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A candle's flame. Pyromancy (Ancient Greek ἐμπυρία (empyria), divination by fire) [1] is the art of divination by means of fire or flames. [2]The word pyromancy is adapted from the Greek word pyromanteia, from pyr (πῦρ, fire) [1] and manteia (μαντεία, divination by means of). [1]
Pyromancy is the art of divination which consisted of signs and patterns from flames. There are many variations of pyromancy depending on the material thrown into a fire and it is thought to be used for sacrifices to the gods and that the deity is present within the flames with priests interpreting the omens conveyed. [5]
Some forms of divination are much older than the Middle Ages, like haruspication, while others such as coffee-based tasseomancy originated in the 20th and 21st centuries. The chapter "How Panurge consulteth with Herr Trippa" of Gargantua and Pantagruel , a parody on occult treatises of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa , contains a list of over two ...
The forms of divination mentioned in Deuteronomy 17 are portrayed as being of foreign origin; this is the only part of the Hebrew Bible to make such a claim. [5] According to Ann Jeffers, the presence of laws forbidding necromancy proves that it was practiced throughout Israel's history.
If a distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, [citation needed] usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes.
Lampadomancy is a form of divination using a single oil lamp or a torch flame. As with Lychnoscopy, the diviner reads presages from the movements of the flame. An alternate method is also practiced, consisting of reading the spots of carbon deposited on paper sheets held over the flame. In yet another method, the diviner uses the lamp as a ...
It is used for divination or the removal of the evil eye. [13] Traditionally, it was resorted to in cases in which illness of pregnant women or that of children is due to fright, to find out what object was the cause of the alarm; from the resemblance of the form assumed by the metal to a particular animal, a medicine-woman divines that the ...
An individual practicing spodomancy by making marks in ashes. The marks are then interpreted for meaning, omens, and portents. Spodomancy (also known as tephramancy and tephromancy) is a form of divination by examining cinders, soot, or ashes (Greek: σποδός spodós), particularly although not exclusively from a ritual sacrifice.