-mancy, -mancer, -mantic, -mantical

Divination with birds: In her book about divination, Hannah read about orthinomancy and that their flight formations could be interpreted for predictions of the future.

Other terms involving birds are "orniscopy", "ornithoscopy", and "ornomancy"..

Divination from excavated items: When Mr. Lawson was working in his garden, he dug up some old coins and, with the aid of oryctomancy, he believed he would have a fantastic stress-free life ahead of him!

Divination with bones: Sam saved all the bones from the Thanksgiving turkey in order to perform ossomancy by interpreting the different structural elements to see what his future wife would be like!

Divination by observing the heavens: During the days, Ivy loved lying on the grass and watching the sky, and because she also liked fortune-telling, ouranomancy was one of her favorite occupations by interpreting the celestial sphere for her future life.

Divination by observing and analyzing the soles or bottoms of feet: Pedomancy can be interpreted in terms of lines and mounts of a foot, exactly as in cheiromancy or palmistry, but to a greatly limited degree.

This mode of divination is of great antiquity in the Orient, particularly among the Chinese.

Divination by observing fountains: Pegomancy involves the way air bubbles rise in springs or fountains, or by dropping stones into sacred pools or springs and observing their movements.

Shapes formed by the swirl of a spring or the play of a fountain were also given appropriate interpretations.

Divination with pebbles or beans marked with symbols and colors relating to health, communications, success, travel, etc.: With pessomancy, stones were either thrown out after mixing in a bag or drawn out at random.

Pessomancy may be performed by using colored marbles, giving each type a special interpretation and drawing one from a bag.

Divination by observing the results of brushed clothes: After June cleaned her wooden jacket with a brush and, because she believed in petchimancy, she was happy to see that all the soiled spots were gone, which meant that she was going to win in the lottery!

Divination with leaves: Jack read that phyllomancy was performed to predict the future using tea leaves or by the light noise of dry leaves blowing in the wind.

Divination by means of the leaves of rose bushes: Phyllorhodomancy involved clapping rose leaves against the side of the hand and noting the sounds that they made.

Ancient Greeks.used phyllorhodomancy to determine success or failure by the sound made by the leaves of roses.

Divination by observing the face of a person: Physiognomancy involved studying facial expressions of a subject and interpreting forms, lines, etc. of the face.

A form of fortune-telling with the use of turtles: Plastromancy, an ancient Chinese form of divination, used a turtleshell plastron, the almost flat part of the shell structure, in order to prophesy the future. .

Divination by interpreting air, wind, by using the lungs: Pneumancy involves blowing, especially by blowing out a candle to foretell the future..

Pneumancy exists today in the act of blowing out the candles on a birthday cake and wishing for something!

Divination from the interpretations of signs derived by examining the feet: Podomancy can be interpreted in terms of lines and mounts of a foot, exactly as in chiromancy or palmistry, but to a greatly limited degree.

1. An insect of the order Mantodea, named for their "prayer-like" stance and so meaning "praying prophet" or "praying diviner". In class, Judy learned about the praying mantis and wondered if it could tell her if she was going to pass her next test!
2. Etymology: mantis comes from the Greek word Mantes for "prophet" or "fortune teller".

It is estimated that there are about 2,300 species of praying mantids world-wide; most are tropical or subtropical, but several species live in temperate climates; such as, that of the northern United States, central Europe, and Siberia.

Some texts refer to the European mantis, or Mantis religiosa, as the most common praying mantis in European countries.