The Arts of Divination

The Arts of Divination
DissertationVictrienne Falconheart
The mortal races of Azeroth have an innate curiosity and a powerful desire for guidance. These two drives are at the root of divination. Divination is the school of arcane magic that concerns itself with truth and knowledge. It has been practiced since prehistoric times by shamans and druids, guided by the spirits that lie unseen within the fabric of the land. The arcane practice of divination is more recent, and scholars will note that a spectrum of practice exists amongst arcanists, beginning with auguries and invocations to higher beings, and ending in the scrying techniques that are widely practiced today.
In this work, I shall relay some of the many techniques that are used to divine the past, present, future, and to determine the truth of mortal affairs.
I: The Ancient Arts
Over the vast ages and across the worlds, countless divination techniques have developed. The practices that follow are those which are discovered during the early stages of mortal societies. They tend to draw strongly on the Law of Sympathy, and it is likely because of the apparent symbolism underlying the rituals that they are among the first divination practices to emerge.
Omens
An omen is an event or occurrence that is taken to foretell the future. The movement of a particular star, a king’s crown slipping from his head, a fierce storm, a vivid dream, or a blooming flower can all be omens. Indeed, an event becomes an omen simply by being perceived as such, regardless of whether there is any magical truth behind the event.
It will be readily apparent to practitioners of the arcane that many omens are not the subject of their craft. Some will simply be happenstance or coincidence. Others may be the working of divine magic, wherein an Eternal or powerful being is beseeched to give guidance. But that is not to say that omens have no place within the arcane.
Early arcanists first stumbling into the practice of divination would have comprehended the essence of the Law of Equivalence. This law forms the basis for the use of omens in arcane magic. The law states that, for the arcane to alter the physical world, something must be exchanged that is of equal value to the effect that will be produced. Thus, for an omen to have any truth-telling power, it must be induced by the arcanist yielding up something of value. Thus rituals were performed, sacrificial in nature, with the intent to bring about a magical omen.
However, even when an omen can be induced by magic, this does not mean that it will be obvious. For one thing, the arcane works subtly: the event that comes to pass as a result of the omen-seeking ritual may be missed by observers, or not recognized as what it is. Or, if noted, the meaning behind the omen may be misinterpreted. The interpretation of omens is an uncertain discipline, relying on the Law of Sympathy and trying to decipher the symbolic meaning behind the event or occurrence.
Thus we see that omens represent the most rudimentary form of divination. They are precarious because of the inherent uncertainty of the message received, and the likelihood that no message will be received at all.
Augury
An augury can accurately be considered a form of omen-reading. They take the form of reading an omen from the examination of a particular thing. Entrails, flights of birds, tea leaves, and the position of special cards are all commonplace objects. The belief is that these objects are infused with magical power and consequently form themselves in ways that have symbolic meaning. Indeed, arcanists who rely on augury must meditate upon the object that they will use, infusing it with their own mana in order to empower it. The augur will then perform some action that frees the object to be manipulated by the arcane. Shuffling and then laying out cards, swirling a liquid, letting blood spill from an organ, releasing an animal to move as it wills, and so forth. He can then interpret the resulting action, deciphering the meaning behind it to see glimpses of greater truths.
As with the interpretation of omens, the results are never entirely clear. The augur must read them as containing a deeper meaning, searching for subtle signs – a shape forming, one object among many coming to the fore, and the like.
Auguries are still commonplace within Azeroth, despite their uncertainties. Many races and cultures offer up sacrifices with the intend to gleaning information on the future from the results. Fortune-tellers at the Darkmoon Faire use strange decks of cards. Perhaps the reason why auguries exist is because, where an omen must be spotted, an augury occurs within a defined and contained substance or object. The only challenge is that of interpretation, not of location.
Astromancy
The reading of the celestial bodies for signs is, essentially, a form of advanced an persistent augury. The stars and planets in the sky are themselves infused with magic and driven according to the patterns of the Titans. Thus an arcanist need not infuse them with his own mana (nor could he if he tried in his hubris to do so). He need merely look to them and read the signs that they offer. I have written before on this subject, and so I will say no more of it.
Dream Reading
It is said that, where the waking mind is contained and limited, the dreaming mind drifts and weaves itself freely between the flows of mana. The dreamer may perceive glimpses of a divinatory nature. These often manifest as glimpses of his own future, or a flash of a far-away event. Sometimes a mage will be called upon to interpret the dreams of another. This is a common task of the court wizards to nobles within the human courts. A mage may also induce his own magical dreaming in an attempt to induce visions. In such cases, he will meditate before sleeping, and often surround himself with implements of the arcane in order to draw magic to him. Some diviners prepare special draughts and potions which, when imbibed, allow the drinker to dream magically and remember his dreams with perfect clarity.
Invocation
An invocation is a call to higher magical entities. Invocations can be understood as the very basis of divine magic: a mortal calls out to an exceptionally powerful entity for assistance and is granted a portion of that being’s power. However, the arcane can also reach out to spirits, be they elemental lords or the wisps that flit unseen around us. However, where a divine agent asks, the arcane demands. Such power has many uses across many schools. For divination, it means that an arcanist can call upon a magical being and compel it to divulge certain knowledge.
Needless to say, such spells are dangerous. Spirits do not take lightly to being forced into submission. They will often seek revenge upon those who even attempt to do so. A wise mage who wishes to invoke a spirit to obtain information will provide it with an offering in a show of respect and veneration.
II: Scrying
Mages trained today will often believe that scrying is the entirety of the divination school. Scrying spells are so often the exclusive focus of diviners because they offer what other varieties cannot: certainty. Whereas auguries, omens, and so forth provide only hints and signs, scrying can reveal actual visions of the past, future, or distant places. Moreover, it can do so without directly invoking dangerous spirits.
At its most fundamental, scrying is when an arcanist accesses the fine threads of mana underlying the worlds and mentally transits across these threads, thereby transferring his senses to another location or even another time.
The Scrying Ritual
To do this is no easy feat. Because of the immense complexity and the sheer number of concepts and variables which the arcanist must hold simultaneously in his concentration to manifest the spell, scryings are almost always performed ritually. The arcanist will seclude himself from all disturbances. Many mage towers have dedicated chambers with thick walls and secure doors, while others choose a sheltered glade, mountaintop, or similarly isolated location. He will also equip himself with a scrying surface – a body on which his visions will appear. The most common is a scrying orb or ‘crystal ball,’ but smooth water, smoke, embers, or glass panes also see use.
Once isolated, the mage begins the scrying ritual. He may draw a ritual circle to assist him. If so, the circle will be a symbolic ‘map’ in which the mage plots the journey that his consciousness will take. It will contain repeating, regular patterns that assist with meditation and concentration. When this is complete, the mage will sink into a deep trance, looking unwaveringly at his scrying surface. He will murmur an incantation repeatedly, using it is a mantra to aid in parting his consciousness from his body.
Gradually, the scryer will begin to see images through his surface. These are cloudy or indistinct at first, clearing and solidifying as the mage immerses himself in the vision. While immersed in the scrying, the mage will see, hear, and otherwise sense the location or time on which he scries.
It should be needless to say that the greater the physical distance, or the further forward or backward in time, the more difficult and taxing the spell will be. Especially with scrying that transits through time, seeing vast distances will often be impossible without risking insanity.
Scrying After a Being
Sometimes, scrying spells are not used simply to view a location or time. Instead, they are used to locate or watch a specific being, without knowing where that being is to be found. In such cases, the Law of Sympathy (and specifically of Contagion) is operative. The mage must have something on which the spell’s subject has left magical traces of its aura. These will be objects held in close contact to the being, or which are of psychological significance to it, or actual physical parts of the being. This object will allow the arcane to trace a path to the being, following its magical aura to the source.
III: Conclusion
Divination is one of the oldest magical arts. Its practitioners would be well advised not to forget this fact. The arcane moves in mysterious ways, and the diviner must be cognizant that his craft is a matter of honed intuition and accumulated wisdom as much as it is an exact science. We reach for knowledge that is not naturally ours, and the true diviner will know that understanding is as important as seeing.
Category:Library of Sarceline
Category:Victrienne Falconheart