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96-452: Ukehi or Ukei ( 誓占 , lit. "pledge divination") is a Japanese Shinto divination ritual. Hayashi Oen , a nineteenth-century practitioner of ukehi , identified six functions of the rite. He claimed it could be used to: The dictates of ukehi can come as a dream, but more commonly the petitioner would use the ritual to ask a question of the kami and then await an omen of some sort to confirm their response. If nothing happened, it

192-460: A distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling , divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine . Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion. In its functional relation to magic in general, divination can have

288-415: A footing that could give way at any moment". Divination Divination can be seen as an attempt to organize what appears to be random so that it provides insight into a problem or issue at hand. Some instruments or practices of divination include Tarot-card reading, rune casting , tea-leaf reading , automatic writing , water scrying , and psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and DMT . If

384-429: A general wanted to know if the omens were proper for him to advance on the enemy, he would ask his seer both that question and if it were better for him to remain on the defensive. If the seer gave consistent answers, the advice was considered valid. During battle, generals would frequently ask seers at both the campground (a process called the hiera ) and at the battlefield (called the sphagia ). The hiera entailed

480-587: A greater or lesser extent, in modern religious traditions throughout the world, most notably in Japanese Shinto , Vietnamese folk religion , and Chinese folk religion . The practices involved in Shinto prayer are heavily influenced by Buddhism; Japanese Buddhism has also been strongly influenced by Shinto in turn. Shinto prayers quite frequently consist of wishes or favors asked of the kami , rather than lengthy praises or devotions. The practice of votive offering

576-409: A laying on of hands and others. Prayers may be recited from memory, read from a book of prayers, or composed spontaneously or "impromptu". They may be said, chanted, or sung. They may or may not have a musical accompaniment. There may be a time of outward silence while prayers are offered mentally. Often, there are prayers to fit specific occasions, such as the blessing of a meal , the birth or death of

672-473: A loved one, other significant events in the life of a believer, or days of the year that have special religious significance. Details corresponding to specific traditions are outlined below. Anthropologically, the concept of prayer is closely related to that of surrender and supplication . The traditional posture of prayer in medieval Europe is kneeling or supine with clasped hands, in antiquity more typically with raised hands. The early Christian prayer posture

768-457: A more standardized form, although still radically different from the form practiced by modern Jews . Individual prayer is described by the Tanakh two ways. The first of these is when prayer is described as occurring, and a result is achieved, but no further information regarding a person's prayer is given. In these instances, such as with Isaac , Moses , Samuel , and Job , the act of praying

864-497: A person of the need to take active measures. This potential drawback manifests in extreme forms in such cases as Christian Scientists who rely on prayers instead of seeking medical treatment for family members for easily curable conditions which later result in death. Christopher Hitchens (2012) argued that praying to a god which is omnipotent and all-knowing would be presumptuous. For example, he interprets Ambrose Bierce 's definition of prayer by stating that "the man who prays

960-607: A person to focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation. This approach was taken by Maimonides and the other medieval rationalists. One example of this approach to prayer is noted by Rabbi Steven Weil, who was appointed the Orthodox Union's Executive-Vice President in 2009. He notes that the word "prayer" is a derivative of the Latin "precari", which means "to beg". The Hebrew equivalent "tefilah", however, along with its root "pelel" or its reflexive "l'hitpallel", means

1056-454: A pig in order to placate the god or goddess of the place and beseech his or her permission to cut down some trees from the grove. Celtic , Germanic and Slavic religions are recorded much later, and much more fragmentarily, than the religions of classical antiquity. They nevertheless show substantial parallels to the better-attested religions of the Iron Age. In the case of Germanic religion,

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1152-575: A popular form of divination from physiology. Stemming from Western influences, body reading or ninsou , determines personality traits based on body measurements. The face is the most commonly analyzed feature, with eye size, pupil shape, mouth shape, and eyebrow shape representing the most important traits. An upturned mouth may be cheerful, and a triangle eyebrow may indicate that someone is strong-willed. Methods of assessment in daily life may include self-taken measurements or quizzes. As such, magazines targeted at women in their early-to-mid twenties feature

