Ep 56: Dice! Astragalomancy pt 1
Explicit content warning
03/30/22 • 60 min
RJ and Elle begin their coverage of Astragalomancy, divination with Dice. RJ begins by describing his father's passion for Craps and Elle describes a dice tarot variant that used to be available in her store. RJ then begins the long, complex history of dice which goes well into pre-history. RJ describes the egyptian game of Senet and the Royal Game of Ur as some of the earliest examples of board games we know of. RJ then describes Astragali, the earliest dice which were made from a very specific knucklebone from a sheep. He then describes the ancient greek practice of Astragalomancy, where these bone dice were rolled to divine messages from the gods. RJ describes the statue of Hermes which has 56 different dice rolls and what they mean. Next, RJ describes the culture of gambling that grew from this divination practice and how it eventually grew into the Craps tables we know of today. RJ and Elle then roll the Astragali and see what messages the statue of Hermes has for them.
RJ and Elle begin their coverage of Astragalomancy, divination with Dice. RJ begins by describing his father's passion for Craps and Elle describes a dice tarot variant that used to be available in her store. RJ then begins the long, complex history of dice which goes well into pre-history. RJ describes the egyptian game of Senet and the Royal Game of Ur as some of the earliest examples of board games we know of. RJ then describes Astragali, the earliest dice which were made from a very specific knucklebone from a sheep. He then describes the ancient greek practice of Astragalomancy, where these bone dice were rolled to divine messages from the gods. RJ describes the statue of Hermes which has 56 different dice rolls and what they mean. Next, RJ describes the culture of gambling that grew from this divination practice and how it eventually grew into the Craps tables we know of today. RJ and Elle then roll the Astragali and see what messages the statue of Hermes has for them.
Previous Episode
Ep 55 Augury pt 3
RJ and Elle conclude their coverage of Augury by looking at research conducted on birds. RJ establishes the intelligence of Corvids, and then discusses the sad relationship humans have with pigeons. He brings up the domestication of the pigeon, and messenger pigeons. He then discusses pigeons who are decorated war heros including Cher Ami and G.I. Joe who saved hundreds of lives by delivering intelligence during the world wars. RJ also discusses Project Pigeon, which was an attempt to train pigeons to be suicide bombers during world war 2. RJ concludes by looking at the future of homing pigeons, specifically the joke/not joke of IPoAC which is a theory that carrier pigeons would be faster and more efficient than the internet at delivering data. Elle does a reading for Jonathan at the Tracy Aviary. Specifically, the helmeted curassow from Venezuela imparts its wisdom.
Next Episode
Ep 57 Dice! Astragalomancy pt 2
RJ and Elle continue their coverage of Astragalomancy. RJ discusses the history of loaded dice and cheating dice. RJ also comes clean about using loaded dice in games of Dungeons and Dragons. RJ then dives into some of the history of DnD, the good and the bad. A slight dive into the satanic panic that arose from the game in the 1980's. RJ goes over a very unique and specific case involving the disappearance of James Egbert and how some believed Dungeons and Dragons was responsible. Elle finishes the episode by performing Astragalomancy using a standard set of polyhedral dice, the likes if which would be used in games of Dungeons and Dragons.
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