Tyromancy is a method ofdivination orfortune-telling usingcheese. Written accounts of the practice date from the 2nd century AD, with it reaching the height of its popularity in theMiddle Ages andearly modern period. In the 21st century, the practice draws on methods fromdream interpretation and antiquespell manuals.
The first recorded mention of tyromancy is believed to be inOneirocritica, a 2nd-century ADtreatise ondream-interpretation byGreek divinerArtemidorus of Daldis.[1][2] Artemidorus claimed it to be one of the most unreliable forms ofdivination, writing that "thetruth is spoken bysacrificers andbird-diviners andastrologers andobservers of wonders anddream-diviners andliver-examiners alone". He counted tyromancers as "false diviners" along withdice-diviners,sieve-diviners, andnecromancers.[3][4] At theSecond Council of Ephesus in 449, bishop Sophronius of Tella was accused of various forms of divination including tyromancy, andoomancy (divination with eggs).[5][2]
In a piece for food magazineSaveur, 21st-century tyromancer Jennifer Billock claims that the practice of cheesefortune-telling reached peak popularity inagrarian England in themiddle ages andearly modern period. She claims that using cheese was more convenient than previous methods of divination likemolybdomancy which used molten metal as most families had some sort of milk-producing livestock.[1] According to Billock, tyromancy had all but disappeared by the 1920s. She speculates that this may in part be due to the popularity of theRider–Waitetarot card-deck which was introduced in 1909.[1] Billock, however, provides no sources for her claims, and the validity of her statements is unclear.
In 2023, Billock's own practice was covered by theCBC News in Canada and byABC News in Australia. She described tyromancy as a fun method of divination because participants get to eat the cheese after their fortune has been told.[6][7]
ABC News defines tyromancy as being divination involving "the observation of cheese, especially as it coagulates", with areas of focus including smell, patterns and texture of the cheese.[6] Jennifer Billock describes it as "the practice of telling fortunes with cheese".[1] Her method involves looking for shapes and symbols in the cheese, including observing ridges, holes, crystallization, and mottling on the rind. Some of the symbols she looks for include a heart shape, meaning love, an arrow meaning a journey, a dog meaning companionship, and a baby meaning change. She has based this method on sources including antiquespell manuals anddream interpretation book transcripts, saying "there wasn't any sort of central repository of tyromancy information".[2]Valya Dudycz Lupescu has written that some methods of tyromancy, such as readingeyes inSwiss-type cheese, can draw onnumerology.[8] Billock says that any type of cheese can be used for divination. The best types are those with "visible surface variations", likeblue cheese. Cheeses with little surface variation are broken in half or crumbled onto a plate to read the ridges of the break or the shapes the crumbled pieces make.[2]
An episode of animated television seriesKipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts features three goat witches, the Chevre sisters, who use cheese to tell the future.[9] The video gameThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features a quest named "Of Dairy and Darkness" involving amage with connections to tyromancy.[1][10]
Though no one knows exactly when tyromancy originated, written accounts of it date back to the 2nd century in Artemedorus Daldianus' Oneirocritica books on dream interpretation. [...] There wasn't any sort of central repository of tyromancy information; I had to go back into antique spell manuals, dream interpretation book transcripts, and more.
Holes made from gas, like those found in Swiss cheese, could draw upon numerology, whereas the veins in blue cheese often formed images.
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