A SMOKE DIVINATION GLOSSARY
Smoke divination is one of those methods which has several different approaches, and each has their own meaning. So for clarity here’s a list of terms which all come under the heading, ‘smoke divination’:
–Capnomancy-divining by smoke.
–Causinomancy-divining by casting special objects, such as certain kinds of seeds, on a fire, and making judgements by the way they burn
–Critomancy-divining by the smoke cast-off by burning barleycorn
–Daphnomancy-divining by the crackling and smoke of burning laurel leaves.
–Dendromancy-divining by the smoke given-off by burning mistletoe and foliage from an oak tree.
–Empyromancy-divining by placing objects in a fireplace or fire-pit for burning, burning them, then after burning them, inspect them to observe what shapes they assumed, and how their form had changed from being subjected to heat. This particular fire-divination method was favored by Pythagoreans, who detested haruspicy (divination by liver), and I don’t blame them.
–Libanomancy-divining by incense smoke
–Sideromancy-divining by casting pieces of straw onto a red-hot grate in a fireplace, and deriving messages from the way the straw twists and smolders.
As you can see, there are a number of different ways this art is practiced. If you own, or have access to a fire-pit, then causinomancy, critomancy, daphnomancy, dendromancy, empyromancy and sideromancy are all possibilities for you to try. If not, you’re going to have to go with libanomancy, divination by incense smoke. It is this last which I will be practicing, and which appears in the picture above.