Free ‘divine gallery’ sample art – OldWorldGods

(8) PYROMANCY

Burn, baby, burn!

But seriously, we come to the first of the four classical elements, with pyromancy as divination by fire or flames.

Similarly to somatomancy and theriomancy, it is likely that pyromancy was one of the first methods of divination in human history or prehistory, reflecting the importance of fire itself in human prehistory.

Fire was the first major human tool or technology – game-changing in the power it gave humans to change or shape their environment (and indeed themselves, by the ability to cook or prepare food), such that it might be compared to the Industrial Revolution. And that’s before its use in other technologies that might be similarly compared to the Industrial Revolution, such as pottery or smelting. For that matter, the Industrial Revolution itself revolved around combustion – and much of human technology before and since might be compared, literally and figuratively, to humanity holding up its flaming torch in the clearing it has made for itself with fire or combustion.

SF writer Arthur C. Clarke famously observed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Typically, we tend to apply that to our contemporary technology or projections from it, but it has also applied to technological thresholds in our history or prehistory – the use or smelting of metal for one was often compared to magic, and even more so fire itself, portrayed as magic or even divine.

“The most basic form of pyromancy is that in which the diviner observes flames, from a sacrificial fire, a candle, or another source of flame, and interprets the shapes that he or she sees within them”. However, there are several variations on pyromancy, particularly when combined with burning or casting particular substances into fire (such as salt, in one variation of alomancy or divination by salt).

There’s probably enough variations of pyromancy for yet another top ten within my top ten, but I’ll just go with some major ones here – capnomancy or divination by smoke (or movements of smoke), causimancy (or causinomancy or causimomancy) and empyromancy or divination by burning, and lampadomancy or divination by a flame or flames.

Shoutout also to carromancy (divination by melting wax) and ceromancy (divination by dripping wax in water) – which I would like to adapt to my obsession with lava lamps (lavomancy?)

As a method of divination, pyromancy would seem to have considerable potency and versatility – particularly if one combines it with visions from burning, ahem, particular substances, or smoke inhalation.

As a school of magic, it would seem to be powerful but limited in versatility – pretty much like the school of evocation in Dungeons and Dragons. Sure, it feels reassuring to stride into a dungeon loaded up with fireball spells to shoot from your fingertips, but there’s not much else one can do with that except, well, shoot fire from your fingertips.

On the other hand, one can imagine pyromancers being at the forefront of fantasy Industrial Revolutions – as firebenders and the Fire Nation were in the animated Avatar series. Also, pyromancy becomes somewhat broader if one extends it to other forms of energy, heat and light, particularly in more metaphorical senses (such as life energy or heat of passion).

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Photo Canadian geese flying in V-formation (“Bird” – Wikipedia) by John Benson on Flickr -Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

(9) THERIOMANCY – ORNITHOMANCY

The way of animal powers

Similarly to my previous entry for somatomancy, theriomancy, or divination by animals, is likely one of the first methods of divination in human history – or prehistory.

After all, prehistoric humans depended on closely observing animal behavior, including in effect to divine patterns from that behavior, so it was not much of a conceptual leap to divine patterns beyond animal behaviour altogether to other things or forces in the natural or supernatural worlds.

And of course there is the contemporary ritual theriomancy of Groundhog Day.

Again similarly to my previous entry for somatomancy, theriomancy tends to be more specialized to particular animals or types of animal.

My top pick has to go to ornithomancy & alectryomancy – the former is divination by birds (or the flight of birds), with the most famous being the Roman practice of augury (from Latin for looking at birds) and the latter is literally divination using a rooster or roosters, but also more broadly chickens or other fowl.

This is because of its historical documentation or prevalence, particularly in classical Greek or Roman history, in turn perhaps reflecting how birds have always seemed to earthbound humans as liminal beings between heaven and earth.

One form of alectryomancy involved divination using a bird or number of birds, ideally a rooster or cockerel, pecking at grains which are scattered on letters and interpreting meaning from the letters or words spelt out. Something of that may survive in the apocryphal story of the western Roman emperor Honorius and his favorite chicken.

Close runner-up is apantomancy, or divination by chance or random encounters with animals.

