What do you think of when you hear the word “occult”? Opinions differ as to the broad range of activities falling under this banner but, in essence, it refers to the supernatural powers or practices relating to that which is hidden, secret, and mysterious. For many people, their foray into occultic practices often begins out of curiosity. For example, people may see an Ouija board as harmless fun, before quickly realising that the power behind such practices is dark and demonic
Although much could be written on each of the practices which falls under the banner of the occult, there are three main categories: divination, mediums and magic (also known as magick in the modern era). In this article, I will cover the practice of divination, with commentary on the other categories to follow in future articles.
The word “divination” comes from the Latin verb “divinare”, meaning “to foresee, foretell, predict, or prophesy”. It employs several different methods, but all with the same goal: to gain hidden knowledge. It is based on the pagan worldview that there is hidden information about the future that gifted humans are able to access. In Deuteronomy 18, God affirms that He would guide His people through true prophets, not through diviners. Why? Because compared to the true and living God, divination is false, deceitful, and worthless. Jeremiah 14:14 says: “And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.”
In Ezekiel 21:21, we come across a curious passage which describes various methods of divination: “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.” When the king “shakes the arrows,” he is practicing something called “belomancy”. Belomancy was an ancient form of divination where marked arrows are drawn at random to determine the future or answer questions. The practice involved either shooting arrows with written messages and picking up the first one encountered, or drawing marked arrows from a quiver, with the first arrow drawn indicating the answer.
Next in the king’s divination was a consultation of the images, known in Hebrew as “teraphim”. They were known as household idols or family gods. Teraphim are often associated in the Bible with idolatry and pagan worship. Even though teraphim were sometimes used by the Israelites to represent God, they were still idols. In highlighting the danger of idolatry and divination, Zechariah 10:2 says: “For the idols [teraphim] speak delusion; the diviners envision lies, and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain. Therefore, the people wend their way like sheep; they are in trouble because there is no shepherd.” We see a form of teraphim worship in modern culture when people revere objects, photos, or statues as though those things have supernatural powers within themselves.
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