§ 2. On Divination

557. DEFINITION. Divination is a species of superstition by which someone invokes the knowledge of the demon, so that he may know contingent and freely future things, or things otherwise hidden, accessible to God alone.

But since divination (as worship of the demon) proceeds from a certain express or tacit pact with demons, it will be worth the work to discuss: 1. the pact of man with the demon; 2. the various divinations in particular. Cf. 2.2, q. 95, a. 2 ad 2, and a. 3.

A pact with the demon is a convention, or everything by which someone uses something for the worship of demons, that is, for acknowledging their excellence and his own submission.

558. PRINCIPLES. I. Man can do more with the help of the demon than by his own powers alone. For angels are more excellent than men, both in the faculty of knowing and in the power of working; and angelic nature in demons was indeed depraved through sin, but was not taken away or diminished (1, q. 64, a. 1). Yet that which is obtained with the help of the demon is only preternatural.

Hence: 1. As regards KNOWLEDGE, demons easily call past things back into the mind of man; they manifest present hidden things which have been outwardly disclosed, even things much distant; indeed, they foreknow innumerable future things, both by conjecture and also with certainty from natural causes. Yet they do not know the secret and hidden thoughts and volitions of the soul, nor the mysteries of grace (1.2, q. 57, a. 5; Muller, l. 2, § 69, 4).

2. As regards OPERATION, they can move bodies; assume bodies to themselves, either formed from air and vapors, or even true bodies, which indeed they do not formally vivify, but manage as movers. They can excite the imaginative power of man, or the sensitive appetitive power, and thus stir men to hatred or lust; indeed, they can change our senses, for example the eyes, so that something is seen otherwise than it is. In one word, they can effect innumerable things for the deception and destruction of men (1.2, q. 80, a. 2). Yet St. Augustine says: "Nor do demons do anything unless he has permitted it, whose judgments are hidden, many, unjust, none" (de Civit. Dei, l. 18, c. 18, n. 2).

559. II. Preternatural effects are accustomed to be obtained through a pact with the demon. A pact with the demon can be: 1. explicit, when someone invokes him by words, or by deed usurps something through which he knows or thinks that the demon cooperates; 2. implicit or tacit, when someone uses vain and naturally disproportionate means for knowing or effecting something.

"Nor is it required that the demon should at some time have made a pact that he would concur at the application of such a vain means; for by this very fact, that someone uses those vanities, the demon mixes himself in, although it is beyond the intention of the one using to invoke him" (III, 8).

560. III. Every pact with the demon is, of itself, a most grave sin. For in it there is participation or commerce with the sworn enemy of God, and divine honor is attributed to a creature, because that is expected from the creature which ought to be expected from God alone. Yet it can happen that an implicit pact does not exceed venial fault; namely if simplicity, ignorance (yet not crass or affected), defect of certain faith, absence of serious intention are present, for example when, by way of joke, public diviners are consulted on feast days and market days. In these matters generally the imperfection of the act excuses (III, 5, 7).

LET IT BE NOTED: 1. An implicit and explicit pact probably do not differ in species; yet per accidens there is often an obligation of explaining in confession whether the pact is explicit, because express invocation of the demon often has other sins joined to itself, for example heresy, idolatry, etc., and because it does not admit smallness of matter.

2. In doubt whether some effect proceeds from a natural cause or from superstition, it is presumed rather to proceed from a natural cause.¹ Thus the Doctors commonly teach with St. Thomas (2.2, q. 60, a. 4): "Where certain manifest indications concerning someone's malice do not appear, we ought to hold it as good, by interpreting what is doubtful toward the better part." Yet the Doctors rightly counsel that then a protestation be premised against the effect, if any superstition underlies it. The Holy Office also declared the same on July 26, 1899, as regards doubtful experiments of hypnotism (n. 570 bis).

3. If it is certainly or probably established that the effect does not proceed from a natural cause, in doubt whence it proceeds, it is judged rather to proceed from the demon than from God, since there is no divine promise about it (III, 20).

561. From these things you will resolve: a) "He is not excused from sin who, in using such things as are established to be naturally disproportionate to the intended effect, protests that he intends no commerce with the demon, because in reality he acts against his protestation. For since neither God nor good angels mix themselves with such things, the demon is implicitly invoked in them" (III, 8, 3).

b) "Nor is he excused who believes such means useful on account of experiences; because the demon procures these, so that he may gradually ensnare men and induce them to usurp similar things" (III, 8, 4).

c) "It is not illicit to use the power of a natural thing which has been known through superstition, provided its observation or operation does not depend upon the help of the demon. The reason is that although that knowledge was badly acquired, nevertheless the sin has passed, and the natural power has contracted nothing evil from it" (III, 20, 3).

562. PRINCIPLES. I. All divinations are reduced to one species, because all rest upon a pact, at least implicit, with demons. See above n. 560, 1.

