![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Who is on the other end of the line?
A question often pops up on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
conjunctio as to who we are conversing with when we perform divination.
According to Plato's Symposium, Socrates believed it to be one's δαίμων (that is, genius, guardian spirit or angel, etc.): "From [the agency of genii] proceed all the arts of divination, and all the science of priests, with respect to sacrifices, initiations, incantations, and in short everything which relates to oracles and enchantments. The deity holds no direct intercourse with man; but, by this means, all the converse and communications between the gods and men, whether asleep or awake, takes place; and he who is wise in these things is a man particularly guided by his genius."
According to C. H. Josten, by contrast, Robert Fludd believed it to be one's mens (the unconscious mind or higher self) acting through the media of the anima intellectualis, intellectus, or ratio (the conscious mind or lower self), in the same way that a master exercises authority over servants: "The servant, in carrying out his master's command, does not know what the intentions and secret motives of his master are. [...] Mens in man is of the same essentia as mens divina. On a smaller scale (in virtute minori) mens humana may, therefore, perform the same actions as mens divina."
For my own part, I am quite convinced by my own mystical experiences that I am in communication with my guardian angel.
conjunctio as to who we are conversing with when we perform divination.According to Plato's Symposium, Socrates believed it to be one's δαίμων (that is, genius, guardian spirit or angel, etc.): "From [the agency of genii] proceed all the arts of divination, and all the science of priests, with respect to sacrifices, initiations, incantations, and in short everything which relates to oracles and enchantments. The deity holds no direct intercourse with man; but, by this means, all the converse and communications between the gods and men, whether asleep or awake, takes place; and he who is wise in these things is a man particularly guided by his genius."
According to C. H. Josten, by contrast, Robert Fludd believed it to be one's mens (the unconscious mind or higher self) acting through the media of the anima intellectualis, intellectus, or ratio (the conscious mind or lower self), in the same way that a master exercises authority over servants: "The servant, in carrying out his master's command, does not know what the intentions and secret motives of his master are. [...] Mens in man is of the same essentia as mens divina. On a smaller scale (in virtute minori) mens humana may, therefore, perform the same actions as mens divina."
For my own part, I am quite convinced by my own mystical experiences that I am in communication with my guardian angel.