Aeluromancy

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Aeluromancy is the use of flour for divination. The word comes from the Greek aleuron, meaning flour, and manteia, meaning divination. It was originally something like a Greek fortune cookie. Slips of paper with messages were rolled in flour balls and given to those seeking answers to queries. Another form is interpreting the flour patterns left in a bowl that had a flour and water slurry poured out from it.

In its original form, slips of paper containing philosophical writings would be baked inside of cakes or cookies, which would then be distributed to those wishing their fortunes to be told. Similarly, the Greeks would bake slips of paper with sentences on them inside of balls of flour, mix the balls nine times, and distribute them. Modern fortune cookies are a variant on these forms of divination.

Another form of aleuromancy consisted of interpreting patterns of flour left in a bowl in which a flour and water slurry had been mixed and poured out from.

[edit] References

• Skeptics Dictionary: http://skepdic.com/divinati.html
• Dictionary of Philosophy: http://www.explore-beliefs.com/philosophy/A/Aleuromancy.html