Cleromancy, sortilege, casting lots or casting bones is a form of divination in which stuff is thrown randomly on the ground, and the resulting patterns or forms are interpreted to tell the future or make a decision.

History

In Western culture

Casting of lots occurs frequently in the Bible. One notable example of casting lots is the soldiers who supposedly cast lots for Jesus' clothes as he was dying on the cross. In this case, the casting of lots is implicitly looked down upon by the Biblical authors, however elsewhere is also invoked as a legitimate means of determining God's wishes. For example, it was through lots that it was determined by his ship's crew that Jonah was the source of the storm they were enduring. He was subsequently cast overboard, causing the storm to dissipate.

In Eastern culture

In Taoism, various means of determining the future through random means have historically been employed. In Japan, omikuji is one particular form of drawing lots.

Yes-no pens

Pens which can answer "yes-no" questions are widely used in divination and fortune telling, especially by New Age adherents. Their use is similar to the usage of pendulums for the same purpose (with the difference that a pendulum can also be used for spiritism). Another classical "yes-no" fortune telling method is the use of coins. There exist some websites which utilise software to simulate these "yes-no" pens to produce similar results on the computer screen. [1]

See also

• List of spirituality-related topics