Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LIV — Of Divers Certain Animals, and Other Things, Which Have a Signification in Auguries · 3 of 5 · tr. Henry Morley; L. W. de Laurence ed.
Chapter LIV, Section 1c
The hawk is also a foreteller of contention, as Naso sings: We hate the Hawk, because that arms amongst She always lives— Lelius, the embassador of Pompey, was slain in Spain, amongst the purveyors, which misfortune, a hawk flying over the head, is said to foretell.
And Almadel saith that these kinds of birds fighting amongst themselves, signify the change of a kingdom; but if birds of another kind shall fight with them and are never seen to come together again, it portends a new condition and state of that country.
Also, little birds, by their coming to or departing from, foreshew that a family shall be increased or lessened; and their flight, by how much the more serene it is, by so much the more laudable shall the change be.
Whence did Melampus, the Augure, conjecture at the slaughter of the Greeks by the flight of little birds, when he saith: "Thou see now that no bird takes his flight in fair weather." Swallows, because when they are dying they provide a place of safety for their young, do portend a great patrimony or legacy after the death of friends.
A bat, meeting any one running away, signifies an evasion; for, although she have no wings, yet she flies.
A sparrow is a bad omen to one that runs away, for she flies from the hawk and makes haste to the owl, where she is in as great danger; yet in love she is fortunate, for being stirred up with affection she seeks her consort hourly.
Bees are a good omen to kings, for they signify an obsequious people.
Flies signify importunity and impudence because being oftentimes driven away they do continually return.
Also domestic birds are not without some auguries, for cocks, by their crowing, promote hope, and the journey of him that is undertaking it.
Moreover, Livia, the mother of Tiberius, when she was great with him, took a hen's egg and hatched it in her bosom, and at length came forth a cock chick with a great comb, which the auguries interpreted that the child that should be born of her should be a king.
And Cicero writes that at Thebais, cocks, by their crowing all night, did presage that the Bæotians would obtain victory against the Lacedæmonians, and the reason is according to the augury's interpretations because that bird when he is beaten is silent, but when he himself hath overcome, crows.
In like manner, also, omens of events are taken from beasts.
For the meeting of a weasel is ominous; also, the meeting of a hare is an ill omen to a traveler, unless she be taken.
A mule also is bad because barren.
A hog is pernicious, for such is his nature, and therefore signifies pernicious men.
A horse betokens quarrelings and fightings, whence Anchises, seeing of white horses, cries out in Virgil: With war are Horses arm’d, yea, threaten war.
But when they are joined together in a chariot, because they draw with an equal yoke, they signify that peace is to be hoped for.
An ass is an unprofitable creature, yet did Marius good, who, when he was pronounced an enemy to his country, saw an ass disdaining provender that was offered to him, and running to the water, by which augury he, supposing he saw a way of safety showed to him, entreated the aid of his friends that they would convey him to the sea, which being granted, he was set into a little ship, and so escaped the threats of Silla the conqueror.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Cosmic Sympathycosmology
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The entire divinatory framework presupposes hidden affinities binding animal behavior to human destiny, so that a hawk's flight over a head resonates with an embassador's death and a cock's crowing resonates with military victory.
All passages →Divinationpraxis
The ritual practice of discerning hidden knowledge — future events, concealed causes, or the will of higher powers — through a structured technique applied to cards, lots, astrological configuration, entrails, oracle, or other sortilege, rather than through direct unmediated insight. Distinct from gnosis_direct_knowledge (unmediated inner apprehension of ultimate truth, not a technique applied to an external medium) and cosmic_sympathy (the underlying doctrine of hidden affinity that many divinatory techniques presuppose, rather than the practice of consulting it).
The entire passage is a systematic treatise on augury — reading omens from the behavior, meetings, and flight of birds and animals to discern future events, making divination the central and defining theme.
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