Thirty-six kinds of divination to try at home

Human attempts to read, interpret and over-interpret the world are fascinatingly diverse.

This is a list of some divination methods, culled from here and there. Wikipedia has a much more comprehensive list, but these are my favourites. If you happen to have a donkey’s head lying around, or live in a region where wild boar are common, you can try some of these yourself at home…

1. abacomancy: divination by dust
2. ailuromancy: divination by cats
3. alectryomancy: divination by rooster
4. bibliomancy: divination by books opened at random
5. catoptromancy: divination using mirrors
6. cephaleonomancy: divination using the head, often by boiling the head of a donkey
7. chiromancy: divination by lines on the hand
8. chresmomancy : divination by means of the ravings of lunatics
9. cledonomancy: divination by overheard words
10. cleromancy: divination by sorting lots
11. coscinomancy: divination by the hanging-up of sieves
12. cromnyomancy:divination by onions
13. cybermancy: divination by computer
14. geomancy: divination by markings on the ground
15. hepatomancy: divination by liver
16. hydromancy: divination by dishes of water
17. hyomancy: divination by wild boar
18. iconomancy: divination by icon painting
19. lecanomancy: divination by oil floating in a dish of water
20. libanomancy: divination by smoke of incense
21. molybdomancy: divination by molten metal
22. myromancy: divination by ant
23. natimancy: divination by the buttocks
24. necromancy: divination by consulting with the dead
25. oinomancy: divination by wine
26. oneiromancy: divination by dreams
27. onychomancy: divination by the reflections seen in oiled fingernails
28. ornithomancy: divination by birds
29. plastromancy: divination by the cracks in the plastron of a tortoise
30. pyromancy: divination by fire
31. rahbdomancy: divination by rods, sticks or wands
32. scapulimancy : divination by bones
33. scatomancy: divination by excrement
34. tasseomancy: divination by tea-leaves and coffee grounds
35. tyromancy : divination by cheese
36. xenomancy: divination by means of strangers

Image: Takehisa Yumeji, Fortune-telling(from Fujin Graph January 1927), public domain via Wikimedia Commons