Editing Pythia (section)

===Experience of supplicants===
[[File:Claude Lorrain 027.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''View of Delphi with Sacrificial Procession'' by [[Claude Lorrain]]]]

In antiquity, the people who went to the Oracle to ask for advice were known as "consultants", literally, "those who seek counsel".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wisecounselresearch.com/research/portrait-gallery/delphic-oracle |title=The Delphic Oracle &#124; Wise Counsel Research Associates |access-date=2013-05-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226095012/http://www.wisecounselresearch.com/research/portrait-gallery/delphic-oracle |archive-date=2013-12-26 }} sighted 14/5/2013</ref> It would appear that the supplicant to the oracle would undergo a four-stage process, typical of [[shaman]]ic journeys.

* Step 1: '''Journey to Delphi'''—Supplicants were motivated by some need to undertake the long and sometimes arduous journey to Delphi in order to consult the oracle. This journey was motivated by an awareness of the existence of the oracle, the growing motivation on the part of the individual or group to undertake the journey, and the gathering of information about the oracle as providing answers to important questions.
* Step 2: '''Preparation of the supplicant'''—Supplicants were interviewed in preparation of their presentation to the Oracle, by the priests in attendance. The genuine cases were sorted and the supplicant had to go through rituals involving the framing of their questions, the presentation of gifts to the Oracle and a procession along the Sacred Way carrying laurel leaves to visit the temple, symbolic of the journey they had made.
* Step 3: '''Visit to the Oracle'''—The supplicant would then be led into the temple to visit the ''[[adyton]]'', put his question to the Pythia, receive his answer and depart. The degree of preparation already undergone would mean that the supplicant was already in a very aroused and meditative state, similar to the shamanic journey elaborated on in the article.
* Step 4: '''Return home'''—Oracles were meant to give advice to shape future action, which was meant to be implemented by the supplicant, or by those that had sponsored the supplicant to visit the Oracle. The validity of the Oracular utterance was confirmed by the consequences of the application of the oracle to the lives of those people who sought Oracular guidance.<ref>Fontenrose, Joseph (1981), "Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations". (University of California Press)</ref>