Fortune tellers, also known as diviners, predict the future through spiritual or supernatural means. They can use various methods such as reading cards, interpreting omens, or receiving knowledge from a divine entity. Fortune telling has been around for thousands of years and is an important part of almost all religions. The human desire for spiritual guidance is common to virtually all cultures.
Although soothsayer literally means “one who tells the truth,” it refers to a person who predicts the future through spiritual or supernatural means. Often a diviner practices divination, interpreting omens in the natural world or reading messages in specific objects, such as cards or by drawing lots. A diviner can also be a religious figure who receives knowledge from a supernatural source, such as a prophet, oracle, or shaman. Fortune telling has been around for thousands of years, and probably since shortly after the dawn of man, as people are naturally curious about the future and often try to use predictions to plan for present actions. Fortunetellers are also an important part of almost all religions.
A fortune teller who practices divination has a number of options open to him or her. Some practices are commonly regarded as fortune telling today, although they were taken very seriously in the ancient world and still are by some practitioners. Examples include crystallomancy or scrying, reading from a crystal ball; palmistry or palmistry, reading the lines on the palm; fortune telling, reading cards, including tarot; geomancy, reading signs in the earth; astrology, star reading; and cleromancy or sorcery, by throwing bones, sticks, or other objects. Some forms of divination that were important in the ancient world, particularly in the Greek and Roman empires, are no longer common. For example, the haruspicy or the eradication looked for messages in the entrails of sacrificed animals, while the augur interpreted the flight of birds.
A fortune teller doesn’t need to use anything external to make his predictions. A diviner is often thought to be inspired or informed by a divine entity. This is the case with biblical prophets, who act as messengers from God and tell their followers details about the future. In many cultures, particularly ancient Greece, the oracle is the source of supernatural wisdom. The Oracle at Delphi is perhaps the most famous of these, and men traveled to consult its divinely inspired priestesses, bringing gifts of money and animal sacrifices, before any major undertaking. Many native cultures around the world have traditional healers and diviners known as shamans.
As you can see, fortune teller is a pretty broad term, but all types of fortune tellers serve a similar purpose to the people who believe in them. People often place great faith in diviners from their own cultural or belief systems and reject those of others, but the human desire for spiritual guidance revealed in the figure of the diviner is common to virtually all cultures.
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