Earlier on in these lessons, I covered that perfect summer-day divination method called gyromancy. That is, laying out the letters of the alphabet in a circle around you on the grass and spinning in a circle until you become dizzy. If you liked, numbers or symbols could also be used. A watching friend with a note pad who wasn’t dizzy would be noting where you staggered, and hopefully, the letters and characters where you staggered would spell out some sort of message. Divining and getting exercise at the same time—win-win!
The problem is, we don’t always have a perfect summer day for performing this divination method. I’ve always thought this sort of thing would be strictly a warm-weather practice, but I’ve recently become aware of another form of gyromancy. This second form of gyromancy was devised in the nineteenth century, during the Victorian era. It uses a chart or diagram, and some sort of ‘spinner.’ A toy spinning top or a gyroscope are the most-ideal tools to use, but I’ve read Victorians used coins for this method. In truth, anything you can put a spin on, which small enough to fit on the chart, and is capable of traveling as it spins, will suffice. This is another one of those divination methods, like the Tablets of Fate or Napoleon’s Oracular Table, which was employed as a ‘parlour game’ so dear to people in the nineteenth century.