Birds, Entrails and Newborn Babies: 20 of the Strangest Fortune Telling Methods from History

19. From ancient times right through to the 19^th century, philosophers and scientists believed a face reading could help predict how an individual might act in the future

It was the Ancient Greeks who elevated the practice of studying a person’s face and using this to predict their future into a pseudo-science. Physiognomy as it was known was a highly-respected practice. Even some of the age’s greatest minds believed that a person’s face could not only show their character but their destiny too. For instance, Aristotle wrote that “it is possible to infer character from features”, while Pythagoras was even alleged to have chosen his followers according to what they looked like.

Notably, it wasn’t just the ancients who believed that a person’s future could be read in their face. Even in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, it was discussed with complete seriousness. Above all, the finest thinkers and scientists of the time were keen to find a way of predicting if an individual would likely commit any future crimes. By the mid-19^th century, physiognomy had been largely overtaken by phrenology, with scientists increasingly adopting the belief that the size and shape of the head, not just the features of a person’s face, could show their present character and be used to predict their future behavior.

18. Horary Astrology is one of the oldest forms of astrology, with ancient experts believing they could predict a person’s future based on the time they asked a certain question

Astrology may be hugely popular today, but it’s by no means a modern phenomenon. In fact, it’s been around for thousands of years. Horary astrology was an ancient precursor to the modern-day practice. Here, rather than taking the date someone was born to predict their future, the seer would use the precise time they asked a question to try and divine what was to come. It’s believed that the discipline emerged in the 8^th century, influenced by older Nordic traditions, and continued to be a popular form of divination up until the 17^th century.

It was during the later period that real efforts were made to codify horary astrology. Charts and rules were drawn up and the discipline became a specialist branch of astrology. Seers would typically be asked questions for which there were only two possible answers (yes/no questions are the best for this type of divination). In most cases, practitioners would also draw upon the fundamentals of katarche, a branch of astrology that dates back to the times of the Babylonians, between the 5^th and 8^th centuries. These days, while it is still practiced by a relative few, it is very much a niche part of the wider astrology movement.

17. Numerology has been around for as long as humans have used numbers, though it was banned by the Catholic Church around 1,700 years ago

Even since humans first came up with systems of numbers, they have been looking to them for guidance and an insight into how the universe works. In fact, the first instances of people practicing numerology can be traced right the way back to the days of Ancient Egypt and of the Babylonian civilization, more than 4,000 years ago. However, according to most scholars, it was the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras who really turned it into a discipline, believing that numbers could not only explain the way things are, but the way things are going to be as well.

In his later years, Pythagoras set up his own movement, akin to a cult. With his loyal followers, he attempted to find clues to the workings of the universe in numbers. Several centuries later, St. Augustine of Hippo built upon the foundations laid down by Pythagoras and combined numerology with early Christian philosophy. For instance, the number 7 came to be seen as a sign of impending good fortune (since God created Earth and everything on it in 7 days), while other numbers were taken as a sign of bad fortune ahead. The First Council of Nicea, held in the year 325, ruled numerology to be against the teachings of the Christian Church. The number of people practicing it fell considerably and have never recovered, even though numerology still has believers to this day.

16. Rune Casting was one of the main ways the ancient Germans, and maybe even the Nordic people, tried to foresee the future

When the ancient Romans first made contact with the Germanic peoples, they found that they had their own system of writing. Known as runic writing, they were made up of symbols. As well as serving as letters, these symbols – or runes – were also pictographs. And, according to the ancient historian and politician Tacitus, the Germanic tribes would consult the runes to try and predict the future. And it wasn’t just in modern-day Germany that this was happening. Runic writing has also been found in Denmark and Norway, though the theory that the Nordic people used runes for divination has been hotly-contested by scholars for many years.

Interestingly, the accounts of Taciturn show that rune-reading wasn’t the only means by which the ancient Germanic tribes tried to predict the future. In his history of the campaigns of the general Germania, he notes that they would also have special white horses. These were seen as sacred and it was believed that the noises they made might serve as omens. For instance, their snorts or neighs might be used to predict how a looming battle might go. Even for the ancient Romans, this was seen as illogical and overly-superstitious!

