věštby, znamení,
proroctví
Oracle, Omens,
Prophecies
Helena Lukášová pro Plenér 2021
Looking to the future
Searching for the principles of
events Making the right decision
Understanding the hidden forces
All this is the result of thinking
about time, understanding the
relationship between cause and
effect.
Reflective surfaces,
see-through objects,
mirrors served as
portals to realm that
could be seen bot not
interacted with
Reflection
pre-Columbian mirror, Chimu
culture 1100 -1470 CE, Peru
South America, that portrays a
ruler, priest, or deity, holding
mushrooms in both hands (the
mirror is old but not original)
Reflection
John Dee (1527–1609),
mathematician, astrologer,
magician, and antiquary, claimed
that he had been given a magic
crystal by an angel called Uriel
Magic mirror and other peculiar objects in
John Dee’s possesion
(British Museum)
Reflection
Random
Naturally-occurring random
processes, without any systematic
predictability and without any
intervention from human beings;
sometimes also
called “spontaneous.”
Roman Augury
interpreting behavior of birds
cca 600 b. c. – 100 a. d.
The interpretation of flight (possibly
sound) of birds was done by
specially schooled high priest augur
appointed to this duty.
The ancients that practiced augury
felt that nature, and therefore the
divine will, could be deciphered by a
patient method of watching, waiting,
listening.
Cicero, the famous orator
and senator, was also
appointed an augur later
on in his political career.
Roman Augury
sacred chickens
Special chicken broad from
Negreponte Greek island
Pullarius -“priest of the sacred
chickens”
Chickens were kept unfed in their
cages for a predetermined amount of
time before being released and
presented with some grain. If they
ate the grain, the venture upon
which the Romans were consulting
them was deemed favorable. If they
didn’t touch it, however, the venture
lacked the god’s backing and was
therefore to be abandoned.
Roman Augury
sacred chickens
The First Punic War between Rome
and Carthage at Drepany255 b.c. The
Roman general Publius
Claudius Pulcher disregarded the
sacred sign of the sacred hens and
let them drown. He lost the battle.
Kryštof Kintera I see I see Isee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_NVEicb0k
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
Common in Ancient Mezopotamia,
also used through Greek and Roman
period.
bārû or haruspex – trained diviner
could see yes / no answers of thwe
Sun God.
simpler instructions, often inscribed
on clay models of organs (typically
sheep’s livers)
Bārûtu, or “Art of the Diviner” manual
for extispicy was “published” (copies
known date from about 600 BC and
earlier), it took up 135 clay tablets
written as 60 lines of cuneiform
each.
The top-of-the-line future-predicting gizmo was a
sheep's liver, an organ so bloody and distinctive folks
assumed it was the house of the soul—and because
of that spiritual connection, an ideal canvas upon
which the gods could write their wills.
Bārûtu manual mentioned above actually contains
some purely "theoretical" predictions, in that they
refer to anatomical oddities that had never been
observed. This might be the first known example of
a deterministic system.
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
Bārûtu or “Art of the Diviner” manual
for extispicy was “published” (copies
known date from about 600 BC and
earlier), it took up 135 clay tablets
written as 60 lines of cuneiform
each.
Bārûtu manual contains some purely
"theoretical" predictions, in that they
refer to anatomical oddities that had
never been observed. This might be
the first known example of
a deterministic system.
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
In this sense, the bārû acted like a modern scientist,
seeking to replicate the results of an earlier
experiment to assure veracity.
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
In this sense, the bārû acted like a modern
scientist, seeking to replicate the results of an
earlier experiment to assure veracity.
The Stele of Diotima,
female seer holding a liver,
c. 420 – 410 b. c.
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
Amanda Couch
Extispicy in the everyday
with artist
https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cuizine/2018-v9-n1-cuizine04015/1052116ar/
Gyotaku Japanese technigue of fish imprint
Haruspicy
Divination from animal entrails
When Selena Wisnom checked her liver, here's
what it had to say about Trump's campaign:
The army of the prince will go on a
terrifying campaign.
