Words for Telling the Future

Words for Telling the Future Words for Telling the Future Words for Telling the Future By Maeve Maddox Even as scientists explore Quantum Theory, ancient practices for divining the future continue to flourish. Ronald and Nancy Reagan regularly consulted astrologers, and many newspaper readers check the astrology column before looking at anything else. Tarot readers and palm readers make a living at it. Here are some words writers might want to use in describing some of these practices. Divination is the practice of foreseeing the future or finding out hidden knowledge by some means or other. Ancient Romans studied the flight of birds to determine whether or not the day was favorable for some action. This method of divination is called augury. The verb to augur means to predict or indicate the future. One could say, missing a step on the way out of the house, That does not augur well! Romans had a specialized diviner called a haruspex who cut open animals and examined their entrails. This practice is called haruspicy. Several words that end in -mancy refer to methods of divination. Geomancy interprets markings on the ground, or the piles or patterns made by dirt when it is tossed. The geo comes from the word for earth. Necromancy involves summoning up the dead, the way King Saul did when he called on the Witch of Endor. The necro comes from the Greek word for dead. Sometimes necromancy is used to refer to any kind of black magic that involves the summoning of demons. Oneiromancy is divination by dreams. Bibliomancy is divining by opening a book at random and reading the first phrase that ones eyes light upon. Although the Bible is often the book used for this form of divination, other books are used. The biblio comes from Greek and Latin words for paper or scroll. The Bible is literally the Book. Another word for this practice is sortes. Some other familiar types of divination: Palmistry is divination by reading the lines on the palm of the hand. Phrenology is divination by feeling the bumps on a persons head. This practice was really popular in Victorian times. Many novelists have their characters talk about it. Astrology predicts a persons future according to alignment of the stars and planets. Dowsing is a method of finding the location of water or other underground substances with the use of a forked stick or wire. Clairvoyance is divination by second sight. Numerology is divination with numbers Sortilege is divination by casting lots. Priests do it in the Old Testament. Finally, two practices that you know about, but probably dont know the words for, are those of reading tea leaves and gazing into a crystal ball. Tasseography is the word for reading the future in tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. Scrying is what the gypsy does when she looks into her crystal ball and tells you that you are going to come into a large sum of money. If you ever doubted that English has a word for everything, take a look at these sites that feature lists of divination of every kind: Online etymology dictionary Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational Writing26 Feel-Good Words50 Musical Terms Used in Nonmusical Senses

4 Ways You Can Use Your Holiday Break to Gear up for the New Year

4 Ways You Can Use Your Holiday Break to Gear up for the New Year Once you’ve settled down from all  the  excitement  of the holiday season, it’s important to look towards the New Year and have a plan. It can be temping to procrastinate and forget about your workplace responsibilities, but staying on track even in the face of a relaxing holiday is very important.   Instead, consider using downtime over the holiday break this year to set yourself up for a great start to 2017. Here are four ways to set yourself up for a productive 2017 and get ahead of the inevitable New Year’s resolutions.1.  Think about what you’ve done in 2016Take a look at your past year. You have the luxury of doing this without the day-to-day distractions of emails, meetings, and requests from colleagues, so take advantage of the time to stop and review. What worked for you in the past year? Did you start new habits that made your day easier? Did you cut out distractions? Start a new job?On the flip side, be honest about what didn’t go so well. If you felt like you didn’t have enough time to get everything done, what could you have done to streamline your schedule?2. Think about your goals for 2017.Once you get a picture of how your year went and what you might be able to do to improve next year, set some reasonable goals. Try not to fall into the New Year’s resolution trap, where we set goals based on a kind of idealized version of ourselves. Sure, it would be great if you could change everything on day one- no junk food, hitting the gym every day, never checking Facebook at work, or other worthy resolutions. Human nature usually has other plans, though, and we often slip right back into our previous ways by, oh, February.For your professional goals, make sure you’re staying practical and possible. If you think you’d like to change jobs, give yourself a timeline (complete with achievable steps) throughout the year. For example:February: Update your resume.March: Research potential c ompanies and recruit a friend to run through practice interviews with you.April: Start applying for job openings.Regardless of whether or not you want to leave your current job, think of the bigger picture: what would you like to be working on? If there’s a dream project you have within your existing role, or one that would be a little bit of a stretch for you, start mapping it out. Make an outline of what would be involved, and have a plan ready to discuss it with your manager after the holidays.Whatever your goals are, it’s crucial to do your prep work. The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely) guideline is very helpful for building goals, weeding out unworkable ones, and saving yourself some grief.3. Catch up on unfinished business.Was there something you wanted to check off your to-do list before you rushed out the door for the holiday? Now’s your chance to take a crack at it without calls, meetings, or other workday tasks getting i n your way. I know it’s your time away from the office, but if you take two hours now to set yourself up for the return to work, think how calm you’ll feel next week while everyone else is scrambling to get back to work.4. Reach out to your network.The new year gives you an easy â€Å"in† to reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while. Even if you don’t have many of your professional contacts on your annual Christmas card list, a â€Å"Happy New Year!† note is a great opportunity to reconnect for 2017.Even if you do all four of these things, you’ll still have plenty of time for holiday joy and relaxation with friends and family. Think of it as an investment in yourself for the next year†¦ and you don’t even have to hit the gym or give up that bad habit to do it.