This book examines three authors – Plutarch, Iamblichus and Augustine – who deeply impacted the ancient philosophical debates about divination, and highlights the complex relationship between philosophy and religion in Antiquity. Ce livre examine trois auteurs - Plutarque, Jamblique et Augustin - qui ont marqué les débats philosophiques antiques sur la divination et met en évidence la complexité des rapports entre philosophie et religion dans l’Antiquité.

"This volume of finely crafted case studies is also the vehicle for an important general theory of divination.... this is a book overflowing with ideas that will powerfully stimulate further research." -- Journal of Ritual Studies "The essays in this collection provide a very useful overview of both the diversity of African divination systems and of recent approaches to their study." -- Choice This unique collection of essays by an exceptional international group of Africanists demonstrates the central role that divination continues to play throughout Africa in maintaining cultural systems and in guiding human action. African Divination Systems offers insights for current discussions in comparative epistemology, cross-cultural psychology, cognition studies, semiotics, ethnoscience, religious studies, and anthropology.

In this wide-ranging, authoritative and accessible guide, Karcher has compiled a unique historical and cultural record of humanity's preoccupation with divining the future. He provides practical guidance on various divinatory methods and reveals many secrets previously unavailable to the public. Color illustrations throughout.

A look at Fortune Telling and Divination from the author of Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft Best-selling Wiccan seer and gypsy mystic Raymond Buckland focused his attention on the intuitive art of prognostication in this tome. A master of his art, the late Buckland designed fortune-telling decks, read cards, and did other types of fortune telling for over fifty years. A comprehensive A-to-Z exploration of all that peers into tomorrow, The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying divines the meanings of 400 key topics relating to this oft-misunderstood, oft-consulted-upon science. Written in clear, concise language, it discusses everything from aeromancy (seeing by observing atmospheric phenomena) to zoomancy (divination by the appearance or behavior of animals) and the 398 others in between. This fascinating encyclopedia is illustrated with 100 pictures and includes a detailed index and additional reading recommendations. Packed with colorful histories, people, and significant events, The Fortune-Telling Book shows readers how to foretell their own fates. It’s sure to please fortune-telling enthusiasts, whatever their powers.

Comment prévoir l’inconnu et contrôler l’inattendu ? Les Anciens ont tenté de répondre à ces questions en interprétant des signes dans lesquels il reconnaissaient des messages divins. Ce recueil permet de comparer la diversité de leurs questionnements dans les sociétés polythéistes ou monothéistes de la Méditerranée antique. Il interroge premièrement la construction rituelle des signes au sein des institutions divinatoires ; deuxièmement, des phénomènes naturels spontanés, qui, apparus hors de toute institution, ont néanmoins valeur de présages ou d’avertissements ; troisièmement, l’intentionnalité manifestée à travers l’intervention divine dans l’histoire des peuples ou les vies singulières ; quatrièmement, l’épistémologie des signes dans des élaborations philosophiques ou théologiques qui éclairent la tension entre données oraculaires et contrôle ritualisé des signes, entre données révélées et argumentations raisonnées visant à neutraliser les injonctions du destin. How to foresee the unknown and master the unexpected? Ancient people tried to answer those questions by interpreting signs considered as divine messages. In this volume, the writers compare and examine this manifold questioning in the polytheistic and monotheistic societies of the ancient Mediterranean Sea. In the first place, it is shown how signs were ritually constructed within instituted practice of divination ; second, how, although some spontaneous natural phenomena appeared out of any instituted context, may nevertheless constitute omens or monition ; third, how the gods’ intervention may reveal a sort of intention in the course of national history or individual life ; finally, the essays study the epistemology of signs at work in some philosophical or theological elaborations, which may enlighten the tension between oracular evidence and ritual control of signs, and between revealed facts and reasoning arguments intending to neutralize the injunctions of the divine.