Divination
 |
| Religion |
|---|
| Abrahamic religions |
| Christianity · Islam · Judaism · Baha'i |
| Dharmic religions |
| Hinduism · Buddhism · Jainism · Sikhism |
| Other religions |
| Unitarian Universalism · Raelism · Wicca · Zoroastrianism · Eckankar · Druidry · Yoruba religion · Taoism |
| Nontheism |
| Atheism · Agnosticism · Ignosticism |
| Holy texts |
| Bible · Qur'an · Torah · Vedas · Aqdas · Avesta · Tripitaka · Adi Granth · Book of Shadows |
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)
Divination Media
Display on divination, featuring a cross-cultural range of items, at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England
Joseph Enthroned. Folio from the "Book of Omens" (Falnama), Safavid dynasty. 1550. Freer Gallery of Art. This painting would have been positioned alongside a prognostic description of the meaning of this image on the page opposite (conventionally to the left). The reader would flip randomly to a place in the book and digest the text having first viewed the image.
,_circa_1550_AD.jpg)
Related pages
Other websites
- Apple Divination[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