As for the balance of another top ten within my top ten – a top ten for theriomancy – I’m going to stick to alphabetical order as their individual details are somewhat scant

3 Ailuromancy – cats
4 Arachnomancy & entomomancy (myrmomancy) – the former is divination by spiders and the latter is divination by insects (with myrmomancy being divination by ants). The former is something I’d imagine as being used by the arachnophile Drow in Dungeons & Dragons – and as an arachnophobe, I see it as the most evil method of divination, even more so than my top ten entry famed for being evil
5 Batrachomancy – frogs
6 Canomancy & ololygamancy – divination by dogs, with the latter as divination by the howls or howlng of dogs
7 Hippomancy – horses
8 Ichthyomancy – fish
9 Myomancy – rodents, particularly mice or rats. Much like modern science and its lab testing, amirite?
10 Ophidiomancy – divination by snakes

What adders came to shed their coats?
What coiled obscene
Small serpents with soft stretching throats
Caressed Faustine?

Although I’d like to imagine it extends to delirious visions from snakebite, a la snake-handling.

Shout-out to dracomancy – included in Wikipedia’s list of methods of divination as divination (or magic) by dragons, obviously limited outside of fantasy or mythology (arguably an example of the latter is Sigurd or Sigfried gaining divinatory powers from the heart of the dragon Fafnir).

Also honorable mention to conchomancy or divination by shells.

As a method of divination, theriomancy seems to be of much wider versality than somatomancy and the same seems to go for it as a school of magic, which would seem to combine the Dungeons and Dragons class of wizard with that of druid (or perhaps medieval witches with their animal familiars).

And with a little fantasy or imagination, it has even wider potential – even if we confine ourselves to theriomancy as being a literal way of animal powers, as being able to replicate the abilities (or form) of any animal, particularly if we extend that throughout the animal kingdom including extinct animals or even microscopic fauna. There’s a reason the Dungeons and Dragons spells of polymorph or shape change are considered broken by being ridiculously overpowered. Of course, one could restrict this by proposing different schools of magic for different taxonomic divisions (or for different habitats or biomes).

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Photo – Wikipedia “Palmistry” (Creative Commons licensing – www.psychic2tarot.com)

(10) SOMATOMANCY – CHIROMANCY

“Man is the measure of all things”

It’s perhaps not surprising that one of the first basic tools likely to have been used by humans for divination (or magic) is the human body itself – which is what somatomancy is, divination by the human form or body.

Of course, it tends to be more specialized to parts of the body. My top pick is chiromancy, divination using the palms of hands, or as it is better known, palmistry – which apparently had such a high profile that it was classified as one of the seven “forbidden arts” in the Renaissance and was actively suppressed by the Church.

As for the balance of a top ten within my top ten – a top ten for somatomancy – my nominations are…

2 Amniomancy – divination by the placenta (or caul)
3 Cephalonomancy – divination by the skull. (Historically it tended to use animal skulls but I’m adapting it to phrenology)
4 Maculomancy – divination by spots on the skin
5 Oculomancy or opthalmancy – divination by the eyes
6 Omphalomancy – divination by the navel (or the ultimate navel-gazing)
7 Onychyomancy – divination by fingernails and toenails
8 Podomomancy – divination by the soles of the feet
9 Trichomancy – divination by hair. Okay – I’ve just coined that using the Greek word for hair
10 Phallomancy – divination by the phallus (or swing of the phallus). Disappointingly, while Wikipedia includes phallomancy in its list of methods of divination, there is no further entry or details for it – but it is kind of how I divine everything in life…

Sadly, the various forms of somatomancy rank in the tail end of my top ten for a reason – and then by virtue of the prevalence of chiromancy or palmistry, even today.

As a method of divination, most forms of somatomancy seem somewhat limited to a one-off basis, given the fixed nature of the bodily attributes they use, and only to divine the future or qualities for the individuals to whom the parts of the body belong.

Similarly, somatomancy seems limited as a school of magic. After all, the whole point of magic is to transcend or at least extend human limitations (or those of nature), particularly those of the human body.

