Predicting the future hasn’t always been synonymous with tarot cards and crystal balls. Centuries before astrology apps and dial-in psychics existed, people who wanted a glimpse into the future worked with what they had—food.
Loose leaf tea and Turkish coffee grounds (tasseography), onions (cromniomancy), eggs (ovomancy), and even cheese (tyromancy) have all been essential ingredients used in kitchen divination. But over time, these rituals faded from the mainstream. However, a recent resurgence in Pagan practices—crystals and tarot cards, astrology, and herbal magic—has brought this branch of fortune telling from the back of the pantry to the top of your TikTok feed.
Diana Espirito Santo, associate professor of social anthropology at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, says that this growing appetite for spirituality shows that food-related divination practices were never really off the table.
“More modern and liberal ritual specialists can do divination practices in absentia. I would imagine that food-based forms of divination are easier to handle and have a wider scope for interpretation,” she says. “This makes them extremely attractive to a virtual audience, who can imagine how the divination result applies to them in creative ways.”
Here’s what you need to know about food divination and destinations where you can sample it.
California native Amber Corvidae, a retired chef and practicing witch who lives in Brisbane, Australia, says food divination in the West most likely stemmed from the witch hunts and accusations of witchcraft beginning in the early 15th century. This includes tea scrying, which in 1700s England was often documented as an excuse to have tea with friends, “when in reality, those friends were either witches themselves or seeking spiritual counsel from witches,” says Corvidae.
However, in other parts of the world, people commonly relied on the “magic” of natural chemical reactions in foods such as eggs, cabbages, and nuts to understand their destiny. The Scottish practice of “pulling the kale” was a popular way to predict the qualities of one’s future spouse in the 1700s. The size and shape of the stalks indicated your would-be beloved’s physique, while its taste determined their temperament.
(Paganism is on the rise—here’s where to discover its traditions.)
Ovomancy, one of the oldest recorded forms of food divination, is still practiced in the Caribbean and certain parts of Latin America to predict marriage, childbirth, and death. For example, on Good Friday, traditionalists would drop raw egg whites into a glass of warm water and examine the shapes they made, from a ship (future travel) to a coffin (impending death). David J. Kim, a professor of anthropology at
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