Lithomancy is a form of divination by which the future is told using stones or the reflected light from the stones. The practice is most popular in the British Isles.[1]
History
editThe earliest verified account of lithomancy comes from Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, who describes a physician named Eusebius using a stone called a baetulum to perform the ritual.[1][2] However, some writers also claim that Helenus predicted the destruction of Troy using the ritual.[3]
Practice
editLithomancy as a general term covers everything from two-stone and three-stone readings to open-ended stone castings utilizing an undetermined number of stones.[4]
In one popular method, 13 stones are tossed onto a board and a prediction made based on the pattern in which they fall. The stones are representative of various concepts: fortune, magic, love, news, home life and the astrological planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun, and the moon.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b Cheung, Theresa (2006). The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. Harper Element. p. 401. ISBN 978-0-00-721148-7.
- ^ Spence, Lewis (2003). An Encyclopaedia of Occultism. Dover Publications. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-486-42613-6.
- ^ Elworthy, Frederick Thomas (2003). Evil Eye the Origins and Practices of Superstition. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 444–445. ISBN 978-0-7661-3242-9.
- ^ Saint Germain, Jon (2018). Lithomancy: Divination and Spellcraft with Stones, Crystals, and Coins. Lucky Mojo Curio Co. ISBN 978-0996147194.
- ^ Lewis, James R. (1999). Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions. ABC-CLIO. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-57607-134-2.
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