Editing Divination (section)

===Middle Ages and Early Modern period===
{{further|Medieval magic|Renaissance magic|Folk Catholicism}}{{Artes prohibitae}}
The divination method of casting lots ([[Cleromancy]]) was used by the remaining eleven disciples of Jesus in {{bibleverse|Acts|1:23-26}} to select a replacement for [[Judas Iscariot]]. Therefore, divination was arguably an accepted practice in the early church. However, divination became viewed as a pagan practice by Christian [[emperor]]s during [[ancient Rome]].<ref>Bailey, Michael David. (2007). ''Magic and Superstition in Europe''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp. 52-53. {{ISBN|0-7425-3386-7}}</ref>

In 692 the [[Quinisext Council]], also known as the "Council in Trullo" in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], passed canons to eliminate pagan and divination practices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://apostolicconfraternityseminary.com/council_of_trullo.html|title=Council of Trullo - Apostolic Confraternity Seminary|work=apostolicconfraternityseminary.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707152243/http://apostolicconfraternityseminary.com/council_of_trullo.html|archive-date=2011-07-07}}</ref> [[Fortune-telling]] and other forms of divination were widespread through the [[Middle Ages]].<ref>Bailey, Michael David. (2007). ''Magic and Superstition in Europe''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp. 88-89. {{ISBN|0-7425-3386-7}}</ref> In the constitution of 1572 and public regulations of 1661 of the [[Electorate of Saxony]], capital punishment was used on those predicting the future.<ref>Ennemoser, Joseph. (1856). ''The History of Magic''. London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. p. 59</ref> Laws forbidding divination practice continue to this day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pluralism.org/news/view/147|title=Wiccan Priest Fights Local Ordinance Banning Fortune Telling (Louisiana)|work=pluralism.org|access-date=2009-10-06|archive-date=2011-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727180737/http://pluralism.org/news/view/147|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Waldensians]] sect were accused of practicing divination.<ref name="Golden 2006 p. ">{{cite book | last=Golden | first=R.M. | title=Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition | publisher=ABC-CLIO | issue=v. 4 | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-57607-243-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LyoZAQAAIAAJ | access-date=2023-05-05 | page=}}</ref>

[[Småland]] is famous for [[Årsgång]], a practice which occurred until the early 19th century in some parts of Småland. Generally occurring on Christmas and New Year's Eve, it is a practice in which one would fast and keep themselves away from light in a room until midnight to then complete a set of complex events to interpret symbols encountered throughout the journey to foresee the coming year.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kuusela|first= Tommy|year= 2014|title= Swedish year walk: from folk tradition to computer game. In: Island Dynamics Conference on Folk Belief & Traditions of the Supernatural: Experience, Place, Ritual, & Narrative. Shetland Isles, UK, 24–30 March 2014|url= https://www.academia.edu/6624109 |access-date= <!-- 09/07/14 -->}}</ref> 

In [[Islam]], [[astrology]] (''‘ilm ahkam al-nujum''), the most widespread divinatory science, is the study of how celestial entities could be applied to the daily lives of people on earth.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=13}}<ref>Greenwood, William, and Andrew Shore. "[https://blog.britishmuseum.org/seeing-stars-astrolabes-and-the-islamic-world/ Seeing Stars: Astrolabes and the Islamic World] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020200415/https://blog.britishmuseum.org/seeing-stars-astrolabes-and-the-islamic-world/ |date=2020-10-20 }}." Curator's Corner Blog. [[The British Museum]], 2017.</ref> It is important to emphasize the practical nature of divinatory sciences because people from all socioeconomic levels and pedigrees sought the advice of astrologers to make important decisions in their lives.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|pp=10, 16-17}} [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Astronomy]] was made a distinct science by intellectuals who did not agree with the former, although distinction may not have been made in daily practice, where astrology was technically outlawed and only tolerated if it was employed in public. Astrologers, trained as scientists and astronomers, were able to interpret the celestial forces that ruled the "sub-lunar" to predict a variety of information from [[lunar phase]]s and drought to times of prayer and the foundation of cities. The courtly sanction and elite patronage of [[Muslims|Muslim]] rulers benefited astrologers’ intellectual statures.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|pp=13, 16-17}}

[[File:Safavid Dynasty, Joseph Enthroned from a Falnama (Book of Omens), circa 1550 AD.jpg|thumb|Joseph Enthroned. Folio from the "Book of Omens" (''[[Falnama]]''), [[Safavid dynasty]]. 1550. [[Freer Gallery of Art]]. This painting would have been positioned alongside a prognostic description of the meaning of this image on the page opposite (conventionally to the left). The reader would flip randomly to a place in the book and digest the text having first viewed the image.]]

