{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Portal|Religion}} {{short description|Form of divination}} '''Apantomancy''' is a form of divination using articles at hand or things that present themselves by chance.<ref name="book">{{Cite encyclopedia | title = Apantomancy | encyclopedia = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | pages = 26 | publisher = Harper Element | date = 2006 }}</ref> The diviner works him/herself into a state of trance until an object or event is perceived and a divination worked out. This form of divination was used in ancient Rome by the augurs.<ref name="Buckland2003">{{cite book|author=Raymond Buckland|title=The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying|url=https://archive.org/details/fortunetellingbo00buck|url-access=registration|accessdate=29 January 2011|date=1 August 2003|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=978-1-57859-147-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/fortunetellingbo00buck/page/18 18]}}</ref> There is no set of standard interpretations in apantomancy, with the interpretations of events depending on the background of the seer.<ref name="Buckland2003"/>
A branch of apantomancy places special significance on chance meetings of animals.<ref name="McCoy2004">{{cite book|author=Edain McCoy|title=Advanced witchcraft: go deeper, reach further, fly higher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mn_CfiQ6It0C&pg=PA170|year=2004|publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide|isbn=978-0-7387-0513-2|page=170}}</ref><ref name="Buckland2003"/> The superstition regarding black cats crossing your path comes from this form of divination.<ref name="book"/> Other common superstitions based on apantomancy are the belief that seeing a buzzard is an omen of death.<ref name="McQuillar2003">{{cite book|author=Tayannah Lee McQuillar|title=Rootwork: using the folk magick of Black America for love, money, and success|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7KY9ZLtgLcC&pg=PA54|year=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-3534-1|page=54}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
Category:Divination
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