1248-410: A practitioner to "a physician trying to heal the sick with the help of the same natural principles." Divination was a central component of ancient Mesoamerican religious life. Many Aztec gods , including central creator gods , were described as diviners and were closely associated with sorcery . Tezcatlipoca is the patron of sorcerers and practitioners of magic . His name means "smoking mirror,"

1344-427: A preliminary and investigative role: [...] the diagnosis or prognosis achieved through divination is both temporarily and logically related to the manipulative, protective or alleviative function of magic rituals. In divination one finds the cause of an ailment or a potential danger, in magic one subsequently acts upon this knowledge. Divination has long attracted criticism. In the modern era, it has been dismissed by

1440-420: A question, if there in fact comes an answer. Some may experience audible, physical, or mental epiphanies. If indeed an answer comes, the time and place it comes is considered random. Some traditions distinguish between contemplative and meditative prayer. Outward acts that may accompany prayer include anointing with oil ; ringing a bell; burning incense or paper; lighting a candle or candles; facing

1536-528: A reference to a device used for divinatory scrying . In the Mayan Popol Vuh , the creator gods Xmucane and Xpiacoc perform divinatory hand casting during the creation of people. The Aztec Codex Borbonicus shows the original human couple, Oxomoco and Cipactonal , engaged in divining with kernels of maize. This primordial pair is associated with the ritual calendar, and the Aztecs considered them to be

1632-412: A significant minority of people still hold to this approach. In a rationalist approach, praying encompasses three aspects. First, ' logos ', as the "idea" of the sender, secondly ' rhemata ' as the words to express the idea, and thirdly 'rhemata' and 'logos', to where the idea is sent (e.g. to God, Allah ). Thus praying is not a conversation with God, or Jesus but a one-way direction to the divine. Among

1728-405: A small bag of sacred meal. There are different forms of prayer. One of them is to directly appeal to a deity to grant one's requests. Some have termed this as the social approach to prayer. Atheist arguments against prayer are mostly directed against petitionary prayer in particular. Daniel Dennett argued that petitionary prayer might have the undesirable psychological effect of relieving

1824-477: A specific direction (e.g., towards Mecca or the East ); and making the sign of the cross . One less noticeable act related to prayer is fasting . A variety of body postures may be assumed, often with specific meaning (mainly respect or adoration) associated with them: standing; sitting; kneeling; prostrate on the floor; eyes opened; eyes closed; hands folded or clasped ; hands upraised; holding hands with others;

1920-514: A specific faith tradition or a broader grouping of people. Prayer can be incorporated into a daily "thought life", in which one is in constant communication with a god. Some people pray throughout all that is happening during the day and seek guidance as the day progresses. This is actually regarded as a requirement in several Christian denominations, although enforcement is neither possible nor desirable. There can be many different answers to prayer, just as there are many ways to interpret an answer to

2016-415: A standstill. “Negative poe” is when the flat sides fall downward and abruptly stop; this indicates "No". When there is a positive fall, it is called “Sacred poe”, although the negative falls are not usually taken seriously. As the blocks are being dropped the question is said in a murmur, and if the answer is yes, the blocks are dropped again. To make sure the answer is definitely a yes, the blocks must fall in

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2112-477: A term called "religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience . The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back. In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs , John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that

2208-465: A “yes” position three times in a row. A more serious type of divination is the Kiō-á. There is a small wooden chair, and around the sides of the chair are small pieces of wood that can move up and down in their sockets, this causes a clicking sounds when the chair is moved in any way. Two men hold this chair by its legs before an altar, while the incense is being burned, and the deity is invited to descend onto

2304-640: Is universal and is attested at least since the Bronze Age. In Shinto, this takes the form of a small wooden tablet, called an ema . Prayers in Etruscan were used in the Roman world by augurs and other oracles long after Etruscan became a dead language. The Carmen Arvale and the Carmen Saliare are two specimens of partially preserved prayers that seem to have been unintelligible to their scribes and whose language

