Tarot, tarantulas and TikTok: exploring our long obsession with predicting the future

A new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries examines the enduring appeal of divination

In Cameroon, the Mambila people practise a specific form of divination that will have arachnophobes sweating. Using tarot-like “leaf cards”, questions are asked, and a tarantula emerges from a hole in the ground to select a card and offer guidance.

This spider divination is one of the specialities of David Zeitlyn, a professor of anthropology at the University of Oxford – so much so that he is a fully initiated spider diviner, trained by the people he has spent time with for his research.

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