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Divination Types - Cartomancy, Bibliomancy and Astrology

Writer's picture: Magik KasterMagik Kaster
Oct 27, 20217 min read

Updated: Nov 18, 2021



[Cited in MLA9 formatting | blog “Essay” 1 of …]

Obviously as a tarot reader I've been looking into various other forms of Divination and as a fan, avid reader and someone incredibly intrigued by fantasy, Pagan/Romani/Norse history and various types of religion/mythology I have been looking into other types of Divination and witchcraft practices open to me to see what fits my craft. The important part of that sentence being: “OPEN TO ME”! I do not want to participate in practices that are not open to me as a White, European/German/Slavic/Irish/Italian mut with hardly any hard connections to any of the cultures, Ex-Christian, blood rooted non practicing Jew, new /learning pagan, I refuse to use practices that are not open to me or I am unsure if they are open to me or not. My ancestors christian or not, have taken too many things from innocent people and I’m not continuing any type of cycle.

Since we’re focusing on divination let's look at the definition of divination, “the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.” is the top result on google. Now obviously not everything in this definition is completely accurate, but it’s the closest that modern day society will get to what it really is without Romani/Pagan assistance. The definition I find to be the most accurate to the divination I participate in is an art of using tools to find the correct path, ease anxiety, or guide one in their journey through life. There are many different types of divination and Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com has a compiled list in the “Types of divination” Section on their site, the various types of divination are alphabetically organized however my post will not be. This is one of the primary sites I will be using in addition this and other sites I use to research for this blog post will be linked for your own research and expanding of your practices!


Cartomancy: Divination by using a deck of cards. Subsequently; Taromancy: Divination by using a deck of tarot cards. These types of divination are my personal favorite due in large part to the fact that they are [Depending on the deck of cards and the types of readings] open to just about anyone. In addition, Cartomancy and Taromancy are among the easiest divination practices to use with books, guides and practitioners available everywhere. That being said, something I must clarify is that not all practitioners are willing to teach or able to teach, and some sites or books are not viable sources to gather information from. I personally have guidebooks with decks, a guidebook purchased without a deck of tarot cards and I am working on my own tarot guidebook [For myself at the moment] that I call “Tarot in Existence”. When it is finished it will contain basic tarot comprehension [including how to read playing cards as tarot cards], Lunar and Solar oracle comprehension and Healing with angels Oracle comprehension. If I were to offer this as a public amenity I will likely give sources throughout the book and then compiled in the back.

In “The history of Tarot cards” [P-E.Com] They explain that “The original use of tarot cards was for entertainment and education.” However the unfortunate thing is tarot can not be specifically pinpointed to one specific culture, Pagans, Celtics, Egyptians, Hebrew, Latin and even Italian people were said to have contributed to the modern day Tarot practice. In addition [Personal knowledge let me know if I’m incorrect] The Romani had a lot to do with the art and wide spread knowledge of this practice. According to Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com the timeline of taromancy is; “10c - Chinese had playing cards, 1370-1380s - A monk named brother john in switzerland wrote about cards, 1392 - King Charles VI of France had three packs of Tarot cards made or some believe playing cards, 1397 - Paris regulation issued forbidding cards to be used on working days, 14C - cards appeared on the European scene, 1432 - cards were denounced as the creation of Satan, 15th century - oldest surviving cards 3 sets made for the Visconti family, 1570s - published attack on gambling and theatre as they are said to promote false gods and idols.” How consistent or accurate time-distance wise this timeline is I'm not sure, nor am I sure it includes everyone who had something to do with tarot, however I am putting my faith in the fact that this was the information readily available and not destroyed for the editors of the site to use.


