DIVINATION, the process of obtaining knowledge of secret or future things by means of oracles, omens or astrology, from contact with superhuman or divine sources. Divination is prac tised in all grades of culture. The information is commonly held to come directly or indirectly from superior, non-human sources. In the Bornean cult of the hawk the divine bird is regarded as knowing the future, or as a mere messenger. Divination is largely employed to discover the cause of death, where it is assumed to be due to magic. In some cases the spirit of the dead man is held to give the information, in others the living magician is the source of the knowledge.
Divinatory methods may be classified as: (a) internal, condi tioned by change in the consciousness of the soothsayer ; (b) external (a) Internal methods depend on (i.) sensory or (ii.) motor automatisms, or (iii.) mental impressions, for their results.
(i.) Crystal-gazing is analogous to dreams, except that the vision is voluntarily initiated, though little, if at all, under the control of the scryer. Shell-hearing and similar methods are less common. In these the information is gained by hearing a voice.
(ii.) The divining rod (q.v.) is the best known example of this class. In mediaeval and modern times water-divining or dowsing (q.v.) has been largely and successfully used. Similarly a sieve held suspended gives indications by turning; and divination by a suspended ring is found from Europe in the west to China and Japan in the east. The ordeal by the Bible and key is equally popular; the book is suspended by a key tied in with its wards between the leaves and supported on two persons' fingers, and the whole turns round when the name of the guilty person is mentioned. Divination by automatic writing is practised in China. Trance speaking may be found in any stage of culture and in many cases the procedure of the magician or shaman induces a state of auto-hypnotism ; at a higher stage these utter ances are termed oracles (q.v.) and are believed to be the result of inspiration. (iii.) Observation shows that by the aid of mental impressions, akin to clairvoyance (q.v.), fortunes are told successfully by means of palmistry or by laying the cards; for the same "lie" of the cards may be diversely interpreted to meet different cases. In other cases the impression is involuntary or less consciously sought, as in dreams (q.v.), which, however, are sometimes induced for purposes of divination by the process known as incubation or temple sleep. Dreams are sometimes regarded as visits to or from gods or the souls of the dead, sometimes as signs to be interpreted symbolically. (b) In exter nal divination the process is by inference from external facts. The methods are very various. (i.) The casting of lots, sortilege, was common in classical antiquity. Similarly dice are thrown for purposes of sortilege; the astragali or knucklebones, used in children's games at the present day, were implements of divina tion. In Polynesia the coco-nut is spun like a teetotum to dis cover a thief. In ancient times the poets were often consulted, more especially Virgil, whence the name sortes virgilianae, just as the Bible is used for drawing texts in our own day, especially in Germany. (ii.) In haruspication, or the inspection of en trails, in scapulomancy or divination by the speal-bone or shoulder-blade, in divination by footprints in ashes, the diviner must take active steps to secure the conditions necessary to divination. (See also HEPATOSCOPY.) (iii.) In the case of augury and omens (q.v.), the behaviour and cries of birds, and meeting with ominous animals, etc., may be voluntarily observed. (iv.) Astrology (q.v.) still finds believers among people of good edu cation. (v.) In other cases the tie that binds the subject of divination with the omen-giving object is sympathy. The name of the life-index is given to a tree, animal or other object be lieved to be united by sympathetic ties to a human being so that the fate of the latter is reflected in the condition of the former. (See the articles AUGURS, ORACLE, ASTROLOGY, OMEN, etc.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Bouche Leclercq, Histoire de la divination dans Bibliography.-Bouche Leclercq, Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite; Tylor, Primitive Culture, passim; Maury, "La Magie et l'astrologie," Journ. Anth. Inst. i. 163, v. 436 ; Folklore, iii., 193 ; Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 202 ; Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences medicales, xxx. 24-96 ; Journ. of Philology, xiii. 273, xiv. 1 13 ; Deubner, De incubatione; Lenormant, La Divination, et la science de presages chez les Chaldeens; Skeat, Malay Magic; J. Johnson, Yoruba Heathen ism (1899) ; Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; article "Divination" (191 I) ; R. Staehlin, Das Motio der Mantick im antiken Drama (Gies sen 1912) ; H. F. A. von Arnim, Plutarch fiber Ddmonen and Mantik (Amsterdam, I921), 67 pp.