Bibliomancy
Divination by opening a book at random and reading the passage that meets the eye.
Also: sortes, book divination, Sortes Vergilianae, stichomancy
In bibliomancy, a person asks a question, opens a trusted book at random and takes the line it falls on as an answer. The Romans consulted Virgil's Aeneid this way, called the Sortes Vergilianae, and Christians later used the Bible, with the same method used in the Sortes Sanctorum. Augustine's account of hearing a child's voice and opening the scriptures at random is the best known case. In Persian-speaking lands the practice is called fal, and the Divan of Hafez is the favourite book. Church councils repeatedly forbade the method for clergy, even while it stayed popular. Readers say the text answers, while sceptics say the mind supplies meaning to whatever it finds.