MY VERSION OF BOX DIVINATON
I designed Halloween House to answer just three specific questions: What is my Future? What is my Advice? What is my Fear? Since Halloween is a time of year for thinking about scary things, a question addressing fears seemed appropriate to the holiday. You can ask all three questions or just one or two of them, it’s up to you. The incantation should simply be “Halloween House, what is my (Future/Advice/Fear)?”
The future should be presumed to apply no longer than between now and Halloween next year. Same thing with the advice. Your fear could be longer-term, or not. You could play with this divination tool every Halloween for the next fifteen years and get a different answer for each question, every time.
I’ve assigned separate meanings to each image in relation to the three questions, but I encourage you to use your intuition. You may get a particular feeling in response to a particular image, one I haven’t spelled out in the answer key.
Keeping in mind that some people may only have a black and white printer, I did two versions of the casting chart for Halloween House, one in color, the other in black and white. While there is some overlap in the imagery and meanings, there’s much that’s different between the two, so you may want to try using both.
For the divining stone, initially I preferred one of those flat-bottomed glass beads like you’d use in a vase with flowers, or a mosaic, but I discovered it kept wanting to land in the same corner, so I switched to a large, flat, green craft button, and that seemed to work much better. I encourage you to spray the casting charts with acrylic sealer, so your casting item won’t smear the images and will slide more easily.
THE PDF
The first page of the PDF is the guide for using it. The second page is the color diagram. The three pages following that are the answer key for the color diagram. The sixth page is the black and white diagram and the three pages following that are the answer key for the black and white diagram. Page 10 of the PDF is recording slips, which you can print-up multiple copies for recording the answers received for each question. Page 11 is a optional label I designed for the top of the box.
As for the box I used, I had to order it in a set of 20 from Amazon; size 11 inch by 8 inch by 2 inch (28 cm by 20 cm by 5 cm) shipping boxes. A local craft store, office supplies store or post office will probably sell a box of the same size or close to it. The 8 x 11 inch size box is recommended, but adjust the size of the diagrams accordingly if you get a box in a different size. You want the diagram to be as close a fit to the box size as possible. A tray or a shallow baking pan can also work.