Scapulimancy

Scapulimancy (also spelled scapulomancy and scapulamancy, also termed omoplatoscopy or speal bone reading) is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones (shoulder blades). It is most widely practiced in China and the Sinosphere, but has also been independently developed in the West.

Historically, scapulimancy has taken two major forms. In the first, "apyromantic", the scapula of an animal was simply examined after its slaughter. This form was widespread in Europe, Northern Africa and the Near East. However, the second form, "pyromantic" scapulimancy, involving the heating or burning of the bone and interpretation of the results, was practiced in East Asia and North America.

Americas

The belief amongst the Cree and Innu peoples was that all animal remains were to be treated in accordance with taboos. This can blur the distinction between ritually or religiously significant remains and secular uses of the remains, which is a point of contention within existing literature. Rituals involving the divination of animal bones have been found on sacred sites of the Naskapi Innu and Eastern Cree peoples. Bones which were found hanging in trees were often displayed near encampments or a slaughter site, where hunted animals were brought. The remains were used as a medium through which divination messages were transmitted, and as such, respectful treatment of the bones was of utmost importance. The treatment of the bones between the two tribes was similar, both treating the remains with a degree of reverence, but the divination application differed.

Naskapi Innu

Methods used to prepare the animal remains included removing all flesh from the bone by scraping, boiling and air drying the scapula by hanging up. The animal from which the bone came was also ritually significant. Caribou were preferred by the Innu people, as they were the main and most desirable species to be hunted. Divination would only be used where there was a shortage of food or a crisis. The process involved holding the cleaned shoulder blade over hot coals, heating and scorching the bone. The wide plane of the blade corresponded to the hunting grounds used at the time, and the cracks and scorch spots which resulted from the process were used to guide Innu hunters to spots to best find caribou deer to hunt.

East Asia

In the context of the oracle bones of ancient China, which chiefly utilized both scapulae and turtles' plastrons, scapulimancy is sometimes used in a very broad sense to jointly refer to both scapulimancy and plastromancy (similar divination using plastrons). However, the term osteomancy might be more appropriate, referring to divination using bones. Many archaeological sites along the south coast and offlying islands of the Korean peninsula show that deer and pig scapulae were used in divination during the Korean Protohistoric Period, c. 300 BC – AD 300/400.

Scapulimancy was also mentioned in Chapter 5 of the Kojiki, the Japanese Record of Ancient Matters, in which the heavenly deities used this process of divination during a consultation by lesser gods.

Europe

Scapulimancy is also a method of divination among Greek and Serb farmers, even today. It is probably of extremely ancient origin. More recently, references are found in the memoirs of several warriors who fought during the Greek War of Independence. After feasts with roast lambs or kids, anyone who knew how to "read" a scapula would clean it of any remaining flesh and, lifting it up to the light, interpret the various shadowy bits showing on the transparent part of the bone. A clear scapula was a good omen. Shadowy bits were used to predict the outcome of a battle on the morrow, whether death or survival.

In Renaissance magic, scapulimancy (known as "spatulamancy") was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy (palmistry), and hydromancy.

See also

• Plastromancy
• Pyromancy
• Slinneanachd
• Sternomancy

References

Sources

• Keightley, David N. (1978). Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. University of California Press, Berkeley. Large format hardcover, ISBN 0-520-02969-0 (out of print); A ppbk 2nd edition (1985) ISBN 0-520-05455-5 is still in print.
• Andrée, R. (1906) Scapulimantia. In Anthropological Papers in Honour of Franz Boas, edited by Berthold Laufer, pp. 143–165.
• Eisenberger, Elmar Jakob (1938). Das Wahrsagen aus dem Schulterblatt. Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie 35, pp. 49–116.
• Philippi, Donald L. (1968). Kojiki. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo. p. 52.