Although with a little imagination or fantasy, it has substantial potential. At very least, one can adapt somatomancy to a system of magic that uses bodily attributes, gestures or movements as the components of magic, whether for the wider schools of magic in Dungeons and Dragons, or something like the ‘bending’ of elements in Avatar incorporating martial art style movements.

Indeed, higher levels of magic could require higher levels of athleticism or physical ability, disposing of that “squishy wizard” trope in Dungeons and Dragons or similar fantasy. No more stats-maxxing intelligence at the expense of strength or dexterity. Building on that, with the almost infinite variety of physical attributes (or sports) from which to draw, one can propose that different physical attributes could underlie different types or schools of magic. Athleticism on land could underlie very different magic from that of skill in swimming or diving and so on. Similarly strength or endurance could involve very different magic from speed, agility or dexterity and so on, more so if one extends it to other qualities such as physical beauty.

Similarly, one might propose different schools of magic that are specialized by aspects or parts of the body – it doesn’t take too much to adapt the magic school of illusion (or divination for that matter) in Dungeons and Dragons to one of eyes and ears (or more widely the senses), or the magic school of enchantment to one of mouth and voice, and so on.

Even if we stick to somatomancy as a school of magic in a more literal sense, one might propose it effectively as a form of conjuration of (or transmutation to) any peak human ability or attribute. That is, to conjure up for oneself the peak ability of any Olympic athlete, the peak immunity or resistance to disease, and so on, at any time or in any combination.

Even more so if we extend somatomancy as a form of fantasy transhumanism – to extend, project or perfect bodily attributes or abilities beyond existing peaks, as indeed is often attributed to Asian mystical arts. For example, to achieve longevity or even immortality, “diamond body” and so on…

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Free ‘divine gallery’ sample art from OldWorldGods

It’s my top 10 mancy list. I’m talking the suffix -mancy, ultimately originating from the Greek manteia (of itself or through the Latin mantia), for divination.

I could have called it top ten methods of divination, but where’s the fun in that? A top ten mancy list is just more fun and I do indeed have my criteria that each entry must have the suffix. Also, while the suffix -mancy technically only connotes divination, it has been used more widely for systems or types of magic in general.

This conflation of the suffix -mancy to connote both divination in particular and magic in general is not entirely misplaced. After all, divination tends to operate by or be a type of magic.

Indeed, it is arguably the primary purpose for which people have sought to use magic, rivalled only by protective magic – apotropaic magic as it is more technically known, or abjuration as it is called as a “school” of magic in Dungeons and Dragons.

It is also not a stretch to regard all magic as ultimately originating in divination, divining the secret knowledge and cosmic power underlying magic itself. So much so in editions of Dungeons and Dragons, while one could pick and choose between schools of magic, the one compulsory school was divination.

But I digress – for the purposes of my top ten mancy list, I look at each -mancy in terms of ranking it both as a method of divination in particular and as a ‘school’ of magic in general.

And now to the suffix itself, there is an almost overwhelming number of variants of divination (or magic) with that suffix -mancy, and their sheer abundance has always fascinated me. In part that reflects the ease by which one can coin such a word, usually by combining a Latin or Greek root word with -mancy. However, it predominantly reflects connoting forms of divination actually used by people as observed or recorded in history or anthropology – as people have used almost anything and everything as the magical means of divination.

Of course, some or even many are incredibly esoteric or obscure as a result – to use just one example to illustrate, belomancy (or bolomancy) is the art of divination by use of arrows. I have preferred broader brush strokes for my top ten or special mention, although entries might include more specialized methods of divination within their general theme.

Finally, it goes without saying that the top ten or special mentions does not reflect any personal beliefs in methods of divination or forms of magic, just my interest in them. It’s one of my dreams to walk in on an appointment with a psychic, smack them in the head, and exclaim “didn’t see that one coming?” – or just for all purported psychics to be prosecuted for fraud.

I also can’t resist the title of Top 10 Mancy list as there’s a whole gag in an episode of Archer where the titular protagonist is calling for help defusing a bomb and confuses everyone by using ‘mancy’ for m (in the serial number) where they naturally think he’s saying ‘nancy’ for n. I know it’s a long segue but it’s lodged in my psyche ever since whenever I think of mancy.