Premodern Epistemology: Divination

In the section of ‘Limits of the World” from “Prose of the World,” Michel Foucault speaks of the renaissance as an episteme. The theory of knowledge of this episteme is “plethoric yet absolutely poverty stricken character of this knowledge” (Foucault, 30).  “Renaissance” is substituted for Premodern, because this essay (as well as my other essays) argues that Jacob Burckhardt’s taxon Renaissance is an obstacle to understanding this period. “Resemblance” is central to the Premodern episteme. Premodern epistemology “must proceed by infinite accumulation of confirmations which are dependent upon one another” (Foucault, 30). This is the plethoric dimension of Premodern epistemology, because it requires a limitless column of resemblances in order to explain one resemblance. The power of explanation is a resemblance resembling an indefinite sequence of resemblances, which resemble that resemblance. Accordingly, Foucault insists that Premodern epistemology is built on sand, because the shift from one resemblance to explain another returns to an indefinite sequence of resemblances.

Foucault’s description of the limitation of the Premodern theory of knowledge is a half truth. Divination is interesting, because a legal language game develops in divination which organizes the sequence of resemblances so the plethoric dimension of Premodern epistemology is somewhat controlled, but not completely. Divination does not rival scientia in Premodernity, because “divination is part of the main body of knowledge itself” (Foucault, 32). Signs of nature must be interpreted in order to derive the secrets of nature, which are hidden. Just as religious and pagan texts of antiquity have hidden meanings that require methods of interpretation (such as Savonarola’s mystical hermeneutic, Franck’s hermeneutic of opposition, and Agrippa’s hermeneutic of the esoteric), so nature requires interpretation which, likewise, requires methods: divination.

Ficino, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Porta, Gilbert, Bruno, and others provide methods of divination. Foucault, however, fails to recognize that not all divination are lawful in Premodernity. This is perhaps the most interesting characteristic of divination is that, on the one hand, divination is knowledge or scientia; and, on the other hand, some forms of divination are not acceptable and regarded morally unacceptable. Unlike medieval scientia which does not draw a distinction between moral and immoral knowledge, Premodernity does moralize knowledge. In the Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer and Sprenger argue that astrology is an acceptable type of divination, because “all the corporeal substances of this world are governed by celestial influence” (Kramer and Sprenger, 92). Magic is divination, which means predicting an outcome under certain circumstances, which can be repeated. Astrology interprets the stars in order to predict the outcome in the future, or explain something in the past. Although divination is a real genus of knowledge, some species of divination are not acceptable to the Premoderns, because they involve contracts or pacts with the devil.

Kramer and Sprenger classify divination under three genus: first, invocation of the devil, second, the contemplation of disposition of natural phenomena in order to reveal her natural secret, and thirdly, usage of some human art to find something hidden in nature (Kramer and Sprenger, 80). They say that the first form of divination involves invocation of the devil and is wholly unacceptable. “Sorcery, Oneiromancy, Necromancy, Hydromancy, Oracles, Aeromancy, Pyromancy, and Soothsaying” (Kramer and Sprenger, 80) are species of divination, which fall in the first genus of divination and are illegal under canon law, with the exception of Oneiromancy under certain conditions. On Kramer and Sprenger's view which is canon law for the Catholic church, a) Sorcery, Oneiromancy, and Necromancy are far greater offenses to God than b) Hydromancy, Oracles, Aeromancy, Pyromancy. If not practiced correctly, divination can be either be a grave felony or a lesser felony. Accordingly, Foucault is incorrect that Premodern epistemology lacks a foundation, or is built on sand. Instead, Premodern epistemology has a legal foundation, not scientific in the modern sense. 

