Divination

Divination is a branch of magic that involves attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into future events, through various rituals and tools.

Diviners vs Seers

Diviners discover the unknown, and then experience it; seers experience the unknown, and then discover it. A Seer can be a diviner but a diviner cannot be a seer.

Human Divination

Witches and wizards who are born with the rare natural gift for prophecy are known as Seers, who can foresee the future with their Inner Eye. Non-Seers can learn divination methods, but their success varies. Divination is taught as an elective subject from the third year on at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Diviniation has been practiced since ancient times. The earliest known method of human fortune-telling is the product known in the West as Chinese Fortune Sticks.

Learned wizards and witches seem to regard the practice of divination with skepticism. Hermione Granger once described it as "woolly" and "a lot of guesswork," Minerva McGonagall thought it was "one of the most imprecise branches of magic," and before he decided to take on Sybill Trelawney as Divination professor at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore was inclined to scrap the subject altogether.

Silver lime wands had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency.

Centaur Divination

Centaurs are also natural born Seers. They are gifted in Divination. Centaurs have spent years trying to master their particular art of divining the fates. Additionally, the centaurs believe that fate is as it will be, and that they themselves are nothing more than messengers. They believe it was not their place to interfere, unless they have foreseen that they should.

Centaurs have a way of practicing divination distinct from that of humans, apparently mainly based around observing the movement of planets, moons, and stars, which they had been doing for centuries by 1996. It can take up to a decade for centaurs to understand what these celestial portents meant, and even then, the results were rarely precise. They may attempt to narrow their prediction of when an event will take place by burning certain herbs, such as sage and mallowsweet, and looking for various shapes and symbols in the fumes.

Centaurs seem to have had a low opinion of human methods of divination. Firenze, who taught Divination at Hogwarts, described what "humans call fortune-telling" as "self-flattering nonsense," and voiced the belief that humans obsess over mundane, day-to-day predictions because they are "blinkered and fettered by the limitations of [their] kind."

Tools, Books, and People

• Affinity Aids - divination tool
• The Backyard Bludgers - three philosophers who made headway in dimensional research
• Bigger on the Inside - textbook written by a centaur
• Terr-Oh! - macabre tarot deck derivative (and 2-player game)

Techniques

This is a list of Divination techniques adapted and used for Absit Omen for varoius purposes. Here is a longer and more complete list of techniques.

Dowsing

Divination using either a pendulum or a Y-shaped dowsing rod as a magical conduit. Traditionally, this technique is not good for predicting the future, unless used as a channel for psychomancy (divination by means of spirits.) Rather, dowsing is best for uncovering secrets about the present environment. Traditionally it's used to locate water, metals, and magical elements, but it can also be used to track down lost or hidden objects, pockets of magical significance, and illnesses.

• Alvis Norling specializes in this technique, using pendulums. He uses the technique in Ding Dong Desk and If You Don't Believe You Better Get Superstitious.

Physiognomancy

Divination by studying or using the face. This is a specific technique that a diviner uses to study and understand facial expressions by discovering what causes them and how it may or may not affect others. Many diviners who are advocates of this technique are usually very interested in a person's eyes, what they see and how they see things, and how they might interpret or reflect the person's soul.

• Connor Todd is mentioned to be good at this technique in The Only Real Valuable Thing Is Intuition

Schemotomancy

Divination using the human form. This can range from something as simple as a witch or wizard using a body as a magical conduit to something as morbid making human sacrifices. More commonly a Schemotomancer is skilled in undergoing or causing possessions; with turning their body (part(s)) into tools or magical conduits with runes, symbols, or potions; and/or by utilizing or observing specific behaviors of the body. These diviners are also urged to practice psychomancy as well.

• Naomi Foley is mentioned to be good at this technique in The Only Real Valuable Thing Is Intuition

Xenomancy

Divination by using strangers. A diviner that uses this technique manipulates and observes others, then interprets their actions and reactions, and then arrives at a conclusion as to how they affect each other, themselves, the past, or the future. This might also demand that a diviner uses some magical means and insight to read a person quickly and then move onto the next person. They are often masters of understanding or causing a Domino Effect

• Neely Woolfolk is mentioned to be good at this technique in The Only Real Valuable Thing Is Intuition

Other Methods

• Astrology — observing the movements of planets and stars
• Cartomancy — reading Tarot cards
• Catoptromancy — looking into mirrors
• Chinese Fortune Sticks
• Crystal-gazing — looking into a crystal ball
• Dream interpretation — analysing the meaning of dreams
• Fire-omens — unknown, possibly related to observing flames
• Heptomology — unknown, possibly related to the number seven
• Ichthyomancy — involving fish
• Palmistry — reading the lines on a person's palm
• Ornithomancy — unknown, possibly related to birds
• Ovomancy — cracking open eggs and observing which way the yolks fall
• Tessomancy — reading tea leaves
• Xylomancy — involving twigs