What is bibliomancy?

Bibliomancy is the practice of seeking spiritual insight, or divination, by selecting a random passage from a sacred book.

The book will be opened at a random page and while keeping your eyes closed you will point at a line or passage in the book. 

Bibliomancy compares with rhapsodomancy (from rhapsode "poem, song, ode") "divination by reading a random passage from a poem".

Chartomancy, from the Latin charta, meaning 'paper', it is the art and practice of divination by interpreting the writings in literary or musical works, official papers, letters, manuscripts, documents, and so forth. Chartomancy it is considered to be a form of Bibliomancy.

Stichomancy or Libromancy ("divination from lines") involves selecting a random passage from a random book of any nature.

Bibliomancy and Stichomancy have been popular methods of divination for at least 3000 years, when the I Ching was first used to divine the future.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were common choices for the ancient Greeks. Among Christians, the Bible is most commonly used, and in Islamic cultures the Qur'an. During the Middle Ages using texts such as Virgil's Aeneid was common in Europe. In Iran, Bibliomancy using the dīvān of Hafiz is the most popular for this kind of divination, but by no means the only kind. The Masnawī of Rumi may also be used. 

With the increased need for entertainment and education, books became more accessible to both rich and poor in the 1800s in England, and the interest in the supernatural and the occult was also heightening around this time. This sparked a revival for Bibliomancy, so much so that opening a book and randomly selecting a passage became a daily habit just as reading your horoscope is for people nowadays. Just like fortune tellers, psychics and palm readers, there were Bibliomancy practitioners popping up around London.

Method:

• Pick a book you believe to hold truth.
• Balance it on its spine; let it fall open.
• With eyes closed, touch your finger to any random passage.
• View the passage as wisdom to your future.

Because book owners frequently have favorite passages that the books open themselves to, some practitioners use dice or another randomiser to choose the page to be opened. This practice was formalized by the use of coins or yarrow stalks in consulting the I Ching. Tarot can also be considered a form of bibliomancy, with the main difference that the cards (pages) are unbound.

Another variant requires the selection of a random book from a library before selecting the random passage from that book. This also holds if a book has fallen down from a shelf on its own.

Also read: Scrying, The Ancient Art of Revelation