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This man in Rhumsiki, Cameroon, supposedly tells the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a fresh-water crab through nggàm.^[1]

Divination (from Latin divinare "to foresee, to be inspired by a god",^[2] related to divinus, divine) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual.^[3] Used in various forms for thousands of years, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency.^[4]

Divination can be seen as a systematic method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed, random facets of existence such that they provide insight into a problem at hand. If a distinction is to be made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a formal or ritual and often social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine; while fortune-telling is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion.

Divination is often dismissed by sceptics, including the scientific community, as being mere superstition. In the 2nd century, Lucian devoted a witty essay to the career of a charlatan, "Alexander the false prophet", trained by "one of those who advertise enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-affairs, visitations for your enemies, disclosures of buried treasure, and successions to estates",^[5] although most Romans believed in dreams and charms. It is considered a sin in Islam, most Christian denominations and Judaism, though some methods, especially dream interpretation, do appear in Scripture.

Categories[link]

Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination according to the following four types:

• Omens and omen texts. "The most primitive, clumsy, but enduring method...is the simple recording of sequences of unusual or important events." (1976:236) Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of strange births, the tracking of natural phenomena, and other data. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategy. It is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination; Joseph Needham's work considered this very idea.
• Sortilege (cleromancy). This consists of the casting of lots, or sortes, whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, or some other item. Modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination.
• Augury. Divination that ranks a set of given possibilities. It can be qualitative (such as shapes, proximities, etc.): for example, dowsing (a form of rhabdomancy) developed from this type of divination. The Romans in classical times used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy (actually a form of extispicy). Haruspices examined the livers of sacrificed animals. Note that augury is normally considered to specifically refer to divination by studying the flight patterns of birds.
• Spontaneous. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, and actually a generalization of all types of divination. The answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some religions use a form of bibliomancy: they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, and take as their answer the first passage their eyes light upon. Other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of Feng Shui such as "intuitive" and Fuzion.

Hebrew Bible[link]

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 clearly forbid any acts of divination, describing them as something detestable to God, and Leviticus 19:26 says "You must not practice either divination or soothsaying", but Exodus 28 gives members of the priestly class the use of the Urim and Thummim to divine the will of Yahweh before times of sacrifice.

Ancient Greece[link]

Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination. Oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth; their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of the high demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule, they were not the main source of divination for the ancient Greeks. That role fell to the seers (manteis in Greek).

Seers were not in direct contact with the gods; instead, they were interpreters of signs provided by the gods. Seers used many methods to explicate the will of the gods including extispicy, bird signs, etc. They were more numerous than the oracles and did not keep a limited schedule; thus, they were highly valued by all Greeks, not just those with the capacity to travel to Delphi or other such distant sites.

The disadvantage to seers was that only direct yes-or-no questions could be answered. Oracles could answer more generalized questions, and seers often had to perform several sacrifices in order to get the most consistent answer. For example, if a general wanted to know if the omens were proper for him to advance on the enemy, he would ask his seer both that question and if it were better for him to remain on the defensive. If the seer gave consistent answers, the advice was considered valid.

At battle, generals would frequently ask seers at both the campground (a process called the hiera) and at the battlefield (called the sphagia). The hiera entailed the seer slaughtering a sheep and examining its liver for answers regarding a more generic question; the sphagia involved killing a young female goat by slitting its throat and noting the animal’s last movements and blood flow. The battlefield sacrifice only occurred when two armies prepared for battle against each other. Neither force would advance until the seer revealed appropriate omens.

Because the seers had such power over influential individuals in ancient Greece, many were skeptical of the accuracy and honesty of the seers. Of course the degree to which seers were honest depends entirely on the individual seers. Despite the doubt surrounding individual seers, the craft as a whole was well regarded and trusted by the Greeks.^[6]

Christianity and Western society[link]

Divination was considered a pagan practice in the early Christian church. Later the church would pass canon laws forbidding the practice of divination. In 692 the Quinisext Council, also known as the "Council in Trullo" in the Eastern Orthodox Church, passed canons to eliminate pagan and divination practices.^[7] Soothsaying and forms of divination were widespread through the Middle Ages. In the constitution of 1572 and public regulations of 1661 of Kur-Saxony, capital punishment was used on those predicting the future.^[8] Laws forbidding divination practice continue to this day.^[9]

Mesoamerica[link]

