Fortune-telling
| The wonderful world of |
| ...and their strange powers |
| Persons of interest |
Fortune-telling is a form of superstition. Its roots can be traced back to ancient times. In Delphi, a ancient sanctuary in Greece, there were priestesses/oracles called Pythias. Nostradamus was a famous French prophet from the Renaissance period. A common theme in the predictions of the Pythias and Nostradamus (and any other "prophet" or fortune-teller for that matter) is that their prophecies were told in a vague, often self-fulfilling way, without a specific date in mind.
Fortune telling can also be when a supposed psychic reads your palm, makes a chart for astrology, or "channels" spirits of the dead for answers.
If a psychic tells your future through the use of the supernatural, this is called divination. Divination is extremely popular is various circles, including Neopaganism who tend to use traditional arcane methods that rely somewhat on chance.
Christians officially frown on fortune-telling or divination, but some people (like Harold Camping) engage in it anyway by claiming that God has told them the world is going to end or a major disaster is coming.
There have been many other methods of trying to predict the future in the past, but animal sacrifice is frowned upon now. (It should be noted, though, that the earliest Chinese writing is from their earliest form of divination.)
Fortune telling doesn't always work as shown here.
[edit] "Techniques"
- Astrology
- Channeling
- Tarot cards
- Palmistry
- I Ching
- Runes- by some neo-pagans
- Horoscopes
- Tasseography
- Machines that cost $.25 at a carnival
- etc.