Re-visiting The Oracle

I’m currently in the midst of reading through “The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Messages of Ancient Delphi” by New York Times science writer William J. Broad. The book is a scientific love-letter of sorts to the Delphic Sibyl of the Apollonian Oracle. Broad looks at the historical importance of the Oracle and the modern attempts to understand and explain her visions.

Since its release the book has sparked an unusual array of opinion. Broad himself believes that the book could herald a truce between science and religious belief, while others reject his claims for a greater spiritual reality driving the Oracle’s visions. Archaeology Magazine bemoans the loss of mystery and divinity by proving the Oracle inhaled gases to commune with the divine. What to make of a distinguished science writer who uncovers a rational explanation for the Oracle’s visions and yet believes that many of the Delphic Sibyls were actually psychic?

For modern Pagans there is no disconnect between scientific research and belief in a spiritual reality. There is a sense of wonder for both the rational and the religious in our world views. The presence of a mind-altering gas doesn’t eliminate deity, but merely shows the tools this culture and society used to open themselves to illumination. For anyone interested in the religion and culture that the Oracle inhabited, or for anyone intrigued by the intersection of science and faith this seems to be a worthy work.

Tags: Neopaganism