It may seem like a crazy idea that observing animals – electriomancy, zoomancy, and theriomancy – can be used to predict one’s future. But then on the other hand, selecting random tarot cards from a pack of seventy-eight or deciphering a hand full of pebbles or seashells thrown on the ground also defies logic in all of us. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of divinational systems (methods of forecasting the future) that operate by intuitive rather than scientific or rational means. The premise of all these techniques is the belief that there is a spiritual world parallel to our own. This incredible world is inhabited by highly intelligent beings often known as spirit guides or guide angels who lovingly assist the human race in its development.
The actual process of how pebbles fall into a particular pattern and why a particular tarot card was chosen and not another is a mystery to both experienced psychics and the public. However, the key to establishing a relationship with any of the mantic arts (items used to focus the intuitive process) is to first adopt a state of mind in which there is a sense of suspension from everyday beliefs.
More than 2,400 years ago, the people of ancient Italy (Etruscans) practiced Alectriomancy. Using a hen or a rooster, the psychics of those days drew a circle on the ground, around it twenty of the Etruscian alphabet were drawn. A grain of grain was placed in front of each letter. The hen or rooster was placed in the circle. While the bird ate the grain, the psychic wrote down the letters next to the grain and used them to predict the future or to answer a question from someone requesting guidance. This form of divination is related to the Ouija board, through the random selection of letters. By contrast, the Babylonians splashed water three times on the head of a sleeping ox. A psychic would interpret the future by observing seventeen possible reactions the ox would make. If, for example, both eyes were opened, the answer was “yes”. If only one eye were to open, the answer would be maybe, and if they remained closed, the answer would be “no.”
Alectriomancy is still practiced in many parts of the world. The African tribe of Zande uses a method in which two leaves are placed in an anthill, if the ants eat the one on the left first, the answer is “yes”, if the one on the right, the answer is “no”. In the United States and Canada, Groundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated on February 2. If a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and does not see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon be over. If the groundhog sees your shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will freak out and run back to its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.
Cats have always fascinated people and, in some cultures, have held them in high regard. Felidomancy is divination by observing the behavior of domestic and wild cats. If a cat sneezes, licks its face or sleeps with its back to the fireplace, it is said that it rains, if a black cat crosses your path in the British Isles it is a sign of good luck (bad luck in the USA). A cat at a wedding is to ensure a long and happy marriage. All these predictions and omens come from the ancient art of felidomancy. Cats have often played an important role in religious and occult ceremonies in India and have been revered by the Egyptians, Incas, and Chinese.
In the Celtic divination system of hypomancy, horses were trained to walk in certain areas of consecrated groves. Psychics and priests would make predictions from observations of his movements; the footprints left on the ground and even the amount of dust created. The custom of hanging horseshoes on the wall dates back to the time of hypomancy. In England in the 16th century they were hung on farms as an amulet against evil.
In Scandinavia, psychics of the time meditated while watching fish swim in a stream or lake. Ichthyomancy was treated with great reverence and interpreting its movements could indicate anything from a successful battle to the sex of a child.
The divinational system of Ofimancy (observing the behavior of snakes) is practiced in many civilizations. Snakes were considered God-like creatures and messengers of information and omens. For example, a coiled snake could mean being patient, while one that was ready to attack meant acting now on the interrogators’ situation. Orntomancy is divination by observing the flight of birds. It was practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, where the psychic predicted the future by traveling to a sacred place and, blindfolded, interpreted the meaning of the birds that passed overhead with the help of an apprentice who described them.