Editing Divination (section)

==Divination of demons==
In his work entitled ''On the divination of demons'',<ref name="Divination">{{cite web |url=
https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2020/06/10/augustine-de-divinatione-daemonorum-on-the-divination-of-demons-now-online-in-english/|title=On the divination of demons|date=June 10, 2020|author =Roger Pearse|author2=Mattias Gassman (British Academy, translator)}} (see § 5)</ref> saint [[Augustine of Hippo]] affirms that, most of the times, [[demon|demons]] simply predict what they do in the future. However, they also possess a divinatory power essentially deriving from the greater acuity of the senses of their aerial bodies and the experience accumulated during their long lives. This allows them to interpret divine signs of the times in the natural world that humans are unable to grasp and to foretell future events, even those that are not immediate. Furthermore, they can cause illnesses and fantastic visions in people in both a sleeping and waking state.<ref>{{cite book|author=Karin Schlapbach|author2= K. Pollmann|author3= W. Otten|title= Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|oclc=5606492572|access-date=April 9, 2025|year=2013|url=https://www.academia.edu/9459176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705222712/https://www.academia.edu/9459176/The_reception_of_Augustine_De_divinatione_daemonum|archive-date=July 5, 2024|url-status=live|chapter=The reception of Augustine, De divinatione daemonum|format=PDF|pages=7|edition=1st}} (at [[Academia.edu]])</ref>
The accuracy of the predictions clashes with their evil and deceptive nature, and with God's higher plans that are only known and holy angels can divert and override the signs caught by demons in the natural world.<ref name="Divination" />