Xylomancy (Divination using wood, twigs or fallen branches)

Xylomancy

(also known as Xylomantia) is derived from the Greek word xylo (wood) and manteia (divination) is a form of divining the past, present or future by interpreting omens from twigs, pieces of wood, or fallen tree branches. Their shape, colour, thickness and size, as well as location, formations, and patterns, are the usual characteristics taken into consideration. The divination is done by interpreting the shape and position of dry pieces of wood found in one`s path. These are considered Omens.

No less certain presages of future events may be drawn from the arrangement of logs in the fire-place, from the manner in which they burn, etc. It is perhaps the survival of this mode of divination which makes the good people say, when a brand is disturbed, that "they are going to have a visitor."

Other forms of divination related to xylomancy are dendromancy and tephramancy (divination by the ashes of a burned tree trunk). Undoubtedly every type of tree divination has its origins in the primitive practice of tree worship, the earliest form of religion.