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Crystallomancy — crystal ball reading — is a divinatory technique of the family of crystal scrying and catoptromancy (mirror reading). It has been practiced since antiquity: Celtic druids used beryl balls, Roman fortune-tellers read in obsidian mirrors, and the Middle Ages developed the use of the rock crystal (quartz) sphere that is still today the popular paradigm of the fortune-teller.
The reader gazes fixedly at the polished surface of the crystal, in dim quiet environment, until vision enters static fixation: the eye stops focusing sharply and the surface appears misty or pulsing. On that psychological "screen" images, symbols, spots appear (or are interpreted) — which the reader translates as response to the consultant\'s question.
In a digital reading, the application simulates the scrying screen by generating an aleatory symbolic sequence of emerging images (a figure, a color, a pattern) — and the AI interprets that sequence as if it were what appeared in the crystal to a physical reader. The consultant observes what "comes out" and translates alongside the reading.
The static-fixation effect is a real psychological phenomenon — eyes relax after several minutes and the mind projects images. What "appears" comes from the consultant's own psyche, not from an external transmission. As an introspection tool it has value.
Rock crystal (transparent quartz) is the classic. Black obsidian is a popular alternative for a darker "screen".