⚅Lots & Omens

The everyday oracles of the lessons: draw from a cloth bag of Yes, No and Wait, Yes or No, or your own choices, note your first reaction and see what your reactions say; throw knucklebones with their four named sides, play the pot game Augustus described to Tiberius, or throw five and find your throw among all 56 of the stone oracles; open a book at random, ask Virgil as the emperors did, open three times as Francis did, or take a fāl of Hafez; and keep an omen journal honest enough to test itself, with the magpies and Cicero's doubts. Tacitus' lots, Praeneste and the lots of the Bible are set beside them. Draw the lots or throw four bones a thousand times in a few seconds and watch the tallies settle on their true shares, with the longest run, the Venus throws and the dogs counted against what chance expects.