15. Everyone from Roman generals to Alexander the Great believed that reading animal entrails could show what the future had in store

In a number of ancient civilizations, animals were killed and their entrails examined as a means of predicting the future. This grisly practice was especially common in Ancient Rome. For hundreds of years, sheep and poultry were killed, with their insides then laid out on clean slabs or marble or stone and examined for clues as to what the future might hold. The Romans even had special devices called haruspices. These were usually shaped like a liver, with inscriptions on different parts of the organ advising what marks found here meant. Doctors even used this method to see whether their patients would live or die.

Famously, Alexander the Great also used this method. He would often consult his favorite seer, a Greek named Aristander, before going into battle. Before the siege of Tyre, for example, Alexander was told that the entrails showed that the city would be taken by the end of the month. Since it was already the last day of the month when the prediction was made, the warlord was skeptical. He even had the calendar put back two days. However, he needn’t have bothered. Tyre was taken within 24 hours – the entrails had been correct after all!

14. Alectyomancy was weirdly popular – people really believed that roosters could predict the future by pecking away at a circle of corn

Roosters have been used to predict the future in a number of different cultures over the millennia. But arguably nobody put so much faith in the birds’ ability as the Romans. They inherited the Etruscan practice of alectryomancy and then made it their own. Before a major decision was made, including matters of public policy, the different letters of the alphabet would be drawn in the sand in a circle, with a grain of rice on top of each one. Then, a rooster would be tied up in the middle of the circle. A seer would then write down the letters in the order the bird pecked at the corn above them.

According to the ancient historians, this method was used to identify criminals, with the birds trusted to name thieves, for example. Roosters would also be taken on campaigns by the Roman Army. They would be fed on the eve of a battle. If the birds pecked away with such vigor that the grain was falling out of their mouths as they ate, this was taken as a sign that the Romans would be victorious. At the same time, expert seers would also claim that they could divine the future by reading tell-tale signs in roosters’ feathers, as well as in the organs and bones of butchered birds.

13. The practice of reading tea leaves to predict the future was brought to Europe by Dutch traders, though similar superstitions were already commonplace the world over

People have been trying to find meaning in seemingly-random patterns for millennia. Most famously of all, for many centuries, self-proclaimed seers have claimed to be able to read fortunes simply by looking at tea leaves, coffee grounds or even the sediments left over at the end of a cup of wine. While the exact origins of tasseography (a term derived from the Arabic word ‘tassa’ meaning cup and the Greek ‘logy’, or ‘study of), most accounts trace tea-leaf readings in Europe back to the start of the Middle Ages.

The practice was brought to Europe from China by Dutch merchants trading in tea, and quickly caught on. By the 17^th century, potters in northern England were making special cups, designed especially for reading leftover leaves. In the Middle East, meanwhile, people have been reading leftover coffee grounds for centuries. In some countries, a reading is made with the grounds still in a pot or a cup, though in Turkey, the leftovers are put on a fresh, clean plate and then interpreted that way.

12. Lithomancy was the commonplace practice of predicting the future from the way tossed stones landed on the ground, and legend has it, the method predicted the Battle of Troy

For thousands of years, people have been trying to get a picture of what the future holds by looking at stones. In some cases, it was thought that the way stones tossed onto the ground came to rest could be interpreted as signs of what was to come; for instance, the pattern of stones could be seen to predict the outcome of future wars, love affairs or even more trivial matters. Alternatively, sometimes self-proclaimed seers look at how the light reflects off stones and then makes a premonition. Quite when the practice began is the source of debate. However, there are several clues that suggest that lithomancy was used in the ancient world.

In some ancient sources, it’s claimed that Helen of Troy foresaw the destruction of the legendary city of Troy after reading some stones. Meanwhile, Photius, the head of the Christian Church in Constantinople in the 9^th century also wrote of the practice. The Orthodox saint reported that one of the leading physicians of his age, a man called Eusebius, would use lithomancy to predict the future, though we don’t know how accurate these predictions turned out to be. Over time, using stones for divination became increasingly less popular, usually replaced by tarot card readings.

