Haruspicy was the highly respected ancient Etruscan and Roman religious practice of predicting the future by aggressively inspecting the freshly removed livers of sacrificed sheep.

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Haruspicy was the highly respected ancient Etruscan and Roman religious practice of predicting the future by aggressively inspecting the freshly removed livers of sacrificed sheep. A trained priest, known as a haruspex, would check the lobes, color, and gallbladder of the bloody organ to determine if the gods were in a good mood before making major political or military decisions. If the liver looked weird, had a blister, or was missing a piece, it was considered a terrible omen, and the Romans would literally cancel elections, delay wars, or sacrifice more sheep until they got a good one. It was basically a magical bronze-age flowchart where the destiny of the largest empire on earth hinged entirely on whether a random farm animal had a healthy digestive system. Imagine studying for years at an elite academy of divination just to get a government job where you spend your entire career poking around a sheep's internal organs while pretending you are reading a celestial text message!