Scrying
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Scrying, also referred to as "seeing" or "peeping", is a practice rooted in divination and fortune-telling. It involves gazing into a medium, hoping to receive significant messages or visions that cou
The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse (1902, oil on canvas)
Divination rituals such as the one depicted on this early 20th-century Halloween greeting card, where a woman stares into a mirror in a darkened room to catch a glimpse of the face of her future husband while a witch lurks in the shadows, may be one origin of the Bloody Mary legend.
This Halloween greeting card from 1904 satirizes divination: the young woman hoping to see her future husband sees the reflection of a nearby portrait instead.
Augury
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Augury was the Roman religious practice of observing the behavior of birds to receive omens. When the individual, known as the augur, read these signs, it was referred to as "taking the auspices". "Au
Scrying
…practice lacks a definitive distinction from other forms of clairvoyance or divination but generally relies on visions within the chosen medium. Unlike augury, which interprets observable events, or divination, which follows standardized rituals, scrying's impressions arise within the medium itself. The…
Roman augur with lituus, an augural wand, symbol of augurs and augury.