This is another little gem I found in Everybody’s Book of Luck, circa 1900. ‘The Discs of Fate’ is the name given to the particular device I’m discussing here, but it can just as well be a categorical term for this particular format of divination tool, which seemed to see its heyday from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century C.E. Consisting of two or more discs fastened together, then manipulated according to some simple directions in order to derive an answer, the appearance of this type of hand-held, multi-layer wheel of fortune seems to have coincided with the creation of that office supply item known variously as the brad, brass fastener, paper fastener, or split pin. Discs of Fate appear to have been designed to be about palm-sized, and the sort of thing you could tuck into a backpack, briefcase or large-enouigh purse or pocket.
I classify the Discs of Fate as Simpleomancy, since it’s easily put-together and instantly-usable. It’s just above the paper fortune teller/cootie-catcher in complexity. It won’t give you more than ten possible answers, as opposed to the cootie catcher, which will only give you eight. But what the Discs of Fate and the cootie-catcher lack in complexity, they make up for in the potential variety of subjects you could create for them. This Discs of Fate comes with answers for three categories: love, marriage, and general fortune. There’s no rule which says you couldn’t create more. So long as the fundamental design works, the answer lists are limited only by your imagination.