Divination is an ancient art — the sacred dance between the seeker and the unseen. It is not merely fortune-telling, but communion. A dialogue with what lies beyond the veil.

Step 1: Explore and Experiment

Try the many paths of divination — experiment, explore, and let your spirit be your compass. What is meant for you will answer you clearly. The right method will not only speak to you… it will sing.

Step 2: Know Your Dominant Element

Your elemental alignment — Fire, Earth, Air, or Water — reveals your magical temperament. It can guide you toward the divinatory methods most attuned to your essence.

Step 3: Let Time Shape You

Divination is not mastered in a day — it is a path of listening and patience. With time, your intuition sharpens, and the veil begins to lift. The cards, the smoke, the stars — they speak more clearly to the one who waits in stillness, not the one who commands.

Step 4: Call on Ancestors and Spirits

You are never alone. Call upon your bloodline, your spirit guides, and the gods you serve — a sacred bridge shall rise, unseen yet unbreakable, to strengthen your craft. Through it, they whisper of futures yet to come and truths long veiled.

Types of Divination

Here follows a list of known methods of divination. Try them, study them, and see which ones open the door for you:

Tarot – symbolic cards that unlock the soul’s hidden stories.

Oracle Cards – intuitive decks unbound by traditional structures, each with its own voice.

Cartomancy – divining with playing cards or any deck outside formal tarot structures.

Sibilla – emotive and melodramatic, the cards reveal heart and shadow.

Lenormand – sharp and practical, this 36-card system offers blunt truth.

Kipper – Germanic cards tied to daily life, people, events and fate.

Tasseography – patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediment.

Hydromancy – scrying into still water to divine visions or omens.

Scrying – gazing into reflective surfaces to pierce the veil.

Capnomancy – divining through the sacred rise and dance of smoke.

Pyromancy – visions in fire and flame, reading its dance and form.

Palmistry – the ancient art of reading one’s destiny in the lines of the hands.

Rune Casting – Norse runes cast upon cloth or earth, whispering fate in their fall.

Numerology – uncovering truths through numbers, names, and dates.

Astrology – reading the heavens as a divine script written at birth.

Pendulum – asking yes or no, and letting the crystal speak.

Dowsing – using rods or pendulums to find lost things, water, or hidden energy.

Necromancy – seeking wisdom or answers from the dead.

Oomancy – divination through eggs, their cracks, shapes and contents.

Bibliomancy – opening sacred texts at random for divine messages.

Oneiromancy – interpreting dreams to find divine or prophetic meaning.

Augury – reading the movements and calls of birds.

Lithomancy – casting stones and interpreting their fall.

Ceromancy – interpreting the shapes of melted wax in water.

Osteomancy – casting bones to reveal destiny.

Phyllomancy – divination by the rustling, falling, or shape of leaves; whispers from the green world.

I shall explore each form of divination in the posts to come — one by one, in detail and devotion.

Tips

Today, we can track our Amazon deliveries on the spot. But back then, I don't need to tell you that things weren't half as easy.

So when a wife wanted to know when her husband would return home from business, or when a ship would reach port, and perhaps when the gentleman a lady likes would come to call on her... they would go to a fortuneteller.

And when that fortuneteller has a Sibilla deck, she would shuffle it while asking her customer's question. Then she would take the card at the top, or at the bottom, and declare her prediction:

January

Donna maritata: January 4-10

Mercante: January 11-20

Messaggiere: January 21-31

L’Amante: January 29 to February 13

February

Gran Signore: February 11-20

Il Nemico: February 21 to March 6

March

La Nemica: March 7-13

Sacerdote: March 14-20

Imeneo: March 21-27

La Superbia: March 28 to April 2

April

Viaggio: April 3-8

L’Amica: April 9-14

Fortuna: April 15-20

Stanza: April 21-27

La Lettera: April 28 to May 2

May

Casa: May 2 to June 2

La Donna di Servizio: May 3-8

Falsita: May 8-14

Malinconia: May 15-20

La Conversazione: May 21-27

June

Belvedere: June 3-8

Amore: June 9-14

Allegrezza al cuore: June 15-20

Dispiacere: June 21-27

La Vecchia Signora: June 28 to July 2

July

Il Vedovo: July 3-8

Ammalato: July 9-14

Morte: July 15-20

Consolante sorpresa: July 21-27

Gran consolazione: July 28 to August 1

August

La Riunione: August 2-7

L’Allegria: August 8-14

La Leggerezza: August 15-20

Il Pensiero: August 21-27

Bambino: August 28 to September 2

September

Presente di pietre preziose: September 2-7

I Deliranti: September 8-14

Il Ladro: September 15-20

Denari: September 21-27

Letterato: September 28 to October 2

October

Speranza: October 2-7

La Fedelta: October 8-14

La Costanza: October 15-20

Sospiri: October 21-27

Disgrazia: October 28 to November 1

November

Disperato per gelosia: November 2-7

Prigione: November 8-14

Militare: November 15-20

Domestico: November 21 to December 3

December

Giovine Fanciulla: December 4-10

Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860-1932), ''Sibilla; poema drammatico in quattro atti'' (Sibyl. Dramatic poem in four acts), 1922 Source

currently mastering a homebrew version of CoS and I had my party get into Barovia through a horror carnival, twbtw style! If you're familiar with canon d&d lore, it's Isolde's carnival. Except I had Isolde die and my ocs take over because I hate her as written sorry not sorry lololol

There are more original characters, but I'm starting to post these in case you enjoy them so you can bully me into sharing more! In order:

the 4 plague doctors of the carnival, my players only really met 2. Dr Crimson, Cordovan, PB (short for Peste Bubbonica, Bubonic Plague) and Lunedì (Monday). They're adoptive sisters! And not really licensed medical professional but shush. They have a maskless design I swear haha

Funesta Pathos-Lepiota, the new artistic director of the Carnival, and her wife Sibilla Ardelean. A drow and a wood elf, basically Gomez and Morticia Addams if they were roaring 20s elder lesbians. Funesta is also a dhampire but that's like the most normal thing about her so no one notices. Sibilla is a disciple of the Raven Queen, and a native Barovian. Also the adoptive mothers of the plague doctors and the krampus! (see below)

Toblach and Bruneck, the carnival's krampus and security personnel. They're very sweet, eccentric 10ft tall dudes who enjoy scaring folks and play-kidnapping misbehaving children, although this usually backfires because most kids break a rule just to get their attention and an instant high-speed ride in their baskets. They're blood brothers and adoptive kids of Funesta and Sibilla, thus also siblings of the plague doctors. One big happy family! Can you tell found family is my favourite trope ever also SHOUTOUT to my pal @milich96 for bearing with me appropriating alpine culture and for suggesting names!! You're basically their godparent now

Silessa, one of the few npcs who are actually from the original setting, although I changed so much about her I might claim her as an oc at this point asdfghjk. Heavily inspired by Kalbelia dancers (from a real life tribe of Rajasthani snake charmers), she performs with her beloved snakes, her favourite being a 15ft long python named Sir Hissington, whom she affectionately refers to as "uncle". She's actually a giant venomous snake polymorphed into a human, but first of all, a sweetheart who loves sharing stories. I should really do her justice and clean her artwork.

Un fumettino che avevo disegnato qualche mese fa. È la storia del Guerrin Meschino dalla Sibilla Appenninica (o da Alcina in alcune versioni). Spesso, gli viene dato uno scudiero come spalla comica, quindi ho usato Anuello, che nel romanzo originale gli fa da guida a Norcia.

Ein kleiner Comic, den ich vor einigen Monaten gezeichnet hatte. Es ist die Geschichte von Guerrino Meschino (der Wicht) bei der Feenkönigin Sibylle (auch Alzina genannt). Falls euch das interessiert, hier ist eine gekürzte Version auf Deutsch. In vielen Neuerzählungen, wird ihm ein Knappe gegeben, der Witze macht, also hab ich hier Anuello benutzt, der im Roman ihn durch Norcia führt.

A little comic, that I drew some months ago. It's the story of Guerrino Meschino (the Wretch) with the Appennine Sibyl (or the fairy Alcina). It's from an old italian chivalric romance. There are many retellings where he's given a squire sidekick for comic relief, so here I used Anuello, who guided him through Norcia in the original novel.