History of divination: oracles, runes, cards, pendulum and science
From Babylon to Delphi, from Shang China to playing cards: the great divination practices, their history, what they have offered, and what science says about them.
Key points
| Definition | Divination: an attempt to obtain hidden or future information through signs that are interpreted |
|---|---|
| Earliest traces | Mesopotamia (omens), China (oracle bones of the Shang dynasty) |
| Cards and tarot | Divination with cards: late 18th century in France |
| Runes | Rune casting: a modern practice, popularised in the 20th century |
| Pendulum | Radiesthesia: 20th century, with older precursors |
| Science | No controlled study has shown an ability to foresee the future |
What is divination?
Divination refers to all the practices that seek hidden or future information through signs that are interpreted: the flight of birds, the entrails of an animal, the lines of the hand, cards, the stars, dreams. Almost every human society has known some form of it. The word comes from the Latin divinatio, which refers to the divine, because people believed the gods communicated through these signs.
A distinction is often drawn between inductive divination (one reads spontaneous signs: a storm, an eclipse) and deductive divination (one provokes the sign: throwing dice, drawing cards, casting bones). This page traces the major stages. It does not try to say whether the future can be known, but to show how humans have tried to know it.
Mesopotamia, China and Egypt: the first writings
In Mesopotamia, specialists observed the liver of sacrificed animals (extispicy), the sky (the celestial omens gathered in the Enūma Anu Enlil) and everyday events to say what the gods were announcing. Divination was part of royal administration.
In China, under the Shang dynasty (second half of the 2nd millennium BCE), diviners heated ox shoulder blades and tortoise shells: the cracks obtained were read as answers, and the question was sometimes carved onto the bone. These "oracle bones" are among the oldest forms of Chinese writing. Later, the Yijing (Book of Changes), whose current text is generally dated to the early 1st millennium BCE (one specialist places it at the end of the 9th century BCE), presents 64 hexagrams obtained with yarrow stalks or coins. It became a classic of Chinese thought.
In Egypt, dream interpretation and the consultation of divine oracles (such as at Siwa for Amun) held a central place.
Greece and Rome: oracles, augury and criticism
In the Greek world, the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, where the Pythia gave her answers, was consulted by city-states and individuals between the 8th century BCE and the late 4th century CE. At Dodona, people interpreted the rustling of the oak trees. The Greeks also distinguished travelling diviners (manteis) who read the signs.
In Rome, augurs observed the flight of birds, and the haruspices, heirs of the Etruscans, read the livers of sacrificial victims. No important decision was made without consulting these signs. Yet critical voices were raised: Cicero, who was himself an augur, wrote in 44 BCE a treatise, On Divination, in which he reviewed the arguments for and against, with strong scepticism.
Tacitus's Germania (around 98 CE) describes how Germanic peoples drew lots: twigs cut from a fruit tree, marked with signs, were thrown onto a white cloth, and a priest then picked up three of them while invoking the gods. This passage is sometimes cited in connection with runes, but nothing proves that it describes a runic practice (see the guide to runes).
Monotheistic religions and the Middle Ages
The Bible forbids several divinatory practices (Deuteronomy 18:10-12), and Christianity as well as Islam mostly condemn divination, while tolerating certain forms linked to astrology and medicine. The Quinisext Council (692, also called in Trullo) forbade a series of practices. Nevertheless, divination survived: in the Middle Ages, people practised geomancy (which came from the Arab world, where it relied on points traced in the sand), palmistry, dream interpretation and above all astrology, which was studied at universities. In the Renaissance, scholars such as Cornelius Agrippa, John Dee or Nostradamus (whose Prophecies appeared in 1555) mixed learning, astrology and visions.
Cards, tarot and modern oracles
Playing cards reached Europe in the 14th century, and tarot appeared in Italy in the 15th century, but the divinatory use of cards dates only from the late 18th century. Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette) published a divination treatise in 1770 using an ordinary deck of cards, then took up tarot in the 1780s. In the 19th century, the 36-card game known as "Lenormand", derived from a German parlour game of 1799, also became an oracle. See the history of tarot and the guide to the Lenormand oracle.
