oracles

• believed to reveal will of spirits

87:5.9The in­ten­tion and will of the spir­its were stud­ied by means of omens, or­a­cles, and signs. And these spirit mes­sages were in­ter­preted by div­ina­tion, sooth­say­ing, magic, or­deals, and as­trol­ogy. The whole cult was a scheme de­signed to pla­cate, sat­isfy, and buy off the spir­its through this dis­guised bribery.

• Greeks believed in

90:2.8The Greeks be­lieved in the ef­fi­cacy of orac­u­lar ad­vice, the Chi­nese used magic as pro­tec­tion against demons, shaman­ism flour­ished in In­dia, and it still openly per­sists in cen­tral Asia. It is an only re­cently aban­doned prac­tice through­out much of the world.

• Latin peoples consulted o. in crisis

98:3.4The re­li­gious ini­ti­a­tion of Ro­man youths was the oc­ca­sion of their solemn con­se­cra­tion to the ser­vice of the state. Oaths and ad­mis­sions to cit­i­zen­ship were in re­al­ity re­li­gious cer­e­monies. The Latin peo­ples main­tained tem­ples, al­tars, and shrines and, in a cri­sis, would con­sult the or­a­cles. They pre­served the bones of heroes and later on those of the Chris­tian saints.