Cleromancy is divination by the casting of lots, throwing objects and reading the pattern of their fall as the expression of a chance believed to be guided by fate, the gods, or the divine will. The instruments are humble and ancient: dice and knucklebones, marked sticks or stones, shells, or specially made lots. It is among the most universal of divinatory methods precisely because it requires no elaborate apparatus, only the willingness to treat a random outcome as a message.
The practice has a notable presence in the biblical tradition: the Urim and Thummim of the Israelite priesthood appear to have been sacred lots, the land of Canaan was divided among the tribes "by lot," and in the New Testament the apostles choose Matthias to replace Judas by casting lots, "and the lot fell upon Matthias", a decision made by deliberately surrendering the choice to chance under God. The same logic underlies the many lot-oracles of the Greek and Roman world, the casting of yarrow stalks or coins in the Chinese I Ching, and countless folk practices. Cleromancy rests on a distinctive theological premise, well expressed in the biblical proverb "the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord": that what appears to be pure chance is in fact the clearest channel for a will beyond human manipulation.