11. Myomancy was the bizarre belief that mice and rats could predict the future just by the way they moved – and the Romans even took career advice from rodents!

In ancient times, mice and rats weren’t merely seen as pests. Instead, for many people the rodents had the power to predict the future – that is, if you knew how to read the signs they gave accurately. Indeed, in both ancient Rome and ancient Egypt, some people believed that the sounds rats or mice made could be interpreted as signs of what was to come. At the same time, the way the rodents acted was also closely watched. Above all, rats or mice destroying property or acting aggressively was taken as a sign that bad things were about to happen. And, according to the surviving sources from the time, some notable ancients took such signs very seriously indeed.

The Roman scholar Varus, for instance, wrote that a top cavalry commander Cassius Flamminius resigned his post simply because he saw a ‘warning’ from mice. Similarly, it was written that Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus even stepped down as dictator of Rome in 217BC after a myomancy reading. Away from Rome, meanwhile, the ancient Greek scholar Herodotus wrote that the Assyrian king Sennacherib was planning to invade Egypt in around 700BC. On the eve of the first major battle, however, he awoke to find that rats had been chewing on his soldiers’ bows and arrows, making them useless. Sennacherib took this as a bad omen and made a hasty retreat.

10. Middle Eastern believers in geomancy would try and find keys to the future hidden in patterns in the sand or in stones

In the ancient Muslim world, seers would try and find meaning in sand or in stones. This practice, known as geomancy, was around for hundreds of years, with a number of original sources explaining allowing historians to gain an understanding of its origins and significance. According to Arabic Hermetic texts from around 1,000 years ago, the prophet Idris was taught how to read signs in the sand by the angel Jibril. He then took this knowledge to the Indian king Tumtum-al-Hindi. The monarch wrote the first book on geomancy, explaining the practice could be used to divine the future.

Famously, in One Thousand and One Nights, the enemies of Aladdin use geomancy to try and track him down. And this is just one instance of the practice being cited in texts from the Middle East and the Arabic world. However, from the 14^th century onward, the idea that geomancy was given as a gift from God, passed on to mankind through the prophets, started to die out. However, the practice was revived in the 19^th century as European scholars of the occult and ancient divination practice published new guides to reading sand and stones.

9. In Ancient Egypt, statues of Gods would be asked what the future held – and, according to the hieroglyphics, the statues would answer by nodding their heads

The ancient Egyptians believed that the Gods would sometimes communicate with them, giving them hints of what was to come. More specifically, they believed that they would communicate through statues. These statues, usually no more than 50cm high, would be placed in heavily-guarded temples. They would be cleaned and given offerings every day. Normally only high priests or the pharaohs could go insider the sacred space and petition the statues. However, on special festive days or holidays, the statues would be taken out of the temple and paraded through the streets. What’s more, everyday Egyptians of Luxor or Thebes would also be able to approach the statues and ask for their fortunes to be told.

In most cases, people would ask about the prospects of a love affair or business deal. According to the surviving hieroglyphics, questions would be of a ‘yes/no’ nature and the statue would ‘respond’ by ‘shaking their heads’. A nod in one direction would indicate the future looked good; a nod in the other direction would be bad news. According to Harvard University Professor Peter Manuelian, some ‘bobblehead’ statues may have been fitted with movable heads. However, it’s more likely that the priests moved the statues, passing on the Gods’ predictions for the future.

8. Onomancy was the belief that a person’s name alone could reveal what their true character was like, and what their future destiny was

In Ancient Greece, just as in Ancient Rome, a name was never just a name. Rather, according to believers in onomancy, what a person was called could not only shed light on their character, but also be a useful basis for predicting their future. Above all, the practice of reading meaning in names was practiced by the Pythagoreans, the sect that was built up around the charismatic mathematician and philosopher. It’s believed that, as the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion, the practice of onomancy died out, only to return again during the Early Middle Ages.

