Dactyliomancy
Alternatively known as Dactylomancy.
Derived from the Greek dakterlios ('finger ring') and manteia ('divination'), it is the art and practice of divining the past, the present and the future with the aid of rings.
According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Dactyliomancy was used to find Valens' successor, and the name Theodosius was correctly indicated. Solemn services of a religious character accompanied this mode of divination.
Samuel Purchas mentions Dactyliomancy in his "Pilgrimage" (1613), declaring only, "Dactyliomancie was a divination with Rings."
There were several different methods of ring divination at one time or another. In the most common form, the ring was used as a pendulum, indicating a yes or no response to a particular question by the direction in which swung or rotated. Sometimes human hair was used to suspend the ring, specially when the querent wanted to know if his or her illness was consequence of being bewitched. The direction the ring swings indicates the origin of the bewitchment, and possibly the guilty party.
In a variant of this method, the ring pendulum was held over a circle or table inscribed with letters and numbers, like in an Ouija board. The messages were then spelled out. In fact there is some indication that our modern Ouija boards have evolved from these crude table oracles.
In another method, the ring was dropped into a bowl of water, its position at the bottom determining the prediction or the response to a formulated question. Sometimes the inside bottom of the bowl contained a special pattern and/or symbols imprinted, to aid in the prognostication.
On yet another method, the ring dangles by a thread inside a vessel half-filled with water. The ring's cord is shaken, and the amount of times the ring hits the vessel's wall determines the prediction.
In an obscure form of Dactyliomancy, gold, silver, copper, iron or lead rings were placed on the finger-nails in certain planetary conjunctions; it was said that wedding rings were ideal for this purpose, although no detailed account of this method exists today.
Dactyliomancy is quite ancient, and is thought to be one of the earliest forms of Radiesthesia.
See Radiesthesia, Astrology, Acutomancy, Agalmatomancy, Divination, Coscinomancy, Cleidomancy, Augur, Stoichomancy, Dowsing, Tarot, Heptameron, Demonology, Sortilege, Idolomancy, Demonomancy, Tephramancy, Anemoscopy, Eromancy, Austromancy, Chaomancy, Roadomancy, Capnomancy, Pyromancy, Meteormancy, Ceraunoscopy, Zoomancy, Felidomancy, Horoscope, Horary Astrology, Zodiac, Numerology, Bibliomancy, Kabbalism, Alchemy, Casting Black Magic Spells, Commanding Spirits, The Tarot Store, The Chakra Store, Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies, and The Pyramid Collection.
Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis, An Encyclopedia of Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (2) Dictionary of the Occult, Caxton Publishing; (3) Pickover, Clifford A., Dreaming the Future: The Fantastic Story of Prediction, Prometheus Books; (4) Dunwich, Gerina, A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination, Carol Publishing Group; (5) Buckland, Raymond, The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying, Visible Ink Press.
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