Still in the 19th century, spiritualism popularised table turning, which Faraday explained in 1853 as the ideomotor effect. In the 20th century, the Yijing, translated into German by Richard Wilhelm in 1924 and into English in 1950 with a preface by Jung, entered Western culture; radiesthesia took shape in France (pendulum and radiesthesia); and the practice of rune casting spread, drawing on the prestige of medieval runic writing (rune casting). These uses are modern creations.
What science says, and what divination can be useful for
No divinatory practice has shown, in controlled tests, an ability to foresee the future or reveal hidden information better than chance. Many experiments have been run for astrology (see astrology, history and limits), and for the pendulum and the divining rod (see pendulum and radiesthesia). Apparent successes are explained by well-known mechanisms: confirmation bias, the Barnum effect, unintentional cues, and hot reading.
This does not mean these practices have no function at all. Anthropologists have offered interesting readings. For example, anthropologist Omar Khayyam Moore suggested in 1957 that caribou shoulder-blade divination, practised by hunting peoples of Labrador, could work as a randomising device: by letting chance choose the hunting location, one avoided exhausting a territory. More broadly, divination may have served to:
- Decide when no criterion settles the question;
- Share the responsibility of a difficult decision;
- Recount a situation by looking at it from another angle;
- Structure social life through rituals.
Today, card, rune or other oracle readings serve mainly as tools for reflection and for conversation with oneself: they work like a mirror that reflects our own questions back to us.
Commercial fortune-telling: warning signs
Consulting a fortune-teller, a tarot reader or an astrologer is legal in France, but some practices are punishable: false promises, abuse of weakness (taking advantage of someone in distress to obtain money), misleading commercial practices, and very expensive offers of "hexing" or "unhexing". Some warning signs: you are asked to pay more and more, you are isolated or frightened, you are promised a guaranteed result, you are pressed to decide. If in doubt, talk to someone close to you, or contact the consumer fraud authority (DGCCRF) or the Miviludes. A good practitioner presents their work as an aid to reflection and never claims that a serious event "is going" to happen.
Chronological summary
| Period | Practice | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd millennium BCE | Omens, extispicy, first celestial observations | Mesopotamia |
| Second half of the 2nd millennium BCE | Oracle bones | China (Shang) |
| 8th century BCE to 4th century CE | Oracle of Delphi | Greece |
| Roman antiquity | Augurs, haruspices; Cicero's criticism (44 BCE) | Rome |
| Around 98 CE | Lot casting described by Tacitus | Germania |
| Middle Ages | Geomancy, astrology, palmistry | Arab world and Europe |
| 1555 | Nostradamus's Prophecies | France |
| Late 18th century | Cartomancy, divinatory tarot | France |
| 19th century | Spiritualism, table turning | Europe, United States |
| 20th century | Radiesthesia, rune casting, the Yijing in the West, modern oracles | Europe, United States |
Frequently asked questions
What is the oldest form of divination?
The oldest written traces come from Mesopotamia (omens) and China (oracle bones of the Shang dynasty). Older practices are likely but not documented.
Has tarot always been used for divination?
No. It was born as a card game in Italy in the 15th century. Its divinatory use is attested in France at the end of the 18th century.
Are rune castings ancient?
No. Runes are an ancient alphabet, but divinatory rune casting as it is practised today is a modern practice popularised in the 20th century.
Does divination work?
No controlled study has shown that any divinatory practice predicts the future beyond chance. Its effects are explained by psychology: confirmation bias, the Barnum effect, unintentional cues.
Why do people still practise it?
Because it helps with decisions, puts worries into words, and creates a moment of pause. Many people use it as a tool for reflection rather than as a prediction.
What precautions should be taken?
Do not make an important decision (health, money, legal matters) based on a reading, be wary of promises and paid offers that play on fear, and keep a critical eye.
Also read
The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Major topics.