HOW TO USE
To use, you take a straight pin in hand (a stick-pin or a hat-pin is perfect for this) then with the chart in front of you, recite the following:
‘Guide my hand, O my Ruling Planet!’
Or whatever other deity or higher power you want to invoke. Then with your eyes shut, bring the pin down on the chart, hopefully on a number. To more completely ensure randomness, you may want to use a lazy-susan, the sort of spinning rack you use to hold spices in a kitchen cabinet. Give it a few spins while you recite the words. To minimize the chance you’ll land anywhere else on the page, you might want to cut out just the square of numbers and place that on the lazy-susan.
The presumption seems to be each participant uses the chart only once, but one character trait doesn’t give you much information. So I encourage you to apply my rule-of-three here. Ask the chart three times for a character trait you future spouse possesses. In support of that end, you’ll observe in the PDF I’ve included an answer sheet which has space for you to record three characteristics of your future spouse, and space for a summary of the traits.
With as few clarifiers as possible, I have left the language in the original Sibly’s Chart as-is. This may require some translation. For example ‘a great sot.’ Means you’ll have an alcoholic on your hands. ‘A regular dolly-bird.’ Means a pretty and fashionable young woman. ‘Thirteen to the dozen’ means constantly. Because I noticed the husband’s list of characteristics had 71 listed, and the wife’s list only 70, to even them up, I wrote a 71st characteristic for the wife’s list, in a style which I hope fits in with the rest of the table.
You’ll notice from the PDF there’s a one list of characteristics for husbands and another list of characteristics for wives. Because the institution of marriage has gotten more flexible in recent years, and the roles of each spouse more fluid, use your intuition in deciding if you feel called to use just one chart or both of them.
If you are already married or have a lover, you might want to use this chart – surreptitiously of course – to verify they possess the qualities you chose at random, or if the three traits seem to point to someone else. Such an exercise might be a good test of this magic tablet’s accuracy; if it works for a married person, it should work for a single person.