thanks hippie lou! it was awesome you staying here and im grateful for our super cool talks and getting to know you. see you on the flip side!

divination by drawing lots.

@hippielou, What's the name of the form of divination where you open a book and read the first thing that pops out at you? Your tweets remind me of that.

*****

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word bibliomancy (etymologically from βιβλίον biblio- "book" and μαντεία -mancy "divination by means of") "divination by books, or by verses of the Bible" was first recorded in 1753 (Chambers' Cyclopædia). Sometimes this term is used synonymously with stichomancy (from στίχος sticho-"row, line, verse") "divination by lines of verse in books taken at hazard", which was first recorded ca. 1693 (Urquhart's Rabelais).

Bibliomancy compares with rhapsodomancy (from rhapsode "poem, song, ode") "divination by reading a random passage from a poem". A historical precedent was the ancient Roman practice of sortes ("sortilege, divination by drawing lots") which specialized into sortes Homericae, sortes Virgilianae, and sortes Sanctorum, using the texts of Homer, Virgil, and the Bible.

there but for fortune may go you or i.

phil was so vulnerable to him
but dylan would play with him
the way a cruel person might
when you know you have the
full affection of someone else
and you toy with it.

and that went on
over and over with
phil and dylan.

it was a very big part
of phil's pathology, i believe.

some alcoholics you want to push away
and some you want to take care of
some of them you have a
sense of their worth and their
struggle and their gift
they bring out the love
and the concern
and i think that's what happened with phil

he couldn't stop drinking
and i know it was guilt
he felt very guilty about his daughter
and about his marriage
when you make mistakes
there are no time machines
to rectify mistakes
so mistakes are lodged
like harpoons
and fish hooks
in an intelligent person's soul

and i think phil couldn't get beyond
those personal harpoons
that made him feel in some ways
worthless.

their limited capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but these aspects did not hinder their success.

Before the fifteenth century, European nations confined their sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. The ocean was too rough for their fragile, unadaptable ships. But around 1450, the Portuguese developed a new kind of vessel, the caravel. It employed a triangular [lateen] sail that enabled it to travel against the wind. Soon, exploratory missions ventured into the open sea and down along the coast of West Africa.  Eventually, this new technology enabled long westward trips across the Atlantic.

I propose that we make the caravel your symbol of power for 2018, Libra. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will find or create a resource that enables you to do the metaphorical equivalent of effectively sailing into the wind.

*****

Until the 15th century, Europeans were limited to coastal navigation using the barge or the balinger (barinel), ancient cargo vessels of the Mediterranean Sea with a capacity of around 50 to 200 tons. These boats were fragile, with only one mast with a fixed square sail that could not overcome the navigational difficulties of southward oceanic exploration, as the strong winds, shoals and strong ocean currents easily overwhelmed their abilities.

The caravel has origins in earlier Portuguese fishing boats built in the 13th century based on the medieval Islamic qarib, used in Islamic Spain. The lateen sail, which had Middle-Eastern origins, was also adopted from medieval Islamic shipping in the 15th century.

The caravel was developed in about 1451, based on existing fishing boats under the sponsorship of Henry the Navigator of Portugal, and soon became the preferred vessel for Portuguese explorers like Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias or Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real, and by Christopher Columbus. Its name may derive from an ancient boat type known as carabus in Latin and καραβος in Greek, later adopted into Arabic as qārib, indicating some continuity of its carvel build through the ages. They were agile and easier to navigate than the barca and barinel, with a tonnage of 50 to 160 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen triangular sails allowing beating.

Being smaller and having a shallow keel, the caravel could sail upriver in shallow coastal waters. With the lateen sails attached, it was highly maneuverable and could sail much nearer the shore, while with the square Atlantic-type sails attached, it was very fast. Its economy, speed, agility, and power made it esteemed as the best sailing vessel of its time. The limited capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but did not hinder its success.