The Word “Inauguration”

Inauguration is a word that uses the prefix ‘in-‘ meaning ‘within or relating to’ as well as ‘auguration’ which relates to ‘the augurs’. In another sense “inauguration” originates from the Latin word inaugurare, which means “to consecrate or install after seeking the approval of the gods.”

In Ancient Roman Times, the Augurs were a high priest class of people who practiced augury or the practice of divination through ‘reading the birds’. They used birds as signs or omens to seek approval from the gods and give advice or counsel on a specific action.

The exact etymology of augur is not clear but it may be from; avis (bird) and possibly garrīre (to talk or chatter), meaning the talk of the birds, or from the birds, or making talk with the birds, in essence being divination based on birds.

It was more of a divination spiritual practice that would be allegorically akin to climate scientists today, but it wasn’t a religion itself as more of a political, spiritual, and religious practice. Arguably Statisticians that use data inputs are only as good as the data itself, so we are once again relying on ‘experts’ to read the birds/numbers to make educated guesses of divination (Thus reading the birds or tea leaves or bones or charts are rather similar). I digress.

Augury was a practice for reading the birds under various religions, attributed to polytheistic beliefs and spiritual practices. You know how using Tarot or an Oracle deck doesn’t really make that a religion itself? It’s kind of like that, it’s a practice or custom like tradition that they partake in to divine results that they used.

When something is auspicious or takes auspices, this relates to augury. Augurs would read good fortunes and bad omens from recognizing the flight of birds and their presence. The Eagle was an auspicious symbol for the Roman Empire and they definitely took birds seriously, as seen with their symbolic golden eagle war standards/banners (known or referred as an aquila).

People at the time, took the Augurs seriously, they would decide political and economic policy, taxes, and even whether to engage in combat or war with another. Augurs were the state-backed fortune tellers, similar to our modern theoretical political/economic/etc. scientists are.

Augurs in Roman time had many seats, the exact number varies depending on who you asked, but varied throughout time, from three to twenty five. In fact, there was a Plebian uprising and subsequent reform to let Plebes be augurs themselves (~300BCE), This was called the Plebian Council, and the augurs consisted of about 4 patricians (of the patrician class) and 5 plebeians. This allowed the plebes or plebians to have representation in the practice of augury, giving a voice to the people.

Which, makes the practice less about augury itself and more politicized based on the backgrounds of the people. Thus you can see how the divination tool is being used and usurp by mal-intended interests. If you pay attention, the very same observation can be said about the current state of affairs and reports, especially when we consider the changing of definitions, the shift in GDP definitions, the idea of government’s using ‘malinformation’, etc.

Meaning, augury is a practice that was corrupted by politicization.

In Modern times

Augury in modern times;

We still use bird flight patterns, migration patterns, and more to track and make sense of things in the world. Animals tend to know when something is happening with the climate, and thus we can use their movements to predict or guess that something might be happening. Environmentalists can study meteorological patterns and trends in the ecosystem from bird migrations.

In Africa, people have used bird behavior to predict drought for generations. In modern times, we have some bird watching and climatologists formalized this practice into a science with the modern scientific rigor.

Fisherman use birds to show an area or density of fish -turns out, birds eat fish and fly over dense areas of fish. This can be used as a theoretical tracking mechanism for finding ships or concealment for ships in naval warfare. In old times, naval ships used to have resident birds, like crows or frigate birds, that handled things and pests. In other cases, people would spot birds or follow them and be able to spot islands. Captains are stereotyped to have parrots on their shoulders, but alas, we sailors are very superstitious when you see how vast and deep the Oceans’ Abyss runs.

There’s a lot of things connected here, and Augury is a real practice. Whether or not that’ll determine who is or isn’t a good leader, that’s up for debate to prove a link or causality (Typically, hindsight is 20/20, but comparing parallel synthetic timelines is rather unachievable currently). Science as a methodology looks for either repeatable accuracy or for a discrete and descriptive connection.

Presidential elections;

The President is ‘inaugurated’ on ‘inauguration’ day. Which means they are appointed to take office and approved by the official augurs.

Do we as the US use augurs today? It’s not known or clearly defined as specifically augurs. It’s totally valid to think there’s a shadow oligarchy of augurs, but to think they practice augury, is a bit different and rather elusive. If anything we’re probably moving towards a class of techno-elite augurs using social media and smart phone data instead of birds, and they’re relying on AI algorithms rather than gut intuitive instincts.

But officially we don’t use augurs, nor do we widely and officially acknowledge any secret cabals or deep states. Thus the word ‘inauguration’ could be used as a loan word from the old republic, United States being one of the ‘New Republics’.

Side Note on Science and Magic

I’m not against science or religious or spiritual practices, I just want to clarify that both are logical (under the right lens) and that relying on 100% certainty on both is rather a bit illogical in my opinion. If we really had things down to an exact science, then our probability rates would be much higher for accuracy and prediction to the point of divining results.

But since we aren’t there yet, and we’re using these models that aren’t there, these educated guesses become as good as flipping a coin, in which case divination of other forms may feel more accurate (and using our own intuition and subconscious as the processing model to divine the results might be more accurate). Whether you use magic or science, you’re just making a guess, educated-or-not does not matter, accurate results or not is more meaningful.

If we’re being technical, using numbers as data points to mean something and make meaning out of the numbers itself is a form of divination magick. It’s called Numerology. Using numbers to divine results or for other applications.

In another sense, the soft science of economy or accounting or financials, is about the numbers themselves, thus any result from such studies is based on the value of data or statisticians. Thus it’s just glorified and dressed up number magic.

Additionally if everything in the universe is of the stars and celestials, then counting everything is technically astronomy, thus words and numbers would be an elaborate form of reading astrological charts or symbols and sigils. If everything is made of star dust, then every movement of matter is a celestial movement, and tracking it would be cosmological.

I can always spin science into magic or magic into science. It’s easy when you understand both and have a degree of mastery over language to ‘get people to look’ at a certain thing in a specific light or perspective.

Whether you’re counting birds or just counting. As long as you use numbers or some form of subjective interpretation of reality to define and divine forecasted future events, then we’re living in a world of guesses for reality.

Epilogue

I wanted to point out a word that is used every four, give or take some, years during the United States Presidential Elections.

The United States is one of the standing Roman Legacy Empires, and Russia is the other one. If you’re interested, look into the religious history of the Religious schism (Eastern Orthodoxy) as well as the symbology of both nations and the structure of their political systems as well as any royal lineage. You’ll be able to see it clearly that both US and Russia are New Rome and 3rd Rome respectively.

I represent no specific bias towards or against the United States nor towards any political issues, other than pointing out observations about the use of a-political political power. You know, things like censorship or the changing of definitions. You see, I tend to care about words, -shocking.

The big thing to take away is that-

Words Mean Things