When a shaman-sorcerer interprets an Omen he knows its exact meaning without having any notion of how he knows it. This is one of the bewildering effects of the connecting link with intent. They have a sense of knowing things directly. How sure they are depends on the strength and clarity of their connecting link.

Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence (1988)

Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of a dozen or so books, all following in some respect a Yaqui Indian spiritual elder he calls Don Juan Matus. As an apprentice to Don Juan, Castaneda self-allegedly obtained the full scope of shamanistic powers over a period of several years starting in June, 1961, through to at least September, 1965, and possibly beyond, under Don Juan --- who himself had studied under a Diablero --- a shaman-sorcerer said to have evil powers and the ability to shape shift.

In the eighth book of Castaneda's series, titled Power of Silence (1988), Don Juan tells Castaneda that when a person's Spirit has something extremely important to communicate, it will "knock" three times. That is to say, if one has the ability or is spiritually intune with such things, three clear, unambiguous "meaningful coincidences" will be received showing that a certain decision is needed to be made or that an indication of a prediction is correct. Those three meaningful coincidences may unfold over the course of time naturally in the normal flow of events OR they can be sharply focused in a concentrated area through the preparations of someone experienced in such matters. Then that person, the seer, acting through the Spirit on behalf of the recipient, after tossing bones for example, reads the positions of the bones where they fall looking for signs of the coincidences to be revealed.

Traditionally Shamans threw the bones, (sometimes beans or stones are employed) into the air or on the ground, usually into a specially drawn or marked off circle, and observed how the bones landed and what configurations they formed after landing. They would be consulted in order to determine how to care for cattle and crops, hunting expeditions, marriage suitability and in matters regarding health. The following is a PRESENT DAY ACCOUNT of an actual encounter between a mysterious man of spells, which would nominally be called a Shaman, and a man of Zen that had been discovered on the brink of death high in the mountains of Jamaica --- and how the man of spells used the ancient Divination method of "tossing bones" or Casting Bones in matters regarding health to bring the Zen-man back from that brink:

For those of you that may be familiar with the Wanderling and his interactions with the shaman man of spells called Obeahman high in the mountains of Jamaica you may recall that when a young girl from the village was hit by a car, the parents, who could not afford a regular medical doctor, opted to have their daughter taken to the Obeah. The Wanderling and another village member carried the girl in a sling-like hammock slung between two long wooden poles up the hazardous mountain trail to the Obeahman's abode. During that several hour period, although breathing, the girl never regained consciousness. The Wanderling was not allowed to go into the Obeah's hut bcause he was white, nor were any of the rituals performed observed, that is, if any at all were performed. The next morning the Wanderling ended up clear down the mountain and didn't exactly see what happened to the girl. About two weeks later she was seen to be playing with other village childern as though nothing had ever happened. No marks, scars, scraches, casts or anything else. Many months later the Wanderling contracted Dengue Fever and laid in his bed sweating in pools of water, delirious with a high fever, not eating, and basically unable to move. A villager happened by and reported how sick he was to a village elder. He inturn passed word to the Obeah. Under NO circumstances had the Obeah ever been known to leave his mountain lair, everyone in need of his services ALWAYS had to go to him no matter how serious the situation. However, much to the suprise of everyone in the village and others for miles and miles around, within a few hours of hearing of the Wanderling's condition he showed up on the veranda. He would not enter his house, again because the Wanderling was a white man, but he did remove spiritual items and herbs from his Medicine Bag called an Oanga Bag and perform a set of rituals that included spreading sand and ashes in a Shaman's Circle, casting bones into the circle, sitting Buddha-like doing some chanting and using smoke that waifted throughout the house. The next day the Wanderling was up and around, sore, and except for a substantial loss of weight and weak from having not eaten, OK. The Obeah was gone. (source)

The day after the Obeah departed and following a night of heavy wind and rain, the Wanderling, conscious but racked with pain, for the first time in days was able to move and hobbled himself out onto the veranda. Barely able to stay upright he stood before the circle, and despite the storm of the night before, the circle was still in place just as it had been left by the man of spells. An ever so slight breeze came up and spread across the veranda floor twisting itself into a small dust-devil-like Vortex encompassing the Wanderling's bare feet and legs with the ash and sand of the circle. As the twisting breeze climbed his body the pain dissipated eventually disappearing altogether along with the wind.

