Encyclopedia of Fortune Telling

This ebook licensed to michelle griecogrieco. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this ebook is illegal. MICHAEL JOHNSTONE 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 This edition published in 2006 by Arcturus Publishing Limited 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151–153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA Copyright © 2004 Arcturus Publishing Limited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. ISBN-13: 978-1-84193-235-4 ISBN-10: 1-84193-235-3 Printed and bound in China Author: Michael Johnstone Designer: Kevin Ancient 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 Contents Introduction . 1 It’s on the cards . 23 It’s in your cups . 55 It’s in the crystal. 77 It’s in the east . 83 The I Ching . 113 It’s in the numbers . 131 It’s in the palm of your hand. 143 It’s in the stones . 165 It’s in the stars . 177 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 Introduction 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 R Introduction R A variety of divination arts half as old as time Divination: ME [-()Fr. divination or L. divinatio,f.divinat-, pa, ppl stem of divinare; see DIVINE v., -ION.] 1. The action or practice of divining; the foretelling of future events or discovery of what is hidden or obscure by supernatural or magical means. Also with a [article] and pl. [plural] an exercise of this, a prophecy, an augury. 2. Successful conjecture or guessing. Not content with telling us that the word ‘divination’ is a Middle English one that has its roots in Old French or Latin, and then defining the word, the 1983 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary goes on to tell us that the first recorded written use of the word in its longer meaning is found in the work of Sir Thomas North (c. 1535 – c. 1601). The Tudor poet wrote, ‘The flying of birds, which doe geue a happy divination of things to come.’ The second meaning was first used in written form by North’s contemporary, William Shakespeare, who in Henry IV part II wrote: ‘Why, he is dead. See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; Tell thou an earl his divination lies, And I will take it as a sweet disgrace And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.’ What these dictionary definitions fail to do is give any hint of the breadth of the ways in which the action of divining can be practised. For that we must move several centuries on from Thomas North and William Shakespeare and turn to twenty-first century technology – the Internet. Switch on a computer, select a search engine and key in the word. Google alone offers over 490,000 sites to choose from! Hitting on one them, www.angelfire.com, and then selecting from the various options offered eventually leads to the following glossary compiled by an organization R 3 R 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 R Introduction R R 4 R 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808 R Introduction R called BoxArt, the headlist of which is reproduced here with their generous permission. Aeromancy This form of divination looks to the air and sky for inspiration partic- ularly concerning itself with cloud shapes, comets and other phenomenon not normally visible in the heavens (see also Meteoromancy). Alchemy The much sought after but never achieved practice of transmutation of base metals into precious metals (e.g. gold or silver) with the aid of an esoteric third substance is a form of divination, seeking as it does to use ‘divine’ knowledge to alter things. Alectryomancy Those who divine by Alectryomancy encourage a bird to pick grains of corn from a circle of letters. The letter closest to the grain pecked is noted and the words eventually formed used as an augury. A variation is to intone the letters of the alphabet at sunrise, noting those at which the cock crows. Aleuromancy Anyone who has ever eaten a fortune cookie has knowingly or unknowingly indulged in Aleuromancy whereby answers to questions are rolled into balls of dough, which once baked are chosen at random by those who have questions to ask. Alomancy Also known as Halomancy, this form of divination involves studying the patterns made by table salt poured from the hand of the practitioner on to a consecrated surface or small area of land preferably used only for the purpose of divination. Alphitomancy Baking is the media by which some diviners look to find the truth. Specially baked cakes are fed to those who stand accused of a misdeed of some sort, to establish guilt or innocence. The cakes are digestible by someone with a clear conscience but are unpleasant to those with guilt written on their minds. R 5 R 75829F7C-37CE-405A-8F11-DA8661B39808.

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