Priestess of Delphi (1891), as imagined by John Collier; the Pythia is inspired by pneuma rising from below as she sits on a tripod.
This time of year we love to explore all things unexplainable. But while Halloween has become a marketer’s dream, the spirits and forces that we mimic and parody in costumes and lawn ornaments are the stuff that defined ancient lives. Fear of the unknown, obeisance to light and dark forces and importunities to celestial powers were all seminal to the rise and fall of cultures around the world. For this reason, those individuals who had prescient powers were held in particularly high regard. The Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece is perhaps one of the most famous of these ancient seers. Continue reading
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