fortune telling

Drawings from Tui bei tu, a Chinese prophecy book. This book, written by astronomers and historians Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfen during the Tang Dynasty, contained 60 drawing with preceding poems that made predictions for the era and was likely based on the I Ching, also known as The Book of Changes. At the front of the book, the following is written:

“When examining the future, please know that the past may have been clear as a bright moon, but the future may be dark and black. Be cautious.”

The book was later deemed forbidden in the Song Dynasty but remained popular with the public. Source: World Digital Library

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A superstition of the American South: the first person who walks into your house on New Year’s Day will be like your chickens that year. If fat, the chickens will be fat, and vice versa. From North Carolina Folklore Journal, July 1966 Issue. Image: Brent Moore via Flickr CC-BY-NC

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The Golden Wheel of Fortune is a divination tool, used by occultist Cagliostro. To tell your fortune, place it face down & prick the back with a needle. Read the message of the marked number. The messages are related to the typical concerns of divination: money, sex, relationships, and health.

From A Handbook of Cartomancy, Fortune-telling and Occult Divination, 1889

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