Aleuromancy
Fortunes written on slips of paper are placed in dough. Shape the dough into “Chinese” fortune cookies and offer them to your guests to choose from. Each guest then reads their own fate.
Alphitomancy
This method can be used to detect a lie. You need a piece of barley bread rubbed with vervain. Offer pieces of it to the person being tested. If they choke, it means they are lying.
Halomancy
Scatter salt and interpret the shapes you see. This divination gave rise to the superstition that spilling salt brings bad luck.
Aeromancy
Foretelling the future by interpreting atmospheric phenomena: clouds, lightning and haloes around the Sun and Moon. It is one of the oldest divination methods, used by the Babylonians.
Arithmancy
Divination based on the numerical value of letters.
Astromancy
Divination from the arrangement of the stars
Bibliomancy
One version is based on the Bible, the other on a book of great importance to the person consulting it. In the old days, to test whether someone had been in contact with evil forces, a Bible was placed on one side of a set of scales and the suspect on the other. If the scales tipped towards the Bible, the accused was innocent. As a result, most of the accused were found guilty and paid for this method with their lives. Today the method is quite simple: the diviner asks a question, opens a book at random and, with eyes closed, points to a passage of text. That is the answer to the question.
Biomancy
A prophecy that tells how long someone will live.
Cephalomancy
Divination from the movements of an animal’s head.
Dactylomancy
A divinatory art that uses rings.
Demonomancy
One of the most dangerous divination methods, and very rarely used. A demon is summoned and asked questions. Before the ceremony you must put on a wreath of vervain cut at dawn, which will protect you from the demon’s destructive power. Then set candles in a circle with a glass vessel of water in the middle. Speak the demon’s name and ask your question while watching the vessel. The answer will appear in the reflection of the candles in the water.
Daphnomancy
One of the oldest divination methods of ancient Greece. You ask a question and throw bay leaves into a fire, then interpret the answer from the crackling of the flames.
Hydromancy with a wet towel
This method was also used by Nostradamus. It involves soaking the head and face with a wet towel, then leaning over a vessel of water and asking a question.
Phyllorhodomancy
Divination with a rose leaf. Make a wish and pick a leaf from a wild rose bush, then snap the leaf in half. If it makes a sound like a shot, your wish should come true. If the leaf makes no sound, the omen is unfavourable.
Geomancy
Divination by reading earth scattered on a white cloth.
Hydromancy
The art of foretelling the future with water. Drop three stones into a container of water: one round, one square and one triangular. Interpret the answer to your question from the ripples.
Capnomancy
The art of divination by smoke
Catoptromancy
Divination using a mirror and candles.
Craniomancy
Divination from skulls
Lampadomancy
A method of foretelling the future by observing the flames of torches.
Lychnomancy
Divination from a lamp in which a demon is imprisoned.
Necromancy
The art of summoning the spirits of the dead, or of reading the future by examining human corpses.
Omoplatoscopy
Found only in Arab countries. There, fortunes are told by studying the patterns on the shoulder blades of rams.
Parthenomancy
A divination meant to test whether a girl is a virgin. The thickness of her neck is measured with a silk cord, and the same measurement is taken again a few days later. If the girl’s neck has grown thicker, it means she is not a virgin.
Podomancy
The appearance of the feet is interpreted, much as the hands are in palmistry.
First published (Polish original): 21 March 2010. Written by astrologers and esoteric specialists working with our editorial team; edited and translated for HOROSCOP.SPACE. © All rights reserved.
