Alphitomancy

Click to Play

Diseno web con Flash - Mascara

Click to Play

How to Create a Web Operating System Today

Click to Play

Using FTP to Get Your Web Site Online

Click to Play

Web Hosting 101: What Shared Web Hosting is

View more Miscellaneous videos

An ancient method of divination used to prove the guilt or innocence of a suspected person with a loaf of barley. When many persons were accused of a crime and it was desired to find the true culprit, a loaf of barley was made and a portion given to each of the suspects. The innocent people suffered no illeffects, but criminals were said to betray themselves by an attack of indigestion. This practice gave rise to the oath: "If I am deceiving you, may this piece of bread choke me." By means of this method, a lover might know if his mistress were faithful to him, or a wife, her husband.

The procedure was a follows: A quantity of pure barley flour was kneaded with milk and a little salt, without any leaven. It was then rolled up in a greased paper, and cooked among the cinders. It was afterward taken out and rubbed with verbena leaves and given to the person suspected of deceit, who, if the suspicion was justified, would be unable to digest it.

In ancient times, there was said to be a sacred wood at Lavinium, near Rome, where Alphitomancy was practiced in order to test the purity of women. The priests kept a serpent or a dragon in a cavern in the wood. On certain days of the year the young women were sent there, blindfolded, and carrying a cake made of barley flour and honey. Those who were innocent had their cakes eaten by the serpent, while the cakes of the others were refused.

Sources:

Waite, Arthur Edward. The Occult Sciences. 1891. Reprint, Secaucus, N.J.: University Books, 1974.

Alphitomancy (from Greek ἄλφιτον alphiton, 'barley', and μαντεία manteia, 'divination') is a form of divination involving barley cakes or loaves of barley bread.^[1]

When someone in a group was suspected of a crime, the members of the group would be fed barley cakes or slices of barley bread. Supposedly, the guilty party would get indigestion, while all others would feel well.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Occult portal

• corsned
• Alphito

References

1. ^ Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, reissued 2006), p. 495.

This occult-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · d · e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)