Can’t find a specific date, but reading tea leaves probably goes back almost as far as tea, which itself goes back to at least the second millenium BC. Today I learned it’s called tasseography:
Not sure re: the OP’s definition of “widely believed/practiced”, but the Wikipedia article indicates there are currently some English and American potteries that make cup/saucer sets specifically designed for tasseography.
The practice is not specific to Asia, and can also be found in native American and various African cultures.
I always thought that if I invented a belief system I’d give myself a better than 1 in 12 shot of guessing right.
Isn’t that one form of sympathetic magic?
That’s it.
If it’s truth in labelling, then that’s how they should market Prevagen.
I’d like to know when the first human looked at a pretty rock and decided it had magic powers. Then I’d like to go back in time and slap them silly, because they’re the reason my wife blows so much money on crystals. /r
Clearly, crystals do have power.
The power to bring increased wealth to certain people, under the right circumstances.
Some rocks do have auras that can affect your health.
The auras are called “radiation” and the effect is “cancer.”
As a fellow Sagittarius myself I can only say that I am appalled at the suggestion that we believe in such crap. I bet the writer was a Piscis!
According to behaviorism even pigeons can believe in superstition.
I learned very early on that rocks can negatively affect your health.
Especially during a rock fight with some other kids. Ouch.
Yeah, it should’ve been “Sagittarii”!
Yoga has lot of peudoscience concepts baked into it and Yoga goes back around 2700 years
Plenty of time to come up with a new twist every few decades.
Just to make sure, I do not see science and pseudoscience as polar opposites. That’s a very Western way of thinking.
There are elements of pseudoscience baked into science (please do not get me started on P - hacking, or the reproducibility crisis in social sciences, …) and there are elements of science baked into pseudoscience (like PTSD therapy using Yoga). ,
Yeah, but they’re saying Genesis was first written down 1450 BC; they make no claim as to how long the Genesis story was handed down orally.
ISWYDT
Even in the west, astronomy emerged from astrology, and chemistry emerged from alchemy. Like it or not, the irrational has always served as the basis for the rational.
Ok, but we don’t still practice alchemy (at least not widely- some weirdo somewhere might still be trying to turn lead into gold in their basement 
).
I think Lamarckism qualifies - the notion that physical characteristics acquired after birth are passed on to one’s children. A blacksmith develops a strong arm due to his work, therefore a blacksmith’s son will have a strong arm. Giraffes are constantly extending their necks for vegetation, and this is how giraffes developed long necks. A modern example would be someone believing the child of pro athletes will be more likely to have more natural talent than his or her parents, because the parents were constantly honing their muscles.
(The theory lost out to natural selection, and modern genetics fails to support Lamarckism.)
Lamarck lived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the concept goes back to ancient if not prehistoric times. Who knows if it is older than astrology.
~Max
Lamarkism isn’t still widely practiced/believed, though.
I’ve heard the occasional Lamarckian misconception about inheritance, especially in sports. Though often lighthearted remark or sort of as a joke, like talking about why people are such good athletes or how people’s future kids would look.
~Max