Pyromancy (from Greek 'pyros', fire, and 'manteia', divination) is the art of divination by means of fire. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Divination (from Latin divinare "to be inspired by a god" related to Divine, Diva and Deus) is the attempt of ascertaining Fire is the heat and light energy released during a Chemical reaction, in particular a combustion reaction.
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History of pyromancy
Due to the importance of fire in society from the earliest of times, it is quite likely that pyromancy was one of the earlier forms of divination. It is said that in Greek society, virgins at the Temple of Athena in Athens, regularly practiced pyromancy. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The Parthenon ( Ancient Greek:) is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's It is also possible that followers of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and the forge, practiced pyromancy. Hephaestus (hɨˈfiːstəs or /hɨˈfɛstəs/ Greek Hēphaistos) was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. In ancient China, pyromancy was practiced in the Neolithic period and Shāng and Zhōu dynasties in the form of burning or heating oracle bones -- usually the scapulae (shoulder blades) of oxen or turtle shells -- to produce cracks which were then read as portents. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Oracle bones ( Chinese: 甲骨 Pinyin: jiǎgǔpiàn are pieces of Bone or turtle shell that were heated and cracked during divination In Anatomy, the scapula, omo, or shoulder blade, is the Bone that connects the Humerus (arm bone with the Clavicle (collar Oxen (singular ox) are Cattle trained as draft animals. Often they are adult castrated males Turtles are Reptiles of the Order Testudines (all living turtles belong to the Crown group Chelonia) most of Inscriptions on such oracle bones from the late Shāng dynasty are important, as the earliest significant corpus of written Chinese ever found. Written Chinese comprises the written symbols used to represent Spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated
Types of pyromancy
The most basic form of pyromancy is that in which the diviner observes flames, from a sacrificial fire, a candle, or another source of flame, and interprets the shapes that he or she sees within them. There are several variations on pyromancy, however, some of which are as follows:
- Alomancy, divination by salt, one type of which involves casting salt into a fire
- Botanomancy, divination by burning plants
- Capnomancy, divination by smoke; light, thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen; otherwise, a bad one. Alomancy (from Greek halo, 'salt' and manteia, divination also called Adromancy ydromancie idromancie and halomancy is an ancient form of Divination
- Causinomancy, divination by burning (non-specific as to the object burned)
- Daphnomancy (also, Empyromancy), divination by burning laurel leaves
- osteomancy, divination using bones, one type of which involves heating to produce cracks
- Plastromancy, divination using turtle plastrons; in China, this was done by heating pits carved into them. Plastromancy (from plastron + Greek μαντεία, "divination" is a form of pyromantic Divination using the Plastron, The plastron is the nearly flat part of the shell structure of a Turtle or Tortoise, what one would call the belly similar in composition to the Carapace
- Scapulimancy, divination by scapulae; in Asia and North America, this was done pyromantically. Scapulimancy (also spelled scapulomancy and scapulamancy, and also termed omoplatoscopy) is the practice of Divination by use of Scapulae
- Sideromancy, divination by burning straw
Pyromancy in fiction
In fiction, "pyromancy" is often a malapropism for pyrokinesis, which is usually used for combat, not divination. The term pyrokinesis is derived from the Greek words πυρ ( pûr, meaning "fire lightning" and κίνησις ( kínesis Computer games such as Guild Wars, Heroes of Might and Magic, Titan Quest, and World of Warcraft use pyromancy as a name for fire-related magic. Heroes of Might and Magic is a series of Video games created by New World Computing. Titan Quest is a Action RPG developed by Iron Lore Entertainment. World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG
Rei Hino uses pyromancy as divination in Sailor Moon. is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon Metaseries. is the title of a Japanese Media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. Her original name is a pun on that ("hi no rei", written with different kanji = "soul of fire"). She is pyrokinetic as well.
External links
Dictionary
pyromancy
-noun
- Divination by fire; the use of fire to supernaturally gain information.
- The magical power of conjuring or controlling fire.
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