2400-524: Is a method of changing a situation for the better. The second way in which prayer is depicted is through fully fleshed out episodes of prayer, where a person's prayer is related in full. Many famous biblical personalities have such a prayer, including every major character from Hannah to Hezekiah . In the New Testament prayer is presented as a positive command. The People of God are challenged to include Christian prayer in their everyday life, even in

2496-415: Is a practice in which one would fast and keep themselves away from light in a room until midnight to then complete a set of complex events to interpret symbols encountered throughout the journey to foresee the coming year. In Islam , astrology ( ‘ilm ahkam al-nujum ), the most widespread divinatory science, is the study of how celestial entities could be applied to the daily lives of people on earth. It

2592-506: Is expressed by Rabbi Nosson Scherman in the overview to the Artscroll Siddur (p. XIII). Among Christian theologians, E.M. Bounds stated the educational purpose of prayer in every chapter of his book, The Necessity of Prayer . Prayer books such as the Book of Common Prayer are both a result of this approach and an exhortation to keep it. In this view, the ultimate goal of prayer

2688-602: Is famous for arulvakku in Tamil Nadu . The people in and around Mangalore in Karnataka call the same, Buta Kola , "paathri" or "darshin"; in other parts of Karnataka, it is known by various names such as, "prashnaavali", "vaagdaana", "asei", "aashirvachana", and so on. In Nepal it is known as, "Devta ka dhaamee" or " jhaakri ". In English, the closest translation for these is, " oracle ." The Dalai Lama , who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle known as

2784-469: Is full of archaisms and difficult passages. Roman prayers and sacrifices were envisioned as legal bargains between deity and worshipper. The Roman principle was expressed as do ut des : "I give, so that you may give." Cato the Elder 's treatise on agriculture contains many examples of preserved traditional prayers; in one, a farmer addresses the unknown deity of a possibly sacred grove, and sacrifices

2880-427: Is important to emphasize the practical nature of divinatory sciences because people from all socioeconomic levels and pedigrees sought the advice of astrologers to make important decisions in their lives. Astronomy was made a distinct science by intellectuals who did not agree with the former, although distinction may not have been made in daily practice, where astrology was technically outlawed and only tolerated if it

2976-495: Is increasingly important for young Japanese, who consider personality the driving factor of compatibility, given the ongoing marriage drought and birth rate decline in Japan. An import to Japan, Chinese zodiac signs based on the birth year in 12 year cycles (rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and boar) are frequently combined with other forms of divination, such as so-called 'celestial types' based on

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3072-432: Is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience" is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception", would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence. In

3168-413: Is preferred over solitary prayer, and a quorum of ten adult males (a minyan ) is considered by Orthodox Judaism a prerequisite for several communal prayers. There are also many other ritualistic prayers a Jew performs during their day, such as washing before eating bread, washing after one wakes up in the morning, and doing grace after meals. In this view, the ultimate goal of prayer is to help train

3264-492: Is read aloud; the passage is meditated upon using the mind to place the listener within a relationship or dialogue with the text; recitation of a prayer; and concludes with contemplation . The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes prayer and meditation as follows: Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt

3360-434: Is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right." In this view, prayer is not a conversation. Rather, it is meant to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence. Among Jews, this has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi , Joseph Albo , Samson Raphael Hirsch , and Joseph B. Soloveitchik . This view

3456-483: Is to help train a person to focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation ( meditation ). This approach was taken by the Jewish scholar and philosopher Maimonides and the other medieval rationalists. It became popular in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic intellectual circles, but never became the most popular understanding of prayer among the laity in any of these faiths. In all three of these faiths today,

3552-490: Is “based on the interpretation of figures traced on sand or other surface known as geomantic figures .” It is a good example of Islamic divination at a popular level. The core principle that meaning derives from a unique occupied position is identical to the core principle of astrology. Like astronomy, geomancy used deduction and computation to uncover significant prophecies as opposed to omens ( ‘ilm al-fa’l ), which were process of “reading” visible random events to decipher

