amused ramble: divination by dice

It has occurred to me (much to my amusement), as I have been known to keep a pair of dice upon Apollon’s altar for simple yes or no questions, that diving by dice is rather like having a magic 8-ball around. I mean think of it. On one hand we have the dice, a pair backed up with ancient tradition and history, simple yet elegant in their design. On the other hand we have essentially a three sided die (well really four sided but the forth side is blank) floating in gel and encased in a dark sphere decorated to resemble an 8 ball from a game of billards which upon shaking reveals yes or no….and it gives you a maybe to give you hope LOL. How often have children spent hours amusing themselves with the magic 8ball I don’t know, but I do know that I was absolutely delighted with it as a child and frequently turned it over at any inane question. It is sad in a way that the magic 8 ball has fallen out of popularity (it must have been a late 80s/early 90s thing) since you no longer see them anymore and it was perhaps the most common form of modern dice divination for a while there that just about everyone had.

Not that I would replace by lovely pair of dice with a magic 8 ball, perish the thought. But still the commonalities between the two are rather amusing…the large difference being that the magic 8-ball is regarded as nothing more than a toy whereas the dice are taking a bit more seriously in matters of divination…..yet the principle behind each really remains much the same. And that is the end of my amused ramble for today.