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Astragalomancy
Also known as Astraglomancy.
A term derived from the
Greek astragalos ('dice' or 'knucklebone')
and manteia ('divination')
and applied originally to a method of telling the future from the throw of
small bones (usually sheep bones), but nowadays is also applied to the throw
of dice, since they were once made from bones.
In ancient times, small
bones such as the vertebrae were marked with special divinatory symbols
and used by diviners to draw answers to questions. In another
method of Astragalomancy using small bones, the bones were thrown and
readings were taken either from the position of the bones, the nature of the
upward pointing side, or from the arrangement formed upon a formal pattern or
grid, in this last case suggesting a link to geomancy. On yet
another form of this divinatory art, bones were
inscribed with the letters of the alphabet.
In ancient Rome, Greece and
Egypt, the four-sided knucklebones of sheep were also employed in this type
of divination. Modern dice as we know are believed to have been first used
by the Egyptians around 1400 BC.
According to ancient occult tradition, Mondays, Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are the most favorable days of the week
for the casting of the dice. You should not attempt it on Fridays and
Sundays.
Modern divination by dice is a fairly simple procedure. A list of twenty possible
answers ― numbered from four to twenty-four ― must be written out. A pair of
ordinary dice is then thrown and their numbers added together and written
down. A second cast of the die is performed, and their numbers are added to
the first. The resulting number is then matched to the corresponding answer
on the numbered list.
Astragalomancy, like most divinatory systems, is quite ancient. It was very
popular in Mesopotamia, and primitive African peoples have thrown bones for
divination since time immemorial.
See
Divination,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Walker, Charles,
The Encyclopedia of the Occult,
Random House Value; (2)
Pickover, Clifford A.,
Dreaming the Future: The
Fantastic Story of Prediction, Prometheus Books; (3) Dunwich, Gerina,
A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy
and Divination, Carol Publishing Group.
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