Bibliomancy
Bibliomancy(noun)
:from Greek
βιβλίον biblion- "book"
and
μαντεία -manteía "divination
by means of books”
• Using a book as a tool of divination
Bibliomancy is
the use of books in divination.
The method of employing sacred books (especially specific words and
verses) for 'magical medicine', for removing negative entities, or for
divination is widespread in many religions of the world.
Sometimes this term is used synonymously with stichomancy "divination
by lines of verse in books taken at hazard", which was first used about
1693
Bibliomancy compares with rhapsodomancy "divination
by reading a random passage from a poem". A historical precedent was
the ancient
Roman practice
of sortes
which specialized into sortes
Homericae, sortes
Virgilianae,
and sortes
Sanctorum,
using the texts of Homer, Virgil,
and the Bible.
Method
1.
A book is picked that is believed to hold truth
2.
It is balanced on its spine and allowed to fall open.
3.
A passage is picked, with the eyes closed.
Among Christians, the Bible is
most commonly used (in the Sortes
Sanctorum),
and in Islamic cultures the Quran.
In the Middle
Ages the
use of Virgil's Aeneid was
common in Europe and known as the sortes
Virgilianae.
In the classical world the sortes
Virgilianae and sortes
Homericae (using
the Iliad and Odyssey)
were used.
In Iran,
Bibliomancy using
The Quran,
as
well as the Mathnawī of Rumi is
used for one or more persons. In group bibliomancy, the book is opened
at random, and beginning with the verse of the page that one chances
upon, each verse will be read in the name of one of the individuals in
the group. The verse is the individual’s fate.
Because book owners frequently have favorite passages that the books open themselves to, some practitioners use dice or another randomiser to choose the page to be opened. This practice was formalized by the use of coins or yarrow stalks in consulting the I Ching.