Ever
since its coming of age, the humanity wanted to know what will the
future bring. Billions and billions of people along the history have
been curious at least once what is laying in the times to come.

Some
have reached out to fortune-telling as early as the ancient history.
Fortune-telling uses sacred or everyday objects to tell things about
the future. Forecasting of future events was practiced in ancient
China, Egypt,
or Babylonia, even 6000 years ago. At that time, it was all about
prophets and oracles.

Fortune-telling
is encountered in Greek
mythology
as well, where the three sisters goddesses of destiny spin the wheel
to turn out the destiny of people and Gods alike. And speaking of the
Greek legends, the oracle at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi is famous
to this day.

Later
in history, the Mayans used astrology and mathematics to make
predictions. They were the ones to predict that the world would end
in December 2012, thus paving ways for countless theories and
debates.

The
hugely famous Nostradamus should also not be forgotten. The French
astrologer and physician is widely cited even today, 500 years after
his lifetime. In that time resides also the fortune-telling from the
Renaissance magic, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in
Europe. Rulers and kings often used to seek fortune-tellers who would
predict events surrounding the kingdoms.

Many
of the different
types of fortune-telling
of those times are still practiced today. For example, astrology,
numerology, palmistry (chiromancy), geomancy, tasseomancy (using tea
leaves or coffee grounds), scrying or crystallomancy (the crystal
ball reading), or tarot cards.

The
later ones were widely used in the past centuries. Even if they had
an amalgam of ancient mythologies and pagan beliefs, they managed to
be a bridge towards Catholicism. That is because some of the patron
saints and icons of Catholicism mirror the characters of the tarot
cards.

One
story relating to the tarot cards is that of Marie
Anne Lenormard.
In 1786, the 14-year old ran away from the convent school and set off
to Paris. There, she learned the art of cartomancy. Among the people
she advised were Napoleon’s wife and Maximilien
de Robespierre. Her reputation was gained not just for the
fortune-telling, but also through the way she accurately described
the character and past life of people, based on just few details.

Later
on, after her death, her devout Catholic nephew burned her cards,
crystals and all other objects used for fortune-telling. He
nonetheless retain the possession of the 500,000-francs inherited
fortune. The reason is that most Catholics despised fortune games, in
a world in which only God can know all that is, was, and will be. In
this way, foreknowledge was a threat to believers.

Also
a few centuries old is the custom of fortune-telling by the Gypsies.
The traditional associations with the Gypsies – or the Roma and
Sinti people – are the tarot reading, chiromancy and the
crystallomancy. They were so famous that almost two centuries ago
they were subjects to paintings, for example “Gypsy
Fortune-Teller”, by Taras Shevchenko, dating 1841.

Fast
forward to present time, there are plenty of fortune-tellers who use
the same methods, but also new ones, like psychics which offer
telephone consultations. This method became more and more popular in
the 90s in the United States, and some of the most successful
psychics have their own offices and charge even $150 dollars for one
session.

Least
but not last, astrology, palmistry, and tarot card reading are also
very popular in the United States and Canada alike.