"tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and chiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The last three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sinti people (often called ""gypsies""). Another form of fortune telling, sometimes called ""reading"" or ""spiritual consultation"", does not rely on specific devices or methods, but rather the practitioner gives the client advice and predictions which are said to have come from spirits or in visions. Western fortune tellers typically attempt predictions on matters such as future romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects."
"Fortune-telling 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. Historically, fortune telling grows out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically associated"
"telling is nothing more than cold reading. A large amount of fraud has occurred in the practice of fortune telling. Fortune-telling 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"
"of the game developed in the 16th century and may have been adapted from Chinese culture and religion. Kau cim Kau Cim, Kau Chim or Lottery poetry () is a fortune telling practice that originated in China in which the querent (person asking the question) requests answers from a sacred oracle lot. The practice is often performed in a Taoist or Buddhist temple in front of an altar. Kau Cim is often referred to as Chien Tung or Chinese Fortune Sticks by westerners. In the US, a version has been sold since 1915 under the name Chi Chi Sticks. Kau"
"Cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Practitioners of cartomancy are generally known as ""cartomancers"", ""card readers"", or simply ""readers"". Cartomancy using standard playing cards was the most popular form of providing fortune-telling card readings in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The standard 52-card deck is often augmented with jokers or even with the blank card found in many packaged decks. In France, the 32-card piquet stripped deck is most typically used in cartomantic readings, although the 52"
"were chosen. Though the interpretation of various cards varies by region, the common significators for the future are as follows: Cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Practitioners of cartomancy are generally known as ""cartomancers"", ""card readers"", or simply ""readers"". Cartomancy using standard playing cards was the most popular form of providing fortune-telling card readings in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The standard 52-card deck is often augmented with jokers or even with the blank card found in"
"the fortune of the patron. The practice of Parrot astrology is diminishing in Tamil Nadu due to lack of patronage. In Singapore it is a tourist attraction in Little India along the Serangoon Road. A variant is practiced in Pakistan. Parrot astrology Parrot astrology or Parrot fortune-telling () is a type of astrology popular among the Tamils of Tamil Nadu, Telugus in Andhra Pradesh, India and Singapore. It involves using green parakeets which are trained to pick up Tarot like fortune cards. The parakeets are trained specifically for this. A parrot astrologer/fortune teller typically sits beneath a tree to call"
"a ""fortune teller"" – particularly a practitioner of tarot reading or other form of mediumship – from whom advice is sought. The kinds of questions asked by querents may vary widely according to their needs, and the methodology of the divination system. Some querents seek general advice trusting that they will be told what is most pertinent to their present situation. Others will ask questions that are only slightly more direct such as, ""Will I be rich?"" and ""What kind of person will I marry?"" Still others seek specific advice, although opinions are divided amongst practitioners of various divinatory arts"
"form of folk magic called hoodoo or rootworking, a fortune-telling session or ""reading"" for a client may be followed by practical guidance in spell-casting and Christian prayer, through a process called ""magical coaching"". In addition to sharing and explaining their visions, fortune tellers can also act like counselors by discussing and offering advice about their clients' problems. They want their clients to exercise their own willpower. Some fortune tellers support themselves entirely on their divination business; others hold down one or more jobs, and their second jobs may or may not relate to the occupation of divining. In 1982, Danny"
"fortune telling decks in the mid-20th century. In the ""Industrie und Glück"" deck, each suit contains four face cards; the Jack, Cavalier, Queen, and King. The 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed and 22 trumps are added for a total of 54 cards. In Central European tarock games, the order of the black suits from highest to lowest goes from K, Q, C, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 but the red suits goes from K, Q, C, J, 1, 2, 3, 4. The ""Sküs"" (The Fool), named after the"
"fit the Chinese folk religion. In Florida, a tarot card reader is facing trial for allegedly fleecing romance writer Jude Deveraux out of more than 25 million dollars. A desire to protect people from this scam has been one argument made to justify legislation that makes fortune telling a crime. A New York State statute condemns a person who ""claims or pretends"" to ""influence or affect evil spirits or curses"" in its prohibition of fortune telling, while letting a person ""who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or"
"Fortune telling fraud Fortune telling fraud, also called the bujo or egg curse scam, is a type of confidence trick, based on a claim of secret or occult information. The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim (the ""mark"") with some sort of secret problem that only the grifter can detect or diagnose, and then charging the mark for ineffectual treatments. The archetypical grifter working the scam is a fortune teller who announces that the mark is suffering from a curse that her magic can relieve, while threatening dire consequences if the curse is not lifted. In this"