3648-739: The Nechung Oracle , which is considered the official state oracle of the government of Tibet . The Dalai Lama has according to centuries-old custom, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year festivities of Losar . Although Japan retains a history of traditional and local methods of divination , such as onmyōdō , contemporary divination in Japan, called uranai , derives from outside sources. Contemporary methods of divination in Japan include both Western and Chinese astrology , geomancy or feng shui , tarot cards , I Ching (Book of Changes) divination , and physiognomy (methods of reading

3744-648: The Abrahamic religions , Islam , Orthodox Christianity and Hasidic Judaism are likely most adhering to this concept, also because it does not allow secondary mythologies, and has taken its spiritual roots from Hellenistic philosophy , particularly from Aristotle . Similarly in Hinduism , the different divinities are manifestations of one God with associated prayers. However, many Indians – particularly Hindus – believe that God can be manifest in people, including in people of lower castes, such as Sadhus . In this approach,

3840-477: The Book of James says that the lack of blessings in life results from a failure to pray. Jesus healed through prayer and expected his followers to do so also. The apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Thessalonica to "Pray continually." Observant Jews pray three times a day, Shacharit , Mincha , and Ma'ariv with lengthier prayers on special days, such as the Shabbat and Jewish holidays including Musaf and

3936-620: The Merseburg Incantations , the latter recorded in the 9th or 10th century but of much older traditional origins. In Australian Aboriginal mythology , prayers to the "Great Wit" are performed by the "clever men" and "clever women", or kadji . These Aboriginal shamans use maban or mabain, the material that is believed to give them their powers. The Pueblo Indians are known to have used prayer sticks , that is, sticks with feathers attached as supplicatory offerings. The Hopi Indians used prayer sticks as well, but they attached to it

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4032-571: The Middle Ages . In the constitution of 1572 and public regulations of 1661 of the Electorate of Saxony , capital punishment was used on those predicting the future. Laws forbidding divination practice continue to this day. The Waldensians sect were accused of practicing divination. Småland is famous for Årsgång , a practice which occurred until the early 19th century in some parts of Småland. Generally occurring on Christmas and New Year's Eve, it

4128-675: The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot published by the Rider Company in London in 1909. Since, the practice of Japanese tarot has become overwhelmingly feminine and intertwined with kawaii culture. Referring to the cuteness of tarot cards, Japanese model Kuromiya Niina was quoted as saying "because the images are cute, even holding them is enjoyable." While these differences exist, Japanese tarot cards function similarly to their Western counterparts. Cards are shuffled and cut into piles then used to forecast

4224-742: The Septuagint translation of Biblical Hebrew תְּפִלָּה tĕphillah . Various spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotional acts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals , and reverent physical gestures. Some Christians bow their heads and fold their hands. Some Native Americans regard dancing as a form of prayer. Hindus chant mantras. Jewish prayer may involve swaying back and forth and bowing. Muslim prayer involves bowing, kneeling and prostration , while some Sufis whirl . Quakers often keep silent. Some pray according to standardized rituals and liturgies, while others prefer extemporaneous prayers; others combine

4320-519: The Siwa Oasis was made famous when Alexander the Great visited it after conquering Egypt from Persia in 332 BC. Deuteronomy 18:10–12 or Leviticus 19:26 can be interpreted as categorically forbidding divination. But some biblical practices, such as Urim and Thummim , casting lots and prayer , are considered to be divination. Trevan G. Hatch disputes these comparisons because divination did not consult

4416-483: The polytheistic religions of the Iron Age , most notably Ancient Greek religion , which strongly influenced Roman religion . These religious traditions were direct developments of the earlier Bronze Age religions . Ceremonial prayer was highly formulaic and ritualized . In ancient polytheism, ancestor worship is indistinguishable from theistic worship (see also euhemerism ). Vestiges of ancestor worship persist, to

4512-645: The scientific community and by skeptics as being superstitious ; experiments do not support the idea that divination techniques can actually predict the future more reliably or precisely than would be possible without it. In antiquity, divination came under attack from philosophers such as the Academic skeptic Cicero in De Divinatione (1st century BCE) and the Pyrrhonist Sextus Empiricus in Against

