Divination

Relevant topics on**Magic**

**Divination** (占い, *Uranai*?, alt. 'Fortune Telling') is the process of acquiring insight into questions or situations (such as the foretelling of future events or remote and unseen circumstances), through the use of magic and the occult.

In both real life and the *Toaru* series, there are many different methods of divination.

## Etymology

Divination is derived from the Latin *divinare*, meaning "to foresee, to be inspired by a god" (related to divinus, divine).

Many terms used to describe variations of divination, which are derived from Ancient Greek compounds, include the suffix μαντεία (*manteía*), meaning "prophecy or divination." Examples include necromancy (divining from the dead), cartomancy (divining from cards) and bibliomancy (divining from books).

## Principles

There are many different methods of divination, across a variety of cultures and magical systems.

Astrology is one well-known means of divination, using the objects and phenomena in space, with variations found in different cultures across the world.

Another well-known method is through the use of tarot cards, with meanings derived from the arrangements which the cards appear in.

Bibliomancy is a method which is used with grimoires and other similar books. The user takes the grimoire, pictures their worries in their head and flips through the book, then they place their finger on a specific passage and read it to find the answer to their problem. There are also texts which are specifically compiled for divination purposes, such as I Ching from China.

Other methods include Necromancy (though in more recent times, this particular term also tends to cover manipulation of the dead other than for divination), geomancy, Kokkuri and Enochian chess.

For divination based on Necromancy, at least in the case of Isabella Theism's method of invoking a dead spirit to answer a question, it can only reveal lost information and cannot reveal information which can be found by methods available to the living.

Lie detectors based on fortune telling are common in the magic world, but they are difficult tricks to actually use as the spells require being in a limited one-on-one space like ordinary fortune telling and require the user to be focusing on a conversation with the target.

There are a number of divination methods connected to a person's skin and features:

* Palm reading is a notable example of these divination methods. The Western form uses five lines and five bumps (or "mounts") on the palm. Examples of these lines include a curving line surrounding the base of the thumb and one starting between the base of the index and middle finger and continuing diagonally down towards the little finger - the life line and the heart line. Although unusual to use this method to learn about others rather than the individual whose palm is being read, it is possible to do so - for example, the life line indicates the presence of danger to or the extent of one's life, and if there is something nearby which would threaten their life or rattle their emotions, it would have an effect on the signs written on the palm.
* Methods using faces include metoposcopy, proposed by Gerolamo Cardano in the 16th century, which determines someone's destiny based on the lines on their forehead, and physiognomy, developed by Johannes de Indagine and several other magicians, which determines someone’s inner character by looking at their nose, mouth, and other facial features. Methods have also been developed to prevent someone from analyzing a person's face using the above methods or altering their face to give them the wanted destiny or personality.

## Background

One particular case of divination which greatly influenced the events of the *Toaru* series was that of Allan Bennett, who through the use of tarot cards, foretold the death of Aleister Crowley's future daughter Lilith Crowley through the effects of the 'sparks' from colliding phases, a phenomena which the Golden Dawn was contributing to. On learning this, Aleister would instigate the cabal's destruction and subsequently seek the destruction of the phases and all magic.