During the so-called Dark Ages, specialist seers would claim to be able to predict a person’s future based on their name. Influenced by Kabbalist studies, they assigned letters numerical values, with these added up to give a reading. For instance, a knight with more vowels in his name would likely defeat a rival with fewer vowels in his name in a joust. Such beliefs even found their way into Christian thought. The Leofric Missal, produced in the mystical English town of Glastonbury in 970AD, for example, is heavy in onomancy. Though true believers are rare today, many people still believe there are ‘good’ and ‘unlucky’ names.

7. Pyromancy: From Ancient Greece to the Renaissance, people of the past believed looking closely into flames could show them the future

The practice of pyromancy, or trying to divine the future from reading flames, has been around for thousands of years. It was especially common in Ancient Greece, where fire readings were treated with the utmost seriousness. Indeed, it was believed that the Gods communicated with mortals through fire, giving them hints of what was to come. At the Temple of Athena in Athens, specially-selected virgins would light fires, possibly casting salt into the flames or burning different plants to produce dark smoke. However, only oracles or priests would be given the role of interpreting the fire.

But it wasn’t just the Ancient Greeks who believed they could predict the future through looking closely into a fire. During the Renaissance period, for instance, pyromancy was practiced right across Europe. In 1456, the German physician Johannes Hartlieb named it as one of the seven “forbidden arts” of ceremonial magic, along with trying to divine the future from reading palms. Similarly, the ancient Chinese, as well as the Mesopotamian empire also practiced pyromancy, though some peoples placed more emphasis on reading smoke rather than flames.

6. Palmistry has been around for millennia, and famously Alexander the Great inherited a book on palm reading from his tutor, Aristotle

Also known as chiromancy, the practice of predicting a person’s future by reading their palms has been a popular form of divination for many centuries. What’s more, despite being roundly-debunked by scientists, it’s still widely-practiced around the world to this day. Quite where and when it originated is the source of historical debate. However, it’s widely-acknowledged that palmistry has its roots in the East. The ancient peoples of India, Nepal, Tibet and what was Babylonia all turned to specialist seers to read palms and predict futures, even if the lines of the hand were interpreted in different ways across the different cultures.

Probably the most famous fan of palmistry was Alexander the Great. According to accounts from the 4^th century BC, Aristotle, who was Alexander’s boyhood tutor, discovered a book on the pseudoscience in a temple dedicated to Hermes. He passed it onto Alexander, igniting a lifelong fascination. In fact, it was said that the great ruler would regularly examine the hands of his army officers, supposedly gauging their character and even seeing whether they would bring him bad look or good fortune on the field of battle simply by reading their palm lines.

5. Hydromancy was the practice of looking to water for clues about the future, and the Romans even used it before fighting the Mithridatic Wars

In the 1^st century BC, Rome was engaged in the Mithridatic Wars, a series of three short wars against King Mithridates of the Kingdom of Pontus. According to the ancient historian Varro, before going into battle, Rome’s leaders would ask their seers to look into special pools of water for signs of what was to come. The beliefs of the time stated that certain colors seen in a rippling pool should be taken as good omens, while other colors and shapes should be heeded as warnings. However, this was just one variant of hydromancy, and a number of different cultures and civilizations have looked to water for inspiration and divination over the millennia.

For instance, St. Augustine is said to have observed the people of 5^th century Germany practicing hydromancy. Women would go down to the River Rhine and study the whirls and currents of the water. Certain patterns were believed to be signs that good times lay ahead – for instance, a baby would be born safely or an upcoming harvest would be successful – while others were seen as warnings of hard times ahead. Hydromancy continued to be practiced well into the Renaissance, and was even named as one of the so-called “forbidden arts”, deemed an un-Christian way of trying to predict the future.

4. Scrying was so commonplace over the centuries that Queen Elizabeth I of England even invited a mystic – and his crystal ball – into her inner circle

Over the course of history, a number of different civilizations have practiced scrying, or trying to see visions or prophecies by gazing at the surface of an object. In most cases, it’s done by looking closely at a shiny or reflective surface such as a mirror or, as has been common in Europe for many centuries, a crystal ball. Some practitioners believe that they see visions themselves, while others believe that they are mere conduits for the Gods. However, scrying can also be carried out with dull objects. For instance, in the 1820s, Joseph Smith claimed to have seen miracles in stones. He would go on to establish the Latter Day Saint movement.

