Methods of Divination (Was:"Legilimens!" Spell & Gift)

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 72391

The Sergeant Majorette wrote:

"Which brings me to something that distracted me at first, and I still 
have to explain it to myself every time I think of it. I was working 
under the assumption that everything one studied at Hogwarts was some 
kind of -mancy, suffix meaning magic (as in Arithmancy);"

Now me (Wendy):

Just a quick correction: the suffix "mancy" does not mean "magic" - it
means "divination." So "Arithmancy" is divination using numbers. Many of
the other things the students are taught (or *not* <g>) in Trelawny's class
also have names using the suffix "mancy" (although we don't learn them in
canon) :

Chiromancy - Palm reading
Cartomancy - Card reading, which can refer to the use of playing cards, as
in HP, or tarot, or presumably any other sort of card reading.
Tasseomancy - reading tea leaves
Crystallomancy - crystal ball reading

The next one is a bit trickier - reading bird entrails:  There is
Ornithomancy, which usually refers to divination by studying the flight
patterns of birds, but which might apply to this study as well. There is
also Haruspication (not a "mancy," though), which is divination by animal
entrails as practiced by the ancient Romans (doesn't specifically refer to
birds, but also probably still applies). 

There are lots of terms for various forms of fire divination: 
Pyromancy - a somewhat "generic" term for divination by fire or flame,
often assisted by substances thrown onto the flames. 
Capnomancy - divination by the study of smoke rising from a fire. 
Tephramancy - divination by ashes obtained from the burning of tree bark. 
Causimomancy - divination from behavior of objects placed in a fire.
Lampadomancy - divination using lights or torches. 
Xylomancy - is divination from pieces of wood, either from their shape when
collected or their appearance while burning. 

There are some other forms of divination which I don't think we've seen
studied in class yet, but which would seem potentially useful to Hogwarts
students, and Harry in partcular: 

Oneiromancy - divination by examining the meaning of dreams
Ophiomancy - divination from serpents
Myomancy - divination by the behavior of rats and mice. (This might have
been more useful prior to PoA. Or NOT <G>)
Oculomancy - divination from a person's eye. (What with all the talk about
Harry's/Lily's eyes)
Rhabdomancy - divination using a stick or wand. These methods were
forerunners of the divining rod, but perhaps would work with one of
Olivander's? 

>From what we know of the accurate predictions Trelawny has made, it seems
she herself uses "Gastromancy," a form of ventriloquism in which prophetic
utterances are delivered in a trance state (something I'd call "channeling"
in current terminology). 

And finally, there is one form of divination which has been extensively
used by members of this list, with some success so far: "Onomancy," which
is divination using the study of names. <G> 

Cheers, 

Wendy
(Who found many of these definitions at:
"http://www.angelfire.com/tx/afaceinacrowd/glossdiv.html" - there are tons
more forms of divination described there, for anyone who wants more
information on this subject).