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Crystal ball

A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in fortune-telling. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying through crystal gazing. Used since Antiquity, crystal balls have had a broad reputation with witchcraft, including modern times with charlatan acts and amusements at circus venues, festivals, etc. Other names for the object include crystal sphere, orbuculum, scrying ball, shew/show(ing) stone, and more variants by dialect.

By the fifth century AD, scrying using crystal balls was widespread within the Roman Empire and was condemned by the early Christian Church as heretical (magic had been condemned since the Apostolic Era with e.g. Chapter 2 of the Didache).

The tomb of Childeric I, a fifth-century king of the Franks, contained a 3.8 cm (1½ inch) diameter transparent beryl globe. The object is similar to other globes that were later found in tombs from the Merovingian period in Gaul and the Saxon period in England. Some of these were complete with a frame suggesting an ornamental object. It has been pointed out that these mounts are identical to those of later globes also believed to be used for magic or divination, indicating that these crystal globes may have been used for crystallomancy.

John Dee was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy, of which the use of crystal balls was often included.

Crystal gazing was a popular pastime in the Victorian era, and was claimed to work best when the Sun is at its northernmost declination. Immediately before the appearance of a vision, the ball was said to mist up from within.

The use of crystal balls for divination also has a long history with the Romani people. Fortune-tellers, known as drabardi, traditionally use crystal balls as well as cards to seek knowledge about future events.

The process of scrying often involves the use of crystals, especially crystal balls, in an attempt to predict the future or otherwise divine hidden information. Crystal ball scrying is commonly used to seek supernatural guidance while making difficult decisions in one's life (e.g., matters of love or finances).

When the technique of scrying is used with crystals, or any transparent body, it is known as crystallomancy or crystal gazing.

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crystal or glass ball and common fortune telling object
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