Diviners and readers
Babalawos, astrologers, card readers and others who read signs.
Diviners and readers are the people who interpret signs: the Ifa babalawo, the sangoma with her bones, the astrologer, the tarot reader, the palm reader, the Chinese fortune-teller and the oracle priestess. They answer questions about marriage, business, illness and loss. This page looks at how they are trained, who they serve, how they are paid, and the line between guidance and fraud. Their trade is as old as writing.
Training and tools
Training varies. A babalawo studies for years and memorises thousands of verses. An astrologer in India may study classical texts or inherit a practice. A tarot reader may learn from books and a community. Tools include cowries, bones, cards, charts, shells, tea leaves and the lines of the hand. Most readers say their tools open a conversation, and some say a spirit speaks through them. Many keep a strict code of confidentiality, as a priest or counsellor would.
Clients and trust
Clients tend to come at moments of uncertainty. In India, astrologers are consulted for weddings and for names, and in West Africa Ifa is consulted for naming a child. Diviners often act as counsellors, hearing family stories and framing a decision. Some are trusted for decades, while others are strangers in a street, and the difference matters for how fraud is spotted. Fees range from a coin or a chicken to several hundred pounds, and a reading may be offered in a shop, a temple, a market stall or an app.
Regulation and religion
Rules vary widely. Some religious authorities forbid divination, and some states license or tax readers. Fortune-tellers have been prosecuted for fraud in the United States, the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere, particularly in cases that involve large payments to lift a curse. Others practise within religion and are protected, such as Ifa within Yoruba religion. Diviners often keep close to the dominant religion, and many Ifa and Vodou diviners are also baptised Christians.
How scholars read it
Psychologists describe cold reading, in which a reader draws on small cues. Anthropologists describe divination as a social process that can break deadlocks and share responsibility. Many diviners deny they predict the future and speak instead of showing possibilities. Advice on health, law or money from a reader is no replacement for qualified advice. Many say they are paid for their time and skill, as a counsellor might be, and not for any guarantee.
Diviners and readers on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo and 4 moreNganga
A spiritual healer and ritual specialist in Kongo religion and its diaspora traditionsTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇮🇹 ItalyFortunaFortūna
The Roman goddess of luck and fate, shown with a wheel and a horn of plentyBeing · Luck and prosperity · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇸🇪 Sweden and 3 moreRunic magic
The use of ancient Germanic letters for spells, divination, and protectionTradition · Protection · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇮🇳 IndiaNechung Oracleགནས་ཆུང་ཏ་བླ་མ
The official prophetic medium and spiritual advisor to Tibet's Dalai LamaOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living
🇨🇫 Central African Republic and 5 moreWitchcraft in Africa
Beliefs about supernatural harm and the social responses to accusations across the continentBelief · Cursing and harm · Protection Living
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 2 moreDukun
A traditional healer and spirit medium in Indonesian folk practiceTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇭🇹 Haiti and 2 moreHaitian VodouVodou
An Afro-Haitian religion blending West African traditions with Catholicism and FreemasonryTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇲🇬 MadagascarSikidy
An algebraic geomancy practiced by Malagasy peoples using seeds to read fate and prescribe remediesOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living
🇸🇸 South Sudan and 1 moreAzande witchcraft
A Zande belief that certain people harm others by an inherited power, judged by oraclesBelief · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreBagua八卦
A set of eight trigram symbols from China used in divination, cosmology, and feng shui.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living
🇨🇺 Cuba and 2 moreSanteríaRegla de Ocha
An Afro-Cuban religion blending Yoruba beliefs with Catholicism and SpiritismTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇳🇬 Nigeria and 5 moreIfá
A Yoruba divination system using palm nuts to access spiritual guidanceTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreCunning folk
European practitioners of folk medicine and helpful magic from the Middle Ages to the twentieth centuryTradition · Protection · Healing Historical
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreScapulimancy
Divination using animal shoulder blades, practiced across Asia and the Americas.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreCapnomancy
Divination by reading the shapes and movements of smoke from fires or incenseOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion
Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇬🇹 Guatemala and 3 moreMaya religion
The living spiritual practices of the Maya peoples, shaped by centuries of contact with Catholicism.Tradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇱 Chile and 1 moreMachi
Mapuche spiritual authorities and healers who bridge herbal knowledge and spirit realmsTradition · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreMagic in the Greco-Roman world
Private supernatural practices in ancient Greece and Rome, distinct from public state religion.Tradition · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreAncestor veneration in China中國傳統宗法性宗教
Rites for dead kin who are thought to watch over the familyTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreChinese shamanism巫教 (Wūjiào)
Spirit-mediums of China who dance and trance to carry messages between people and godsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling 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
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreAfrican divination
Methods used across the continent to understand present realities and predict future events.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreOomancy
Divination by eggs, reading shapes and signs to foresee events or diagnose spiritual statesOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Dukun: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Maya mythology: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Fortuna: Charles Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- African divination: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Haitian Vodou: Sam Fentress, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Oomancy: Rollcloud, CC BY 3.0, source
- Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Chinese shamanism: No machine-readable author provided. +上帝+ assumed (based on copyright, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Witchcraft in Latin America: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Sikidy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia: MM, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Bagua: TarcísioTS at Portuguese Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Santería: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ifá: Toluaye, Public domain, source
- Cunning folk: Midnightblueowl at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Scapulimancy: Albert Peter Low, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Capnomancy: Tigerzeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Machi: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ancestor veneration in China: Three huntings, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nechung Oracle: Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0, source