A Basic Introduction to Pyromancy
Hello! After receiving many questions about the topic, I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment and create a basic guide on pyromancy, my preferred methods of divination.
To start, you should know that pyromancy is the term used to describe any form of divination by means of fire; ‘pyro’ coming from the Greek word ‘pyros’ meaning fire. I consider pyromancy to be a blanket term for a variety of different fire-based divination practices. I.e., lychnomancy can be categorized as pyromancy.
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“Due to the importance of fire in society from the earliest of times, it is quite likely that pyromancy was one of the earlier forms of divination. It is said that in Greek society, virgins at the Temple of Athena in Athens regularly practiced pyromancy. It is also possible that followers of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and the forge, practiced pyromancy.
In Renaissance magic, pyromancy was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts," along with necromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, hydromancy, chiromancy (palmistry), and spatulamancy (scapulimancy)” - From the Wikipedia page on Pyromancy.
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Now, what exactly is pyromancy and how does one practice it? Well, the most basic form of pyromancy is done when the diviner observes flames from a sacrificial fire, a candle, or another source of flame, and interprets the shapes that they see within them. However, this is not the only way to practice pyromancy.
In fact, there are several different kinds of divination that all stem from and fall under the category of pyromancy or use pyromancy. Such as:
Alomancy:, divination by salt, one type of which involves casting salt into a fire.
Botanomancy: divination by burning plants.
Capnomancy: divination by smoke; light, thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen; otherwise, a bad one.
Causinomancy: divination by burning (non-specific as to the object burned).
Daphnomancy (also, Empyromancy): divination by burning laurel leaves.
Lychnomancy: divination by reading the flames of three candles set in a triangular shape.
Osteomancy: divination using bones, one type of which involves heating to produce cracks.
Scapulimancy:, divination by scapulae; in Asia and North America, this was done pyromantically.
Sideromancy: divination by burning straw with an iron.
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I hope that this small introduction intro pyromancy was able to answer some of your burning questions! If you are still curious about anything or want to know more about something specific, please feel free to send me a message or to respond to this post. I don’t guarantee that I’ll have the exact answer, but creating a discussion and opening it up to my other followers might help you find one.
Practice safely!