One of the most famous instances of scrying occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Though a cultured and highly-intelligent woman, Elizabeth surrounded herself with mystics, chief among them the mathematician and astrologer John Dee. As he grew older, Dee became increasingly obsessed with the occult. He would read the Queen’s horoscopes and he would also claim to see visions in a special stone, which he used just like a crystal ball. Elizabeth’s successor on the throne, James I, thought such beliefs nonsense, however, and Dee spent his final years exiled from the royal court and living in poverty.

3. Aeromancy: Even the Old Testament warned against looking to nature to predict the future, but still, people have continued to do so for thousands of years

Even before the birth of any formal religion or codified beliefs, mankind has sought to find meaning in nature. Aeromancy is the belief that atmospheric conditions, including wind, clouds and thunder can be studied and used to predict the future. According to ancient sources, the priests of the Babylon would consult the wind and use nature for divination purposes as early as the 10^th century BC. The practice of aeromancy is also mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible – for example, the Book of Deuteronomy says Moses admonished his followers for practicing it – though from the Middle Ages onward, the Church branded the belief un-Christian and banned it.

In ancient England pagans would regularly consult the weather and other elements of nature, believing this way they could see what lay ahead. One common belief, for instance, was that hearing thunder to the east meant that bloodshed was looming. Similarly, if there were high winds around the Winter Solstice, it was believed that a king or other ruler would soon die. Even today, some ancient beliefs persist, for instance people seeing red skies at dawn as an omen of bad times ahead.

2. Amniomancy was a grisly but simple way of fortune-telling, with a baby’s birth enough to show what life held in store for them

The Ancient Greeks had some quite horrific ways of trying to predict the future, including sacrificing animals and reading their entrails. But perhaps no practice was quite so grisly as aminomancy. And none were quite so simple. Here, if a baby was born with a caul, or a piece of membrane, still over their face, it would be removed and then analysed for signs of what the future held. In most cases, a ‘wise woman’, probably an experienced midwife, would be on hand to assist the birth and then carry out the divination.

According to the ancient sources, the system was simple: if the caul was vividly colored, for instance still purple or red with blood, then the infant would be destined to live a full, eventful and successful life. If, however, the membrane was dull, then the baby would be destined for bad fortune. In some cases, the prediction made at birth could affect an individual’s chances in life, for instance barring them from entering the priesthood or politics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the practice of amniomancy died out many centuries ago.

1. Cherokee Indians looked to the river, or ‘Long Man’ for clues as to what the future held, especially when one of their number fell ill

The Native Americans had a number of ways of looking to the future and trying to forecast events to come. For the Cherokee tribe, large rivers – other wise known as the Long Man – were seen as the key oracles. Wise men would go to the river to look for signs of what the future had in store for them, including health-wise. According to native tradition, the Long Man was able to predict whether a sick individual would live or die from their affliction.

The method of divination was simple. The wise man would make the ill individual vomit into the river. He would then check to see if the vomit sunk or if it floated on the surface of the water. If it sunk, it was believed that the river had decreed that the sickness was just too strong and the person would die. If the vomit floated, however, the Cherokee believed that the sickness would pass and the individual would live a long, healthy life.

Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“Augures – Greek and Roman Mythology.” University of Pennsylvania Classics.

“Omens and Oracles: Divination in Ancient Greece.” Matthew Dillon, Routledge. 2017.

“Physiognomy, the Beautiful Pseudoscience.” The Getty Iris, October 2012.

“Discover the Hidden Roots of the Runes.” Ancient Origins.

“Lithomancy: The Psychic Art of Reading Stones.” Gary L Wimmer, 2011.

“Medieval Geomancy: Geomancy Step-by-Step.” Princeton.edu.

“PredictionX: Diviner’s Guide.” Harvard University edx online course.

“Palmistry.” Encyclopedia.com.

“Hydromancy.” Occultopedia.

“The mystical objects of John Dee.” Royal College of Physicians, April 2016.