Cleromancy: Divination by Lots

Cleromancy is a form of divination in which meaning is sought by casting or drawing lots. The objects used may be black and white beans, small bones, dice, stones or any other items capable of producing a random result that can then be interpreted as an omen.

The principle is simple but ancient. The diviner does not choose the answer consciously. Instead, the objects are thrown, drawn or allowed to fall according to chance, and the resulting pattern is treated as a message revealing something hidden. Similar methods were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world, including Egypt and Rome, where lots could be used to seek guidance about uncertain events.

One related form was known as the Thriaejan lots, in which marked objects resembling dice were cast and interpreted according to the symbols they bore. These lots were associated with Mercury, who was regarded as a patron of this form of divination. The objects could be ritually prepared or consecrated before use, transforming an ordinary act of chance into a sacred consultation.

An olive leaf known as “the lot of Mercury” was sometimes placed in the urn as a means of seeking the god’s favour. The divination therefore depended not only upon randomness, but upon the belief that divine or supernatural intelligence could speak through what appeared to be accidental combinations.

Cleromancy belongs to one of the oldest ideas in divination: that chance is not always meaningless. When the lots fall, the occultist looks beyond coincidence and asks whether something unseen has arranged the answer.

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Throwing dice is easy. Understanding why occultists believed chance could become a doorway to hidden knowledge is where serious study begins. Inside the Occult World Mystery School, you can go far beyond simple fortune telling and study divination, Demonology, Black Magick, grimoires, ritual practice, spirit work and the deeper systems through which occultists sought knowledge, power and greater command over their own lives.

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