4608-403: The "flight" posture, a crouching posture with raised hands related to the universal "hands up" gesture of surrender. The kneeling posture with clasped hands appears to have been introduced only with the beginning high medieval period, presumably adopted from a gesture of feudal homage. Although prayer in its literal sense is not used in animism , communication with the spirit world is vital to

4704-461: The "one true God" and manipulated the divine for the diviner's self-interest. One of the earliest known divination artifacts, a book called the Sortes Sanctorum, is believed to be of Christian roots, and utilizes dice to provide insight into the future. Uri Gabbay states that divination was associated with sacrificial rituals in the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia and Israel. Extispicy

4800-480: The Astrologers (2nd century CE). The satirist Lucian ( c. 125 – after 180) devoted an essay to Alexander the false prophet . The eternal fire at Nymphaion in southern Illyria (present-day Albania ) also functioned as an oracle. The forms of divination practiced in this natural fire sanctuary with peculiar physical properties were widely known to the ancient Greek and Roman authors. The Oracle of Amun at

4896-568: The Hebrew Bible prayer is an evolving means of interacting with God , most frequently through a spontaneous, individual, unorganized form of petitioning and/or thanking. Standardized prayer such as is done today is non-existent, although beginning in Deuteronomy , the Bible lays the groundwork for organized prayer, including basic liturgical guidelines, and by the Bible's later books, prayer has evolved to

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4992-434: The act of self-analysis or self-evaluation. This approach is sometimes described as the person praying having a dialogue or conversation with God. In this view, prayer is not a conversation. Rather, it is meant to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence. This has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Yehuda Halevy , Joseph Albo , Samson Raphael Hirsch , and Joseph Dov Soloveitchik . This view

5088-545: The animist way of life. This is usually accomplished through a shaman who, through a trance , gains access to the spirit world and then shows the spirits' thoughts to the people. Other ways to receive messages from the spirits include using astrology or contemplating fortune tellers and healers. Some of the oldest extant literature, such as the Kesh temple hymn (c. 26th century BC), is liturgy addressed to deities and thus technically "prayer". The Egyptian Pyramid Texts of about

5184-426: The body to identify traits). In Japan , divination methods include Futomani from the Shinto tradition. Personality typing as a form of divination has been prevalent in Japan since the 1980s. Various methods exist for divining personality type. Each attempt to reveal glimpses of an individual's destiny, productive and inhibiting traits, future parenting techniques, and compatibility in marriage. Personality type

5280-554: The busy struggles of marriage as it brings people closer to God . Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray in secret in their private rooms, using the Lord's Prayer , as a humble response to the prayer of the Pharisees , whose practices in prayer were regarded as impious by the New Testament writers. For evangelists and other Christian sects , prayer is shown to be God's appointed method by which we obtain what He has to bestow. Further,

5376-505: The central tenets of Serer religion in Senegal. Only those who have been initiated as Saltigues (the Serer high priests and priestesses) can divine the future. These are the "hereditary rain priests" whose role is both religious and medicinal. Prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication . In

5472-401: The chair. It is seen that it is in the chair by an onset of motion. Eventually, the chair crashes onto a table prepared with wood chips and burlap. The characters on the table are then traced and these are said to be written by the deity who possessed the chair, these characters are then interpreted for the devotees. Divination is widespread throughout Africa. Among many examples it is one of

5568-430: The concept of experiential religion or mystical experience because of a long history or authors living and writing about experience with the divine in a manner that identifies God as unknowable and ineffable, the language of such ideas could be characterized paradoxically as "experiential", as well as without the phenomena of experience. The notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to William James , who used

5664-650: The concept of language, specifically Arabic , as the expression of "the essence of what it signifies." Once the believer understood this, while remaining obedient to God’s will, they could uncover the essence and divine truth of the objects inscribed with Arabic like amulets and talismans through the study of the letters of the Qur’an with alphanumeric computations. In Islamic practice in Senegal and Gambia , just like many other West African countries, diviners and religious leaders and healers were interchangeable because Islam

5760-523: The conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary . This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him. The experience of God within Christian mysticism has been contrasted with

