Divination is the art of making future predictions through mystical methods such as consulting with the spirit world or by natural means such as palmistry, cold reading, etc. Most of the time it is taken as a profession and delivered for commercial purposes.
Fortune tellers claim to accurately predict not only an individual’s past life, but also the entire course of his life and other important building blocks, such as the character of his potential spouse and the type of married life he will enjoy as a consequence. .
Others, however, may rise above individualistic predictions to forecast events that would bring about major change in this world. These fortune-tellers earn respect and high praise for their work, posthumously. The clarity of their predictions put them one level above the rest. When figures of such eminence come from a religious background, they are called Prophets.
Prophet Muhammad, who was considered a messenger of Allah, had many of these predictions up his sleeve. He had not only prophesied about scientific developments that would lead to the discovery of medicine for all possible ailments, but also about events that had changed the course of history.
From the Byzantine triumph over Persia to the spread of Islam and the conquest of Cyprus and the invasion of Mongolia, Muhammad’s ability to understand the dynamism of today’s world had practically convinced people of his divine link to omnipotent power.
Born in a time (AD 570) when the world was steeped in superstition and ignorance, Muhammad’s works deserve a mention. However, at best he can be considered an enlightened man because his range of predictions does not go back centuries after his death.
Another person who comes to mind is Ursula Soonthtel, better known as Mother Shipton. It was rumored that he lived in a cave and made a living from divination. Although most of his predictions were local, only two of them had a prophetic significance.
While one was about the Great Fire of London of 1666, which completely devastated the city in a span of four days, the other was about the dawn of a modern civilization. She, in various rhyming verses, had spoken of a world very different from contemporary England at the time, where men would live underwater and fly in the air, while horseless carriages would be a common sight.
Although his description of the sights and sounds of the modern world was fairly accurate, his predictions were mostly localized and made on an individualistic level.
However, the icing on the cake on this list of world-famous fortune tellers inevitably goes to Nostradamus. Born in 16th century France, he was an apothecary by profession but a seer by instinct.
A clairvoyant of the highest order, he had purposely predicted the death of Henry II of France by a jousting accident. Refusing to heed Nostradamus’ prophecies, the King had participated in a tournament and met death. His second fulfilled prophecy is again the Great Fire of London. You should be awarded Brownie points for earning the year in this context.
Although I have been able to compile only a few names here, there are many more, mostly known by their civilization rather than by name. The Mayans, for example, have been credited with predicting the end of the world in 2012. All said and done, the name and fame of Nostradamus have lived and will continue to live long after him.
