The Crystal Ball that we all know used as a divinatory tool, is thought to have more ancient origins than those documented which place the birth of its use around the early Middle Ages if not later.
It is known that practices related to reading through crystals have always existed since ancient times and are common to various civilizations.
The use of mineral objects for magical purposes was practiced by various tribes, including the Celtic ones.
It seems that the druids practiced divination by means of quartz crystals.
Only during the early Middle Ages do we have the first news of the use of spherical crystals.
The first historically documented source concerns the British occultist John Dee, who claimed to have received a crystal ball from an entity on November 21, 1582 and to have used it several times later assisted by the medium Edward Kelley. The sphere that was probably used by Dee is now in the British Museum. The manuscript with the instructions for use is also kept with the sphere.
The material used for the magical use of these spheres was usually clear, transparent or glass crystals, initially it was thought that the first spheres were like quartz, however after the numerous studies and experiments of the
anthropologists Andrew Lang and Ada Goodrich-Freer it was discovered that the oldest spheres were not in quartz as thought (a material used later) but in Beryl.
The use of crystallomancy with the crystal ball as a method of divination was and is used to read the future or discover traces of the past, the object must be activated with ritual and the interpretation of the reading varies according to the operator and the its competence.
Painting: John William Waterhouse The Crystal Ball (1902)