Mo Before Tarot: Tibetan Dice Divination, Mañjuśrī, Mipham, and the Ritual Logic of Uncertain Futures
A six-sided die looks almost trivial beside the monumental imagery of Tibetan Buddhism. It has none of the visual drama of a wrathful deity, a…
divination
Ifá Before “Fortune-Telling”: Ọ̀rúnmìlà, 256 Odù, Oral Memory, and the Yoruba Art of Divination
Ifá is often introduced to outsiders as an African fortune-telling system built from 256 signs. That description is not entirely false, but it is radically…
Onmyōdō Before the Fantasy: Abe no Seimei, Divination, Calendars, and the Ritual Government of Time
Abe no Seimei in a later historical portrait by Kikuchi Yōsai. The image is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Few figures in the…
Namburbi: How Mesopotamian Rituals Tried to Cancel Evil Omens Before They Came True
Ancient Mesopotamian divination is often described as if it were a system for predicting a fixed future. A lunar eclipse appears, a snake enters a…
The Oracle of Delphi Beyond the Vapors: Pythia, Possession, Politics, and the Ritual Technology of Prophecy
Few institutions in the ancient Mediterranean acquired the authority of Delphi. For centuries, rulers, cities, colonists, generals, lawmakers, private petitioners, and anxious families climbed the…
Who Were the Cunning Folk? The Real History of England’s Practical Magicians, Healers, Diviners, and Charmers
Who were the cunning folk? This evidence-based guide explores the practical magicians of medieval and early modern England: the services they sold, the prayers, charms,…