Divination is the art of making future predictions through mystical methods such as consultation with the spirit world or through natural means such as palmistry, cold reading, etc. It is mainly taken as a profession and enjoyed for business purposes.
Fortune tellers claim to accurately predict not only an individual’s past life, but also their entire life course and other important constituent elements, such as the character of their potential spouse and the type of marital life they will enjoy as a result. .
Others, however, may rise above individualistic predictions to forecast events that would bring about major change in this world. These diviners earn respect and high praise for their work, posthumously. The clarity of their predictions placed them on a higher level than 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 such predictions up his sleeve. He had not only prophesied about the scientific advances that would lead to the discovery of medicine for every possible ailment, but also about the 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 Mongol invasion, Muhammad’s ability to understand the dynamism of today’s world virtually convinced people of his divine link to omnipotent power.
Born in a time (570 AD) when the world was seen in superstition and ignorance, the works of Muhammad deserve a mention. However, he can be considered an enlightened man at best because the range of his predictions does not go back centuries after his death.
Another person that comes to mind is Ursula Soonthel, better known as Mother Shipton. It was rumored that she lived in a cave and divined for a living. Although most of her predictions were local, only two of them had prophetic significance.
While one was about the Great Fire of London of 1666, which completely destroyed the city in four days, the other was about the dawn of a modern civilization. She, in several rhyming verses, had spoken of a world very different from then contemporary England, where men would live underwater and fly in the air, while horseless carriages passing by 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 is inevitably Nostradamus. Born in 16th century France, he was an apothecary by profession but a seer by instinct.
A clairvoyant of the first order, he had accurately predicted the death of Henry II of France in an accident at a joust. Refusing to heed Nostradamus’s prophecies, the King entered a tournament and met his death. The second fulfilled prophecy from him is again the Great Fire of London. He should be awarded brownie points for getting the year in this context.
Although I have been able to collect only a few names here, there are many more, mostly known by civilization rather than name. The Mayans, for example, have been credited with predicting the 2012 doomsday. All said and done, the name and fame of Nostradamus have lived on and will live on long after him.