Divination was a central component of ancient Mesoamerican religious life. Many Aztec gods, including central creator gods, were described as diviners and were closely associated with sorcery. Tezcatlipoca is the patron of sorcerers and practitioners of magic. His name means "smoking mirror", a reference to a device used for divinatory scrying.^[10] In the Mayan Popol Vuh, the creator gods Xmucane and Xpiacoc perform divinatory hand casting during the creation of people.^[10]

Every civilization that developed in Ancient Mexico, from the Olmecs to the Aztecs, practiced divination in daily life, both public and private. Scrying through the use of reflective water surfaces, mirrors, or the casting of lots were among the most widespread forms of divinatory practice. Visions derived from hallucinogens were another important form of divination, and are still widely used among contemporary diviners of Mexico. Among the more common hallucinogenic plants used in divination are morning glory, jimson weed, and peyote.^[10]

Serer religion[link]

Divination is one of the tenets of Serer religion. However, only those who have been initiated as Saltigues (the Serer high priests and priestesses) can divine the future.^[11][12] These are the "hereditary rain priests"^[13] whose role is both religious and medicinal.^[13][12]

Common methods[link]

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Academic[link]

• D. Engels, Das römische Vorzeichenwesen (753-27 v.Chr.). Quellen, Terminologie, Kommentar, historische Entwicklung, Stuttgart 2007 (Franz Steiner-Verlag)
• E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande (1976)
• Toufic Fahd, La divination arabe; études religieuses, sociologiques et folkloriques sur le milieu natif d’Islam (1966)
• Philip K. Hitti. Makers of Arab History. Princeton, New Jersey. St. Martin’s Press. 1968. Pg 61.
• Michael Loewe and Carmen Blacke, eds. Oracles and divination (Shambhala/Random House, 1981) ISBN 0-87773-214-0
• W. Montgomery Watt. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Edinburgh, Scotland. Oxford Press, 1961. Pgs 1-2.
• J. P. Vernant, Divination et rationalité (1974)
• David Zeitlyn and others on African Divination systems: [See]http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Divination

External links[link]

Look up divination in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Divination

• Ancient Astrology and Divination on the Web, resources on Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian divination
• Greek Divination: a study of its methods and principles, William Reginald Halliday, Macmillan, 1913, 309pp - a complete scanned edition of the most recent general treatment of Greek divination (at Google Books)
•  "Divination". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

Emma Thompson
Thompson in Paris at the César Awards 2009
Born	(1959-04-15) 15 April 1959 (age 53) Paddington, London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Newnham College, Cambridge
Occupation	Actor, comedian, screenwriter
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Kenneth Branagh (m. 1989–1995) «start: (1989)–end+1: (1996)»"Marriage: Kenneth Branagh to Emma Thompson" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Emma_Thompson) Greg Wise (m. 2003) «start: (2003)»"Marriage: Greg Wise to Emma Thompson" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Emma_Thompson)
Children	2

Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. She first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End. The following year Thompson garnered dual Academy Award nominations, as Best Actress for The Remains of the Day and as Best Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father.

In 1995, Thompson scripted and starred in Sense and Sensibility, a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role among other awards. Other notable film and television credits have included the Harry Potter film series, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), An Education (2009) and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010).

Thompson is a patron of the Refugee Council and president of the Teaching Awards.

Early life[link]

Thompson was born in Paddington, London, England. Her father was the director and actor Eric Thompson, best known for having written and narrated The Magic Roundabout, shown on BBC children's television in the 1960s and 1970s. Her mother is the Scottish actress Phyllida Law and her younger sister is actress Sophie Thompson.^[1] Thompson has spent part of her life in Scotland and has stated that she "feel[s] Scottish".^[2]

Education[link]

Thompson went to Beckford Primary School, in West Hampstead, Camden, London, England, followed by Camden School for Girls^[3] and then read English at Newnham College, Cambridge where she was a member (along with fellow actors Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery) and vice-president of the university's comedy troupe, the Footlights.^[1] Her acting talent was so impressive that agent Richard Armitage signed her to a contract while she was still two years away from graduation. Thompson graduated from Cambridge in 1980. Shortly afterward, she came to fame with a leading role opposite Robert Lindsay in the Leicester Haymarket Theatre's production of the musical Me and My Girl, which had just been rescripted by Stephen Fry.