Bibliomancy/Stichomancy: Divination by randomly chosen passages in books (most often religious books. Rhapsodomancy: Divination by book of poetry. Stoichemancy: Divination by book written by Virgil or Homer. Currently we are seeing this on a subset of tiktok called book-tok, Book-tokers will use their various books to practice Bibliomancy whether it's how the day, week, month, year will go or even how their love life will pan out. Due to this knowledge I feel it is safe to assume that Bibliomancy is an open practice [Please correct me if I’m wrong] Some Bibliomancy practitioners will use a book or even a dictionary to have their deities tell them the name they have been given by that deity. I personally have not participated in this practice however, I am interested by it and have the materials to do so [Personal books, dictionaries, thesaurus’, and translative dictionaries]. My mother however has practiced this form of divination albeit unbeknownst to her it was divination at all.The first definition to appear when you google Bibliomancy is; “foretelling the future by interpreting a randomly chosen passage from a book, especially the bible”. Now while I will never be caught telling someone their religion is wrong, I can tell that google is catering to an audience that is not me or I'm assuming some of you since you’ve read to this point and haven’t simply commented that I’m a wretched sinner and I’m going to hell. Unfortunately there are few sites talking about bibliomancy however if you know of a tiktoker or practitioner that would be willing to be interviewed or teach me how to properly practice bibliomancy I’d love to check them out and learn more!


Astrology: Divination by the positions of the planets, ex: The Sun and The Moon. Genethlialogy/Natal Astrology: Divination of the influence of stars on birth. Horoscopy: Divination by interpreting a horoscope. When one says the word astrology your brain will typically drift to Aries, Capricorn, Cancer, Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius, Libra, Taurus, Sagittarius, Pisces, Virgo, Gemini [Yes I rattled those off without help from the internet and I’m proud of that. Scouts honor.] the 12 signs of the zodiac. If you’re an astrology nut and know what I mean when I say “Sun, Moon, and Rising” or “What’s your big three?” you get nothing, but I’m proud of you. A person’s Big three is any variation of the 12 zodiacs with a [low] probability of having the same sign in all three positions. [My Sun is Pisces, Moon is Libra and Rising is Aquarius, but I also have access to my personal natal chart.] The sign most people know and will exclaim to people is their sun sign: what the position of the earth to the sun was on the day of your birth. Your moon was the position of the moon on the day of your birth. Your rising all depends on what time of day you were born, twins if hours apart could share the same sun and moon but have two different even clashing rising signs. At a different point in time I will focus my attention on each individual zodiac [probably during their seasons just because I can].

Astrology is what is referred to as a pseudo-science; a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on the scientific method. So no scientifically your astrology sign is not going to line you up with your perfect match who has to be a Leo or whatever, but it's fun to see how much of it actually makes sense in day to day life, for example if you’re reading this and you’re say… an aquarius sun you might be thinking wow this nut job seriously thinks all this star bologna is real and they base their life off of it thats because aquarius’ are skeptics at their core. If I was correct and you were thinking that cool that means I’m good at what I do, however if I was wrong and you were more concerned about what you have planned for your next meal that might be because you’re an air sign. I’m kidding obviously, but I like to have fun with my practices and Astrology has been one of my practices since I was really young. It's an open, widespread practice. In any case you’re completely fine to follow astrology with your whole heart think it’s just kind of interesting or think is a bunch of malarkey the only time I will care is when you bully people online about it and I’m not just talking about the skeptics if you harass someone about their natal chart I don’t want you on my page or my shop ever.

All of this information is scattered thoughts from the brain of a Neurodivergent, Relatively new to practice, Pagan looking to further their knowledge of what is and isn't available to them. I look forward to going on this journey with or without you guys, but If you enjoyed learning some basics about different types of divination let me know I’m still searching and I have plenty of options to choose from. Until next time, Essay Kaster out.


Wanna see my natal chart and judge me silently? Like this blog and I may post it just for fun.


Works Cited

Not Applicable. “Glossary of Divination Types & Techniques.” Paranormal Encyclopedia, 2016, https://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/d/divination/types.html.

Taromancy learning sites/Sources:

Bibliomancy/Stichomancy Sources:

Astrology Sources:

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