On Kramer and Sprenger's view, Porta’s method of tincture of metals, which is meant to deceive people in believing brass is silver, is regarded as "Sorcery." As Porta says, “yet I must confess that these are but vain counterfeit coloring, such as will not last and stick by their bodies” (Porta, 150). Porta says that Arsenic and quicksilver applied to brass will make the brass appear as silver in its color. His manipulation of brass is sorcery, because he is altering the appearance of the corporeal body, but not substantially changing the metal. Devil cannot alter substances, but only appearances. Kramer and Sprenger maintain that “alchemists make something similar to gold, that is to say, insofar as the external accidents are concerned, but nevertheless they do not make true gold, because the substance of gold is not formed by the heat of fire which alchemists employ, but by the heat of sun acting upon a certain spot where mineral is concentrated and amassed” (Kramer and Sprenger, 11). Accordingly, Porta is a self confessed sorcerer, who under canon law should be burned at the stake on the grounds of the high felony of committing fraud against God's natural order.

Kramer and Sprenger's view of natural magic comes from the 15th century Neo-Platonic language game, which insists that superior bodies influence inferior bodies, because the sun influences the generation of gold. Alchemy can either be a form of sorcery with Porta (illegal), or it can be the third genus of divination (legal). Paracelsus uses alchemy to extract the medical powers of minerals, plants, and animals to cure disease would be regard as the third genus of divination. “Hence it is plain that those who perform works of healing may well preform them by means of such good influence, and this has no connexion at all with evil power” (Kramer and Sprenger, 13). Ergo, Paracelsus is not regarded as a sorcerer, but as an alchemist who uses his art to cure disease.

Oneiromancy is divination, which involves using dreams to predict the future. According to Kramer and Sprenger, there are two forms of Oneiromancy: one unlawful, the other lawful. Both involve devils, angels, and natural causes. Unlawful Oneiromancy is “when a person uses dreams so that he may dip into the occult with the help of revelation of devils invoked by him, with whom he has entered an open pack” (Kramer and Sprenger, 81). If a person is in open contract with the devil and uses this unlawful contract to predict the future from people’s dreams, then this is unlawful Oneiromancy. In Macbeth, the witches, who predict Macbeth’s future from his dreams, are perfect examples of unlawful Oneiromancy. They tell Macbeth that his dream have prognostics or signs which point to his future as king and his death. Since these witches are in open contract with the devil, their divination of Macbeth’s dream is unlawful. The second type of Oneiromancy is “when a man uses his dreams for knowing the future, insofar as there is such a virtue in dreams proceeding Divine revelation, from a natural intrinsic and extrinsic cause” (81); and such divination is lawful.

If Savonarola’s divination of the French invasion of Italy is caused by either an Angel, or natural cause from his dreams, then his divination is lawful, because either an Angel is telling him this outcome or some natural cause. Savonarola believes his divination from his dreams is influenced by God, so he believes his divination to be lawful. The Inquisition, on the other hand, does not agree with Savonarola’s claim of its lawfulness; ergo, he is burned at the stake as a heretic, but not as a witch. So Foucault is wrong about the infinite regress of resemblances, because their are two columns (legal and illegal) with regard to divination, which are very enforceable.

Agrippa believes that dreams can be sources of divination in conjunction with astrology: “I call that a dream here, which is caused by the celestial influence in fantastic spirit, mind, or body being well disposed” (Agrippa, 186).  When the Moon overruns ninth number of the nativity, or the revolution of that year, dreams are most efficacious in predicting the future. Since Agrippa’s view Oneiromancy involves the Moon influencing the mind of man in his dreams, Kramer and Sprenger regard Agrippa’s view of Oneiromancy as the second genus of divination, because it involves a natural agent (the moon) influencing the mind of man. Furthermore, they both know that celestial bodies determine terrestrial bodies. Ergo, Agrippa’s usage of Oneiromancy is lawful, and involves no dealings with the devil.  

