Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 2 – Four Lectures
Join us for Series Two as we journey once again into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field
Curated & Hosted by
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Attendees will receive a recording of each lecture valid for 4 weeks.
Lecture 1 – Astrology in Renaissance – Michelle Pfeffer – 20 September 2026
In this talk we return to a period in European history when astrology was considered a science. For centuries astrologers were learned mathematicians with respected positions in universities and governments. Astrology was even taught at Oxford! Yet by the seventeenth century, astrology was fast losing its place in mainstream science. This talk explores contests over astrology’s legitimacy that were taking place at the same time as astrology was thriving in the public sphere more than ever before.
Bio:
Michelle Pfeffer is a historian of science and religion at the University of Oxford. Her latest book, Inventing Immortality (2026), was about the history of the soul, and she is now writing a new book about how astrology stopped being considered a science. With David Zeitlyn she curated an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, ‘Oracles Omens Answers’ (Dec 2024-April 2025), and co-edited the related book, Divination, Oracles, and Omens, published by Bodleian Library Press.
Caption: Horoscope diagram from BL Royal Manuscript Collection. Public Domain.
In the waning years of the nineteenth century, a palmistry craze swept through Great Britain and the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, people gazed at the lines in their hands and searched for clues about their future. Join Dr. Joan Navarre in a fascinating consideration of Palmistry—or Cheiromancy—the time-honoured art that seeks insight through consulting the hand. Could wealth be on your horizon? Romance? A long life? The Future is in Your Hands.
Bio:
Joan Navarre, PhD, is the International Vice Chair of the Æ George Russell Society.
A tenured Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA, she has authored numerous articles on the subject of palmistry. Co-founder of the Oscar Wilde Society of America, she is currently completing a documentary on Oscar Wilde’s 1882 tour of the United States. Joan owns and operates Merrion Square Productions, a film company dedicated to researching, documenting, and interpreting stories central to the Irish Literary Renaissance.
Caption: Frontispiece from Edward Heron-Allen’s A Manual of Cheirosophy (1885). Public Domain.
Divination Tibetan societies employ a wide range of divination practices, from state oracles and astrological calculations to everyday techniques involving dice and rosaries. This lecture explores one such practice: a rare form of rope divination known as ju thig. After examining the ritual procedures and social contexts surrounding Tibetan rope divination, I consider the roles played by diviners within their communities and the kinds of questions brought before them. Finally, I situate ju thig within the broader history and mythology of Tibetan divination, highlighting its complex synthesis of Tibetan, Central Asian, Indian, and Chinese influences.
Bio:
Dr. Alexander K. Smith is a Tibetologist, ethnographer, and filmmaker. He currently serves as the creative director of Ligature Historical, a Frankfurt-based animation studio specializing in historical and cultural documentaries. He holds a PhD in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE–PSL, Paris) and an MA in Tibetan Studies from the University of Oxford. His research focuses on Tibetan divination, ritual practice, and social history, drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Tibetan communities in North India. His scholarly publication include Divination in Exile: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Ritual Prognostication in the Tibetan Bon Tradition, published by Brill in 2021.
Caption: Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatsho (Ju Mipham, 1846–1912), Zhang zhung ju thig. Monastic Library, sMan-ri Monastery, Dolaji, Himachal Pradesh. Photo by Dr. Alexander K. Smith (2014).
This talk examines the folk beliefs and practices represented in early Halloween postcards. Although Halloween in the US today is largely associated with death, horror, and even gore, 19th and early 20th century postcards and other sources reveal that Halloween was more of a romantic time, closely associated with love divination practices. People engaged in romantic parlor games and participated in customs designed to predict one’s future marital prospects, such as the burning nuts, pouring wax or lead into water, and mirror divination. Such customs give context to other early Halloween images, such as witches, fairies, and even human-like pumpkins, which are sometimes depicted as potential paramours.
Bio:
Lisa Gabbert is Professor of Folklore Studies in the Department of History at Utah State University. She is the author of three books and numerous book chapters and articles. She is interested in all things folkloric, but particularly festivity and its overlaps with play, legendry, and sacred and supernatural figures. Other interests include folklore and landscape, and folklore in medical contexts. She currently is co-editor of the Journal of American Folklore and President of the Western States Folklore Society.
Caption: Vintage Halloween Card (1909). Public Domain.
