Aspidomancy

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Aspidomancy

A little-known form of divination practiced in the Indies. According to the seventeenth-century writer Pierre de Lancre, the diviner traces a circle, takes up his position seated on a buckler (shield), and mutters certain conjurations. He becomes entranced and falls into an ecstasy, from which he emerges to answer his client's queries with revelations from the devil.

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