METHODS OF OVOMANCY
Three Drops of Egg White
For the ancient Greeks and Romans, this was practiced with a freshly-laid egg, a needle and a bowl of water. Over a bowl of water, while concentrating on their question, the small end (not the blunt end) of the egg was pierced with the needle, and three drops of egg white were allowed to fall into the water. The form these three drops of egg white took were then interpreted in much the same way candle wax dropped into a bowl of water would be.
A variation from Scotland specifies that the first-laid egg of a pullet and clear spring water were to be used. After the three drops of egg white were dropped into the glass, the questioner placed their hand over the mouth of the glass for about a minute (presumably while concentrating on their question) to give the egg white time to form an image. The source said this form of ovomancy was often practiced with the intention of having fertility questions answered, either by couples wanting to know how many children they’d have, or by children wanting to know how many more siblings they’d have.
A less-appealing Scottish variation on egg divination dictates the inquirer swallow a mouthful of the egg-water, then immediately go out for a walk. The first name they heard while on that walk would be the name of their future spouse. You risk bacterial infection from this procedure, not to mention yuck.
The Whole Egg White
Many modern ovomancers use the whole egg white when practicing ovomancy. This is done by poking a hole in the more-pointed end of the egg with a needle or a cake-tester, just large enough to allow all the egg-white to run out, but small-enough keep the yolk in the shell. I’ve also seen some use the shell itself or their hands to separate out the egg-white from the yolk, but you could cheat and use an egg-separator, which is available for purchase wherever kitchen implements are sold in your area. I prefer this approach to egg white divination; how much can you find out from just three drops of egg white?
What do you do with the raw egg after the reading? I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to eat the egg, but I would cook the egg and then discard it, since throwing the raw egg in the garbage can would just go rotten, and the smell would be the worst smell in all of creation! Or maybe a raw egg in the compost bin or garden might be good for the environment, but may attract raccoons and other hungry scavengers.
I’ve been looking to practice some kind of scrying method for awhile. I like that this divination method is similar to crystal scrying and tea leaf reading, but crystal balls are expensive and heavy, and I occasionally drink tea but not often. But I most definitely have a carton of eggs! Eggs have always looked very mystical to me, so I wonder what kind of readings I will get.
The discarding of the egg after divining with it does present a bit of a problem. Adding it to a compost bin or pile is a good solution. You may also want to bury it, if you have access to a yard. If I have no choice but to discard the raw egg in the regular trash, I pour the egg, in its glass of water, through a small sieve, then dump the raw egg onto a sheet of newsprint, on top of which I’ve layered a paper towel or two. This is liberally-sprinkled with baking soda to both kill the smell and discourage would be foragers, then the whole thing is carefully wrapped-up and discarded in the trash.
It seems to me that egg divination should be approached much the same way tea-leaf reading would (a subject I will be getting-to some day). That is, as you gaze at it, you will see certain images in it, or the sight of the egg suspended in water will bring certain things to mind. Unlike tea-leaf reading, where you’re looking into the cup from just one direction, with egg divination, you really ought to look at the glass from every direction, both above and below, as well as looking at the glass 360 degrees around the sides. Something which looks non-existent from the side of the glass may be stunningly apparent when viewed from above or below the glass. Or something you can’t see from one side of the glass will be as plain as day from the other. The marvelous thing about egg divination is its multidimensionality. It can even change slightly over the hours. If you crack the egg into its glass of water the night before, observe how it forms and check on it again in the morning, it’s very-likely to have changed, if only slightly
Finally, I’ll end with a bit of advice I’ll be offering with the tea-leaf reading lesson I’ll write some day–don’t panic when you first look in the glass and see a seemingly-meaningless sploosh of egg (same thing with tea-leaf reading: you look inside the cup and at first, it’s nothing but wet, clumped leaves). Shift your thinking brain to ‘Park’ and just gaze at if for a while; thoughts, ideas and images will start to occur to you. I hope all this helps.
Just as an update, I’ve done egg divination a few times now. It is so beautiful to behold, and it’s interesting to see the images that appear in the glass container, It’s like it’s own little world.
I wanted to write more, but I submitted my comment prematurely, so I’ll just add more now.
I really enjoyed egg divination. I save as much of the egg as possible for cooking (and eating!), and then I use the leftover egg white that’s still in the shell to do the reading (probably 3 drops worth). I just put it into a glass jar with half a cup to a cup of cold water, and then I wait a half hour before doing the reading. And it’s interesting that I can spin it around to check all sides, to see more images. I mean sometimes I cook more than one egg so I get more leftover eggwhites to do the reading, and I get the best of both worlds (a hearty meal and a good reading!)
Lately when I start daydreaming, I have caught myself scrying things everywhere in the house, like the bathroom tiles with it’s cloud-like marbled patterns, the rainbow soap upon the water’s surface while washing dishes, the shadows that tree branches and leaves cast upon the wall at night, these contained all kinds of images that were helpful. I used to be scared of scrying (I didn’t want to see anything scary!) But I’ve realized that scrying is as fun as looking up at the clouds! The images and the messages they bring are so helpful, so thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. It’s been really useful.