Extispicy
Alternatively known as Extispicium (also the name of one of the instruments used in the practice of it), Extispiciny, Splanchomancy (see Anthropomancy), Aruspicy, Aruspicina, Aruspiciny, Haruspicy, Haruspiciny, and Haruspication.
Extispicy is divination by means of the examination of the entrails of sacrificed animals, usually with special emphasis on the animal's liver, which afterwards were burnt in a sacrificial fire. Sometimes the observation of how the flame burnt the sacrifice was also necessary for the prognostication.
This form of divination is sometimes considered to be part of augury.
The practice of Extispicy came to the Greeks and Romans from either the Etruscans or the earlier cultures of Babylonia and Assyria. Its underlying theory was that when an animal — usually a sheep or an ox — was sacrificed, it was absorbed by the god to which it had been offered, creating a direct channel to the deity. By opening the carcass, the haruspex presumed to peek inside the god's mind and watch the future being created.
This somewhat grisly ancient method of divination is still practiced today in remote parts of the world. For the Gurung, a farming people living in Nepal, the shape and color of a sacrificed chicken's lungs may foretell sickness or good fortune.
The extispices of the Roman religious colleges were the aruspices or augurs.
See Hieroscopy, Hieroscopia, Divination, Demonomancy, Scapulomancy, Haruspex, Radiesthesia, Astrology, Acutomancy, Agalmatomancy, Coscinomancy, Cleidomancy, Augur, Stoichomancy, Dowsing, Tarot, Heptameron, Demonology, Sortilege, Idolomancy, Tephramancy, Anemoscopy, Eromancy, Austromancy, Chaomancy, Roadomancy, Capnomancy, Pyromancy, Meteormancy, Ceraunoscopy, Zoomancy, Felidomancy, Horoscope, Horary Astrology, Zodiac, Numerology, Bibliomancy, Casting Black Magic Spells, The Chakra Store, Commanding Spirits, The Tarot 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) The Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Handy Volume Edition, Oxford University Press; (4) Bailey, Nancy (editor), The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Spells and Magic, Sterling Publishing.
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