Before named occultists
Mesopotamian divination and magic
The earliest genuinely documented magical and divinatory systems, and one major root of judicial astrology: heaven as a field of readable signs.
- Dates
- c. 3000 BCE onward
- Dating
- tradition or corpus
The life
Mesopotamian divination developed systematic forms: celestial omens, counter-witchcraft rites, purification for unexplained misfortune and the reading of sacrificial organs, especially sheep livers.
Place in the tradition
Astrology's central premise, that the sky is a text, is first worked out here at scale.
a note on the record
History and later legend
There is no single founder, and so no lifespan and no death to report.
the written record
Principal works
-
assembled mainly 2nd–1st millennia BCE
Enūma Anu Enlil
A vast series of celestial omens correlating astronomical phenomena with earthly events. One major root of what eventually becomes judicial astrology.
-
probably standardised in the 1st millennium BCE
Maqlû
A ritual series against witchcraft and hostile magic, with prayers, incantations and the ritual destruction of images of the alleged witch.
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1st millennium BCE
Šurpu
Purification incantations for misfortune whose precise supernatural cause is unknown.
-
2nd–1st millennium BCE
Extispicy manuals
Manuals for reading the features of sacrificial organs. The British Museum's cuneiform collections preserve portions of both the celestial-omen and the divinatory traditions.