Coscinomancy

Coscinomancy is a form of divination utilising a sieve and shears, used in ancient Greece, medieval and early modern Europe and 17th century New England,^[1] to determine the guilty party in a criminal offence, find answers to questions, etc.

The term comes into English via both New Latin and Medieval Latin coscinomantia, and is ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek koskinomantis (Greek: κοσκινομάντης) a diviner using a sieve, from koskinon (Greek: κόσκινον) a sieve. The word is mentioned by a number of Ancient Greek writers, including Philippides, Julius Pollux, Lucianus and, most famously, Theocritus.

One method of practising coscinomancy is described by Cornelius Agrippa, best known for his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1533. Following the disputed Fourth Book in the same series, a work entitled the Heptameron, or Magical Elements^[2] appeared in the first volume of Agrippa's Opera omnia, or Collected Works (circa 1600).^[3] The first of two appendices to the Heptameron (chapter xxi) briefly covers many forms of ceremonial magic, including coscinomancy. Agrippa believed that the movement of the sieve was performed by a demon, and that the conjuration Dies, mies, jeschet, benedoefet, dowima, enitemaus actually compelled the demon to perform the task. He further notes that the words of this conjuration were understood neither by the speaker nor anyone else (nec sibi ipsis, nec aliis intellectua). The notion of a powerfully efficacious language of the spirit world is quite common in magic belief. The so-called Enochian language of the 16th century magician Edward Kelley, later revived by Aleister Crowley, is such a language. Kelley believed the Enochian words so powerful that he would communicate them to his cohort, Dr. John Dee, backwards, lest he unleash powers beyond control. This concept can also be seen in The Arabian Nights in which a sorceress takes some lake water in her hand and over it speaks "words not to be understood".^[4]

Se ha especulado sobre la forma en que las tijeras sujetaban el tamiz, y algunos autores sugieren que se utilizaba un trozo de hilo. En la edición de 1567 de las obras de Agrippa hay una ilustración que muestra precisamente esto. Es evidente que el tamiz se suspendía de las tijeras de tal manera que los filos cortantes de las hojas formaban tangentes al borde exterior del tamiz. Así suspendido, el tamiz podía moverse lateralmente o incluso caerse. El tamiz se sujetaba únicamente con los dos dedos medios, lo que hacía casi imposible mantenerlo inmóvil durante mucho tiempo y, por lo tanto, garantizaba una predicción. El factor que complica la situación es que, en el texto latino que acompaña a la ilustración, se dice que el tamiz «gira» ( circum agatur ), lo cual es claramente imposible a menos que se sujete por dos puntos diametralmente opuestos del borde exterior.

Se pueden encontrar otras referencias a la coscinomancia en Pantagruel de François Rabelais (1532: III. xxv.); De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis de Johann Weyer (1583: xii.); y Technogamia , o el matrimonio de las artes, de Barten Holyday (1618: II. iii. ll. 89-146 (G2v)).