Whispers from the Spine: Bibliomancy

The ancient practice of opening a book at random to seek guidance, insight, or a glimpse of the sacred is known as bibliomancy. I use the technique for both contemplation and for create inspiration.

Traditionally, bibliomancy is practiced with a sacred or cherished text — often the Bible or the Qur’an; Alexander the Great consulted his Homer. I use works of poetry or philosophy.

The seeker lets the book fall open by chance and reads whatever passage their eyes first land upon, trusting it to hold meaning, wisdom, omen, a creative germ, or . . . something.

BTW, a related practice is stichomancy (from the Greek stichos, meaning “line of verse”) — a specific form of bibliomancy involving selecting a random single line of text.

I take out my well-worn edition of Emily Dickinson’s poems. I do my best to be as random in choosing a place as possible. My finger lands on the last two lines of poem #J420.

“How shall you know” ? Consult your Eye! #J420 (1862) F429

A little lesson in empiricism for the day. Which, me being me, I will examine from the standpoint of the metaphysical and write something like this:

Where does hush begin? Not in the mouth, I think, but in the mirror, in what flickers there between blink and silver and realization. Do mirrors know a shape before it asks?

On many un-foldable maps nothing and silence are shadowed, so only light whispers, “Hush. This is the way inward.

Here is the flame that casts your voice’s shadow.

Too much going on there, but it has some potential in second or third draft, maybe. Anyway, as I roughed out that poem an image came to mind from William Butler Yeats:

An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick,

That’s all I remembered. So I looked it up. I had forgotten the rest of the verse:

unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress . . .

Ah, well. From Dickinson’s empiricism to mirrors to mortality. Not bad for time spent on a couple of random lines. Bibliomancy. Try it.