I Used a Harry Potter Book to Read My Fortune—and You Can, Too

Hermione Granger may have struggled with her divination class, but it's easy to divine your own fortune with a book by your side.

Divination with the aid of a book is known as stichomancy, and it's super easy to do.

You begin by selecting a book—we decided to go with a classic, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone—that has some kind of special significance to you.

Next, you must ask your question. It should be an open-ended question (one that can't be answered with a simple yes or no) and you should keep that question clear in your mind.

How you do the next step is up to you. Maybe you'd like to flip through the book, stopping in what feels like the right place. Perhaps you want to open the book entirely at random and use that page. Picking the word or phrase that reveals your answer can also be down in a couple of ways. You can look at the pages and use the passage that draws in your eye, or that you see first. You can also close your eyes and point with your finger.

Once you've picked out a word, see how that relates to the question you've asked. If it feels unclear, feel free to widen it out to a few words, or the whole sentence or the whole paragraph. You might be surprised with the guidance that's found there.

It may answer your question directly, or give a non-answer that's just as revelatory as a straightforward answer would have been. And if you still need more guidance, feel free to ask a follow-up question and try again.

But does it really work? We asked it the general question of what we should do and then opened the book and pointed without looking. The line we landed on was all too telling:

"'I don't know sir,' said Harry.

If that's not perfect, we don't want to know what is.

 

Interested in fate and fortune-telling? Click HERE to find out whether you have a fate line and find out what it says about you.