Nivimancy and Kriomancy: use of ice and snow in divination

For some reason, this form of divination is very little explored. I guess people haven’t been thinking that ice and snow are very well suited to divination. I have created all the methods described here myself.

Freshly fallen snow can be used in the same way as sand in Geomancy. The animals will leave their tracks in the snow and these tracks can be read. You can also take a stick and punch random holes in the snow, and then use the rules of Geomancy to interpret the result.

Take home a handful of snow and let it melt on a clean, flat surface. Look what was in the snow. There will always be small “impurities” such as ash, insects, seeds and plant particles. There’s always a chance you’ll find something surprising in the snow, from lost gold rings to dog poop.

Ice cubes can be used in divination in various ways.

Melting ice cubes and snow form puddles of water. Interpret the shape of the pool.

Take some ice cubes, as many as possible answers to your questions, assign an answer to each cube and let them melt. The cube that melts first is the answer to your question.

You can also write the answers or an oracle symbol on slips of paper, roll each slip into a ball and place it in its own hole in an ice cube tray, let it freeze, then let it melt. You can let these ice cubes melt as well and take the answer from the first one to melt, or put the ice cubes in a container and choose one.

Just remember that the strips will be soaked, so use durable paper, like wax paper, and a waterproof pen.

These could also be used as a party favor or trick, similar to fortune cookies.

You can also use small charms, such as Christmas pudding, fortune cakes, or Scandinavian Christmas porridge. Take a number of small items and assign a divination meaning to each one. Almonds are usually used in the porridge, but also a little apple for health, a coin for money, a ring for marriage, a heart for love, etc. Use your imagination. It can be more fun to find a little charm in your drink than a wet strip of paper.

You can also hide small objects in snowballs, choose one and let it melt so you can see what you have. And the easy “yes or no” guess is made by hiding something black (or any color of your choice) for “no”, and something white for “yes”. Stones are generally used for this type of divination. If you use stones, you don’t need to wait until the snow has melted, you can immediately break the snowball with your hands and reveal the answer. You can also use the stones of the “Oracle of witches” or hide runes in snowballs.