Talk:Divination

I eliminated the word "occultic" from the first sentence of this article. On the one hand, it was effectively redundant with the designation "supernatural" in the same sentence. On the other hand, the very word "occultic" is one that I have only ever seen used by Christian critics of the occult and their indoctrinees. (We do have at least one outspoken Thelemite around who will say "occultic," but she used to be a Christian preacher!) The word "occult" is a perfectly adequate adjective, if such a designation is required, although it also means "hidden" in a more generic sense. "Occultist" more specifically designates modern magical praxis from Eliphas Levi to the present, and is also useful. "Occultic" means that devil-worshippin' stuff.

I also deleted this paragraph-concluding sentence: "However, the Judeo-Christian Bible states that divination is strictly forbidden by God." I guess that cinches my hypothesis that a doctrinaire Christian had his or her fingers in the wiki source text. Bible references should definitely be backed up with chapter and verse citations! If anyone has one for this claim, we can put it back in. Many writers have contended, on the other hand, that the urim and thummim of Hebrew scripture were in fact an ancient system of divination used by the priests of Jehovah. --Paradoxosalpha 10:51, 26 Sep 2004 (EDT)