22 April 2002: Archeology 23:5

Stichomancy is the practice of performing divinations by selecting a passage at random from a book and interpreting it as a communication relevant to one's situation. Historically, it's most frequently been practiced using the Bible. It works as well as any other divination method. Interesting that the subject should come up exactly one week after my latest viewing of Hysteria, a film in which the protagonist's use of stichomancy is quite chillng.

How did the subject come up today? In Yoko's blog entry of this morning, which invited readers to try this variant on stichomancy that uses the sacred Discordian number combination 5/23:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

I guess one could call this a Chain Stichomancy.

Given how delightfully frank and direct God has been in making Herself known to me lately, it is with more amusement than surprise that I note that the "nearest book," at the moment, is Towards an Archeology of the Soul... written, of course, by Mr. Antero "Sherpa" Alli, the director of Hysteria.

I can see that resistance is futile.

So, let's see... page 23... fifth sentence...

"In this medium, conscious projection is used to charge an area with an energy that you wish to explore by entering that area and subjecting yourself to your own projections."

Ah.

Yes.

Of course.

Like I said: delightfully frank and direct.