An army will attack the prince in battle.
The god Adad will flood the enemy's
land, or there will be confusion
amongst the enemy.
Whatever his circumstances, the gods
will protect him.
The prince will not return from the
campaign he embarked upon.
The king's son or brother will flee.
His army will not reach its goal.
The days of the prince will be long.
Dogs will become rabid.
Astrology
Divination from the sky observation
An attempt to explain and understand the
mysterious and complex relationship between
the Universe as a whole and human beings.
First documented evidence of Western and
Near East Astrology coming from Ancient
Mesopotamia (around 2000 b. c.), systems
being developed independently in Ancient
China, Mesoamerica, and India.
Astrologs were famous astronoms – Johannes
Kepler. Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galillei.
Astrology and Astromony since the 18th
century they have come to be regarded as
completely separate disciplines.
Astrology
Divination from the sky observation
Geometry and astronomy/astrology
(astronomia), was connected to the divine for
most medieval scholars. The compass in this
13th-century manuscript is a symbol of God's
act of creation, as many believed that there
was something intrinsically divine or perfect
that could be found in circles.
Astrology
Divination from the sky observation
A classic Chinese work
called the Zi Wei Dou Shu
(紫微斗数) dating back to
sometime before 1000 AD
was used by the emperor
to tell his fortune based on
the interpretation of the
imperial “astronomers”
interpreting the 28
Chinese constellations.
Astrology
Divination from the sky observation
Sorry, astrology fans: you’ve been
reading the wrong star sign all this
time!
In fact, a massive 86% of us were actually born
under a different constellation to our star sign,
based on how the sky exists today… and it’s all
to do with the Earth’s wobble.
The wobble causes the Earth’s axis, which
is the centre line around which it rotates,
to swing in a slow circle over the course of
25,800 years.
“The line from Earth through the sun
points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to
Scorpius for only 7 days. To make a tidy
match with their 12-month calendar, the
Babylonians ignored the fact that the sun
actually moves through 13 constellations,
not 12.
Ophiuchus
⛎
Hadonoš
29. 11 – 17. 12.
We didn’t change
any zodiac
signs…we just
did the math!
Margaret Haines
Combines Astrology
and Fake News in a
“Post-Traumatic Age”
Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/147478649
Full movie (24 min):
https://vimeo.com/147478649
“I was interested in considering
astrology as an older news
system which could be taken as
infallible to the manipulation of
corporate media”
How to seek a
prediction: Wait for a comet
to appear
Equipment: naked eye
Personnel: Any human who
attributes meaning to the
appearance of a comet.
The Mawangdui silk, a 'textbook'
of cometary forms and the various
disasters associated with them,
was compiled sometime around
300 B.C., but the knowledge it
encompasses is believed to date
as far back as 1500 B.C.
Comets
Divination from the sky observation
Cometographia - types of cometary
forms, illustrations from Johannes
Hevelius' (Danzig, 1668)
44 b.c.: An appearance of a comet soon after
Julius Caesar’s death was taken as a sign
that Caesar had been become a god.
12 b.c.: The appearance of the “Star of
Bethlehem” during the birth of Jesus is often
interpreted as a comet (perhaps Halley’s
Comet).
1066 b. c.: An appearance of Halley’s Comet
was supposedly a good omen for William the
Conqueror and the Norman’s conquest of
England at the Battle of Hastings (or,
alternatively, a bad sign for the defeated King
Harold and his Anglo-Saxons).
Comets
Divination from the sky observation
Edmund Halley made the bold claim, using
calculations based on Newton’s theory, that
the “Great” Comet of 1682 would return 75
years later, and that claim was
posthumously verified.
May 13, 1910, by
a wide-angle
camera at Lowell
Observatory,
Flagstaff, Arizona
May 13, 1986,
ESA's Giotto
Probe and
Halley's Comet
Stone was placed in the
Ka'aba by Prophet
Abraham, after it was
presented to him by the
angel Gabriel. The stone is
recognised as to have
come from heaven.
