When one thinks of the word "lynch" it's natural companion is the word "mob". The "art" (if you can call it that- it's all in the eye, I guess) of lychnomancy sometimes called lampadomancy is the practice of using an oil lamp or a flame to tell fortunes. Watching flames dance, now there's something I want to get paid to do! Can you imagine taking your family out camping for the weekend, all the while making sure there is lots of time to roast marshmallow...read those flames and get paid all while vacationing! Who can beat it? As the name suggests, lampadomancy is practiced in hopes of attracting spirits to the flame...for what? Are they going to roast marshmallows, too? Do you get paid more the more spiritis show up? So, you get paid not only to watch flames dance and "interpret" their meanings, you get a bonus or quarterly reward for how many spriits you scare up that month! Better get the big bag of marshmallows.

Reading spots of carbon cast on plain white paper sounds more to me like something an arsonist would study. It's important in that field to understand how the flame moves in order to save lives. In order to make sure that only pretty spirits come, the reader uses a "special" lamp. The reader is hoping to get information and wisdom from the spirits. So, I don't want any ugly spirits and I want the ones who have died or are just dead to advise me on things of the future. Is any of this sounding like lampadomancy is a bunch of crap?

Practiced in ancient Egypt during the daytime, these readers would ask the spirits to come in a darkened room with a single flame. Did the spirits come up with this method. Maybe it was the ugly ones. They didn't want to be seen, but without alive eyes needed some form of light to attract them to the right dark room. Otherwise they might end up in a dark room filled with pretty spirits and we all know that wouldn't be good. The pretty spirits would just look and say "Uh, did you miss your exit? All the ugly spirits have to go to dark room F, not here!"

If the flame has one point, then it apparently means good luck. Good luck about what? That your spirit would be pretty? Maybe the fact that you are in a dark room in the middle of the day means that your flame had two points (bad luck) and now there's no turning back. The ugly spirits will have their way with you and predict all the bad things that will be disastrous in your life. If your flame is bent, it doesn't mean that you're going to disappoint your wife that night, it means that you will be ill, and if the flame sparks (again, only a fireman would benefit from studying this!) it means that news is coming your way. Guess what? If your flame is suddenly extinguished, it is considered to be a very bad omen...who would have thought it?

It's not clear who actually thought up the lamp thing, but it is quite obvious that lampadomancy is yet another practiced art form of stealing people's money. Of course, if you're really that stupid to take part in something as unbelievable as lampadomancy, then I've got a ranch to sell you in Texas. All you'll need to do is bring your little lamp, (and be careful to make sure the flame is not extinguished suddenly) and bring your checkbook. The check you wrote right before that one gives me the right to ask you for as much as I want...and if you wrote that check, you'll write mine! (Did your lamp tell you that you were going to loose money today?)