Page 9 - Kallima Spiritual Centre Newsletter - August / September 2021

Most Tarot spreads, Scrying mirrors and other tools are used to illuminate the past. It is a fact that divination has always been used for this purpose. The explanation is simple: ‘Every day, we're building our future’. Every decision that we make now affects our tomorrows. Though we can often remember our pasts, we might not be able to connect it with our present, and our future! There is a saying ‘you reap what you sew!’ but we often forget this and we're often incapable of seeing that we reap the fruits of our actions. If we make unwise choices then we will feel the effect of them.
So it shouldn’t be difficult to understand that the past affects the future, the energy that is in our current life and in our past race on into our future moulding our lives. Therefore being aware of the past can answer questions concerning our present lives, and also provide hints of the future.
Nonetheless, divination remains a mysterious art. This may explain why divination has never lost its popularity during the 5,000 years of its practice.
Divination in the Ancient World
Virtually every culture practices divination. In the ancient world it wasn’t limited to a few countries, it was worldwide. There are records of it being used in all the continents of the world.
Having said that there are few early records of divination. The majority of the records are from the Greek, Tibetian, Germanic, Roman and Babylonian records. The Egyptians definitely practiced divination, but they tried to leave little records of this fact.
Babylon
In ancient Babylon and Assyria divination was treated as one of the most important of the sciences and regularly used to provide insights into the future as well as to guide the people on how to conduct themselves in their present times. The Babylons kept good records and this helped gain good insights in the rites that were practiced in virtually all Middle and Near East cultures at the time.
The priests performed divination as their speciality. There are records that date back to 1900 B.C.E., which prove this. They called these diviners ‘Baru’ and they were chosen from the upper social classes of the time. With this job came great privileges. They also had priestesses who limited their divination to ‘dream interpretation’.
To become a ‘Baru’ you had to be free of all blemish or deformity. You could have no fingers, toes or limbs missing. You had to be perfect in all ways (including eyesight and with perfect teeth). If you were not
‘perfect’ in all the ways required you would be excluded as a student of the craft.
The studying was long and hard, (the Babylons reviered schooling as one of their most important achievements), the student learned every aspect of the divinatory arts enabling them to be used whenever needed. After the study was completed the student had to undergo an initiation. Assuming he passed he would then either work from a temple or be retained by a ruler to be used whenever necessary.
The Babylon army wouldn’t go out to battle without at least one diviner in their company. Their diviners couldn’t have had higher status, the person who performed divination would be used to decide battle plans.
There are old clay tablets that show the ‘Baru’ was to be totally honest at all times. As a way of checking this a divination was used at the beginning of all sessions to ensure that the Baru was speaking the truth. After asking the question that an answer was needed for, it was not uncommon for a third question to follow. If the answers to the first and third question were proven correct then the diviner made a statement based on all three responses and it would be an accepted fact that the answer to the second (main) question was correct.
However, if questions 1 and 3 conflicted (gave false answers), the diviner was instructed not to make any statement, as it was deemed that the will of the gods hadn't been determined.
Divination in General
Divination was used as a method of discovering the will of the deities. It was also relied upon to predict future troubles. This resulted in the diviner making offerings or performing protective rites to attempt to prevent the foreseen disaster. However, if the future appeared bright, the diviner would pray to the deity in thanks and place appropriate offerings on the altar.
Some divination practices were reserved for kings and the upper class, others just for the poor, who couldn't afford the usual necessary sacrifices.
Divinatory techniques imported from other nations were used in Babylon. What is interesting is that many Greek and Roman methods were based on Babylonian workings. As the techniques were continuously practiced some became quite complex. In a way, divination grew to be an exacting art.
Forms of Divination
Some of the minor forms of divination used are a bit strange. Here are a couple of examples
• If the diviner wanted to find out if they (or their client) were loved, they would bury a frog in the sand and leave it for seven days. Then they
dug up the bones and cast them into a river. 9