Divination Mirror

Bronze mirror

Mirror with "TLV" Pattern

Mirror with Jaguar or Coyote Mosaic

Mirror Back with Great Goddess

Mirror (Shinjūkyō) Based on Han Dynasty Prototype with Cosmological Design

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
Many ancient peoples viewed mirrors as magical. They believed mirrors were portals to the spiritual realm or tools with which to divine the future. 
There is a scientific explanation for how mirrors reflect light, of course. But this knowledge doesn’t stop their luminous surfaces from seeming magical. Across time and place, human beings have viewed reflective surfaces as portals to the divine or to the future. 

The first mirrors were likely the reflective surfaces of still water. Human-made mirrors entered the archaeological record around 8,000 years ago in Anatolia.1 Most societies associated mirrors with beauty and personal grooming. But some also attached a deeper ritual significance to them. 
 
This collection features ritually significant mirrors from ancient cultures around the world. Ancient Chavín-Cupisnique people likely used mirrors for divination, and buried mirrors with their dead.2 Aztec peoples, meanwhile, included small mirrors as part of royal regalia,3 while ancient Etruscans ritually smashed mirrors they included in tombs4. Ancient cultures in China and Japan decorated mirrors with symbolism that situated their users at the symbolic center of the cosmos.5 
 

Citations: 

1 Castro, Joseph. “Who Invented the Mirror?” Livescience, 28 March 2013, https://www.livescience.com/34466-who-invented-mirror.html. Accessed 25 May 2022. 
2 “Mirror.” Dallas Museum of Art, https://collections.dma.org/artwork/3288058. Accessed 25 May 2022. 
3 “Mirror with Jaguar or Coyote Mosaic.” Art Institute Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/132675/mirror-with-jaguar-or-coyote-mosaic. Accessed 25 May 2022. See also “Mirror Back with Great Goddess.” The Cleveland Museum of Art, https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.65. Accessed 25 May 2022. 
 
4 De Grummond, Nancy T. “On Mutilated Mirrors.” Votives, Places and Rituals in Etruscan Religion. Brill, 1 Jan. 2008. https://brill.com/previewpdf/book/edcoll/9789047442622/Bej.9789004170452.i-292_012.xml. Accessed 25 May 2022. 
 
5 “Mirror with “TLV” Pattern.” Art Institute Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/10522/mirror-with-tlv-pattern. Accessed 25 May 2022. See also “Mirror (Shinjūkyō) Based on Han Dynasty Prototype with Cosmological Design.” The Met, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44835. Accessed 25 May 2022.

Magic Mirrors

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