When I first looked into bibliomancy, it felt like an ancient art that had to be done in the same way it’d been done back then, if only to preserve that sacredness that comes with something so old.
In the old times, it seems like the Bible and other religious texts were most likely to be used. But also, the part that made it magical – according to the lore, you were to only use books that had accidently fallen off the shelf; those were the ones with sacred messages to give you.
I don’t know about you, but books don’t generally fall off my shelves very often.
Except for once.
I’d come back to my room and found one of my favorite books on the floor, open flat. The shelf was too high for the cat, no door had been slammed, no earthquake had happened. I seized up the book, looking at the page it was open to – just the copyright and publishing information page that was early on in every book.
My eyes caught a little sticky tab I’d put in the book the first time I read it. I turned to that page instinctively and read the highlighted section.
“Doubt everything at least once, Januea. Everything you keep, you can be sure
of, and everything else, you’ll find your own replacement for.”
-Amy Plum, after the end.
Ever since being reminded of the qoute, it has stuck in my brain and helped me live, especially in this recent years of global changes, personal life changes, and self-discovery through spiritual healing and therapy.
Other than that, I hadn’t really ever done bibliomancy. Again, I thought it was almost too magickal and sacred an art, used only in specific, rare instances. But it turns out, that wasn’t the only time you could do bibliomancy.
The truth is, you can practice bibliomancy at any time, with any book or journal.
You can use fiction or nonfiction, ask a question or not, wait for it to fall off the shelf or thumb through a page because you want to. You can read an entire page or the paragraph or sentence your finger lands on, you can be reminded of your favorite quotes from the book or be drawn to read the whole thing over again.
The next time I did bibliomancy, I used one of my own journal. It was the journal I’d begun writing in at the start of my spiritual journey back in 2016. I closed my eyes, asked myself “what do I need to know right now” and thumbed the pages until I landed on one.
I read the whole page, and found every reminder I needed to hear at the time – and it was especially powerful because it was already in my own words.
Bibliomancy isn’t a lost art. Though it does seem to be less common than your typical tarot readings, it is still a powerful tool for divination and introspection or affirmation. It doesn’t have to be done in one particular way, like ancient mages and mystics.
It can be done your own way, with your own tools and flair.