Cybermancy

Cybermancy

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Cybermancy

Cybermancy refers to the act of using computer-driven divination systems. These systems may be based upon oracles originally created in non-electric media ( i.e., tarot divination, Runic divination, or I Ching ) or may exist solely as software constructs. These are usually divination programs, but may include reference materials, such as programs which track the phase of the moon, which practitioners of ritual magic need for timing their spells. Astrologers have long used computers to create astrology charts.

Wherever known, cybermancy is controversial, and practitioners of divination tend to have mixed feelings towards it. Some people feel that having a physical medium (such as cards, in the case of Tarot) is important for channeling the correct energies, and that the "cold" interface between the practitioner and computer interferes with the lively, natural, human element required to perform divination. Others feel that the concept of divination remains essentially the same; the computer is a tool, just like a deck of cards, which assists the practitioner in focusing their energy on divination.

A simple example of cybermancy is the act of surfing to a random web page on the Internet in the hope of receiving divinatory guidance from its content - similar in this respect to bibliomancy. (This practice is described, but not named, in The Urban Primitive, page 184.)

Cybermancy is also a book by Kelly McCullough.

References

Kaldera, Raven, and Tannin Schwartzstein. The Urban Primitive: Paganism in the Concrete Jungle. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2002. ISBN 0738702595 (pbk) ISBN 0738704792 (elec bk)