Divinations obtain various denominations according to the character of the invocation:

1. Divination through EXPRESS invocation of the demon is called: oracle, if it is done through idols; necromancy, if through an apparent resuscitation of the dead; pythonism, if through living men seized by him; oneiromancy, if through dreams; prestidigitation, if through fictitious figures; haruspicy, if through signs in the entrails of animals; geomancy, if through a figure in earth; hydromancy, if through a figure in water; aeromancy, if through a figure in air; pyromancy, if through a figure in fire.

2. Divination through TACIT invocation is called: judicial astrology, if it is done from the situation and motion of the stars; auspice, if from the flight of birds; augury, if from their chattering; omen, if from a chance event, for example from meeting a funeral; chiromancy, if from the lines of the hand; physiognomy, if from the lines of the face; sortilege, if from vain lots, for example from the opening of a book, from throwing dice. Yet by the name of sortilege (or necromancy) all kinds of superstitions are accustomed to be designated (III, 6 and 9). As regards crystallomancy, to which many today are devoted, cf. Bessmer (Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, 1908, p. 165).

563. II. All divinations are of themselves gravely illicit. It is established again from the things said n. 560.

Hence: 1. "They sin who consult Egyptians (seers or sortilegists) concerning fortune: and indeed, if it is done with firm faith, or scandal, etc., of itself mortally; but if for the sake of curiosity or laughter, as is commonly done, only venially."

2. "If someone should depend so upon the stars, dreams, and similar things, that he wishes to regulate almost all his actions and life according to them, the Doctors commonly teach that he sins mortally."

3. From observation of such things, once and again to omit something to which otherwise you are not held under mortal sin seems only venial; as also lightly to fear from time to time lest it be or happen as they portend (III, 8 and 10).

564. III. Simple conjectures deduced from natural causes are not illicit. For, as St. Thomas speaks (2.2, q. 95, a. 1), "certain causes produce their effects in most cases, yet rarely fail. And through causes of this kind future effects can be foreknown, not indeed with certainty, but by a certain conjecture"; for example, if someone from a certain song and flight of birds conjectures storm, rain, or serenity.

Therefore physiognomy is licit, by which we conjecture the internal dispositions of the soul, provided rash judgment is avoided. Likewise natural astrology is licit, by which we divine certain natural effects, as storms, sterilities, etc.; and if one sometimes exceeds in its certitude, only the sin of lying or imprudence is committed, which is of itself a light sin (III, 9, 8).

565. Questions. Q. 1. Whether it is licit to believe DREAMS?

Resp. a) If dreams are certainly or more probably from God, we can, indeed we are bound to, believe them, since God has promised sometimes to speak through dreams. Conversely, it would be a grave sin to believe diabolical dreams, unless simplicity or imperfection of the act excuses, namely if someone believes them only lightly. Now, in order that those things which are from God may be discerned from the others, it must be seen whether they excite to good or to evil, whether they disturb or quiet one awakened, whether they render him eager or sluggish for good works.

b) In doubt whether they proceed from God, or from the devil, or from a natural cause, one must stand for the natural or diabolical cause, and therefore faith is not to be applied to them; for if God sends dreams, he certainly testifies concerning himself.

Q. 2. Whether the USE OF LOTS is always illicit?

Resp. a) Divisory lots, which are employed for dividing goods, settling disputes, playing honorably, etc., are licit, because they are entirely free from every superstition. Yet they are prohibited as regards ecclesiastical elections, from c. Ecclesia, de sortilegiis. They are permitted in certain codes, for example German Code, 659, 720.

b) Divinatory lots, by which the manifestation of a hidden matter is inquired, for example the detection of a thief from throwing dice, are illicit, unless they are done from divine inspiration (cf. Josue 7:14); because they contain at least tacit invocation of the demon, from the disproportion of the means to the knowledge.

c) Consultory lots (as in the election of Saul and St. Matthias), by which it is inquired what is to be done in this or that matter, "are sometimes licit, when necessity and honesty of the cause require it, and a more suitable mode of conquering the doubt does not appear: provided they are done with prayer premised, with due reverence, and indication is expected from God alone; for example if someone clinging at a fork in the road cannot otherwise determine himself as regards the way; or if they are done by divine instinct or command..." (III, 10, 11).

Q. 3. What is to be thought concerning the use OF THE DIVINING ROD?

Resp. a) If it is employed for finding lost things, transferred boundaries of fields, thieves and murderers, it seems certain that acts of this kind are superstitious divination.

b) If it is employed for finding veins of waters or metals, there are not lacking those who affirm that this is not necessarily to be held as a superstitious thing, because the motion of the rod, if it is held by persons endowed with a certain physical disposition, is a purely natural effect. Yet it is required that the rod be moved equally in every case, whether veins are being sought or not. But deliberately let a protestation be made against diabolical operation which perhaps can be present (III, 8, 4). Cf. Vind. Alph., II, n. 32.

