Many people are so eager to think that they know what the future holds that they’ll seize on almost anything that they believe — or at least hope — holds a promise of divination. Many other people are so eager to take advantage of that first group that they’ll seize on almost that they believe — or at least hope — might make some cash, raise their personal credibility, or place them in a position of power. “Divination” has been a part of English since about the 1200s, when — living in French at the time — it foresaw travel in its future and crossed the English Channel. It’s based on the Latin “dīvīnāre,” to predict.
Most of the methods of divination, or “fortune-telling techniques,” end in “-mancy.” That suffix comes from the Greek word “manteia”, which also means to predict. A few of the methods, “astrology” and “numerology,” end instead with the “-ology” that’s from the Greek “logos,” meaning someone qualified to speak about a subject. The “-ology” suffix tends to be used for areas of study that are — are at least once were — considered sciences, and are (or were) taken seriously. Odds are that anything ending in “-mancy” was never really taken very seriously by anyone who wasn’t in the process of being fooled by somebody.
There are many, many techniques for claiming to see into the future. Most people are aware of “reading the tea leaves” — technically, that practice is called “phyllomancy,” and it’s a pretty garden-variety version of divination. In fact, if you’ve got a cup, you don’t even need the tea; “scyphomancy” is divination by using just the cup itself.
If you’re holding a cup, though, you can get rid of it right away because to really tell the future all you need is your hands (chirognomy) — no, wait, not even that, just a palm (chiromancy). In fact, to heck with that, just a finger will do (dactyliomancy). But wait, not even an whole finger is needed; “onychomancy” is divination by studying fingernails.
You’ll notice that the handy tools of divination were getting smaller and smaller — you really could just use any small objects at all; that would be “micromancy.” For instance, you could use pebbles (pessomancy or thrioboly), ashes (tephromancy), or even cheese (tyromancy). If you’re not into the whole “tiny tools” thing you could just go find any random animal (zoomancy), or even specialize by finding a snake (ophidiomancy), a donkey (onomancy), a horse (hippomancy). Or you could wait until some birds fly by (onithomancy). But if you’re already looking skyward, there’s no need to wait for birds; you could watch the moon (selenomancy), meteors (meteoromancy), or even just whatever you happen to see up there in the heavens (uranomancy). In fact, you could just go with any large objects at all; that would be “macromancy.”
But come back to earth for a while. Remember all those techniques using parts of hands? Well you could also use the whole body (schematomancy) or pay close attention to your own actions when you’re getting dressed (stolisomancy) — this particular one might actually work sometimes; putting on your winter coat is often associated with predicting the weather to be chilly. But then as you’re leaving home you might look over your shoulder for a moment — and guess what, that, too, can be the basis for divination; it’s called “retromancy.” Other behaviors you might be interested in as showing the future might include laughing (geloscopy), the rumbling of your stomach (gastromancy), handwriting (graptomancy), or sleeping (hypnomancy). But it doesn’t have to be human behavior you need to observe; “alectryomancy” is divination by watching a rooster gather kernels of corn, and “ailuromancy” is divination by watching cats.
Practically anything at hand can be used to foretell the future, from mirrors (enoptromancy — and if the mirrors are under water it’s catoptromancy), to rings (dactylomancy — very close to divination via finger, if you recall that one), shells (conchomancy), to a sieve and a pair of scissors (coscinomancy; I don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do with the sieve and the scissors though). As a matter of fact it probably doesn’t matter what happens to be lying around nearby, “apantomancy” is divination using whatever objects you happen to have.
But if you do happen to have a frog, you could practice “batraquomancy.” If you prefer things a bit sharper than a frog, “belomancy” uses arrows and for “axinomancy” you use an axe or hatchet. Those seem like they might be dangerous in the wrong hands though, so you might stick to “ceroscopy” (divination via wax) or, since wax is so readily available in candles, “ceromancy” is the same thing but using the wax that’s just dripped from a candle. If you don’t want to have a mess of wax to clean up, just watch the candle flame; that would be “causimancy.”
But what if that candle was one of the ones on a birthday cake? Well, forget the candles in that case; “critomancy” is divination by cake. If you’re the cook and you’re making the cake, take a moment and an ingredient and do some “halomancy” to see how the party is going to turn out; “halomancy” is divination via salt.
There are a LOT more of these. I could continue the whole thing some time next week if I wanted to. If you can’t wait to find out whether I do, you’ll have to get out your crystal ball and practice some “spheromancy” to predict what’s going to happen!
