zoomancy

The animals have something mystical and inscrutable. They accompany people for thousands of years as food, help in work or are simply close friends whose death is comparable to that of a human being. No wonder that people who produced dozens of divination pieces also got interested in animals, this is how Zoomance (zoomantia) was created.

The word comes from Greek and clusters words Zoion (animal) and Mantei (divination). This is a divination practice that allows you to read the future, present and past. The fortune-teller makes such an insight by observing the appearance and behavior of animals. Zoomance is a very extensive art that should include:

• Alectromancy – divination based on chickens / cocks / birds

• Felidomancy – based on cats

• Apantomancy – based on accidental encounters with animals

• Arachnomancy – based on spiders

Zoomance ways of divination

There are many more of these types and we devote a separate article to each of them, the similarity between zoomance and teriomancy should be noted , so in order to expand our knowledge, please refer to the other entries.

Many years before people learned to play the role and began to lead a settlement lifestyle in prehistoric times, they used forecasts based on animal behavior . It’s hard to talk about fortune-telling here, because they were not very aware of what the divination is in fact. Later, agricultural and pastoral cultures and hunters continued the zoom technique .

Virtually every great nation of the ancient world practiced zommance . The Etruscans watched the movement of chickens and roosters, the Babylonians checked the reaction of the sleeping ox to splashing them with water, and the Hittites focused their attention on eels.

Of the less obvious cultures, it is worth quoting the African ethnic group Azande (zande) from the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, parts of Sudan and RSA who have practiced and continues to practice observing ants eating food to read the future (myrmomancy).

They also do not despise termite mounds and the very behavior of these animals. There is no shortage of animals in Africa, so other tribes also cultivate zoomance, e.g. Dogon, a people inhabiting West Africa, who has an interesting culture and religion studied by scientists for years, investigates paw prints left by jackals to predict future events.

Polynesian tribal leaders used beetles to crawl over the grave of a murder victim. They hoped that the traces of the insect would be prophetically read to indicate the killer.

Not only divination is associated with zoom. Animals are also a great material for superstition. Who hasn’t heard of the bad luck carried by the black cat that ran our way? From less-known superstitions in the Middle Ages, it was believed that the howling of dogs, like banshee, heralds death and misery.

Flying a bat, pigeon or robin into the house was also a bad omen. People in the Middle Ages did not have it easy, so it is not surprising that virtually every situation associated them negatively.

In China, earthquakes were predicted based on unnatural animal behavior, and it was proved that animals can predict natural disasters, so the ancient Chinese knew what they were doing.

In the behavior of animals, many occultists look for predictions of the coming weather. This method has penetrated, for example, to Polish folklore where low-flying jays mean that it looks like rain.

Zoomance also manifests in the visions of the diviner. He imagines the appearance and behavior of an animal, often they are mystical characters like a unicorn or salamander.