Apantomancy
Encyclopedia
Apantomancy is a form of divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

 using articles at hand or things that present themselves by chance. The diviner works him/herself into a state of trance
Altered state of consciousness
An altered state of consciousness , also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart: it describes induced...

 until an object or event is perceived and a divination worked out. This form of divination was used in ancient Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 by the augers. There is no set of standard interpretations in Apantomancy, with the interpretations of events depending on the background of the seer.

A branch of Apantomancy places special significance on chance meetings of animals. The superstition regarding black cats crossing your path comes from this form of divination. Other common superstitions based on Apantomancy are the belief that seeing a buzzard is an omen of death.
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