apantomancy

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}

{{Portal|Religion}}

{{short description|Form of divination}}

Apantomancy is a form of divination using articles at hand or things that present themselves by chance.{{Cite encyclopedia | title = Apantomancy | encyclopedia = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | pages = 26 | publisher = Harper Element | date = 2006 }} The diviner works him/herself into a state of trance until an object or event is perceived and a divination worked out. This form of divination was used in ancient Rome by the augurs.{{cite book|author=Raymond Buckland|title=The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying|url=https://archive.org/details/fortunetellingbo00buck|url-access=registration|accessdate=29 January 2011|date=1 August 2003|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=978-1-57859-147-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/fortunetellingbo00buck/page/18 18]}} There is no set of standard interpretations in apantomancy, with the interpretations of events depending on the background of the seer.

A branch of apantomancy places special significance on chance meetings of animals.{{cite book|author=Edain McCoy|title=Advanced witchcraft: go deeper, reach further, fly higher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mn_CfiQ6It0C&pg=PA170|year=2004|publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide|isbn=978-0-7387-0513-2|page=170}} The superstition regarding black cats crossing your path comes from this form of divination. Other common superstitions based on apantomancy are the belief that seeing a buzzard is an omen of death.{{cite book|author=Tayannah Lee McQuillar|title=Rootwork: using the folk magick of Black America for love, money, and success|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7KY9ZLtgLcC&pg=PA54|year=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-3534-1|page=54}}