Spodomancy - Interpreting Patterns in Cinders and Soot to Predict the Future

Divination is one of the earliest practices by which humans tried to acquire some measure of control over their lives. They used divination practices not only to predict what will happen in future but also to reveal hidden knowledge or answer difficult questions. A large number of such practices depended upon the observation of various natural processes like burning and one of these is Spodomancy.

Spodomancy is a form of divination that interprets the patterns seen in cinders and soot as omens for the future. The term is derived from the Greek word spodos which means wood ashes as well as manteia which refers to divination. Most often but not always, spodomancy was practiced with the cinders left from sacrificial fires in which case it was variously known as tephromancy, tephramancy, cineromancy or ceneromancy. This ritual called for the removal of any unburned wood or coals, and interpreted the mounds, ridges, valleys, and other imperfections in the surface. Special attention was paid to intersections of these elements, or where they came to a dead-end. Some experts though believe that the two terms tephromancy and tephramancy are not synonymous since the latter used only the ash of tree bark, while the former could use the ashes of any sacrifice.

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The process of spodomancy may also be related to that of pyromancy and capnomancy since all three involve sacrifice by burning. However there is a crucial difference between spodomancy and pyromancy in that the latter studies the behavior of burning objects and appearance of flames while former is restricted to interpretation from patterns made by cinders or ashes left by the fire. likewise in case of capnomancy, the diviner studies the patterns of plumes of smoke while spodomancy concerns itself with remains like ash and cinder. In fact spodomancy can be seen as a form of geomancy or divination based on aspects of the earth since it has to do with ashes which are after all an element of earth.

Traditionally spodomancy was practiced by writing out a question or a symbol on ash obtained from a ritual sacrifice and leaving it undisturbed through the night. The next morning the seer would observe which letters are legible and which have faded and then interpret them as omens for the future. This method of spodomancy seems to have been practiced, or at least mentioned, by the Grand Orient de France which is the oldest Masonic organization of continental Europe having been founded as far back as 1733.

In another version of spodomancy, the ashes would be interpreted according to the shapes and patterns in which they are left behind after a ritual sacrifice or any other fire. Very often the ridges, mounds and valleys in the cinders would be taken to symbolize the highs and lows, the intersections or dead ends in a subject’s life. In the special context of a sacrificial fire, omens for the future would be drawn from the way the ashes fly about, rise and fall during the burning as well as the patterns they leave on the ground after the fire has died out. If the cinders are stirred up by a breeze, the seer would further look into the shapes and symbols left behind.

The history of spodomancy goes back to the times when sacrifices were first offered to gods, divine beings or very powerful natural phenomena. It was an important form of divination among the ancient Greeks and Romans. The classical Greek playwright Aeschylus (525 BC–456 BC) noted that ashes falling from a fireplace could be divined for portents. In Ancient Thebes, the altar dedicated to Apollo was known as "Apollo of the Ashes" not only because the altar itself was composed of the ashes of human sacrificial victims but because ashes blowing off the altar could be divined for their portents. The ancient Etruscans of the Italian peninsula also practiced spodomancy in a fashion similar to the Greeks. Spodomancy was also known to many Oriental cultures in ancient times. During the Qin and Han dynasties in China, a variation of spodomancy was common according to which the bones of sacrificial animals were raked out of fires and the marks in the ashes and cracks in the bones interpreted for their portents. Several Native American tribes also believed that they could divine the future of a newborn or a friend who had left on a journey by looking in the marks and lines left in the ashes of a fire the next morning.

During the middle ages, while practicing spodomancy special attention was given to cinders that jumped the hearth. According to popular traditions of the time, hollow and oblong ashes known as coffins implied a coming death in the family. However those shaped oval and termed cradles would indicate the birth of a baby while a round one shaped like a purse would presage good fortune in terms of monetary gains. Not surprisingly heart shaped patterns of ashes indicated a romantic attachment or that a lover was to arrive. During the Renaissance, various interpretations of spodomancy existed.
One of these finds mention in The Works of Rabelais, Book III (published in 1693), in which Sir Thomas Urquhart claimed that the ashes and soot must be allowed to rise naturally from the fire upon which they were then interpreted as omens of things to come. Ashes which dispersed quickly were a positive sign, but ashes which hung in the air were not. Another tradition indicates that spodomancy may also be practiced by writing a question or message on a piece of paper and then burning it. The burned ashes and soot of the burned message were then examined for omens and interpretation

Over time the practice of spodomancy was eventually integrated in the folklore of many regions, In Scotland it was said that if a clot of soot fell down the chimney during a wedding breakfast, it was a portent of bad luck for the newlywed couple. An English tradition of the 19th century, known as "riddling the ashes",  involved a kind of spodomancy according to which ashes would be left on the hearth on St. Mark's Eve, and examined the next day. It was believed that the footprint of anyone who was to die in the coming year would be left in the ashes. Also ash-riddling or home-grown versions of spodomancy were used to find out the identity of a future spouse in these cultures. Then again a Romani or Gypsy superstition revolved around casting ashes onto the floor. Smooth, uniform ashes were seen as a good omen, while a pile of ashes or several of them indicate bad fortune. In all the places where such superstitions or folklore are still practiced, spodomancy or vestiges of it, survive even today.