Divination: Bibliomancy
- Kelody Fey
- Apr 16
- 4 min read
I recently hosted my first community workshop: Intro to Bibliomancy at HAVEN Hdg in Havre De Grace, MD. It was a rainy gross Friday night, and I wasn’t sure if anyone would show up. So I invited my Mom to join me on a road trip to the shop since she had never been there. And I was finally able to meet Linnea, the owner! We had one more wonderful woman join us, so I was able to to “test” out my presentations and experiential experiences.
To me, bibliomancy is one of the most accessible forms of divination because books are available almost everywhere. I need to do some more research, but there might be a way to choose random pages in a PDF reader, for those who have vision impairments. Maybe fast forwarding and stopping an audio book could work as well. Bibliomancy is also one of the most ancient forms of divination across many different cultures.
Bibliomancy evolved from Rhapsodomancy, which is the use of poems for divination. In the 1600s, Bibliomancy emerged due to the use of the Bible for divination purposes. Grimoires also began to be used as well. Stitchomancy is another name for bibliomancy as well. When full books are consulted in a similar fashion it is called Libromancy. Chartomancy is the use of any kind of texts written on paper such as documents, letters, or musical works (Cartomancy/Tarot can be considered a variant of this as well).
In terms of culture and religion, obviously Christians utilize the Bible and it is also used in Hoodoo. In Judaism, some use the Torah or the Tanahk. Muslims use the Quran and the Falnama, the book of Omens. The I Ching, from China, is a divination manual that could potential be used for bibliomancy. In ancient Greece and Rome, the works of Homer and Virgil were often consulted using ‘sortes’ or lots of verses written on paper one was to choose at random. The Sibylline Books containing the oracle phrases of the Sybils was consulted in ancient Greece. The Book of the Dead was used in Egypt.
So what books would be used today for bibliomancy? You can really use anything that calls to you. Maybe you have a favorite fiction novel that you have a strong connection too. Or you work with a specific deity, so you can use any book that is about them. Maybe you have some sort of daily devotional book or book of mantras. Or you can pick a book completely at random. However, like any form of divination, you should have a question in mind. You should take time to ground and bring that intention into focus whether the book is random or not.
Once you have your book, there are several ways you can go about finding your answers. To choose your page, you can simply open to a random page, flip the pages quickly until you feel you should stop, or use dice or random number generator to choose a page for you.
To find the paragraph, line, or single word, there are also several options. You can continue using dice or the number generator. You can close your eyes a point. Or you can leave your eyes open with a soft gaze and settle on the words that really seem to become clear. Have fun with it and come up with your own system! There is no right or wrong way to do this!
To take all of this a little further, you can create a poem by choose phrases from different pages and combine them to create a longer message/answer relating to your inquiry. Below are some examples I have received from this technique:
All this lore has sprung from the lodestone
Used in rituals designed to attract spiritual love
And to allow them to contact our psychic mind
Longevity
Can be carried to bring love into your life
Especially in relationships
Tremendous influence
-from a book about crystals
As she stood stargazing she heard a whisper right in her ear
“I wish you many and many happy returns of the day”
Inarticulate, Hollow
Her suspicions were aroused afresh
The moons all went down
It was the tutor, and his voice jarred and disturbed the dream
The old woman came near to the fire
Presently she began to look
It’s obvious what an immense field there is….
-from a collection of Victorian stories
I am considering keeping a journal of these and notes from other books so that I can eventually use that journal in bibliomancy. From my online research, I also found that some people will use Tarot spreads in bibliomancy as well, just like you would in a tarot reading.
Now to get even more creative, you could consider creating black poetry or a collage of cut out words. Below are some examples that speak for themselves.
The tricky part of bibliomancy is that there isn't a guide book, so your personal intuition is very involved. Reflect on the symbols that come through. What do they mean to you? Do research to find more about its meaning. Maybe a dream dictionary could be helpful (that could also be a really cool book to use!) Remember that it could take time for understanding. Consider manifest vs latent meaning. Manifest meaning is what the words actually mean and latent meaning is a more like reading between the lines or an implied underlying meaning.
I use this a lot in lyric analysis and often use 'You are my sunshine' as an example. Latent meaning = You are a literal sun shining on me, Manifest meaning = You make my life happy like the how the sunshine makes me feel, you are loved, etc.
Have you practiced bibliomancy before? What are some of our go-to books!
References:
A Sorcerer in the Library: An Introduction to Integer Bibliomancy
Blog Post 122 – Bibliomancy
https://newworldwitchery.com/2011/03/10/blog-post-122-%E2%80%93-bibliomancy/#:~:text=The%20methods%20for%20bibliomancy%20break,particular%20technique%20involving%20a%20key.
The Art of Divination With Books
Seeking Guidance Through Bibliomancy Divination
Bibliomancy
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