Note. Yet there are some experts who think the use of the divining rod to be prestidigitations (Nat. u. Offenb., 1900, p. 600).

566. Things to be noted beforehand. Spiritism is the consultation of spirits, especially concerning matters of the other life. In spiritism two things must be distinguished: commerce itself with spirits, and the wonderful phenomena which accompany their evocation and consultation. Of the effects produced, some are common to spiritism and hypnotism (see these n. 569); others are proper to spiritism, and they are: materialization, manifestation of light, levitation, motion at a distance, rotation of tables which are touched by the fingertips of those standing around and are moved by the command of the will alone, or also, at the command of those questioning, communicate responses by knocks (or in another mode). Women, who therefore are called mediums, are generally employed for producing these things.¹

PRINCIPLES. I. Spiritism, as an action of consulting spirits, is altogether illicit; and indeed, even if this is only external, provided it is serious. It is established 1. From AUTHORITY. Not rarely has evocation of spirits been condemned, both in Sacred Scripture (Deut. 18:9-12; Lev. 20:6, 27) and by the Church (especially in the Fifth Lateran Council). On Aug. 4, 1856, the Holy Office declared: To evoke the souls of the dead, to receive responses ... is found to be a deception altogether illicit and heretical (A. S. S., I, p. 177). On Apr. 2, 1864, the same Congregation most gravely proscribed all writings favoring spiritism. In the Const. Officiorum ac munerum (tit. I, c. V, 12) it is read: It is forbidden to publish, read, or retain books in which sortileges, divination, magic, or evocation of spirits are taught or commended. It is established 2. FROM REASON: it is clear that evocation of spirits is mere, genuine divination. For the spirits who are judged to be consulted: a) are not good spirits, that is, angels; it would be blasphemous to assert that good spirits adapt themselves to the childish whims of men, and become heralds of execrable and impious doctrine, such as is promulgated in the little assemblies of spiritists; b) are not the souls of the dead: for to them, stripped of the body, there is no community with men without the special permission of God. Therefore it is open that these spirits are demons; and from elsewhere they themselves have often confessed this.

From these things it follows: the art itself of producing phenomena proper to spiritism, and generally the art of producing effects which certainly cannot be ascribed to the powers of nature, is altogether illicit.

The great question is whether, in sessions of spiritists (prescinding from consultation), such phenomena should not rather be ascribed to the cleverness and bad faith of the mediums.

a) There are not lacking authors who admit that wonderful operations, by the work of spiritists, are often truly produced, and that it is not lawful to attribute all things a priori to frauds. Cf. Schneider (Der neuere Geisterglaube, VII, p. 334); Lapponi, Hypnot. et Spirit., p. 153.

b) But other authors affirm that in very many cases (perhaps a few excepted) the leaders of spiritism (the most celebrated mediums) have been convicted of fraud and bad faith. Thus Gutberlet (Nat. u. Offenb., 1897, p. 738). The same opinion is upheld by Von Cyon, professor of psychology, who himself convicted the most celebrated mediums of this age of fraud (cf. Gott u. Wissensch., 1911, p. 206; Nat. u. Kultur, 1911, P. I, Spiritism). Thus also other experts.

II. It is licit, scandal of the medium and of those assisting being excluded, from sufficient reason, to provoke phenomena where someone certainly knows that no preternatural effect is going to arise. The sufficient reason is that the error of the rest may be corrected by experiment. We said: scandal of the medium being excluded; because the invitation would not be licit if the medium clearly pretended (even only externally) that he could consult spirits; otherwise, if from serious indications it were established that the medium boasts himself as such. For then no illicit action is given, but there is a detection of error (Sabetti, Theol. mor., 209; Genicot, I, n. 271, IV; Jaugey, de Virt. Relig., 440).

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 1. A protestation which someone would premise before an act of consultation or exercise of the art, namely of excluding any intervention whatsoever of the demon and of directing himself to angels, does not change the nature of the act, which objectively, or from the end of the work, is referred to the worship of the demon from a pact implicitly had. In this sense the response of the Holy Office, Apr. 1, 1898, was made (Nouv. Rev. Theol., 30, p. 397). 2. They sin gravely who perform the office of medium, who seriously ask evocation from mediums, who hold sessions of spiritism, who often assist at these either actively or passively, even for the sake of curiosity; because scandal and danger to one's own salvation (that is, of perversion in faith and morals) are never wholly absent. Thus according to the response of the Sacred Penitentiary, Feb. 1, 1882 (Bucceroni, Enchir. mor., n. 505).

Note. The mere rotation of tables is not evidently illicit, because it is not established concerning a cause solely preternatural; it can become illicit by reason of scandal or danger. We said: mere rotation, because if consultation accompanies it, even concerning indifferent matters, it would become altogether illicit; since responses of tables by repeated knocks (if they are truly given) would occur only with a pact with the demon going before (Noldin, II, 167).