Astragalomancy

Astragalomancy, also known as astragyromancy, is a form of divination in which bones, knucklebones or dice are cast and the resulting numbers, markings, positions or patterns are interpreted as answers or predictions. In many systems the objects are marked with letters or numbers, allowing the cast to generate words, numerical combinations or symbolic configurations connected with the question being asked.

The name is derived from the Greek astragalos, referring to the knucklebone or ankle bone of an animal and, by extension, to objects used as dice. Astragalomancy therefore preserves the memory of a period when the instruments used for both gaming and divination were not manufactured cubes but actual animal bones.

Origins and Early History

The earliest forms of astragalomancy were closely connected with the use of knucklebones from quadruped animals, particularly sheep and goats. Their naturally irregular surfaces made them suitable for casting because each bone could fall in several distinctive positions, allowing different values or meanings to be assigned to the result.

Marked astragali have been discovered at archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, including funerary and religious locations. Examples found near the altar of Aphrodite Ourania in Athens have been interpreted as evidence that astragal-based divination may have taken place in the vicinity of the sanctuary after approximately 500 BC.

The Greeks and Romans both used astragali for games and divinatory purposes. Greek traditions particularly associated dice divination with deities such as Hermes and Athena, while the Romans also cast the knucklebones of sheep in attempts to obtain omens.

As manufactured dice became more widespread, the same underlying principle continued. Numbered or marked objects were thrown, and the apparently random result was treated as capable of revealing an answer that had not been consciously selected by the practitioner.

Letters, Numbers and Questions

In some forms of astragalomancy, numbers appearing on the dice were associated with letters. A series of casts could therefore generate letters that were combined into words or messages bearing upon the question submitted to the diviner.

Certain descriptions also include ritual preparation before the cast. A question might be written upon paper and passed through the smoke of a particular wood associated with Jupiter before the bones or dice were thrown.

Other systems interpreted the cast according to the position in which the objects landed, which surfaces pointed upward, or how the pieces were arranged upon a prepared grid or pattern. In this respect, astragalomancy could resemble geomantic methods in which randomly produced configurations were placed within a formal interpretative structure.

Astrological Dice Divination

European fortune-tellers also developed systems in which dice were integrated with astrology. Some of these methods descended from late antique astrological practices concerned with fortune and chance.

Dice representing planets could be thrown onto an astrological diagram divided into the Houses. The result was then interpreted according to the planetary symbolism of the dice and the house in which each one landed, providing an indication of how fortune might influence different areas of a person’s life.

This fusion of random casting and astrology demonstrates how astragalomancy could develop far beyond simple numerical fortune-telling. The dice became movable symbols whose positions activated an already established system of planetary and astrological correspondences.

Hakata Divination

Bone casting also appears in southern African traditions. Among the Shona, sets known as hakata have long been used in divination. These may include carved or prepared pieces whose positions after casting are interpreted by specialists. Related practices are also found among neighbouring peoples, including the Venda, Tsonga and Batoka.

Diviners may work not only with bone or wooden sets but also with shells, seeds and similar small objects. The principle remains comparable: the pieces are cast, and the resulting arrangement becomes the basis of the divination.

A Portuguese visitor to the region in 1586 described a practice in which people cast objects called chacatas before undertaking journeys, business, planting or other important activities:

“All these [people] before undertaking anything, whether it be a journey, business or planting, cast lots to discover if the issue will be fortunate or not, and if the lot is not favourable they put off their business for that day.”

The account continues by describing the pieces as being thrown repeatedly “as we throw dice” in order to determine whether a proposed action would be favourable or unfavourable.

Tibetan Dice Divination

Dice divination also has an established place in Tibetan traditions. Mo, or Tibetan dice divination, is used to seek guidance concerning questions and decisions. Interpretative systems preserved in Tibetan religious literature assign meanings to the possible results of a dice cast.

The Dalai Lama has sometimes been reported as consulting Mo in relation to important questions, although individual claims concerning particular historical consultations should be treated according to the strength of their sources.

The Tibetan system nevertheless demonstrates that casting marked objects for guidance developed independently in widely separated cultures and could be incorporated into sophisticated religious and divinatory traditions.

The Two-Dice Method

A modern Western method uses two ordinary dice and a prepared circular diagram. A circle approximately twelve inches across is drawn upon a piece of cloth and divided into twelve equal segments resembling the divisions on a clock face. The sections are numbered, traditionally beginning with twelve near the twelve o’clock position and continuing around the circle.

The querent shakes two dice in a cup while concentrating upon a particular question, then casts them into the circle. The numbers and positions of the dice are interpreted according to the system being used.

Some traditions attach significance to dice that leave the circle. If a single die rolls outside, it may be ignored, while both dice leaving the boundary require another throw. If both leave the circle again, the consultation may be abandoned because the repeated result is considered an unfavourable omen.

This form is sometimes described more specifically as cleromancy, because the two-dice method is designed primarily to obtain an answer to a particular question.

The Three-Dice Method

A three-dice variation is used for a broader or more general reading. The same basic rules concerning the prepared circle may apply, but additional configurations can acquire specific meanings.

One unusual sign occurs when one die lands directly upon another and remains there. According to some interpretations, this may signify the arrival of a gift, something of value, or a warning concerning an approaching situation. The precise significance is then determined by the reader according to the context of the consultation.

In modern occult terminology this broader three-dice method is often identified specifically with astragalomancy.

A Simple Numerical Method

A simpler system requires a prepared list of twenty-one possible answers numbered from four through twenty-four. Two ordinary dice are cast and their values added together. The dice are then cast a second time, and this second total is added to the first.

The resulting number is matched with the corresponding entry upon the prepared list, which provides the answer to the question.

Certain occult traditions also assign favourable and unfavourable days to dice divination. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday have been described as suitable days for casting, while Friday and Sunday are sometimes regarded as inappropriate. Such rules belong to particular occult systems rather than to a universal method of astragalomancy.

Bones, Dice and the Logic of Chance

Astragalomancy belongs to one of the oldest families of divination: the deliberate creation of randomness. Whether sheep knucklebones, carved pieces, planetary dice or modern numbered cubes are used, the practitioner gives up conscious control over the immediate result and allows the cast to produce the pattern.

Meaning is then imposed through a system of interpretation. Numbers may correspond with letters, positions with planets, surfaces with omens, or combinations with predetermined answers. The cast itself provides chance; the divinatory tradition supplies the language through which that chance is read.

Within the Occult World classification, astragalomancy belongs unequivocally to Sortileges, because its defining act is the random casting of bones or dice and the interpretation of the configuration produced.

Stop Rolling the Dice with Your Occult Knowledge

Astragalomancy reveals just how deep the history of casting lots really goes. Long before modern fortune-tellers threw manufactured dice, people were casting the bones of animals beside temples, consulting marked pieces before journeys and wars, and building entire systems through which chance was transformed into prophecy.

If you want to understand these traditions instead of merely collecting their names, enter the Occult World Mystery School and start studying the machinery behind divination, augury, ritual magic, spirits and the systems that survived across thousands of years. There are thousands of spirits, gods, demons, magical systems, grimoires and forgotten traditions waiting beyond it. Stop leaving your occult education to random chance. Enter the Mystery School and take control of how deeply you understand the hidden world.