Paracelsus regards Oneiromancy as a great art and under third genus of divination. ”The interpretation of dreams is a great art” (Paracelsus, 134).  Unlike Kramer and Sprenger who draw a sharp distinction between revelation and art in Oneiromancy, Paracelsus does not draw such a distinction: divine revelation is contained in dreams; and “sidereal knowledge” is required to interpret the divine revelation in the dreams. “Anyone who wants to take his dreams seriously, interprets it, and is guided by it, must be endowed with sidereal knowledge and the light of nature” (Paracelsus, 135).  Paracelsus is not under the jurisdiction of canon law, because he is not a Catholic, but is what Willliams and Mergal call a "Rational Christian spiritualist," who believes that art and divine revelation are not mutually exclusive. A person must be “endowed with sidereal knowledge,” which means that it is not derived from experience, but a gift from the Holy Ghost. Sidereal knowledge makes the interpretation of the dream possible, because it provides the necessary structure to remove “the absurd fantasies, nor look upon dreams from the heights of his arrogance” (Paracelsus, 135). If sidereal knowledge is possible, then “dreams must be heeded and accepted” (Paracelsus, 135), because much of structure of dreams comes to pass in the future. 

Oneiromancy is essentially tied to Paracelsus’ view of the elect and predestination. “The dreams which reveal the supernatural are promises and messages that God sends directly” (Paracelsus, 135). God communicates to his elect, who have the ability to interpret his messages in their dreams, promises about the future and messages (or special insights) not visible to the eye. Unlike Kramer and Sprenger, Paracelsus is not an Aristotelian empiricist, but believes that nature has occult forces (tria prima), which cannot be explained by the senses.  Since the senses deceive, the elect has sidereal knowledge, which enable them to use their dreams to guide their actions in the waking day. Artists receive their best insights from their dreams. “From time immemorial artistic insights have been revealed to artists in their sleep and in their dreams, so that at all times they adherently desired them” (Paracelsus 137). Oneiromancy is not only useful to artists, but also true philosophers, who are looking for insight into the secrets of nature.  

Necromancy is a species of divination which involves manipulating the dead to be able to predict the future. Kramer and Sprenger regard this species of divination as clearly unlawful: “Necromancy is the summoning of and speech with the dead…they accomplish this by working some spell over the blood of man or animal, knowing that the devil delights in such sin, and loves blood and pouring out of blood” (Kramer and Sprenger, 80). Kramer and Sprenger are aware that the prophet summoned a soul from the dead to predict the outcome of Saul’s war; but this is not unlawful necromancy, because “not by the potency of any magic art but by some hidden dispensation unknown to the Pythoness or to Saul, that the spirit of that just man should appear before the sight of the king, to deliver the Divine sentence against Saul” (Kramer and Sprenger, 81). This case would clearly be under divine revelation. Necromancers, however, are not prophets, because “they do not cease to shed innocent blood, to bring hidden things to light under the devils, and by destroying the soul with the body spare neither living nor the dead” (Kramer and Sprenger, 81). 

On Magic, Bruno is very clear about necromancy. He describes necromancy as no different as saying a prayer to a saint, or God, because he describes the act of necromancy as a petition to the dead to derive a benefit. This petition to the dead usually involves a prediction about the future events, so necromancy is still a species of divination under Bruno. Necromancy is essential to magic regardless of its status under canon law, because the dead have a perspective closer to God than the living, so the dead can predict the future better than any magician, who does not have the benefit of their guidance. Interestingly, Bruno lists necromancy as the seventh trait of magic, which means that necromancy is the most perfect species of divination due to its holy numerical designation. “Seventh, magic is the petition or invocation, not of the demons and heroes themselves, but through them, to call upon the souls of dead humans, in order to predict and know absent and future events by taking their cadavers or parts thereof to some oracle” (Bruno, 106).

Bruno does not believe that a petition to the dead necessarily involves an “invocation” or pact with the devil, but the devil can be used as a broker in the exchange. Kramer and Sprenger would classify Bruno’s description of necromancy as the profoundest blasphemy against God. He tries to circumvent the charge of “invocation” or pact with the devil by saying that the petition is not with the devil, but to the dead. Just as a prayer is petition to a saint to get favor from God, the devil is a middle man to get petition to dead in order to predict the future outcome of some event. Those, who want to broker the deal with the dead, require body parts of the dead in order to get their attention and to answer their petition about the future.

