Editing Fortune-telling (section)

{{short description|Practice of predicting information about a person's life}}
{{redirect|Fortune teller|the form of origami|Paper fortune teller|other uses|Fortune teller (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
[[File:Шевченко Т. Г. (1841) Циганка-ворожка.jpg|thumb|''Gypsy Fortune-Teller'' (1841) by [[Taras Shevchenko]]]]
{{Paranormal}}

'''Fortune telling''' is the spiritual practice of [[prediction|predicting]] information about a person's life.<ref name="Melton 2008">[[J. Gordon Melton|Melton, J. Gordon]]. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115–116. {{ISBN|1-57859-209-7}}</ref> The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of [[divination]]. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a [[religion|religious]] ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of [[popular culture]], where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of [[suggestion]], spiritual or practical [[Advice (opinion)|advisory]] or [[Affirmations (New Age)|affirmation]].

Historically, [[Pliny the Elder]] describes use of the [[crystal ball]] in the 1st century [[Common Era|CE]] by soothsayers (''"crystallum orbis"'', later written in [[Medieval Latin]] by scribes as ''orbuculum'').<ref name=Pliny>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Elder|title=Caii Plinii Secundi Historiæ naturalis libri xxxvii, cum selectis comm. J. Harduini ac recentiorum interpretum novisque adnotationibus|date=1831|page=579|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNkIAAAAQAAJ&q=%22orbis+crystallum%22|access-date=7 November 2015}} {{in lang|la}}</ref> Contemporary Western images of fortune telling grow out of [[Folklore|folkloristic]] reception of [[Renaissance magic]], specifically associated with [[Romani people|Romani]] people.<ref name="Melton 2008"/> During the 19th and 20th century, [[methods of divination]] from non-Western cultures, such as the [[I Ching]], were also adopted as methods of fortune telling in western popular culture.

An example of divination or fortune telling as purely an item of pop culture, with little or no [[vestige]]s of belief in the occult, would be the ''[[Magic 8 Ball]]'' sold as a toy by [[Mattel]], or [[Paul the Octopus]], an octopus at the [[Sea Life Centres|Sea Life Aquarium]] at [[Oberhausen]] used to predict the outcome of matches played by the [[Germany national football team]].<ref>[[Associated Press]][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggx_QnW1NjU 6 July 2010]</ref> There is opposition to fortune telling in [[Christianity]], [[Islam]], [[Baháʼísm]] and [[Judaism]] based on scriptural prohibitions against divination. Terms for one who claims to see into the future include ''fortune teller'', ''[[Crystal gazing|crystal-gazer]]'', ''spaewife'', ''seer'', ''soothsayer'', ''[[sibyl]]'', ''[[Clairvoyance|clairvoyant]]'', and ''[[Prophecy|prophet]]''; related terms which might include this among other abilities are ''[[oracle]]'', ''[[Augury|augur]]'', and ''visionary''. Fortune telling is dismissed by [[Skeptical movement|skeptics]] as being based on [[pseudoscience]], [[magical thinking]] and [[superstition]].