Prophecies

How we search for meaning in our futures, as revealed by the divine, occult, or supernatural, from ancient prophets to the end of days.

What will happen to us next? From the earliest beginnings of human civilization, people have searched for signs, patterns, and clues to address the last unanswerable question. Looking into the future has obsessed human beings since written records began. As soon as communities could conceive of higher powers, they tried to look into the future. Prophets and priests have delivered divine messages. Shamans and seers have channeled spirits and interpreted visions, portents, revelations, and signs.

This unique and richly illustrated volume reveals the long history of prophecy in every human society—from Egyptian oracles, Roman augurs, and Aztec omens to Japanese divination and the active magic of Norse seers. It traces the parallels in different traditions and cultures, exploring the signs and images found in antique documents, rare books, imaginative projections, and divinatory paraphernalia.

In nine chapters, art historian Chrisopher Dell explores extraordinary oracles from ancient Greece and western Africa to Mesopotamia and the mountains of Tibet; omens, portents, and auspicious signs in indigenous societies in Asia; Zoroastrian priests of Iran and astrologers of China; dreams and visions from Australia to North America; and finally reckons with the many predictions of the end of the world, from ancient days to our present moment.