Bibliomancy

The Stichomantie or Bibliomantie is a form of divination by means of texts. Often this works are used, which are considered sacred, or at least particularly important, such as the Bible or the I Ching. In Iran, noted in the work of the poet Hafiz is very popular.

The diviner formulates a question he can not answer himself. Then he stabs with a sharp object somewhere intuitively in a book page and interprets the passage at this position in response. He tries using this method about their own or "foreign" behaviors to learn about future regulations and opportunities.

The Bibliomantie was already known in ancient times. Often texts of Homer and Virgil were used for this. In Latin they spoke of sortes home ricae or sortes vergilianae. With the advent of Christianity were condemned as heretical Weissagungspraktiken this, for example by Pope Gregory I. The Bibliomantie but was still practiced, however, based on the Bible. This has been handed down for both the church father Augustine as well as for Francis of Assisi.

Recently suggested, inter alia, by Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, in the 19th century, the Bibliomantie was used in all layers. They are also referred to as Däumeln because the pages were scrolled quickly with your thumb and then you hit a random page.