Divination and oracles of the world

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

🇯🇵 JapanOmikujiおみくじ Paper fortunes drawn at Japanese shrines and temples to reveal luck and life adviceOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living

🇨🇳 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

🇮🇱 Israel and 3 moreCleromancy A divination method that uses random chance to reveal divine willOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

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

🇨🇳 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

🇬🇷 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

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

🇮🇹 ItalySanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia A vast Roman sanctuary complex in Palestrina that housed an oracle and a temple to the goddess of fate.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreJiaobei筊杯 (jiǎobēi) Wooden crescent blocks thrown in pairs to ask temple deities yes or no questionsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇪🇬 Egypt and 2 moreLecanomancy Divination using a dish or bowl of water to read the futureOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical

Divination and oracles