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Underground > Temple >

Oomancy

12:52 / 11.12.01

fortune-telling with the shapes eggs make in water.

I'm doing an article on it right now.

Any ideas?

14:12 / 11.12.01

This site on "haruspicy" (which you can do using eggs) is utterly fascinating....

15:30 / 11.12.01

Sounds like every other form of "divination by this wierd medium". That is, you design an esceoteric system around the placement of the shapes and what they mean, and then interpret based on what the shapes look like. Use tea leaf reading as a guide. You can do the same with fluffy couds, chicken innards, or snot.

"Hey, my boogie looke like a horse. That must mean I'm going to go somewhere"

I prefer the free form method: contemplate your question, spin around, turn off the psychic censor briefly, and look around. The first thing you see that reminds you of something that you can make a divinitory reading on is what you drew. Works best if you've got an encyclopedia of esceoteric corespondances, omen interpretations, and divinitory meanings in your head to reference with

16:08 / 11.12.01

From grant's link:

Ooscopy substitutes an egg for the sacrificial animal and inspection of the opened egg for examination of the entrails. This works just as well as the ancient procedure, and perhaps better. Ancient haruspices didn't use it because you can't make a great public celebration out of the cracking of an egg.

kewl!

I've no experience with ooscopy, but my Mom can read coffee cup drippings...

17:45 / 11.12.01

when I was working as a tarot reader I got good enough to be able to read anything- ashtrays were a favourite. I like this egg thing though, anything that helps more small defenceless animals hold on to their entrails is a good thing IMHO.

Shouldn't it be ovomancy?

edit- an aside- grant, how spurious d'you like your ideas?

[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: Flame On ]

05:21 / 12.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Flame On:
when I was working as a tarot reader I got good enough to be able to read anything- ashtrays were a favourite.
Ooh! Tell me more, tell me more! I stopped trying to read tarot cards when I decided I was never going to be able to put down the little booklet that came with my Rider-Waite deck. (I was 11 or so--not an age I associate with patient study.)

05:21 / 12.12.01

hmm, DT, I don't know if there's that much more to tell... i think the only prerequisites to reading absolutely anything is the presumption that it has something to tell you and the willingness to decode it. I don't think that there's any inherent privilege in tarot, runes etc- i.e. there's no 'right' system. My reading process is basically improvisatory- determine the horizon of the reading (for example a deck of cards, an egg, an ashtray) then assume everything I notice within that horizon means something useful. Pretty much what cusm said. Try it with clouds

12:28 / 12.12.01

I just got 4 new eggs from my chickens this morning, which is pretty good for this time of year.

I know of Nepalese tradition that also allows for the substitution of eggs for chickens in their rituals. Whether it be for absorbing evil energy or spirits, sacrifice, or divination.

As for scrying, I've played around with different types and whether it be in fire, a rock, molten lead, clouds, water, etc. it always seems to be pretty much the same skill being used no matter what the medium(even though I do think it's a bit different than non-scrying divination but YMMV). It's not my specialty though so I might have a different opinion a year from now. I'm better at using a pendulum myself.

For me (and this opinion is firmly rooted in my tradition's paradigm so take that with the salt it came with) the difference between the scrying medium is in what the medium or element that is being scryed upon is best able to tell you. i.e., the spirit of fire might give a slightly different spin on the same question than the Chicken or 'substitute' chicken (egg). And molten lead, after invoking the appropriate Norse gods, may answer differently than a rock used in 'core-shamanic' rock scrying.

How much difference is due to the spirit of these things as opposed to the belief and psychology of the diviner? I don't know.

I know I like eggs though. Time for an omlette this morning.