[Thaumatology] Divination as the Core of Magic

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Continuing the elemental theme, Lecanomancy is the method of divination that features using water as a medium. Again, it's not really about controlling water as it is about using water as a focus. That said, I could see devising a “Hydromancy” that starts out with Lecanomancy, but expands from there into a cousin of Geomancy that focuses more on waterways than on land formations and architecture: rivers, streams, lakes, waterfalls, and irrigation systems would all be suitable matters for it to deal with, and Ley Lines that follow such waterways would be an interesting notion to explore.

Finally, “Aeromancy” could be viewed as a sibling to Astrology: according to GURPS Magic (p.108), Astrology technically deals not just with heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, stars, planets, and comets, but also the weather. Typically, the weather part of it tends to be given second-class status; but I could see an Aeromancy specialty that makes the weather its primary focus. By contrast, Plato generally viewed the heavens themselves as consisting of a fifth element, or Quintessence; and as such, you might be better separating Aeromancy off from Astrology entirely, with the former dealing with the weather and the latter dealing with the stellar phenomena.

It seems to me that the air focused abilities are akin to Chinese ideas of qi. Note that air is not an element in China; air is rather the animating principle that flows through all of the elements.

Though there are also analogies between the flow of water and the flow of qi; I think such inform feng shui, which might be a version of the kind of divination you're looking for.