5856-568: The end of the millennium in the Islamic calendar approached. Dream interpretation, or oneiromancy (‘ilm ta’bir al-ru’ya ), is more specific to Islam than other divinatory science, largely because of the Qur’an’s emphasis on the predictive dreams of Abraham , Yusuf , and Muhammad . The important delineation within the practice lies between “incoherent dreams” and “sound dreams,” which were “a part of prophecy” or heavenly message. Dream interpretation

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5952-579: The first diviners. Every civilization that developed in pre-Columbian Mexico , from the Olmecs to the Aztecs , practiced divination in daily life, both public and private. Scrying through the use of reflective water surfaces, mirrors , or the casting of lots were among the most widespread forms of divinatory practice. Visions derived from hallucinogens were another important form of divination, and are still widely used among contemporary diviners of Mexico. Among

6048-399: The forehead level. Once in this position, the blocks are dropped and the future can be understood depending on their landing. If both fall flat side up or both fall rounded side up, that can be taken as a failure of the deity to agree. If the blocks land one rounded and one flat, the deity indicates "Yes", or positive. “Laughing poe” is when rounded sides land down and they rock before coming to

6144-503: The form of a hymn , incantation , formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. The act of prayer is attested in written sources as early as five thousand years ago. Today, most major religions involve prayer in one way or another; some ritualize the act, requiring a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practised spontaneously by anyone at any time. Scientific studies regarding

6240-520: The future, for spiritual reflection, or as a tool for self-understanding. A common act of divination in Taiwan is called the Poe . “The Poe” translated to English means “moon boards”. It consists of two wood or bamboo blocks cut into the shape of a crescent moon. The one edge is rounded while the other is flat; the two are mirror images. Both crescents are held out in one's palms and while kneeling, they are raised to

6336-419: The goddesses Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa . Folk religion in the medieval period produced syncretisms between pre-Christian and Christian traditions. An example is the 11th-century Anglo-Saxon charm Æcerbot for the fertility of crops and land, or the medical Wið færstice . The 8th-century Wessobrunn Prayer has been proposed as a Christianized pagan prayer and compared to the pagan Völuspá and

6432-557: The gods and the earth after being woken by the hero Sigurd . A prayer to Odin is mentioned in chapter   2 of the Völsunga saga where King Rerir prays for a child. In stanza   9 of the poem Oddrúnargrátr , a prayer is made to "kind wights , Frigg and Freyja , and many gods, In chapter 21 of Jómsvíkinga saga , wishing to turn the tide of the Battle of Hjörungavágr , Haakon Sigurdsson eventually finds his prayers answered by

6528-443: The high demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule, they were not the main source of divination for the ancient Greeks. That role fell to the seers ( Greek : μάντεις ). Seers were not in direct contact with the gods; instead, they were interpreters of signs provided by the gods. Seers used many methods to explicate the will of the gods including extispicy , ornithomancy , etc. They were more numerous than

6624-923: The highest concentration of personality assessment guides. There are approximately 144 different women's magazines, known as nihon zashi koukoku kyoukai , published in Japan aimed at this audience. The adaptation of the Western divination method of tarot cards into Japanese culture presents a particularly unique example of contemporary divination as this adaptation mingles with Japan's robust visual culture. Japanese tarot cards are created by professional artists, advertisers, and fans of tarot. One tarot card collector claimed to have accumulated more than 1,500 Japan-made decks of tarot cards. Japanese tarot cards fall into diverse categories such as: The images on tarot cards may come from images from Japanese popular culture, such as characters from manga and anime including Hello Kitty , or may feature cultural symbols. Tarot cards may adapt

6720-483: The images of Japanese historical figures, such as high priestess Himiko (170–248CE) or imperial court wizard Abe no Seimei (921–1005CE). Still others may feature images of cultural displacement, such as English knights, pentagrams , the Jewish Torah , or invented glyphs . The introduction of such cards began by the 1930s and reached prominence 1970s. Japanese tarot cards were originally created by men, often based on

