Chapter 9

Consulting the Seven Sages

In this chapter, you will learn how to cast the Oracle of the Seven Sages. As with the Alphabet Oracle, there are a variety of methods, and I suggest you read them all and then pick one or two to try out and practice. After the methods, I will explain the interpretive aids I’ve provided with the oracle texts. As in the Alphabet Oracle, they will help you to understand the range of meanings of the Greek words so that you can use the text more effectively for divination. The chapter ends with Table 8, Key for Consulting the Oracle of the Seven Sages.

Methods for Consulting the Seven Sages

The Oracle of the Seven Sages can be consulted using beads or pebbles, coins or other disks, special dice and teetotums, and even dominoes. All of them depend on casting three numbers, which I call the Column (C ), Heptad (H ), and Maxim (M ), abbreviated C-H-M.

Bead and Pebble Methods

The easiest way to consult the Oracle of the Seven Sages is by the bead method, which uses a long string of beads such as a mala. Pick up the string with both hands, spaced well apart. Let the god guide where you place them. Count off three beads at a time, alternating your hands. Continue until there are one, two, or three beads remaining between your hands; the number determines the “suit,” that is, the group of forty-nine, which would be one of the three columns on the engraved tablet; call it C. If we suppose that each column was divided into seven heptads (groups of seven), then you can determine the heptad H by starting again and counting off beads seven at a time until between one and seven are left. To determine the maxim M within the heptad, count off by sevens one last time. Use these three numbers, C-H-M, to find the oracle in Table 8. For example, suppose that when you count by threes, you end up with one left (so C = 1). When you count by sevens the first time, you end up with four left (so H = 4), and when you count by sevens the second time, two remain (M = 2). Look up 1-4-2 in the table and you will find Oracle (23) “Desire wisdom.” If you want, you can calculate the oracle’s number directly by 49 × (C–1) + 7 × (H–1) + M. In this case 49 × (1–1) + 7 × (4–1) + 2 = 23.

You can use a similar method with a container of beans, pebbles, unstrung beads, marbles, or other small objects. Take out a large handful and count them back into the container three or seven at a time to get C-H-M.

By the way, I will tell you a little trick that I use when counting the beads or pebbles by sevens, since you may get confused counting 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 while you are holding other numbers (C, H) in your head. Instead of counting to seven, I move or deposit three beads, then a single one, then another three. You can see these numbers visually without counting. (Esoterically, this 3-1-3 pattern corresponds to the three planets below the Sun [Moon, Mercury, Venus], the Sun in the center, and the three planets above the Sun [Mars, Jupiter, Saturn]. These are also the Seven Vowels, .)

Coin Methods

If you don’t have beads available, then you can use a variant of the coin method that I explained for the Alphabet Oracle (see Chapter 5). You will need fourteen coins or disks of three kinds: two of one kind and six each of the other two kinds. For an example, I will use two quarters, six nickels, and six pennies. Toss the coins. The number of quarter tails plus one is the column C, the number of nickel tails plus one is the heptad H, and the number of penny tails plus one is the maxim M. Look up oracle C-H-M. For example, suppose we cast the coins and both quarters are heads, three nickels are tails, and one penny is a tail. Write down the number of tails plus one for each coin, separated by dashes: 1-4-2, which is Oracle ((23) “Desire Wisdom.”

Of course, you actually only need six coins or disks to use the coin method. Cast two of them to determine the column C, then cast all six to determine the heptad H, and finally cast all six again to determine the maxim M. In fact, you can do it with one coin, tossed fourteen times! (But you are likely to lose count unless you write the numbers down.) You can also use a vessel containing a few dozen beans, pebbles, or beads of two colors (interpreted as heads and tails). Draw out two to determine C, six to determine H, and six more to determine M.

Dice and Teetotum Methods

You can use special dice, with three sides and seven sides, to consult the Seven Sages. You can buy these dice, made for games—search for them online—or make your own. For a three-sided long die, make a triangular prism that is several times longer than it is wide (so it won’t land on its triangular ends). Mark the three faces of the prism (with pips, for example) to indicate the column C. A seven-sided die has the form of a pentagonal (five-sided) prism with a length about equal to its width. Therefore, it will be about equally likely to land on each of its seven sides. You can use two of these dice, or cast one twice, to determine the heptad H and the maxim M. Since these dice can land with an edge upmost, you should always read the face that lands down. Manufactured three- and seven-sided dice sometimes have the numbers by the edges, in which case you can read the upmost edge.

Instead of dice, you can use three- and seven-sided teetotums, which you will have to make yourself. Since they have an odd number of sides, you read the side that faces down. The teetotum method is perhaps the most symbolically significant method, since both three and seven are sacred numbers (the third day of the lunar month is sacred to Athena, and the seventh to Apollo), and teetotums represent the cosmos revolving on the Spindle of Destiny.

