The endurance of oracles

State constitutions throughout the ancient world were designed to imitate the order of the universe. Their model was an esoteric code of number, harmony and proportion which was supposed to reflect the perfectly structured mind of the Creator. From this procedure came a form of society, like those of archaic Greece, where the nation was divided into halves and quarters and finally into 12 sections, each dedicated to one of the 12 gods of the zodiac.

The number 12, which organises the field of number itself, is a natural symbol of the universal order and the rational mind. Its opposite, representing the irrational world of dreams and inspiration, is the number seven. That number was applied to the oracle. In ritualised, cosmologically ordered societies, 12 and 7 were brought together by the institution of state oracles within the rational 12-part framework. Every decision made by the ruling council of elders was referred to the oracle. If she was against it, reason and sense gave way to female intuition and the proposal was dropped.

That was one answer to the old, ever-present conundrum — how to balance the requirements of male and female mentalities in our laws and customs or — come to that — in ourselves. The oracle system, where men proposed and women could refuse them, must more or less have worked, for it lasted through pagan times and into the early Christian centuries. In place of it today we have a profusion of mediums, gurus, newspaper astrologers, psychologists and counsellors.

This is a roundabout way of introducing The Road to Delphi, but Michael Wood is a roundabout sort of writer. If you are looking for a historical or systematised account of the oracle phenomenon, this is not the book for you.