What are the similarities and differences between divination and fortune telling?

About Divination and Fortune-telling [from chinatarot]

Divination is a type of occult activity in which things are investigated by supernatural means. If there is a distinction to be made between fortune-telling and divination, it is that divination is ceremonial or social in character, and is usually associated with religion, whereas fortune-telling is more of a daily activity in the service of the individual. Divination is often challenged by some as mere superstition. Advocates, however, would say that there are many anecdotes that attest to the validity of divination. Divination is a universal cultural phenomenon, and anthropologists have found its presence in religions and cultures from ancient times to the present. However, the Christian Bible says divination is strictly forbidden by God.

In ancient Chinese, "divination" means yarrow divination, and "divination" means tortoise divination, and both yarrow and tortoise divination were methods of divination in ancient China, with tortoise divination having an even longer history but being lost. Yarrow divination and turtle divination are both ancient Chinese divination methods, of which the history of turtle divination is even longer, but has been lost, the Yinxu oracle bone inscriptions are direct archaeological evidence of the existence of turtle divination; yarrow divination is recorded in the Department of Rhetoric, and its methods have been preserved to this day.

In China, since ancient times, there has been the philosophical idea of the unity of heaven and mankind, so the rise and fall of personnel can be expressed by natural changes. On the one hand, divination is a kind of mysticism, while on the other hand, it is a practical application of various natural science experiences.

Scientific research has been able to successfully predict some things that will happen in the future, such as eclipses, weather forecasts and volcanic eruptions, etc. However, these are not considered to be divination. Strictly speaking, divination presupposes the effects of some supernatural force or fate, whereas scientific prediction comes from a mechanized, emotionless worldview and relies on natural rules of thumb. Thus, by operational definition, all activities that employ methods of prediction not considered valid by scientific research can be described as divination.

Besides the simple explanation of anecdote, there are serious theories exploring how divination works. One of these theories, which has an empirical scientific basis, is based on the subconscious mind. According to this theory, divination is a process of decoding messages from the subconscious mind. The belief that the source of these messages is a supernatural or mystical force is what separates this theory from the scientific explanation.

Julian Jaynes divides divination into the following categories:

Prediction and Forecasting "The most primitive, the most awkward, but also the most enduring method is the recording of a series of strange events." (1976: 236) Ancient Chinese history has always recorded the course of those oddities, natural variations, and other information upon which ancient Chinese governmental agencies relied to predict strategic problems in the distant future. Much of modern science also derives from these "divinations," as Joseph Needham's research suggests.

Drawing lots This can be done with sticks, bones, stones, beans, and so on. Modern board games have evolved from these "divinations".

Augury. is divination that provides predictions, which can be qualitative (e.g. shape, proximity to something, etc.). Prospecting (divination with a stick) developed from this. Sacrificial animal dissection and anal divination (actually a form of Extispicy) was used in the Etruscan civilization during the ancient Roman period, where monks would test the freshness of the meat offered for sacrifice.

Liberal divination A form of divination that has no specific method and is actually a derivative of other methods of divination. Revelations come from what the diviner happens to see and hear. Some Christians and some other religions use Biblical trigrams for divination where they ask a question, grab a holy book, or for revelation to go to unknown places. Others, like chirography and New Age feng shui, like intuition and Taoist charms .

The most common is still astrology, which is generally divided into Vedic astrology (Jyotish), Western astrology, and Chinese astrology, in addition to these three schools, many civilizations have their own astrological methods.

In China, divination can be done in the following ways:

Phrenology, which refers to the observation of a person's demeanor, temperament, countenance, body parts, etc. in order to predict good or bad fortune, as well as various other matters.

Astrology, astrology in China is mainly can indicate the country and the monarch's misfortune, governance or not. In the early days, it was closely associated with astronomy, but later it was gradually separated

Divination, which refers to the use of tortoise shells and divining herbs to predict certain matters, the methods used in different eras have been different, and there have been innovations through the ages, such as Dongfang Shuo's Spiritual Chess Scripture, which is rumored to have used special chess pieces and a special mnemonic to make predictions.

Star destiny, using the birth date, eight characters geographic location, etc. and natural phases of the comparison prediction.

