Cats. Curses. Slept in sunlight and chased my tail. And can say with full authority that the whiskers do not glow in the dark--so I was right. Why would they? Honestly. Feline
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Augury would be best, but it isn't practiced. I have read auguries many times, but I don't know how.
Stars, yes, that their placement in the sky at the time of birth or at the time of questioning meaning some influence or another--relating to the humours and the gods. And whims.
Or cards, and the order the cards are drawn means one tale or another. Hanged Man, Ace of Swords, Queen of Cups. They're laid out on the table, and that tells the tale.
Or the one I mentioned: the saucers. A person is blindfolded, spun, and put in front of a table with four saucers on it. In the saucers are water, dried beans, nothing, and clay. Water is for leaving, for going across the sea. Beans are for money and luck. Nothing is for no change at all. Clay is for death.
Apple peels can be tossed to spell out letters. Dreams can mean fortune, good or ill. Snails can be used to spell out names with their trails. Consider the variety of life, all the things within it. And attach a sign to each. That it how it works. Or appears to.
Though we are called augurs, we mostly find our signs in sacrifices. They train us at the schola, though truth be told you learn more in doing it than in being taught how-- practice is the best teacher.
The movement of the stars is rather beyond me; I saw them only once-- no, one could say twice-- before I came to this whorl, and did not understand what they were. Even now I barely comprehend it; the whorl is so vast, it's odd to wrap one's mind around the infinity beyond it, great as the Obscure Outsider himself.
What was it you spoke of, though, when you mentioned spirits and glasses? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding; perhaps you intend a different sort of glass than I envision...
O, that. Glass and all its meanings. Cracked lookingglass, glasslike, drinkingglass. It itself is fluid and untrustworthy. It's aqueous. Appalling. Like water, stuff of death.
Imagine, then: a board, lettered and numbered, all the letters of the alphabet, the base numbers. Elemental. A greeting, a farewell, two answers: yes and no.
Taking a glass--a drinkingglass, and a small one--or a coin--also a small one--alltogether everyone questioning the spirits touches the glass or coin. Eppur si muove. Thereby the spirits speak, spelling out letter by letter, word by word.
Why is water the stuff of death? Water is needful for life. I thought you meant a glass like-- well, you do not have them here, so perhaps it was a foolish thought on my part. The gods can speak through glasses, though, as easily as they do through a Sacred Window, in my whorl.
That is a fascinating method, though. If you'll forgive my curiosity-- since certainly it's not my business to ask-- do you believe in it? In general, I mean, not only in consulting the gods through a glass.
Many things we need to live will harm us, if abused. It is perhaps the gods' way of teaching us moderation.
A Sacred Window is made of glass, though it is not transparent, like a regular window; rather, it is dark... The closest thing I have seen here is what they call a television, when there is nothing on it. It stands above the altar, so that the gods may observe our sacrifices, and may speak if they so choose. When they do choose to manifest, there is first a flare of color-- the Holy Hues-- and then the god or goddess' face appears, though only those who retain their anipotence can see them, or hear them speak clearly. Anyone may see the Hues, though; and even those who cannot clearly hear the words of the theophany will understand the god's message in general.
I see. Many people feel the same way, even in my whorl.
Sacred Windows. Strange. I can't find a parallel for my world--whorl. Visions, perhaps, had on church walls. But those are solitary. Appearances, perhaps, which more than one person can see. But there is no window or screen. Strange.
Perhaps I ought to, but I don't. I cannot blame you for it, though.
There does not seem to be any-- not that I've read about, at least. It's odd, for I've often felt that, in some ways, the gods are remote even in my whorl. Though recently, that has hardly been the case; and yet, the gods of other whorls seem to speak less often. Rather, I should say, they do not speak publicly. It seems unusual to me.
Stars, yes, that their placement in the sky at the time of birth or at the time of questioning meaning some influence or another--relating to the humours and the gods. And whims.
Or cards, and the order the cards are drawn means one tale or another. Hanged Man, Ace of Swords, Queen of Cups. They're laid out on the table, and that tells the tale.
Or the one I mentioned: the saucers. A person is blindfolded, spun, and put in front of a table with four saucers on it. In the saucers are water, dried beans, nothing, and clay. Water is for leaving, for going across the sea. Beans are for money and luck. Nothing is for no change at all. Clay is for death.
Apple peels can be tossed to spell out letters. Dreams can mean fortune, good or ill. Snails can be used to spell out names with their trails. Consider the variety of life, all the things within it. And attach a sign to each. That it how it works. Or appears to.
There are thousands upon thousands.
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The movement of the stars is rather beyond me; I saw them only once-- no, one could say twice-- before I came to this whorl, and did not understand what they were. Even now I barely comprehend it; the whorl is so vast, it's odd to wrap one's mind around the infinity beyond it, great as the Obscure Outsider himself.
What was it you spoke of, though, when you mentioned spirits and glasses? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding; perhaps you intend a different sort of glass than I envision...
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Imagine, then: a board, lettered and numbered, all the letters of the alphabet, the base numbers. Elemental. A greeting, a farewell, two answers: yes and no.
Taking a glass--a drinkingglass, and a small one--or a coin--also a small one--alltogether everyone questioning the spirits touches the glass or coin. Eppur si muove. Thereby the spirits speak, spelling out letter by letter, word by word.
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That is a fascinating method, though. If you'll forgive my curiosity-- since certainly it's not my business to ask-- do you believe in it? In general, I mean, not only in consulting the gods through a glass.
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A Sacred Window? We do not have them here, but what are they?
I'm not meant to believe it, and I don't believe it, but of my own decision not to believe it.
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A Sacred Window is made of glass, though it is not transparent, like a regular window; rather, it is dark... The closest thing I have seen here is what they call a television, when there is nothing on it. It stands above the altar, so that the gods may observe our sacrifices, and may speak if they so choose. When they do choose to manifest, there is first a flare of color-- the Holy Hues-- and then the god or goddess' face appears, though only those who retain their anipotence can see them, or hear them speak clearly. Anyone may see the Hues, though; and even those who cannot clearly hear the words of the theophany will understand the god's message in general.
I see. Many people feel the same way, even in my whorl.
Reply
Sacred Windows. Strange. I can't find a parallel for my world--whorl. Visions, perhaps, had on church walls. But those are solitary. Appearances, perhaps, which more than one person can see. But there is no window or screen. Strange.
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There does not seem to be any-- not that I've read about, at least. It's odd, for I've often felt that, in some ways, the gods are remote even in my whorl. Though recently, that has hardly been the case; and yet, the gods of other whorls seem to speak less often. Rather, I should say, they do not speak publicly. It seems unusual to me.
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