Question
Reading
Information
Disks
Notes

Your Question for the Disks

The Disks can only answer general questions about events in the future, not the winners of horse races or other such specific queries. Because of this, your question must be something like "What will happen if...?" or a simple "What does the future hold for...?"

Note that this program is just a toy! It should in no way be mistaken for an actual future-predicting device. Please see the notes for more details. Go

There are 64 disks in a set. Each is black on one side, white on the other.

32 of the disks are marked, each bearing the symbol of a different deity on both sides. The white side represents the presence of the force(s) that deity represents; the black side their absence or the presence of antagonistic forces.

The remaining 32 disks are blank on both sides. These disks intensify the meanings of the other disks: white represents beneficial forces, black detrimental ones.

To perform a reading, the disks are mixed in a bag, then a handful is drawn en masse. The number of disks in the handful should be random.

This handful of disks is dropped onto the mat, from a height above the centre equal to the radius of the mat circle.

Any disks that cross the line are removed.

Tip: Hover over a marked disk on the mat to see a description of the symbol, deity, and meaning.

First, marked disks that are closer than a disk's width apart are collected into groups (marked with blue lines). Groups can consist of several disks, or of only one disk if it has no marked neighbours.

If there are two or more marked disks in a group, their separation affects how close other bonds must be: tight groups must remain tight, loose groups can remain loose.

Next, blank disks that are close to the marked disks are added to the groups. These relationships are indicated with magenta lines.

If a blank disk is close enough to two marked disks in separate groups, it indicates that the two events described by the groups are closely related.

Then, any blank disks that are near to the first set of blanks are added. These relationships are indicated with red or yellow lines.

This process is repeated until no more disks are added, so groups can grow into long chains if the disks are positioned correctly. Again, two groups could be joined by blank disks they hold in common.

Finally, the remaining unconnected blank disks are connected into groups (again using blue lines) where possible.

The ratio of white blank disks to black blank disks gives the overall "aspect" of the reading: the more white disks there are, the more positive the future is.

The ratio of groups containing marked disks to the total number of groups gives the overall "clarity" of the reading: the more marked groups there are, the more information there is about the future.

Each group represents a single event. The closer the group is to the centre of the mat, the more imminent or important the event is.

Groups that contain marked disks describe the event to some extent, though the description may be allegorical or tenebrous.

Groups that only contain blank disks are unclear. The only information they contain is how bad or good the event will be.

The more blank disks a group contains, the stronger the event's effects will be. The balance of white and black disks determines how well- or badly-aspected the event is.

Each black disk that is balanced by a white one represents an uncertainty in the event's meaning (represented in the reading by question marks against the event). The more unbalanced disks there are, the stronger the event is (represented by italicising and bolding the text).

Blank disks that are directly connected (magenta lines) to marked disks affect and intensify the meaning of those disks. A marked disk with no blank disks connected has a neutral meaning, either the active (if white) or passive/reversed meaning (if black).

Blank disks can be connected to multiple marked disks in the same event, or can connect events together. Events conntected in this way are strongly related.

Blank disks that are connected to groups with red lines intensify the meaning of the overall event.

Blank disks can connect two or more groups together with red or yellow lines. Events connected in this way are closely related, but not as strongly as with shared magenta lines.

Tip: Hover over a line in the reading to see a picture of the disk that it refers to.

Legalese and Release Notes

This program is just a toy! It's a computer simulation of the divination method used by some of the inhabitants of a fictional universe, which if implemented in the real world would involve marking the symbols on the disks from an Othello set.

Maranelda Organisation does not give any guarantees as to the accuracy of any predictions made by this program. You (the user) make use of this program with the full understanding that it is for entertainment purposes only, and will not hold any failure in prediction (or worse, success) against the author.

Change log

v1.2 2016-05-07Minor CSS tweak to get disk info blocks to go two-to-a-row.

v1.1 2015-03-05Fix to rectify issue where certain group patterns with many crossovers failed to terminate when merging.

v1.0 2015-03-01Initial launch.

Creative Commons License Maraneldan Disk Casting by Mad Elf is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://mad_elf.maranelda.org/disks/.