Dream divination, based on the dream, borrowed from nature or other personnel to make analogies and come up with some predictions.

Zhanqi, the use of the sky and other manifestations of color and other circumstances, mainly used to predict the situation of war, in the ancient military writings, such a chapter is indispensable.

Sound and Law Hou Qi Zhan, using the manifestation of sound, etc. to predict or explain earthly affairs.

Fu Rui (符瑞), the prediction of good and bad luck and national misfortunes based on unusual things, was usually utilized, as in the case of the Chen Sheng and Wuguang uprisings.

Nursery Rhymes, during the Han Dynasty, nursery rhymes were believed to predict good and bad fortune, so there will be many instances of such predictions in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The difference between fortune-telling and divination

Many people are not clear about the difference between fortune-telling (e.g. Zi Wei Dou Shu, Horoscope, Four Pillars) and divination (e.g. Tarot cards, I Ching Ching, Zi Zi Zhi). For example, if you want to travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung today, you can take a plane, a train, a bus, drive your own car, ride a bike, or even walk, while fortune-telling is to tell you the way you will get there, and the time you will arrive, so the focus of fortune-telling is 'result-oriented', and the result of the fortune-telling inference will not be changed at any point in time, no matter whether you are born, or you are 50 years old when you are counting.

The principle of fortune-telling is to utilize the person's birth time, even with the person's birth place [horoscope], to deduce the person's life in the established good and bad luck, the fate of the person's high and low, the life cycle and the ups and downs of the person's life, so that the fortune-telling is a personal destiny plate to analyze the person's life in all kinds of different appearances and results, and is a general trend. If you don't have the person's birth time, or the birth time is wrong, the disk can't be discharged, it is difficult to make inferences.

But divination is different. It tells you who you will meet when you go to Kaohsiung, what you will eat, whether you will sleep, and what will happen in the middle of the journey, and it is based on the process and analyzes the reasons why things happen. The limitation of divination is that it is impossible to predict the complete time and the detailed figures, because divination is to deduce the fortune, and fortune is constantly changing! You may say then why don't I just learn numerology, why do I need to learn Tarot because numerology will let me know the outcome of what happens at a particular time.

The principle of divination; different from numerology - divination does not require the birth time of the person concerned, as well as too much information about the person concerned [of course, with detailed information, you can deduce more carefully]. Divination is based on the clues [a kind of touching machine] that the diviner obtains at the time, such as drawing a card, arranging a hexagram, writing out a word?6?4?6?4?6?4, and so on, in order to make a prediction. Divination focuses on "one thing at a time", mainly analyzes the specific events of the person concerned, and the predicted results can be changed through human efforts.

This is true, but let's think about it, if you use fortune telling to figure out that you will die tomorrow, do you want to die happily, or do you want to leave in pain? I think most people would want to be happy, and divination can tell you what to do to be happy or even painless (I hate to give you this example, but it's the most obvious). In contrast, if you don't know the tricks of the tarot, and you die in a daze, with pain in your heart, isn't that more sad? Although, the final result of both is the same, but the process, the feeling is completely different.

Fortune-telling Divination

Predicted Fortune

Results Absolute results Variable results

Time of occurrence Absolute time Nearer future

Significance to the person Inborn predestination Efforts of nature

Can be changed Cannot be changed [very difficult] Can be changed.

There is also a very obvious example, that is, Yuan Weifan, the author of "The Four Lessons of Weifan", who had his fortune told by an old man when he was a young man, who predicted his fame, age and whether he would have an heir or not (originally, he was not supposed to have any children), but by making a thousand good wishes, he changed the limitations of his innate destiny with his efforts, and not only did he get a different fame and age, but also got a boy. This is the best example of how to overcome destiny with luck, and how to change the destiny of one's predisposition with one's own efforts.

Note: Therefore, as the saying goes, "Good fortune is not as good as luck, and good luck is not as good as hard work. We suggest that you read the four lessons.

The true spirit of tarot cards is to learn about the world's problems and to move towards the path of the king; the purpose of divination is to tell you the reason for things, as well as to suggest how you should go to work towards happiness, don't forget, destiny is in your own hands, even if we can't change the result in the end, but also expect to make yourself feel better, don't you think so?