Divination

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Divination (Greek μαντεια, from μαντις "seer") is an attempt to get information through omens or supernatural things. The verb form is to divine, but this should not be confused with the adjective divine. Divination is different from fortune-telling. Divination is more ritual, usually religious. Fortune-telling is more for personal things.

Divining the outcome of things has been done by many different methods, such as the ones listed in the section below.

Types of divination

• Ailuromancy (by the behaviour of felines)
• Astrology (by studying celestial bodies)
• Augury (by the flight of birds)
• Aura-Soma, based on colors
• Automatic writing (writing when being used as a channel or medium)
• Bibliomancy (by book, frequently but not always a religious text)
• Cartomancy (by cards, e.g., playing cards, tarot cards, and non-tarot oracle cards; see also Taromancy)
• Cheiromancy (by palms; see Palmistry)
• Chronomancy (by time; lucky/unlucky days)
• Coscinomancy (by a sieve)
• Crystallomancy (by crystals or other reflecting objects; see also Scrying)
• Extispicy (from the entrails of sacrificed animals)
• Geomancy (by earth), includes Feng Shui divination
• Graphology (by handwriting)
• I Ching divination (ancient Chinese divination using I Ching): (But using an I Ching manual can make it also a form of Bibliomancy/Stichomancy)
• Heruspicy (by the organs of sacrificed animals)
• Necromancy (by trying to ask the dead)
• Numerology (by numbers)
• Oneiromancy/Incubatio (by dreams)
• Onomancy (by names)
• Ouija board divination
• Palmistry (by palm inspection)
• Phrenology (by the shape of one's head)
• Pyromancy, or pyroscopy (by fire)
• Rhabdomancy divination by rods
• Scrying ("seeing" in a crystal ball, a mirror, or water)
• Runecasting / Runic divination (by runes)
• Sternomancy (by markings or bumps on the chest)
• Taromancy (by specially designed cards: Tarot; see also Cartomancy)

Related pages

• Oracle

Other websites

The Simple English Wiktionary has a definition for: divination.

• Apple Divination^{[permanent dead link]}
• Ancient Astrology and Divination on the Web Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, resources on Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian divination
• W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination Archived 2007-09-14 at the Wayback Machine (1913), a complete scanned edition of the most recent general treatment of Greek divination
• 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Divination
• Divination Methods Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Encyclopedia Iranica: Divination
• Theory of Divination Archived 2007-08-14 at the Wayback Machine by Tim Maroney, exploring different possibilities
• The Sator Formula engraved on a human skull Archived 2008-09-27 at the Wayback Machine

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