Spiritual analysis: The discovery of the Liahona reminds us that while the Lord typically uses natural means to accomplish His ends, there are times when we have no idea what those natural means might be. There is no return to Jerusalem for this prize object. There is no forging of tools nor instructions on ship buildings. The Liahona simply appears, without apparent aid of a human delivery (or construction). The appearance of the Liahona is miraculous, and outside our understanding (though clearly within God's power).
Physical analysis: Notwithstanding the miraculous appearance of the Liahona, the substance of which it was made was sufficiently normal that it is noted as fine brass, not an unknown material. Of the construction we are informed only that it was of "curious workmanship." Nephi does not explain why the workmanship was "curious" but it may be supposed that the term was used to indicate that the workmanship was not familiar to them, and therefore "curious." The shape and making of the Liahona was apparently not an item which was part of their cultural catalog.
Nevertheless, while being of a foreign origin, it was nevertheless fairly readily discerned that one of the two spindles would provide direction for them. As this is a point in the history of the world when magnetic compasses were quite rare, if extant, it is not likely that the groups knowledge of how to use the Liahona derived from a model of a magnetic compass. It is more likely that the words which appeared on the spindles were there clues to its purpose (1 Nephi 16:26 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord said unto him: Look upon the ball, and behold the things which are written).
It is interesting that while modern LDS know the Liahona quite well by name, that name appears only once in the Book of Mormon, and much later than Nephi's text. The only occurrence of Liahona is found in Alma 37:38 "And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director--or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it. 39 And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship. And behold, it was prepared to show unto our fathers the course which they should travel in the wilderness."
Alma indicates that the name Liahona "being interpreted" is compass. This is an interesting passage because of the "being interpreted" phrase, and the indication that it was a compass. In terms of "being interpreted," the indication is that this is a name which is not current among the Nephites at the time of Alma. In other words, the word itself might have meaning in a different language, but does not in the language of Alma. It is therefore uncertain where the name came from, as it is not clearly Hebrew (which would have been understood by the highly educated Nephites, if by none else - based on the fact that Mormon knew the difference between his version of Hebrew and the earlier version - see Mormon 9:33). In this light, it is also interesting that the Liahona is not referred to by name in Nephi's account, being simply called "the ball." Perhaps the name Liahona was given to the sphere after the arrival in the New World, which would allow it to have received a name which might not derive from the Near Eastern tradition.
Nevertheless, there have been many attempts to discover the meaning of Liahona in Hebrew. Nibley notes the following two possibilities:
"And many people have dealt with the word Liahona. We had a teacher from Hebrew University here for a few years; in fact he bought a house in Provo. He was so fond of it he wanted to come and visit often. His name was Shunary. He never joined the Church, but the first thing that fascinated him was this name Liahona. He traced it back to the queen bee, the leader of bees swarming in the desert. When bees swarm, that's Liahona. I took it from a different one. Yah is, of course, God Jehovah. Liyah means the possessive, "To God is the guidance," hona (Liyahhona). That's just a guess; don't put it down. But it's a pretty good guess anyway" (Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, p.216).
While tentative in this citation, he appears to have liked the definition: "And, of course, the name Liahona is very interesting, "to God is the direction, to God is the leading." It's recognition, praise, and direction. It means all those things" (Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2, p.464). Where he began tentatively, he was much firmer in later attestations.
The second interesting part of Alma's description is that the Liahona is a compass. At times, this phrase has been used as an anachronism in the text, as the magnetic compass would not have been known then. This makes to great a presumption on the word "compass" and imputes too much of our own culture on it. Whether nor not the magnetic principles of a compass are understood, it is nevertheless a means for showing direction, and in that context the Liahona fully qualifies as a "compass."
"It is also possible that geomagnetic compasses might have been part of the cultural inventory of the Lehites. Robert F. Smith notes that magnetite, or lodestone, was mined by at least the seventh century B.C. In the new world, Professor Michael Coe "has suggested that the Olmecs of Veracruz, Mexico, were using magnetite compasses already in the second millennium B.C. This is based on Coe's discovery during excavations at San Lorenzo-Tenochtitlan of a magnetite "pointer' which appeared to have been "machined," which Coe placed on a cork mat in a bowl of water in a successful test of its function as a true floater-compass." ("Lodestone and Liahona" in Reexploring the Book of Mormon FARMS 1992, p. 45).
While the failure of the Liahona to work in the absence of faith diminishes the prospect that it functioned on magnetic principles, the above cited article notes:
"Whatever the nature of the Liahona, it is intriguing to note that certain properties of compasses might have been familiar to those who were blessed with its guiding functions, and that those who were skeptical of Nephi and the Liahona might have logically turned to those characteristics in seeking to find a plausible rationalization." ("Lodestone and Liahona" in _Reexploring the Book of Mormon_ FARMS 1992, p. 45-46).
