Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

BIBLIOMANCY

Originally a method of Divination to discover if whether or not a person was innocent of Sorcery.

It consisted of weighing the suspect against the Great Bible in the local church. If the subject weighed less than the Bible, he or she were considered innocent.

Later, Bibliomancy became attached to any divinatory use of the Bible. Other fallacies of medieval times involving the Bible were also mentioned as a type of Bibliomancy. Bibles laid on a child's head would induce sleep, reading from the Bible to a pregnant woman would ensure a safe delivery, amongst others.

Eventually the term stared being also used for Divination by books in general. In this case, just about any book could be used, but preferably a grimoire or a collection of poetry or prose. This method involved opening the book at random and then interpreting the omens in a prophetic fashion using the first words or sentences read.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc