Stillness 8-24: In all my study of language—another passion of mine—I find the Etruscan language to be one of the most mysterious. It seems unconnected to the rest of Europe’s Indo-European roots. The Etruscans built, traded, and thrived in the area north of Rome during the first millennia BCE, before being wiped out or assimilated by the Romans. The 1st-century BCE historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that the Etruscans were “a very ancient people, resembling no other either in language or customs.”
We lived in Italy for a few years when I was around nine and ten, and visiting Etruria remains a pleasant memory for me. The cemeteries were especially wonderful. The Etruscans built underground cities for their dead, carved out of natural bedrock or built with stone blocks. I’d wander along corridors that were like narrow streets. They were all lined with shelves wide enough for the bodies to lie on. Back then there were no tours or guides, so I could slip away from my family and explore alone to my heart’s content. I’d touch a stone shelf in wonder. How cozy, I used to think—all these people laid here as though in bunk beds on a cozy ship.
We don’t know much about the Etruscan language, and very little of their writing has survived, but the ancient Roman historians tell us that they wrote significant “books” about fate, divination, interpretation of signs and portents, ways of placating the gods, as well as very specific treatises on founding, building, and governing communities. Apparently, they were superb at dowsing and divining where the underground waterways were, and this contributed to their successful colonization of Etruria.
The art of divination has been a part of human experience from our earliest beginnings. I think it was an important aspect of the development of our language, for once we had a sense of a past tense we also could speak in the future tense. We wanted to know what was in store for us. When we grew more conscious of death and created burial rituals, we also created rituals for salvation and the after-life. That in turn created a strong desire for portent and divination in this life.
The Romans called people who foretold events by observing and interpreting signs and omens “augurs.” The word originated from a word meaning “increase” – perhaps because the purpose was to increase crops through some sort of ritual. Later, “augury” became specific to divining the flight of birds. What did it mean when an eagle was seen flying in a certain direction? What will happen when an owl hoots at night?
Would you like to try the art of divination? Simply observe the flight of a bird. Frame it with your fingers, making a sort of invisible camera. Now notice the direction the bird is flying across that frame. Like our fellow-humans around the globe (for example, the Ancient Greeks, the Ancient Chinese, and most indigenous peoples), the Etruscans believed all augury could be located in the four quarters of the sky:
- The South was where the gods of the natural world lived.
- The West was the direction of death and the underworld. (If you want to play with the wonderful world of divination always remember that the word “death” does not portent physical death, but growth, transformation, and change—which, after all, is the basis of life.)
- The north was auspicious and promised good fortune (in some cultures, this is the place of our ancestors).
- The East was where the highest and beneficent deities lived.
If there’s more than one bird in your frame, notice how many. If they’re close enough, notice their color, their species. Listen to their call. Observe, watch, notice. Have fun! Seeing is the secret to developing your clairvoyance, where you see beyond what you see.
Here’s a short Etruscan inscription from a small terracotta flask:
Aska mi eleivana, mini mulvanike mamarce velchana
(I am an oil bottle and Mamarce Velchana donated me)