Kumalak
Kumalak (qumalaq, or құмалақ in Kazakh) is a form of geomancy, or divination, which originates in Central Asia. This fortune telling method involves forty-one beans, stones, or sheep dung (the word kumalak means sheep dung in the Turkic languages)[1] sorted into piles, and has been used for hundreds of years in the region of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Siberia,[2] by Turkic such as the [[Kazakh]s], Kyrgyz, and Tatars.
Similar to other forms of divination such as tarot or runecasting, Kumalak is practiced by shamans who seek to connect to the spiritual realm, or by villagers looking for advice on their future.
In Kumalak, forty-one sheep droppings ("qırıq bir qumalaq"), beans, or stones are laid on a white cloth, mixed, and divided into three piles. Four pebbles at a time are removed from each pile until 1-4 pebbles remain, and these are placed on a nine-square grid (resembling a tic-tac-toe board). The piles are then separated and re-sorted, resulting in 1-4 stones in each square, correlating to one of nature’s four elements: 1 to fire, 2 to water, 3 to wind, and 4 to earth. The squares are also demarcated by rows and columns, as representing body parts, the past/present/future, distance, and mental state.[3]
References
- Blau, Dider. 2000. Kumalak: Mirror of Destiny, Ancient Shamanic Wisdom from Kazakhstan to Reflect Your Past, Present and Future. Connections Press. [4]
- Tavkul, Ufuk. 2003. "Fortune Telling in old Turkic Cultures" Research of Modern Turkish Literature volume 2, Mak. #18 pp 181–190