"Parrot astrology Parrot astrology or Parrot fortune-telling () is a type of astrology popular among the Tamils of Tamil Nadu, Telugus in Andhra Pradesh, India and Singapore. It involves using green parakeets which are trained to pick up Tarot like fortune cards. The parakeets are trained specifically for this. A parrot astrologer/fortune teller typically sits beneath a tree to call or by the side of the road where people congregate in numbers. He has a cage which contains one or two trained parrots. The tarot like cards are either spread out or stacked in front of him. They are 27"
"of fortune telling, in which the runes are typically incised in clay, stone tiles, crystals, resin, glass, or polished stones, then either selected one-by-one from a closed bag or thrown down at random for reading. Later authors such as Diana L. Paxson and Freya Aswynn follow Blum (1989) in drawing a direct correlation between runic divination and tarot divination. They may discuss runes in the context of ""spreads"" and advocate the usage of ""rune cards"". Modern authors like Ralph Blum sometimes include a ""blank rune"" in their sets. Some were to replace a lost rune, but according to Ralph Blum"
"Kau cim Kau Cim, Kau Chim or Lottery poetry () is a fortune telling practice that originated in China in which the querent (person asking the question) requests answers from a sacred oracle lot. The practice is often performed in a Taoist or Buddhist temple in front of an altar. Kau Cim is often referred to as Chien Tung or Chinese Fortune Sticks by westerners. In the US, a version has been sold since 1915 under the name Chi Chi Sticks. Kau Cim is also sometimes known as ""The Oracle of Kuan Yin"" in Buddhist traditions. It is widely available"
"Many fortune tellers will also give ""character readings"". These may use numerology, graphology, palmistry (if the subject is present), and astrology. In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune tellers more than men. Some women have maintained long relationships with their personal readers. Telephone consultations with psychics (at very high rates) grew in popularity through the 1990s but they have not replaced traditional methods. Discussing the role of fortune telling in society, Ronald H. Isaacs, an American rabbi and author, opined, ""Since time immemorial humans have longed to learn that which the future holds for them. Thus, in"
"games, the Fool is sometimes called ""the Excuse"". Tarot games are typically trick taking games; playing the Fool card excuses the player from either following suit or playing a trump. At the end of the trick, the player then takes back the Fool and adds it to their own trick pile and (in most games) gives the trick's winner the least valuable card from that same pile. If there are no cards to give in exchange, the Fool is worth one point less and an extra point is given to the trick-taker. Or, at the end of the hand, it"
"with Romani people. During the 19th and 20th century, methods of divination from non-Western cultures, such as the I Ching, were also adopted as methods of fortune telling in western popular culture. An example of divination or fortune telling as purely an item of pop culture, with little or no vestiges of belief in the occult, would be the ""Magic 8-Ball"" sold as a toy by Mattel, or Paul II, an octopus at the Sea Life Aquarium at Oberhausen used to predict the outcome of matches played by the German national football team. There is opposition to fortune telling in"
"8 through 14 are on row three, and cards 15 through 21 are on row four. B.O.T.A. repeatedly emphasizes that tarot cards are primarily a tool for meditation, not fortune-telling. P.F. Case invented a new, non-magical definition for the word 'divination', his new definition being ""the use of spiritual intuition to find solutions to problems"". After explaining the B.O.T.A. method for tarot divination in his book titled 'The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages', Case specifically explains the differences between this particular type of divination and fortune-telling. Case then closes with the warning: ""Finally, let me reiterate"
"if it is solely intended for purposes of entertainment. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also bans the practice outright, considering fortune telling to be sorcery and thus contrary to Islamic teaching and jurisprudence. It has been punishable by death. Fortune telling is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being based on magical thinking and superstition. Skeptic Bergen Evans suggested that fortune telling is the result of a ""naïve selection of something that have happened from a mass of things that haven't, the clever interpretation of ambiguities, or a brazen announcement of the inevitable."" Other skeptics claim that fortune"
"commonly visible at the bottom left corner of the trump card 21 stems from confusion of the German word ""Mond"", meaning Moon, with Italian ""mondo"" and French ""monde"", meaning ""world"", the usual symbol associated with the trump card 21 on Italian suited tarots and in non-gaming divinatory tarot. Tarot card games Tarot games, occasionally called tarock games, are card games played with tarot decks, also known as Tarock decks. The basic rules first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games, known as ""tarot"", ""tarock"", ""tarocco"" and other spellings, are known in many variations, mostly"
"Literomancy Literomancy, from the Latin ""litero"", ""letter"", ""mancy"", ""divination"", is a form of fortune-telling based on written words, or, in the case of Chinese, characters. A fortune-teller of this type is known as a literomancer. When practicing literomancy, the client puts up a ""subject"", be it a single character or a name. The literomancer then analyzes the subject, the client's choice of subject or other information related to the subject, along with other information he sees in the client or that the client supplies to arrive at a divination. Some literomancers can read the curves and lines of a signature"
