Methods of Basic Divination (2)

To understand what each has in common and how they differ, I decided to investigate three forms further. I chose Roman augury by birds, dowsing, and pyromancy. They seem to be quite varied in their intent and materials.

Roman Augury by Birds

The purpose of Roman augury was to discover the will of the Gods so that it could be carried out by the Roman Senate. The answers from the Gods were, “Yes, No, or Not Interested.” To set up the divination, the Augur would lay out boundaries and time limits for watching for the birds.

In doing the augury, he followed “Rule of Four”. He divided the sky into four parts, with the favourable directions being South and East. Then the Augur watched for certain birds to fly by (the eagle and vulture, hawk, crow, and woodpecker) or he listened for certain birds calling (raven, owl, woodpecker, and hen). Favourable birds were the eagle and vulture, while the owl was considered to be unfavourable.

Dowsing

I once witnessed a woman choosing various books for purchase by dowsing with a pendulum. Her crystal pendulum swung back and forth for “Yes”, and sideways for “No”. In further research, I found out that some people consider the pendulum swinging clockwise to be "Yes", and counterclockwise is “No.”

According to the American Society of Dowsers (ASD), dowsing connects the conscious with the subconscious mind. They explain that your subconscious picks up what your rational mind cannot. Furthermore, your subconscious governs the pendulum and how it swings. They recommend programming your pendulum for accurate and safe use. (Ouija (talking) boards which use a planchette to move across the board are considered to be an offshoot of dowsing.)

Pyromancy

Divination by fire takes many forms. From various lists, I found botanomancy (the burning of plants) capnomancy (smoke, with thin smoke trailing upwards to be a good omen), daphnomancy (the burning of laurel leaves), and sideromancy (placing straw on a hot iron), to name a few. Since fire is a sacred element, many people sought to use it for divination.

One basic form of pyromancy is candle divination (lychnomancy). In the system described in Crystalinks, you set three candles in a triangle. If one flame is higher than the others, the answer to your question is “Yes”. Sparks flying means “Caution”, and any flame that goes out is considered to be bad luck.