Belomancy

he bow is one of the oldest propelling weapons, invented by man at least 35,000 years ago , and the flourishing in the use of this deadly weapon falls on the Mesolithic era.

It is no wonder then that on the basis of such a common and old thing a method of divination was created, later called Belomancy or Bolomancy.

It is true that this art does not relate directly to the bow, but the arrows that were fired from it. The oldest known examples of the use of belomancy fall on the times of ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Scythians and Arabs.

The term comes from the Greek belos meaning arrow and matnteia meaning divination. A person using belomancy tried to read the future with feathered arrows.

Methods

Belomancy, like most divination methods, has several varieties. As often happens, the most popular of them is also the simplest and so it was in this case. It consisted of attaching labels to arrows on which the answers were written: “Yes”, “No” and sometimes “Maybe”.

A question was asked and shots fired ahead. The farthest arrow contained the answer to the question. It was a version for people who liked to walk, while those more lazy chose the correct answer attached to the first shot. It was not necessary to write down the dry answers, sometimes advice was also written.

Another option was to mark the arrows with the phrases “God commands me”, “God forbids me” and throw them into the quiver, usually worn on the back. The first marked arrow that was pulled out was the answer to the question.

Belomancy also involved choosing a certain number of arrows and throwing them into the air. The direction they leaned in during the fall was to point the way. Similarly interpreted was the method of the Romans, who fired an arrow up and watched the angle and place where the arrow stuck in the ground.

Belomancy in literature

Since belomancy developed a long time ago, it has been quite well described. Ezekiel 21:21:

כִּי-עָמַד מֶלֶךְ-בָּבֶל אֶל-אֵם הַדֶּרֶךְ, בְּרֹאשׁ שְׁנֵי הַדְּרָכִים – לִקְסָם-קָסֶם: קִלְקַל בַּחִצִּים שָׁאַל בַּתְּרָפִים, רָאָה בַּכָּבֵד.

“For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver .”

Saint Jerome agrees with the description given and points out that belomancy was common among Assyrians and Babylonians.

Belomancy is an interesting and simple way of divination, just be able to shoot an arrow, and even this is not needed in every method. However, today arches are used practically for sports purposes and by reconstructors of historical events, which is why belomancy can be classified as slowly dying fortune-telling.