Literomancy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Literomancy (from the Latin litero, "letter", mancy "prophecy"), as its name suggests, is a form of fortune-telling based on letters. Here a letter means an element in a particular written language, such as a Spanish word or a Chinese character. A fortune-teller of this type is known as a literomancer.

As a superstition literomancy is practised in Chinese-speaking communities, known as 測字/测字 (cè zì in Pinyin). The subjects of a literomancy are traditionally single characters and the requestor's name. In modern times elements such as foreign words or, even more recently, e-mail addresses and instant message handles have come into use as a subject. A wide range of possibilities can be attributed to the nature of written Chinese language. It is believed that many parents consult literomancers when christening their new-borns.

When practising literomancy, the client puts up a subject, be it a single character or a name. The literomancer then analyses the subject, the client's choice of subject or other information related to the subject, along with other information he sees in the client or that the client supplies to arrive at a divination.

Some literomancers can read the curves and lines of a signature as signed by an individual, just as a professional handwriting analyst might, but uses instinct and divination techniques rather than applied analysis skills.