The “science of the sand” (''‘ilm al-raml''), otherwise translated as [[geomancy]], is “based on the interpretation of figures traced on sand or other surface known as [[geomantic figures]].”{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=21}} It is a good example of Islamic divination at a popular level. The core principle that meaning derives from a unique occupied position is identical to the core principle of astrology.

Like astronomy, geomancy used deduction and computation to uncover significant [[Prophecy|prophecies]] as opposed to [[omen]]s (''‘ilm al-fa’l''), which were process of “reading” visible random events to decipher the invisible realities from which they originated. It was upheld by [[Prophecy|prophetic]] tradition and relied almost exclusively on text, specifically the [[Quran|Qur’an]] (which carried a table for guidance) and poetry, as a development of [[bibliomancy]].{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=21}} One example for this is this Qur'an from Gwalior, India, which includes a set of instructions to use the Qur’an as a divinatory text. It is the earliest known example of its kind.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sardar |first=Marika |date=2020-08-28 |title=The Gwalior Qur'an |url=https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen/topics/2020/the-gwalior-quran/ |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online |language=en-US}}</ref> The practice culminated in the appearance of the illustrated “Books of Omens” (''[[Falnama]]'') in the early 16th century, an embodiment of the apocalyptic fears as the end of the millennium in the [[Islamic calendar]] approached.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=26}}

Dream interpretation, or [[oneiromancy]] ''(‘ilm ta’bir al-ru’ya''), is more specific to Islam than other divinatory science, largely because of the Qur’an’s emphasis on the predictive dreams of [[Abraham]], [[Yusuf (surah)|Yusuf]], and [[Muhammad]]. The important delineation within the practice lies between “incoherent dreams” and “sound dreams,” which were “a part of prophecy” or heavenly message.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|pp=26-27}} [[Dream interpretation]] was always tied to Islamic religious texts, providing a moral compass to those seeking advice. The practitioner needed to be skilled enough to apply the individual dream to general precedent while appraising the singular circumstances.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|pp=26-31}}

The power of text held significant weight in the "[['Ilm al-Huruf|science of letters]]" ''(‘ilm al-huruf''), the foundational principle being "God created the world through His speech."{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=31}} The science began with the concept of language, specifically [[Arabic]], as the expression of "the essence of what it signifies."{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=31}} Once the believer understood this, while remaining obedient to God’s will, they could uncover the essence and divine truth of the objects inscribed with Arabic like [[amulet]]s and [[talisman]]s through the study of the letters of the Qur’an with alphanumeric computations.{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=31}}

In Islamic practice in [[Senegal]] and [[The Gambia|Gambia]], just like many other [[West Africa]]n countries, diviners and religious leaders and [[Alternative medicine|healers]] were interchangeable because Islam was closely related with esoteric practices (like divination), which were responsible for the regional spread of Islam. As scholars learned esoteric sciences, they joined local non-Islamic aristocratic courts, who quickly aligned divination and amulets with the "proof of the power of Islamic religion."{{sfnp|Graw|2012|pp=19-20}} So strong was the idea of esoteric knowledge in West African Islam, diviners and [[Magic (supernatural)|magicians]] uneducated in Islamic texts and Arabic bore the same titles as those who did.{{sfnp|Graw|2012|p=19}}

From the beginning of Islam, there "was (and is) still a vigorous debate about whether or not such [divinatory] practices were actually permissible under Islam,” with some scholars like [[Al-Ghazali|Abu-Hamid al Ghazili]] (d. 1111) objecting to the science of divination because he believed it bore too much similarity to [[Paganism|pagan]] practices of invoking spiritual entities that were not God.<ref>Francis, Edgar W. "Magic and Divination in the Medieval Islamic Middle East." ''History Compass'' 9, no. 8 (2011): 624</ref>{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=13}} Other scholars justified esoteric sciences by comparing a practitioner to "a physician trying to heal the sick with the help of the same natural principles."{{sfnp|Leoni|Lory|Gruber|2016|p=17}}