6816-449: The invisible realities from which they originated. It was upheld by prophetic tradition and relied almost exclusively on text, specifically the Qur’an (which carried a table for guidance) and poetry, as a development of bibliomancy . The practice culminated in the appearance of the illustrated “Books of Omens” ( Falnama ) in the early 16th century, an embodiment of the apocalyptic fears as

6912-520: The more common hallucinogenic plants used in divination are morning glory , jimson weed , and peyote . Theyyam or "theiyam" in Malayalam is the process by which a devotee invites a Hindu god or goddess to use his or her body as a medium or channel and answer other devotees' questions. The same is called "arulvaakku" or "arulvaak" in Tamil , another south Indian language - Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam

7008-479: The narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ancestor . More generally, prayer can also have the purpose of thanksgiving or praise , and in comparative religion is closely associated with more abstract forms of meditation and with charms or spells . Prayer can take a variety of forms: it can be part of a set liturgy or ritual , and it can be performed alone or in groups. Prayer may take

7104-425: The oracles and did not keep a limited schedule; thus, they were highly valued by all Greeks, not just those with the capacity to travel to Delphi or other such distant sites. The disadvantage of seers was that only direct yes-or-no questions could be answered. Oracles could answer more generalized questions, and seers often had to perform several sacrifices in order to get the most consistent answer. For example, if

7200-492: The period in-between world wars – famously rejected by Karl Barth . In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson . The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of whom William James

7296-711: The planets (Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, or Uranus). Personality can also be divined using cardinal directions, the four elements (water, earth, fire, air), and yin-yang . Names can also lend important personality information under name classification which asserts that names bearing certain Japanese vowel sounds (a, i, u, e, o) share common characteristics. Numerology , which utilizes methods of divining 'birth numbers' from significant numbers such as birth date, may also reveal character traits of individuals. Individuals can also assess their own and others' personalities according to physical characteristics. Blood type remains

7392-406: The practice of prayer is reliably attested, but no actual liturgy is recorded from the early (Roman era) period. An Old Norse prayer is on record in the form of a dramatization in skaldic poetry . This prayer is recorded in stanzas   2 and   3 of the poem Sigrdrífumál , compiled in the 13th century Poetic Edda from earlier traditional sources, where the valkyrie Sigrdrífa prays to

7488-606: The purpose of prayer is to enable the person praying to gain a direct experience of the recipient of the prayer (or as close to direct as a specific theology permits). This approach is very significant in Christianity and widespread in Judaism (although less popular theologically). In Eastern Orthodoxy , this approach is known as hesychasm . It is also widespread in Sufi Islam, and in some forms of mysticism . It has some similarities with

7584-401: The rationalist approach, since it can also involve contemplation , although the contemplation is not generally viewed as being as rational or intellectual. Christian and Roman Catholic traditions also include an experiential approach to prayer within the practice of lectio divina . Historically a Benedictine practice, lectio divina involves the following steps: a short scripture passage

7680-553: The reading of the Torah . The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews all over the world, containing a set order of daily prayers. Jewish prayer is usually described as having two aspects: kavanah (intention) and keva (the ritualistic, structured elements). The most important Jewish prayers are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") and the Amidah ("the standing prayer"). Communal prayer

7776-536: The religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement ) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life. According to catholic doctrine , Methodists lack a ritualistic and rational approach to praying but rely on individualistic and moralistic forms of worship in direct conversation with God. This approach is rejected by most Orthodox religions . Wayne Proudfoot traces

7872-571: The roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs . Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was – during

7968-435: The same period similarly contain spells or incantations addressed to the gods. In the loosest sense, in the form of magical thinking combined with animism , prayer has been argued as representing a human cultural universal , which would have been present since the emergence of behavioral modernity , by anthropologists such as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer . Reliable records are available for

8064-471: The same titles as those who did. From the beginning of Islam, there "was (and is) still a vigorous debate about whether or not such [divinatory] practices were actually permissible under Islam,” with some scholars like Abu-Hamid al Ghazili (d. 1111) objecting to the science of divination because he believed it bore too much similarity to pagan practices of invoking spiritual entities that were not God. Other scholars justified esoteric sciences by comparing

