Favomancy: Ancient Beans-Based Divination Across Cultures

Some time ago, I saw an email from Melbourne’s most iconic local occult store, Spellbox, offering a class on Favomancy.

I had never heard of Favomancy before. The email’s brief paragraph describes Favomancy as the art of divination that originated in Italy using beans.

I did a little more research and learned that it combines everything I am interested in – divination, culture, occultism, coffee beans, history, and heritage. So the following evening, straight from work, I was sitting in Spellbox’s basement, fittingly called the Cauldron, ready to learn about Favomancy 101—Beginner’s edition, alongside an assorted group of people, from witches to a mother-and-son duo.

The best part of Favomancy is how connected it is to the earth and intuition, setting it apart from the now mainstream way of reading tarot by looking at the pictures.

At the end of the class, we were all given a bag of beans believed to bring good luck if they were the Italian beans given to the person you were reading for.

Whether I would practice Favomancy regularly remains a question, as tarot is still my main divination tool. However, the learning experience was enjoyable and felt more like an intuitive reading, reminiscent of the art of fortune telling with Mongolian knuckle bones or Indonesian Congkak.

Spellbox Address: Royal Arcade, 17/331/339 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia