Divination and oracles

Ways of asking and answering: tarot, the I Ching, bones, runes, tea leaves, the oracle of Delphi.

A fanned hand of cards: divination by drawn cards such as tarot, and the playing cards of the conjurer.

An oracle is a way of asking a question and receiving an answer from beyond ordinary knowledge. This covers the cards of tarot, the yarrow stalks and coins of the I Ching, the cowries and palm nuts of Ifa, the bones thrown by a sangoma, the runes, the tea leaves, the horoscope and the ancient temple at Delphi. Practitioners and clients say they are used to decide, to warn and to comfort.

Methods around the world

The methods are many. In China, the I Ching is consulted through lines built by chance. In West Africa, Ifa divination produces one of 256 Odu, each linked to verses. In southern Africa, a diviner reads a set of tossed bones and objects. In Europe, the Greek oracle at Delphi spoke through the Pythia, a priestess, and tarot cards began in fifteenth-century Italy as a card game before being adopted for divination in the eighteenth century.

Who reads and who may

Reading can be a hereditary calling, a profession learned by apprenticeship, a gift announced by a spirit, or a hobby. In Ifa, women are generally not initiated as babalawo, though they can hold other senior roles, while tarot reading is open to anyone. Class matters: court astrologers advised kings, while street readers served the poor, and the law has often treated the two differently. Other places have their own tools: Roman augurs watched birds, Mesopotamian priests read animal organs, and Tibetan monks use dice and mirrors, each with its own rules for asking a question.

Law, faith and fraud

Islam, Judaism and Christianity have each warned against fortune-telling, and many states restrict or tax it. Fraud is a real problem: psychics who tell a grieving client that a curse must be removed for a fee are a familiar case in courts from London to Mumbai. Some places have banned fortune-telling and then licensed it. Clients may come from every walk of life, and the same method can be a respected profession in one country and a side business in another, with a different relation to the law and to the church.

How scholars read it

Psychologists point to the Barnum effect, in which vague statements feel personal, and to confirmation bias. Anthropologist Omar Khayyam Moore described how hunters used cracked caribou bones as a randomising device. Others argue that oracles work as a structured way to break a deadlock and talk through a decision. Practitioners, for their part, speak of guidance and not of forecasting. In practice, a reading is often a conversation, and the diviner is a listener and an adviser as much as a seer.

Oracle on EveryJaadu

The entries written up so far, best known first.

RegionSouth Asia Southeast Asia East Asia Central Asia and the Caucasus Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Europe North America Latin America and the Caribbean Oceania

PurposeProtection Healing Seeing and foretelling Luck and prosperity Love and attraction Cursing and harm Cleansing and purification Speaking with spirits and the dead Change and initiation Binding and oaths Power and authority Wonder and entertainment

WhoShamans Folk healers Priests and ritual specialists Witches, sorcerers and cunning folk Diviners and readers Mediums and the possessed Ceremonial magicians and alchemists Households and ordinary people Stage magicians Scholars and sceptics

BeliefHindu and Tantric Buddhist Jain Muslim and Sufi Jewish Christian Sikh Zoroastrian Shinto and Taoist Indigenous and shamanic African and Afro-diasporic Pagan and Neopagan Esoteric and occult Folk and village custom Secular and stage Other traditions

OccasionWeddings and betrothal Festivals Birth and childhood Death and remembrance Harvest, farming and weather New year Initiation and coming of age Illness and misfortune Journeys and voyages Everyday use

StandingLiving Revived Fading Historical Legendary Performed

OrderBest known A to Z Newest Living first

🇮🇳 India and 2 morePalmistry A divination method that interprets the lines and shapes of the hand to predict fate or reveal character.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Living

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreMoon blocks筊杯 Two crescent blocks thrown to a deity for a yes or noOracle · Seeing and foretelling Living

🇨🇳 China and 5 moreKau chim求籤 A divination practice using numbered bamboo sticks to seek answers from deitiesOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Living

🇫🇷 FranceCartomancy Divination using playing cards or tarot decks to foresee the futureOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living

🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreSpodomancy Divination by reading omens in ashes, soot, and cindersOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Living

🇮🇷 Iran and 2 moreBibliomancy Divination by opening a book at random and reading the first passage foundOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Living 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreZi Wei Dou Shu紫微斗數 A Chinese natal astrology system mapping stars across twelve life palacesTradition · Seeing and foretelling Living 🇨🇳 China and 4 moreQimen Dunjia奇門遁甲 An ancient Chinese divination system mapping time and space for strategic decision-makingOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Revived

🇬🇷 GreeceCoscinomancy A divination method using a sieve and shears to reveal guilt or answer questions.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreOnomancy Divination based on the letters, numbers, or written strokes of a person's nameOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreScapulimancy Divination using animal shoulder blades, practiced across Asia and the Americas.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Living

🇮🇶 Iraq and 1 moreLibanomancy Divination by reading the smoke and ash of burning frankincenseOracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreHydromancy Divination using water to reveal the future or judge legitimacy.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇨🇳 China and 3 moreTasseography A divination method that reads fortunes in the sediment of tea or coffee cupsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living

🇬🇷 GreeceAeromancy Divination by reading the sky, wind, and cloudsOracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreCapnomancy Divination by reading the shapes and movements of smoke from fires or incenseOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical

🇸🇪 Sweden and 2 moreGermanic seeressvǫlva Diviners and sorceresses of early Germanic and Norse societyTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Revived

🇨🇳 China and 3 moreTang-ki童乩 (tóngjī); 乩童 (jītóng) A Chinese folk-religion medium whose body a deity is held to take overTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Living

🇪🇬 EgyptScrying A divination practice of gazing into a medium to receive visions or guidance.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Tang-ki: Bunkichi Chang, CC BY 2.0, source
Palmistry: Pietro della Vecchia, Public domain, source
Moon blocks: Hsiung/d6478coke, CC BY 2.0, source
Kau chim: No machine-readable author provided. 9old9 assumed (based on copyright, Public domain, source
Cartomancy: Alma Erdmann, Public domain, source
Spodomancy: Tim1965, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Bibliomancy: Albert Robida, Public domain, source
Coscinomancy: Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Public domain, source
Astragalomancy: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Onomancy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Scapulimancy: Albert Peter Low, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Libanomancy: 4174332, CC0, source
Hydromancy: Roger McLassus, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Tasseography: User:MochaSwirl, Public domain, source
Aeromancy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Capnomancy: Tigerzeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Germanic seeress: Emil Doepler, Public domain, source
Scrying: John William Waterhouse, Public domain, source