Dactylomancy, from the Greek word for finger, is a term used by proponents to define a form of divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

 using rings.

Modern dactylomancy

In some traditions of dactylomancy, a ring is suspended like a pendulum above a surface that is marked with letters or symbols. The direction of the swing indicates which symbols are to be consulted, or which letter are to be formed into a message, in answer to a specific question. Another tradition follows the same pattern as Séance

Séance

A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...

 table-rapping. In it a ring is suspended from a tumbler so that it may touch the sides if swung and a code is agreed upon (e.g., 1 for yes, 2 for no). A question is then posed and the number of the times that the ring strikes the side of the tumbler is interpreted as being an answer.

Historic dactylomancy

A more complex form of dactylomancy was practiced in Europe during the Middle Ages in which a ring was suspended above a circular table marked with the symbols of the zodiac. 78 metal discs inscribed with a letter of the alphabet (three discs per letter) were then placed on the table and the thread holding the ring was burnt. The letters that the ring rolled across and the one on which it halted were then consulted to form the answer to the question being divined. In this tradition, the metal that from which the ring was made of was determined by the day of the week.

• Monday - Silver, to represent the moon
• Tuesday - Iron, to represent Mars
• Wednesday - Tin/lead, to represent Mercury
• Thursday - Tin, to represent Jupiter
• Friday - Copper, to represent Venus
• Saturday - Lead, to represent Saturn
• Sunday - Gold, to represent the sun

Modern dactylomancy is usually associated with spiritualism

Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...

 and new age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

 beliefs, rather Parapsychology

Parapsychology

The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...

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