Career[link]

Thompson's earliest television appearances included the comedy sketch show Alfresco, broadcast in 1983 and 1984 (as well as its three-part pilot There's Nothing to Worry About, shown in 1982), which also featured Ben Elton, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Also in 1984 she guested alongside Fry and Laurie in the episode "Bambi" of the sitcom The Young Ones, playing Miss Money-Sterling. Her breakthrough began in 1987 with her role as red-haired rock guitarist Suzi Kettles in the cult TV series Tutti Frutti. This was followed by acclaim for the BBC series Fortunes of War in which she starred with her then future husband, Kenneth Branagh. For these two 1987 roles she won a BAFTA for Best Actress. In 1988, she starred in and wrote the eponymous Thompson comedy sketch series for BBC1; the series was not successful with audiences or critics. Described in Time Out magazine as "very clever-little-me-ish",^{[citation needed]} it has never been repeated in Britain despite her Oscar successes, and Thompson has not returned to the sketch comedy field.

Thompson's first major film role was in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy The Tall Guy (1989) co-starring Jeff Goldblum. Her career took a more serious turn with a series of critically acclaimed performances and films, beginning with Howards End (1992), for which she received an Oscar for best actress; the part of Gareth Peirce, the lawyer for the Guildford Four, in In the Name of the Father; The Remains of the Day opposite Anthony Hopkins; and as the British painter Dora Carrington in the film Carrington.

Thompson won her next Oscar in 1996, for best adapted screenplay for her adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, a film directed by Ang Lee, in which she also played the Oscar-nominated lead role opposite Hugh Grant. She has said that she keeps both of her award statues in her downstairs bathroom, citing embarrassment at placing them in a more prominent place.^[4]

Thompson's recent television work has included a starring role in the 2001 HBO drama Wit, in which she played a dying cancer patient, and 2003's Angels in America, playing multiple roles, including one of the titular angels. Her Emmy Award was as a guest star in a 1997 episode of the show Ellen;^[5] in this episode she played a fictionalised parody of herself: a closeted lesbian more concerned with the media finding out she is actually American. She also appeared in an episode of Cheers in 1992 titled "One Hugs, the Other Doesn't".

Thompson at the London premiere of Nanny McPhee, 2005

More recently, Thompson appeared in supporting roles such as Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In 2002, she voiced Captain Amelia in Disney's Treasure Planet, an adaptation of Treasure Island. She also appeared in the 2003 comedy Love Actually. The film Nanny McPhee, adapted by Thompson from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books, was first released in October 2005. Thompson worked on the project for nine years, having written the screenplay and starred alongside her mother (who has a cameo appearance). In the film Stranger than Fiction she plays an author planning on killing her main character, Harold Crick, who turns out to be a real person. Most recently, Thompson made a short uncredited cameo as a doctor introducing the cure for cancer in the form of measles in the latest film adaptation of I Am Legend, and starred in Last Chance Harvey opposite Dustin Hoffman, Eileen Atkins and Kathy Baker. In 2009, she appeared in An Education and The Boat That Rocked, the new Richard Curtis film, which also starred Gemma Arterton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, January Jones, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Jack Davenport and Rhys Ifans.

Thompson reprised her role as Sybill Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.^[6] She will also voice Queen Elinor in the upcoming 2012 Pixar film Brave.^[7]

Personal life[link]

While at Cambridge, Thompson was romantically involved with actor Hugh Laurie,^[8] a fellow Footlights member and an undergraduate at Selwyn College, just across the road from Newnham. Thompson continues her friendship with Laurie.

She married actor Kenneth Branagh on 20 August 1989. They acted together several times, in the TV series Fortunes of War, and in hit films such as Dead Again, Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. They divorced in October 1995.

Thompson married actor Greg Wise in 2003 in Dunoon, Scotland, where she has a second home.^[9] The couple have a daughter, Gaia Romilly, born in 1999. In 2003, the couple informally adopted a 16-year-old Rwandan refugee named Tindyebwa Agaba and support ActionAid since 2000.^[10] They successfully resisted his deportation back to Rwanda, his family having been killed in the genocide.^[11]

Activism[link]

Environmental work[link]

Thompson in 2008

Thompson is a supporter of Greenpeace. It was announced on 13 January 2009 that, with three other members of the organisation, she had bought land near the village of Sipson, under threat from a proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport.^[12] It was hoped that possession of the land, half the size of a football pitch, would make it possible to prevent the government from carrying through its plan to expand the airport.

