Gyromancy - Predicting the Future from Circles, Circular or Spiral Movements

Divination is one of the earliest kinds of human practices, borne not only out of the natural curiosity to known what will happen next but also to uncover hidden truths and seek answers to complex questions. Divination includes a whole range of arts and practices, some commonsensical like chiromancy while some slightly more unusual than others like gryomancy.

Gyromancy is a form of divination which uses the circles, circular or spiral movements to interpret how the future would unfold. In this practice, a seer or diviner would spin around or walk the perimeter of a circle marked with letters at various points around its circumference, until dizziness sets in. This would cause the diviner to stumble at different points; the letters at these points would eventually be interpreted to spell out a prophecy or an answer to a perplexing situation. The term gyromancy made its way into English from the Medieval Latin word, ‘gyromantia’, which in turn was derived from Greek ‘gyros’ meaning circle and ‘manteia’ meaning oracle.

TIP: Get 3 Free Min + 50% Off to consult a psychic!

Traditionally this method of divination was practiced only when the moon was in an appropriate astrological position. According to the most commonly practiced form of gyromancy, a circle would be drawn on the ground and then the diviner would step inside the circle and start spinning around or walking along the perimeter of the circle. This movement was usually accompanied by special chants and incantations; sometimes prayers or magic spell were recited so as to invoke the spirits to facilitate the divination. The seer would keep spinning or walking until he/she became dizzy and entered a trance-like state. The pronunciations made during this state of altered consciousness were supposed to be prophetic in nature and provide omens about the future.

According to a more complicated version of this practice, the circle on the ground would be marked by numbers or letters so that the letter or symbol against which the seer stumbled or fell during the trance-like state was supposed to spell out the prophetic message.  Sometimes symbols with runic, astrological, occult or religious significance were drawn in the circle on the ground. The chants and recitation conducted alongside the circular movements of the diviner was also pertinent to the practice of divination. The dizziness brought on by spinning or circling was perhaps intended to introduce randomness or to facilitate a state of altered consciousness which would open up the seer to psychic influences.

Yet another variation of gyromancy involved people dancing frenziedly around an enchanted circle; it was believed that upon being exhausted, they would be given to utterances which in turn could be interpreted as omens of the future.

Gyromancy did not always include the physical movements of the diviner. In one version of the practice, a nicked coin was spun around within a circle so that it moved in a whirling motion. Words were then spelled out taking those letters towards which the nick of the coin pointed in its various falls; these words would be then interpreted as holding prophetic messages for the future.

The practice of gyromancy is related to the mystical importance that the shape of the circle and circular motion holds in many religious and occult traditions. Some religious dances, particularly the rotation of certain devotees on one foot with arms out stretched or what is known as the whirling dervish are of this nature. The principle of the repeated circling is to exclude the interference of the will so to reduce the selection of letters to mere chance. In some kinds of enhancement, the art of turning round goes even further to induce a state of delirium which is thought to be ideal for prophetic utterances. Yet another phenomenon which seems to be based on the psychic properties of whirling movements is the St. Vitus' Dance; in the earlier days it was believed that the convulsive movements of the person was a manifestation of spirit intelligence. The significance of the circle in enhancing psychic qualities was evident in various forms of divination like planchettes which required the participants to sit in a circle and place a finger on a glass surrounded by letters of the alphabet. It was believed that the glass would touch letters in order to indicate words or messages.

The gyre or the spiral is a common mystical symbol found in many ancient cultures where it has often been seem as indicating growth and evolution. The spiral is one of the most common shapes in nature occurring naturally in shells, galaxies, DNA structures, whirlpools, ocean currents and countless other instances. In fact the history of human race can be studied in the form of cycles of growth and destruction, order and chaos. In two dimensions, a spiral is a curve that winds around a fixed point at a continuously increasing or decreasing distance from that point. Thus the spiral represents the bringing forth of life from a central point as it unwinds, or a return to the center of creation in the other direction. In this sense, the symbol can be compared to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life but in itself it can be seen as a symbol of evolution, self-transformation and the forces and patterns underlying creation.

A spiral that winds around its center in a clockwise direction may be considered constructive and one that moves in the opposite direction destructive. Spirals are found in biblical whirlwinds, in ceremonial dances where an inward then outward spiral represents the cycle of death and rebirth and most famously in recent times in the gyres of the poetry of W.B. Yeats especially in Byzantium and The Second Coming. Thus it is no wonder the mystical symbol of the spiral or the gyre forms the basis of one of the forms of divination as in gyromancy.