The Willamette
Meteorite,
Confederated Tribes
of Grand Ronde
(Clackamas tribe)
continue to honor
Tomanowos' gift
with songs and
rituals, including a
ceremonial visit to
the exhibit every
year.
Egyptian word for heaven (Bja) is the same
word they used to describe what we now
know as iron.
Meteorites
Message from te Heaven
Randomized
Input is the result of a process that a human
initiates for the express purpose of producing a
random outcome.
Turkish Coffee Reading
Dice-like systems have been
used for millennia, e.g.
“astragaloi” made from the
astragalus bones of various
animals, favored by the Greeks.
Astragaloi
Divination from random process
Dice-like systems have been
used for millennia, e.g.
“astragaloi” made from the
astragalus bones of various
animals, favored by the Greeks.
Astragaloi
Divination from random process
21 of these stelas with oracles have been found
around, especially on four sides a list of the
potential falls of five different astragals.
Astragaloi
Divination from random process
Lot Divination Kremna Stela
Council of Vannes in 465 - the use of oracular
books, including the use of Biblical texts in an
oracular manner, was forbidden.
Bibliomancy
Divination from random pages
Someone seeking guidance about the
future would consult the owner of the book,
who would then have the guidance-seeker
pick a number at random – this would be
the “lot” in the title – and then turn to the
oracle that matched the selected number.
Gospel of the Lots of Mary, 5 – 6th century
75x69 mm, 160 pages
Pyromancy
Oracle Bones
Cracking bones with heat + interpreting the cracks’
meanings.
Earliest about 3 500 b. c., popular during Shang
Dynasty 1200 – 1000 b. c.
Oracle Bones
Divination from random process
As finds they were considered to be dragon
bones and used as a remedy. Plastrons for
malalie and bones for wounds.
In 1898 Wang Yirongthe chancellor of
the Inmperial Academy in Beijing
discovered on the bone, before it was
ground into powder, that it bore
strange glyphs, which they, have
studied on ancient bronzes.
Oracle Bones
Divination from random process
Transmitter
from the project Trans_Forma
2017 , chrom plated 3d print
I-Ching 易經 / Book of Changes
Systems
Complex systems to understand the Universe
Fu Xi, a dragon or a snake with a human face, studied the
patterns of nature in the sky and on the earth: the
markings on birds, rocks, and animals, the movement of
clouds, the arrangement of the stars. everything could be
reduced to eight trigrams, each composed of three
stacked solid or broken lines, reflecting the yin and yang,
the duality that drives the universe.
In its main part, it is a series of 64 hexagrams, shapes
composed of six lines (which can take yang or yin forms),
which represent 64 different archetypal situations. The Book
of Changes has been (and still is) used not only as an oracle,
but also as a philosophical and cosmological system that
plays an important role in Taoism, from which Chinese culture
was largely derived.
The origin of the book is connected with the beginnings
of the Chinese Sia dynasty in the 18th century BC. It
began to be used for divination during the 12th century
BC during the Chou dynasty.
1. Qian
Creation
2. Kchun
Acceptance
3. Chun
Birth
4. Meng
Maturation
5. Sü
Expectations
6. Sung
Quarrel
7. Sh ‘
Army
8. Pi
Connection
9. Xiaochu Submission
of
the Little One
10.Lü
Stepping
I-Ching 易經
Systems
Complex systems to understand the Universe
The main point is that consulting with the
Book of Changes makes it easier to
decipher the often complex situations in
which an individual finds himself into a
clearer formula, which then facilitates
decision-making.
John Cage: Music of Changes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_8-B2rNw7s
Systems
Complex systems to understand the Universe
IFA divination – Yoruba tribe tradition.
