Cleromancy is a form ofsortition (casting oflots) in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be consideredrandom, such as the rolling ofdice (astragalomancy), but that are sometimes believed to reveal the will of a deity.

Inancient Rome fortunes were told through the casting of lots orsortes.^[1]

Casting of lots (Hebrew:גּוֹרָל,romanized: gōral,Greek:κλῆρος,romanized: klē̂ros) is mentioned 47 times in theBible.^{[citation needed]} Some examples in theHebrew Bible of the casting of lots as a means of determiningGod's will:

• In theBook of Leviticus16:8, God commandedMoses, "AndAaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for thescapegoat." One goat will be sacrificed as asin offering, while the scapegoat is loaded up with the sins of the people and sent into the wilderness.
• According toNumbers26:55, Moses allocated territory to thetribes of Israel according to each tribe's male population and bylot.
• InJoshua 7:14, a guilty party (Achan) is found by lot.
• In theBook of Joshua18:6, Joshua says, "Ye shall therefore describe the land into seven parts, and bring the description hither to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD our God." The Hebrews took this action to know God's will as to the dividing of the land between the seven tribes of Israel who had not yet "received their inheritance" (Joshua 18:2).
• In theFirst Book of Samuel14:42, lots are used to determine that it wasJonathan,Saul's son, who broke theoath that Saul made, "Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies" (1 Samuel 14:24).
• In theBook of Jonah1:7, the desperate sailors cast lots to see whose god was responsible for creating the storm: "Then the sailors said to each other, 'Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.' They cast lots and the lot fell onJonah."

Other places in the Hebrew Bible relevant to divination include:

• Book of Proverbs16:33: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is fromYahweh" and18:18: "The lot settles disputes, and keeps strong ones apart."
• Book of Leviticus19:26 KJV "... neither shall you practiceenchantment, nor observe times."^[2] The original Hebrew word for enchantment, as found inStrong's Concordance, is pronouncednaw-khash'. The translation given by Strong's is "to practice divination, divine, observe signs, learn by experience, diligently observe, practice fortunetelling, take as an omen"; and "1. to practice divination 2. to observe the signs or omens".Times in the original Hebrew is pronounced aw-nan'. Its translation in Strong's is "to make appear, produce, bring (clouds), to practise soothsaying, conjure;" and "1. to observe times, practice soothsaying or spiritism or magic or augury or witchcraft 2. soothsayer, enchanter, sorceress, diviner, fortune-teller, barbarian...". In theHebrew-Interlinear Bible, the verse reads, "not you shallaugur and not you shall consult cloud".^{[citation needed]}
• Deuteronomy18:10 "let no one be found among you who[qasam qesem], performs[onan],[nahash], or[kashaph]".^[3]qasam qesem literally meansdistributes distributions, and may possibly refer to cleromancy.Kashaph seems to meanmutter, although theSeptuagint renders the same phrase aspharmakia (poison), so it may refer tomagic potions.
• In theBook of Esther,Haman casts lots to decide the date on which to exterminate the Jews ofShushan; the Jewish festival ofPurim commemorates the subsequent chain of events.
• InI Chronicles26:13 guard duties are assigned by lot.
• To Christian doctrine, perhaps the most significant ancient Hebrew mention of lots occurs inthe Book of Psalms,22:18 "They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." This came to be regarded as a prophecy connecting that psalm and the one that follows to the crucifixion and resurrection ofJesus, since all four gospels (for example, John19:24) tell of the Roman soldiers at Jesus's crucifixion casting lots to see who would take possession of his clothing. That final act of profanation became the central theme ofThe Robe, a 1953 film starring Richard Burton.

A notable example in theNew Testament occurs in theActs of the Apostles1:23–26 where the eleven remainingapostles cast lots to determine whether to selectMatthias, orBarsabbas (surnamed Justus) to replaceJudas.^{[citation needed]}

TheEastern Orthodox Church still occasionally uses this method of selection. In 1917,MetropolitanTikhon becamePatriarch of Moscow by the drawing of lots. TheCoptic Orthodox Church uses drawing lots to choose theCoptic pope, most recently done in November 2012 to choosePope Tawadros II. GermanPietist Christians in the 18th century often followed the New Testament precedent of drawing lots to determine the will of God. They often^[quantify] did so by selecting a random Bible passage. The most extensive use of drawing of lots in the Pietist tradition may have come with Count vonZinzendorf and theMoravian Brethren ofHerrnhut, who drew lots for many purposes, including selection of church sites, approval of missionaries, the election of bishops, and many others. This practice was greatly curtailed after the General Synod of the worldwide Moravian Unity in 1818^{[citation needed]} and finally discontinued in the 1880s. ManyAmish customarily select ordinary preachers by lot. (Note that the Greek word for "lot" (kleros) serves as the etymological root for English words like "cleric" and "clergy" as well as for "cleromancy".)^[4]

Tacitus, in Chapter X of hisGermania (circa 98 AD), describes casting lots as a practice used by the Germanic tribes. He states:

"To divination and casting of lots, they pay attention beyond any other people. Their method of casting lots is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then, the priest of the community if the lots are consulted publicly, or the father of the family if it is done privately, after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces, one at a time, and interprets them according to the signs previously marked upon them."^[5]

In the ninth centuryAnskar, a Frankish missionary and laterbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, observed the same practice several times in the decision-making process of the Danish peoples. In this version, the chips were believed to determine the support or otherwise of gods, whether Christian or Norse, for a course of action or act. For example, in one case a Swedish man feared he had offended a god and asked a soothsayer to cast lots to find out which god. The soothsayer determined that the Christian god had taken offence; the Swede later found a book that his son had stolen from Bishop Gautbert in his house.^[6]

Inancient China, and especially inChinese folk religion, various means of divination through random means are employed, such asqiúqiān (求簽). InJapan,omikuji is one form of drawing lots.

I Ching divination, which dates from early China, has played a major role in Chinese culture and philosophy for more than two thousand years. The I Ching tradition descended in part from theoracle bone divination system that was used by rulers in theShang dynasty, and grew over time into a rich literary wisdom tradition that was closely tied to the philosophy ofyin and yang. I Ching practice is widespread throughout East Asia, and commonly involves the use of coins or (traditionally) sticks ofyarrow.

In SouthIndia, the custom of ritualistically tossing sea shells (sozhi) and interpreting the results based on the positions of the shells is prevalent, predominantly in the state ofKerala.

InYoruba and Yoruba-inspired religions,babalawos use variations on a common type of cleromancy calledIfá divination. Ifá divination is performed by "pounding ikin"—transferring consecrated oil palm kernels from one hand to another to create a pattern of eight to sixteen marks called "Odù" onto a tray ofiyerosun, or consecrated termite dust from the Irosun tree. The casting itself is calledDafá inYoruba language speaking areas in West Africa. Similar toI Ching, this form of divination forms a binary-like series of eight broken or unbroken pairs. This allows for 256 combinations, each of which references sets of tonal poems that contain a structure that includes various issues, problems and adversities and the prescriptions of offerings to correct them.

The game of Waltes is a form of cleromancy practiced by traditionalMi'kmaq and preserved since colonial potlache law, the Indian Act and residential schools in Canada. It is played with a bowl, six bone dice, and a counting stick. Three sticks are grandmothers and one the grandfather.^[7]

• Astragalomancy
• List of spirituality-related topics
• Magic 8 Ball
• Urim and Thummim
• John Cage
• Sortition

• Halliday, Greek Divination^[usurped] (1913), full online edition. Chapter 10 is onKleromancy^[usurped].