From crystal
to cosmos.
Five ways to enter the same observatory. Choose the scale of the object being observed.
Matter ↗
Crystals, surfaces, cast forms and their shadows.
02 / Objects & manipulationHand scale ↗
Cards, coins, runes and objects arranged or moved by hand.
03 / Body, perception & dreamsHuman scale ↗
The body, attention, dreams, clairvoyance accounts and personal cycles.
04 / Terrestrial scaleEarth ↗
Wildlife tracks, atmosphere, cameras and changing signals.
05 / Celestial scaleSolar system ↗
The Sun, planets, gravity and astrology.
Scale is a navigation guide. Several techniques cross these boundaries; each page states its method and context.
A closer look.
Arts & variants ↗Pendulum ↗
Motion made visible.
02 / MatterCrystallization ↗
Matter finding a form.
03 / Hand scaleDice ↗
A small study of uncertainty.
04 / Hand scaleCoins ↗
Two faces. Many sequences.
05 / Hand scaleTea & coffee grounds ↗
Traces and interpretations.
06 / Hand scaleRunes ↗
Signs with a history.
07 / Hand scaleCards ↗
Images in conversation.
08 / EarthEntropy streams ↗
Watching variation unfold.
09 / EarthWeather ↗
The atmosphere, observed.
10 / Solar systemThe Sun ↗
Cycles of light.
11 / Solar systemPlanets ↗
A moving celestial map.
12 / Solar systemHoroscope ↗
A cultural reading of the sky.
13 / Human scaleContemplative observation ↗
Attention before interpretation.
14 / Human scaleNaam & attentive listening ↗
A named Sikh context for remembrance and sound.
15 / Human scaleBreath observation ↗
Notice an ordinary breathing cycle.
16 / Human scaleRitual sound & rhythm ↗
Listen with provenance and context.
17 / Hand scaleI Ching / Yijing ↗
Three coins, six lines and a changing figure.
18 / Hand scaleCrystal gazing ↗
Light, reflections and an attentive gaze.
19 / Hand scaleCandle gazing ↗
A flame as a point of attention.
20 / Human scaleHandreading / palmistry ↗
Lines, forms and a symbolic vocabulary.
21 / Hand scaleAutomatic writing ↗
Let words arrive before editing.
22 / Hand scaleAutomatic painting & drawing ↗
Gesture before a planned image.
23 / EarthTracking / tracks & signs ↗
Read the traces of a living landscape.
24 / Human scaleKinesthesia / body awareness ↗
Notice movement from within.
25 / Hand scaleRadiesthesia / dowsing ↗
An instrument, a response and an interpretation.
26 / MatterMolybdomancy / cast-metal readings ↗
A solidified form and its shadow.
27 / Human scaleClairvoyance ↗
Inner images, distant scenes and a record to compare.
28 / Human scaleLucid dreaming ↗
Recognizing a dream while it is happening.
Remote viewing ↗
A target-based practice in which a person records impressions of a concealed or distant scene for later comparison.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsPrecognition & presentiment ↗
Accounts interpreted as anticipating a later event, through a specific impression or a more general feeling.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsRetrocognition ↗
Impressions interpreted as referring to past events that the person reports not knowing beforehand.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsTelepathy ↗
Reports interpreted as information passing between people without an identified ordinary sensory channel.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsPsychometry ↗
A practice in which impressions about an object or its associations are recorded while holding or observing it.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsClairaudience & clairsentience ↗
Terms used for experiences interpreted as intuitive hearing or feeling, often described as internal impressions.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsOneiromancy ↗
The interpretation of dreams as symbolic signs or omens within a named cultural or personal framework.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsDream incubation ↗
Preparing a question, theme or intention before sleep and recording what is recalled afterward.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsHypnagogic imagery ↗
Images, sounds or bodily impressions experienced during the transition from wakefulness into sleep.
Human scale / Inner perception & dreamsDream yoga & yoga nidra ↗
Distinct contemplative practices concerning awareness, dreaming, rest and sleep, each with its own teaching context.
Hand scale / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsCatoptromancy / mirror gazing ↗
Contemplating or interpreting images seen in a reflective surface, including a dark mirror.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsHydromancy ↗
Symbolic or divinatory interpretation of water, its surface, reflections or movement.
