Fortune telling

Common methods used for fortune telling in Europe and the Americas include astromancy, horary astrology, pendulum reading, spirit boardreading, tasseography (reading tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and chiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The last three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sintipeople (often called “gypsies”).

Another form of fortune-telling, sometimes called “reading” or “spiritual consultation”, does not rely on specific devices or methods, but rather the practitioner gives the client advice and predictions which are said to have come from spirits or in visions.

• Alectromancy: by observation of a rooster pecking at grain
• Astrology: by the movements of celestial bodies.
• Astromancy: by the stars.
• Augury: by the flight of birds.
• Bazi or four pillars: by hour, day, month, and year of birth.
• Bibliomancy: by books; frequently, but not always, religious texts.
• Cartomancy: by playing cards, tarot cards, or oracle cards.
• Ceromancy: by patterns in melting or dripping wax.
• Cheiromancy: by the shape of the hands and lines in the palms.
• Chronomancy: by determination of lucky and unlucky days.
• Clairvoyance: by spiritual vision or inner sight.
• Cleromancy: by casting of lots, or casting bones or stones.
• Cold reading: by using visual and aural clues.
• Crystallomancy: by crystal ball also called scrying.
• Extispicy: by the entrails of animals.
• Face Reading: by means of variations in face and head shape.
• Feng shui: by earthen harmony.
• Gastromancy: by stomach-based ventriloquism (historically).
• Geomancy: by markings in the ground, sand, earth, or soil.
• Haruspicy: by the livers of sacrificed animals.
• Horary astrology: the astrology of the time the question was asked.
• Hydromancy: by water.
• I Ching divination: by yarrow stalks or coins and the I Ching.
• Kau cim by means of numbered bamboo sticks shaken from a tube.
• Lithomancy: by stones or gems.
• Necromancy: by the dead, or by spirits or souls of the dead.
• Numerology: by numbers.
• Oneiromancy: by dreams.
• Onomancy: by names.
• Palmistry: by lines and mounds on the hand.
• Parrot astrology: by parakeets picking up fortune cards
• Paper fortune teller: origami used in fortune-telling games
• Pendulum reading: by the movements of a suspended object.
• Pyromancy: by gazing into fire.
• Rhabdomancy: divination by rods.
• Runecasting or Runic divination: by runes.
• Scrying: by looking at or into reflective objects.
• Spirit board: by planchette or talking board.
• Taromancy: by a form of cartomancy using tarot cards.
• Tasseography or tasseomancy: by tea leaves or coffee grounds.

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