I. AURISPICY, Divination with Bones:

ALSO ASTRAGALOMANCY, ASTRAGYROMANCY: Derived from the Greek astragalos meaning dice or knucklebone and manteia meaning divination or mantikos, meaning "of a soothsayer" or prophetic. Applied originally to a method of telling the future from the throwing or casting of small bones, but now days is also applied to the throwing of dice, in that dice were once made from bones. Sometimes, Sortilegem, casting lots as well as Scrying, using small stones, often marked with runes or symbols.

No one is certain when or how bones came to be used to divine the future, cast spells, or influence the outcome of events. Although tossing or throwing bones is an extremely archaic divination technique, their use was not recorded by Europeans until the 1600s. Portuguese missionary Joao dos Santos made reference to their use in Mozambique in 1607.

Divination sets can go as high as sixty bones, however the basic divination set consists of four to fourteen bones, each of which can be decorated with symbols that indicate positive (masculine) and negative (feminine) similar in scope as found in the ancient form of divination GEOMANCY (Greek: geo = earth, mantikos = "of a soothsayer" or prophetic), in which sand, soil, stones or other materials are scattered on markings made on the ground then be "read" by a seer:

Adult male	Adult female	Child male	Child female
Positive/negative	Negative/positive	Androgynous/positive	Androgynous/negative

A great deal of preparation is usually done beforehand to ensure the blessings of the spirits, this often involves purification, ceremonial offerings, sacrifices or respects and so forth. This is not unlike the method employed in the Chinese Book of Changes, I Ching, to determine the nature of the bi-grams, Yang, Yin, young yang, and young yin. By throwing the bones into a designated area such as a chalk circle or earthen pit this process produces a multiple series of combinations. The Shaman notes where directionally the bones fell and how they relate to each other in accord with their religious beliefs. 
 

For example there are just four basic different ways in which the bones can fall:

Extensions of this basic system involve further refinements within the circle or square, this usually requires divisions into four quadrants, eight segments or nine equal sections thus:

QUADRANTS:

EAST	NORTH
WEST	SOUTH

SE	South	SW
East	CENTER	West
NE	North	NW

These refer to the Eight Cardinal Points or directions in each of which presided a spirit, and each of which had his or her special qualities that influenced the interpretation of each casting. As for the composition of the bone sets, the most common four bone set is typically made up of:

• THOLA: the widest bone. It provides positive character.

• COHADO: the longest bone. Long term vision of life.

• IMBAY: the small bone. The less powerful and of transitory aspect.

• SCITA: the broken bone. Possibility of problems and of negative aspect.

Bone sets composed of larger numbers of bones basically contain a subtle variation of the four bone system. See below how a bone used from a specific animal applies in the casting or tossing of bones: Symbolic Animals for the Bones.
 

II. DIVINATION IN WESTERN THEOLOGY

Many people are uncomfortable with the reasoning behind such things as Casting Bones and similar type activities, relating that the whole concept is, if not borderline or completely sacrilegious, at least too occult or pagan --- as well as being totally against the grain of traditional Christian beliefs. As a matter of record, however, the great theological philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas provides us with the following in Summa Theologica:

There is, seemingly, nothing unlawful in the observances, that is, of doing Divination or Casting of Lots, which the Scriptures relate as being practiced by Holy Men.

He continues with: Both in the Old and New Testament we find holy men practicing the casting of lots. It is related (Joshua 7:14 sqq. [sqq. = following]) that Joshua, at the Lord's command, pronounced sentence by lot on Achan who had stolen of the anathema. Again Saul, by drawing lots, found that his son Jonathan had eaten honey (1 Kings 14:58 sqq.). Zacharias was chosen by lot to offer incense (Luke 1:9) and the apostles by drawing lots elected Matthias to the apostleship (Acts 1:26). Therefore it would seem that Divination by lots is not unlawful.

Aquinas goes on to say Sortilege consists, properly speaking, in doing something, that by observing the result one may come to the knowledge of something unknown. If by casting lots one seeks to know what is to be given to whom, whether it be a possession, an honor, a dignity, a punishment, or some action or other, it is called "sortilege of allotment"; if one seeks to know what ought to be done, it is called "sortilege of consultation"; if one seeks to know what is going to happen, it is called "sortilege of divination."

Continuing Aquinas says the result of sortilegious acts must need be ascribed to chance OR to some directing spiritual cause. If we ascribe it to chance, and this can only take place in "sortilege of allotment," it does not seem to imply any vice other than vanity, as in the case of persons who, being unable to agree upon the division of something or other, are willing to draw lots for its division, thus leaving to chance what portion each is to receive.

