Hypothetical situation

[kyrene]

Say you had a dream in which you were instructed by the gods to build an oracle. How would you do it?

Let's assume you didn't take any funny pills and you're pretty sure that based on various other details that the dream is legit and get that question out of the way. How would one go about building an oracle in this day and age?

Come on, put on your thinking caps! :D

Comments

[justben.livejournal.com]

Do you mean oracle as in "people who talk to the Gods" or as in "device/mechanism/process that people use to communicate with Them"?

The former's pretty straightforward: start doing it, and find other respectable people who are doing it along with you. Rally around your shared devotion to oracular activities, and use that energy to organize and name yourselves so that the hoi polloi have something to latch hold of. It's part action, part marketing[1].

The latter has a lot more leeway, but is probably no simpler. Depends on how "traditional" you want to take it. Guessing from what I know of you, I suspect cleaving to historical accuracy is not a super-high priority. Given that, lend your well-informed and mature understanding of the Gods to a tool that's already easy for average people to get started in: cartomancy. Design a new deck, with symbolism drawing deeply from whatever aspects of Hellenic mythos and ethos the Gods would have you bring to the people.

--
[1]: The marketing reference may seem a bit frivolous, but it's completely serious. I hope you'll indulge me for a brief tangent; the relevance will be clear shortly.

An acquaintance recently blogged refference to an article from Joel Spolsky, in which Joel talks about the role of management in a software organization. One of Joel's points was that many developers recognize that they can write software that's better than most out there, and they create a new company to do just that. They often fail, and a large part of the reason is because they fail to give adequate consideration to all of the things that go into a software development enterprise besides good code. The rest they lump into "marketing" in much the same way I'm doing here.

I'm sure the relevance is clear to you, but for those not as familiar with the pagan -- and particularly Hellenic -- community as you are, let me explain. Organizations pop up all the time in the pagan community to do this or that better than the other organizations. Many of them fall down, explode, or just peter off, and often (though certainly not always), this is due to lack of consideration for all of that "extra" stuff that has to go into a successful organization. If you believe the Gods are asking you for an oracular organization that's going to outlive you and your efforts, I recommend paying some attention to that "extra" stuff.

Anyway, my apologies if I got lectury. I must be off to lunch.

[daeron.livejournal.com]

Question: what's your preferred method of divination? I know I've heard you talk about using Tarot before, and if that's the answer, my suggestion would be to get (if one is out there) or design (which I suspect would be more fun for you anyway) a Tarot desk based on Hellenismos (get someone to help you with the artwork, if needed).

You could make the whole creation process an offering to Apollon, which fits for this.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

*thinks VERY, VERY carefully*

I'm ... not certain. I think there may not be enough information yet to know what to do. Are you trying to build an oracle that will bring wisdom where it's needed or to the world in general?

The former is a matter of being watchful, conscious, and involved, and putting yourself in the right place and time to be near the people who need the service or impart the things you've seen.

The latter is going to be much more difficult because you're going to have to be thinking organizationally. One person, by herself, is going to have a very hard time doing it; essentially it sounds like you'd have to found a temple, a small one at least, so that there is A Place To Go for those who are seeking an oracle.

This is probably going to be easier in Massachusetts than elsewhere, but frankly (assuming that you're talking about yourself becoming an oracle -- if not adjust pronouns) you're going to need assistant priestesses, an apprentice, and most likely a place other than your home to do it.

Your oracular method is going to make a big difference, too; if you're getting visions while using standard divination means (Tarot, runes, etc.) than a small storefront and one assistant may be sufficient. If you're getting visions in fire you will need to be set up for that. If you're talking about a complete "dark cave through which the mists of wisdom pour" setup it's going to require mucho dinero to secure the right place.

Then, as justben said, you're going to need a marketing machine so people know you're out there. I don't know if it's the case any more but in many cities fortunetelling used to be a "racket," controlled by specific individuals who make sure to keep the competition low (since, after all, it only takes time to learn how to tell fortunes correctly; you can teach basic cold reading in an hour, making it seem like an easy business). I don't know whether this is still true, whether it was ever true in Boston, or whether it would be a problem if you're setting yourself up as specifically a religious organization.

Finally there's the potential backlash to consider from openly calling yourself an oracle, but you know the community here better than I do.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

(continued)

Basically, I can't see any way of being a "freely accessible" oracle without founding an actual temple, without the backing of any larger organization. The problems to consider are more legal, financial, and logistical than anything else -- and probably exactly the wrong things for an oracle to be clogging her mind with.

Assuming it succeeded, then you have to think about the marketing issues and how you're going to make people 1) know you're there and 2) take you seriously. Well, you need to think about how to make non-idiots take you seriously; the kinds of people who read newspaper horoscopes would gladly go to an oracle but are probably not going to take cryptic prophecies well. They want to know the lotto numbers. :P

[ravendreamer.livejournal.com]

Ah....well....I have been in this situation. The first thing I did was ask for more instruction :). I already did oracular work for Apollo, so what did he mean. My instruction was to find him a place of power, like delphi, where an oracle would freely flow. So I have been searching for 5 years.