Divination

Divination is the art of seeking to know what is hidden, distant or yet to come by interpreting signs. Historians often distinguish so-called inductive divination, which reads external signs (the flight of birds, entrails, the casting of lots, traced figures), from so-called inspired divination, in which the diviner claims to receive the message directly through dreams, trance or intuition. In antiquity, it held an official place in religious and political life, in Rome as in Greece or Mesopotamia.