Capnomancy is

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

by examining

smoke Smoke is an aerosol (a suspension of airborne particulates and gases) emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwante ...

. This is done by looking at the movements of the smoke after a fire has been made. A thin, straight plume of smoke is thought to indicate a good omen whereas the opposite is thought of large plumes of smoke. If the smoke touches the ground, this is thought to be a sign that immediate action must be taken to avoid catastrophe. When capnomancy involves the smoke from incense, then it is called '' libanomancy''.

Etymology

The word ''capnomancy'' comes from two Greek words: καπνός (''kapnós''), meaning

, and μαντεία (''manteía''), meaning

or to see.Encyclopędia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World
p. 1659

History

The first recorded use of capnomancy was in ancient

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

, where the ceremony was performed at religious dates throughout the year, using cedar branches or shavings. In

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, priests would burn animal sacrifices and then perform capnomancy over the smoke that was produced by the fire. The

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

were thought to practice ''dendromancy'', a form of capnomancy, using

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they ...

branches. It was also used by the

Semang The Semang are an ethnic-minority group of the Malay Peninsula. They live in mountainous and isolated forest regions of Perak, Pahang, Kelantan and Kedah of Malaysia and the southern provinces of Thailand. The Semang are among the different eth ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, who would use the ritual to determine whether a camp was safe for the night. There is reference made to the practice in both 17th and 19th century religious texts, although these do not describe how the practice was performed.

Modern usage

Capnomancy has been reportedly used as late as 2003 in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

, where citizens would practice the ritual by using smoke plumes from chimneys. Other modern variations of the ritual involve burning cedar sticks, incense, or candles with ribbons tied around them. Hands are sometimes used to manipulate the smoke, with practitioners reading the shapes that are then produced.

References

{{Divination Divination