HOW TO USE IT
If you haven’t been warned off using this tablet by now, then I will say in its favor that knowing what sort of trouble is coming down the pike for you can be a very helpful thing to know! First, download and print out the PDF posted below:
Order of Operation:
- Place it on a flat surface in front of you and fetch some sort of pointer. Again, if you like, you can cut out just the image of the serpent and get rid of the rest of the page. This will make it easier if you choose to use a lazy-susan to give it a spin in order to achieve greater randomness in your number selection.
- With your pointer in hand, you are supposed to close your eyes and either rotate your hand above the serpent, or give it a spin on the lazy-susan, or both if you’d like, while reciting the following words: Oh great serpent, symbol of hate, give me your secrets before it’s too late.
- Then quickly jab your pointer down on the diagram. Hopefully, you will have landed on a number. Before you open your eyes to read the number you’ve chosen, you’re supposed to recite the words again: Oh great serpent, symbol of hate, give me your secrets before it’s too late.
- Then you may open your eyes, read the number you pointed to, and read its attendant fortune.
- If your pointer failed to land on any number, you may try the ritual again. If that fails, you may try a third time, but you may not make more than three attempts to consult the Coiled Serpent.
- If, after three attempts, an answer has not made itself known, the rules state you must wait twenty-four hours before trying again. If your pointer totally misses the serpent, the lore connected with this tablet says it’s considered a sign of completely bad luck, but I don’t necessarily agree with that. It could simply mean there is no identifiable trouble coming for you for the foreseeable future!
- Assuming you have obtained a number, read the answer carefully before determining whether it does or does not apply to you, and whether or not it will assist you. It’s possible the fortune you have drawn will not apply to you, but will apply instead to someone in your life.
‘Whenever the gypsies of old wished to foretell events in time of trouble, they consulted The Coiled Serpent’ the source material recounted sagely. Curious about this reference to ‘the gypsies of old’, and knowing well not to take claims of great age regarding divination tools seriously, I again turned to my yes-and-no stones for some answers. To summarize, the yes-and-no stones ultimately confirmed that The Coiled Serpent was created some time in the 1890s, and by the same person who would later create The Mystic Tablet of the Gypsies early in the twentieth century. I didn’t bother inquiring about the identity of the creator, since the yes-and-no stones had been so cagey about the issue earlier.