Bruno’s Hermetic ontology puts necromancy in such a privileged role in the art of divination, because body and spirit seek unity through the soul. A ghost is a shadow of the body and the soul, because it is diminished in that it does not have body or soul, but only spirit. The ghost is always attracted to its body or corpse, like iron is to a load-stone, because the ghost is incomplete without its body. On the hermetic view, something is not complete unless it has a soul, which unifies the contraries of body and spirit. A corpse is an incomplete body. Ghost is an incomplete spirit.  Accordingly, a corpse is essential to necromancy, because no attraction between spirit and body is possible without the corpse. If a magician is in possession of a part of the corpse of a Wiseman or saint, then he can petition the ghost for divinations or predictions of the future, because of the magician’s possession of the body will always draw its ghost (spirit).

Necromancy is a magical method to improve the perspective of the magician, because he can petition those, who are more elevated in the hierarchy of being, to provide him with divination about the future. In short, necromancy is the key to magician’s performance of miracles, because he will have power over those in the underworld or Hades, to whom will have to perform his miracles due to his possession of their bodies. Miracles are central to any ceremonial magic, because they nurture credulity among fools. Although Bruno’s view of necromancy appears occult and crazy, his view is not very different than the Catholic practice of having the body parts of its saints as a means to petition God, or create the “Holy.” How many Catholic churches have the bone of this saint or this apostle? Bruno is using the same logic of Catholic petition, and replicating this type of petition in the more general context of any deal with the dead, regardless with angel or demon, in order to achieve a more elevated perspective of the world. Bruno is so outside of Kramer and Sprenger’s canon law that it is very difficult to assess how many charges can brought against Bruno. But Bruno is the blackest natural magician of all Premodernity, he is also the most brilliant, and is burned. 

Kramer and Sprenger regard Geomancy, Hydromancy, Pyromancy, and Aeromancy as minor unlawful forms divination compared to Necromancy, Sorcery, and Oneiromancy. “There is no need to continue this argument in respect to the minor forms of divination, since it has been proved in respect of the major forms…Geomancy, which is concerned with terrene matters, such as iron or polished stone; hydromancy, which deals with water and crystals, Aeromancy, which is concerned with the air; Pyromancy, which is concerned with fire; Soothsaying, which has to do with entrails of animals sacrificed on the devil’s alter” (Kramer and Sprenger, 82). They believe that these elemental divinations “cannot be compared with crimes of witches,” (82) because they are not directed to hurting man, but only predicting the future.  

Like Kramer and Sprenger. Agrippa believes that the four elements (earth, water, fire and air) can be used for divination; and he also organizes them in the same order: Geomancy, Hydromancy, Pyromancy, and Areomancy. Agrippa regards these four elemental divinations as the second genus of divination, because they are involved in the contemplation of disposition of natural phenomena (four elements) in order to predict natural occurrences. Agrippa is correct.  Kramer and Sprenger do not explain how these elemental divinations involve the first genus divination. They only reiterate their performance is done with open invocation of the devil.  Unlike all the other unlawful divinations, they do not even explain how sorcerers and witches practice these four elemental divinations.  Only Soothsaying involves any language of the devil, because entrails of an animal are on “the Devil’s alter.” Accordingly, Kramer and Sprenger cannot really charges these elemental divinations as witchcraft or sorcery. They are legally ambiguous.  

