The Oracle of the Seas
Since time immemorial, coastal shamans have read destiny in the shells the sea casts upon the shore. Each spiral holds the ocean's whisper, each shell carries the will of the tides engraved within. Focus your mind, form your inner question, and let the sea speak.
Focus your mind on a question. When you are ready, cast the shells into the sea.
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Caracolomancy (from Spanish caracol, snail/shell) is divination by reading cowrie shells (Spanish "caracoles", Yoruba Buzios). Central practice of Yoruba religion (Nigeria, c. 1000 AD onwards), transmitted to the Americas through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and preserved in Candomblé, Umbanda, Santería and other Afro-diasporic religions.
The traditional method uses 16 or 21 cowrie shells. The diviner (babalorixá, iyalorixá, or babalawo in different traditions) throws the shells on a tray. The position of each shell — open (slit visible) or closed (smooth back) — generates a configuration called odu. There are 16 main odus, each a sacred verse from the Yoruba Ifá corpus.
Although the cowrie-reading mechanism is well known, true consultation is liturgical: priestly, religious, ritual. Doing buzios without religious context or initiation is, in the eyes of practitioners, irresponsible. This site reads cowries in a secular/educational register, as inspirational divinatory simulation, not as religious consultation. For authentic spiritual consultation, seek a properly initiated babalorixá or iyalorixá.
In Afro-religious traditions, no — initiation is required. As "self-knowledge tool", yes, with respect.
Both are sacred configurations: 16 odus vs. 64 hexagrams. The odu has a verse (oriki) recited; the hexagram has a text in the Book of Changes.