8160-407: The seer slaughtering a sheep and examining its liver for answers regarding a more generic question; the sphagia involved killing a young female goat by slitting its throat and noting the animal's last movements and blood flow. The battlefield sacrifice only occurred when two armies prepared for battle against each other. Neither force would advance until the seer revealed appropriate omens . Because

8256-559: The seers had such power over influential individuals in ancient Greece, many were skeptical of the accuracy and honesty of the seers. The degree to which seers were honest depends entirely on the individual seers. Despite the doubt surrounding individual seers, the craft as a whole was well regarded and trusted by the Greeks, and the Stoics accounted for the validity of divination in their physics . The divination method of casting lots ( Cleromancy )

8352-492: The two. Christian circles often look to Friedrich Heiler (1892-1967), whose systematic Typology of Prayer lists six types of prayer: primitive, ritual, Greek cultural, philosophical, mystical, and prophetic. Some forms of prayer require a prior ritualistic form of cleansing or purification, such as in ghusl and wudhu . Prayer may occur privately and individually (sometimes called affective prayer ), or collectively, shared by or led on behalf of fellow-believers of either

8448-406: The use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. The efficacy of prayer in faith healing has been evaluated in numerous studies, with contradictory results. The English term prayer is from Medieval Latin : precaria , lit.   'petition, prayer'. The Vulgate Latin is oratio , which translates Greek προσευχή in turn

8544-411: Was a common example, where diviners would pray to their god(s) before vivisecting a sacrificial animal. Their abominal organs would reveal a divine message, which aligned with cardiocentric views of the mind. Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination. Oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth; their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of

8640-430: Was always tied to Islamic religious texts, providing a moral compass to those seeking advice. The practitioner needed to be skilled enough to apply the individual dream to general precedent while appraising the singular circumstances. The power of text held significant weight in the " science of letters " (‘ilm al-huruf ), the foundational principle being "God created the world through His speech." The science began with

8736-457: Was assumed that the kami did not favour the proposed course of action. The questioning of the kami took the form of an oath or vow. Sometimes the ritual involved inscribing the choices available on bamboo slips, which were then shaken in a container; whichever slip fell out dictated the appropriate course of action. In the novel Runaway Horses , Mishima Yukio described the procedure of ukehi as "contain[ing] an element of danger not unlike

8832-552: Was closely related with esoteric practices (like divination), which were responsible for the regional spread of Islam. As scholars learned esoteric sciences, they joined local non-Islamic aristocratic courts, who quickly aligned divination and amulets with the "proof of the power of Islamic religion." So strong was the idea of esoteric knowledge in West African Islam, diviners and magicians uneducated in Islamic texts and Arabic bore

8928-452: Was employed in public. Astrologers, trained as scientists and astronomers, were able to interpret the celestial forces that ruled the "sub-lunar" to predict a variety of information from lunar phases and drought to times of prayer and the foundation of cities. The courtly sanction and elite patronage of Muslim rulers benefited astrologers’ intellectual statures. The “science of the sand” ( ‘ilm al-raml ), otherwise translated as geomancy ,

9024-508: Was standing, looking up to heaven, with outspread arms and bare head. This is the pre-Christian, pagan prayer posture (except for the bare head, which was prescribed for males in I Corinthians 11:4, in Roman paganism, the head had to be covered in prayer). Certain Cretan and Cypriote figures of the Late Bronze Age, with arms raised, have been interpreted as worshippers. Their posture is similar to

9120-478: Was the most influential. The notion of "experience" has been criticised. Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences. The notion of "experience" introduces a false notion of duality between "experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of kensho is the realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and observed. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience

9216-751: Was used by the remaining eleven disciples of Jesus in Acts 1:23–26 to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot . Therefore, divination was arguably an accepted practice in the early church. However, divination became viewed as a pagan practice by Christian emperors during ancient Rome . In 692 the Quinisext Council , also known as the "Council in Trullo" in the Eastern Orthodox Church , passed canons to eliminate pagan and divination practices. Fortune-telling and other forms of divination were widespread through

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