Divination Words: “macharomancy” to “nycromancy”,
Part 6 of 9
Words including: -mancy, -mancer, -mantic, -mantical (Greek: used as a suffix; divination, prophecy; to interpret signs so “practical” decisions can be made [related to -mania])
Divination refers to the methods or practices of attempting to foretell the future or discovering the unknown through omens, oracles, or with supernatural powers; prophesying or predicting the future; methods of "fortune telling".
macharomancy:
The use of knives, daggers, or swords as instruments of divination. Thought to be of ancient origin.
macromancy:
Divination with the largest thing at hand (nearby).
maculmancy:
Divination with stains or anything made impure; with spots.
magastromancy:
Divination with magic or astrology.
mantic:
One who divines and/or makes a prophecy; one blessed with prophetic powers.
manticism:
The art of divination and prophecy.
mantologist:
One who tells fortunes.
mantology:
The art of fortune-telling or divining past, present, and/or future events.
margaritomancy:
Divination with pearls; covered with a vase and put
near a fire, names of suspects were pronounced and when the guilty name was uttered the pearl was supposed to jump up and “pierce” the bottom of the vase.
Another version says a charmed pearl was placed in a pot and covered with a lid. Names of persons suspected of theft, or some other crime, were recited, and at the right name the pearl leaped up and struck the pot lid.
mathemancy:
Divination by counting.
mazomancy:
Divination by observing babies while they are nursing.
meconomancy:
Divination with opium and its effects; drug-induced sleep.
meteormancy, meteoromancy:
Divination by observing thunder, lightning, weather, meteors, etc.
metopomancy:
Divination by examining the lines, etc. of the face or forehead.
micromancy:
Divination with the smallest thing available.
mineralmancy:
Divination with minerals.
molybdomancy:
Divination by observing the motion of molten lead on a flat surface or in water and the interpretations made of the hissing sounds.
moromancy:
Divination by interpreting imbecility or through nonsense; divination of the foolishness of someone.
myomancy:
Divination by the movements of mice and rats; used by ancient Assyrians, Romans, and Egyptians. The cries and activities of the mice and/or rats were often said to indicate the presence of evil. The peculiar cries, or some devastation they were responsible for, was understood as a prognostication of evil.
The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote about a King Sennacherib when he invaded Egypt. The mice (or rats) gnawed on his soldiers’ quivers and bows so that in the morning they were without arms. As they fled in confusion, many of them were slain. Horapollo, in his curious work on the Hieroglyphics of Egypt, describes the rat as a symbol of destruction.
narcomancy:
Divination with opium and its effects or with drug-induced sleep.
necromancy, nycromancy:
Divination by communication with the dead by raising them back to “life” (not with a ghost); early Greeks were supposed to descend into Hades to consult the dead rather than summoning the dead into the mortal sphere again; more recently, it is claimed that ghosts or spirits are summoned to speak to the living.
necyomancy:
Divination by summoning Lucifer.
nephelomancy:
A study of clouds and their various formations, as a means of divining future events.
nephromancy:
Divination by looking at the kidneys of a sacrificed victim.
nomancy:
Divination by graphological examination of letters, usually in a name.
nycromancy:
Divination by communication with the dead.