Fortune telling in the context of I Ching

A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, fate, magic, amulets, astrology, fortune telling, spirits, and certain paranormal entities, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.

The word superstition is also used to refer to a religion not practiced by the majority of a given society regardless of whether the prevailing religion contains alleged superstitions or to all religions by the antireligious.

Ola leaf is a palm leaf used for writing in traditional palm-leaf manuscripts and in fortune telling (horoscopes) in Southern India and Sri Lanka.

The cunning folk were professional or semi-professional practitioners of magic in Europe from the medieval period through the early 20th century. In Britain they were known by a variety of names in different regions of the country, including wise men and wise women, pellars, wizards, dyn hysbys, and sometimes white witches.

These people practised folk and low magic – although often combined with elements of "high" or ceremonial magic – which they learned through the study of grimoires. Primarily using spells and charms as a part of their profession, they were most commonly employed to use their magic to combat malevolent witchcraft, to locate criminals, missing persons or stolen property, for fortune telling, for healing, for treasure hunting and to influence people to fall in love. Belonging "to the world of popular belief and custom", the cunning folk's magic has been defined as being "concerned not with the mysteries of the universe and the empowerment of the magus [as ceremonial magic usually is], so much as with practical remedies for specific problems." However, other historians have noted that in some cases, there was apparently an "experimental or 'spiritual' dimension" to their magical practices, something which was possibly shamanic in nature.

Kumalak (qumalaq; Kazakh: құмалақ) is a form of geomancy, or divination, which originates in Central Asia. This fortune telling method involves 41 beans, stones, or sheep dung ("kumalak" means sheep dung in the Turkic languages) sorted into piles, and has been used for hundreds of years in the region of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Siberia by Turkic peoples such as the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatars.

Similar to other forms of divination such as tarot or runecasting, Kumalak is practiced by shamans who seek to connect to their Turkic ancestors in the spiritual realm. A spiritual teacher trains and mentors the shaman for years before the initiation ritual is completed. Such shamans are often consulted by villagers looking for advice on their future. Kumalak is believed by Kazakhs to be a spiritual tool which opens spiritual gateways to connect with their ancestors. Similar connections can be seen in other Shamanic cultures.