Predicting the Harvest

Medieval peasants in the United Kingdom lived under various societies, some strongly matriarchal, some very patriarchal, many in-between.
In one particular hamlet in Northern England, the leader was an elderly wise woman who led superstitious rituals for various predictions of how to best survive the cold foodless winters.
One of the more flambouyant rituals was performed in the autumn to predict when to harvest the crops and how much bounty to expect.
When the full moon was high in the night sky, three or four burly men would be selected from the townsfolk to act as the "divining rods" for the ritual. The wise old woman would officiate and nearly every woman in the town would participate. They would move to a temple especially built for the purpose of containing the herbal smoke that would be produced while allowing the sunlight (or in this case moonlight) inside to mark the correct time for the ritual.
The women would sit on chairs in a circle. The officiant would pass out olive branches and small metallic bowls around the circle until each woman had one. They would chant and clang the bowls together in a rhythm. After twelve repetitions of the chant, the initial song was completed.
At this point the men, who had disrobed in an antechamber, filed in to the room. The officiant would hand each two beeswax candles and light them from an ember of coal or hardwood. The men then formed a triangle or square in the center of the circle of chairs, standing with their palms up, holding the butt of a lit candle in each palm, facing the center.
Then in a rather complicated ritual, the officiant would pour from two jugs a small amount of an herbal hallucinogenic concoction to the bowl of the woman on her left. That woman would pass on the liquid to the bowl of the next woman while the officiant poured another highly alcoholic liquid into the bowl of the woman on her right. So it would go (with an appropriate work chant of course to keep the timing) until one liquid was passed to all the bowls on one side and the other to all the bowls the other direction and the last two women began to mix the two colorful liquids. It continued further until all the bowls had a mixture of both liquids. But that is not the end, you see, each pouring might send more or less fluid. When one woman's bowl had been filled, rather than continue pouring it to her neighbors, she would stand. The two next to her would skip her and only pour varying doses to the woman on the other side, which would quickly send more fluid to a second woman who would stand when her bowl was full, and a third and perhaps a fourth. It was considered fortunate if the number of full bowls matched the number of male "divining rods". Perhaps the officiant always manipulated the starting quantity of fluids to make a match.
The men would kneel down when one of them saw the first woman stand. When the number of standing women matched the number of men, the women would walk forward and each stand behind a kneeling man. Incense which had been lit before the start should be noticably fogging the air at this point. The women would take a sip of the mixture from their own bowl, then feed the remainder to the nearby man. Simultaneously, all the other women would drink from the drippings remaining in their bowls. The three or four women would then return to their seats and the chanting and chiming of the metallic bowls against each other would resume.
By the time the moon was high in the sky shining down into the circular opening in the roof, the air was fully fogged with incense, and all participants were intoxicated with the men kneeling under the godrays of the moon being the most inebriated of them all. As the men were holding lit candles outward for the entire ceremony, what happened next could easily be predicted. Each hallucinating man's arms would eventually give out, and in his drunken stupor, perhaps also frightened by visions of monsters in the fog, would eventually drop his candles, spilling wax on the floor.
With careful preparation, the incense could be made to burn out about the same time the hallucinations and the chant were coming to an end, and the air would clear. All the women having a lesser dosage would sober up faster, usually to see the men sprawled on the floor still under the effects for a few moments to come. All the women would stand and approach the center.
At this point the real fortune telling would begin. The floor of this ceremonial chamber was tiled with symbols carved and baked into the clay tiles. Interpretation of the imagery was codified but partially subjective as well. The officiant had the responsibility to interpret the meanings of the spilled wax (and perhaps the fallen semiconscious men). Two or three fallen candles pointing to the symbol for wheat or fish would indicate good harvest or fishing to come. If the symbol for the moon were partially obscured by wax or a candle stub or a body part, then the harvest should perhaps be performed not under the full moon but at an earlier or later day to match the prediction that is seen.
Eventually all would sober up and return to their homes with knowledge that (whether it were right or wrong), would allow the entire little hamlet to work together immediately with no arguements nor indecision.