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    Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching
    Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching
    Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching
    Ebook204 pages1 hour

    Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching

    By Kostas Dervenis

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    The first complete guide to this ancient Greek form of divination

    • Explains how to cast and interpret this oracle using either coins or traditional animal bones

    • Reveals how the use of oracle bones predates the I Ching

    • Includes the complete matrix of oracle interpretations reconstructed by the author from stanzas in ancient Greek temples

    In ancient Greece methods of foretelling the future were widespread, whether they were official oracles of the gods or simple dice games to divine one’s luck. One of the most popular and accessible ways of determining one’s fate and fortune was through the ritual casting of animal bones, similar to the casting of coins or yarrow stalks with the Chinese I Ching.

    Kostas Dervenis explains how to interpret the casting of the oracle bones--either traditional sheep anklebones or coins--to answer your questions on love, health, wealth, and the future. Using the original stanzas discovered in ancient Greek temples in Greece and Turkey, the author reconstructs the complete matrix of interpretation for each possible casting of the bones. He explores how this practice traces back to the Golden Age of the Neolithic period in Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria--predating the I Ching--and how it is still practiced today as the popular folk game of “knucklebones.”

    Providing the first complete guide to this ancient practice, Dervenis allows anyone to cast the bones for guidance, inspiration, and insight into their fate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInner Traditions/Bear & Company
    Release dateDec 17, 2013
    ISBN9781620551646
    Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching
    Author

    Kostas Dervenis

    Kostas Dervenis is a martial arts instructor in jujutsu, pammachon, and t’ai chi chuan. He has written four books on the martial arts and martial traditions, including Nei Kung and The Magus of Java under the pen name Kosta Danaos. He lives in Athens, Greece.

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      Book preview

      Oracle Bones Divination - Kostas Dervenis

      PROLOGUE

      This book explores the ancient practice of astragalomancy, which uses the anklebones of an animal (astragali, plural, or astragalus, singular) as ritual tools within a system of divination. The text of the divinations found in part 2 of this book originates, for the most part, from Greek temples in Asia Minor. Specifically, the verses are from ancient Greek temples in modern Turkey: at Kosagatch (ancient Lycia), at Tefeny and Yarishli (ancient Phrygia), at Enevre (Anaboura), at Sagalassos and Termessos (ancient Pisidia), at Attalia (ancient Pamphylia), and at Ördekj and Indjik.

      Since 1912, it has been generally accepted that these verses, discovered in the ruins of the temples at the aforementioned sites, constitute fragments of a single encoded method of astragalomancy, a method that has been lost to us (or perhaps not yet fully uncovered by the archaeologist’s pick). Unfortunately, the verses have not survived in their complete form, but only as fragments. It was up to us, then, but mostly up to our sources (the researchers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who discovered the original artifacts), to complete the text found in the remains. The publications used to reconstruct the text are included in the bibliography.

      I am grateful for the assistance of Spyridoula Klabatsea in the translation of these verses. For some verses we relied exclusively on the derivations and interpretations provided by our sources. For others, we disagreed with our sources partially or totally, and so edited and completed the text as we thought best. As a consequence, the presentation and format of the divinations should be viewed as our exclusive responsibility—our interpretation of the archaeological record. All credit should go to our sources, while the blame for any errors discovered lies unquestionably with the author.

      PART I

      Introduction to Divination

      Determining One’s Fate and Fortune

      From the depths of far distant time, people have feared for their future. Our hopes and worries for the morrow have held us in thrall since organized societies were first developed, and with them the concept of ownership. Individuals as well as whole nations have, from the most ancient of days, expressed this basic need for foreknowledge of their fate in war, in peace, in commerce, and in love. Divination was the means by which a person, or a society, could learn the will of the gods and ask them for guidance.

      HOW THE ANCIENT GREEKS VIEWED FATE

      Why did all ancient peoples—and the Greeks in particular—rely on divination? Was it simply, as stated, the fear for tomorrow that has plagued humankind since the beginning? Or was it that they viewed Fate as not predetermined and static, but rather as a tendency, a flowing pattern that could be changed? Perhaps divination was, in the end, a sort of prayer, a plea to divine authority that we may circumvent the negative and seek the positive. All things are in flux, as Heraclitus boldly declared so long ago—the universe manifests itself as a series of possibilities, and circumstances do not take shape until the events and decisions that precede them are finalized. This typology, which corresponds so well with the theories of modern physics, is quite apparent in the deified version of the Fates in ancient Greece.

      The Fates, called Moirai (Those who Divide and Assign), were three: Lachesis (She Who Draws Lots), Clotho (The Spinner), and Atropos (She Who May Not Be Turned). With their mother, Ananke (Need/Necessity/Desire), they determine the destiny of the universe.

      Ananke emerged self-formed at the very beginning of time, according to Plato—an incorporeal being encompassing the breadth and width of the universe. From the first moment, Ananke was entwined with the serpentine coils of her mate, Cronos, or Time. Together they brought about the formation of the ordered universe, the encircling forces of Necessity and Time, impelling the motion of the heavens. Ananke is characterized both by her omniscience and the capability to alter destiny by virtue of her essence, without requisite action. In Platonic theory, it is thought that the great Tapestry of the Universe rests on her knees.*1 In many respects, the form of Ananke is reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of karma. Of Necessity, then, were borne the three Fates.

      Ananke on high with the three Fates below her

      The Fates were subject to hierarchy. The Moirai, daughters of Ananke, clad in white vestments. . . . Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos, who sing in unison. . . . Lachesis singing of things that were, Clotho the things that are, and Atropos of things that are to be, writes Plato in the Republic. According to the Neo-Platonist philosopher Proclus, this symbolism outlines their relationship: the past was once the present and the future, while the present was once the future. Hence, Lachesis contains Clotho and Atropos, while Clotho contains only Atropos. The three Fates partially embrace and partially abstain from the world. They turn the Heavenly Spheres, Lachesis with both hands, Clotho with

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