THE CASTING RITUAL
The PDF below contains all but one of the things you’ll need to perform Kumulak. As for the feves, the sheep droppings used in the traditional Kazakh practice of Kumulak, you don’t actually have to hunt down any sheep excrement. Dried beans or whole-bean coffee purchased at your local grocery store will suffice.
Kazakh tradition states that Kumulak should only be performed during daylight hours. The Kazakhs believe that if you carry out a Kumulak reading in the darkness of night, then you run the risk of having mischievous spirits interfere with the reading and make it come out all wrong.
Before you consult the Kumulak, enter into a state of availability, openness and calm. As you are basically laying yourself open to the spirits of nature and the Gods, you must be sober; no tobacco, alcohol or recreational drugs before or during the consultation. It is also considered important that the Kumulak diviner not be wearing any jewelry or have any metal on their person while they are performing a consultation.
You can consult the Kumulak for yourself or another, but if you’re reading for another, they should be seated next to you, on your right side, since that is considered the ‘good’ side. Kumulak is designed to answer questions related to one’s emotional life, either friendships or romance, one’s professional life, one’s health, travel, or legal matters. Though a specific question is always good, you can read the Kumulak without a specific question, trusting that a combination of the Kumulak and your own intuition will reveal what the real issue is.
- With the casting sheet before you and the drawstring bag of Kumulak feves in front of you and on the right, ask the question. Taking up the drawstring bag, empty all the Kumulak feves into your hand and hold the fistful to your forehead, asking the Gods/Spirits/Ancestors/Universe to speak to you truly through them.
- Placing the fistful of feves on the casting sheet in front of you, in the box at the bottom, then separate them into three different piles. Don’t count them as you do this, just do it impromptu. Then, starting with the right-hand pile, count out the feves, four at a time, until you have only one, two, three, or four left. Place that remainder in box number one.
- Move to the middle pile and count out feves, four at a time, until you have only one, two, three, or four feves remaining. Place this remainder in box number 2. Move to the pile on the left and count out feves, four at a time, until only one, two, three, or four remain. Place this remainder in box number 3.
- Gather all the removed feves together in the large bottom oval, then rapidly sort them into three different piles again. As before, don’t count them out, just do it, quickly and unthinkingly.
- Starting with the pile on the right, count out four at a time until you have only one, two, three, or four feves remaining. Place that remainder in box number 4. Carry out the same procedure with the middle and left piles of feves, sorting the remainders into the boxes numbered 5 and 6.
- Gather all the removed feves together in the large bottom oval, then rapidly sort them into three different piles again. As before, don’t count them out, just do it, quickly and unthinkingly.
- Starting with the pile on the right, count out four at a time until you have only one, two, three, or four feves remaining. Place the remainder in box number 7. Carry out the same procedure with the middle and left piles of feves, sorting the remainders into the boxes numbered 8 and 9.
- Turn to pages 3 to 5 in the PDF to find the configuration number for each of the three rows, then fill in the numbers on the Kumulak Interpretation Chart on page 33 of this PDF. Check pages 30-32 for any special figures which may also have manifested in the Kumulak distribution on the chart, then enter those numbers in the boxes provided under the grid on the Interpretation Chart.
- Consult pages 6 through 32 for the analysis of each figure in the Kumulak distribution on the chart. Write your observations in the summary lines provided on the Interpretation Chart.
So it’s time to talk about the meaning of the three lines. The top, or first line, is the past. It shows the inquirer’s state of mind, their wishes, beliefs, path, and expectations. The second, or middle line, shows the inquirer’s present situation, what is in their heart, their intuition, impressions, fears, doubts, fights, and their relations with others. The third line, the bottom one, is the future. It shows obstacles they face, actions to come, displacements if any, and last and perhaps the most important, the attitude to adopt in this situation. Keeping these meanings of the lines in mind will help you stitch the whole reading into one coherent picture.