Cleromancy

Cleromancy, sortilege, casting lots or casting bones is a form of divination in which an outcome is determined or a prediction is made based on the result obtained by selecting an object by random or by checking the way an object or a series of objects appear or are ordered. A typical Cleromancy tool is rolling a die and determining the result depending on how it falls.

In Western culture

The casting of lots occurred frequently in all cultures throughout the ages. The importance or decisiveness of the result depended on the believe that the object used in casting the lot had some magical quality which allowed it to directly manifest the will or order of a god.

Casting of lot is mentioned, for example, in the Book of Joshua (vii, 14-18) the looter Akan ben Karmi is captured by dividing the tribes in stages by a lot, until the looter is captured. In First book of Samuel (xiv, 37) Saul wants to go and raid the Plishtim camp at night and the priest tells him that they should go to God and ask him, but God does not answer, which is probably an indication that the Urim and Tummim stones inside the priest's Ephod, which are used to cast a lot, did not give a clear or positive result to the query. The casting (counselling) of the Urim and Tummim as a means to determine God's will is also mentioned in Numbers xxvii, 21-23, where Moses selects Joshua based on counselling the "judgment of Urim before the Lord."

The casting of a lot to determine God's will was also common among early Christians, as indicated, for example in Acts i, 23-26, where the apostles choose between Justus and Matthias who will take upon him the apostolic duties by casting a lot: "and they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." The casting of the lot was not just an arbitrary means to decide between two people, but a means by which the "Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men" can show "whether of these two thou hast chosen."

Cleromancy was a common means to make a decision with the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Homer's Iliad (vii. 171) a lot is used to select the one who will meet the most mighty Trojan in battle. Casting of lots is frequently mentioned, usually in derogatory terms, without any connection to counselling the gods, but related to specific gods (especially Athena), who where had cleromantic associations.

In China, and especially in Chinese Taoism, various means of divination through random means are employed, such as use of the I Ching. In Japan, omikuji is one form of drawing lots.

Pens which can answer "yes-no" questions are widely used in divination and fortune telling, especially by New Age adherents. Their use is similar to the usage of pendulums for the same purpose (with the difference that a pendulum can also be used for spiritism). Another classical "yes-no" fortune telling method is the use of coins. There exist some websites which utilise software to simulate these "yes-no" pens to produce similar results on the computer screen.

External link

• Halliday, Greek Divination (1913), full online edition. Chapter 10 is on Kleromancy.