For centuries, mystics and artists have shared a common wish: to look into the hidden world and bring back a small piece of what is unknown. Ancient seers gazed into dark mirrors of polished stone, cast bones or lots, and read the positions of the stars. Today, a new kind of mirror has appeared. It glows in the palm of the hand and on the wall of the studio. Many artists now work with image-making tools that use artificial intelligence, and this has raised an old question in a new form: can a machine carry something of the sacred, or is the spark always human? This article does not claim to answer that question for everyone. It looks at the process of making images with these tools through the lens of symbolism and craft, and it notes where the esoteric reading is a personal interpretation. The Modern Scrying Mirror Scrying is the practice of gazing into a reflective surface until images appear. A crystal ball, a bowl of water or a dark glass were common tools. The viewer's a...

John Collier's 'Priestess of Delphi' (1891)—representing the Pythia, the conduit between the human world and the divine intelligence of Apollo.

A Yoruba 'Opon Ifá' (divination board)—the sacred space where the Babalawo mediates between the human world and the wisdom of Orunmila through the casting of palm nuts.