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There are many different methods of divination which the ancients used to acquire knowledge of the unknown. Some of them we use today, while others fell out of favor as time went on. While doing these articles I have come across a few that seem very odd or out there. Mostly this is when I would read the description of the technique and ask “Well that's rather specific”, or “I wonder how they came up with that one”. Whenever I found one like this I noted it down. This month I will be doing an overview of those methods. If you like or dislike this method feel free to let me know in feedback or pm me. Now without further ado let's begin.

Cephalomancy is a technique of divination using the head of a donkey or goat. I could not find how this was actually done or which ancient people performed it. All I could find is that one variant of it was similar to the skull measuring done by medieval physician to measure intellect. So the main reason it is part of the list is that the lack of information let my imagination run a bit wild.

Cleidomancy is a method which can only be done when the sun is in Virgo. The name of a person would be written on a key which was then tied to a Bible, both of which were attached to the nail of the ring finger of a virgin, who must quietly chant magic words. Cleidomancy falls under the “Well that is rather specific” category because of the astrological necessity on the already complex method.

Coscinomancy employed a sieve and a pair of tongs or shears. The tongs would be open in the sieve and the sieve itself would be supported by the thumbs or middle finger nails of two people looking at one another. This method would be used to determine who the guilty party was by reciting the names of the accused until the sieve moved, which meant that the person named was guilty. Coscinomancy was practiced in Ancient Greece and it was later employed in medieval times, by instead reciting a chapter of the bible and making an appeal to a saint. This method is in the “I wonder how they came up with that one” category. It is true that a sieve and a pair of tongs would be something one could easily aquire, and using them in divination is an interesting concept.

I hope you have enjoyed this rather short article. There are many more on my list that I did not cover so if you did like this there may be more to come. Divination is as varied as the people who practiced it and this means there are hundreds if not thousands of obscure, fascinating, or even weird methods out there to be explored. If you find any of these interesting I encourage you to look them up and discover more about them on your own.

Source:
http://www.themystica.org/

Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy. New York: Infobase Pub., 2006. Print.