Everything about Oracle totally explained
An
oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or
prophetic opinion; an
infallible authority, usually
spiritual in nature. It may also be a revealed
prediction or
precognition of the future, from deities, that's spoken through another object (
for example:
runemal) or life-form (for example:
augury and
auspice). In the
ancient world many sites gained a reputation for the dispensing of oracular wisdom: they too became known as "oracles", and the oracular utterances, called
khrēsmoi in
Greek, were often referred to under the same name — a name derived from the
Latin verb
ōrāre, to speak.
Ancient civilizations
China
Oracles were common in many civilizations of antiquity. In China, the use of
oracle bones dates as far back as the
Shang Dynasty, (
1600 BC -
1046 BC). The
I Ching, or "Book of Changes", is a collection of linear signs used as oracles that dates from that period. Although
divination with the I Ching is thought to have originated prior to the Shang Dynasty, it wasn't until King Wu of Zhou (1046 BC-1043 BC) that it took its present form. In addition to its oracular power, the I Ching has had a major influence on the philosophy, literature and statecraft of China from the time of the
Zhou Dynasty (
1122 BC -
256 BC).
Egypt
The earliest known oracle was in the renowned temple at
Per-Wadjet. This was an important site in the
Predynastic era of
Ancient Egypt, which includes the cultural developments of ten thousand years from the
Paleolithic to
3100 BC The temple was dedicated to the worship of
Wadjet and may have been the source for the oracular tradition that spread to Ancient Greece from Egypt. The Per-Wadjet tradition continued through the entire history of the Ancient Egyptian culture. The later Greeks called both the goddess and the city
Buto.
Another oracle of note lay in Egypt during the
Eighteenth dynasty (
1550-1292 BC), in a temple dedicated to
Amun, a god who rose to importance during that time. The Greeks associated him with
Zeus.
Alexander the Great once visited it, and although no record of his query remains, the oracle is thought to have hailed him as Ammon's son, influencing his conceptions of his own divinity.
Greece
The earliest tradition of oracular practice in Hellenic culture is from the archaic period shortly after arrival of the Hellenes in their current place of settlement c.1300 BC. The oracle was associated with the cults of deities derived from the great goddess of nature and fertility, the pre-eminent ancient oracle—the
Delphic Oracle—operated at the temple of
Delphi.
The temple was changed to a center for the worship of
Apollo during the classical period of
Greece and priests were added to the temple organization—although the tradition regarding prophecy remained unchanged—and the apparently always-female priestess continued to provide the services of the oracle exclusively. It is from this institution that the English word, oracle, is derived.
The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture. The Greeks consulted her prior to all major undertakings, wars, the founding of colonies, and so forth.
The semi-Hellenic countries around the Greece world, such as
Lydia,
Caria, and even
Egypt also respected her and came to Delphi as supplicants.
Croesus of Lydia consulted Delphi before attacking
Persia, and according to
Herodotus was told, "If you cross the river, you'll destroy a great empire." Believing the response favorable, Croesus attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the Persians.
She allegedly also proclaimed
Socrates to be the wisest man in Greece, to which Socrates said that, if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this confrontation, he believed it his duty to share his knowledge by teaching Greece's youth. This Oracle's last recorded response was given in 393 AD, when the emperor
Theodosius I ordered pagan temples to cease operation.
Dodona another oracle devoted to the
Mother Goddess identified at other sites with
Rhea or
Gaia, but here called
Dione. The shrine of Dodona was the oldest Hellenic oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus and, in fact, dates to pre-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BC when the tradition spread from Egypt. It became the second most important oracle in ancient Greece, which later was dedicated to
Zeus and to
Heracles during the classical period of Greece.
During the period, on
Crete lay another important oracle, sacred to
Apollo. It ranked as one of the most accurate oracles in
Greece.
India
In ancient India, the
oracle was known as Akashwani, literally meaning "voice from the sky" and was related to the message of God. Oracles played key roles in many of the major incidents of the epics
Mahabharat and
Ramayana. An example is that
Kamsa, the evil uncle of lord
Krishna, was informed by an oracle that the eighth son of his sister
Devaki would kill him.
In South Indian language Kannada, "Oracle" is mentioned as "Asareeravani". There is a famous temple in Gurpur near Mangalore that brings people from far. In Tamil it's mentioned as "Asareeree". In Telugu, it's called "Deva Vaakku". It literally means 'Words of God'.
Mesoamerica
In the migration myth of the Mexitin, for example, the early
Aztecs, a
mummy-bundle (perhaps an
effigy) carried by four priests directed the trek away from the cave of origins by giving oracles. One an oracle led to the foundation of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The
Yucatec Mayas knew oracle priests or
chilanes, literally 'mouthpieces' of the deity. Their written repositories of traditional knowledge, the Books of
Chilam Balam, were all ascribed to one famous oracle priest who correctly had predicted the coming of the Spaniards and its associated disasters.
Nigeria
The
Igbo people of southeastern
Nigeria in
Africa have a long tradition of using oracles. In Igbo villages, oracles were usually female
priestesses to a particular deity, usually dwelling in a cave or other secluded location away from urban areas, and, much as the oracles of ancient Greece, would deliver prophecies in an ecstatic state to visitors seeking advice. Though the vast majority of Igbos today are
Christian, many in Nigeria today still use oracles.
In Igboland of present-day Nigeria many different oracles were regularly consulted. Two of these became especially famous: the Agbala oracle at
Awka and the Chukwu oracle at
Arochukwu.
Scandinavia
In
Norse mythology,
Odin took the severed head of the mythical god
Mimir to
Asgard for consultation as an oracle. The
Havamal and other sources relate the
sacrifice of Odin for the oracular
Runes whereby he lost an eye (external sight) and won wisdom (internal sight;
insight).
Tibet
In
Tibet, oracles have played, and continue to play, an important part in religion and government. The word "oracle" is used by Tibetans to refer to the spirit that enters those men and women who act as
media between the natural and the spiritual realms. The media are, therefore, known as
kuten, which literally means, "the physical basis".
The
Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle known as the
Nechung Oracle, which is considered the official state oracle of the government of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has according to custom, a custom that has endured for centuries, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year festivites of
Losar. Another oracle he consults is the
Tenma oracle, for which a young Tibetan woman is the medium for the goddess. The Dalai Lama gives a complete description of the process of
trance and
spirit possession in his book
Freedom in Exile.
(External Link
).
Further Information
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