by staffer Renji
I'm labeling this #1 because there may be future installments.
There are so many forms of divination! We’re familiar with cards, runes, palmistry, and astrology, so I thought I’d share some that might be new to you. The Harry Potter series mentions at least one of the methods below.
Alectryomancy is divination by chicken, and I don’t mean KFC. It is similar to Ouija, as the diviner draws a circle on the ground and divides it into segments corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. A grain of wheat is placed on each letter as the diviner chants an incantation. A white chicken is then placed in the middle of the circle, and as the chicken eats the grains, the letters are noted. When the chicken eats a grain from a letter, the grain is immediately replaced with another in case that letter is needed again. When the chicken finishes eating, the message is interpreted.
It should be noted, however, that chickens are not very good at spelling. In ancient Rome, during the reign of Emperor Valens, alectryomancy was used to find the name of Valens’ successor. The chicken spelled T-H-E-O-D and then stopped. It was decided that the answer had to be Theodotus, the name of an official who was known to want the throne. Theodotus was executed, but several years later Valens and his army were slaughtered by Visigoths and a new emperor named Theodosius took the throne. Maybe they should have used a hungrier chicken.
Arithmancy is one of Hermione’s favorite subjects at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is divination by numbers and is more commonly called numerology, where letters are given numerical value and the numbers in words are added up for interpretation. Isopsephic languages (Greek and Hebrew, for example) are languages where letters have specific numeric value. In other languages, such as Latin, only certain letters have numeric value. Remember your Roman numerals: I, V, X, etc. Some people have been known to change the spelling of their name (adding or subtracting a letter) to bring better fortune.
Ceromancy, also known as ceroscopy, is divination using melted wax. Wax is melted in a brass container. When it is in liquid form, it is poured into another container that is filled with cold water. As the hot wax hits the cold water, it congeals into floating blobs that are then interpreted. This is an ancient form of divination, and I wonder if the color of the candle used today would have significance.
Cledonomancy is divination by overhearing words by chance. In ancient Greece, people went to the Oracle of Hermes at Pharai, where they burned incense, lit lamps to Hermes, made an offering of money, and whispered their question into the ear of the god’s statue. They then covered their ears and left the temple and uncovered their ears when they were some distance away. The first words they heard were interpreted as the answer to their question. This begs the question of whether someone followed a person with his hands over his ears and ensure he heard the “right” message.
Coscinomancy is divination by shears (think scissors) and a sieve and was generally used in ancient times to find the person who was guilty of a crime. The shears were opened to form an “X” and, difficult though it sounds, balanced on the thumbnails of two people. A winnowing sieve was carefully placed on top of the shears and the people holding the shears looked into each other’s eyes, said a prayer or incantation, and then the names of everyone suspected of the crime were said out loud. The sieve was supposed to shift when the guilty person’s name was recited.
Crystallomancy is scrying with a crystal, though not necessarily a crystal ball. “Scrying” is looking into something (here a crystal) for visions.
The old (original) geomancy used 16 patterns of four lines of dots with one or two dots per line. Think binary. Four patterns were chosen to make up a chart that was then interpreted. There are geomantic decks in use today, and there have also been geomantic dice, but in ancient times the geomancer drew a line on the ground and poked a stick into the ground to make a random number of dots on the line. The dots were then counted. If there was an odd number, the figure used in the chart was odd; if even, the figure was even. Four lines resulted in four figures for interpretation.
The 16 patterns were interpreted as: boy, girl, gain, loss, lesser fortune, greater fortune, conjunction, people, white, red, prison, sorrow, joy, tail of the dragon, head of the dragon, and way.
Tassomancy comes from the Greek and means “cup divination”. This can be tea leaves or coffee grounds. The beverage is poured, the client drinks most of it, the cup is swirled and inverted, and then the dregs are interpreted.
Dowsing (using dowsing rods or a pendulum) is frequently used for divination.
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