The Book of Divination

by Ann Fiery

Chronicle Books, 224 pp., $24.95

Compare birthdates with your kid brother to settle who is more highly evolved, numerologically speaking. Study your palm for evidence — any evidence at all — that you’re an artist manqué. But first, procure The Book of Divination and get your superstitions straight. Over 150 gorgeous and well-researched illustrations accompany Ann Fiery’s informed, witty, and elegant text. Detailed chapters instruct the reader in astrology, the tarot, numerology, runes, and palmistry. Attention is also paid to tea leaf readings, geomancy, dream interpretations, and dowsing, as well as talismans and spells. Nor does Fiery neglect historical curiosities like metoposcopy (character readings based on forehead wrinkles); phrenology (ditto based on shape of head); and haruspicy (prediction from the entrails of animals: “an ancient system that went out of fashion about two thousand years ago, much to the relief of the world’s sheep and goat populations”). Or give this book as a family holiday gift, and let the stars explain why no one can bear Aunt Ida.

This article appears in December 17 • 1999.

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