Mirror, Mirror, on the wall…what are next week’s lottery numbers? If that doesn’t work, blame Enoptromancy, the art of using mirrors for divination. It’s sometimes called “Catoptromancy” and a certain evil queen from a certain animated classic loved this stuff. Well, until the mirror told her something she didn’t like, that is.

Enoptromancy can be found in both Ancient Roman and Greek texts and one particular Greek example describes the temple at Ceres where sick people would visit. The sick person would lower a mirror to the surface of the water of a fountain and supposedly they’d see if they would get better or not.

An old wives’ tale also has a great example of Enoptromancy at work, where a young woman would look into a mirror and wait until a bird or cloud would pass over the reflection. The number of minutes would equate to the number of years until she got married. Sounds like solid reasoning to us and a great way to spend an afternoon. Let’s go girls, it’s mirror-gazing time.

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