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The earliest people were surrounded by nature. Instead of hiding from the elements in little pink houses, they faced the immense power of nature on a daily basis. They acknowledged that they were at the mercy of nature, and set out to both appease and understand the forces that ruled it. They believed their fates lay in understanding the forces and spirits of the natural world. They looked for signs and omens in the way the birds flew or the wind blew. |
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Shamans, medicine healers, and exorcists were viewed as outstanding members of their communities, people who had an inside line to the greater forces beyond. These living forces were capable of both good and evil. When someone was ill, people assumed he or she had been taken over by an evil force, and an exorcist was called in to cast out the evil. These specialists were revered, much as doctors are todayand they even made house calls! |
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Babylonia is among the first civilizations with a recorded history. Situated in the fertile area where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet, the culture began to take hold around 2000 B.C. As proof of its cosmopolitan sophistication, the world's first city documented accounts of reading animal entrails to predict future events. Maybe that's where the saying ''gut reaction" comes from. |
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Here's an example of how an entrails reading worked (probably not something you'd want to try at home!). The Babylonians would begin by sacrificing a sheep, then removing its organs. A seer, or baru, would direct his inquiries to the various organs of an animal and get answers to his questions. For instance, each zone of the liver would signify something about the health and reign of the current king. If it had a long cystic |
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