Even in the Old Testament it was said: “Do not cast spells or guess” (Lev.19:26) – this is a direct and unambiguous prohibition from God. It is even more harshly said about those who violate this prohibition: soothsayers, fortune-tellers, fortune tellers are called in the Holy Scriptures “abominable before the Lord,” those who will be “put to death and expelled by God from His Face.”
“Yuletide fortune-telling.” Konstantin Makovsky, 1890
The advent of Christianity in this matter did not change anything; for the Christian Church, any fortune-telling is a demonic activity and extremely dangerous for those who, out of stupidity, naivety, out of self-interest, or by deliberately challenging God, undertake to tell fortunes.
In Church law there is such a type of educational punishment as excommunication from the most important Sacrament for a Christian – the Sacrament of Communion (Eucharist). All Christians must receive communion regularly, and excommunication from communion is a terrible punishment for a Christian. So, according to canon 61 of the VI Ecumenical Council, those who turn to wizards and others like that “in order to learn from them what they want to reveal to them” are subject to six years of excommunication from communion. “Those who… combining deception with madness, utter fortune-telling about happiness, about fate, about genealogy and many other similar rumors” should be sentenced to six years.
During the time of excommunication from communion, a person had to realize the full destructiveness of his falling away from God and from the Church. At the same time, both the ban on fortune telling and the punishment for this great sin arose from concern for the person himself. Because the experience of the Church teaches: turning to dark spiritual forces does not pass without a trace for our soul and body; illness or even obsession, according to the testimony of the Holy Fathers, is the usual price that “the forces of evil charge, charge for coming into contact with them.”
At the same time, “those who are stubborn in fortune-telling and sorcery, and who do not run away from such destructive and pagan inventions,” as stated in the Church Canons, should be “completely thrown out of the Church.”
“Fortune Svetlana”, Karl Bryullov, 1836
Well, for those who were still wondering whether to guess or not to guess, one of the most famous Orthodox theologians, St. Basil the Great, admonished this: “Do not be curious about the future, but make good use of the present,” he wrote. “What benefit is there for you to anticipate God’s command? If the future brings you something good, then it will come, although you did not know it in advance. And if it is sorrowful, why do you want to languish in sorrow until the end? how to make sure of the future? Fulfill what is prescribed by the gospel law and expect to enjoy the blessings.”
Source: rg.ru
