Favomancy

Last updated

Favomancy is a form of divination that involves throwing beans on the ground and interpreting the patterns into which the beans fall; it is therefore a type of cleromancy. Various forms of favomancy are present across the world's cultures. The term comes from the Vicia faba meaning Fava bean, and by way of cult etymology, from the Latin faba for "bean" and formed by analogy with the names of similar divination methods such as alectromancy.

Divination attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual

Divination, or "to be inspired by a god", is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency.

Cleromancy is a form of sortition, casting of lots, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God, or other supernatural entities.

<i>Vicia faba</i> Species of plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae

Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is of uncertain origin and widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption. It is also used as a cover crop. Varieties with smaller, harder seeds that are fed to horses or other animals are called field bean, tic bean or tick bean. Horse bean, Vicia faba var. equinaPers., is a variety recognized as an accepted name.

Favomancy used to be practised by seers in Russia, in particular, among the Ubykh. Russian methods of favomancy may still exist after the departure of the Ubykhs from the Caucasus in 1864, but the details are now lost of exactly how Ubykh soothsayers interpreted the patterns formed by the beans. [1] The Ubykh term for a favomancer (pxażayš’) simply means "bean-thrower", and it later became a synonym for all soothsayers and seers in general in that language. [2]

Russia transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is, by a considerable margin, the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.79 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.

The Ubykh are one of the twelve Adyghe (Circassian) tribes, representing one of the twelve stars on the green-and-gold Adyghe flag. Along with the Natukhai and Shapsug tribes, the Ubykh were one of three coastal Adyghe tribes to form the Circassian Assembly in 1860. Historically, they spoke a distinct Ubykh language, which never existed in written form and went extinct in 1992 when Tevfik Esenç, the last speaker, died.

Ubykh language Extinct Northwest Caucasian language

Ubykh, or Ubyx, is an extinct Northwest Caucasian language once spoken by the Ubykh people.

In Muslim traditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, favomancy is called bacanje graha 'bean-throwing' or falanje (from Persian fal 'to bode'). The fortune-teller places 41 white beans onto a flat surface, dividing them into smaller groups using a complex set of rules. The resulting number of beans in each group is then interpreted as a favorable or unfavorable sign for the different aspects of life represented by each of the groups. [3]

Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic in Southeast Europe

Bosnia and Herzegovina, abbreviated BiH or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe, located within the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city.

Both Russian and Bosnian methods are remarkably similar, and likely share a common origin. Since the method is not present in the West, it is possible that the origin might be in the Middle East. A similar method exists in Iran, involving fifty-three peas. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.

Geomancy method of divination that interprets markings on the ground

Geomancy is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process that involves recursion followed by analyzing them, often augmented with astrological interpretations.

Alomancy ancient form of divination

Alomancy, also called Adromancy, ydromancie, idromancie, and halomancy, is an ancient form of divination. Similar to many other forms of divination, the diviner casts salt crystals into the air and interprets the patterns as it falls to the ground or travels through the air. The diviner can also interpret patterns formed from the residue of a salt solution as it evaporates in the bowl. The exact interpretations are unknown, but it probably follows a similar method to aleuromancy.

Augury ancient religious practice

Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed flight of birds (aves). When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, it is referred to as "taking the auspices". 'Auspices' is from the Latin auspicium and auspex, literally "one who looks at birds." Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods could be favorable or unfavorable. Sometimes bribed or politically motivated augures would fabricate unfavorable auspices in order to delay certain state functions, such as elections. Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of auspicy to Tiresias the seer of Thebes, the generic model of a seer in the Greco-Roman literary culture.

<i>Phaseolus vulgaris</i> species of plant

Phaseolus vulgaris, also known as the common bean, green bean and French bean, among other names, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or unripe fruit. The main categories of common beans, on the basis of use, are dry beans, snap beans and shell (shelled) beans. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, along with other Phaseolus species, is as a member of the legume family Fabaceae, most of whose members acquire the nitrogen they require through an association with rhizobia, a species of nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

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 other regions, notably East Africa and India.

Alectryomancy Form of divination based on animal pecking

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.

Tasseography divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments

Tasseography is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

Scapulimancy is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones. In the context of the oracle bones of ancient China, which chiefly utilized both scapulae and the plastrons of turtle, scapulimancy is sometimes used in a very broad sense to jointly refer to both scapulimancy and plastromancy. However, the term osteomancy might be more appropriate, referring to divination using bones. Many archaeological sites along the south coast and offlying islands of the Korean peninsula show that deer and pig scapulae were used in divination during the Korean Protohistoric Period, c. 300 BC - AD 300/400.

Molybdomancy

Molybdomancy is a technique of divination using molten metal. Typically, molten lead or tin is dropped into water. It can be found as a tradition in various cultures, including Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some versions have been found to have potentially harmful effects on human health.

Methods of divination can be found around the world, and many cultures practice the same methods under different names. During the Middle Ages, scholars coined terms for many of these methods—some of which had hitherto been unnamed—in Medieval Latin, very often utilizing the suffix -mantia when the art seemed more mystical and the suffix -scopia when the art seemed more scientific. Names like drimimantia, nigromantia, and horoscopia arose, along with other pseudosciences such as phrenology and physiognomy.

Aichmomancy is a form of divination somewhat similar to acultomancy in that it uses sharp pointed objects to show patterns to read.

Chinese fortune telling

Chinese fortune telling, better known as Suan ming has utilized many varying divination techniques throughout the dynastic periods. There are many methods still in practice in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong today. Over time, some of these concepts have moved into Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese culture under other names. For example, "Saju" in Korea is the same as the Chinese four pillar method.

Kumalak is a form of geomancy, or divination, which originates in Central Asia. This fortune telling method involves forty-one beans, stones, or sheep dung sorted into piles, and has been used for hundreds of years in the region of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Siberia by Turkic peoples such as the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatars.

Composite entity is a Java EE Software design pattern and it is used to model, represent, and manage a set of interrelated persistent objects rather than representing them as individual fine-grained entity beans, and also a composite entity bean represents a graph of objects.

References

  1. Tsapina, O. 2002 Something Old, Something New: Continuity and Modernization in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Available from JHU.
  2. Vogt, H. 1963 Dictionnaire de la langue oubykh page 149. Universitetsforlaget: Oslo.
  3. "Fortune telling". Falanje.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-05. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  4. Faith Wigzell. Reading Russian Fortunes: Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia from 1765. p. 43.
  5. William Francis Ryan. The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia. p. 113.