Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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What the Bones Said: How to Cast and Read the Knucklebones

guessing animal foot bones ...

An Introduction to Astragalomancy

Paganicon 2025

 

At the upcoming Paganicon 2025, I'll be teaching a workshop in Astragalomancy: divination by the casting of knucklebones.

As divinatory systems go, one could characterize this one as quick and deep. I can (and will) teach you the basics of the Bones in five minutes.

So what do I plan to do with the remaining 55 minutes of the workshop? Easily told.

Context, context, context.

 

In the waking time between first and second sleeps, I lie abed alert, drawing up the story arc of the forthcoming workshop.

In so doing, I come to the heart of the Old Ways.

What is that, you ask?

Listen, and I'll tell you.

 

The Horned speaks in many ways, but perhaps most clearly through the Bones.

(They come, after all, from His own Body.)

Who is the Horned? The God of Witches.

Who are the Tribe of Witches? The People of the Horned.

Listen, and I'll tell you.

 

It's paradigmatically Neo-Pagan behavior to rip gods, practices, and concepts from their cultural contexts and claim them for our own, we whose natal gods, practices, and concepts were torn from us long ago.

Behold: the violated becoming, in turn, the violator.

This we do even though, in so doing, we strip said gods, practices, and concepts from that which makes them truly pagan.

Behold, I will tell you all of paganism in three words.

Context, context, context.

 

What will I be teaching at Paganicon this year?

Easily told.

Five minutes of technique, and fifty-five of context.

 

What the Bones Said: How to Cast and Read the Knucklebones

Long ago, in the dawn of days, the Horned gave us the bones and taught us how to read them.

Here's how.

 

Paganicon 2025

Friday, March 21 – Sunday, March 23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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