lithomancy
{{short description|Divination by stones}}
Lithomancy is a form of divination by which the future is told using stones or the reflected light from the stones. The practice is most popular in the British Isles.{{Cite book | last = Cheung | first = Theresa | title = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | publisher = Harper Element | year = 2006 | pages = 401 | isbn = 978-0-00-721148-7 }}
History
The earliest verified account of lithomancy comes from Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, who describes a physician named Eusebius using a stone called a baetulum to perform the ritual.{{cite book|title=An Encyclopaedia of Occultism|last=Spence|first= Lewis|publisher=Dover Publications|page=252|year=2003|isbn=978-0-486-42613-6}} However, some writers also claim that Helenus predicted the destruction of Troy using the ritual.{{Cite book | last = Elworthy | first = Frederick Thomas | title = Evil Eye the Origins and Practices of Superstition | publisher = Kessinger Publishing | year = 2003 | pages = 444–445 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zQRFFQuhLnYC&q=%22lithomancy%22&pg=PA444 | isbn = 978-0-7661-3242-9 }}
Practice
Lithomancy as a general term covers everything from two-stone and three-stone readings to open-ended stone castings utilizing an undetermined number of stones.{{cite book|title=Lithomancy: Divination and Spellcraft with Stones, Crystals, and Coins|last=Saint Germain|first=Jon|publisher=Lucky Mojo Curio Co.|isbn=978-0996147194|year=2018}}
In one popular method, 13 stones are tossed onto a board and a prediction made based on the pattern in which they fall. The stones are representative of various concepts: fortune, magic, love, news, home life and the astrological planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun, and the moon.{{cite book|title=Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions|url=https://archive.org/details/witchcrafttodaye0000lewi|url-access=registration|last=Lewis|first=James R.|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-134-2|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/witchcrafttodaye0000lewi/page/177 177]}}