Oomancia
Alternatively known as Ooscopy, Oomancy, Oomantia, Ooscopia, Ovamancy, and Ovomancy.
Derived from the ancient Greek oon ('an egg') and manteia ('divination'), it is the art and practice of divining the future with the aid of eggs.
There are many methods of egg divination, but the traditional system involves separating the egg white from the yolk, pouring it into hot water and interpreting the shapes formed by the cooked egg whites.
If the formed shape is a bell, it means a wedding will soon be taking place; a snake shape signifies the presence of an unknown enemy nearby or it is a warning of impending danger; if the shape is a boat, plane, or automobile, it foretells travel in the near future. This form of egg divination was practiced in Scotland on the eve of the old Druid New Year (Samhain), in Spain on Saint John's Eve, and in England on the last day of the year.
Egg divination was a common practice in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, where diviners foretold future events by observing and interpreting egg omens.
Ancient egg divination was usually performed to gain information about a child still in it's mother's womb. The diviner would rub an uncooked hen's egg on a pregnant woman's belly for a few minutes, then break it open into a saucer. A single yolk indicated the birth of only one child; a double yolk, signified the birth of twins; a triple yolk meant the birth of triplets. According to occult tradition, if the egg yolk is spotted with blood, it is a very bad omen, indicating either a miscarriage or serious complications during child birth.
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Another method involved incubating a hen's egg between the expectant mother's breasts and noting the sex of the resulting chick, which also would be the coming child's gender. The Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 69/75 – after 130) tells of an incident of this type of egg divination. The Roman empress Livia Drusilla was pregnant and was anxious to know whether she was to be the mother of a boy or girl. She took an egg and kept it in her bosom, at the appropriate temperature, until a chick came forth with a beautiful cockscomb, foretelling the birth of a boy.
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Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis, An Encyclopedia of Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (2) Dictionary of the Occult, Caxton Publishing; (3) Buckland, Raymond, The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying, Visible Ink Press; (4) Dunwich, Gerina, A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination, Carol Publishing Group; (5) Pickover, Clifford A., Dreaming the Future: The Fantastic Story of Prediction, Prometheus Books.
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