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Cleidomancy
Alternatively Clidomancy.
Derived from the Greek
kleis ('key') and manteia ('divination'),
it is the art and practice of divining
the past, the present and the future through the use of a key.
As in other forms of
dowsing, the pendulum (or in this case, the key) indicates a yes or no
response to a particular question by the direction in which swings or
rotates.
The traditional
method involved writing a question on a key and placing the key in or
with a Bible, which was then hung in such a way as will permit it to
turn — the direction of movement dictating the response.
In a
variant method, the key pendulum
is held over a circle inscribed with letters and numbers, or an
Ouija board.
The messages are then spelled out.
In another method the key should be hung upon the ring-finger of a young virgin, which then had to
softly recite some magical words thrice. This ritual should
be performed when the sun or the moon
were in Virgo.
In yet another method of Cleidomancy, used
to determine guilt, the key was supposed to be inserted into a Bible,
specifically the 50th
Psalm. The book was then sealed shut and suspended. The suspects names were slowly
spoken, and if the Bible turned at the mention of a name,
the person was guilty as charged.
Another
form of Cleidomancy involved placing the key in a clenched fist and allowing a
pregnant woman to touch one of the two proffered fists. If she touched
the one in which the key was held, then it was claimed that the child
would be a girl. If she touched the empty one, the child would be a boy.
See Radiesthesia, Sortilege,
Divination,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
The Chakra Store,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1) Dunwich, Gerina,
A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy
and Divination, Carol Publishing Group; (2)
Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism,
Carol Publishing Group; (3)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing;
(4) Pickover, Clifford A.,
Dreaming the Future: The
Fantastic Story of Prediction, Prometheus Books.
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