Scrying

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"The Crystal Ball" by John William Waterhouse (1902, oil on canvas)
"The Crystal Ball" by John William Waterhouse (1902, oil on canvas)

Scrying or crystal gazing is the occult practice of using a medium, most commonly a reflective surface or translucent body, to aid perceived psychic abilities such as clairvoyance. The media often used to "see" are water, polished precious stones, crystal balls, or mirrors. Scrying has been used in many cultures as a means of seeing the past, present, or future; in this sense scrying constitutes a form of divination or fortune-telling.

When one stares into the media for a long period of time, he may receive visions of various nature. Some believe that scrying is a form of divination, while others believe that the visions merely come from the subconscious.

Scrying is actively used by many cultures and belief systems and is not limited to one tradition or ideology. However, like other aspects of divination and parapsychology, it is not supported by mainstream science as a method of predicting the future or otherwise seeing events that are not physically observable.

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[edit] Media used in scrying

A quartz crystal ball, commonly used for scrying.
A quartz crystal ball, commonly used for scrying.

The most common media used for scrying are:

  • Crystal balls (pictured), crystals, precious stones, polished quartz, or another transparent body; this is called crystallomancy. Sometimes "crystal gazing" refers specifically to crystallomancy. Crystal balls are also called shew stones. A stone or crystal is also called a seerstone or peepstone.
  • Water or another liquid; this is called hydromancy.
  • Mirrors; this is called catoptromancy, also known as captromancy, enoptromancy, or mirror gazing.

Specific objects that have been used for scrying include:

[edit] History

The calm surface of water after being disrupted, showing ripples.
The calm surface of water after being disrupted, showing ripples.

The etymology of the -mancy words is the Greek manteia, "divination". Scrying comes from the Old English word descry meaning "to make out dimly" or "to reveal."

[edit] Ancient Europe

Around 2,000 BC, Greece, as well as "early" Britain and its subsequent Celtic population, practised many forms of scrying.[citation needed] The media often used were beryl, crystal, black glass, polished quartz, water, and other transparent or light catching bodies.

Celtic tribes, known to exist in Britain as early as 2,000 B.C., were unified by a priesthood known as Druids. Druids are one of the earliest known peoples to have used crystals in divination. It is interesting to note that Druid religion had similarities to megalithic religion of an earlier Britain; thus, it is possible the first use of crystal divination might have come from them.[citation needed]

Pausanias, 2nd century AD Greek traveller, described catoptromancy (mirror gazing) as follows:

Before the Temple of Ceres at Patras, there was a fountain, separated from the temple by a wall, and there was an oracle, very truthful, not for all events, but for the sick only. The sick person let down a mirror, suspended by a thread till its based touched the surface of the water, having first prayed to the goddess and offered incense. Then looking in the mirror, he saw the presage of death or recovery, according as the face appeared fresh and healthy, or of a ghastly aspect.

[edit] Medieval central Europe

Later, during central Europe's Medieval Period diviners used crystals to "see" into the past, present, or future. Due to its transparent nature, a natural gemstone called Beryllium Aluminum Silicate (Beryl), was often used in the divination process. Scottish Highlanders termed these objects "stones of power." Though early crystal balls were made from Beryl, they were later replaced by rock crystal, an even more transparent rock.

[edit] 16th century central Europe

Nostradamus is believed to have employed a small bowl of water as a scrying aid.

Dr John Dee (1527–1608, dates vary) was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. Dee and his assistant Edward Kelley employed crystal ball. The crystal ball and wax tablets used by Dee and Kelley are on display at the British Museum in London.

[edit] Religion and mythology

[edit] Judaism and Christianity

Main article: Urim and Thummim

According to the Hebrew Bible, Urim and Thummim (Hebrew for "revelation and truth") were used as a divination process. Many scholars believe they were two or twelve crystals used for scrying, but there are also other interpretations. The earliest reference is in Exodus 28:30, when Aaron carried them with him as High Priest.

Deuteronomy 18:10-11 says, There shall not be found among you... one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. Christianity is traditionally against all forms of divination, historically condemned by the Catholic church and some specific forms even forbidden under pain of excommunication.

[edit] Ancient Persia

Main article: Cup of Jamshid

The Shahnameh, a semi-historical epic work written in the late 10th century, gives a description of what was called the Cup of Jamshid or Jaam-e Jam, used in pre-Islamic Persia, which was used by wizards and practitioners of the esoteric sciences for observing all the seven layers of the universe. The cup also contained an elixir of immortality.

[edit] Mormonism

Main articles: Urim and Thummim and Seer stones in Mormonism

Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement, said he used two stones called the Urim and Thummim, in his 1829 translation of the Book of Mormon from the Golden Plates.

The Urim and Thummim is mentioned several times in the Old Testament as well as the Book of Mormon. It is a Hebrew term meaning Lights and Perfections. In Mormon theology it is an instrument prepared by God that assists man in obtaining revelation and in translating languages.

[edit] Modern uses

  • The Dr. John Dee Memorial Theater of the Mind research institute founded by the parapsychologist Raymond Moody utilizes crystallomancy to allow people to experience an altered state of consciousness with the intention of invoking apparitions of the dead.
  • In the TV series Babylon 5, Telepath Alfred Bester uses a form of scrying in the episode The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father.
  • Contemporary mass media, such as films, often depict scrying using a crystal ball, stereotypically used by an old gypsy woman.
  • In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth (such as The Lord of the Rings), the Palantír is a stone that allows seeing any what any other Palantír sees, and the Mirror of Galadriel is used as a type of scrying device used to see visios of the past, present, or future.
  • In the Inheritance series, Eragon is able to scry certain objects that he has already seen using his magic as a Dragon Rider.

[edit] Method of scrying

The visions that scryers say they see may come from variations in the medium. If the medium is water (hydromancy), then the visions may come from the color, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool. If the medium is a crystal ball, the visions may come from the tiny inclusions, web-like faults, or the cloudy glow within the ball under low light (e.g. candlelight).

One method of scrying using a crystal ball involves a self-induced trance. Initially, the medium serves as a focus for the attention, removing unwanted thoughts from the mind in the same way as a mantra. Once this stage is achieved, the scryer begins a free association with the perceived images suggested. The technique of deliberately looking for and declaring these initial images aloud, however trivial or irrelevant they may seem to the conscious mind, is done with the intent of deepening the trance state, wherein the scryer hears their own disassociated voice affirming what is seen within the concentrated state in a kind of feedback loop. This process culminates in the achievement of a final and desired end stage in which rich visual images and dramatic stories seem to be projected within the medium itself, or directly within the mind's eye of the scryer, like an inner movie. This overall process reputedly allows the scryer to "see" relevant events or images within the chosen medium.

[edit] References and further reading

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