Geomancy involves divination in two manners. The first involves understanding how the movements of the earth are signs of future events which either involve natural phenomena or human affairs. Kramer and Sprenger could have a hard time pressing the charge of heresy with regard to natural phenomena, but geomancy as a divination of human affairs may be pushing the line of the second genus of divination. The second type of geomancy involves understanding “the points written upon the earth, by a certain power in the fall of it” (Agrippa, 178).  Earth has certain signs which resemble human signs, so these signs may be used to predict human events. Hydromancy involves divination based upon “the impressions of water, their ebbing, and flowing, their increase and depressions, their tempest, and colors” (Agrippa, 178). Applying the second genus of divination, the movements of water or the tides may predict future weather, or storms, and other natural phenomena associated with water.

Divination can occur by interpreting the forms of the clouds as signs of the future. Astrology is also involved with Aeromancy, because the air is the firmament between the earth and the heavens. Although the sky is not regard as celestial, it is superior to the earth, which means air may have some influence upon events upon the earth. Understood in this way, Areomancy is between astrology and Geomancy, because the sky is between the heavens and the earth. Areomancy may be equally part of the second and third genus of divination, because it is the contemplation of nature to reveal her secrets and it involves an art to reveal some hidden truth about nature. Pyromancy involves predicting the future from fire. Agrippa sites several pagan superstitions to demonstrate this divination: Cicero and Pliny. Accordingly, his description of this divination is not the second or third genus of lawful divination, but pagan superstition.  

Naturally, Paracelsus does not regard any particular division between the major unlawful divination of necromancy and the minor unlawful geomancy, Pyromancy, Hydromancy, because he does not accept canon law. “Hence proceed many arts, such as geomancy, Pyromancy, hydromancy, and necromancy, each of which has its own particular stars, and these stars sign in a supernatural manner (Paracelsus, 191). Paracelsus is arguing that the accepted 15th century Florentine Neo-Platonic language game where superior celestial entities influence inferior terrestrial entities (as accepted by Kramer and Sprenger) are the foundation for the arts of geomancy, Pyromancy, hydromancy, and necromancy. Understood in this way, these species of divinations of occult resemblances have a metaphysical foundation in the cosmological order. Accordingly, necromancy as well as the minor elemental divinations would be moved out of the first genus divination and placed immediately in the second and third genus of divination.

Just the sun generates gold in minerals, so the “stars of geomancy sign and impress their marks on the terrestrial bodies of the whole world in many various ways” (Paracelsus, 191). Paracelsus is speaking Agrippa’s second sense of geomancy. Valleys, mountains, and total landscape owe their form to their respective stars. These stars all cause earthquakes, landslides, and other movements in order to form their terrestrial signs upon the earth. Paracelsus uses the stars as the efficient causes for earth wakes and other motions (Agrippa’s first sense) which form the earth in their respective forms, which resemble their respective stars. “Pyromancy puts forth its sign by the stars of fire” (Paracelsus, 193). Thunder and lightning in the sky correspond to their respective stars of fire. If you know which fire stars appear at certain occasions, you also know that thunder and lightning will soon follow. “Hydromancy gives its signs by the stars of water, by waves, inundations, droughts, discolorations, lorindi,  new floods, washing away of territory” (Paracelsus, 193). Water stars control the movements of water on the earth. If you know water stars, and which one represents drought, flood, etc, then you will able to predict draughts and floods.

Paracelsus does not draw a sharp distinction between necromancy and the elemental divinations, because his view of necromancy is not calling upon the dead to predict the future, but a specific type of Aeromancy involving medicine. “In addition to the methods [Pyromancy, geomancy, and hydromancy], there is Necromancy, which is the art of air. Some people at night see figures in the air, as in heaven appear which have certain signification” (Paracelsus, 193).   Paracelsus believes that disease is carried in the air, so life and death involves the air, and so divination about death involves understanding the stars which govern the air.  The air contains figures or spirits which spread disease from one house to another, which are governed by the death stars.