Babalowo - interpreter od systems of sign. Odu Ifa
corpus 256 parts subdivided into into Ese –
verses (about 800 ese per odu). Babalowo uses
sacred palm nuts and divination chain
Systems
Complex systems to understand the Universe
Many authors have seen Ifa divination as
basic i-p-o (input-process- output)
operations in computer science, however,
Alamu et al., (2014) regard Ifa divination as
an expert system and even highlighted its
use in pattern recognition.
Systems
Cartomancy
Tarot Cards – reading form 18th century.
A tarot deck specifically designed for occult
purposes around 1789.
Aleister Crowly, stated of the Tarot: "The
origin of this pack of cards is very obscure.
Some authorities seek to put it back as far
as the ancient Egyptian Mysteries; others
try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth
or even the sixteenth century ... [but] The
only theory of ultimate interest about the
Tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic
picture of the Universe, based on the data
of the Holy Qabalah."
Systems
Cartomancy
Aleister Crowly Tarot cards
Systems
Cartomancy
Salvator Dali Tarot cards
Systems
Cartomancy
Hans Rudolf Giger Tarot cards
Carl Gustav Jung: ” The cards, combine in certain
ways, and the different combinations correspond to
the playful development of mankind.” This, too, is
how Tarot works—with the added dimension of
“symbols, or pictures of symbolical situations.” The
images—the hanged man, the tower, the sun—
“are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated
nature.”
There are modern-day mystic-occult decks to suit
every spiritual bent imaginable (Buddhist,
Wiccan, Toltec, Cat People). There are decks with
a less devotional approach: Stick Figure Tarot?
Hello Kitty? Star Trek? Why no Contemporary Art
deck, with Maurizio Cattelan as the Fool and Urs
Fischer as Death? Why no Fashion tarot, with
Anna Wintour as the Empress and Martin
Margiela as the Hermit?
Systems
Cartomancy
El Topo movie 1970
Alejanro Jodorowsky - To him, the tarot is such a
constant companion that it has become allpurpose:
a point of reference, of reflection, of
divination. He has put it into his films, he uses it to
communicate in a nonliteral way, and it is a simple
pastime to boot.
Holy Montain, 1973 trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmR0vi0ifzE
Art
Mathew Barney, Cremaster Series
https://vimeo.com/331881653
“In the modern world, the
artist took over the role of the
shaman.”
Art
James Leonard -The Tent of Casually
Observed Phenologies, 2016
“I thought to myself, if we’re not going to
listen to climate scientists, we might as well
be listening to fortune-tellers,”
Participants choose among three tarot
decks—the classic - then pose a question
related to climate change. “Perhaps they
want to know what their neighborhood will
look like in 50 years, if a favorite lake will
still be there, or if avocados will still be
available on store shelves,”
Art
Alex Head und Miodrag Kuč - Totalisator 2050 –
spekulative Prognosen für das Ruhrgebiet
Artists develop a betting office in an abandoned market
trailer at the former horse racing track in
Recklinghausen. Everyone is invited to place real bets
on the sporting, demographic, economic, cultural and
political life of the Ruhr in 2050. Gambling becomes a
medium for the exploration of democratic and artistic
participation. The Totalisator 2050, an anachronistic
mega calculator from the world of horse racing, will
decide the potential winner in 2050 when all bets will be
settled at the site of the Recklinghausen racetrack.
Art
Damla Tamer -Divination Objects
Ink on paper, woven
Dimensions variable, approx. 50 x 32 inches
2019-2020
Two distinct source materials: 1) Ink stain drawings,
made by dripping ink on paper or submerging
paper sheets into ink vats, making up the vertical
warp material 2) Text compositions containing
prompts from academic teaching evaluation
surveys filled out by students at the end of
university courses, making up the horizontal warp
material. The process of producing these materials
was influenced by the ikat textile technique in
which the horizontal and vertical threads of a rug
are dyed before being woven, in anticipation of a
final pattern that will emerge from the alignment
and overlap of dyed areas.
Humanity and nature
were inseparable. It has
been only in the last few
hundred years we have
seen this accelerating
separation between
people and nature.