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For Millennia, humanity has been fascinated by the future, and what it holds for each person. With that puzzlement has come the enduring desire to predict the future, whether by direct communication with a higher power, through prophets, or via a series of divinary tools. The mystical art of prognostication, or divination, as it is often called, has spawned such questionable professionals as mediums, clairvoyants, oracles, and soothsayers.
Many believe that prophets are simply god-inspired oracles. However, this belief couldn’t be further from the truth. The prophet’s calling and, indeed, the very etymology of the word “prophet” share nothing in common with divination. By the very roots of the word, with the Greek “pro” meaning “for” and “phetes” meaning “speaker,” a prophet was merely one who spoke for whatever gods he or she served. At no point in ancient history was a prophet able to predict the future on his or her own. Instead, they spoke the dictated words of their gods.
Among the more famous prophets was the Hebrew Judge Deborah, whose words of encouragement from Yahweh inspired the Hebrew armies to march against their Canaanite oppressors. Though Deborah’s songs predicted victory for the Jews, and even pinpointed that their victory would come through the actions of a single woman, the distinction remained that Deborah never claimed second sight, and it was never claimed for her. Nor did she aspire to see the future at any point or by any means. Instead, she was merely the receptacle for Yahweh’s message, the conveyer of a Divine message who had no active part in its reception.
Another holy receptacle of messages who is often mistaken as having second sight is the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah. Perhaps because of his message of hope, hundreds of years before the actual event, speaking of the Messiah’s eminent arrival, Isaiah has often been credited with predicting the future. However, Isaiah was simply a humble man, best pictured in a worn robe and sandals, or perhaps even barefoot, who wandered among the Hebrew people, spreading Yahweh’s promise of the Messiah’s coming. It was faith in his message rather than any glimpse of the future, which gave him the conviction to call upon Israel to lift up its head, or upon Bethlehem as the Saviour’s birthplace. It was a matter of faith, rather than foresight.
The same is to be said for John the Baptist, who beheld the miracle of Christ, and spread the news of Christ’s arrival even before the child had become a man. His was the knowledge of God, conveyed to him most likely through both the Christ child and his own mother, Elizabeth, who greatly believed in the miracle of the Messiah.
And then, there was Mohammed, the most glorified human being in all of Islam. He is called the Prophet of God, and is revered as the voice of Allah among men. While Christianity sought, in the Middle Ages, to ascribe second sight and oracular powers to the prophets of their own Bible, the Muslims have always accepted Mohammed’s role as Allah’s messenger. He, of all the prophets, has been left to his honoured position as the one who spoke Allah’s words to the people.
Different from the prophets in regard to their ability to not only speak but actually act in the place of their gods, are the Messengers of Gods. To be sure, many of these people acted as prophet, delivering verbal messages in the form of warnings from the gods. But, taking it one step further, these people had the authority to act in the name of their gods. Many performed stunning miracles, or dastardly deeds, in the names of gods.
Perhaps the most famous of all holy messengers is the Biblical figure of Moses. When Moses returned to Egypt from his exile, he brought with him one very specific message for the Pharaoh of Egypt. From his lips came four of the most famous words in all of recorded history : “Let My people go.”
But Moses was no ordinary prophet, simply delivering messages from god to man. Instead, he was a man with a holy mission, endowed with the power to bring down a plague of curses on all the land of Egypt, should the Pharaoh not heed his message. No mortal man, woman, or child in all of recorded history has ever been granted the power Moses received to rescue the Hebrew people from slavery. However, others would follow him, of every religion and race, to be endowed with the power and authority to carry out their God-given missions.
Legendary Boudicca was one of them, granted the power of her Patron Goddess, Andraste, on the battlefields of Britain, to keep herself and her people free of Roman rule. And then, there was Charlemagne, who would lay scourge to Pagan Europe in the name of Christ, or Joan of Arc, whose mission from God would grant her the power to flaunt tradition and lead the armies of France to victory at Orleans. All of these people, and many more, would perform both great and terrible deeds in the names of gods, but none claimed to know how to predict the future.
Those who have claimed to be capable of predicting the future can be distributed into three categories: Augurs, Soothsayers, and Oracles. These people, through either mystical arts or simple tools, have predicted the outcome of events since time began.
The Soothsayer, if them all, was the only one not originally a predictor of fortunes. Indeed, the etymology of the title “Soothsayer” breaks down to mean “teller of truths.” This would imply that the occupation of the Soothsayer might originally have been as more of a judge than a fortune-teller. It would stand to reason that these people were called upon to determine if a person was speaking the truth or not, in regards to important matters. Eventually, this probably led to the expansion of thinking wherein a soothsayer, presumably able to see the truth in the present, could also see the truth in the future, which likely disintegrated this once-noble profession into a highly-mistrusted
occupation.
Augurs and Oracles, in opposition to the Soothsayer, have always been occupied with prediction of future events, though often through very different means. Where Oracles relied on divine signs and man-made tools with which to determine the future, Augurs concerned themselves with natural omens and communion. Primarily, Augurs relied on the flight patterns of birds to help them interpret future events, as men believed that birds were the messengers of the gods.
Another way Augurs made use of birds to predict the future was through interpreting the tone and quality of different birdsongs. In fact, the meaning of the word “augury” is literally “to talk with the birds.”
There have been many famous Oracles throughout time, including the Oracle at Delphi, Sappho, the French prognosticator Nostradamus, and the American psychic Edgar Cayce. However, unlike the prophets who, in speaking for their gods, were always correct, or the Messengers who, by act of their God-given power, always delivered what they promised, neither the Augurs nor the Oracles could ever be completely accurate, and were often unable to deliver the future they promised. That has never made their part any
less important. It has simply been one of a number of distinctions between those who speak for the gods, and those who merely glance into a very mutable future.
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