Divination [div-uh-ney-shuhn] (from Latin divinare ‘to foresee,’ or ‘to be inspired by a god’) is an attempt to get information through rituals, omens or supernatural things. Divining the outcome of things has been done by many different methods, such as astrology, which attempts to predict the future based on the movement of celestial bodies. Divination is not supported by empirical evidence and is dismissed by the scientific community, as mere superstition.
In ancient Rome augers divined the future by the flight patterns of birds. Tarot and other forms of cartomancy divine cards. Palmistry is palm reading. Extispicy is a particularly old tradition where the future is divined from the entrails of scarified animals. Graphology makes predictions based on handwriting analysis, and numerology analyses number systems. Phrenology is a bygone system of ‘reading’ the shape of a person’s head.
The Daily Omnivore 
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