Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing
WE have evidence of the use of crystal balls as means of divination in medieval times, and "scrying" in some of its many forms was by no…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Demeter
The Achaians, as Pausanius relates, frequently used a mirror to divine diseases or to learn whether there was danger of sudden death. Of…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Didius
A strange variety of divination by means of mirrors placed on the heads of boys, who, with eyes blindfolded, were supposed to perceive…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Mirror
The Persian poet Jami writes thus of a magic mirror in the poem "Salaman and Absal": (Jami's "Salaman and Absal," trans. by Edward…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Sonnes
The Fathers of these two Gentlemen (in their Sonnes absence) were become great foes: this hatred betweene them was growne to that height…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Faustus
A sixteenth century work on magic, the "Hollenzwang" of Dr. Faustus, whose name has been immortalized for all ages by Goethe, gives very…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Majestie
The Queen's Majestie, with her most honorable Privy Council, and other the Lords and Nobility, came purposely to have visited my library…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Kelley
To give assurance to those who consulted such crystals that no diabolical agency was involved in the production of the phenomena, it was…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Aubrey
The following history and description of a crystal ball is given by John Aubrey (1626-1697):
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Cagliostro
The celebrated Cagliostro, a Sicilian whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo, among his other arts to excite curiosity and play upon the…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: French
Many extraordinary visions are said to have been seen in crystal balls by a French scryer whose grand-mother had clairvoyant powers and was…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Yucatan
The h'men, or diviner, of Yucatan, places great reliance upon his zaztun, or "clear stone." This may be a quartz crystal, or else some…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Armenians
The Armenians sometimes practised divination by watching the images that appeared, or were supposed to appear, on the smooth surface of the…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Lang
A very impartial witness, Andrew Lang, states that, in the course of a series of experiments he made in crystal-gazing, he saw nothing…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Japanese
In Japan the smaller rock-crystals were believed to be the congealed breath of the White Dragon, while the larger and more brilliant ones…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Paris
In Paris the various ornaments were preserved in the Bibliotheque Royale until the night of November 5-6, 1831, when many of them, with…
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing: Currahmore
A crystal ball known as the Currahmore Crystal, because it is kept at the seat of that name belonging to the Marquis of Waterford, has long…