One of the more extensive discussions of the possible functioning of the Liahona is found in Nibley's writings:
Listing the salient features of the report we get the following:
. . . But it is time to turn to Mr. Fahd's study of belomancy in the ancient Near East. Belomancy is the practice of divination by shooting, tossing, shaking, or otherwise manipulating rods, darts, pointers, or other sticks, all originally derived from arrows. . . Fahd begins by pointing out that the "arrows" used in divination, called qidh or zalam, were devoid of heads and feathers, being mere shafts or pointers. Since Lane has given a fuller description of these objects from the sources, we can do no better than quote his quotations:
"Zalam, plural azlam [divining--] arrows by means of which the Arabs in the Time of Ignorance [i.e, before Islam] sought to know what was allotted to them: they were arrows upon which the Arabs in the Time of Ignorance wrote `Command' and `Prohibition'; or upon some of which was written `My Lord hath commanded me'; and upon some, `My Lord hath forbidden me'; or they were three arrows; upon one of which was written `My Lord hath commanded me'; c.] . . . and the third was blank; and they put them in a receptacle, and took forth an arrow; and if the arrow upon which was `Command' came forth, he went to accomplish the purpose; but if that upon which was `Prohibition' came forth, he refrained; and if the blank came forth, they shuffled them a second time. . . . The azlam [were arrows that] belonged to Kureysh, in the Time of Ignorance, upon which were written `He hath commanded,' and `He hath forbidden,' and `Do thou' and `Do thou not'; they had been well shaped and made even, and placed in the Kaabeh [the holy shrine of Meccah] . . . and when a man desired to go on a journey, or to marry, he came to the minister, and said, `Take thou forth for me a zalam'; and thereupon he would take it forth and look at it. . . . There were seven of the arrows thus called with the minister of the Kaabeh, having marks upon them, and used for this purpose: and sometimes there were with the man two such arrows, which he put into his sword-case; and when he desired to seek the knowledge of what was allotted to him, he took forth one of them."
But why arrows? Because, as we have shown elsewhere, the shooting of arrows is a universal form of divination, "as is evident in the prayers that the legendary heroes of the steppe--Finnish, Norse, Russian, Kazakh, Turkish, and Yakut--address to their three enchanted arrows before releasing them, and for instance, in the arrow-prayers of the Indian and Beduin, all eloquently expressing the humility of men about to entrust their lives and their fate to a power beyond their control." The consultation of the arrows by one about to marry was, according to Gaster, also an old Jewish custom; the parties concerned would throw rods into the air, "reading their message by the manner of their fall; this, Gaster observes, is `tantamount' to the shooting of arrows." Other substitutes for shooting were shaking or drawing from a bag or quiver, "balancing on the finger, or spinning on a pivot."(Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.7, Ch.9, p.253-257).
Historical analysis: As with attempts to discover the meaning of the name Liahona, there have been various attempts to find clouded references to the Liahona in the literature of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. While the arguments have some interest, they are best seen as possibilities rather than remembrances.
Diane Wirth has suggested that the Liahona might be related to a sacred object mentioned in both the Popol Vuh and the Title of the Lords of Totonicapan:
"The Popol Vuh, which contains a sacred history of the Quiche Maya of te Guatemalan highlands, and which was written from earlier sources shortly after the Spanish conquest, speaks of just such an object as the Liahona. In describing the migrations of their ancestor, the Maya claim that Balam-Quitze "left [them] the symbol of his being' and further instructed them that this object would be a source of power for their use. This symbol, or object, belonging to the ancestors of the Maya, was called the Pizon-Gagal. (Diane Wirth A Challenge to Critics. 1986, p.118). She also notes a similar item among the Cackchiquel Maya, with the name Giron-Gagal, and "referred to as a 'sacred bundle'" (Wirth 1986, p. 119).
The relevant passage from the Popol Vuh (Dennis Tedlock's translation) is:
"And then Jaguar Quitze [Tedlock translates "Balam"]left a sigh of his being:
This is for making requests of me. I shall leave it with you. Here is your fiery splendor. I have completed my instructions, my counsel, he said when he left the sign of his being, the Bundle of Flames, as it is called. It wasn't clear just what it was; it was wound about with coverings. It was never unwrapped. Its sewing wasn't clear because no one looked on while it was being wrapped" (Dennis Tedlock, _The Popol Vuh_, Simon and Schuster, 1985, p. 198).
The tradition of a sacred bundle, and very specifically a god-bundle, is quite widespread in Mesoamerica. It is the sacred representation of the deity, and one is carried during the migrations of the Mexica. As can be seen neither the translated name "bundle of flames," nor the description of a wrapped bundle which is never opened fit the description of the Liahona. While both provide guidance through faith, the sacred bundles were the means of oracles and visions, and are only in the remotest sense related to the functioning of the spindles on the Liahona.
David Palmer uses the same evidence from the Popol Vuh and the Title of the Lords of Totonicapan to link the bundles and the Liahona (David Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, Horizon Publishers, 1981, p. 157). He adds evidence from a drawing which depicts the "presentation to the group leader of a ball suspended from a chain" (Palmer, 1981, p. 156). The drawing is printing in the book, and is quite clearly in the Spanish style. It is therefore quite difficult to make a real determination of the nature of the object (which can only said to be round) based on the late interpretation of native texts. While the ball might be of significance, it is virtually impossible to discover without better uninfluenced texts.
The Liahona was an important symbol for the Nephites, but it must be remembered that it remained as symbol only in the sacred cache of the rulers of the Nephites. It was no longer functional, and therefore remembered in its religious and perhaps regnal contexts. With such a limited meaning base, it would be somewhat surprising if the memory of that object would have carried to foreign cultures (whose ancestors never saw the object work) and distant times after the demise of the Nephites. With the passing of the Nephite culture, it is doubtful that an object of unknown sacred power would become a viable image in other cultures, although it would not be surprising for the object itself to have been preserved for a time.