10 Basic Divination Methods to Try |url=https://www.learnreligions.com/methods-of-divination-2561764 |access-date= 2023-10-28 |website= Learn Religions |language= en}}</ref> If a distinction is made between divination and [[fortune-telling]], divination has a more formal or [[ritual]]istic element and often contains a more social character,{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} usually in a [[religion|religious]] context, as seen in [[traditional African medicine]]. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular [[methods of divination|divination methods]] vary by culture and religion.

In its functional relation to [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]] in general, divination can have a preliminary and investigative role:
<blockquote>
the diagnosis or prognosis achieved through divination is both temporarily and logically related to the manipulative, protective or alleviative function of magic rituals. In divination one finds the cause of an ailment or a potential danger, in magic one subsequently acts upon this knowledge.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Sørensen
 |first1               = Jesper Frøkjær
 |last2                = Petersen
 |first2               = Anders Klostergaard
 |editor-last1         = Sørensen
 |editor-first1        = Jesper
 |editor-last2         = Petersen
 |editor-first2        = Anders Klostergaard
 |date                 = 3 May 2021
 |chapter              = Manipulating the Divine - an Introduction
 |title                = Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic: Manipulating the Divine
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=W94sEAAAQBAJ
 |series               = Volume 171 of Numen Book Series: Studies in the history of religions - ISSN 0169-8834
 |publication-place    = Leiden
 |publisher            = Koninklijke Brill NV
 |page                 = 10
 |isbn                 = 9789004447585
 |access-date          = 9 December 2023
}} 
</ref>
</blockquote>

Divination has long attracted criticism. In the modern era, it has been dismissed by the [[scientific community]] and by skeptics as being [[superstition|superstitious]]; experiments do not support the idea  that divination techniques can actually predict the future more reliably or precisely than would be possible without it.<ref>Yau, Julianna. (2002). ''Witchcraft and Magic''. In [[Michael Shermer]]. ''The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience''. ABC-CLIO. pp. 278-282. {{ISBN|1-57607-654-7}}</ref><ref>Regal, Brian. (2009). ''Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia''. Greenwood. p. 55. {{ISBN|978-0-313-35507-3}}</ref>  In antiquity, divination came under attack from philosophers such as the [[Academic skepticism|Academic skeptic]] [[Cicero]] in ''[[De Divinatione]]'' (1st century BCE) and the [[Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonist]] [[Sextus Empiricus]] in ''Against the Astrologers'' (2nd century CE). The satirist [[Lucian]] ({{circa}} 125 – after 180) devoted an essay to [[Alexander of Abonoteichus|Alexander the false prophet]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/lucian_alexander.htm|title= Lucian of Samosata : Alexander the False Prophet|work=tertullian.org}}</ref>