Etymology

Noun

1. Divination by interpreting the sounds and signs of the belly. It is now sometimes associated as being a form of ventriloquism, where vocal sounds are produced from the belly.
2. Divination by noting magical visions in large-bellied glasses. It is sometimes described as a technique where a child is placed in front of a glass filled with water, the images in the glass were then interpreted. Similar to crystallomancy.

Quotations

• 1610 Vives in J. Healey Saint Augustine of the Citie of God

  Diuination generally was done by diuers means..Hydromancy..done either in a glasse bottle full of water, wherein a Childe must looke, (and this is called, Gastromancy of the glasses belly)...

• 1693 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv.

  By Gastromancy, which kind of ventral Fatiloquency was for a long time together used in Ferrara by Lady Giacoma Rodogina, the Eugastrimythian Prophetess.

• 1985 G. Luck Arcana Mundi

  The methods [of scrying] varied according to the nature of the shiny object used and the medium employed... Sometimes the term gastromancy ('divination by the belly') was used, because the vessel filled with water was called gastra 'belly-shaped vessel'.