"Paper fortune teller A fortune teller (also called a cootie catcher, chatterbox, salt cellar, whirlybird, or paku-paku) is a form of origami used in children's games. Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message. The person operating the fortune teller manipulates the device based on the choices made by the player, and finally one of the hidden messages is revealed. These messages may purport to answer questions (hence the name) or they may be activities that"
"of the unconscious. Innocence is renewed through discovery, bringing hope for the future. A. E. Waite was a key figure in the development of modern Tarot interpretations. However, not all Tarot interpreters subscribe to his methods or views. Some frequent keywords used by tarot readers include: This card is generally considered positive. It is said to reflect happiness and contentment, vitality, self-confidence and success. Sometimes referred to as the best card in Tarot, it represents good things and positive outcomes to current struggles. In the Mythic Tarot deck, the Sun is depicted by Apollo and Helios. The Sun (Tarot card)"
"Tarot card games Tarot games, occasionally called tarock games, are card games played with tarot decks, also known as Tarock decks. The basic rules first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games, known as ""tarot"", ""tarock"", ""tarocco"" and other spellings, are known in many variations, mostly cultural and regional. The deck which English-speakers call by the French name ""Tarot"" is called ""Tarocco"" in Italian, ""Tarock"" in German and various similar words in other languages. Tarot games originated in Italy, and spread to most parts of Europe, notable exceptions being the British Isles, the Iberian"
"patterns and interpreted by a gifted 'reader.' The fact that the deck is not dealt out into the same pattern fifteen minutes later is rationalized by the occultists by claiming that in that short span of time, a person's fortune can change, too. That would seem to call for rather frequent readings if the system is to be of any use whatsoever."" Esoteric Tarot Esoteric Tarot is the art of reading Tarot cards, which is the practice of using cards to gain insight into the past, present or future by formulating a question, then drawing and interpreting cards. Reading Tarot"
"situations. The study of predictability often sparks debate between those who believe humans maintain complete control over their free-will and those who believe our actions are predetermined. However, it is likely that neither Newton nor Laplace saw the study of predictability as relating to determinism. One example of prediction techniques is tarot cards. Tarot cards have been used for hundreds of years to help in determining the future. ""Fortune tellers"" have been traced through history back to the Ancient Egyptians, however the earliest complete record dates only to the 18th century. Tasseography is a divination method, typically utilizing tea leaves"
"to a pine tree or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine grounds. A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree (松 ""matsu"") and the verb 'to wait' (待つ ""matsu""), the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer. In the event of the fortune being good, the bearer has two options: he or she can also tie it to the tree or wires so that the fortune has a greater effect or he or she"
"tarot cards are used primarily for divinatory purposes, usually using specially designed packs. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century. The word tarot and German ""Tarock"" derive from the Italian ""tarocchi"", the origin of which is uncertain but ""taroch"" was used as a synonym for foolishness in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The decks were known exclusively as ""trionfi"" during the fifteenth century. The new name first appeared in Brescia"
"as well. The fortune is under the flap. Steps may be repeated and changed to suit the users. The paper fortune telling devices can be “rigged” by the placement of only even numbers on one “position” and only odd numbers on the other, causing forced placement to an even position. This will generate only good or bad fortunes. An urban legend where a specifically folded $20 American bill will reveal the September 11, 2001 attacks. Papyromancy Papyromancy is a way of divination through folding paper. Some say a true papyromancer can crumple up any piece of paper, unfold it, and"
"of the same length, and they were invented not for occult purposes but purely for gaming. In 1781, Court de Gébelin published an essay associating the cards with ancient wisdom, the earliest record of this idea, subsequently debunked by Dummett. The cards have since been used for cartomancy and divination. Dummett classified Tarot games into three distinct types: Tarocchi (Italian, singular ""Tarocco""), and similar names in other languages, is a specific form of playing card deck used for different trick-taking games. An earlier name of the game ""Trionfi"" is first recorded in the diary of Giusto Giusti in September 1440"
"one player at a time is the current storyteller, giving him or her a chance to play their Storytelling cards, while the other players have a chance to ""interrupt"" the story and become the storyteller if, for example, the storyteller mentions something on one of the interrupting player's cards. Each player is dealt a hand of cards that represent story elements: objects, people, events, and ""aspects"" often involved in fairy tales (for instance, there are cards for ""crown"", ""key"", ""stepmother"", ""a death"", ""time passes"", ""sleeping"", et cetera). These ""Storytelling"" cards represent ingredients of a fairy tale, i.e. words or phrases"
"Tasseography Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. The terms derive from the French word ""tasse"" (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic loan-word into French ""tassa"", and the Greek suffixes -graph (writing), -logy (study of), and -mancy (divination). Divination attempts to gain insight into the natural world through intuitive interpretation of synchronistic events. The first inklings of Western tasseography can be traced to medieval European fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of wax, lead, and other molten substances. This"