Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact or interaction with supernatural agencies such as spirits, gods, god-like-beings or the "will of the universe".
Geomancy translates literally to "earth divination," and the term is used for methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rocks, or sand.
Traditional healers of Southern Africa are practitioners of traditional African medicine in Southern Africa. They fulfill different social and political roles in the community like divination, healing physical, emotional, and spiritual illnesses directing birth or death rituals, finding lost cattle, protecting warriors, counteracting witchcraft and narrating the history, cosmology, and concepts of their tradition.
Babaaláwo or Babalawo in West Africa literally means "father of secrets" in the Yoruba language. It is a spiritual title that denotes a high priest of the Ifá oracle. Ifá is a divination system that represents the teachings of the Òrìṣà Ọrunmila, the Òrìṣà of Wisdom, who in turn serves as the oracular representative of Olodumare.
Cowrie-shell divination refers to several distinct forms of divination using cowrie shells that are part of the rituals and religious beliefs of certain religions. Though best-documented in West Africa as well as in Afro-American religions, such as Santería, Candomblé, and Umbanda, cowrie-shell divination has also been recorded in India, East Africa, and other regions.
Alectryomancy is a form of divination in which the diviner observes a bird, several birds, or most preferably a white rooster or cockerel pecking at grain that the diviner has scattered on the ground. It was the responsibility of the pullularius to feed and keep the birds used. The observer may place grain in the shape of letters and thus discern a divinatory revelation by noting which letters the birds peck at, or the diviner may just interpret the pattern left by the birds' pecking in randomly scattered grain.
The Swahili people comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands and Northwest Madagascar.
Scapulimancy is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones. It is most widely practiced in China and the Sinosphere as oracle bones, but has also been independently developed in the West.
Astragalomancy, also known as cubomancy or astragyromancy, is a form of divination that uses dice specially marked with letters or numbers.
Sunan Abu Dawood is one of the Kutub al-Sittah, collected by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani.
Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad Ibn Shujāʿ was a prominent Egyptian mathematician during the Islamic Golden Age. He is considered the first mathematician to systematically use and accept irrational numbers as solutions and coefficients to equations. His mathematical techniques were later adopted by Fibonacci, thus allowing Abu Kamil an important part in introducing algebra to Europe.
Nggam is a type of divination found among many groups in western Cameroon. Among the best documented is its practice by the Mambila people of Cameroon and Nigeria, in which the actions of spiders or crabs are interpreted by the diviner. The form used by the neighbouring Yamba people was described by Gebauer in 1964 based on experience in Mbem going back to before 1939, and more recently by Hermann Gufler. Good documentation of Nggam has been also published for the Bekpak (Bafia) people by Dugast and for Bamileke people by Pradeles de Latour. The crab form has been studied in north Cameroon by Walter van Beek.
The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, including various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, and include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, and use of magic and traditional African medicine. Most religions can be described as animistic with various polytheistic and pantheistic aspects. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural.
The Sandobele are members of the Sandogo, an authoritative women's society of the Senufo people, who practice divination. The Senufo inhabit the savannas and tropical rain forests of northern Côte d'Ivoire and the nearby land in Mali and Burkina Faso. The Sandogo is responsible for sustaining positive relationships with the spirit world through divination and for protecting the purity of each kinship group. The word Sandobele originates from the Senufo language.
An ọpọ́n Ifá is a divination tray used in traditional African and Afro-American religions, notably in the system known as Ifá and in Yoruba tradition more broadly. The etymology of opon, literally meaning "to flatter", explains the artistic and embellished nature of the trays, as they are meant to praise and acknowledge the noble work of the Babalawo (diviners). The etymology of the term Ifá, however, has been a subject of debate. Ifá may be considered an orisha, or a Yoruba god — specifically, the god of divination Orula. Conversely, some scholars have referred to Ifá merely as the "great consulting oracle" as opposed to a god or a deity, without any divine connotations.
An Opele is a divination chain used in traditional African and Afro-American religions, notably in Ifá and Yoruba tradition.
Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand. As it is a form of compelling divinity to reveal its will by the application of method, it is, and has been since classical times, considered a type of magic. Cicero condemns it as superstition. It depends on a presumed "sympathy" between the mantic event and the real circumstance, which he denies as contrary to the laws of nature. If there were any sympathy, and the diviner could discover it, then "men may approach very near to the power of gods."
Mesopotamian divination was divination within the Mesopotamian period.
African divination is divination practiced by cultures of Africa.
The Banyole or Banyuli are a Bantu ethnic group of Uganda that live mainly in Butaleja District.