Fortune-Telling Practice

A Fortune-Telling Practice is a supranatural practice aimed at predicting a person's future through divination methods (such as tarot card reading, palmistry, astrology, numerology, tea leaf reading).

• Context:
  • It can (typically) be performed by a fortune Teller (diviner or seer).
  • It can be part of various cultural or spiritual traditions.
  • It can range from being a Personal Fortune-Telling Practice to being a Collective Fortune-Telling Practice.
  • It can be a source of entertainment, personal insight, or spiritual guidance for some people.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • A Tarot Card Reading, where a spread of tarot cards is interpreted to divine the future.
  • A Palm Reading, where the lines and features of the hand are examined to predict life events.
  • A Astrology Consultation, where a person's astrological chart is analyzed based on their birth data.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • A Psychological Practice, such as a therapy session.
  • a Scientific Practice, such as testing a hypothesis in a laboratory.
  • A Medical Examination, such as a routine physical check-up.
• See: Superstition, Prediction, Divination, Astrology, Religion, Advice (Opinion), Affirmations (New Age).

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References

2019

• (Wikipedia, 2019) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune-telling Retrieved:2019-11-7.
  • Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.

    Historically, fortune telling grows out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically associated with Romani people. During the 19th and 20th century, methods of divination from non-Western cultures, such as the I Ching, were also adopted as methods of fortune telling in western popular culture.

    An example of divination or fortune telling as purely an item of pop culture, with little or no vestiges of belief in the occult, would be the Magic 8-Ball sold as a toy by Mattel, or Paul II, an octopus at the Sea Life Aquarium at Oberhausen used to predict the outcome of matches played by the German national football team.

    There is opposition to fortune telling in Christianity, Islam and Judaism based on scriptural prohibitions against divination. This sometimescauses discord in the Jewish community due to their views on mysticism.

    Terms for one who claims to see into the future include fortune teller, crystal-gazer, spaewife, seer, soothsayer, sibyl, clairvoyant, and prophet; related terms which might include this among other abilities are oracle, augur, and visionary.

    Fortune telling is dismissed by the scientific community and scientific skeptics as being based on magical thinking and superstition.

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