Paracelsus’ medical belief about disease makes his necromancy/Areomancy fundamentally distinct and not comparable to the description of species of divination of necromancy in Malleus Maleficarum.  Not only this species of divination is meant to predict the future, but also meant to heal man and prevent the spread of plague. Kramer and Sprenger would have a difficulty in classifying Paracelsus’ necromancy, because it(a) works under the accepted assumption that celestial entities determine terrestrial entities and (b) it is meant to predict in nature not for vanity, but for the health of man, which is good works. The Catholic Church insists that grace is not sufficient (contrary to Protestants) for salvation, but good work is also necessary. Paracelsus, alchemist par excellence, transforms the ugliest species of divination into the most beautiful species of divination, because how can good works be sinful or a pact with the devil.

In Concerning the Nature of Things, Paracelsus says that “necromancy puts forth its signs by the stars of death, which we also call Evestra, marking the body of the sick, and those about to die with livid, and purple spots, which are sure signs of something, good or bad, about immediately to happen” (Paracelsus, 193).  Necromancy has specific stars which mark death. Just as the earth stars cause and mark the land, so the death stars cause sickness, death, and mark the corpse with purple spots through their control over spirits in the air. “He who is favored by spirits sees many things, but otherwise, little or nothing” (Paracelsus, 193). Even if the magician understands spirits of death or ghosts and is so favored, he can understand much about disease, but do little to prevent death, because the stars have already marked those who will die. The spirits are controlled by their respective stars to carry off the dead.

Paracelsus, however, can prevent the spread of disease, but those which have been marked are beyond saving.  Any petition to God through the spirits of death to save those who have already been marked for death is a superstition. Unlike Bruno, Paracelsus does not want to encourage superstition: “The prayers, conjurations, fasts, and other ceremonies are nothing but a cloak of superstition” (Paracelsus, 193). Using any part of the body of dead to control the spirit of the dead (or ghost) is pure folly, because “the spirits display what they wish according to their own pleasure” (Paracelsus, 193) and controlled by their designated stars. Paracelsus says that understanding the death stars and their ghosts assist in determining the conditions which to treat a disease before the person is marked by the death stars and carried off by their ghosts or spirits. Understanding the death stars helps to keep people outside of their jurisdiction in order to prevent death. This is the limit to the art of necromancy.  

Just as geomancy has two senses (the marking of earth and its movement), necromancy has two senses as well. We have discussed the first sense of necromancy. “When the stars of necromancy are moved, then the dead give forth miracles and signs, the deceased bleed, dead things are seen, voices are heard from graves, tumults and tremblings arise in the charnel house and the dead appear in the form and dress of the living, are seen in visions” (Paracelsus, 194). Paracelsus is pointing out that the dead and their spirits are under the jurisdiction of the death stars, which cause the dead to motion. The corpses of the dead bleed, voices are heard from the graves, and the ghosts of the dead appear to the living fully dressed as the living. Ghosts are real. Unlike Bruno, Paracelsus believes that none of these operations upon the dead can be controlled by the magician, but is solely in the hands of the stars. The magician can only interpret the death stars under certain conditions to predict their dubious affect upon the dead, which causes ghosts to be agents of disease. Again, the magician cannot make any petition to the dead for any favors, but only prevent them from carrying disease to create more of the dead by interpreting the death stars, and telling people to stay away from this or that place.  

Foucault’s study of divination does not pick up on lawful or unlawful divination. Resemblances of occult phenomena are relatively clearly understood as a coherent scientia, because these resemblances constantly shift from lawful to unlawful. Natural magic is founded upon a metaphysical foundation fundamentally distinct from black magic under canon law. Both involve divination of occult resemblances, sometimes the lines are blurred, but orders are preserved. Bruno is all for elimination of the division, because satanic knowledge is a stupid concept relative to his pantheism. To put it another way, the internal relations between occult resemblances in nature, the Bible, the 15th Florentine century Neo-Platontic language game ,and the Hermetica make an epistemology of Premodernity possible to establish. Foucault conveniently neglects the successes of Premodernity, because he does not even talk about them (such as Bruno, Paracelsus, etc).