The Everyday Lore Project

9 September 2020 – The Career Oracle

9 September 2020 – The Career Oracle

Needed a quick one today so I consulted The Career Oracle. The Career Oracle is an example of a magic square presented as a grid of letters, and where one places one’s finger within the grid will reveal the answer to a question posed, after a bit of counting. 

Fortune Telling, Divining The Future From The Study Of The Hand And Other Methods provides a 10 x 10 lettered grid and unlike the more famous Sator Square, there are no palindromes and I doubt it would be very useful in an exorcism. 

The trick, the book says, is to take the Oracle seriously for it can be ‘capricious’ (p61) if it feels disrespected. With this in mind, I mulled over a question about my future in the workplace, shut my eyes and pointed. From the letter I landed on, going left to right, I counted the next five and recorded what the fifth letter was, and then again and so on and so forth until I’d gone through the whole grid.

But because it’s been a long, long day, I didn’t read the instructions quite right and got a little confused. So I did it again. And continued to be confused. Until I re-read what I was supposed to be doing and then it all made sense. 

All in all I asked the same question three different ways and received two different answers, both of which were encouraging:

Answer 1+3: Fear not for your future
Answer 2: Hard work brings reward

Just to make sure, I did a control point thinking of nothing and it came out as: Take not advice blindly. Which in all fairness probably works for my question too, just not as nicely as the others. So now I’m feeling quite reassured. Which is always good after a long, long day.

Incidentally, while researching today, I came across another divination practise, that of tyromancy: the art of reading omens in cheese. So if anyone has a mouse or a rat and fancies having a go, let me know.


Resources

Barrett, D.V. (1992) Fortune Telling, Divining The Future From The Study Of The Hand And Other Methods, London, Charles Letts & Co Ltd

http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1959/Fishwick.htm

https://occultopedia.com/t/tyromancy.htm

Published by Liza Frank

Author of My Celebrity Boyfriend. Obsessed with hula hooping, sons of preachermen and fresh dates, sometimes all at the same time. Curator of Folklore Agony and The Everyday Lore Project.

4 comments on “9 September 2020 – The Career Oracle”

  1. Freyalyn Close-Hainsworth says:

    Really wouldn’t want to waste my cheese on anyone who isn’t me.

    1. I completely understand.

  2. Glorious Barbara says:

    Apparently emmental is good, but there are too many holes in that theory.

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