Exhibition: Oracles, Omens and Answers
6 December 2024-27 April 2025
About the exhibition
Discover how people have sought answers to life’s big questions throughout history.
Drawing on material from across time and cultures – from oracle bones from Shang Dynasty China (ca. 1250-1050 B.C.E.) to an autobiography of Ronald Reagan’s White House astrologer – Oracles, Omens and Answers will explore the different techniques humans have used to unveil the past, understand the present and predict the future.
From palm reading and astrology to weather and public health forecasting, see how societies have turned to divination to ask questions that resonate with us today: on health, relationships, money and politics.
Step into the world of divination and uncover the ways that humanity has tried to confront the unknown and uncertain.
Note: This exhibition includes a large continuous projection of spider divination practice, including images of the spiders in action.
Exhibition tours
Oracles, Omens and Answers exhibition tours are available on selected Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2–2.45pm and are open to all. These free gallery tours are led by our dedicated volunteer team.
Check available dates and book your tickets. Please meet by the entrance doors to the exhibition at the rear of Blackwell Hall.
You do not need to book a tour to visit the exhibition.
Curators
- Dr Michelle Pfeffer (formerly Aroney), historian of science and religion at Magdalen College, Oxford.
- Professor David Zeitlyn, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and an initiated Mambila gam dù spider diviner.
Divination, Oracles & Omens
Edited by Michelle Pfeffer and David Zeitlyn
Accompanying the exhibition, a spellbinding collection of twenty-four divinatory techniques from around the world exploring our need to appeal to powers beyond our realm for prediction and clarification.
There will be a book launch on Tuesday 4 March 13:00-14:00 at St Luke's Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, for which registration is required.
