Bibliomancy: the art of reading the future in books.

Bibliomancy is one of the divination methods that has best resisted the attacks of rationalism, precisely because it offers concrete material for interpretation.

Unlike what happens with other mancies, through which the officiant must interpret viscera, reflections, smoke, traces of coffee and other infusions, shadows, polygons, rare geometric symmetries, Bibliomancy uses an element that inhabits almost all the houses of the planet: a book.

The word Bibliomancy comes from the Greek biblion, “book”; and manteia, “guess.” Its meaning is quite clear and does not require further clarification. To practice Bibliomancy, further instructions are not necessary. It is enough to take any book, open a page at random, read it and interpret it, adapting its content to the problem or situation we wish to consult.

Although historically Bibliomancy used the Bible to divine its mysteries by appealing to its holiness; Any book is prone to being interpreted; since to some extent all books are sacred, even those classified as “cursed.” Ultimately, the sanctity of a text is always subjective.

There are different possibilities for Bibliomancy. For example, during the Roman Empire, the Bible of paganism, Virgil’s Aeneid, was used. The Middle Ages, as we have already seen, preferred the Bible and its mysterious symbolism. Despite these discrepancies, the method was always the same. Once the page was selected at random, the first paragraph was read, which was interpreted according to the officiant’s questions. For example, suppose we want to consult about the destination of a trip, in which case we take the first volume of On Heroes, by Thomas Carlyle, and turn the pages quickly until we stop at one, always following a random direction. In our case, the tour took us to page 56:

Next, the officiant must interpret the paragraph, in our case, the mysterious ending of a sentence that does not promise too much luck for our trip.

Other types of Bibliomancy require ingredients external to the performer’s cursory review of pages. In one of them the book was opened right in the middle and placed out in the open, then they waited for the wind to turn the pages until they decided to intervene.

Another method of Bibliomancy consisted of throwing a book on the floor and reading the first paragraph where it had been opened. With this, it was believed that the less the reader’s intervention, the greater effectiveness could be found in the paragraph that destiny selected for him.

Quite dissatisfied with Carlyle’s prophecy, we decided to examine other possibilities, this time, regarding the fate of this article. To do this we appeal to a less academic language and, instead, infinitely more symbolic and rich. With some trepidation we take a disjointed William Blake anthology, subject it to the action of the wind, and approach the first verse on page 62.

Mysteries. I Prohibited books.

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