"In the eyes of the Mesopotamians, everything in the world was divinatory." The entire natural world shared a divine presence, according to the Mesopotamian beliefs within their religion. The Mesopotamian deities ruled supreme over the natural world. Their gods were always represented in a supreme and transcendent way over humans, who they had created to serve them on earth. The ideogram (and cuneiform image) for god literally looks a star, representing the heavens and the superiority of the gods. The cult of the gods was based on the idea that humans had been created by the gods for the sole purpose of providing for and serving the gods. There were many gods, each whom served their own purpose or were related to a specific part of the natural world. The Mesopotamians believed that these gods controlled the fate of humans on earth, leading to the extensive efforts of humans to please the gods. They built extraordinary temples for the gods, where they served lavish feasts and stored large quantities of precious items and economic supplies.
[...] Deductive divination was wholly based on the idea that the Mesopotamian diviners would be able to accurately interpret the “writings” of the gods. The gods could leave messages in all parts of nature because of the divinity inherent in the natural world. These messages were “written” by the gods in various ways, meaning that they could also be interpreted in many ways. Dream divination was another form of divination found in the ancient world. It was less common in Mesopotamia, but there are many examples of dream divination occurring in the ancient world, the most notable being from the bible. [...]
[...] During the Mesopotamian era divination was their method of attempting to determine the unknowns of the world. Over time, religion and science have developed to explain the uncertainties in the universe for humans, but as with everything in Mesopotamian culture, divination has had a profound influence on society of today. The Mesopotamians slowly developed a unique and flourishing advanced culture. They had a clear concept of what they believed in both morally and spiritually, but it is not clear how they defined these beliefs. [...]
[...] Assurbanipal's library was technically the first library established and it contained vast amounts of information about Mesopotamian culture and life. Enuma Anu Enlil, so named for the first line of the text, provided important information on the cultural characteristics of Mesopotamian society around the time of Assurbanipal, in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Horoscopes were another part of astrology in Mesopotamia. A horoscope essentially predicted a child's future based on the star and planet movement on the child's date of birth. The Mesopotamians were, as a whole, highly superstitious. [...]
[...] Divination was used to predict future events and predict the unknown parts of life for the Mesopotamians. Divination was also used as a preventative measure for destructive events, whether they were about a specific person or about the kingdom or land as a whole. Through divination harmful events could be predicted and possibly prevented. Several different ways existed for the Mesopotamians to ascertain or predict the future. Divination was practiced as if it were a science. There were professional diviners called bârûs who used the various methods of divination to predict future events. [...]
[...] Humanity was subject to the will and the whims of the gods at every moment. In their desire for knowledge of the future and knowledge of the will of the gods, the Mesopotamians used their religion and divinatory methods to understand these uncertainties. Divination can almost be described as a type of science in its use of analytical tools and knowledge. However, most aspects of divination are based on the principle ideas of Mesopotamian religion. Divination can be qualified as more of a field of science within the religious field. [...]
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