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A method of divination in which a person spins around inside or walks the circumference of a circle drawn on the ground, which circumference is marked with letters of an alphabet. The divination is inferred from the position at which the person either stumbles or falls across the circle’s edge, repeating the practice "...till he evolved an intelligible sentence, or till death or madness intervened." The dizziness brought on by spinning or circling is intended to introduce randomness or to facilitate analtered state of consciousness.

If you have heard of this practice, and or practice it yourself...Throw a bone.

Seems as random as other divination techniques. Where did you hear of it?

A friend of mine here in Nola practices it, she is quite accurate with her responses...I have never seen her fall, but she stumbles quite a bit, and always blind folded.

I have also heard it mentioned in the game Silent Hill, but she actually practices.

I have heard of the word gyromancy but not understood till now what it meant.

Do you know the time line for such a thing ?

I'm wondering if gyromancy and whirlling dervishes are linked.

This appears to fall in the same category of many forms of spiritual medium like the ouija board and earlier letter wheels and to an extent automatic writing.

The principle idea is that you've taken your conscious choice out of the process via blindfold or random choice (with the wheel or stumbling) or added more people so that no one person could choose (ouija). Whether this particular method that you speak of would work any better than others I can't say. I doubt it. If one of these methods truly works, then really, all of them would have equal chance. I find my opinion leaning towards the idea that the person acting as the medium would be the true link and not the method.

I would tend to agree with Felix, but on the principle that divination is a tricky art. The side of the mind that is in touch with the ability/ spirits, etc uses the physical body's senses and provides inspiration/ flashes of insight. nearly all methods of divination require a degree of separation from physical reality, in which the mind divorces itself from physical mundane things.

Introducing random factors into the equation would seem to only interfere with the interpretation. And yet, as you profess, someone you know performs gyromancy with a high degree of success.

With divination being chancy at best, either method can be as good as the other. Some use cards, some use scrying (like myself) and others use any assortment of "mancy"s.

It's not wide spread, I have heard of it and attempted on more then one ocassion.

I have heard of many ways to go into an altered state but not this one. has anyone tried it and it worked? I bet for it to work u would have to be able to meditate well. I dont doubt this is possible.

I have never heard of this..... It might be a fun party game.... if there was lots of drinking involved.... Who knows what those stumbling drunks might spell out.

Hexica - I think if alcohol were involved it would be more like the situations in the thread about 'speaking in tongues'...if it spelled something out, I'm doubtful anyone would understand it.

Interesting Indeed, Kind Of Reminds Me when I get Down I plug in my music and Spin Around in the middle of the field.
I will Ask my friends about this, they do alot with the Ouiji Boards.

Ouija Sorry, Bad Typo.

I'm sure you're right FelixFelix. I doubt there would be any useful divination but it would be good fun just the same.

I've never heard of it before.......it's rather interesting. Not the weirdest of divination techniques I've heard of, though.

I agree it would make one hell of a fun drinking game...

Valentine has a very good point. Some divination is accurate, scrying is I think the basic source of divination asside from dowsing rods, but again dowsing rods are not in my book considered divination.

Any one willing to try spin the bottle gyromancy, maybe alot easier. Then again, that would be another ouija board.

I think the point I am trying to make here, is that Gyromancy is a sort of ouija board, but with a more powerful pointer as the individual uses his/her own energies for the method of contact.

Think the 'till death or madness' bit is a tad extreme though.

That's really stupid.

You think Death or Madness is bad, if you wish to become a berserker, the method for that is madness. But that is definitely another thread altogether.

I suppose only Fatalists believe in divination. I've never been witness to ouiji or any other chaos based divination, but I'm not opposed to it. Gyromancy seems a bit more fun - like spinning around when you're a kid just to make yourself dizzy.

This seems cool but its not my thing if devination comes naturally then cool but if you have to do something to get it then ....

heheh combine games...Spin the Gyromancer

Spin the Gyromancer combines the fun of a drinking game, the ackward sexual experimentation of Spin the Bottle and the joy and metaphysical danger of divination.

Drink an alcoholic beverage before each try...don't forget that the person holding the letter that you fall on get's a kiss or a drunken grope and be sure to speak nicely to your contacted spirits so they don't possess you or burn down the house.

Fun for all ages! errrr all ages of legal drinking age and appropriate sexual maturity.

See now that looks like a fun game.

Seriously, I have never heard of it but it seems like it would work as well as any other message based divination.

BTW which Silent Hill mentioned it.

Silent hill, the original ps game...When harry is on the boat, Dhalia comes in and mentions it along with the Floaros. Again, the object called the Floaros is yet another thread altogether.

I had never heard of this form of divination, and I'd be a little weary of trusting it. I don't know, I mean I'm pretty good at divination but this just seems a little bit too...random for it to really work.

I have heard of it, but I think it is a little hard to believe that any thing can be predicted or divined from someone stubling around in a circle, no offense to the people that do believe in gyromancy but I do not.

I have heard of many ways to go into an altered state but not this one. has anyone tried it and it worked? I bet for it to work u would have to be able to meditate well. I dont doubt this is possible.

I have never heard about this before, I think that I'll do a little research on this

Felix...LMAO! You rock.

Seriously, I have never heard of this. So, off to research land. I would love to see happen so I could make my own judgement.

It does sound interesting. But I can't see myself ever trying it. Mainly because there has to be other people present, and I don't like people seeing me throwing up...I don't do spinning around very well!

I never heard of it before , doesn't sound like any thing I would want to do .

That's utterly absurd, sounds very ridiculous.

thats really cool i enjoyed reading about that

I thankyou all for your responses, but this thread has run its course.