Kitchen Divination: Ovamancy

Oomantia, or ovamancy, is a form of divination using eggs. Eggs have a lot of symbolism behind them, some of which has been explored in earlier posts. Eggs were once used to predict things from the gender (and number!) of unborn babies, as well as the ever-popular practice of seeing one’s future husband.

In order to predict if a woman was having twins or not, an egg was rubbed on her belly for a few moments , and then it was broken in a bowl. If the egg held one yolk, one baby would be born. Two yolks meant twins.

One way of seeing your future spouse, and a rather unpleasant-sounding one at that, was to boil an egg, remove the yolk, and fill the hole with salt. The egg was then eaten before bedtime. According to the belief, the man bringing you water in your dream would be your husband.

The method that I am going to discuss is a simple scrying practice. Some reports say it was this very practice that Tituba practiced with Betty Parris and her cousin, Abigail Williams, in Salem. Scrying, as most of you know, is gazing into a substance or surface and reading the shapes that form. We’ve all seen the stereotypical gypsy woman with her crystal ball, and this is kind of a primitive crystal ball. According to reports I have read, one of the girls scrying with Tituba became upset when she saw the shape of a coffin appear.

To perform ovamancy, you need two or three things. First and foremost, you need an egg. Second, you need a tall glass of water. Now you may do one of two things. You can just break the egg into the glass and interpret the shapes of the egg whites, or you can use the third item, a pin or needle, and poke a hole into the smaller end of the egg. Allow the egg white to slither out into the glass without the yolk and interpret the symbols.