Bought for an undisclosed sum from a local land owner, the plot was to be split into small squares and sold across the globe. Thompson said, "I don't understand how any government remotely serious about committing to reversing climate change can even consider these ridiculous plans. It's laughably hypocritical. That's why we've bought a plot on the runway. We'll stop this from happening even if we have to move in and plant vegetables."^[13]

Development work[link]

Thompson is an ambassador for the charity ActionAid and has travelled to Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Liberia and Burma to raise awareness of its work.^[14]

Political and religious views[link]

Thompson has said of her religious and political views: "I'm an atheist; I suppose you can call me a sort of libertarian anarchist. I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qur'an and I refute them."^[15] Despite this, she says that the guiding moral principles, ethical principles and much of the philosophy of Christianity is very good and that she celebrates Christmas.^[16] She told the BBC Andrew Marr Show in March 2010 that she had been a member of the Labour Party "all my life."^[17] Thompson is also a Palestinian human rights activist, having been a member of the British-based ENOUGH! coalition that seeks to end the "Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank."^[18]

Controversies[link]

Comments[link]

At a visit to Exeter University in November 2010 for a lecture titled 'All Africans Now', Thompson stated that Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party would "love Exeter. He would feel very comfortable here", in reference to Exeter University's low number of ethnic minority students. Her remarks were responded to by from Exeter Conservative councillor, Jeff Coates, who said "It's a very strange accusation to make. For heaven's sake, this is a country on the north-west fringes of Europe".^[19]

Thompson came in for criticism for a comment on The Late Late Show on US television in August 2010, regarding residents of the Isle of Wight's attitude to homosexuals, remarking that they 'stone homosexuals'.^[20] Thompson later apologised, stating that her comments were meant to refer to the Isle of Man instead.^[21]

Infringement accusation[link]

In 2011, playwright, Gregory Murphy, accused Emma Thompson of misappropriating his Off-Broadway and West End theatre 2009 play and subsequent screenplay, "The Countess," about the bizarre "love triangle" between John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais.^[22] Murphy asserts that copies of his play and screenplay were sent to her and her husband, Greg Wise, through a mutual friend. After obtaining a copy of a screenplay titled, "Effie", credited to Thompson and Wise, Murphy contacted the film's producers, noting that "Effie" was distinctly related to Murphy's own screenplay in its "time-frame, character development, structure and tone."^[23]

Thompson asserts that she has never seen "The Countess", read its screenplay, or ever received a copy from the mutual friend, who is willing to testify that he never gave her a copy. She maintains that all similarities between "Effie" and "The Countess" are simply the result of them being based on the same historical events.^[23]

Thompson met with Murphy at her home in an attempt to reach an agreement, and there followed over a number of months discussion of a possible writer's credit on the film and payment to Murphy. However no settlement could be reached to the satisfaction of both parties.

Thompson was expected to go into production on "Effie" in August 2011. However, she must "be able to demonstrate that there is no validity to Mr. Murphy's claim of infringement" to close the financing for the film.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

• Sources for Awards: Evening Standard British Film Awards – IMDB: Emma Thompson Awards

Television[link]

Theatre[link]

The following is a partial list of Thompson's theatre credits:

• 1982 – Appeared in Not the Nine O'Clock News – UK tour.
• 1982 – Co-wrote and appeared in Beyond the Footlights – Lyric Hammersmith, London.
• 1984 – Wrote and starred in the one woman show Short Vehicle – Edinburgh Festival.
• 1984/5 – Played Sally in the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester production of the musical Me and My Girl, co-starring with Robert Lindsay. The show then successfully transferred to the Adelphi Theatre, London. (The book for Me and My Girl was adapted by Stephen Fry)
• 1989 – Played Alison in Look Back in Anger by John Osborne – Lyric Shaftesbury, London.
• 1990 – Played The Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream – International tour.

See also[link]

• List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson

Further reading[link]

• Hewison, Robert (1984). Footlights! A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy. Methuen, London. ISBN 0-413-56050-3. 
• Branagh, Kenneth (1989). Beginning. St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-05822-5. 
• Shuttleworth, Ian (1994). Ken and Em. Headline Book Publishing, London. ISBN 0-7472-1225-2. 
• Nickson, Chris (1997). Emma: The Many Facets of Emma Thompson. Taylor Publishing. ISBN 0-87833-965-5. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emma Thompson

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Emma Thompson

• Emma Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
• Emma Thompson at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Emma Thompson at the TCM Movie Database
• The Guardian Interview, 10/16/05
• Thompson answers questions on her AIDS charity work, 11/25/03