A Leicester lecturer who attempts to predict the future by analysing sheep livers claims Cynthia Erivo will win an Oscar this year – securing Egot status with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Dr Selena Wisnom, 38, a lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester, mastered two ancient languages – Babylonian and Sumerian – at Oxford and is now one of only a handful of experts in the UK decoding Babylonian texts.
Through her studies, Selena discovered the tradition of using sheep livers for divination and tried it in 2016, to show prospective students how “exciting” ancient Iraq can be, and she correctly predicted Donald Trump’s presidential win. The method involves analysing specific liver features, such as dark spots and creases, to determine positive or negative omens, and she thinks people outside of work often “think it’s very weird” but she is often remembered for it.
She later accurately predicted Mr Trump’s 2020 defeat and France’s 2017 election outcome, but could not predict Brexit’s outcome as it “was too complicated even for Babylonian gods to figure out”. However, Selena admits that she only makes predictions “for fun and research purposes” and is “trying to understand why they believed in it”.
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Selena told PA Real Life: “I did ask about Brexit, but the Brexit negotiations went on so long that the time period that the divination was valid for expired. So Brexit was too complicated even for Babylonian gods to figure out.”
Selena has always been fascinated by language, and during the summer before university, she picked up a copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient tale from Mesopotamia which is now Iraq, in a bookshop, and it “changed (her) life forever”. She went on to study Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford from 2005 to 2009.
Inspired, she then studied Babylonian and Sumerian – ancient Mesopotamian languages – through her Cuneiform Studies master’s degree and PhD at Oxford until 2015. Through her studies, she discovered the ancient tradition of sheep’s liver divination.
She said this practice dates back to Mesopotamia as early as the third millennium BC, and was “developed to its highest form” in Babylon, where, in the early second millennium BC, texts were written to explain how to interpret the liver.The texts are inscribed on tablets in the ancient Babylonian language and Selena is one of a small handful of people in the UK whose job it is to read them.
Selena first performed a liver reading in 2016 as she wanted to show prospective students at a university open day how “exciting” studying ancient Iraq can be. However, Selena admits that she only makes predictions “for fun and research purposes” and is “trying to understand why they believed in it”. So, she asked the liver if Mr Trump would win the election, and she interpreted the answer as yes.
She sources whole sheep’s livers from her local butcher, paying around £2 per liver, and she has told them what she uses them for – she said they “often take it in their stride”. Traditionally, the ritual involved a “specialist diviner” who was the interpreter and a “client” who asked the question.
Both would “stay up all night” praying, making sacrifices, and “chewing bits of cedar wood” for its “psychoactive effects”. At sunrise, they would ask their question, believing that the gods would “write the answer on the entrails of the sheep”.
Then, they would sacrifice the sheep, open it up and read the answers, get peers to double check it, and send off the report to the king. Selena does not follow these specific traditions, but uses the original texts to interpret the liver’s readings.
For the readings, the liver is divided into 12 zones, with a set order for analysis, starting by identifying a specific crease called ‘the presence’ and working anti-clockwise.
Selena said: “You’re looking for things that are out of the ordinary – how many lines are there? Are they splitting off in any way? Are there any weird dark spots? Is there any damage left by parasites who like to live in the liver?
“You count up the number of positive features and the number of negative features, and whichever one predominates gives us the answer yes or no to the question.”
Selena has written a book called The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History which features a chapter on liver divination, discussing the traditional practices and why it is still relevant today.
It will be published on February 27 and brings ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life, showing it was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature.
Since her first liver reading in 2016, she has used the liver for political forecasting, seeing it as a way to “build a bridge between them (the Babylonians) and us”.
She accurately predicted that Mr Trump would not be elected in 2020, and that there would not be a “far-right political takeover” in France in 2017.
Despite her success, Selena believes people should not take the answers “too seriously” and she has never used the method to predict her own future.
On February 10 2025, she expanded her readings beyond politics, asking the liver a question about the arts: “Will Cynthia Erivo win an Oscar and achieve Egot status?”
Cynthia Erivo is nominated for the actress in a leading role award for starring as Elphaba in Wicked.
To this question, she read the answer “yes”.
She explained: “So the first crease that I inspect is called a presence, and there are three of them... if there are three presences, the owner of the sheep will become deranged so that’s obviously bad.
“Then if the presence is covered by a membrane (and it was)... it means the king will contract a serious illness, that’s also bad.
“But there was a very long path... so that’s good.
“The wellbeing was present, that’s good.
“The path on the left of the gallbladder was very strongly there, that’s good.
“And the very last thing – there was a cross in the middle of a zone that’s called the yoke... which is actually positive.
“So basically there are two negative omens and four positive omens.”
Outside of work, when she tells people about the practice, she admits they “think it’s very weird” but she is often remembered for it.
For more information regarding Selena’s book, visit the Penguin Books website and search for The Library of Ancient Wisdom by Selena Wisnom.
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