Hand scale / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsLecanomancy ↗
A reading made with a basin, commonly involving water and sometimes floating substances such as oil.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsPyromancy ↗
Symbolic interpretation of fire, including the appearance or movement of a flame.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsCapnomancy ↗
The symbolic interpretation of smoke, its direction, density or changing forms.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsCeromancy ↗
Symbolic interpretation of wax shapes, including cooled forms and candle remnants.
Hand scale / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsLithomancy ↗
Readings made with stones or gems through selection, arrangement, casting or reflected light.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsSand readings / psammomancy ↗
Symbolic interpretation of patterns in sand, scattered grains or marks made on a granular surface.
Matter / Reflective surfaces, fire & formsInkblot & incidental-image readings ↗
Symbolic responses to incidental marks, stains or ambiguous images, recorded as personal interpretations.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersGeomancy ↗
A family of divinatory systems using generated figures, often formed from odd and even groups of marks.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersBibliomancy & stichomancy ↗
Selecting text from a book, passage, line or verse and reading it as a symbolic response.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersNumerology / arithmancy ↗
Systems that assign symbolic significance to numbers and numerical relationships.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersGematria & isopsephy ↗
Letter-number interpretation within particular writing systems, including Hebrew and Greek traditions.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersOnomancy ↗
Symbolic readings of names, their letters, sounds or assigned numerical correspondences.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersKledonomancy ↗
Reading chance words, overheard phrases or incidental speech as symbolic prompts.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersCleromancy / casting lots ↗
An umbrella family of readings in which lots, tokens or randomized outcomes are assigned meanings.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersBelomancy ↗
A historical name for divination involving arrows, their markings, selection or movement.
Hand scale / Lots, texts, names & numbersIfa, diloggun & named casting systems ↗
Distinct named divinatory traditions whose signs, texts, materials and practitioners belong to particular communities.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionPhysiognomy & metoposcopy ↗
Historical systems that attributed character, fate or other meanings to bodily appearance, especially facial and forehead features.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionGraphology ↗
Interpretive systems that assign personal or symbolic meanings to features of handwriting.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionHand and body movement journals ↗
Structured records of movement and bodily awareness, used for reflection or comparison over time.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionAutomatic music & improvisation ↗
Spontaneous sound-making recorded before detailed editing or symbolic interpretation.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionGuided imagery & pathworking ↗
Structured imaginative journeys that use a prompt, narrative or symbolic route as a focus for attention.
Human scale / Body, gesture & creative attentionLabyrinth walking ↗
Following a designed path as a contemplative or reflective movement practice.
Earth / Landscape, weather & animal signsAugury / ornithomancy ↗
Historical and symbolic readings of signs, including birds’ calls, movements or flight.
Earth / Landscape, weather & animal signsAlectryomancy, hippomancy & ichthyomancy ↗
Historical names for readings involving fowl, horses and fish respectively.
Earth / Landscape, weather & animal signsNephomancy ↗
Symbolic interpretation of cloud shapes or changing cloud formations.
Earth / Landscape, weather & animal signsBrontomancy ↗
Historical interpretation of thunder as an omen, often in relation to its time or direction.
Matter / Landscape, weather & animal signsScapulimancy & plastromancy ↗
Historical oracle readings of shoulder blades and turtle plastrons, often involving cracks and inscriptions.
Matter / Landscape, weather & animal signsExtispicy / hepatoscopy ↗
Historical readings of internal organs, with hepatoscopy specifically concerning the liver.
Hand scale / Branches of arts already presentTarot, Lenormand, Sibilla & playing-card systems ↗
Different card-reading families whose decks, layouts and interpretive conventions should be identified separately.
Hand scale / Branches of arts already presentAstragalomancy ↗
A reading using astragali, knucklebones or their shaped equivalents as lots.
Hand scale / Branches of arts already presentRhabdomancy & rod methods ↗
Readings or searches made with rods or wands whose movement is interpreted by the practitioner.
Solar system / Branches of arts already presentHorary, electional, natal & mundane astrology ↗
Branches of astrology distinguished by the moment, question and subject for which a chart is interpreted.
Solar system / Branches of arts already presentAstrocartography & planetary hours ↗
Astrological mapping and timing systems that use different geographic and calendrical conventions.
Hand scale / Branches of arts already presentTasseography variants ↗
Related cup-reading practices interpreting patterns of tea leaves, coffee grounds or other specified sediment.