Scatomancy.
So we were having brunch and looking through the Quality Paperback Book club catalog, and came across the book, What is your poo telling you?. (Also available now in the form of a 2009 daily calendar!)I was thinking this was perhaps a guide to fortune-telling through fecal examination. We read the description. It was not.
My inner junior high school boy was intrigued, though. Is there, in fact, such a form of divination? If you can read tea leaves to see the future (phyllomancy), can you not also read plops? So...
To the internet!
There is such a form of divination. In fact there are two - scatology and spatilomancy; I think perhaps one involves fecal matter found in entrails. (Though there is extispicy/hieroscopy, which is specific to entrails, and even haruspication and anthropomancy, which differentiate the uses of animal and human entrails. Ichthyomancy addresses fish entrails. Also there's stercomancy, performed by studying seeds in dung.) And so, at your next party, you can bring up the subject of scatomancy, and maybe even use it as a fun party game!
Some other favorites:
cephalonomancy - divination by boiling an ass's head (quite different from kephalonomancy, where you bake the ass's head)
chresmomancy - divination by listening to a lunatic's ravings
myomancy - divination using the movements of mice
ololygmancy - fortune-telling by studying the howls of dogs
rhapsodomancy - divination by opening a book of poetry at random (not to be confused with stichomancy, which involves choosing random passages of books, or bibliomancy, divination by opening a book (general) at random)
tiromancy/tyromancy - divination using cheese
Apparently you can buy wee ones at Amazon, but they're currently sold-out. Wah! Nonetheless, there are other options, such as the nameless Fortune Teller, the Madame Mortuus Misfortune Teller, or of course the Bratz Genie Magic Fortune Teller. (wtf?) You can also dress up like one. (Why don't they have a better one for men? Seriously, I want to objectify as well as be objectified!)
Sources:
The Phronistery, "Divination and Fortune-Telling."
Weird News and Funny Stories, "Freaky Way of Fortune Telling."
Wikipedia, "Methods of Divination."
Finally, remember these?
My inner junior high school boy was intrigued, though. Is there, in fact, such a form of divination? If you can read tea leaves to see the future (phyllomancy), can you not also read plops? So...
To the internet!
There is such a form of divination. In fact there are two - scatology and spatilomancy; I think perhaps one involves fecal matter found in entrails. (Though there is extispicy/hieroscopy, which is specific to entrails, and even haruspication and anthropomancy, which differentiate the uses of animal and human entrails. Ichthyomancy addresses fish entrails. Also there's stercomancy, performed by studying seeds in dung.) And so, at your next party, you can bring up the subject of scatomancy, and maybe even use it as a fun party game!
Some other favorites:
cephalonomancy - divination by boiling an ass's head (quite different from kephalonomancy, where you bake the ass's head)
chresmomancy - divination by listening to a lunatic's ravings
myomancy - divination using the movements of mice
ololygmancy - fortune-telling by studying the howls of dogs
rhapsodomancy - divination by opening a book of poetry at random (not to be confused with stichomancy, which involves choosing random passages of books, or bibliomancy, divination by opening a book (general) at random)
tiromancy/tyromancy - divination using cheese
Apparently you can buy wee ones at Amazon, but they're currently sold-out. Wah! Nonetheless, there are other options, such as the nameless Fortune Teller, the Madame Mortuus Misfortune Teller, or of course the Bratz Genie Magic Fortune Teller. (wtf?) You can also dress up like one. (Why don't they have a better one for men? Seriously, I want to objectify as well as be objectified!)
Sources:
The Phronistery, "Divination and Fortune-Telling."
Weird News and Funny Stories, "Freaky Way of Fortune Telling."
Wikipedia, "Methods of Divination."
Finally, remember these?