If, on the other hand, the decision by lot be left to a spiritual cause, it is sometimes ascribed to demons. Thus we read (Ezekiel 21:21) that "the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows; he inquired of the idols, and consulted entrails": sortilege of this kind is unlawful, and forbidden by the canons.

Sometimes, however, the decision is left to God, according to Proverbs 16:33, "Lots are cast into the lap, but they are disposed of by the Lord": sortilege of this kind is thus then, not wrong in itself.(source)

III. IN TAO AND EARLY CHINESE BUDDHISM

THE HAN DYNASTY

Throughout the history of China as well, divination has been a major component in the everyday lives of nobles and commoners who filled the ranks of Confucianists, Taoists, and early Buddhists. The Chinese utilized these practices to learn the answers to the momentous and mundane questions in their lives. Michael Loewe writes in his book CHINESE IDEAS OF LIFE AND DEATH: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (London, 1982):

Omens are the lessons inherent in the mighty disturbances of nature which none can avoid observing; and oracles are the signs already present in natural objects, plain for man to see if he takes the trouble to find them.

The Chinese people believed that CERTAIN BONES were able to answers man's questions and predict the future. Particularly in the Han Dynasty were fortune telling customs utilized by laymen and nobles to fortell everyday concerns as well as more substantial matters and aptly demonstrate numerous beliefs of the people.

The Han Dynasty lasted four hundred years and the first to embrace Buddhism. The term "The Han people" comes from the name of this dynasty. (The English term for "China" comes from the name of the previous dynasty Ch'in). The Han dynasty is the East Asian counterpart of and contemporary with Rome in its golden age. During this dynasty, China officially became a Confucian state, prospered domestically, and extended its political and cultural influence over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Korea before finally collapsing under a mixture of domestic and external pressures.

The Han ruling line was briefly interrupted by the usurpation of a famous reformer, Wang Mang, whose interlude on the throne from A.D. 9 to 23 in known as the Hsin dynasty. Historians therefore subdivide the Han period into two parts, Former (or Western) Han (capital at Ch'ang-an, present day Xi'an) and Later (Eastern) Han (capital at Loyang).

It is not certain when Buddhism reached China exactly, but when the Silk Road opened in the second century BC, missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China, Central Asia and India. The record described that Chang Ch'ien, on his return from Ta-hsia (Ferghana) in the 2nd century BC, heard of a country named Tien-chu (India) and their Buddhist teaching. This is probably the first time a Chinese heard about Buddhism. A century later, a Buddhist community is recorded at the court of a Han prince. However the most famous story is the Han emperor Mingdi's dream about Buddha. In 68 AD, Mingdi sent his official Cai Yin to Central Asia to learn more about Buddhism after a vision of a golden figure appeared to him in a dream. The next morning he asked his ministers what the dream meant and was told that he had seen the Buddha - the god of the West. Cai Yin returned after 3 years in India and brought back with him not only the images of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures but also two Buddhist monks named She-mo-teng and Chu-fa-lan to preach in China. This was the first time that China had Buddhist monks and their ways of worship. A few years later, a Buddhist community was established in Loyang, the capital, itself. From then on, the Buddhist community grew continuously. They introduced the sacred books, texts and most importantly the examples of Buddhist art, never before seen in China. In 148 AD, a Parthian missionary, An Shih-kao arrived China. He set up a Buddhist temple at Loyang and began the long work of the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The work of scripture translation continued until the 8th century when access to Central Asia and India by land was cut off by the Arabs. In 166 AD Han Emperor Huan formally announced Buddhism by having Taoist and Buddhist ceremonies performed in the palace. The unrest situation in China at the end of the Han dynasty was such that people were in a receptive mood for the coming of a new religion.(source)

There are some that say the great Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, whose dates are usually given to fall within those of the Han Dynasty, visted China, although evidence is scarce. Kumarajiva (344-413) who arrived in China well after the Han Dynasty, started his translation projects around 385-401. He is considered the key figure in the introduction of Nagarjuna's teachings into China.

For information regarding Buddhism and Zen in the T'ANG DYNASTY (618-907), SUNG DYNASTY (960-1279), and the MING DYNASTY (1368-1644) click HERE.

IV. SYMBOLIC ANIMALS FOR THE BONES

The Birds' Way

(please click)