Dominoes Method

Another way to consult the Oracle of the Seven Sages is with ordinary dominoes. A typical set of dominoes contains twenty-eight tiles, called “bones” or “stones,” each with two squares containing six or less pips. Spread the bones out facedown on a smooth surface and mix them up. Then let the god guide you to pick two, and arrange them side by side with their long sides horizontal. Turn over the left bone. If one square is odd (masculine) and the other even (feminine), then the cast is androgynous, which refers to the first column, for according to Pythagorean numerology, the number 1 is neither odd nor even (it is the unity preceding duality). Therefore, write down 1. If both squares have an even number of spots, it is wholly feminine, and we interpret it as the second column (write down 2). If both are odd, then it is completely masculine, which is the third column (write down 3). (A blank square is even.) Now turn over the second bone. The square on the left determines the heptad and the square on the right determines the maxim within the heptad; add one in each case. If C is the number you wrote down for the column, H is the number of spots in the left square plus one, and M is the number on the right square plus one, then use C-H-M to find the oracle, as already described. For example, suppose you draw the following bones:

 

The left bone is even + odd, therefore androgynous, so C = 1. The right bone is 3-1, so H = 4 and M = 2. Therefore, the oracle is 1-4-2, (23) “Desire Wisdom.”

Interpretation

Most of the Counsels are two words long in Ancient Greek, the rest are three or four words long. Plato commented on their Spartan terseness. Even to the ancient Greeks they were ambiguous, which meant that they were topics for discussion and contemplation. What does it mean to “know thyself”? They are literally enigmas, that is, oracular riddles meant to be puzzled out. As explained in Chapter 2, it is a characteristic of divine oracles to be enigmas. The Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry (ca. 234–ca. 305 CE) said that the gods deliver oracles as enigmas to exercise our minds and to hide their meaning from the foolish. Oracles express truths that cannot be adequately expressed in words, and so their meanings must be grasped through contemplation.

The Counsels are like spells, divine inspirations prescribed by the Sages as medicine for the soul. They must be taken in and chewed over in order to have their effect. Digest them and they will be absorbed in your soul to make it strong and healthy.

The ambiguity of oracles also reflects the openness of the future. Like the properties of a particle in quantum mechanics, the meaning of an oracle is not fixed until it is interpreted, and so it is critically important that its first interpretation be the best one. The oracle is given by the gods, but by deciding on an interpretation you are deciding on your future. Choose wisely! (See Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 for more on interpreting oracles and accepting them.)

How can English speakers, who might have no Ancient Greek, hope to understand these ambiguous, enigmatic oracles? Ultimately the gods, if you pray to them, will help you, but I have provided some aids in the following translation of the Oracle of the Seven Sages. Glance at the first oracle (page 155) while I describe their presentation.

Each oracle is numbered in the order it was listed by Stobaeus, which is followed by its C-H-M code in brackets. Next is a simple, literal translation of the oracle, for example, Oracle 1 [1-1-1] “Follow the god.” Often I have sacrificed literary elegance in order to capture the central or most general meaning. Following my translation is the original Greek, which is not necessary to use the oracle, but some Hellenic Pagans will find it useful. “Used as a first school book for the Greek world from the sixth century BC down to the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453 AD) and some centuries beyond it,” 98 the Counsels of the Seven Sages is a useful vehicle for learning some Ancient Greek vocabulary and syntax. For Roman Pagans who might want it, I have also added the Latin translations of Conrad Gessner (1516–1565), a Swiss classicist and naturalist who published an edition of Stobaeus.99 Of course, his Latin translations, like my English ones, capture only some of the meanings of the Ancient Greek text.

Therefore, the translations are followed by a list of alternative meanings for the key Greek words in the oracle. If you look over this list, and try some of the alternatives in the translation of the oracle, you will get some idea of its range of meanings. In time, my translation will become a sort of code for all the possibilities. For example, in “Follow the god,” the word I have translated “follow” can also mean accompany, attend, obey, submit to, or understand (and, incidentally, “the god” can also mean the goddess or divinity in general). Occasionally, I provide a citation to Peters’s Greek Philosophical Terms in case you are interested in exploring how a word is used in ancient Greek philosophy.100 Following the list of words, I have provided some key interpretations in the context of divination. For example, one of the interpretations I suggest is “Imitate the god.” These are just starting points. Remember that you, the diviner, are responsible for interpreting the oracle, for you are communicating with the god who has guided your hand. If you are reading for a querent, then they may be able to help you find the best interpretation. Finally, these interpretations may be followed by some discussion if there is something useful I can say about the oracle. In this case of Oracle 1, I say a little about the meaning of theos in Ancient Greek.

H-M	C = 1	C = 2	C = 3
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
1-7
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
2-6
2-7
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
5-1
5-2
5-3
H-M	C = 1	C = 2	C = 3
5-4
5-5
5-6
5-7
6-1
6-2
6-3
6-4
6-5
6-6
6-7
7-1
7-2
7-3
7-4
7-5
7-6
7-7

Table 8. Key for Consulting the Oracle of the Seven Sages.

 

Figure 7. How the Tablet of the Seven Sages might have looked.

[contents]

98. Oikonomides, “Records of ‘The Commandments of the Wise Men’ in the 3rd c. B.C.”

99. Stobaeus, Sententiae ex Thesauris Graecorum, translated by Conrad Gessner (Tiguri [Zurich]: Christophorum Frosch, 1559).

100. The standard lexicon of Ancient Greek, which I have used, is Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, with Supplement (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), which is available online at www.perseus.tufts.edu.